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ETC ILT.USTRATED BY HENRY AUSTIN TORONTO : THE COPP, CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED PUBLISHERS manR / '-^ :/re 2U70 Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine, by The Gopp, Clark Cohpant, Limitbd, Toronto, Ontario, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture. CHAPTER I IF John Grantham Browne had a fault — which, mind you, I am not prepared to admit — it lay in the fact that he was the pos- sessor of a cynical wit which he was apt at times to use upon his friends with somewhat peculiar effect. Circumstances alter cases, and many people would have argued that he was perfectly entitled to say what he pleased. When a man is worth a hundred and twenty thousand pounds a year — which, worked out, means ten thousand pounds a month, three hundred and twenty-eight pounds, fifteen shill- ings and fourpence a day, and four-and- sixpence three-farthings, and a fraction over, per minute — he may surely be excused if he becomes a little sceptical as to other people's motives, and is apt to be distrustful of the world in general. Old Brown, his father, without the " e," as you have doubtless observed, stirted life as a bare- legged street arab in one of the big manu- facturing centres — Manchester or Birmingham, i THE RED RATS DAUGHTER I am not quite certain which. His head, how- ever, must have been screwed on the right way, for he made few mistakes, and everything he touched turned to gold. At thirty his bank balance stood at fifteen thousand pounds ; at forty it had turned the corner of a hundred thousand ; and when he departed this transi- tory life, a young man in everything but years, he left his widow, young John's mother — his second wife, I may remark in passing, and the third daughter of the late Lord Rushbrooke — upwards of three and a half million pounds sterling in trust for the boy. As somebody wittily remarked at the time, young John, at his father's death and during his minority, was a monetary Mol ammed — he hovered between two worlds : the Rush- brookes, on one side, who had not two six- pences to rub against each other, and the Brownes, on the other, who reckoned their wealth in millions and talked of thousands as we humbler mortals do of half-crowns. Taken altogether, however, old Brown was not a bad sort of fellow. Unlike so many parvenus, he had the good sense, the " e " always ex- cepted, not to set himself up to be what he certainly was not. He was a working-man, he would tell you with a twinkle In his eye, and he had made his own way in the world. He had THE RED RAT'S DAUGHTER never in his life owed a halfpenny, nor, to the best of his knowledge, had he ever defrauded anybody ; and, if he Aad made his fortune out of soap, well — and here his eyes would glisten — soap was at least a useful article, and would wash his millions cleaner than a good many other commodities he might mention. In his tastes and habits he was simplicity itself. Indeed, it was no unusual sight to see the old fellow, preparatory to setting off for the City, coming down the steps of his magnificent town house, dressed in a suit of rough tweed, with the famous bird's-eye neck-cloth loosely twisted round his throat, and the soft felt hat upon his head — two articles of attire which no remon- strance on tlie part of his wife and no amount of ridicule from the comic journals could ever induce him to discard. His stables were full of carriages, and there was a cab rank within a hundred yards of his front door, yet no one had ever seen him set foot in either. The soles of his boots were thick, and he had been accustomed to walk all his life, he would say, and he had no intention of being carried till he was past caring what became of him. With regard to his son, the apple of his eye, and the pride of his old age, his views were entirely different. Nothing was good enough for the boy. From the moment he opened his eyes - S'm^^^^ipimt 8 THE RED RAT'S DAUGHTER upon the light, all the luxuries and advantages wealth could give were showered upon him. Before he was short-coated, upwards of a million had been placed to his credit at the bank, not to be touched until he came of age. After he had passed from a dame's school to Eton, he returned after every holiday with sufficient money loose in his pocket to have treated the whole school. When, in the pro- per order of things, he went on to Christ Church, his rooms were the envy and the admiration of the university. As a matter of fact, he never knew ^ 'hat it was to have to deny him- self anything ; and it says something for the lad's nature, and the father's too, I think, that he should have come out of it the honest, simple Englishman he was. Then old John died ; his wife followed suit six months later ; and on his twenty- fifth birthday the young man found himself standing alone in the world with his millions ready to his hand either to make or mar him. Little though he thought it at the time, there was a sufficiency of trouble in store for him. He had town houses, country seats, moors and salmon-fishings, yachts (steam and sailing), racehorses, hunters, coach-horses, polo-ponies, and an army of servants that a man might very well shudder even to think of. But he lacked THE RED RATS DAUGHTER les, :ry one thing ; he had no wife. Society, however, was prepared to remedy this defect. Indeed, it soon showed that it was abnormally anxious to do so. Before he was twenty-two it had been rumoured that he had become enijai^ed to something like a score of girls, each one lovelier, sweeter, and boasting blood that was bluer than the last. A wiser and an older head might well have been forgiven had it suc- cumbed to the attacks made upon it ; but in his veins, mingled with the aristocratic Rush- brooke blood, young John had an equal portion of that of the old soap-boiler; and where the one led him to accept invitations to country houses at Christmas, or to be persuaded into driving his fair friends, by moonlight, to supper at the Star and Garter, the other enabled him to take very good care of himself while he ran such dangerous risks. In consec[uence he had attained the advanced age of twenty- eight when this story opens, a bachelor, and with every prospect of remaining so. Buc the Blind Bow-Boy, as every one is aware, dis- charges his bolts from the most unexpected quarters ; and for this reason you are apt to find yourself mortally wounded in the very place, of all others, where you have hitherto deemed yourself most invulnerable. It was the end of the second week in )0 THE RED RAT'S DAVCHTER August ; Parliament was up ; and Browne's steam-yacht, the Lotus Blossom, twelve hundred tons, lay in the harbour of Merok, on the Gieranger Fjord, perhaps the most beautiful on the Norwegian coast. The guests on board had been admirably chosen, an art which in most instances is not cultivated as carefully as it might be. An ill-assorted house party is bad enough ; to bring the wrong men together on the moors is sufficient to spoil an otherwise enjoyable holiday ; but to ask Jones (who doesn't smoke, who is wrapped up in politics, reads his leader in the Standard every morning, and who has played whist every afternoon with the same men at his club for the last ten years) and De Vere Robinson (who never reads anything save the Referee and the Sportsman, who detests whist, and who smokes the strongest Trichinopolis day and night) to spend three weeks cooped up on a yacht would be like putting a kitten and a cat-killing fox-terrier into a corn- bin and ex- pecting them to have a happy time together. Browne, however, knew his business, and his party, in this particular instance, consisted of the Duchess of Matlock, wife of the Secre- tary of State for Foreign Affairs, and her two pretty daughters, the Ladies Iseult and Imo- gen ; Miss Verney, the beauty of the season ; THE RED RATS DAUGHTER II the Honourable Silas Dobson, the American Ambassador; his wife and daughter; George Barrington- Marsh, of the ist Life; and little Jimmy Poote, a man of no permanent address, but of more than usual shrewdness, who man- a^red to make a ijood income out of his friends by the exerci:se of that peculiar talent for pleasing which rendered him indispensable whenever and wherever his fellow-creatures were ijatliered to -^ether. In addition to those I have mentioned there was a man whose interest in this story is so great thn: it is necessary he should be described at somewhat greater length. Should you deem it worth your while to make inquiries at any of the Chancelleries in order to ascertain whether they happen to be acquainted with a certain Monsieur Felix Maas, you would probably be surprised to learn that he is as well known to them as — well - shall we say the Sultan of Turkey himself? though it would be difficult to men- tion in exactly what capacity. One thing is quite certain ; it would be no easy task to find a man possessed of such peculiar characteristics as this retiring individual. At first glance his name would appear to setde his nationality once and for all. Me would tell you, however, that he has no ri^iht to be considered a Dutch- 12 THE RED RATS DAUGHTER man. At the same time he would probably omit to tell you to which i^ingdom or empire he ascribes the honour of his birth. If you travelled with him you would discover that he speaks the language of every country west of the Ural Mountains with equal fluency ; and though he would appear to be the possessor of considerable wealth, he never makes the least parade of it. In fact, his one and only idea in life would seem to be always irreproachably dressed and groomed, never to speak unless spoken to, and at all times to act as if he took no sort of interest whatever in any person or thing save that upon which he happened to be engaged at the moment. When necessity demands it he can be exceedingly amusing ; he never allows himself to be seen with a man or woman who would be likely to cause him the least loss of prestige ; he gives charming little dinners a la fourchette at his rooms in town twice or thrice during the sea- son, and is rumoured to be the author, under a iioni de pluuu\ of o\\^ of the best works on Continental politics that has seen the light since Talleyrand's day. So much for Felix Maas. At one time or another there have been a number of exquisite yachts built to satisfy the extravagances of millionaires, but never one so THE RED RATS DAUGHTER 13 perfect in every detail, and so replete with every luxury, as Browne's Lotus Blossom. The state-rooms were large and airy ; beds occupied the places of the usual uncomfortable bunks ; the dining-saloon was situated amid- ships, where the vibration of the screw was least felt ; the drawing-room was arranged aft ; and a dainty boudoir for the ladies ex- tended across the whole width of the counter. The smoking-room was in a convenient posi- tion under the bridge, and the bathrooms, four in number, were luxury and completeness itself. Add to the other advantages the presence of Felicien, that prince of ^/i^yi-, and little Georges, once so intimately connected with the English Embassy in Paris, and it is unnecessary to say more. Browne himself was an excellent host ; and by the time the Norwegian coast had been sighted the party had settled down comfortably on board. They visited Christiania, the Bukn, Hardanger, and Sogne, and eventually found themselves at anchor in the harbour of Merok. on the Gieranger Fjord. It is in this lovely bay, overshadowed by its precipitous moun- tains, that my story may be properly said to commence. It is sometimes asserted by a class of people who talk of the Eiffel Tower as if it were a bit 14 THE RED RAT'S DAUGHTER of natural scenery, and of the Matterhorn as though it were placed in its present position simply for the entertainment of Cook'r> tourists, that when you have seen one Norwegian fjord you have seen them all. But this statement is, as are the majority of such assertions, open to contradiction. The Ryfylke bears no sort of resemblance, save that they are both incom- parably grand, to the Hardanger, or the Fjaer- lands to the Gieranger. There is, of course, the same solemnity and the same overwhelm- ing sense of man's insignificance about them all. But in every other essential they differ as completely as Windermere does from the Bitter Lakes of Suez — shall we say ^ — or the Marble Arch from the Bridge of Sighs. " Knowing what we know, and seeing what we see," Maas remarked confidentially to the Duchess of Matlock as they sat in their chairs on deck, gazing up at the snow-capped moun- tains at the head of the fjord, *' one is tempted to believe that Providence, in designing Europe, laid it out with the express intention of pleasing the British tourist." " I detest tourists," replied her Grace, as she disentangled the straps of her field-glasses. "They cheapen everything, and think nothing of discussing their hotel bills in the Temple of the Sphinx, or of comparing and grumbling THE RED RATS DAUGHTER 15 as Ises. ling of ling i at their dhobies accounts under the fagade of the Taj Mahal." " The inevitable result of a hothouse educa- tion, my dear Duchess," said Jimmy Foote, who was leaning against the bulwarks. ** Be- lieve a poor man who knows, it is just those three annas overcharge in a dhobies bill that spoil the grandeur of the Sphinx and cast a blight over the Great Pyramid ; as far as I am personally concerned, such an imposition would spoil even the Moti Masjid itself." " People who quarrel over a few annas have no right to travel," remarked Mrs. Dobson, with the authority of a v'oman who rejoices in the possession of a large income. " In that case, one trembles to think what would become of the greater portion of man- kind," continued Miss Verney, who was draw- ing on her gloves preparatory to going ashore. "If that were the law, I am afraid I should never get beyond the white walls of Old Eng- land," said Jimmy Foote, shaking his head ; " it is only by keeping a sharp eye on the three annas of which we have been speaking that I manage to exist at all. If I might make a suggestion to the powers that be, it would be to the effect that a university should be founded in some convenient centre — Vienna, for instance. It would be properly endowed, ^!WF i6 THE RED RATS DAUGHTER l.i, and students mifrht be sent to it from all parts of the world. Competent professors would be engaged, who would teach the pupils how to comport themselves in railway trains and on board steamboats ; who would tell them how to dress themselves to suit different countries, in order that they might not spoil choice bits of scenery by inartistic colouring. Above all, I would have them instructed in thvi proper manner of placing their boots outside their bedroom doors when they retire to rest in foreign hotels. I remember a ruffian in Paris some years ago (truth compels me to put it on record that he was a countryman of yours, Mr. Dobson) who for three weeks regularly dis- turbed my beauty sleep by throwing his boots outside his door in the fashion to which I am alluding. It's my be'Ief he used to stand in the centre of his room and pitch them into the cor- ridor, taking particular care that they should fall exactly above my head." "It seems to me that I also have met that man," observed Maas quietly, lighting another cigarette as he spoke. "He travels a great deal. " • " Surely it could not be the same man ? " remarked Mrs. Dobson, with an incredulous air. •* The coincidence would be too extra- ordinary." A smile went round the group ; THE RED RATS DAUGHTER 17 ?" for an appreciation of humour was not the lady's sirong point. *' To continue my proposal," said Foote, with quiet enjoyment. " In addition to im- parting instruction on the subjects I have mentioned, I would have my pupils thoroughly grounded in the languages of the various coun- tries they intend visiting, so that they should not inquire the French for Eau de Cologne, or ask what i^ort of vegetable pdi^ de foie gras is when they encountered it upon their menus. A proper appreciation of the beautiful in art might follow, in order to permit of their being able to distinguish between a Sandro Botticelli and a ' Seaport at Sunrise ' by Claude Lorraine." ** A professor who could give instruction upon the intricacies of a Continental wine list might be added with advc^ntage," put in Bar- rington- Marsh. " And the inevitable result," said Browne, who had joined the party while Marsh was speaking, " would be that you might as well not travel at all. Build an enormous restaurant in London, and devote a portion of it to every country into which modern man takes himself. Hang the walls with tricky, theatrical canvases after the fashion of a cyclorama ; dress your waiters in appropriate costumes, let them speak the language of the country in which you are B I. i8 THE RED RATS DAUGHTER supposed to be dining, let the tables be placed in the centre of the hall, have a band to dis- course national airs, and you would be able to bore yourself to death in comfort, for the simple reason that every one would talk, eat, drink, and behave just as respectably as his neigh- bour. Half the fun of moving about the world, as I understand it, lies in the studies of char- acter presented by one's fellow-creatures. But, see, the boat is alongside ; let us go ashore while it is fine." Beautiful as Merok undoubtedly is, it must be admitted that its amusements are, to say the least of it, limited. You can lunch at the hotel, explore the curious little octagonal church, and, if you are a v/alker, climb the road that crosses the mountains to Grotlid. The views, however, are sublime, for the mountains rise on every hand, giving the little bay the appearance of an amphitheatre. *' What programme have you mapped out forus.-*" inquired Miss Verney, who, as was known to her companions, preferred an easy- chair and a flirtation on the deck of the yacht to any sort of athletic exercise ashore. Browne thereupon explained that the Duchess, who was dressed in appropriate walk- ing costume, had arranged everything. They were to visit the church, do the regulation sights, THE RED RATS DAUGHTER 19 out was easy- yacht the walk- They iights, and, finally, make their way up the hillside to the Storfos Waterfall, which is the principal, and almost the only, attraction the village has to offer. The usual order of march was observed. The Duchess and the Ambassador, being the seniors of the party, led the way ; the lady's two daughters, escorted by Barrington- Marsh and Jimmy Foote — who was too obvious a detrimental to be worth guarding against — came next ; Maas, Mrs. and Miss Dobson followed close behind them ; Miss Verney and Browne brought up the rear. Everything went merrily as a marriage bell. After those who had brouofht their cameras had snap-shotted the church, and made the usual mistake with re<^ard to the anorles, the party climbed the hill in the direction of the waterfall. It was only when they reached it that those in front noticed that Miss Verney had joined the trio next before her, and that Browne had disappeared. He had gone back to the boat, the lady explained, in order to give some instructions that had been for- gotten. From her silence, however, and from the expression of annoyance upon her beautiful face, the others immediately jumped to the conclusion that something more serious must have happened than her words implied. In this case, however, popular opinion was alto- 30 THE RED RATS DAUGHTER gether at fault. As a matter of fact, Browne's reason for leaving his guests to pursue their walk alone was an eminently simple one. He strolled down to the boat which had brought them ashore, and, having despatched it with a message to the yacht, resumed his walk, hoping to overtake his party before they reached the waterfall. Unfortunately, however, a thick mist was descending upon the mountain, shutting out the landscape as completely as if a curtain had been drawn before it. At first he was inclined to treat the matter as of small moment ; and, leav- ing the road, he continued his walk in the belief that it would soon pass off. Stepping warily — for mountain paths in Norway are not to be treated with disrespect — he pushed on for up- wards of a quarter of an hour, feeling sure he must be near his destination, and wondering why he did not hear the voices of his friends or the thunder of the fall. At last he stopped. The mist was thicker than ever, and a fine but penetrating rain was falling. Browne was still wondering what Miss Verney's feelings would be, supposing she were condemned to pass the night on the hillside, when he heard a little cry proceeding from a spot, as he supposed, a few yards ahead of him. The voice was a wo- man's, and the ejaculation was one of pain. Hearing it, Browne moved forward again in ii ii I THE RED RATS DAUGHTER 21 L had led to leav- belief varily to be 3r up- re he lering iends ped. but LS still would ss the :le cry L few wo- pain. ain in p the hope of discovering whence it proceeded and what had occasioned it. Search how he would, however, he could see nothing of the person who had given utterance to it. At last, in despair, he stood still and called, and in reply a voice answered in English, " Help me ; help me, please." " Where are you .'* " Browne inquired in the same language ; " and what is the matter } " " I am down here," the voice replied ; " and I am afraid I have sprained my ankle. I have fallen and cannot get up." Browne has since confessed that it was the voice that did it. The accent, however, was scarcely that of an Englishwoman. *• Are you on a path or on the hillside ? " he inquired, after he had vainly endeavoured to locale her position. *' I am on the hillside," she replied. " The fog was so thick that I could not see my way, and I slipped on the bank and rolled down, twisting my foot under me." "Well, if you will try to guide me, I will do all in my power to help you," said Browne ; and as he said it he moved carefully towards the spot whence he imagined the voice pro- ceeded. From the feel of the ground under his feet he could tell that he had left the path and was descending the slope. 22 THE RED RATS DAUGHTER t- And " How am to " Am I near you now ? " he asked. " I think you must be," was the reply then the voice added, with a little laugh, ridiculous it all is, and how sorry I trouble you ! " Had she, known to what this extraordinary introduction was destined to lead, it is very doubtful whether she would have considered it so full either of humour or regret as her words implied. Inch by inch Browne continued his advance, until he could just distinguish, seated on the ground below him. and clinging with both her arms to a stunted birch-tree, the figure of the girl for whom he was searching. At most she was not more than five feet from him. Then, with that suddenness which is the peculiar property of Norwegian mists, the vapour, which had up to that moment so thickly enveloped them, rolled away, and the whole landscape was revealed to their gaze. As he took in the position, Browne uttered a cry of horror. The girl had wandered off the path, slipped down the bank, and was now clinging to a tree only a few feet removed from the brink of one of the most terrible precipices along the Norwegian coast. So overwhelmed was he with horror that for a moment Browne found himself quite un- ■% THE RED RAT'S DAUGHTER 23 And How m to Unary very :red it words vance, )n the th her of the St she Then, ecuhar apour, thickly whole As ired a off the now moved ;errible Dr that ite un- 4 able to say or do anything. Then, summoning to his assistance all the presence of mind of which he was master, he addressed the girl, who, seeing the danger to which she was ex- posed, was clinging tighter than ever to the tree, her face as white as the paper upon which I am now writing. For a moment the young man scarcely knew how to act for the best. To leave her while he went for assistance was out of the question ; while it was very doubt- ful, active as he was, whether he would be able, unaided, to get her up in her injured con- dition to the path above. Ridiculous as the situation may have appeared in the fog, it had resolved itself into one of absolute danger now, and Browne felt the perspiration start out upon his forehead as he thought of what would have happened had she missed the tree and rolled a few feet farther. One thing was quite certain — something must be done ; so, taking off his coat, he lowered it by the sleeve to her, in- quiring at the same time whether she thought she could hold on to it while he pulled her up to the path above. She replied that she would endeavour to do so, and thereupon the struggle commenced. A struggle it certainly was, and an extremely painful one, for the girl was handicapped by her injured foot. What if her nerve should desert her and she should let I' 'A i~,„^ .nKmmmm ■«■ 24 777 /t^ HJCD KATS DAU(SUn:R go, or the sleeve of the coat should part com- pany with the body ? In either case there could be but one result — an instant and terrible death for her. Taken altogether, it was an experience neither of them would ever be likely to forget. At last, inch by inch, foot by foot, he drew her up ; and with every advance she made, the stones she dislodixed went tinklinof down the bank, and, rolling over the ii.^\gQ, disappeared into the abyss below. When at last she was sufficiently close to enable him to place his arm round her, and to lift her into safety beside him- self, the reaction was almost more than either of them could bear. For some minutes the girl sat witli her face buried in her hands, too much overcome with horror at the narrowness of her escape even to thank her preserver. When she did lift her face to him, Browne became aware for the first time of its attrac- tiveness. Beautiful, as Miss Verney was beau- tiful, she certainly could not claim to be ; there was, however, something about her face that was more pleasing than mere per- sonal loveliness could possibly have been. " Kow did you come to be up here alone ?" be inquired, after she had tried to express her gratitude to him for the service he had rendered her. .ft* 77/ /^ Rill) kAT's i){ivnn:R -J5 " It was foolish, I admit," s'u^ answered. " I had been [)aiiuino- on the niountaiii, and was makiii