A Fascinating Traitor: An Anglo-Indian StorySavage, Richard
General
A Fascinating Traitor: An Anglo-Indian Story
Savage, Richard
India -- Fiction
In the western skies, the sun was sinking over the purpled sea, as they
drove down to Edgemere, and the glow of the dying day lingered upon the
beautiful hills of Jersey. For the wild storm was quieted and the sea
shone as a sapphire zone. Golden gleams lit up stern old Mount Orgueil
and gray Fort Regent, and tenderly tinted the rugged outlines of the
moss-grown Elizabeth Castle. All nature dreamed in the peaceful, even
fall. On the sea, white sails were flitting afar, and the swift steamers
passed grandly on toward their distant havens. There was a group
gathered in the splendid gardens of Edgemere as General Wragge gallantly
advanced.
The silver-haired veteran graciously surrendered his command, as he
aided his guests to alight. “This is to be ‘Bride’s Hall,’ and not a
‘place of arms’! You are now joint commanders, and so make the best use
of your three days liberty! I give up my sword!”
That night, while Nadine Johnstone sat in a heart exchange of confidence
with Justine Delande and the fair woman--no longer Berthe Louison--while
Flossie Murray was playing hostess with Mrs. Wragge, General Wragge,
Major Hardwicke, Captain Anstruther, and the now full-fledged Benedict,
Eric Murray, gave some pithy parting counsels to Jack Blunt, “Gentleman
Jack,” of the London Swell Mob. “Only a mere fluke, and, our desire to
save a family needless pain, protects you,” said Hardwicke. “These five
hundred pounds will enable you to reach America. I venture to advise you
to avoid landing on English soil hereafter! You certainly owe something
to your plucky, dead comrade, who generously lied, even in death, to
save you from transportation!” With a sullen brow, Jack Blunt departed
the next morning on the Granville steamer, and, only when in the safe
hiding of Etienne Garcin’s Cor d’Abondance did he dare to breathe
freely. There were two sorely wounded lodgers already lying there, who
cursed the unerring aim of the vivacious and eccentric Alaric Hobbs
of Waukesha. They had told the landlord their tales over cognac
and absinthe, and Jack Blunt vainly tried to comfort the sloe-eyed
Angelique, who mourned for the unreturning visitor who had sprung over
the easily-stormed battlements of her mobile heart. “Il etait bien beau,
cet homme la! Il m’aimait beaucoup! Je le regretterai toujours! C’etait
un vrai gaillard!”
Which heartfelt tribute from a nameless wanton served for epitaph to the
man lying in an unmarked grave in the soldiers plot at Fort Regent. With
gnashing of teeth did Garcin and Jack Blunt discover that H. R. M.’s
Consul had officially aided Justine Delande to remove the valuable
deposits of the dead adventurer.
“The whole thing was a dead plant on us. Luck turned against him at
last!” growled Blunt, as they counted up the cost of the bootless cruise
of the Hirondelle. And only Justine Delande’s bitter tears flowed in
silence to lament the bold adventurer who had lost the game of life!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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