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Read Ebook: The House of Spies by Deeping Warwick Michael A C Arthur C Illustrator
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Ebook has 1009 lines and 26054 words, and 21 pages
ch other.
"Good day to you, Chevalier."
"Good day, Mr. Winter. You will be careful how you meddle in any affair of mine."
When Jeremy was in a rage his imperturbable face had a smooth, tight look, the lips pressed a little more closely together, the jaw well set. His wrath was always a quiet wrath, deep, purposeful, not wasting itself in words.
De Rothan had made him more furious than he had been for years, and even the knowledge that Jasper was very little the worse for his adventure in Darvel's Wood did not modify Jeremy's anger. De Rothan was the kind of man who filled him with a scornful disgust, and to be baffled and dictated to by such a man left Jeremy quarrelling with his own self-respect. He damned De Rothan as a coward, and was equally indignant over the contradictory conviction that the adventurer had audacity and courage. De Rothan had seized a desperate chance. It had been a clever move, too confoundedly clever to please Mr. Winter.
"Curse it, what shall I tell the girl?"
He laughed at his own impatience.
"Why, Jerry, my boy, you want to appear infallible, do you, dallying with a snuff-box, and proudly overwhelming all ruffians with one look. The lad's alive. Tell her that. She'll be ready to kiss you, though you have brought nothing but news."
It did not astonish Jeremy when he found Nance watching for him where the lane topped the high ground to the east of Stonehanger. She was sitting on a turf bank under a thorn-tree, out of sight of Stonehanger House.
Jeremy gave her the best news he could, while he was still some yards away.
"The lad's alive, and they tell me not much the worse."
The way her face changed stirred Jeremy, man of fifty that he was. It was good to be young, to desire, and to be desired.
"Where is he?"
"Ah, that's a long story. You and I have got to hold a council of war."
He dismounted, fastened his horse to the thorn-tree, and seated himself beside Nance on the bank. Her face still retained much of the radiance that had poured into it with the first rush of relief.
"What has happened, then?"
"They kidnapped Jasper in Darvel's Wood. I guessed it. De Rothan has him shut up safely in that house of his beyond Sedlescombe."
"As a prisoner?"
"Yes."
"But how absurd, in these days! Then we shall soon have him out."
Jeremy wagged his head.
"My dear, you don't know Monsieur de Rothan."
"What do you mean?"
"He has the audacity of the devil. He has snapped up Jasper as a hostage, and dares us to interfere."
"He told you that?"
"Why, to be sure, we had a parley in the meadow. I covered him with a pistol and asked him to tell me why I shouldn't shoot him. His argument was that one of his own men would promptly shoot Jasper. You see, they are holding him against us as a kind of shield."
Nance's face lost some of its radiance.
"But De Rothan dare not do this."
"Unfortunately he does dare, in fact, he is obliged to dare. It is the one chance left him of forcing his game through. We are on the edge of a crisis. The next month may decide whether we are to be invaded or not. De Rothan is standing out for a fighting chance."
She looked very gravely into Jeremy's eyes.
"Do you think he would be brute enough to murder Jasper?"
"My dear, I do."
"Then if we threaten or inform against him, Jasper will be sacrificed?"
"Exactly. That's what makes me feel like a caged tiger."
It seemed to take Nance some minutes to realise the vindictive grimness of the thing.
"But what a villain!"
"Call him that if you like, child. He is a clever gambler and has to use a gambler's tricks. The end justifies the means. That is what he tells himself."
She smoothed her dress with her hands, and looked into the distance.
"It makes me ashamed and furious that we are so helpless. And yet we have to be polite and swallow our anger. Can anything be done?"
"And take the risk of having the lad shot?"
"No, no, you know I don't mean that! But to think that we should have to truckle to this man!"
"I see no other course at present. I am not a lamb myself. I would run a sword through the man to-morrow if I thought that it would help us. But it won't. We have got to be careful."
"I see--yes, I see."
"We must hold our tongues, not let the truth out, and yet try to find some way out of this blind alley. If we were to let our neighbours know the truth, they might come blundering in and lose Jasper his life."
She held her breath at the thought of such a chance.
"Then there is father. I spoke to him this morning."
"You did?"
"He is a strange man. I thought he would storm, but he looked stunned. I don't see that he could help us. He might even be dangerous."
"Yes, set everything in a blaze. I had thought of that. I think that I had better see Mr. Anthony Durrell."
She looked at him questioningly.
"I have dealt with all sorts of men in my time."
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