Read Ebook: Count Zarka: A Romance by Magnay William Sir Greiffenhagen Maurice Illustrator

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Ebook has 1573 lines and 60667 words, and 32 pages

Von Tressen, in the glance which he could not resist, saw her face set with a peculiar look of suppressed feeling, almost of defiance. Next moment the Count was reining up in front of them. The two men raised their hats, but Zarka's eyes were upon the girl. They had probably already taken in her companion during the approach.

"Fr?ulein Harlberg," he said with a certain suavity of manner, "I just did myself the honour to call at the farm and found your father a little concerned at your long absence. Knowing the danger of losing one's way in the forest I offered to go in search of you."

"It was very good of you, Count," the girl replied almost indifferently. "But I was hardly in danger of being quite lost."

The Count now turned his attention to Von Tressen, looking at him with a peculiar wolfish smile, which was at the same time no smile at all, but just the mask of one. "I see, Fr?ulein, you have already found an efficient escort. You have been shooting in the forest, mein Herr?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Unfortunately?" The Count took up the word quickly, with a snap, as it were, and glanced with a smile of protest at the girl.

"Most unfortunately," the Lieutenant repeated. "I have unhappily hit the Fr?ulein."

Again Zarka echoed his words, drawing back his lips into an expression of incredulity.

"It is nothing," the girl said a little impatiently.

But it had occurred to Von Tressen that it would be just as well to mention the accident. Zarka looked to him the man inevitably to find it out; besides which it seemed due to the girl that their chance acquaintanceship should be accounted for.

"The Fr?ulein is good enough to make light of it," he said. "But it is desirable that a doctor should see her hand without delay. Therefore, perhaps, the Herr Graf will pardon me if I suggest that we move on."

The Herr Graf did not look exactly in a pardoning mood, although the suave smile was still on his face. He wheeled his horse. "I will do myself the pleasure of bearing you company to the Meierhof," he said in a tone which had in it less of a suggestion than a determination. "Perhaps then I may be allowed to ride into Kulhausen for a doctor. It will be quickest."

As he spoke he felt a pressure on his arm. The girl had given him a warning touch. Zarka signified by an indifferent bow that he accepted Von Tressen's suggestion. But his face grew a shade darker as Fr?ulein Harlberg said:

"There is really no hurry. We can easily send from the farm. My father will naturally think it right, Herr Lieutenant, that you should come and make his acquaintance."

The Count gave a tolerant smile, which probably served to mask some darker expression, and the three went on together a short half-mile to the house, Zarka chatting volubly and Von Tressen wondering why the girl had so manifestly objected to his leaving them.

A MOMENTOUS MEETING

Gorla's Meierhof, or Grange, was a picturesque house which had been converted into a kind of shooting-box from a farmhouse, which, in turn, had been adapted from the ruins of an ancient building left centuries before by the Turks. It was a rough and primitive abode, but one which in that wild country would be considered comfortable enough and a not undesirable summer mountain residence, situated as it was on the fringe of the vast hill forests and commanding a view along the great sweep of the valley.

As the three approached the house they saw a man sitting before it smoking and reading a newspaper. At the sound of their voices he turned his head, then rose and sauntered to meet them. He was small but well set-up, somewhat dandified even in the loose lounging suit he wore; there was a good deal of the town man, Von Tressen thought, in his appearance and manner, and, what struck him forcibly, a decided military air in his carriage. This rather surprised him, for had the other been a soldier he would surely at his age have borne a high military title, whereas the Count had distinctly alluded to him more than once as plain Herr Harlberg. But that he had seen enough soldiering to have acquired a manifest military bearing was to the Lieutenant's mind a certainty.

"At last!" Harlberg exclaimed, a little peevishly Von Tressen thought. "My dear Philippa, where have you been wandering?"

"Not so far, father," she answered, with a laugh, and she introduced Von Tressen, who had been the object of his rather suspicious scrutiny.

The accident was related and the Lieutenant's apologies accepted not ungraciously; the Count, who had dismounted and led his horse up the ascent to the house, standing in silence with his lips drawn back in the inevitable smile. At length he spoke, and it was to the purpose.

"The Herr Lieutenant has most kindly offered to ride into Kulhausen for a doctor to see Fr?ulein Philippa's hand. Dare one suggest that the sooner it is professionally examined the better it will be?"

"There is no hurry; it hardly pains at all," the girl protested.

For an instant the expression on the Count's sharp face was not a pretty one. But he replied merely by a shrug of mingled protest and annoyance.

"Certainly. I am going at once," Von Tressen said, watching the girl's face involuntarily for a sign. "I only came so far, sir," he added to Harlberg, "at the desire of the Fr?ulein, who was good enough to express a wish to present me to you."

"But how will you get to Kulhausen?" Harlberg asked, with what seemed to the young man a rather too suggestive glance at the Count's horse.

Anyhow Zarka accepted it with some alacrity. "If the Lieutenant will honour me by making use of my horse, it will be the quickest way, and I shall be only too charmed."

As he turned to the animal to bring him over, Von Tressen instinctively glanced at the girl. She was biting her lip, and as their eyes met she gave a little, almost imperceptible, shake of the head.

"The Herr Lieutenant," she said, "tells us he also has a horse close by. If he is kind enough to ride over to Kulhausen it would be perhaps a pity to deprive the Count of his means of getting home."

He brought the horse round for Von Tressen to mount. But the hint had not been lost.

"I could not think of inconveniencing the Count," he objected resolutely. "And it is absurd when my own horse is so near." He made as though to move off. Zarka for a moment forgot his somewhat oppressive politeness.

"It is waste of time, man!" he hissed rather than spoke. "Take the horse; he will carry you well."

But the other was resolved he would not be forced. He could not quite guess the reason of the girl's anxiety, but he did not like the Count, and could understand that he might not be singular in his antipathy.

Zarka smoothed the strong muscles of his expressive face.

"An obstinate young Bursche," he observed spitefully. "I hope the dangers of our forest are not to be increased by these mad marksmen."

"It was entirely my own fault that he fired and hit me," the girl said emphatically, as though annoyed at his tone. "You, Count, or any other sportsman, would have fired under the same provocation."

The Count could smile again; he had evidently quite recovered his equanimity. "Then I can only congratulate myself that I was not in a position to inflict harm on you," he returned. "You are not going, Fr?ulein?" for, with a slight bow as disdaining further argument, she had turned towards the house.

"Yes. I am tired with my long walk. I bid you good-evening, Count." And she left them.

The two men did not speak till she was out of earshot. Then Harlberg remarked:

Zarka gave a shrug. "It is nothing. The Lieutenant is of no account and an unsuspecting"--soldier, he was going to say, but substituted--"young swaggerer. I shall keep my eye on him. I gather that he is camping in the forest alone."

"I hope he likes it," Harlberg said wearily. "I find it dull enough."

The Count laughed unsympathetically. "You miss the K?nigstrasse, my friend. Patience! It will not be for long. The grass will soon have grown over this excitement."

"You have heard no news?"

"Hush!" Harlberg held up a silencing hand.

"Oh, it is all safe here," Zarka laughed in his masterful fashion. "There is no one to overhear us. You may trust me not to make a slip at the wrong time. I shall see you to-morrow, and, I hope, Fr?ulein Philippa."

So with a sweeping glance at the house he mounted and rode off.

Harlberg went in and, lighting a fresh cigar, took up a novel and proceeded to make himself as comfortable as the place permitted. He had scarcely settled himself in the easiest chair the room afforded when his step-daughter came in.

"The Count has gone?" she asked.

"It was hardly a question of his being a bad shot," the girl replied indifferently. "He could see nothing to aim at except the movement of my hand, and he hit that."

"It is unfortunate."

"No; the wound is absurdly slight."

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