<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="break">
<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER VI</h2>
<p class="pch">THE CORPORAL HEARS A STORY</p>
<p class="drop-cap07"><span class="beg">A LITTLE</span> time passed before the girl spoke,
and Corporal Bracknell, to avoid embarrassing
her, looked steadily at the snowy
waste ahead. The frozen river, bordered by the
sombre pinewoods, was visible for some two miles,
and where it turned round a high rampart of the
cliff, a moving figure, clearly visible on the snow,
caught his eyes. He watched it attentively as it
came to a halt, and wondered idly who it might be.
A wandering Indian possibly, or—The girl’s
voice broke on his speculations.</p>
<p>“I met your cousin first, whilst I was staying
in the neighbourhood of Harrow Fell. There was a
shooting party, and Dick Bracknell made himself
very agreeable to me. You are to understand that
I was rather lonely, and that I was new to English
ways, having lived most of my life up here.”</p>
<p>She was silent for a moment, and Corporal Bracknell
nodded.</p>
<p>“I think I understand how you must have felt,
Miss Gargrave, and I know that Dick could make
himself attractive.”</p>
<p>As he spoke his eyes looked in the direction of
the bluff where the river turned. The small black
figure which he had observed was moving again,
and if he were not mistaken was coming down the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</SPAN></span>
river. He kept an observant eye upon it, whilst
his companion resumed.</p>
<p>“You are quite right. All the vacation, which I
spent in Westmorland, your cousin was very attentive
to me, and knowing that he was Sir James
Bracknell’s heir, I was flattered by his attentions,
and a little proud that he should find me attractive,
when there were others who—who might have
meant more to him.”</p>
<p>“You were too humble, Miss Gargrave,” said the
corporal.</p>
<p>“Perhaps I was,” replied the girl, smiling wanly.
“But that is how I felt at the time.... At the
end of the autumn, just before I went back to
Newnham for the Michælmas term, he proposed to
me.”</p>
<p>Again for a moment she was silent, and the corporal
glancing at her caught a pensive look upon
her face, and guessed that she was reviewing that
occasion in her mind. He waited for what seemed
quite a long time, then he said encouragingly,
“Yes?”</p>
<p>“I did not accept him then.”</p>
<p>“Why not?”</p>
<p>“For two reasons; the first because I was not
quite sure that I loved him, and the second because
I was not prepared to take such a step without first
consulting my father.”</p>
<p>“They were both very excellent reasons.”</p>
<p>“So they seemed to me, but Lady Alcombe, under
whose care I was whilst in England, did not agree
with me.”</p>
<p>“You were under the care of Lady Alcombe?”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>There was an accent of surprise in the young
man’s voice, which the girl was quick to note.</p>
<p>“You know her?” she asked quickly. “You
are surprised that I should have been under her
chaperonage?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” he admitted frankly. “I know Lady
Alcombe, and I know her set. It is a fast and
exclusive one. I am a little surprised that any one
should have selected her to chaperone a young girl.”</p>
<p>“My father did not understand,” was the quick
reply. “He had known Lady Alcombe before her
marriage, and she was a distant relation of ours.
He did not know the set to which she belonged, and
it was perhaps natural that he should have looked
to her to watch over me.... For myself, I was
young, I had no experience, and though there were
things that I did not understand, things that shocked
me, I did not mention them to my father, or indeed
to any one.”</p>
<p>“And Lady Alcombe approved of my cousin
Dick?”</p>
<p>“She did. She laughed at my scruples, and
urged me to accept him, declaring that my father
would be only too ready to see me the wife of a man
who would some day be the Squire of Harrow Fell.
But I did not yield—then. I knew there was
plenty of time, and as my father was expecting to
visit England a few months later, I said that I would
wait until he arrived.”</p>
<p>“And afterwards?” asked the corporal.</p>
<p>“Afterwards!” A tragic look came on the girl’s
face, and to his surprise she broke again into tears.</p>
<p>He waited patiently, and as he did so noted that<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</SPAN></span>
the figure up the river was certainly drawing nearer.
After a little time the girl recovered her composure,
and when she resumed there was a tragic note in her
voice.</p>
<p>“I was very ignorant, and your cousin and Lady
Alcombe presumed upon my ignorance. I was to
stay with her at Alcombe Manor for the Christmas
season, and towards the end of the term she sent
word that she and Dick were going to fetch me by
car, as the rail journey was rather an awkward
one.... When the day came, your cousin showed
up alone, explaining that Lady Alcombe had an
attack of influenza which, of course, had made it
impossible for her to accompany him. It was all
so natural that I thought nothing of it until afterwards,
and I set out on the journey accompanied
only by your cousin.”</p>
<p>A stern look came on the corporal’s face, though
the girl, looking straight ahead and absorbed in her
thoughts, did not notice it.</p>
<p>“We missed the way, and went astray, I say
missed the way, though now I am quite sure that it
was done of deliberate purpose, and that your cousin
knew our whereabouts all the time. It began to
snow, and late in the evening we reached a little
village in Wiltshire when something went wrong
with the engine. I do not believe now that there
was anything at all the matter with the car, but
Dick said there was, and as it was impossible to
proceed further, and there was no train service on
the little local line five miles away, there was nothing
for it but to stay the night at the little inn, half
tavern, half farm, which was all the accommodation<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</SPAN></span>
that the village afforded.... There was a motherly
woman there who did her best to make me comfortable,
and I shared a room with her two daughters,
whilst your cousin was accommodated with a
settle in the kitchen. Next morning, Dick tinkered
at the car, and about noon we started afresh, and
reached the Manor just before dinner time....
Lady Alcombe, who had apparently recovered from
her influenza, was in a great state of perturbation,
and when I entered the hall, where a number of
guests were assembled, she rushed to me. ‘My
dear Joy,’ she cried, ‘where <i>have</i> you been? I
have been worried almost to death about you, and
have been telegraphing and telephoning all over the
place.’</p>
<p>“I laughingly explained, and whilst I was doing
so, one of the men gave a whistle of surprise, and a
girl whom I had never liked began to giggle. Lady
Alcombe allowed me to finish my explanation, there
before all her guests, then she said icily—</p>
<p>“‘After so many adventures you must be tired.
You had better go to your room. I will come to
you.’</p>
<p>“As I went, I knew there was something wrong
somewhere. One or two of the men looked at me
in an unpleasant way, and the girl whom I have
mentioned was giggling hatefully.... Lady Alcombe
came to me before I had changed, and
ordered the maid out of the room, then she said,
‘My dear Joy, you have behaved most indiscreetly....
I do not know what to say ... what to
think. And to tell a story like that before all those<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</SPAN></span>
people not one of whom will believe it! It is dreadful,
positively dreadful!’</p>
<p>“I was bewildered. I did not know what was
wrong, and I said so, adding that I had only told
the simple truth.</p>
<p>“‘They will not believe it,’ she said. ‘You and
Dick will be the talk of the place. I really do not
know what to say. I am surprised at Dick Bracknell,
and at you for being so simple as to tell....
That Jolivet girl was openly laughing at you.’</p>
<p>“Her tone and manner told me better than her
words the vile thing she was hinting at, and when I
realized it, I broke down and cried.”</p>
<p>She paused, and as the corporal recalled what
Lady Alcombe was, and visioned that scene between
the fast woman of the world and the innocent girl
in her care, he ground his teeth, and looked away
from the beautiful face which was working with
emotion.</p>
<p>“... When I did that Lady Alcombe changed
her tone. ‘There’s only one thing to do,’ she said,
‘and that is to make the best of it. Thank goodness!
Dick is over head and ears in love with you,
and, as you know, he is only too anxious to marry
you. You will have to take him now—to save your
good name, Joy. It is the only way, for no one will
believe your story, however true it may be, and so
I advise you to make up your mind to the inevitable....
Things might be a great deal worse. Dick
will be a baronet some day, and his wife will have a
position that no one will challenge. Just think it
over, my dear, and you will see that I am altogether
right.’</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>“I did think it over,” said the girl slowly, “and
in the end I agreed to marry Dick privately, making
up my mind to explain the matter to my father,
later. What else was there that I could do? I had
no suspicion of anything at the time. Dick wanted
me, and I liked him, whilst there were people at
Alcombe who did not fail to let me see what they
thought, and Lady Alcombe did not stint persuasion.”</p>
<p>“When did you find out that the delay in arriving
at Alcombe was anything but an accident?” asked
the corporal thoughtfully.</p>
<p>“On the very morning I was married. We had
returned from the church, just Dick and myself and
Lady Alcombe, and I was in the library writing a
note to a friend at Newnham, when I heard two
people enter. The library is a little draughty, and
a footman had placed a screen for me, and this completely
hid me from any one entering at the door.
The two who entered were Lady Alcombe and Dick.
I heard her laugh and say—</p>
<p>“‘You owe me five thousand pounds, Dick. I
hope you won’t be very long in paying, for the truth
is, I am beastly hard up, and I daren’t ask Sir Alfred
for a penny at the present time.’</p>
<p>“Dick laughed also, and I caught his answer.
‘As soon as that old duffer in the Klondyke makes
his settlements I’ll pay you, Mary. You deserve
it. That was a pretty little scheme of yours, and
it has gone like clockwork....’</p>
<p>“It came on me like a flash then. I saw how
everything had been arranged, and how I had been
trapped and hustled into marrying your cousin.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</SPAN></span>
In that moment I hated him, and I have done so
ever since.... I sat there too startled to make
my presence known, and after a little time they
went out, without learning that I had overheard
them. I continued to sit there thinking. I scarcely
knew what to do. It was arranged that we were
to go to Paris for the honeymoon; and I was afraid
that they would somehow make me accept that
arrangement, and bewildered though I was, I was
determined that I would not do so, that I would
never allow Dick Bracknell to be in fact what he
was in name.... I went to my room, secured my
travelling coat and some money, and fled from the
house, without leaving so much as a note to indicate
where I was going—I went to Cambridge to the
friend to whom I had been writing, and who was
staying there reading through the vacation. I told
her everything, and on her advice wrote to Lady
Alcombe, explaining the situation, and averring
that I would never live with Dick Bracknell. In
reply I got a telegram from him saying that he
would be down to see me the next day, and praying
me to grant him an interview. He never came.
Something happened and he had to leave England.
Do you know what it was? I have never heard.”</p>
<p>“Yes,” answered the corporal slowly. “I know,
and I think it is only right that you should know.
You knew perhaps that Dick was in the Artillery?”</p>
<p>“Yes!” answered the girl.</p>
<p>“He was interested in his job. He was a good
officer. It is the one thing to his credit that I know.
There was a new gun, and he had access to the plans.
He stole a copy, and sold them to the agent<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</SPAN></span>
of a foreign government. The theft was discovered
and traced, but a friend dropped Dick
a telegram which was forwarded to Alcombe Manor—and
he ran for it, and got clear away. I imagine
that explains why he did not visit you at Cambridge.
Of course, the affair was hushed up, as such affairs
are, and it is nearly forgotten now, though England
would not be a safe place for him. Did you ever
hear from him afterwards?”</p>
<p>“Not until last night,” was the reply. “When
his note came to me, it was a great shock.”</p>
<p>The corporal nodded. “I can readily imagine
that it would be.... Did your father ever know
of your marriage?”</p>
<p>“No, thank God! I wrote to him, but before
he received the letter the accident occurred by which
he lost his life. I found the letter here unopened,
when I came here to comply with the terms of his
will. I was glad to get here. I was so overborne
by the deceit and vileness of those I had thought
were my friends in England!”</p>
<p>“They were not all deceitful, surely?” expostulated
the young man.</p>
<p>“No! Some are my friends still. I am going
to England very shortly, and I shall stay with one
of them in Westmorland.”</p>
<p>“Will you ever return here?”</p>
<p>“Most certainly. North Star is my home—I
love it, and I have always felt myself safe here—until
last night.”</p>
<p>Bracknell understood that she meant that she
had felt that in this lodge in the wilderness she was
safe from his cousin, and nodded his head.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>“I understand,” he said, but forbore to add what
was in his mind; namely, that if Dick Bracknell
had not died on the previous night, North Star
would be no longer the sanctuary it had been.</p>
<p>They walked forward for a moment without
speaking. A rise in the ground covered with snow-laden
saskatoon bushes hid the river from them for
a little time, and as they breasted it, and the river
came into view again, they surprised a pedestrian
climbing up the bank. It was Mr. Rayner.</p>
<p>He was obviously a little startled by the meeting,
but a moment later recovered himself.</p>
<p>“Been out for a constitutional,” he explained,
“as far as the bend of the river, and I’ve had quite
sufficient. Are you ready to return?”</p>
<p>The girl nodded, but the corporal, whose eyes
were surveying the empty landscape in front, shook
his head.</p>
<p>“I shall walk on a little,” he said, “I may be going
up stream tomorrow. The Elkhorn falls in somewhere
about here, doesn’t it?”</p>
<p>“Just beyond the bluff there,” answered Joy.</p>
<p>“Then I’ll take a look at it, and see what the
trail is like.”</p>
<p>He nodded and walked on leaving Joy Gargrave
to return with Rayner. He waited until they were
out of sight and then descended to the frozen surface
of the river, where the going was easier, the
trail having been packed by prospectors moving up
and down. He reached the bluff in a short time,
but did not go round it. His gaze was arrested by
the trail of a sled which had come down the bank
to the river at a point just below the bluff, and by<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</SPAN></span>
recent footmarks. He remembered the figure he
had seen whilst walking with Joy Gargrave, unquestionably
that of Rayner, for there were his footmarks
turning south from the bluff. A thought
struck him, and examining the snow carefully, he
found no tracks running northward. A little puzzled
he looked at the sled trail again, and there made
the discovery that the single footmarks that ran side
by side with the sled-trail, had been made not by
one pair of feet but by two, some one having quite
recently adapted his stride to the tracks already
made. Puzzled and interested he followed the sled
trail up the bank and began to trace it through the
wood at the top.</p>
<p>An hour later, still following the sled-trail he
struck the river again, and found himself exactly
opposite the landing which led to North Star Lodge.
As he realized this he nodded thoughtfully. The
sled trail he had been following, when he had
encountered Joy Gargrave, led directly across the
river. But whose sled was it? And why had
Rayner traced it so carefully, at the same time endeavouring
to cover his own trail? The first question
was one for which he had no answer, and the
second was an equal puzzle. Clearly Rayner had
been interested in the sled-trail since he had followed
it for two miles; and plainly he was anxious to conceal
his interest, since he had walked so carefully
in the footsteps of the unknown driver, and had
made no reference to the matter whatever. Did
he know something—something that he did not wish
to make known?</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>The corporal thought that very likely he did,
but could not even conjecture what the secret
knowledge might be. There was a puzzled frown
on his face, as he turned in the direction of the
Lodge, and when he came in sight of the house he
became aware of a considerable bustle. In the
open space in front two sleds were drawn up, and a
considerable number of dogs were lying about or
nosing in the snow for lost fragments of food. Two
Indians and a half-breed were standing near the sleds
smoking and talking. Bracknell recognized the
half-breed for a man who had been in the service
of the police as a driver.</p>
<p>“Hallo, Jacques,” he asked, “what brings you to
North Star?”</p>
<p>Jacques grinned responsively. “I bring a letter—I
and dese, Co’pral. Yees two dog teams to
deleever one petite lettre. But we take sometings
else back weeth us, I tink.”</p>
<p>“Indeed!” laughed the corporal. “What may
that be?”</p>
<p>“I tink we take a lady, de lady of North Star!”
The corporal gave vent to a whistle of surprise, and
after a few more words passed into the house.
There he met Mr. Rayner, who smiled at him.</p>
<p>“We have news for you, Corporal. We start
for England tomorrow. A message has just
reached us from my father, and Miss Gargrave’s
presence is urgently required on a matter of business.”</p>
<p>“Is that so?”</p>
<p>“Yes, and I think we shall all be glad to get<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</SPAN></span>
away. That mysterious affair of last night would
be rather a disturbing thing to reflect upon in a
lonely place like this.”</p>
<p>The corporal nodded, made some casual remark,
and passed to his own room, where he sat for quite
a long time, smoking, with a very thoughtful look
upon his face.</p>
<hr class="chap" /></div>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />