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Page 70
Colonel Menendez was smoking a cigarette, and Manoel was in the act of
removing the tray.
"Gentlemen," said the Colonel, "I have no words in which to express my
sorrow. Manoel, pull up those armchairs. Help yourself to port, Mr.
Harley, and fill Mr. Knox's glass. I can recommend the cigars in the
long box."
As we seated ourselves:
"I am extremely sorry to find you indisposed, sir," said Harley.
He was watching the dark face keenly, and probably thinking, as I was
thinking, that it exhibited no trace of illness.
Colonel Menendez waved his cigarette gracefully, settling himself amid
the cushions.
"An old trouble, Mr. Harley," he replied, lightly; "a legacy from
ancestors who drank too deep of the wine of life."
"You are surely taking medical advice?"
Colonel Menendez shrugged slightly.
"There is no doctor in England who would understand the case," he
replied. "Besides, there is nothing for it but rest and avoidance of
excitement."
"In that event, Colonel," said Harley, "we will not disturb you for
long. Indeed, I should not have consented to disturb you at all, if I
had not thought that you might have some request to make upon this
important night."
"Ah!" Colonel Menendez shot a swift glance in his direction. "You have
remembered about to-night?"
"Naturally."
"Your interest comforts me very greatly, gentlemen, and I am only sorry
that my uncertain health has made me so poor a host. Nothing has
occurred since your arrival to help you, I am aware. Not that I am
anxious for any new activity on the part of my enemies. But almost
anything which should end this deathly suspense would be welcome."
He spoke the final words with a peculiar intonation. I saw Harley
watching him closely.
"However," he continued, "everything is in the hands of Fate, and if
your visit should prove futile, I can only apologize for having
interrupted your original plans. Respecting to-night"--he shrugged--
"what can I say?"
"Nothing has occurred," asked Harley, slowly, "nothing fresh, I mean,
to indicate that the danger which you apprehend may really culminate
to-night?"
"Nothing fresh, Mr. Harley, unless you yourself have observed
anything."
"Ah," murmured Paul Harley, "let us hope that the threat will never be
fulfilled."
Colonel Menendez inclined his head gravely.
"Let us hope so," he said.
On the whole, he was curiously subdued. He was most solicitous for our
comfort and his exquisite courtesy had never been more marked. I often
think of him now--his big but graceful figure reclining upon the
settee, whilst he skilfully rolled his eternal cigarettes and chatted
in that peculiar, light voice. Before the memory of Colonel Don Juan
Sarmiento Menendez I sometimes stand appalled. If his Maker had but
endowed him with other qualities of mind and heart equal to his
magnificent courage, then truly he had been a great man.
CHAPTER XVII
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