A QUESTION OF TWO MORALITIES.

The road towards the block-house ran along the river bank past the Kofn Ford. They went slowly on together through the starry windy night, Rallywood with his hand on the bridle and the wounded man holding limply to the saddle.

The tsa raved and rocked in the pine trees, through the pauses of the storm a wolf barked, and the black, tumbled water was still swelling and gulping under the low stars. But the tumult of noises only served to accentuate the hideous loneliness which is the salient characteristic of the Frontier.

Counsellor, with an unaccustomed warfare in his heart rage and the pity of it working together stared into space across the leaping river.

As the two men drew near the ford, they saw the dim figure of a horseman riding down the bank on the opposite side, with the evident intention of crossing. The approaches to the ford were flooded, for the angry water fretted out its banks at such times and deepened into dangerous swirls over the crossing-place.

Rallywood checked the horse to shout and signal to the man that the ford was impassable, but his voice was drowned by the harsh throated noises of the night. Weak as was the starlight, something of the loose reckless swing in the saddle told Rallywood that the rider was Anthony Unziar. Unziar galloped down the stones of the incline and plunged into the torrent. It was clear from where he took the water that he intended to make for the little beach below the block-house. His course was marked by a whitish rise in the water; now and then the watchers on the bank lost sight of the struggling figure as a tree-trunk whirled past and hid him, or he seemed to sink in some tormented eddy, but he came into view again and always nearer. At the last moment, whether horse and man were exhausted or whether a furious tangle of cross-currents caught them, they were swung round and away from the landing-point.

It was now evident that Unziar saw Rallywood, for in answer to the latter’s signs that he must make for the shallows lower down, Unziar waved some object over his head as if to call attention to it. The suck of the current was fast drawing him away, but with another strong effort he got the horse’s head round; they heard his faint shout upon the wind then the words came more clearly:

‘Carry them on Selpdorf!’ He flung something forwards; the gale caught and hurled it on to the rocks at Rallywood’s feet.

When they looked again Unziar had disappeared.

Hurrying up to the block-house, Rallywood sent off some troopers to Unziar’s assistance; then with some difficulty got his prisoner, who was stiff and dizzy, on his feet and supported him to the room where Madame de Sagan and Valerie had rested on the night of the snow-storm.

Rallywood did all that could be done for Counsellor, then he sat down at the narrow table to face his position. The tsa battered at the little window, and the camp-bed creaked under Counsellor’s weight as he turned and groaned upon it, while Rallywood sat with soul and body absorbed in the consciousness that at last the time of which Counsellor had warned him was come, the time when he should find his enemies dressed in red. Under almost any other circumstances it would have been possible to retire from the position with honour. Had war been declared between England and Maasau, he could have resigned his commission. But to-night he found himself without any such means of escape, fast in the jaws of the cleverly-contrived trap set for him by Selpdorf.

But he scarcely yet knew the worst. Presently Counsellor spoke.

‘This thing has gone beyond a joke,’ he said, ‘What does it mean?’ The glance from under the overhanging gray brows had regained its fire.

’My orders are simple enough. I am to keep you here until to-morrow afternoon at three o’clock.’

’By doing so you will ruin Maasau as a free State and bring a most serious defeat upon the British policy.’ Counsellor’s voice was rasping. ‘Are you prepared for that?’

Both men were strenuous, and bred deep into the bone of each were the same dominant qualities.

‘I am prepared to carry out my orders,’ answered Rallywood; ’I had them practically from the Duke himself.’

’The Duke is of the same mind in which I found him at the Castle, though he may be forced to dissemble,’ asserted Counsellor; then with a twist he sat up as his glance fell upon the square dark object lying on the table between them. ‘John Rallywood, do you know what that is?’

‘The despatches thrown to me by Unziar.’

’That case is mine; it contains my private instructions; you can guess something of their importance from the fact that I have been robbed of them. You must give them back to me! As an Englishman and an honest man, I call upon you to give them back to me.’

Rallywood’s long nervous fingers closed over the packet.

‘It is impossible!’ he said. ’As an Englishman, yes, but as an honest man, well, it it is hard to say.’

‘Are you mad?’ cried Counsellor.

‘I have not had long to think it out, and it is a tangled question,’ replied Rallywood wearily.

‘A tangled question? I take it you are first of all an Englishman?’

’In my private capacity, and that deals with my private honour; but I have undertaken another responsibility from which I cannot withdraw at pleasure. I am a sworn soldier of Maasau, and as such my public honour has first claim.’

It was a simple rendering of a tremendous problem, but it served for Rallywood.

‘Then ’ said Counsellor.

There was a rush and a scuffle, but Rallywood was young and strong and more active than the Major.

‘Confound you!’ Counsellor fell back a step or two, breathing hard. There are some situations which by their elemental force destroy all other emotions. The situation at Kofn guard-house was one of these. The point at issue between these two men pierced to the bed-rock of national loyalty. Perhaps Blivinski was right. Love of country was part of their physical equipment, yet by the irony of circumstances they were pitted against each other.

‘Will you give me your parole?’ asked Rallywood with his back to the door.

Counsellor drew out a big watch.

‘For fifteen minutes,’ he said. ’It is now half-past nine; at forty-five minutes past I shall hold myself once more free to do what I can. You understand? In the meantime we will talk.’

Rallywood motioned Counsellor back to the camp bed while he himself sat down on the table.

‘I fancy, John, we are both rather in the dark about all this,’ began Counsellor. ‘Tell me your story, and I’ll tell you mine.’

‘My orders were clear enough,’ Rallywood said. ’I was to take charge of a prisoner, to be brought to me by the incoming mail at the spot where I met you. You arrived queerly, I admit, rolling along the down line, but you are undoubtedly the person of whom I was instructed to take charge.’

’Ah I begin to see. There may be many men in Maasau who would rob me, but there is only one man who could do it so clumsily.’

‘Count Sagan?’

’Naturally. But to return, I left you at the Castle looking for Colendorp; whether you found him or not does not come into this affair. Perhaps he was in Sagan’s way and he removed him ’

‘With a knife.’

’That is quite in the Count’s manner. Well, I got safely to England, where my business took a day and a half longer than I expected. I received my despatches, and five hundred miles from here I took the precaution of removing them from my despatch-box. After we left the Frontier station I noticed that our train had lost half its length, and that I was in the last carriage. I didn’t like it. It is never healthy for a despatch-box to travel in an end compartment. That is tempting of Fate.’

Counsellor stopped as if to collect his thoughts again.

’After a little the pace slackened and I felt a sharp jolt. They were switching me on to the down line, an improvement upon the original plan so like the Count’s manner that it almost proves he must have been on the spot superintending operations. Next it was a face at the window. I used my revolver, but they stunned me and robbed me and left it to the night mail to close my mouth for good. Now you know where you are, John Rallywood; you are abetting a crime, and a crime against your own country, against England!’

Rallywood laughed, but a laugh against oneself has a bad sound with it.

‘It seems the day has come when I find my enemies dressed in red!’ he said.

’Why, yes, if you choose to put it so. If you either carry these despatches on for Unziar or remain to keep me prisoner, you play Germany’s game for her.’

‘Perhaps not,’ suggested Rallywood. ‘The Chancellor sent me here.’

Counsellor’s short angry grunt of derision surprised him.

’Mademoiselle Valerie may be loyal, but Selpdorf is at the bottom of the whole plot. Does he guess there is any bond of liking or interest between you and his daughter? If so, he sent you here to break you! He knew that between the conflicting claims of a man’s public and private honour lie shame and often death. Do you not see that amongst them they are bent on ruining you? Just now, when I hoped all might be yours that a man can ask for! Your Chicago cousin at Queen’s Fain is dying and you are his heir. Yet you are to be ruined ruined by the hate of Elmur and Sagan, and what are you to Selpdorf but a fly to be crushed whose presence annoys him?’

’Are you sure of this? His sending me to be witness of your assassination fits in badly with the theory of his collusion.’

’Perfectly; Sagan stultified the scheme, that was all. Selpdorf forgot that Sagan is a wild beast who can only be fed with blood!’ Counsellor paused. ’The highway robbery with violence to which I have been subjected is Sagan’s bull-headed translation of Selpdorf’s hint to detain me. Thus, according to their calculations, before I can get to Revonde the Duke will have been induced to lend himself to some other course. It is not hard to read their tactics. They run on old lines. So you see there is only one way out of it you must help me, John.’

What advice he might have offered to Rallywood as simple man to man occupied no place in Counsellor’s intentions. He was England’s envoy as opposed to her antagonists, and into the scale in her favour he meant to throw the whole of his personal influence with Rallywood.

Rallywood made a sign of dissent.

‘But surely you will not side with Sagan’s party as against the Duke?’ urged Counsellor.

‘The Duke has been known to change his mind before now.’

Counsellor bit savagely at his moustache. The minutes were flying.

’I wonder if old Gustave has allowed himself to be humbugged yet once more!’ he said to himself. ’John, on which side do you suppose Valerie Selpdorf would wish to see you?’

‘We need not mention her,’ answered Rallywood stiffly.

‘What? Have you not spoken? Does she not know?’

’She knows yes, and others know too that I love her. But it is ended. There is nothing more; there never can be now.’

Counsellor put his hand to his head.

‘Will you help me? That after all is the question.’

Rallywood looked down at him, and Counsellor fancied there was a shadow of reproach in the glance.

‘For you that is the question, but for me there is another,’ Rallywood said deliberately. ’Until I can resign my oath to Maasau, honour holds me her sworn soldier.’

‘Of all things in the world what is so arbitrary as honour?’ cried Counsellor. ’Honour is a wild flower; God plants it, but man prunes it, and the devil only can be responsible for the sports one sometimes meets with. Well, go your own and the devil’s way!’ The Major turned irritably round. ‘In my creed a man’s first duty is to his country.’

‘I wish I could see it so,’ said Rallywood sadly. Then the hush of the mighty battle fell upon the little room. The air was stifling to both, for Counsellor knew what was in his companion’s heart and even felt a far-off pity for him, but no relenting. Rallywood’s handsome brown face had grown suddenly sharp and aged, and his gray eyes contracted to dark points under their frowning lids. The man was looking on the wreck of his life, and slowly coming to the conclusion that he must choose that course which would add the defeat of the land he loved to his own ruin. He would have died for England, happy in the sacrifice, but to lose all in her despite was a bitter thing.

‘Time’s up,’ said the Major. ’You have one minute to give me your decision.’

‘A soldier should see no further than the point of his sword,’ replied Rallywood. ’An oath stands between me and my desires. These despatches may be yours, but you know how they have come into my charge. As long as I am a soldier of Maasau, my duty to her comes first of all. I cannot let you go nor can I give up these despatches! Curse you!’ a strong flash of emotion breaking in upon the restraint of his speech, ’why have you no sword? If you had killed me ’

Counsellor put his watch back into his pocket.

‘A man’s country should be his conscience,’ said the old diplomatist, as one who pronounces a definite and unassailable truth. Then he waited.

Rallywood stood up.

‘I cannot argue,’ he said, ’but Major, you will believe me when I say that I see my duty plainly. I refuse!’

‘I have had a great regard for you,’ replied Counsellor slowly, ’but if you were my own son, by Heaven, I’d blow your brains out to-night! Give me those despatches.’

There was a rapid movement and the gleam of a pistol barrel in his hand.

‘Thank God!’ It was not more than the faintest whisper from Rallywood as he sprang at his companion.

But there was no report, only an ominous click as Counsellor flung the unloaded revolver in Rallywood’s face with a bitter word.

‘It was not loaded.’

Hardly had they closed when the door was opened and a couple of men supported Unziar into the room. The water ran in streams from his clothes to the floor, while he stood and stared at the two combatants who had fallen apart.

‘I suppose they sent you to meet me, Rallywood,’ he said in English; ’it is lucky, for I’m done! You must carry those despatches on without delay, for they must reach the Chancellor at the earliest possible moment. Go; there is no time to lose!’

Rallywood pointed to Counsellor.

’This gentleman is my prisoner. You will keep him here until further orders. Meantime I will ride on with these to Revonde.’

Counsellor and Unziar remained together, but no word passed between them till out in the windy night they heard the beat of hoofs as Rallywood rode away on his mission.