The Omaha ' Illustrated Bee
NUMBER 817.
Entered Second Class at Omaha Fostofflce Published Weekly bj The Roe Publishing Co. Subscription, ?2.50 Per -Year.
JULY 9, 1903.
ADVENTURE
Fate of Faustina.
TENTH STORY
NUMBER
NINE
OUT NEXT
WEEK
By E. W. HORMNQ.
Author of "The Sbadaw of the Rope," "The Rogue's March."
"A Bride from the Bush. "Stingaree Stories." "Dead Men Tell No
Talcs," etc.
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Ninth Raffles Story
Mar ga rl.
e perzo m Salvatore!
Mar ga rl,
Ma I'orarao e cacciatorel
Mar ga rl,
Nun ce aje corpa tu!
Chello ch' e fatto e fatto tin no parlammo echleul
A PIANO OKOAN was pouring the metallic music through
our open window, while a voice of brass brayed the
words, which I have "since obtained, and print above for
identification by such as know their Italy better than I.
They will not thank me for reminding them of a tune so lately
epidemic In that land of aloes and blue skies, but at least It is un
likely to run In their heads as the ribald accompaniment to a trag
edy, and it does in mine.
It was In the early heat of August, and the hour that of the
lawful and necessary siesta for such ns turn night Into day. I was
therefore shutting my window in a rage and wondering whether
I should do the same for Raffles, when he appeared In the silk
pajamus to which the chronic solicitude of Dr. Theobald confined
him from morning to night.
"Don't do that. Bunny," said he. "I rather like that thing and
want to listen. What sort of fellows are they to look at, by the
way?"
I put my head out to see, it being a primary rule of our quaint
establishment that Raffles muist never show himself at any of the
windows. I remember now how hot the sill was to my elbows, as
I leaned upon It and looked down In order to satisfy a curiosity In
which I could see no point.
"Dirty looking beggars," said I over my shoulder; "dark as dark
blue china, oleaginous curls and earrings; ragged as they make
them, but nothing picturesque In their rags."
"Neapolitans all over," murmured Raffles behind me, "and
that's a characteristic touch, the one fellow singing while the other
grinds; they always have that out there."
"He's rather a fine chap, the singer," said I as the song ended.
"My hat, what teeth! He's looking up here and grinning all round
bis head. Shall I chuck them anything?"
"Well, I have no reason to love the Neopolltans, but it takes me
back It takes me back! Yes,, here you are, one each."
It was a couple of half-crowns that Raffles put into my hand,
but I had thrown them into the street for pennies before I saw
what they were. Thereupon I left the Italians bowing to the mud, ,
as well they might, and I turned to protest against such wonton
waste. But Raffles was walking up and down, his head bent, his
yes troubled, and bis one excuse disarmed remonstrance.
"They took ma back," be repeated. "My God, how they took
me back!" ,
''Suddenly he stopped in his stride.
"You don't understand. Bunny, old chap, but if you like you
hall. I always meant to tell you some day, but never felt worked ,
itn in it hofnmj ahd it'a not the kind of thin or one talks about for talk'
Ing's sake. It Isn't a nursery story, Bunny, and there Isn't a laugh in Through the open window we could
it from start to finish. On the contrary, you- have often a&fed me
what turned my hair gray, and now you are going to bear." ?
This was promising.' but .Raffles manner was something more. It
was unique In my memory of the man. His fine face softened and
set hard by turns. I never knew it so hard. I never knew it so soft
And the same might be said of his voice, now tender as any woman's,1 tlon ' aw I a.
"now flying to the other extreme of equally unwonted ferocity. But
this was toward the end of his tale; the beginning he treated charac
teristically enough, though could have wished for a less cavalier ac
count' of the island of Elba, where, upon his own showing, he had
niet with much humanity.
"Deadly, my dear Bunny, is not the word for that glorified snag
or for the mollusks, its inhabitant. , But they started by wounding
my vanity, so perhaps I am prejudiced after all. I sprung myself
upon them as a shipwrecked, sailor a sole survivor stripped in the
sea and landed without a stitch; yet they took no more interest in
me than you do in Italian organ grinders. They were decent enough.
I didn't have to pick and steal for a square meal and a pair of trou
sers; it would have been more exciting if I had. But what a place!
Napoleon couldn't stand It, you remember, but he held on longer than
I did. I put in a few weeks In their Infernal mines, simply to pick
up a smattering of Italian; then got across to the mainland in a little
wooden Umber tramp, and ungratefully glad I was to leave Elba blaz
ing in Just such another sunset as the one you won't forget.
"The tramp was bound for ' Naples, but first touched at Balae,
where I carefully deserted in the' night. There are too many English
in Naples itself, though I thought, it would make a first happy hunt
ing ground when I knew the language better and had altered myself
a bit more. Meanwhile I got a billet of several sorts on one of the
loveliest spots that I ever struck on air my travels. The place was
a vineyard, but it overhung the sea, and I got taken on as tame sallor
man and emergency bottle washer. The wages were the noble figure
of a lira and a half, which Is Just over a bob, a day, but there were
lashings of sound wine for one and all and better wine to bathe in.
And for eight whole months, my, boy, I waa an absolutely honest man.
The luxury of it, Bunny! I out-Heroded Herod, wouldn't touch a grape,
and went in the most delicious danger of being knifed for my prlnd-
plas by the thieving crew I had Joined.
"It was the kind of place where every prospect pleases and all
the rest of It especially all the rest But may I see it in my dreams
till I die as it was in the beginning before anything began to happen.
It was a wedge of rock sticking out Into the bay, thatched with vines,
and with the rummtest old house on the very edge of all, a devil ot a
height above the sea. You might have sat at the windows and dropped
your Sullivan ends plumb into blue water 150 feet below.
"From the garden behind the house such a garden; Bunny
oleanders and mimosa, myrtles, roeemsry and red tangles of fiery, un
tamed flowers In a corner of this garden was the top of a subter
ranean stair down to the sea; at least there were nearly 200 steps tun
neled through the solid rock'; then an Iron gate, and another eighty
Steps in the open air, and last of all a cave fit for pirates a-penny-plaln-and-two-pence-colored.
This -cave gazed upon the sweetest little
. thing in coves, all deep blue water and honest rocks; snd here I looked
after the vineyard shipping, a pot-bellied tub with a brown sail, and
a sort of dingy. The tub took the wine to Naples and the dingy was
the tub's tender.
"The house above was said to be on the identical site of a subur
ban retreat of the admirable Tiberius. There was the old sinner's
'private theater, with the tiers cut clean to this day; the well where
he used to fatten his lampreys on his slaves, and a ruined temple
of those ripping old Roman bricks, shallow as dominoes snd ruddier
than the cherry. I never was much of an antiquary, but I could have
- become one there if I'd had nothing else to do, but I had lots. When
I wasn't busy with the boats I had to trim the vines or gather the
grains, or even help make the wine itself in a cool, dark,- musty vault
I underneath the temple that I can see and smell as I Jaw. And can't
"y,'4ts I hear it and feel it too! Squish, squash, bubble; squash, squUh,
guggle; anj your feet as though you had been- wading through
slaughter t a throne. Yes, Bunny, you mightn't think It, but this
good right toot that never was on the wrong side of the crease when
the ball left my hand, has also been known to
Vs. :$ V.rl.-i ',r -V 4 f-Ji
, "AND THEN WE WERE ALONE FOR THB LAST TIME." :
. ... . . . .
In the morning, and Mrs. Theobald still took up much of bis time, dingy ready to our hand. Oh, those nights! I never knew which I
bear the piano Wgaa . aaid jkcil best the moonlit ones, when you sculled through silver and
Mar ga rl" a few hundred yards further on. I. fancied Raffles was could see for. miles, or the dark nights when the fishermen's torches
listening to i w bile he liuused, ' 'shook his head abstractedly when stood for the sea snd a red zigzag. In toe- sky. for old Vesuvius. 'We
I handed him the cigarettes and his tone hereafter -wes neverJust, -wre-bappy. 1 don't mind owning It We seemed not to have a care
Vhat It hd'be-trr'.''vT,':,'f';, " '-' ' :, y. : .tetween us. My mates took no interest In my affairs and F&ustllia'B"
"I don't Itnow, Bunny, whether you're a believer In transmtgra- famii did not appear to bother about her. The count was m Naples
had stumbled on the
He wss sitting in the
Crush the lees of pleasure
From sanguine grains of pain."
He mads a sudden pause, as though be
truth in Jest Ills face wss filled with lines.
room that had been bare when T first saw it. There were banket
chairs and a table In It now, all meant netenxlMv for me, and hence
Raffles would slip to his tied with schoolboy relish st every tinkle of
the belL This afternoon we felt fairly safe, for Theobald had called
I have often thought it easier to' believeT thah- lots-of
other things,, and J have been pretty near believing lu it myself since .-
I had my being on that villa of Tiberius. The brute who-had-It in
my day, If he isn't still 'running it with, a whole skin, was or la as
cold-blooded a blackguard as the worst of the emperors, but I have
often thought be had lot in common with .Tiberius. . He bad the
great high,. sensual Roman nose, eyes that were sinks of iniquity in
themselves, and that swelled with fatness, like the rest of him, so that
he wheezed If he walked a yard; otherwise rather a fine beast to look
at with huge gray mustache,' like a flying gull, "and the most courteous
manners even to his men, but one of the worst, Bunny, one of the
worst that ever was. - It was said that the vineyard was only his
hotby. If so he did his best to make his hobby pay. He used to
come out from Naples for the week ends In the tub when it wasn't
too rough for his nerves and he didn't always come alone. His very
name sounded unhealthy Corbucd. I suppose I ought to add that he
was a count though counts are two-a-penny In Naples, and in season
all the year round.
"He bad a little English and liked to air It upon me, much to my
disgust If I could not hope to conceal my nationality as yet I at
least did not want to havo It advertised, and the swine had English
friends. When be heard that I was bathing In November, when the
bay is still as warm as new milk, he would shake his wicked old head
and say, 'You are very audashuss you are very audashussT and put
on no end of side before his Italians. By God, he had pitched upon
the right word unawares, and I let him know it In the end!
"But that bathing, Bunny; it was absolutely the best I ever had.
anywhere. I said Just now the water was like wine; In my own mind
I used to call it blue champagne, and was rather annoyed 'that 1 had
no one to admire the phrase. Otherwise, I assure you, that I missed
my own particular kind very little indeed, though I often wished that
you were there, old chap, particularly when I went for my lonesome
swim first thing in the morning, when the bay was all rose leaves,
and lost thing at night when your body caught phosphorescent fire!
Ah, yes. It wss a good enough life for a change, a perfect paradise to
He low In, another Eden until
"My poor Ere!"
And be fetched a sigh that took away his words; then his Jaws
snappped together and his eyes spoke terribly while he conquered his
emotion. I pen the last word advisedly. I fancy It is one which I
have never used before in writing of A J. Raffles, for I cannot at the
moment recall any other occasion upon which its use would have been
Justified. On resuming, however, he was not only calm but cold, and
this flying for safety to the other extreme Is the single Instance ot
self -distrust which the present Achates can record to the credit of his
Impious Aeneas.
"I called the girl Eve," said be. "Her real name was Faustina,
and she was one of a vast family who hung out in a hovel on the in
land border of the vineyard. And Aphrodite rising from the sea was
less wonderful and not more beautiful than Aphrodite emerging from
that hole!
"It was the most exquisite face-1 ever saw or shall see in this
life absolutely perfect features, a skin that reminded you of old gold,
so delicate was its bronse; magulficent hair, not black but nearly, and
such eyes and teeth that would have made the fortune of a face with
out another point I tell you, Bunny, London would go mad about a
girl like that. But I don't believe there's such another in the world. And
there she was wasting her sweetness upon that lovely but desolate
little corner of it! Well, she did not waste it upon me. I would have
married her and lived happily ever after in such a hovel as her peo
ple'swith her. Only to look st her only to look at her for the rest
of my days I could have lain low and remained dead even to you!
And that's alt I'm golug to tell you about that Bunny; cursed be he
who tells more! Yet don't you run away with the idea that this poor
Faustina was the only woman I ever cared about I don't believe In
all that 'only' rot; nevertheless, I tell you that she wss the oqe being
who ever entirely satisfied my sense of beauty, and I honestly believe
I could have chucked the world and been true to Faustina for that
lone.
' We met sometimes In the little temp'.e I told you about some
times among the vines, now by honest accident, now by flagrant de
sign, and found a ready made rendezvous, romantic one could wish.
In the csve down all those subterranean steps. Then the sea would
call us my blue champagne, my sparkling cobalt and there was the
five nights of the seven; the other two we sighed apart
... "At first it was the oldest story in literature Eden plus Ere. The
place had been a heaven on earth before, but now it was a heaven it
self, So for a little. Then one nlgti a Monday night Faustina
burst out' crying In the boat and sobbed her story as we drifted with
out mUhap by the mercy of the Lord. And that waa almost as old a
story'as the other. .
"She was engaged what! Had I never heard of it? Did I mean
to upset the boat? What was her engagement beside our love?
'Nlente, niente,' crooned Faustina, sighing yet smiling through her
tears. ; No, but what did matter was that the man had threatened to
stab her to the heart and would do It as soon as look at her that
I knew.
"I knew H merely from my knowledge of the Neapolitans, for I
had no idea who the man 'might be. I knew It and yet I took this
detail better than the fact of the engagement though now I began
to laugh at both. As if I was going to let her marry anybody else?"'
As If a hair of her lovely head should be; touched .while I lived to pro
tect her! I had a great mind to row away to blazes with her tbst
very night and never go near the vineyard again, or let her either.
But we had not a lira between us at the time, and only the rags In
which we sat barefoot In the boat. Besides, I had to know the name
of the 'animal who bad threatened a woman, and such a woman
as this.
"For a long time she refused to tell me, with splendid obduracy,
but I was as determined as she, so at lat she mode conditions. I was
not to go and get put in prison for sticking a knife Into him he wasn't
worth it and I did promise not to stab him in the back. Faustina
seemed quite satisfied, though a little puzzled by my manner, having
herself the racial tolerance for cold steel, and next moment she had
taken away my breath. 'It is Stefano,' she whispered and hung her
head. '
"And well she mlgnt, poor thing! . Etefano, of all creatures on
God's earth for her!
"Bunny, he was a miserable little undersized wretch, Ill-favored,
servile, surly, and second only to his master In bestial cunning and
hypocrisy. His face was enough for me; that was what I read in it
and I don't often make mistakes. He was Corbuccl's own confidential
body servant and that alone was enough to damn him in decent eyes;
always came out first on the Saturday with the epese, to have all
ready for his master and current mistress, and stayed behind on the
Monday to clear and lock up. Stefano! That worm! I could well
understand his threatening a' woman' with a knife. What beat me
was how any woman could ever have listened to him; above all, that
Faustina should be the one! It passed my comprehension. But I
questioned her as gently as I could, and her explanation was largely
the threadbare one you would expect. Her parents were so poor.
They were so many in the family. Rome of them begged would I
promise never to tell? Then some of them stole sometimes and all
knew the pains of actual want She looked after the cows, but there
were only two of them, and brought the milk to the vineyard and
elsewhere, but that was not employment for more than one, and there
were countless sisters waltlag to take her place. Then he was so
rich, Stefano.
"'Rlchr I echoed. 'Stefano?
"'Si Arturo mlo.'
"Yes, I played the game on that vineyard. Bunny, even to going by
my own first name.
"'And how comes he to be rich? I asked, suspiciously.
"She did not know, but he hid given her such beautiful Jewels,
the- family had lived on them for months, she pretending an avocat
had taken charge of them for her against her marriage. But I cared
nothing about all that
" 'Jewels! Stefano! I could only mutter.
" 'Perhaps the count has paid for some of them. IT Is very kind.'
" To yon. is her
"Oh, yes, very kind.'
" 'And you would live In his house afterward?'
"Not now, mla cars not nnwf
"No. nv Ood. you don't! said I in English. 'But you would have
.done so. eh? . '
" 'Of course. That was Brraned. The count Is rea'lv very kind.'
" TV) you see anything of him wnn he comes here?
"Yes,, he bad . sometimes .brought .her. Utile .presents, sweet-
moats, ribbons snd the like, but the offering bad always been made
through this toad of a Stefano. Knowing the man. I now knew
all. But Faustina, she had the pure and simple heart and the
white soul, by the Ood who uutdo It, and for all her kindness to a
tattered scapegrace who made love to her lu broken Italian be
tween the ripples and the stars. She was not to know what I
was, remember, and beside Corbucci and his henchman I was the
Archangel Gabriel come down to earth.
"Well, as I lay awake that night two more Hues of Swinburne
' came into my head and came to stay;
"God sold, 'Let hliu who wins her take
And keep Faustlne.'
"On that couplet I slept at last and it was-my text and watch
word when I awoke In the morning. I forget how well you know
your Swinburne, Bunny, but don't you run awny with the idea
that there was anything else in common between his Faustina and
mine. For the last time let me tell you that poor Faustina was
the whitest and the best I ever knew.
"Well, I was strung up for trouble when the next Sunday
came, and I'll tell you what I had done. I had broken the plodge
and burgled Corbuccl's villa In my best manner during his absence
in Naples. Not that it gave me the slightest trouble, but no human
being could have told you that I had been lu when I came out. And
I had stolen nothing, mark you, but only borrowed a revolver from
a drawer in the count's desk, with one or two trifling accessories,
for by this time I had the measure of these damned Neapolitans.
They are spry enottgh with a knife, but you show them the busi
ness end of a shooting iron and they'll streak like rabbits for the
nearest hole, But the revolver wasn't for my own use. It was
for Faustina, and I taught her how to use it in the cave down
there by the sea, shooting at candles stuck upon the rock. The
noise in the cave was something frightful, but high up above it
couldn't be heard at all, as we proved to each other's satisfaction
pretty early In the proceedings. So now Faustina was armed with
munitions of self-defense, and I knew enough of her character ta
entertain no doubt as to their spirited use upon occasion. Between
the two of us, In fact, our friend Stefano seemed tolerably certain
of a warm week end.
"But the Saturday brought word that the cotintjwas not com
ing this week, betng in Rome on business and unable to return in
time, so for a whole Sunday we were promised peace, and made
bold plans accordingly. There was no further merit in hushing
this thing up. 'Let him who wins her take and keep Faustlne.'
Yes, but let htm win her openly, or lose her and be damned to hlml
So on the Sunday I was going to have it out with her poople with
the count and Stefano as soon as they showed their noses. I bad
no Inducement remember, ever to return to surreptitious life within
a cab fare of Wormwood Scrubbs. Faustina and the bay of Naples
were quite good enough for me. And the prehistoric man In me
rather exulted In the idea of fighting for my desire.
"On the Saturday, however, we were to meet for the last time
as heretofore Just once more in secret down there in the cave, as
soon as might be after dark. Neither of us minded if we were kept
for hours, each knew that In the end the other would come, and there
was a charm of its own even in waiting for such knowledge. But
that night I did lose patience, not In the cave but up above, where first
on one pretext and then on another the dlrettore kept me going until
I smelled a rat He was not given to exacting overtime, this dlret
tore, whose only fault was his servile subjection to our common boss.
It seemed pretty obvious, therefore, that he was acting upon some
secret instructions from Corbucci himself, and the moment I suspected
this I asked him to his face if it was not the case. And it was; he
admitted it with many shrugs, being a conveniently weak person,
whdm one felt almost ashamed of bullying as the occasion demanded.
"The fact was. however, that the count had sent for him on
finding he had to go to Rome, and had said he was very sorry to go
Just then, as among other things he intended to speak to me about
Faustina. Stefano had '.told him all about his row with her, and,
moreover, that it was ou my account which Faustina had never told
me, though I hod guessed as much for myself. Well, the count was
going to take his Jackal's part for all he was worth, which was Just
exactly what I had expected him to do. He intended going for me
on his return, but meanwhile I was not to make hay in his absence,
and so this tool of a dlrettore had orders to keep me at it night and
day. I undertook not to give the poor beast away, but at the same
time told him I had not the faintest intention of doing another stroke
of work that night.
I "It was very dark, and I remember knocking my head against
the oranges as I ran up the long, shallow steps which ended the
Journey between the dlrettore's lodge and the villa itself. But at the
back of the villa was the garden I spoke about, and also a bare chunk
of the cliff where it was bored by that subterranean stair. So I saw
the stars close overhead, and the fishermen's torches far below, the
coastwise lights and the crimson hieroglyph that spelt Vesuvius, before
I plunged into the darkness of the shaft. And that was the laat time
I appreciated the unique and peaceful charm of this outlandish spot.
"The stair was in two long flights, with an air-hole or two at the
top of the upper one, but not another pin prick till you came to the
Iron gate at the bottom of the lower. As you may read of an infinitely
lighter place, in a finer work of fiction thnn you are ever likely to
write, Bunny, it was gloomy at noon, dark as midnight at dusk,' and
black as the ninth plague of Egypt at midlnght' I won't swear to my
quotation, but I will to those stairs. They were as black that night
as the inside of the safest safe in the strongest strong room in the
Chancery Lane Deposit Yet I had not got far down them with my
bare feet before I heard somebody else coming up in boots. You may
Imagine what a turn that gave me! It could not be Faustina; who
went barefoot three seasons of the four, and yet there was Faustina
waiting for me down below. What a fright she must have hadl And
all at once my own blood ran cold; for the man sang like a kettle as ha
plodded up and up. It wss, It must be, the short-winded count him
self, whom we all supposed to be in Rome!
"Higher he came and nearer, nearer, slowly yet hurriedly, now
stopping to cough and gasp, now taking a few steps to elephantine
assault I should have enjoyed the situation If it bad not been foff
poor Faustina in the cave; as It was I was filled with nameless fears.
But I could not resist giving that grampus Corbucci one bad moment
on account A crazy band rail ran up one wall, so I carefully flattened
myself against the other, snd he passed within six Inches of me, puffing
and wheezing like a brass band. I let him go a few steps higher, and
then I let him have It with both lungs.
"Buona sera, eccellenza slgnori!' I roared after him. And a
scresm csme down In answer such a scream! A dozen different ter
rors were In It; and the wheezing had stopped with the old scrouudrel's
heart.
'"Chi sta la? he squeaked at last, gibbering and whimpering
like a whipped monkey, so fhat I could not bear to miss his face and
got a match ready to strike.
" 'Arturo, slgnori.
"He didn't repeat my name, nor did be damn me in heaps. He
did nothing but wheeze for a good tnitut and when he spoke it was
with Insinuating civility. In his best Knglnh. '
" 'Come nearer, Auturo. You are in the lower regions down tliere.
I want to speak with you.'
'"No, thanks. I'm In a hurry,' I said, and dropped that match
back into my pocket. He might be armed, and I was not.
"'So you are In a 'urryr snd he wheezed smunement. 'And you
thought I wss still in Rome, no doubt: aud so I was until this after
noon, vi hen I raught a train at the eleventh moment, snd then another
train from Naples to Fozznoll. I have leen rowed here now by a
flMhertnan of Pozzuoll. I had not time to stop anywhere In Naples,
but only to drive from station to station. So I am without Stefano,
Arturo. am without Stefano.
"His sly. voice sounded preternaturally sly In the absolut dark
