Marvin Dana

“ It gave place to chagrin. He strove to disbelieve the evidence of his eyes, but disbelief was impossible. The safe was empty. He thrust his hand within, and felt about carefully, even as the man had done—only to find nowhere so much as a scrap of paper that might have held a clue. The shock of the disappointment stunned him. For a long time, he sat before the opening in the wall, squatting motionless on his haunches, nursing a swiftly rising rage.
Roy stood up at last, with an ejaculation of disgust. Then, curiosity laid hold on him, and he began a careful examination of the vault’s mechanism. ”

“ It was in my life of retirement that I developed my third love—that of the miser for gold. I secretly transformed all my possessions into gold, which I kept in a secret safe here in my house. Oh, the hours of night during which I have worshiped before the shining heaps! But enough has been written at one time and another over the raptures of the miser, a rapture without justification in reason, yet more masterful than any other. I shall not weary you with explanation or excuse. The statement of the fact alone is sufficient. ”

“ Assuredly, he never dreamed that there had been at hand a man to plunge after his victim, to save her from the death to which he had assigned her. In his intimacy with May, he had learned that she could not swim. In that deep water, where the naked cliff rising vertically offered no hand-hold, she, in her dazed condition, could have no chance to escape alive out of the peril into which his cruelty had cast her. Such was the engineer’s belief, and his feeling was merely of satisfaction in thus having rid himself of the witness who knew his blood-guiltiness. ”

“ But often, he shot glances of longing toward the stairway, by which, sooner or later, Margaret West must descend. Silence had fallen on the group. A sense of discouragement was in the air. The only sounds were the gossiping of the English sparrows about the eaves, the faint rustling of leaves when the breeze stirred them, the distressful grunt that accompanied any change of position by Billy Walker, the whish of a match as someone lighted a fresh cigarette. ”

“ Masters, too, suffered under the curse of jealousy. His love for Margaret was a sincere passion, and the hate Saxe bore for him he returned in overflowing measure. Through all his emotion of love, however, there remained in undiminished vigor his desire to possess himself of the gold hidden by Abernethey. And, presently, there grew in him a desperate resolve, brought into being in part by greed, in part by hatred of his rival.
May Thurston was another in the throes of anguish, and that from no fault of her own. Her love for the engineer had involved her in almost unendurable humiliation. ”

“ Saxe’s expression had grown very grave as he listened. There comes always to the normal man a shock on realizing the imminence of death for himself. The fact that the peril is past alters the nature of the shock, but it hardly lessens it. So, in the present instance, the young man, whose great risk was thus suddenly brought home to him, felt the thrill of deep emotion, in which thankfulness for the fate that had intervened in his behalf was strong. He said nothing for a few moments, nor did Roy, who, in his turn, was affected as he understood the danger that had menaced his friend. ”

“ Yet, even now, Saxe Temple gave no heed to the loveliness of the spectacle. Instead, his whole care was fixed on an uncouth, rambling structure that blotched a clearing visible along [61] the west shore, a mile away. It was the only dwelling to be seen anywhere, as far as eye could reach. The seeker had no doubt that now, at last, he had his first sight of Abernethey’s cottage—that spot in which his cunning must meet—and master—the cunning of a dead man, who had made grim jest with the gold he loved. ”

“ IN THE CAVERN THE passage continued of limited width for a number of rods. The floor lay almost level, smooth enough to make going easy. The light from the torch showed only walls of bare rock on either side, and once, when Margaret turned the rays upward, the narrowing slant to an apex far above their heads. The two explorers went in silence. Saxe thought the footing safe enough so that he could content himself with watching the girl, whose every motion was a delight to him, seen dimly in the glow that penetrated from without. ”

“ Saxe played with a good degree of excellence in his technique, although he was far from being such a master of the instrument as had been the dead owner. But the essential charm of the younger man’s interpretation lay in the delicate truth of his sympathy. His intelligent sensitiveness seemed, indeed, catholic in its scope. Whether he toyed daintily with a graceful appoggiatura from Chopin, or crashed an astonishing dissonance from Strauss, he equally felt and revealed the emotion that had been in the composer’s soul. ”

“ It could not be Margaret, the only other who knew the entrance to the cavern. No, not the only other who knew—there was Masters! On the instant, as the thought came, Saxe knew that the enemy was again at work.
The reason baffled the listener. What could the man of treacherous schemes be doing thus on the wrong side of the barrier? Saxe felt the puzzle too hard for his solving, and turned to Billy Walker, seeking the light of pure reason to clear away the mists of darkness with which the event was shrouded. The sage was nodding in somnolent relaxation, though still puffing his cigar. ”

“ The matter stood thus between them when, one morning after a sleepless night, May got from her bed before sunrise, dressed herself hurriedly, and left the cottage, hoping that the freshness of the dawn might serve to soothe her wearied nerves. She wandered aimlessly hither and yon through the woods bordering the shore, and did indeed win some solace for her soul in the radiance of the summer day. She was about fifty yards distant from the cottage, descending the slope that ran to the shore, when she heard a slight noise among the bushes in front of her. ”

“ Afterward, he made a round of the room, very swiftly, yet using all care to render himself secure from observation by anyone without. A glance at the doors having shown him that all these were shut fast, he at last strode back to the table, where the money-bags awaited him. The chair was drawn close; into it, Abernethey sagged heavily, as if in sudden relaxation from the taut energy that had urged him on hitherto. For a half-minute, he sat crouched over the table in an attitude of utter weariness, almost of collapse. But abruptly, he aroused himself from the clutch of lethargy. ”

“ For the bulk of my wealth, which as I have said is in gold, I have selected you as a possible heir, but you must do your part. I have thus chosen you because I dare hope that by it you may be helped in accomplishing something of worth in the art of music and so atone in some measure for the loss occasioned by your mother’s abandonment of her career. The condition which I have imposed on this legacy is merely to test you as to your perseverance and your intelligence. In the event of your failure, half of the money will go to the girl, and the other half to the founding of a musicians’ home. ”

“ Surely, Roy and David had the better part, since their engulfment had been swift. They were spared the lingering tortures of these survivors, destined to a few dreadful hours. Then Saxe remembered the miser’s gold, and the hate of it welled high in his heart. Truly, there [334] had been a curse on it! And the wretched man thought of Margaret most of all. But that which he thought of her should not be written. It was the supreme agony.
Saxe had the courage of the strong man, but nature permits no man to lay down his life uselessly without revolt. ”

“ The moon was just thrusting its bulk of gold over the wooded ranges of the eastern shore, and its radiance flooded the ascent, up which she mounted with a step that was unfaltering, though the heart was sick within her. She could see very clearly, and guided her course without hesitation toward the point at which she had encountered the engineer.
When she reached the bit of underbrush in which she had stopped short on first hearing Masters, May peered through the purple dusk, and readily made out the outline of the sapling beneath which the engineer had stood when she accosted him. ”

“ The heir of Abernethey was beside the speaker within the second. As he bent forward, following the boatman’s gesture, he saw, in the open place left by the removal of the stone, a surface of oak. He understood that this must be the cover of a chest. An exclamation of triumph broke from his lips. He made no effort to conceal his agitation.
“Quick! Quick!” he cried. “Let’s get the other stones off.” He hurled from the pit with ease one which, a minute before, he could hardly have stirred. The splendid madness of success tripled strength. The old man beside him shared in the frenzy of toil. ”

“ There came a gasp of dismay from Margaret. Saxe’s clasp on her hand tightened in the instinct of protection. Then he essayed a cheerful laugh, albeit there was small merriment in it.
“Now,” he declared briskly, “we must stop right where we are until we’ve planned a campaign. This is a real adventure.” Even as he spoke, miserably aware of the serious predicament [263] into which the going out of the torch had plunged them, he was conscious of the delicate fragrance of her hair, so near his lips, and the vague, yet penetrant, perfume that exhaled from her to the ravishing of his senses. ”

“ He was muttering to himself now, brokenly, despairingly, the while his fingers wandered over the intricate design of the paneling:
“Mine—mine ... and I must leave it all—must leave it all—soon! Oh, so soon! God! The torture of it ... mine—all mine! Ah!”
Without warning sound the panel on which his hand rested had swung outward, until it stood like a door, wide-open. An ejaculation of eagerness burst from Abernethey’s lips, as he peered within the opening thus revealed through the wall. ”

“ A little to the right, and so placed as to face the girl, Saxe sat, with his feet folded under him like a Turk. Masters noted, even in this gusty moment, that his rival was an especially good-looking young man, of the shaven, clean-cut type most esteemed by the contemporary illustrator. The engineer appreciated the type of which he himself was the exemplar, and appreciated it indeed at its full worth, but, having a fair degree of intelligence, he knew that women admired also the vigorous, wholesome and cultured man, of the kind there before him. ”

“ Masters leaned his long length against a pillar at the head of the flight of steps, and joined genially in the conversation for a few minutes, despite the manifest grumpiness of Billy Walker, who, never a courtier, was at no pains to conceal his distaste for the engineer’s society. Mrs. West, however, was amiability itself, and Masters was minded to ignore the superciliousness of the other man’s manner, though fully conscious of it. ”

“ Masters must have understood perfectly the uselessness of all effort to persuade her from her purpose, for he wasted not an instant in argument; instead, he acted.
Before Roy could make a movement to interfere, the engineer had leaped forward. His long, powerful fingers closed in a strangling grasp on the soft, white throat of the girl, sank viciously into the tender flesh. May’s eyes protruded, her arms straightened out in a spasm of physical anguish, but no sound issued from the parted lips. ”

“ At the sound of the opening door, the torch had clicked into darkness—there was the slithering of rubber-shod feet across the floor. As Roy came upon emptiness where had been the man, he heard the rustling of the drawn shade of a window. He saw dimly against the outer light the silhouette of the thief in the opening. Before he could move, it had vanished. He was after it with all speed, but, by the time he stood on the ground outside, he could neither [173] see nor hear aught to give an idea as to the direction of the flight. ”

“ Finally, however, she perceived by the light of the torch that, two yards or more below the point to which her feet reached, the chimney bent a little, toward the horizontal. At the sight, Margaret’s courage sprang to [361] new life. Without a second of delay in which fear might grow, she loosed her hold, and let herself slip downward.
The steepness of the chimney was so great that her movement was rather a fall than a slide. In the very second of the start, she felt the violent impact of her feet against the stone as they struck the bend. ”