第57章
"'Mr.John Lexman,' drawled Kara, 'you are at the beginning of a great disillusionment.I have a few things to tell you which will make you feel rather uncomfortable.' It was then that I heard for the first time that my pardon had been signed and my innocence discovered.
"'Having taken a great deal of trouble to get you in prison,' said Kara, 'it isn't likely that I'm going to allow all my plans to be undone, and my plan is to make you both extremely uncomfortable.'
"He did not raise his voice, speaking still in the same conversational tone, suave and half amused.
"'I hate you for two things,' he said, and ticked them off on his fingers: 'the first is that you took the woman that I wanted.To a man of my temperament that is an unpardonable crime.I have never wanted women either as friends or as amusement.I am one of the few people in the world who are self-sufficient.It happened that I wanted your wife and she rejected me because apparently she preferred you.'
"He looked at me quizzically.
"'You are thinking at this moment,' he went on slowly, "that Iwant her now, and that it is part of my revenge that I shall put her straight in my harem.Nothing is farther from my desires or my thoughts.The Black Roman is not satisfied with the leavings of such poor trash as you.I hate you both equally and for both of you there is waiting an experience more terrible than even your elastic imagination can conjure.You understand what that means!'
he asked me still retaining his calm.
"I did not reply.I dared not look at Grace, to whom he turned.
"'I believe you love your husband, my friend,' he said; 'your love will be put to a very severe test.You shall see him the mere wreckage of the man he is.You shall see him brutalized below the level of the cattle in the field.I will give you both no joys, no ease of mind.From this moment you are slaves, and worse than slaves.'
"He clapped his hands.The interview was ended and from that moment I only saw Grace once."John Lexman stopped and buried his face in his hands.
"They took me to an underground dungeon cut in the solid rock.In many ways it resembled the dungeon of the Chateau of Chillon, in that its only window looked out upon a wild, storm-swept lake and its floor was jagged rock.I have called it underground, as indeed it was on that side, for the palazzo was built upon a steep slope running down from the spur of the hills.
"They chained me by the legs and left me to my own devices.Once a day they gave me a little goat flesh and a pannikin of water and once a week Kara would come in and outside the radius of my chain he would open a little camp stool and sitting down smoke his cigarette and talk.My God! the things that man said! The things he described! The horrors he related! And always it was Grace who was the centre of his description.And he would relate the stories he was telling to her about myself.I cannot describe them.They are beyond repetition."John Lexman shuddered and closed his eyes.
"That was his weapon.He did not confront me with the torture of my darling, he did not bring tangible evidence of her suffering -he just sat and talked, describing with a remarkable clarity of language which seemed incredible in a foreigner, the 'amusements'
which he himself had witnessed.
"I thought I should go mad.Twice I sprang at him and twice the chain about my legs threw me headlong on that cruel floor.Once he brought the jailer in to whip me, but I took the whipping with such phlegm that it gave him no satisfaction.I told you I had seen Grace only once and this is how it happened.
"It was after the flogging, and Kara, who was a veritable demon in his rage, planned to have his revenge for my indifference.They brought Grace out upon a boat and rowed the boat to where I could see it from my window.There the whip which had been applied to me was applied to her.I can't tell you any more about that," he said brokenly, "but I wish, you don't know how fervently, that Ihad broken down and given the dog the satisfaction he wanted.My God! It was horrible!