CHAPTER XXVIII

THE WRONG TURNING

IT was an unlooked-for inspiration on my part, and one which might never have occurred to me had it not been for that remark of Claudia. After all, what did I stand to gain by killing Ercole, by killing him moreover under circumstances like the present? The action would have savoured less of vengeance than of butchery, albeit I own frankly that in the first heat of the moment my impulse had been in that direction. Now there came cropping up into my head a dozen reasons why private revenge should be subordinate to public welfare: not least among them the gentle pleading pressure of the hand with which the words of Claudia had been accompanied.

No. I would not kill him. Yet what followed? For how long time were we to hold him prisoner? The situation was not without an awkward side to it.

Happily, as I have said, in a sudden flash of inspiration I had grasped the true solution of the problem, a solution which I flatter myself was both ingenious and simple. I remembered that parting of the ways upon the stairs which had been the innocent cause of my first and dramatic intrusion upon the Company of Death. To the left, the outer door and liberty; to the right I thought with a shudder of the oubliette. Ercole could make his choice between them; there was no reason for our interference. If he escaped, the question of his further detention would be ended: and in my own mind I had grave doubts as to how far such deten

tion would prove practicable in view of the existing attitude of the Company as revealed that evening. Should he, on the other hand, meet with an accident. Well! A contingency of this kind was his concern, not ours. The experiment promised at all events a novel element of interest: to us if not to Ercole.

A rapid whisper to Claudia, as we strode along the corridor, and the look of amusement which flitted across her face was evidence enough of comprehension and approval. I am inclined to believe, indeed, that her capture of Ercole-effected as it was on the spur of the moment-had since been more than half regretted by her, and that in her heart of hearts there lurked some slight suspicion that rashness does not invariably accord with wisdom. Be that as it may, she grasped my hurried suggestion in an instant.

"Your imagination does you credit, Kuno," she exclaimed, so raising her voice that the unseen fugitive might overhear her, "but our prisoner is hardly likely to have lingered longer than was necessary. You hear the scampering of a rat and your fancy straightway converts it into Ercole."

I simulated anger, and stabbed with my sword at a mouldering strip of tapestry upon the wall beside "This makes the second time that your folly has landed us in difficulties."

me.

She turned her back to me. "I am sorry, Kuno. After all, Ercole is only a boy. You surely are not afraid of him?"

is doubtless at this

"Boy or man," said I, "he moment pouring a tale into the ears of His Eminence which may not be altogether calculated to advance the cause we have at heart. I do not dwell upon the fact that even a boy may become a successful assassin by dint of practice. The sooner we re

capture him the better. Body of a dog! as Salvatore would exclaim. I can safely promise Ercole a speedy shrift when next we meet him." And I added for his benefit, "He will be bolder than I think him if he dare

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show those auburn locks of his in public while the Company of Death remains untrammelled."

"Auburn indeed!" laughed Claudia, taking her cue from me and developing the theme still further at the expense of the involuntary listener.

I

We were standing at the end of the long corridor at a point where it branched off sharply ere it gained the staircase. The sound of the retreating footfall had ceased on our approach. The foul and evil-burning lantern seemed merely to intensify the utter gloom in front of us, yet the slightest creak of the boards or movement on the part of Ercole would have instantly betrayed him. I chuckled to myself once more as Claudia rambled on in stinging sarcasm. could picture Ercole's expression of mingled fear and anger while there at some half-dozen paces from him we leisurely discussed the situation; I could almost see him in imagination, flattened behind the shelter of some strip of arras in the darkness, his eyes and ears strained in an agony of tension, scarce venturing to breathe or to relax a muscle. It was a pretty revenge, and I fear that we prolonged it; upon occasions like the present Claudia's wit showed at its brightest.

At last, however, I cut short her banter. 'Rats may be all very well in their way," I cried. "I swear that for the second time I hear the sound of some one moving." And, indeed, I had detected an unmistakable rustle in the corridor.

"I heard nothing, not even a rat," said Claudia solemnly. She pretended to be listening. Then suddenly she nudged me and ran swiftly down the passage, swinging the lantern about her head in such a manner that, by the light afforded, a dozen Ercoles might well have concealed themselves unnoticed. I followed her more quietly, and with no little curiosity as to which of the many ragged hangings might conceal the person of the fugitive.

Strangely enough-yet not so strangely after all since I had obviously no desire to push my investiga

tions to extremes-I could detect no traces of his presence. Apparently it was otherwise with Claudia. "You saw him?" she whispered when I joined her. I answered in the negative, and she smiled triumphantly. "I did," she said. Then in a louder accent, "You see for yourself that there is nobody." Together we went slowly down the staircase.

Whatever the aim of the architect responsible for the construction of the Torrione, one thing at least is certain: that he was a master in the art of devious

passages and windings. I do not wonder at my difficulties that night when I first descended it in ignorance and darkness: the Sunday which witnessed my introduction to the Company. Here it was necessary to ascend a flight of steps in order to continue progress downwards; here the staircase took a sudden zigzag turn and ended abruptly in a twisting corridor. At the farther end of this we paused and listened, but the deathlike silence still remained unbroken. It was evident that Ercole was waiting until the coast was clear ere he proceeded: a resolution which, from our point of view as well as his, reflected credit on his judgment. From our point of view I say especially, since it afforded us the opportunity to select a suitable post of vantage for our purpose. It was in neither of our minds to miss the dramatic moment when it would lie with Ercole to make his unconscious choice between the oubliette and liberty.

A small guard-chamber, hollowed in the thickness of the wall, commanded and doubtless still commandsI reflect with some astonishment that, familiar as I am with Naples, I have never since that night revisited the Torrione, the interior of which I understand, however, has of late been modernised by a course of so-called restoration almost out of recognition—a small guard-chamber then at all events commanded the spot where the staircase branched to right and left respectively. Thither we made our way, secure in the belief that Ercole was unsuspecting and that he could hardly fail to suppose that, in

pursuance of our spoken intention, we had left the building.

"Kuno," whispered Claudia, with what was meant to be an assumption of dignity as we looked round us, "I am going to extinguish the lantern. Promise that you will not take advantage of the darkness to attempt to kiss me."

"I gathered," said I blandly, "that we had agreed to postpone such nonsense until we had ceased to be conspirators."

"I do not altogether trust you," she retorted. If the dim light did not deceive me, she was blushing. I ventured to draw her attention to the fact, politely at the same time hinting that a greater display of confidence would be acceptable. For answer she put down the lantern. "I wonder if you will ever learn to understand me, Kuno?" She was smiling with a roguish expression on her countenance, which I pretended to ignore completely. "If you are going to extinguish the lantern, you had better do so," I exclaimed. "This is hardly the moment or the place for jesting, though you apparently think otherwise."

"Jesting!" she pouted. "Do you then look upon your promises as jesting?"

I began, as I saw her mood, to be impatient in reality, for I feared that further delay of this sort might lead to our discovery by Ercole. Luckily we had been careful not to raise our voices, and the creaking corridors must in any case have afforded timely warning of approaching danger. None the less there are, and always will be, occasions when a certain measure of caution is unmistakably desirable. And this, I took it upon me to observe, was one of them.

Claudia's only answer was to once more offer me the comfit-box. "A pestilence upon your prunes!" I said with irritation. She stepped back with an injured look, and flicked an imaginary speck of dust from off her doublet.

"You are unreasonable, Kuno. I insist upon your giving me your promise."