As Eustick has just observed, we have all become a little forgetful of our purpose."
"But of course I understand," said Dona, "I would not dream of hindering you in any way," and as they all stood to let her pass, the great bell jangled in the court outside.
"Who the devil's that?" yawned Harry. "Someone two-and-a-half hours late for supper?
Let's open another bottle of wine."
"We are all here," said Eustick, "we expect none other. What about you, Godolphin?"
"No, I have warned no one else," frowned Godolphin. "The meeting was a secret one in any case."
Once again the bell jangled.
"Go and open the door, someone," shouted Harry. "Where the deuce are all the servants?"
The dog jumped from his knees, and ran barking to the door.
"Thomas, one of you, what are you doing?" called Harry, over his shoulder, and Rockingham, rising, went to the door at the back of the hall that led to the kitchens, and flung it open.
"Hullo, there," he cried, "are you all asleep?" but no answer came to him, and the passage was dark and silent.
"Someone has blown the candles," he said. "It's as black as pitch here in the passage.
Hullo, there, Thomas."
"What orders did you give your servants, Harry?" said Godolphin, pushing back his chair.
"Did you tell them to go to bed?"
"To bed, no," answered Harry, rising unsteadily, "the fellows are waiting in the kitchens somewhere.
Give 'em another call, Rock, can't you?"
"I tell you there's no answer," said Rockingham, "and there's not a light anywhere. The kitchen itself yonder is as black as a pit."
The bell jangled for the third time, and Eustick, with an oath, strode towards the door, and began to draw back the bolts.
"It must be one of our people come to report," said Rashleigh, "one of the men we have posted in the woods. Someone has given us away, and the fight's begun."
The door swung open, and Eustick stood on the threshold, calling into the darkness,
"Who asks for Navron House?"
"Jean-Benoit Aubery, at the service of all you gentlemen," came the answer, and into the hall walked the Frenchman, a sword in his hand, and a smile on his lips. "Don't move, Eustick," he said, "and the rest of you, stay where you are.
I have you covered, all of you.
The first man who moves will have a bullet through his brains."
And Dona, looking up the staircase to the gallery above, saw Pierre Blanc with a pistol in his hands, and Edmond Vacquier beside him, while at the door leading to the kitchen stood William, white and inscrutable, one arm hanging useless by his side, the other with a naked cutlass pointing at Rockingham's throat.
"I pray you be seated, gentlemen," said the Frenchman, "and I will not keep you long.
As for her ladyship, she may please herself, but first she must give me the rubies she wears in her ears, for I have had a wager about them with my cabin-boy."
And he stood before her, bowing, playing with his sword, while twelve men stared at him in hatred and in fear.
CHAPTER XIX
They might have all been dead men, frozen in their seats at the table.
No one spoke a word, but every man watched the Frenchman as he stood there smiling, his hand outstretched for the jewels.
Five against twelve, but the five were armed, and the twelve had supped unwisely and too well, and the swords by their sides were sheathed.
Eustick still had his hand upon the door, but Luc Dumont from La Mouette stood beside him, pointing a pistol at his ribs, and slowly Eustick closed the door, and drew the bolts into their sockets.
Down the staircase from the gallery above came Pierre Blanc and his companion, and they took up positions at either end of the long hall, so that if any man's hand strayed to his sword that man would have fallen, even as their master said.
Rockingham leant against the wall, watching the point of William's cutlass, and he passed his tongue over his lips and did not speak.
Only the host, who had sunk once again into his chair, surveyed the scene with bland bewilderment, a glass, half-filled with wine, raised to his lips.
Dona unscrewed the rubies from her ears, and laid them in the outstretched hand before her.
"Is that all?" she said.
He pointed with his sword to the pendant around her throat.
"Won't you spare me that as well?" he said, one eyebrow raised, "my cabin-boy will curse me otherwise.
And the bracelet on your arm, I must ask you for that too."
She unfastened the bracelet and the pendant, and without a word and without a smile she placed them in his hand.
"Thank you," he said, "I trust you are recovered from your fever?"
"I thought so," she answered, "but your presence here will doubtless bring it back again."
"That would be a pity," he said gravely. "My conscience would be uneasy.
My cabin-boy suffers from fever from time to time, but the sea air does wonders for him.
You ought to try it."
And bowing he placed the jewels in his pocket, and turned away from her.
"Lord Godolphin I believe," he said, standing before his lordship.