The Black Moth Read online

  Curiously, enough, it was on his penniless days in France that his mind dwelt this evening. He had resolutely thrust that dark time behind him, determined to forget it, but there were still days when, try as he might, he could not prevent his thoughts flying back to it.

  With clenched teeth he recalled the days when he, the son of an Earl, had taught fencing in Paris for a living… Suddenly he laughed harshly, and at the unusual sound the mare pricked up her ears and sidled uneasily across the road. For once no notice was taken of her, and she quickened her pace with a flighty toss of her head…

  He thought how he, the extravagant John, had pinched and scraped and saved rather than go under; how he had lived in one of the poorer quartiers of the city, alone, without friends – nameless.

  Then, cynically now, he reviewed the time when he had taken to drinking, heavily and systematically, and had succeeded in pulling himself up at the very brink of the pit he saw yawning before him.

  Next the news of his mother’s death… John passed over that quickly. Even now the thought of it had the power of rousing in him all the old misery and impotent resentment.

  His mind sped on to his Italian days. On his savings he had travelled to Florence, and from there he went gradually south, picking up all the latest arts and subtleties of fence on the way.

  The change of scene and of people did much to restore his spirits. His devil-may-care ways peeped out again; he started to gamble on the little money he had left. For once Fortune proved kind; he doubled and trebled and quadrupled the contents of his purse. Then it was that he met Jim Salter, whom he engaged as his servant. This was the first friend since he had left England. Together they travelled about Europe, John gambling his way, Jim keeping a relentless hand on the exchequer. It was entirely owing to his watchfulness and care that John was not ruined, for his luck did not always hold good, and there were days when he lost with distressing steadiness. But Jim guarded the winnings jealously, and there was always something to fall back on.

  At last the longing for England and English people grew so acute that John made up his mind to return. But he found that things in England were very different from what they had been abroad. Here he was made to feel acutely that he was outcast. It was impossible to live in town under an assumed name, as he would like to have done, for too many people knew Jack Carstares, and would remember him. He saw that he must either live secluded, or – and the idea of becoming a highwayman occurred to him. A hermit’s existence he knew to be totally unsuited to a man of his temperament, but the free, adventurous spirit of the road appealed to him. The finding of his mare – J. the Third, as he laughingly dubbed her – decided the point; he forthwith took on himself the rôle of quixotic highwayman, roaming his beloved South Country, happier than he had been since he first left England; bit by bit regaining his youth and spirits, which last, not all the trouble he had been through had succeeded in extinguishing…

  Clip-clop, clip-clop… With a jerk he came back to earth and reined-in his mare, the better to listen.

  Along the road came the unmistakable sound of horses’ hoofs, and the scrunch-scrunch of swiftly-revolving wheels on the sandy surface.

  But now the moon was right out, but owing to the fact that she was playing at hide-and-seek in and out of the clouds, it was fairly dark. Nevertheless, Jack fastened his mask over his face with quick, deft fingers, and pulled his hat well over his eyes. His ears told him that the vehicle, whatever it was, was coming towards him, so he drew into the side of the road, and taking a pistol from its holster, sat waiting, his eyes on the bend in the road.

  Nearer and nearer came the horses, until the leader swung round the corner. Carstares saw that it was an ordinary travelling chariot, and levelled his pistol.

  ‘Halt, or I fire!’ He had to repeat the command before it was heard, and to ride out from the shadow of the hedge.

  The chariot drew up and the coachman leaned over the side to see who it was bidding them to stop in so peremptory a manner.

  ‘What d’ye want? Who are ye? Is there aught amiss?’ he cried testily, and found himself staring at a long-nosed pistol.

  ‘Throw down your arms!’

  ‘I ain’t got none, blast ye!’

  ‘On your honour?’ Jack dismounted.

  ‘Ay! Wish I had, and I’d see ye damned afore I’d throw ’em down!’

  At this moment the door of the coach opened and a gentleman leapt lightly down on to the road. He was big and loose-limbed as far as Carstares could see, and carried himself with an easy grace.

  My lord presented his pistol.

  ‘Stand!’ he ordered gruffly.

  The moon peeped coyly out from behind a cloud and shed her light upon the little group as if to see what all the fuss was about. The big man’s face in the shadow, but Jack’s pistol was not. Into its muzzle the gentleman gazed, one hand deep in the pocket of his heavy cloak, the other holding a small pistol.

  ‘Me very dear friend,’ he said in a rich brogue, ‘perhaps ye are not aware that that same pistol ye are pointing at me is unloaded? Don’t move; I have ye covered!’

  Jack’s arm fell to his side, and the pistol he held clattered to the ground. But it was not surprise at Jim’s defection that caused him that violent start. It was something far more overwhelming. For the voice that proceeded from the tall gentleman belonged to one whom, six years ago, he had counted, next to Richard, his greatest friend on earth.

  The man moved a little, and the moonlight shone full on his face, clearly outlining the large nose and good-humoured mouth, and above, the sleepy grey eyes. Miles! Miles O’Hara! For once Jack could find nothing amusing in the situation. It was too inconceivably hideous that he should meet his friend in this guise, and, further, be unable to reveal himself. A great longing to tear off his mask and to grasp Miles’ hand assailed him. With an effort he choked it down and listened to what O’Hara was saying:

  ‘If ye will be so kind as to give me your word of honour ye’ll not be afther trying to escape, I should be greatly obliged. But I tell ye first that if ye attempt to move, I shall shoot.’

  Jack made a hopeless gesture with his hand. He felt dazed. The whole thing was ridiculous; how Miles would laugh afterwards. He went cold. There would be no ‘afterwards’… Miles would never know… He would be given over to the authorities, and Miles would never know that he had helped Jack Carstares to the scaffold… Perhaps, too, he would not mind so very much, now that he, Jack, was so disgraced. One could never tell; even if he risked everything now, and told his true identity, Miles might turn away from him in disgust, Miles, who could never stoop to a dishonourable act. Carstares felt that he would bear anything sooner than face this man’s scorn…

  ‘Never tell me ’tis a dumb man ye are, for I heard ye shout meself! Do ye give me your word of honour, or must I have ye bound?’

  Carstares pulled himself together and set his teeth as he faced the inevitable. Escape was impossible; Miles would shoot, he felt sure, and then his disguise would be torn away and his friend would see that Jack Carstares was nothing but a common highwayman. Whatever happened, that must not be, for the sake of the name and Richard. So he quietly held out his hands.

  ‘Ay, I give you my word, but ye can bind me if ye choose.’ It was his highwayman voice: raucous, and totally unlike his own.

  But O’Hara’s eyes were fixed on the slender white hands held out to him. In his usual haphazard fashion, Jack had quite forgotten to grime his hands. They were shapely and white, and carefully manicured.

  Miles took either wrist in his large hands and turned them palm upwards in the moonlight.

  ‘Singularly white hands ye have, for one in your profession,’ he drawled, and tightened his hold as Jack tried to draw them away. ‘No, ye do not! Now be so good as to step within, me friend.’

  Jack held back an instant.

  ‘My mare?’ he asked, and O’Ha