Jack Harkaway and His Son's Escape from the Brigands of Greece Part 91

"You are not playing me false?" said Jack.

"Look in my face and be a.s.sured."

He gazed long and earnestly at her, and she bore his fixed look unflinchingly.

"Yes, yes," he said, more to himself than to her; "you are truthful--I am sure of that--but I'll not neglect any precaution; for my head is so sorely perplexed by all you have told me that I scarcely know if I am asleep or waking."

He pressed his brow with his open hands, and then looking carefully to the priming of his revolvers, he started out with the girl; and as they issued from the grounds of the villa, he spoke his last words of mistrust before giving her his whole confidence.

"You see, Theodora," he said, for she had told him her name, "I don't hang back. I freely confide in you."

"You do well."

"I believe so--see that my confidence is not misplaced, and you shall have no cause to repent it."

"Your words would imply a promise of reward for me; but I seek none."

"I am willing to believe it, but still my fixed resolve--"

"Your fixed resolve could not make me take it," said the girl, proudly.

"I have told you my object in my present mission; I have no other."

Harkaway was greatly surprised at this, but as he stole a sidelong glance at her, surprise was not the only expression in his face.

Admiration was strongly mixed with it.

"Tell me where we are going?" he asked presently, as they got clear of the town.

"To the prison by the water."

"What for?"

"They are there."

"But in prison--how came they there? In prison! Why, then, without knowing it, I have been probably twenty times within earshot of both."

"Yes."

"How came they there?--no half measures now. Surely this is the time for revealing all?"

"And now, Mr. Harkaway, I will tell you all as we walk on. The seeming mystery shall remain so no longer."

So saying, Theodora began the brief but startling narrative which follows--and which may fairly be ent.i.tled--

THE DEAD ALIVE.

"Your dear son Jack and his friend Harry Girdwood saved my life when I was in danger of drowning at sea. They brought me safely ash.o.r.e, only to fall into the hands of my remorseless companions, the mountaineers.

Ah, I see you would call them by something less gentle in sound. Well, it was a planned thing. I was the decoy, but alas! I thought but little then how soon I was to repent of my share in that evil work."

"Go on."

"I will, to the end, even though you should learn to loathe me. Well, a price was put on their heads."

"Which I paid."

"You paid one-fifth."

"No, no; I paid all, as demanded."

"Hunston returned to the camp with only one hundred pounds, and they voted the death of the two boys. Poor boys! both brave boys. The bravest veteran on the battlefield never faced death with the heroic calmness of those two young heroes, sir."

"Bless you for those words, my girl," exclaimed the gratified Harkaway.

"I am proud of my dear boy."

"I demanded their release--I implored--I begged--I prayed in the most abject terms. But they had felt the weight of your hand too often. They and theirs had suffered so much that I was powerless. I could only obtain one small concession."

"Say on, say on!" exclaimed Harkaway. "What was that? I burn with eagerness to know more of my dear boys."

"I was to do the last sad honours to the n.o.ble dead. Three were to be executed; one of themselves, a traitor called Lirico. By dissimulating to Hunston--the viper! how I tremble with horror at the very name--I obtained one concession--Lirico was the first to suffer, the boys were to follow."

"Oh, Hunston! villain!" groaned Harkaway, "villain!"

"The execution took place at daybreak. I waited on the firing party.

When the wretched Lirico was dealt upon, I pa.s.sed round and gave the men to drink from a spirit keg which I had specially provided. Then, while they feasted upon the drugged spirit, I pa.s.sed round and reloaded the muskets for what they thought the final butchery."

"Well, well, do not torture me, girl. Quick, tell me the end."

"Can you not guess?"

"No, no. Quick, tell me all."

"In loading the muskets I forgot the bullets."

"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed old Jack, half-hysterically. "I see it all now, brave girl."

"The rest was no easy task. As the men fired, they fell back in the grave and simulated death, as I had instructed them overnight; and now you can understand how I saw them in the grave and yet can prove that they live."

"I do. Girl, you are brave and good; I know not how to thank you for the lives of my poor boys."

"The night before their great trial, I exacted a solemn promise from them that they would follow me to a hiding place without the least offer of resistance."

"I begin to see. But how did you contrive--"

"To get them secreted in the great prison?"

"Yes."

"You shall hear. My foster-sister is the daughter of the head gaoler.

Her lover is completely at her mercy, and he holds a superior post in the prison. It was the only condition upon which I could spare the brave boys' lives, and so they were forced to yield."