Miranda of the Balcony: A StoryMason, A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley)
General
Miranda of the Balcony: A Story
Mason, A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley)
Fiction
"I tell you. Warriner came down to Tangier that very morning from the
country. He travelled as always in the dress of a Moor, for he speaks
their tongues, no Moor better, and our little business, you
understand, needs secrecy. I closed my shop, shuttered the window,
locked the door. Warriner told me he had arranged with the sheikhs of
the Berber tribes to deliver so many Winchesters, so much ammunition,
within a certain period. The period was short; Warriner's boat, the
_Ten Brothers_, was waiting at Tarifa. I leave him to change his dress
and shave his beard, while I go down to the harbour and hire a felucca
to put him over to Tarifa. But Warriner forgot to lock the door behind
me. In a minute or two he hear a hand scrape softly, oh so softly, up
the door towards the latch. For a second he stood, with the razor in
his hand like this," and the Belgian, in the absorption of his
narrative began to act the scene, "looking at the latch, waiting for
it to rise, and listening. Then he remembered that he had not locked
the door. He crept on tip-toe towards it; just as he reached it he
heard a loud English voice shout to him violently, 'Look out!' That
phrase is a menace, eh?" he stopped to ask.
"It might be. It would more naturally be a warning," said Mrs.
Warriner.
"In either case it means an enemy. As he shouted Warriner's hand was
already on the key. Warriner turn the lock, and immediately the
Englishman batter and knock at the door, but he could not get in, and
after a little he went away. Ah! how often we have wondered who that
man was, and why he shouted out his threat and tried to force the
door. To know that you have one enemy at your heels, but you cannot
pick him out because you have not seen his face! That frightens me,
Madame Warriner. I am a coward, and it is no wonder that it frightens
me." The perspiration broke out on Fournier's forehead as he made his
frank confession. "But it frightens Warriner too, who is no coward.
Often and often have I seen him lift up a finger, so," he suited the
action to the word, "when a new voice speak within his hearing, and
listen, listen, listen, to make sure whether that was the voice which
shouted through the door or no. But a voice! You cannot be certain you
recognise it, unless you can recognise also the face of the man to
whom it belongs. A singer's voice, yes! Perhaps you might know that
again though you heard it for the first time blindfold. But a voice
that merely speaks or shouts, no!"
M. Fournier picked up his hat and rose from his chair. Miranda rose
too, and they stood face to face with one another under the awning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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