The Call of the Blood

R >> Robert Smythe Hichens >> The Call of the Blood

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But then he told himself that perhaps he was being led by his
imagination. He had thought that possible yesterday. To-day, after what
had occurred, he thought it less likely. This sudden death seemed to tell
him that his mind had been walking in the right track. Left alone in
Sicily, Delarey might have run wild. He might have gone too far. This
death might be a vengeance.

Artois was deeply interested in all human happenings, but he was not a
vulgarly curious man. He was not curious now, he was only afraid for
Hermione. He longed to protect her from any further grief. If there were
a dreadful truth to know, and if, by knowing it, he could guard her more
efficiently, he wished to know it. But his instinct was to get her away
from Sicily at once, directly the funeral was over and the necessary
arrangements could be made. For himself, he would rather go in ignorance.
He did not wish to add to the heavy burden of his remorse.

There came at this moment a knock at his door.

"Avanti!" he said.

The waiter of the hotel came in.

"Signore," he said. "The poor signora is here."

"In the hotel?"

"Si, signore. They have taken the body of the signore to the hospital.
Everybody was in the street to see it pass. And now the poor signora has
come here. She has taken the rooms above you on the little terrace."

"The signora is going to stay here?"

"Si, signore. They say, if the Signor Pretore allows after the inquiry is
over, the funeral will be to-morrow."

Artois looked at the man closely. He was a young fellow, handsome and
gentler-looking than are most Sicilians. Artois wondered what the people
of Marechiaro were saying. He knew how they must be gossiping on such an
occasion. And then it was summer, when they have little or nothing to do,
no forestieri to divide their attentions and to call their ever-ready
suspicions in various directions. The minds of the whole community must
undoubtedly be fixed upon this tragic episode and its cause.

"If the Pretore allows?" Artois said. "But surely there can be no
difficulty? The poor signore fell from the rock and was drowned."

"Si, signore."

The man stood there. Evidently he was anxious to talk.

"The Signor Pretore has gone down to the place now, signore, with the
Cancelliere and the Maresciallo. They have taken Gaspare with them."

"Gaspare!"

Artois thought of this boy, Maurice's companion during Hermione's
absence.

"Si, signore. Gaspare has to show them the exact place where he found the
poor signore."

"I suppose the inquiry will soon be over?"

"Chi lo sa?"

"Well, but what is there to do? Whom can they inquire of? It was a lonely
place, wasn't it? No one was there."

"Chi lo sa?"

"If there had been any one, surely the signore would have been rescued at
once? Did not every one here love the signore? He was like one of you,
wasn't he, one of the Sicilians?"

"Si, signore. Maddalena has been crying about the signore."

"Maddalena?"

"Si, signore, the daughter of Salvatore, the fisherman, who lives at the
Casa delle Sirene."

"Oh!"

Artois paused; then he said:

"Were she and her--Salvatore is her father, you say?"

"Her father, signore."

"Were they at the Casa delle Sirene yesterday?"

Artois spoke quietly, almost carelessly, as if merely to say something,
but without special intention.

"Maddalena was here in the town with her relations. And they say
Salvatore is at Messina. This morning Maddalena went home. She was
crying. Every one saw her crying for the signore."

"That is very natural if she knew him."

"Oh yes, signore, she knew him. Why, they were all at the fair of San
Felice together only the day before."

"Then, of course, she would cry."

"Si, signore."

The man put his hand on the door.

"If the signora wishes to see me at any time I am here," said Artois.
"But, of course, I shall not disturb her. But if I can do anything to
help her--about the funeral, for instance--"

"The signora is giving all the directions now. The poor signore is to be
buried in the high part of the Campo Santo by the wall. Those who are not
Catholics are buried there, and the poor signore was not a Catholic. What
a pity!"

"Thank you, Ferdinando."

The man went out slowly, as if he were reluctant to stop the
conversation.

So the villagers were beginning to gossip already! Ferdinando had not
said so, but Artois knew his Sicily well enough to read the silences that
had made significant his words. Maddalena had been crying for the
signore. Everybody had seen Maddalena crying for the signore. That was
enough. By this time the village would be in a ferment, every woman at
her door talking it over with her next-door neighbor, every man in the
Piazza, or in one of the wine-shops.

Maddalena--a Sicilian girl--weeping, and Delarey's body found among the
rocks at night in a lonely place close to her cottage. Artois divined
something of the truth and hated himself the more. The blood, the
Sicilian blood in Delarey, had called to him in the sunshine when he was
left alone, and he had, no doubt, obeyed the call. How far had he gone?
How strongly had he been governed? Probably Artois would never know. Long
ago he had prophesied, vaguely perhaps, still he had prophesied. And now
had he not engineered perhaps the fulfilment of his own prophecy?

But at all costs Hermione must be spared any knowledge of that
fulfilment.

He longed to go to her and to guard her door against the Sicilians. But
surely in such a moment they would not speak to her of any suspicions, of
any certainties, even if they had them. She would surely be the last
person to hear anything, unless--he thought of the "authorities"--of the
Pretore, the Cancelliere, the Maresciallo, and suddenly it occurred to
him to ride down to the sea. If the inquiry had yielded any terrible
result he might do something to protect Hermione. If not, he might be
able to prepare her. She must not receive any coarse shock from these
strangers in the midst of her agony.

He got his hat, opened his door, and went quietly down-stairs. He did not
wish to see Hermione before he went. Perhaps he would return with his
mind relieved of its heaviest burden, and then at least he could meet her
eyes without a furtive guilt in his.

At the foot of the stairs he met Ferdinando.

"Can you get me a donkey, Ferdinando?" he said.

"Si, signore."

"I don't want a boy. Just get me a donkey, and I shall go for a short
ride. You say the signora has not asked for me?"

"No, signore."

"If she does, explain to her that I have gone out, as I did not like to
disturb her."

Hermione might think him heartless to go out riding at such a time. He
would risk that. He would risk anything to spare her the last, the
nameless agony that would be hers if what he suspected were true, and she
were to learn of it, to know that all these people round her knew it.

That Hermione should be outraged, that the sacredness of her despair
should be profaned, and the holiness of her memories utterly
polluted--Artois felt he would give his life willingly to prevent that.

When the donkey came he set off at once. He had drawn his broad-brimmed
hat down low over his pale face, and he looked neither to right nor left,
as he was carried down the long and narrow street, followed by the
searching glances of the inhabitants, who, as he had surmised, were all
out, engaged in eager conversation, and anxiously waiting for the return
of the Pretore and his assistants, and the announcement of the result of
the autopsy. His appearance gave them a fresh topic to discuss. They fell
upon it like starveling dogs on a piece of offal found in the gutter.

Once out of the village, Artois felt a little safer, a little easier; but
he longed to be in the train with Hermione, carrying her far from the
chance of that most cruel fate in life--the fate of disillusion, of the
loss of holy belief in the truth of one beloved.

When presently he reached the high-road by Isola Bella he encountered the
fisherman, Giuseppe, who had spent the night at the Casa del Prete.

"Are you going to see the place where the poor signore was found,
signore?" asked the man.

"Si," said Artois. "I was his friend. I wish to see the Pretore, to hear
how it happened. Can I? Are they there, he and the others?"

"They are in the Casa delle Sirene, signore. They are waiting to see if
Salvatore comes back this morning from Messina."

"And his daughter? Is she there?"

"Si, signore. But she knows nothing. She was in the village. She can
only cry. She is crying for the poor signore."

Again that statement. It was becoming a refrain in the ears of Artois.

"Gaspare is angry with her," added the fisherman. "I believe he would
like to kill her."

"It makes him sad to see her crying, perhaps," said Artois. "Gaspare
loved the signore."

He saluted the fisherman and rode on. But the man followed and kept by
his side.

"I will take you across in a boat, signore," he said.

"Grazie."

Artois struck the donkey and made it trot on in the dust.

Giuseppe rowed him across the inlet and to the far side of the Sirens'
Isle, from which the little path wound upward to the cottage. Here, among
the rocks, a boat was moored.

"Ecco, signore!" cried Giuseppe. "Salvatore has come back from Messina!
Here is his boat!"

Artois felt a pang of anxiety, of regret. He wished he had been there
before the fisherman had returned. As he got out of the boat he said:

"Did Salvatore know the signore well?"

"Si, signore. The poor signore used to go out fishing with Salvatore.
They say in the village that he gave Salvatore much money."

"The signore was generous to every one."

"Si, signore. But he did not give donkeys to every one."

"Donkeys? What do you mean, Giuseppe?"

"He gave Salvatore a donkey, a fine donkey. He bought it at the fair of
San Felice."

Artois said no more. Slowly, for he was still very weak, and the heat was
becoming fierce as the morning wore on, he walked up the steep path and
came to the plateau before the Casa delle Sirene.

A group of people stood there: the Pretore, the Cancelliere, the
Maresciallo, Gaspare, and Salvatore. They seemed to be in strong
conversation, but directly Artois appeared there was a silence, and they
all turned and stared at him as if in wonder. Then Gaspare came forward
and took off his hat.

The boy looked haggard with grief, and angry and obstinate, desperately
obstinate.

"Signore," he said. "You know my padrone! Tell them--"

But the Pretore interrupted him with an air of importance.

"It is my duty to make an inquiry," he said. "Who is this signore?"

Artois explained that he was an intimate friend of the signora and had
known her husband before his marriage.

"I have come to hear if you are satisfied, as no doubt you are, Signor
Pretore," he said, "that this terrible death was caused by an accident.
The poor signora naturally wishes that this necessary business should be
finished as soon as possible. It is unavoidable, I know, but it can only
add to her unhappiness. I am sure, signore, that you will do your best to
conclude the inquiry without delay. Forgive me for saying this. But I
know Sicily, and know that I can always rely on the chivalry of Sicilian
gentlemen where an unhappy lady is concerned."

He spoke intentionally with a certain pomp, and held his hat in his hand
while he was speaking.

The Pretore looked pleased and flattered.

"Certainly, Signor Barone," he said. "Certainly. We all grieve for the
poor signora."

"You will allow me to stay?" said Artois.

"I see no objection," said the Pretore.

He glanced at the Cancelliere, a small, pale man, with restless eyes and
a pointed chin that looked like a weapon.

"Niente, niente!" said the Cancelliere, obsequiously.

He was reading Artois with intense sharpness. The Maresciallo, a broad,
heavily built man, with an enormous mustache, uttered a deep "Buon
giorno, Signor Barone," and stood calmly staring. He looked like a
magnificent bull, with his short, strong brown neck, and low-growing hair
that seemed to have been freshly crimped. Gaspare stood close to Artois,
as if he felt that they were allies and must keep together. Salvatore was
a few paces off.

Artois glanced at him now with a carefully concealed curiosity. Instantly
the fisherman said:

"Povero signorino! Povero signorino! Mamma mia! and only two days ago we
were all at the fair together! And he was so generous, Signor Barone." He
moved a little nearer, but Artois saw him glance swiftly at Gaspare, like
a man fearful of violence and ready to repel it. "He paid for everything.
We could all keep our soldi in our pockets. And he gave Maddalena a
beautiful blue dress, and he gave me a donkey. Dio mio! We have lost a
benefactor. If the poor signorino had lived he would have given me a new
boat. He had promised me a boat. For he would come fishing with me nearly
every day. He was like a compare--"

Salvatore stopped abruptly. His eyes were again on Gaspare.

"And you say," began the Pretore, with a certain heavy pomposity, "that
you did not see the signore at all yesterday?"

"No, signore. I suppose he came down after I had started for Messina."

"What did you go to Messina for?"

"Signore, I went to see my nephew, Guido, who is in the hospital. He
has--"

"Non fa niente! non fa niente!" interrupted the Cancelliere.

"Non fa niente! What time did you start?" said the Pretore.

The Maresciallo cleared his throat with great elaboration, and spat with
power twice.

"Signor Pretore, I do not know. I did not look at the clock. But it was
before sunset--it was well before sunset."

"And the signore only came down from the Casa del Prete very late,"
interposed Artois, quietly. "I was there and kept him. It was quite
evening before he started."

An expression of surprise went over Salvatore's face and vanished. He had
realized that for some reason this stranger was his ally.

"Had you any reason to suppose the signore was coming to fish with you
yesterday?" asked the Pretore of Salvatore.

"No, signore. I thought as the signora was back the poor signore would
stay with her at the house."

"Naturally, naturally!" said the Cancelliere.

"Naturally! It seems the signore had several times passed across the
rocks, from which he appears to have fallen, without any difficulty,"
remarked the Pretore.

"Si, signore," said Gaspare.

He looked at Salvatore, seemed to make a great effort, then added:

"But never when it was dark, signore. And I was always with him. He used
to take my hand."

His chest began to heave.

"Corragio, Gaspare!" said Artois to him, in a low voice.

His strong intuition enabled him to understand something of the conflict
that was raging in the boy. He had seen his glances at Salvatore, and
felt that he was longing to fly at the fisherman, that he only restrained
himself with agony from some ferocious violence.

The Pretore remained silent for a moment. It was evident that he was at
a loss. He wished to appear acute, but the inquiry yielded nothing for
the exercise of his talents.

At last he said:

"Did any one see you going to Messina? Is there any corroboration of your
statement that you started before the signore came down here?"

"Do you think I am not speaking the truth, Signor Pretore?" said
Salvatore, proudly. "Why should I lie? The poor signore was my
benefactor. If I had known he was coming I should have been here to
receive him. Why, he has eaten in my house! He has slept in my house. I
tell you we were as brothers."

"Si, si," said the Cancelliere.

Gaspare set his teeth, walked away to the edge of the plateau, and stood
looking out to sea.

"Then no one saw you?" persisted the Pretore.

"Non lo so," said Salvatore. "I did not think of such things. I wanted to
go to Messina, so I sent Maddalena to pass the night in the village, and
I took the boat. What else should I do?"

"Va bene! Va bene!" said the Cancelliere.

The Maresciallo cleared his throat again. That, and the ceremony which
invariably followed, were his only contributions to this official
proceeding.

The Pretore, receiving no assistance from his colleagues, seemed doubtful
what more to do. It was evident to Artois that he was faintly suspicious,
that he was not thoroughly satisfied about the cause of this death.

"Your daughter seems very upset about all this," he said to Salvatore.

"Mamma mia! And how should she not? Why, Signor Pretore, we loved the
poor signore. We would have thrown ourselves into the sea for him. When
we saw him coming down from the mountain to us it was as if we saw God
coming down from heaven."

"Certo! Certo!" said the Cancelliere.

"I think every one who knew the signore at all grew to be very fond of
him," said Artois, quietly. "He was greatly beloved here by every one."

His manner to the Pretore was very civil, even respectful. Evidently it
had its effect upon that personage. Every one here seemed to be assured
that this death was merely an accident, could only have been an accident.
He did not know what more to do.

"Va bene!" he said at last, with some reluctance. "We shall see what the
doctors say when the autopsy is concluded. Let us hope that nothing will
be discovered. I do not wish to distress the poor signora. At the same
time I must do my duty. That is evident."

"It seems to me you have done it with admirable thoroughness," said
Artois.

"Grazie, Signor Barone, grazie!"

"Grazie, grazie, Signor Barone!" added the Cancelliere.

"Grazie, Signor Barone!" said the deep voice of the Maresciallo.

The authorities now slowly prepared to take their departure.

"You are coming with us, Signor Barone?" said the Pretore.

Artois was about to say yes, when he saw pass across the aperture of the
doorway of the cottage the figure of a girl with bent head. It
disappeared immediately.

"That must be Maddalena!" he thought.

"Scusi, signore," he said, "but I have been seriously ill. The ride down
here has tired me, and I should be glad to rest for a few minutes longer,
if--" He looked at Salvatore.

"I will fetch a chair for the signore!" said the fisherman, quickly.

He did not know what this stranger wanted, but he felt instinctively that
it was nothing that would be harmful to him.

The Pretore and his companions, after polite inquiries as to the illness
of Artois, took their leave with many salutations. Only Gaspare remained
on the edge of the plateau staring at the sea. As Salvatore went to fetch
the chair Artois went over to the boy.

"Gaspare!" he said.

"Si!" said the boy.

"I want you to go up with the Pretore. Go to the signora. Tell her the
inquiry is finished. It will relieve her to know."

"You will come with me, signore?"

"No."

The boy turned and looked him full in the face.

"Why do you stay?"

For a moment Artois did not speak. He was considering rapidly what to
say, how to treat Gaspare. He was now sure that there had been a tragedy,
with which the people of the sirens' house were, somehow, connected. He
was sure that Gaspare either knew or suspected what had happened, yet
meant to conceal his knowledge despite his obvious hatred for the
fisherman. Was the boy's reason for this strange caution, this strange
secretiveness, akin to his--Artois's--desire? Was the boy trying to
protect his padrona or the memory of his padrone? Artois wondered. Then
he said:

"Gaspare, I shall only stay a few minutes. We must have no gossip that
can get to the padrona's ears. We understand each other, I think, you and
I. We want the same thing. Men can keep silence, but girls talk. I wish
to see Maddalena for a minute."

"Ma--"

Gaspare stared at him almost fiercely. But something in the face of
Artois inspired him with confidence. Suddenly his reserve disappeared. He
put his hand on Artois's arm.

"Tell Maddalena to be silent and not to go on crying, signore," he said,
violently. "Tell her that if she does not stop crying I will come down
here in the night and kill her."

"Go, Gaspare! The Pretore is wondering--go!"

Gaspare went down over the edge of the land and disappeared towards the
sea.

"Ecco, signore!"

Salvatore reappeared from the cottage carrying a chair which he set down
under an olive-tree, the same tree by which Maddalena had stood when
Maurice first saw her in the dawn.

"Grazie."

Artois sat down. He was very tired, but he scarcely knew it. The
fisherman stood by him, looking at him with a sort of shifty expectation,
and Artois, as he noticed the hard Arab type of the man's face, the
glitter of the small, cunning eyes, the nervous alertness of the thin,
sensitive hands, understood a great deal about Salvatore. He knew Arabs
well. He had slept under their tents, had seen them in joy and in anger,
had witnessed scenes displaying fully their innate carelessness of human
life. This fisherman was almost as much Arab as Sicilian. The blend
scarcely made for gentleness. If such a man were wronged, he would be
quick and subtle in revenge. Nothing would stay him. But had Maurice
wronged him? Artois meant to assume knowledge and to act upon his
assumption. His instinct advised him that in doing so he would be doing
the best thing possible for the protection of Hermione.

"Can you make much money here?" he said, sharply yet carelessly.

The fisherman moved as if startled.

"Signore!"

"They tell me Sicily's a poor land for the poor. Isn't that so?"

Salvatore recovered himself.

"Si, signore, si, signore, one earns nothing. It is a hard life, Per
Dio!"

He stopped and stared hard at the stranger with his hands on his hips.
His eyes, his whole expression and attitude said, "What are you up to?"

"America is the country for a sharp-witted man to make his fortune in,"
said Artois, returning his gaze.

"Si, signore. Many go from here. I know many who are working in America.
But one must have money to pay the ticket."

"Yes. This terreno belongs to you?"

"Only the bit where the house stands, signore. And it is all rocks. It is
no use to any one. And in winter the winds come over it. Why, it would
take years of work to turn it into anything. And I am not a contadino.
Once I had a wine-shop, but I am a man of the sea."

"But you are a man with sharp wits. I should think you would do well in
America. Others do, and why not you?"

They looked at each other hard for a full minute. Then Salvatore said,
slowly:

"Signore, I will tell you the truth. It is the truth. I would swear it
with sea-water on my lips. If I had the money I would go to America. I
would take the first ship."

"And your daughter, Maddalena? You couldn't leave her behind you?"

"Signore, if I were ever to go to America you may be sure I should take
Maddalena with me."

"I think you would," Artois said, still looking at the man full in the
eyes. "I think it would be wiser to take Maddalena with you."

Salvatore looked away.

"If I had the money, signore, I would buy the tickets to-morrow. Here I
can make nothing, and it is a hard life, always on the sea. And in
America you get good pay. A man can earn eight lire a day there, they
tell me."

"I have not seen your daughter yet," Artois said, abruptly.

"No, signore, she is not well to-day. And the Signor Pretore frightened
her. She will stay in the house to-day."

"But I should like to see her for a moment."

"Signore, I am very sorry, but--"

Artois turned round in the chair and looked towards the house. The door,
which had been open, was now shut.

"Maddalena is praying, signore. She is praying to the Madonna for the
soul of the dead signore."

For the first time Artois noticed in the hard, bird-like face of the
fisherman a sign of emotion, almost of softness.

"We must not disturb her, signore."

Artois got up and went a few steps nearer to the cottage.

"Can one see the place where the signore's body was found?" he asked.

"Si, signore, from the other side, among the trees."

"I will come back in a moment," said Artois.

He walked away from the fisherman and entered the wood, circling the
cottage. The fisherman did not come with him. Artois's instinct had told
him that the man would not care to come on such an errand. As Artois
passed at the back of the cottage he noticed an open window, and paused
near it in the long grass. From within there came the sound of a woman's
voice, murmuring. It was frequently interrupted by sobs. After a moment
Artois went close to the window, and said, but without showing himself:

"Maddalena!"

The murmuring voice stopped.

"Maddalena!"

There was silence.

"Maddalena!" Artois said. "Are you listening?"

He heard a faint movement as if the woman within came nearer to the
casement.

"If you loved the dead signore, if you care for his memory, do not talk
of your grief for him to others. Pray for him, and be silent for him. If
you are silent the Holy Mother will hear your prayers."

As he said the last words Artois made his deep voice sound mysterious,
mystical.

Then he went away softly among the thickly growing trees.

When he saw Salvatore again, still standing upon the plateau, he beckoned
to him without coming into the open.

"Bring the boat round to the inlet," he said. "I will cross from there."

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