The Car of Destiny 17 – Williamson · Verses Across
Literature · Romance
The Car of Destiny 17Like a Thief in the Night
18
Literature · Romance
The Car of Destiny 17
Like a Thief in the Night
WilliamsonEnglish
No longer did the Duke desire our company. He had played his little comedy of good-fellowship, and it was over, though it had not ended according to his hopes. The grey car did its forty-horse best to outdistance us on the way to Madrid, but the road—so good that perhaps we lost nothing in the detour to the Escurial—distributed its favours evenly. We kept close on the Lecomte’s flying heels until one of our four cylinders went to sleep, and Ropes had to get down and wake it up by testing the ignition.
Some fellow-motorists would have turned to offer help, but the Lecomte was ever a Levite where we were concerned; and when we were ready to go on, the grey car was not even a speck in the distance. Luckily, however, there was little or no doubt where its occupants would put up.
Though the Madrid house of the Carmonas had been burned down ten years ago (since when the Duchess had made her home at the old palace in Seville), there was scarcely a Continental paper which had not described the splendours of the Duke’s apartment in one of the finest modern flat-houses of Madrid. Naturally, he would entertain his mother and guests there, so that it would be difficult to slip away with them unknown to us.
The thing I did not know was, how long he meant to stay in the capital; but as he must show Seville in Holy Week, and later perhaps other places in the south of Spain, to Lady Vale-Avon and Monica before their return to Madrid for the Royal Wedding, it was almost certain that he would go on in a couple of days.
The O’Donnels recommended to us the Hotel Inglés, the best Spanish hotel in Madrid, as well as the most amusing, and it was with a heart comparatively light that I looked forward to a first sight of my country’s capital. How would it compare with Paris, with Vienna, with London? What adventures awaited me there? What was to be the next pass in this queer duel with Carmona?
But I need not have searched for comparisons. As we rushed into Madrid without threading through any suburbs,—since suburbs the city has none,—I discovered that it bore no resemblance to any other place.
We flashed from open country to a shady park, set about with buvettes and beer gardens; ran through a massive gateway, and were in the heart of Madrid. Electric trams whizzed confusingly round us, and far above the hubbub of such traffic loomed proudly a hill crowned with an enormous palace. There was no need to ask if it were the royal palace, for it was essentially Royal, a house worthy of a king.
My father had fought to put Don Carlos there—Don Carlos, far away now in Venice; but with all my admiration for his brave son Don Jaime, my sympathies flowed loyally towards the young dweller on those heights.
We swept under and round the palace hill, as Colonel O’Donnel directed. In spite of his instructions, however, Dick lost the way twice, plunging into wrong turnings; but the second time he did this it seemed that San Cristóbal—whose medal now adorned our Gloria and shaped our destinies—must have twisted the steering-wheel. There, before the door of an official building guarded by sentries, panted the grey car of Carmona; and among its passengers Carmona alone was absent.
“That’s the Ministry of War,” said the Cherub, and with a quick thought I asked Dick to slow down. Taking advantage of her son’s late cordiality, I spoke to the Duchess.
“We thought we had lost you,” said I airily. “I hope nothing’s wrong, that you stop here?”
“Not in the least, thank you,” coldly replied the Duchess.
But Monica spoke up bravely. “The Duke didn’t tell us why he wanted to go in. He only said he wouldn’t keep us many minutes. Señorita O’Donnel, shall you be in Madrid long?”
“Only a few days,” said Pilar. “And you?”
“We shall be here again at the time of the wedding,” Monica answered quickly; “so I believe the Duke and Duchess will—”
“It is undecided,” Lady Vale-Avon cut in before the girl could make us a present of Carmona’s plans. “We may take some excursions. As there’s a fine road to Barcelona, we may go there and to Montserrat; and the Duke has said something about Bilbao—”
“But, Mother, surely we’re going to Seville for Holy Week!” cried Monica.
“There’s no reason why we should arrive before Maundy Thursday,” replied Lady Vale-Avon, hiding annoyance. “But isn’t that the Duke coming out? I hope he won’t be long. It’s windy here, and you have a cold coming on, my dear Duchess.”
We were dismissed; and raising our hats again we drove on, Pilar waving a small, encouraging hand to Monica. “They won’t do any of those things,” said the Spanish girl. “Something tells me they mean to start for Seville as soon as they can.”
“Something tells me so too,” said I. “And something tells me that Carmona’s errand at the Ministry of War is to find out whether Lieutenant Cristóbal O’Donnel y Alvarez is really away from Burgos on leave.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” murmured the Cherub. “But the thought will not bring a grey hair. Cristóbal is on leave; and he told his brother officers that he expected to go with his family to Seville. It was at the last minute that his plans were changed. No one was taken into his confidence; and it will be very negligent of San Cristóbal to let him meet in Biarritz any common acquaintance of his and Carmona’s.”
“I’m putting my faith in San Cristóbal,” said I. “But as he has a good deal to attend to, the less I show myself in Madrid, where my adopted brother must be known, the better.”
“He hasn’t been as often here as Pilar and I,” said the Cherub, “so he knows few people. Still, Cristóbal’s uniform should now be put away, and Cristóbal should wear civilian clothes.”
“He certainly will,” I answered, laughing. And Colonel O’Donnel gave himself up to directing Dick which way to go, as we were in the most crowded centre now, close to the Puerta del Sol.
This big, open space, shaped like a parallelogram, walled by hotels, Government buildings, and shops, struck me as a Spanish combination of Piccadilly Circus and the Mansion House, thrown into one. Ten busy streets poured their traffic into the place; intricate lines of tramways converged there. The pavements were crowded with loungers who had the air of never doing anything but lounge, and wait for excitements. There was much coming and going of leisurely pedestrians, talking and laughing, all classes mingling together; men in silk hats on the way to their clubs chatting with men in capas and grey sombreros, who belonged to very different clubs; smart officers in uniform shoulder to shoulder with bull-fighters whose little twisted pigtails of black hair appeared under their tilted hats; ragged but handsome beggars thinking themselves as good, if not as fortunate, as their brothers in broadcloth; merry boys shouting the evening papers, black-eyed women and men selling cheap but colourful jewelry, post-cards, toys, and marvellous sweets. It was as gay a scene as could be found in any capital, and it seemed to me that this absolute democracy was after all the true note of modern Spain. Whatever else we may be, we never have been, never will be a nation of snobs, we Spaniards whose favourite saint is the peasant Isidro.
Steering cautiously through the throng which scarcely troubled itself to move before us, we took one of the main arteries leading out from the Puerta del Sol (where no sign of a gate was to be seen), and turned into the deep blue shadows of the Calle Echegaray to our hotel.
Already I had discovered that it is not the habit of Spanish landlords to descend from the important first floor to the unimportant ground floor and welcome their guests. They are glad to have you come if you choose, but they do not care if you stop away, for there are plenty of others; and whether you are cousin to the King of England or an American millionaire, or a Spanish commercial traveller, very timid and just starting in business, you will be given the same reception, unless you put on “proud airs,” when you will be shown that you had better go elsewhere. But with an old friend, all is different; everyone welcomed the Cherub and the señorita; for their sakes everyone welcomed Dick and me. I was vaguely introduced as a relative—no name given; no name, in the flurry of greeting, asked; for Spain is not like France or Germany, where the first thing to do is to write down all particulars about yourself on a piece of paper.
Ropes drove the car off to a garage, and we were shown to rooms which made us realize that we had left the provinces behind and come into the capital.
“Thank goodness I shall have a pillow to sleep on to-night,” said Dick, “instead of doing the carved-knight-on-a-marble-tomb act. I looked particularly at the two neat, rounded blocks those chaps in Burgos Cathedral had to rest their heads on, and the alleged pillows on my bed were an exact copy, hardness and all.”
“I like them hard,” said I.
“That’s right! Stand up for Spanish institutions.”
“There’s one anyhow I don’t think you’d run down,” I remarked.
“Which one?”
“Spanish girls.”
We dined in great spirits that evening, in the big scarlet and gold restaurant; and in rich, red Marqués de Riscal Dick drank confusion to the Duque de Carmona. The Cherub had told us where Carmona’s flat was situated, saying that his car would perhaps be kept under the same roof with his carriage and the state coach.
The company was interesting to watch. Leoncavallo had as a guest the famous ex-bull-fighter Mazzantini; a Russian prince entertained several beauties of the Opera; and there were two or three politicians greatly in the public eye. We were hungry; the dinner was good; there was much to talk over; and all seemed to be going well.
But about half-past ten, when Pilar had gone, and the Cherub was having a “yarn” and a cigar in the sitting-room of our suite; Ropes appeared, looking serious.
“Something bad has happened, sir; and I blame myself,” said he.
“Something wrong with the car,” I asked quickly.
“Something out of the car, sir,” he amended. “The main shaft of the change-speed gear.”
“Impossible!” said I. “A car can’t go along dropping her gearing, as a woman drops her purse!”
“No, sir. But she can, so to speak, have her pocket picked. After all that’s come and gone, I ought to have kept my eyes open.”
“Out with it, my good chap,” said I; “don’t try to break it to us.”
“It’s the car that’s broken into, sir. I found the garage all right, left her safe and sound, came back here, but after dinner thought I’d go round again to tinker a bit at the car in case of an early start to-morrow. When I got to the place there were three new fellows on duty, and they seemed astonished when they saw I intended to work on the Gloria. The chauffeur who looked after that car had been in, they said; and you can believe, sir, I pricked up my ears. He’d been working like a demon, said they, opening the gear-box and dismounting the main shaft. Then he went off with it over his shoulder, after telling the foreman his master wouldn’t believe the pinions were so worn there ought to be a new set, and he was going to show it to him. They were surprised, I can tell you, sir, when I said we’d been robbed, and that the thief wasn’t your chauffeur. But just then one of the old lot came in, and bore witness that I was the right man. It did seem like a bad dream, but a peep at the gear-box showed me it was real enough. I was a fool not to give somebody warning, or pay a man to stay by the car.”
“I can’t see that you had reason to be suspicious,” said I, “although it’s a rascally outrage, and makes me feel murderous. Did they describe the supposed chauffeur?”
“They did sir; and I expected to recognize the description. But I didn’t; they’re too smart for that.”
“You think we know him?”
“Sure of it, sir. Nothing easier than a bit of disguise.”
“It might be a common motor-car thief, who wanted a main shaft for a Gloria car.”
“And then again, sir, it mightn’t.”
“Anyhow,” said I, “the thing to do would be to apply to the police, have the ruffian run to earth and arrested, no matter what his position. The worst of it is, though, I’m not anxious to have the eye of the Spanish police turned upon me, and there are those who count on that fact.”
“Wouldn’t I like to smash their heads for this! Wouldn’t I like to smash their car!” growled Dick.
“No. That would be playing it too low down,” said I.
Ropes coloured under his sunburnt skin, and began to search for non-existent dust on the leather cap in his hand.
“You’re right, sir, no doubt,” he said, in a meek voice.
I was half sorry that he, or anyone, should agree with me. It seemed somehow as if my chauffeur were taking this monstrous thing too coolly. “Well, the fact remains that we’re done,” I said, with suppressed fury. “If the Duke of Carmona has had a hand in this act, it’s a sign that he means to get off while we’re held up waiting for a new shaft and pinions to arrive—probably all the way from Paris. He can go to-morrow—”
“Beg pardon, sir; he can’t, not in his own car,” said Ropes. “If we can’t leave, no more can’t he.”
“Why, what have you done?” I tried to speak sternly.
“Oh, next to nothing, sir. A bit of a touch on his magneto ignition, and a tickling of his coil, just enough to keep him in hospital till he’s doctored up.”
Rope’s expression was so childlike that Dick and I burst out laughing. “You demon!” I said. “How did you get at the car?”
“Much the same as they did at ours, though I don’t pretend to be as clever as some. I said to myself, as this car of the Duke’s is new, and he doesn’t drive it himself, chances are he’s never had a motor before, and wouldn’t have a garage in Madrid, though he does live here part of the year and must have fine stables. I inquired what was the best garage besides ours, and strolled round, thinking the chauffeur would have gone straight to the Duke with his news. I found the place, and all the chaps were standing outside open doors, watching a couple of dogs having a fight. I walked in, without a word to anyone, though I’d have said I came from the Duke if I’d had to. There was the car; and before one of those blessed dogs had chewed the other’s nose off, I’d polished up my little job. Then I came to you, feeling a bit better than a few minutes before.”
“You ought to be crushed with remorse,” said I; but I’m afraid I grinned; and Dick remarked that if he were King of England he’d give Ropes a knighthood.
“Heaven knows what the next move will be,” I commented, when the avenger had gone, not too stricken in spirit. “It begins to look as though the enemy would stick at little, and we can’t go on giving tit for tat.”
“He won’t take open action against you for the present,” said the Cherub, “as he isn’t sure you aren’t Cristóbal O’Donnel; and you’re warned if he tries to strike in the dark. He’s probably found out through the Ministry of War that Cristóbal’s on leave, so to rid himself of your company he’s resorted to the only means which occurred to him.”
“I have to thank you that he had no surer means,” I said.
“It’s the fashion in Spain, if a friend wants a thing, to tell him it is his,” replied Colonel O’Donnel. “You wanted me for a father, Pilar for a sister. I said, ‘We are yours.’ There’s not much to be thankful for. I would do ten times more for your father’s son; and my confessor’s a sympathetic man. Besides, to tell you a secret of mine which even Pilar doesn’t know, though she has most others at her finger-end, your mother was my first love. I adored her! You have her eyes!”
