第58章

"When the winter came they used to take me out with chains on my legs to gather in wood from the forest.There was no reason why Ishould be given this work, but the truth was, as I discovered from Salvolio, that Kara thought my dungeon was too warm.It was sheltered from the winds by the hill behind and even on the coldest days and nights it was not unbearable.Then Kara went away for some time.I think he must have gone to England, and he came back in a white fury.One of his big plans had gone wrong and the mental torture he inflicted upon me was more acute than ever.

"In the old days he used to come once a weeks now he came almost every day.He usually arrived in the afternoon and I was surprised one night to be awakened from my sleep to see him standing at the door, a lantern in his hand, his inevitable cigarette in his mouth.He always wore the Albanian costume when he was in the country, those white kilted skirts and zouave jackets which the hillsmen affect and, if anything, it added to his demoniacal appearance.He put down the lantern and leant against the wall.

"'I'm afraid that wife of yours is breaking up, Lexman,' he drawled; 'she isn't the good, stout, English stuff that I thought she was.'

"I made no reply.I had found by bitter experience that if Iintruded into the conversation, I should only suffer the more.

"'I have sent down to Durazzo to get a doctor,' he went on;'naturally having taken all this trouble I don't want to lose you by death.She is breaking up,' he repeated with relish and yet with an undertone of annoyance in his voice; "she asked for you three times this morning.'

"I kept myself under control as I had never expected that a man so desperately circumstanced could do.

"'Kara,' I said as quietly as I could, 'what has she done that she should deserve this hell in which she has lived?'

"He sent out a long ring of smoke and watched its progress across the dungeon.

"'What has she done?' he said, keeping his eye on the ring - Ishall always remember every look, every gesture, and every intonation of his voice.'Why, she has done all that a woman can do for a man like me.She has made me feel little.Until I had a rebuff from her, I had all the world at my feet, Lexman.I did as I liked.If I crooked my little finger, people ran after me and that one experience with her has broken me.Oh, don't think,' he went on quickly, 'that I am broken in love.I never loved her very much, it was just a passing passion, but she killed my self-confidence.After then, whenever I came to a crucial moment in my affairs, when the big manner, the big certainty was absolutely necessary for me to carry my way, whenever I was most confident of myself and my ability and my scheme, a vision of this damned girl rose and I felt that momentary weakening, that memory of defeat, which made all the difference between success and failure.

"'I hated her and I hate her still,' he said with vehemence; 'if she dies I shall hate her more because she will remain everlastingly unbroken to menace my thoughts and spoil my schemes through all eternity.'

"He leant forward, his elbows on his knees, his clenched fist under his chin - how well I can see him! - and stared at me.

"'I could have been king here in this land,' he said, waving his hand toward the interior, 'I could have bribed and shot my way to the throne of Albania.Don't you realize what that means to a man like me? There is still a chance and if I could keep your wife alive, if I could see her broken in reason and in health, a poor, skeleton, gibbering thing that knelt at my feet when I came near her I should recover the mastery of myself.Believe me,' he said, nodding his head, 'your wife will have the best medical advice that it is possible to obtain.'

"Kara went out and I did not see him again for a very long time.

He sent word, just a scrawled note in the morning, to say my wife had died."John Lexman rose up from his seat, and paced the apartment, his head upon his breast.

"From that moment," he said, "I lived only for one thing, to punish Remington Kara.And gentlemen, I punished him."He stood in the centre of the room and thumped his broad chest with his clenched hand.

"I killed Remington Kara," he said, and there was a little gasp of astonishment from every man present save one.That one was T.X.

Meredith, who had known all the time.