The Port of Missing Men
Chapter 27
Decent Burial
To-morrow? 'Tis not ours to know
That we again shall see the flowers.
To-morrow is the gods'—but, oh!
To day is ours.
—C.E. Merrill, Jr.
Claiborne called Oscar through the soft dusk of the April evening. The
phalanx of stars marched augustly across the heavens. Claiborne lifted his face
gratefully to the cool night breeze, for he was worn with the stress and anxiety
of the day, and there remained much to do. The bungalow had been speedily
transformed into a hospital. One nurse, borrowed from a convalescent patient at
the Springs, was to be reinforced by another summoned by wire from Washington.
The Ambassador's demand to be allowed to remove Armitage to his own house at the
Springs had been promptly rejected by the surgeon. A fever had hold of John
Armitage, who was ill enough without the wound in his shoulder, and the surgeon
moved his traps to the bungalow and took charge of the case. Oscar had brought
Claiborne's bag, and all was now in readiness for the night.
Oscar's erect figure at salute and his respectful voice brought Claiborne
down from the stars.
"We can get rid of the prisoners to-night—yes?"
"At midnight two secret service men will be here from Washington to travel
with them to Baltimore to their boat. The Baron and my father arranged it over
the telephone from the Springs. The prisoners understand that they are in
serious trouble, and have agreed to go quietly. The government agents are
discreet men. You brought up the buckboard?"
"But the men should be hanged—for they shot our captain, and he may die."
The little man spoke with sad cadence. A pathos in his erect, sturdy figure,
his lowered tone as he referred to Armitage, touched Claiborne.
"He will get well, Oscar. Everything will seem brighter to-morrow. You had
better sleep until it is time to drive to the train."
Oscar stepped nearer and his voice sank to a whisper.
"I have not forgotten the tall man who died; it is not well for him to go
unburied. You are not a Catholic—no?"
"You need not tell me how—or anything about it—but you are sure he is quite
dead?"
"He is dead; he was a bad man, and died very terribly," said Oscar, and he
took off his hat and drew his sleeve across his forehead. "I will tell you just
how it was. When my horse took the wall and got their bullets and tumbled down
dead, the big man they called Zmai saw how it was, that we were all coming over
after them, and ran. He kept running through the brambles and over the stones,
and I thought he would soon turn and we might have a fight, but he did not stop;
and I could not let him get away. It was our captain who said, 'We must take
them prisoners,' was it not so?"
"Yes; that was Mr. Armitage's wish."
"Then I saw that we were going toward the bridge, the one they do not use,
there at the deep ravine. I had crossed it once and knew that it was weak and
shaky, and I slacked up and watched him. He kept on, and just before he came to
it, when I was very close to him, for he was a slow runner—yes? being so big
and clumsy, he turned and shot at me with his revolver, but he was in a hurry
and missed; but he ran on. His feet struck the planks of the bridge with a great
jar and creaking, but he kept running and stumbled and fell once with a mad
clatter of the planks. He was a coward with a heart of water, and would not stop
when I called, and come back for a little fight. The wires of the bridge hummed
and the bridge swung and creaked. When he was almost midway of the bridge the
big wires that held it began to shriek out of the old posts that held
them—though I had not touched them—and it seemed many years that passed while
the whole of it dangled in the air like a bird-nest in a storm; and the creek
down below laughed at that big coward. I still heard his hoofs thumping the
planks, until the bridge dropped from under him and left him for a long second
with his arms and legs flying in the air. Yes; it was very horrible to see. And
then his great body went down, down—God! It was a very dreadful way for a
wicked man to die."
And Oscar brushed his hat with his sleeve and looked away at the purple and
gray ridges and their burden of stars.
"Yes, it must have been terrible," said Claiborne.
"But now he can not be left to lie down there on the rocks, though he was so
wicked and died like a beast. I am a bad Catholic, but when I was a boy I used
to serve mass, and it is not well for a man to lie in a wild place where the
buzzards will find him."
"But you can not bring a priest. Great harm would be done if news of this
affair were to get abroad. You understand that what has passed here must never
be known by the outside world. My father and Baron von Marhof have counseled
that, and you may be sure there are reasons why these things must be kept quiet,
or they would seek the law's aid at once."
"Yes; I have been a soldier; but after this little war I shall bury the dead.
In an hour I shall be back to drive the buckboard to Lamar station."
Claiborne looked at his watch.
"I will go with you," he said.
They started through the wood toward the Port of Missing Men; and together
they found rough niches in the side of the gap, down which they made their way
toilsomely to the boulder-lined stream that laughed and tumbled foamily at the
bottom of the defile. They found the wreckage of the slender bridge, broken to
fragments where the planking had struck the rocks. It was very quiet in the
mountain cleft, and the stars seemed withdrawn to newer and deeper arches of
heaven as they sought in the debris for the Servian. They kindled a fire of
twigs to give light for their search, and soon found the great body lying quite
at the edge of the torrent, with arms flung out as though to ward off a blow.
The face twisted with terror and the small evil eyes, glassed in death, were not
good to see.
"He was a wicked man, and died in sin. I will dig a grave for him by these
bushes."
When the work was quite done, Oscar took off his hat and knelt down by the
side of the strange grave and bowed his head in silence for a moment. Then he
began to repeat words and phrases of prayers he had known as a peasant boy in a
forest over seas, and his voice rose to a kind of chant. Such petitions of the
Litany of the Saints as he could recall he uttered, his voice rising mournfully
among the rocks.
"From all evil; from all sin; from Thy wrath; from sudden and unprovided
death, O Lord, deliver us!"
Then he was silent, though in the wavering flame of the fire Claiborne saw
that his lips still muttered prayers for the Servian's soul. When again his
words grew audible he was saying:
"—That Thou wouldst not deliver it into the hand of the enemy, nor forget
it unto the end, out wouldst command it to be received by the Holy Angels, and
conducted to paradise, its true country; that, as in Thee it hath hoped and
believed, it may not suffer the pains of hell, but may take possession of
eternal joys."
He made the sign of the cross, rose, brushed the dirt from his knees and put
on his hat.
"He was a coward and died an ugly death, but I am glad I did not kill him."
"Yes, we were spared murder," said Claiborne; and when they had trodden out
the fire and scattered the embers into the stream, they climbed the steep side
of the gap and turned toward the bungalow. Oscar trudged silently at Claiborne's
side, and neither spoke. Both were worn to the point of exhaustion by the events
of the long day; the stubborn patience and fidelity of the little man touched a
chord in Claiborne. Almost unconsciously he threw his arm across Oscar's
shoulders and walked thus beside him as they traversed the battle-field of the
morning.
"You knew Mr. Armitage when he was a boy?" asked Claiborne.
"Yes; in the Austrian forest, on his father's place—the Count Ferdinand von
Stroebel. The young captain's mother died when he was a child; his father was
the great statesman, and did much for the Schomburgs and Austria; but it did not
aid his disposition—no?"
The secret service men had come by way of the Springs, and were waiting at
the bungalow to report to Claiborne. They handed him a sealed packet of
instructions from the Secretary of War. The deportation of Chauvenet and Durand
was to be effected at once under Claiborne's direction, and he sent Oscar to the
stables for the buckboard and sat down on the veranda to discuss the trip to
Baltimore with the two secret agents. They were to gather up the personal
effects of the conspirators at the tavern on the drive to Lamar. The rooms
occupied by Chauvenet at Washington had already been ransacked and
correspondence and memoranda of a startling character seized. Chauvenet was
known to be a professional blackmailer and plotter of political mischief, and
the embassy of Austria-Hungary had identified Durand as an ex-convict who had
only lately been implicated in the launching of a dangerous issue of forged
bonds in Paris. Claiborne had been carefully coached by his father, and he
answered the questions of the officers readily:
"If these men give you any trouble, put them under arrest in the nearest
jail. We can bring them back here for attempted murder, if nothing worse; and
these mountain juries will see that they're put away for a long time. You will
accompany them on board the George W. Custis, and stay with them until
you reach Cape Charles. A lighthouse tender will follow the steamer down
Chesapeake Bay and take you off. If these gentlemen do not give the proper
orders to the captain of the steamer, you will put them all under arrest and
signal the tender."
Chauvenet and Durand had been brought out and placed in the buckboard, and
these orders were intended for their ears.
"We will waive our right to a writ of habeas corpus," remarked Durand
cheerfully, as Claiborne flashed a lantern over them. "Dearest Jules, we shall
not forget Monsieur Claiborne's courteous treatment of us."
"Shut up!" snapped Chauvenet.
"You will both of you do well to hold your tongues," remarked Claiborne
dryly. "One of these officers understands French, and I assure you they can not
be bought or frightened. If you try to bolt, they will certainly shoot you. If
you make a row about going on board your boat at Baltimore, remember they are
government agents, with ample authority for any emergency, and that Baron von
Marhof has the American State Department at his back."
"You are wonderful, Captain Claiborne," drawled Durand.
"There is no trap in this? You give us the freedom of the sea?" demanded
Chauvenet.
"I gave you the option of a Virginia prison for conspiracy to murder, or a
run for your life in your own boat beyond the Capes. You have chosen the second
alternative; if you care to change your decision—"
Oscar gathered up the reins and waited for the word. Claiborne held his watch
to the lantern.
"We must not miss our train, my dear Jules!" said Durand.
"Bah, Claiborne! this is ungenerous of you. You know well enough this is an
unlawful proceeding—kidnapping us this way—without opportunity for counsel."
"And without benefit of clergy," laughed Claiborne. "Is it a dash for the
sea, or the nearest county jail? If you want to tackle the American courts, we
have nothing to venture. The Winkelried crowd are safe behind the bars in
Vienna, and publicity can do us no harm."
"Drive on!" ejaculated Chauvenet.
As the buckboard started, Baron von Marhof and Judge Claiborne rode up, and
watched the departure from their saddles.
"That's the end of one chapter," remarked Judge Claiborne.
"They're glad enough to go," said Dick. "What's the latest word from Vienna?"
"The conspirators were taken quietly; about one hundred arrests have been
made in all, and the Hungarian uprising has played out utterly—thanks to Mr.
John Armitage," and the Baron sighed and turned toward the bungalow.
When the two diplomats rode home half an hour later, it was with the
assurance that Armitage's condition was satisfactory.
"He is a hardy plant," said the surgeon, "and will pull through."