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+Project Gutenberg Etext The Bittermeads Mystery, by E. R. Punshon
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+The Bittermeads Mystery
+
+by E. R. Punshon
+
+September, 1999  [Etext #1888]
+[Date last updated: March 25, 2005]
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+Project Gutenberg Etext The Bittermeads Mystery, by E. R. Punshon
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+
+
+The Bittermeads Mystery
+
+by E. R. Punshon
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+I        THE LONE PASSENGER
+
+II       THE FIGHT IN THE WOODS
+
+III      A COINCIDENCE
+
+IV       A WOMAN WEEPS
+
+V        A WOMAN AND A MAN
+
+VI       A DISCOVERY
+
+VII      QUESTION AND ANSWER
+
+VIII     CAPTIVITY CAPTURE
+
+IX       THE ATTIC OF MYSTERY
+
+X        THE NEW GARDENER
+
+XI       THE PROBLEM
+
+XII      AN AVOWAL
+
+XIII     INVISIBLE WRITING
+
+XIV      LOVE-MAKING AT NIGHT
+
+XV       THE SOUND OF A SHOT
+
+XVI      IN THE WOOD
+
+XVII     A DECLARATION
+
+XVIII    ROBERT DUNN'S ENEMY
+
+XIX      THE VISIT TO WRESTE ABBEY
+
+XX       ELLA'S WARNING
+
+XXI      DOUBTS AND FEARS
+
+XXII     PLOTS AND PLANS
+
+XXIII    COUNTER PLANS
+
+XXIV     AN APHORISM
+
+XXV      THE UNEXPECTED
+
+XXVI     A RACE AGAINST TIME
+
+XXVII    FLIGHT AND PURSUIT
+
+XXVIII   BACK AT BITTERMEADS
+
+XXIX     THE ATTIC
+
+XXX      SOME EXPLANATIONS
+
+XXXI     CONCLUSION
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE LONE PASSENGER
+
+
+That evening the down train from London deposited at the little
+country station of Ramsdon but a single passenger, a man of middle
+height, shabbily dressed, with broad shoulders and long arms and a
+most unusual breadth and depth of chest.
+
+Of his face one could see little, for it was covered by a thick
+growth of dark curly hair, beard, moustache and whiskers, all
+overgrown and ill-tended, and as he came with a somewhat slow and
+ungainly walk along the platform, the lad stationed at the gate to
+collect tickets grinned amusedly and called to one of the porters
+near:
+
+"Look at this, Bill; here's the monkey-man escaped and come back
+along of us."
+
+It was a reference to a travelling circus that had lately visited
+the place and exhibited a young chimpanzee advertised as "the
+monkey-man," and Bill guffawed appreciatively.
+
+The stranger was quite close and heard plainly, for indeed the youth
+at the gate had made no special attempt to speak softly.
+
+The boy was still laughing as he held out his hand for the ticket,
+and the stranger gave it to him with one hand and at the same time
+shot out a long arm, caught the boy--a well-grown lad of sixteen
+--by the middle and, with as little apparent effort as though
+lifting a baby, swung him into the air to the top of the gate-post,
+where he left him clinging with arms and legs six feet from the
+ground.
+
+"Hi, what are you a-doing of?" shouted the porter, running up, as
+the amazed and frightened youth, clinging to his gate-post, emitted
+a dismal howl.
+
+"Teaching a cheeky boy manners," retorted the stranger with an angry
+look and in a very gruff and harsh voice.  "Do you want to go on
+top of the other post to make a pair?"
+
+The porter drew back hurriedly.
+
+"You be off," he ordered as he retreated.  "We don't want none of
+your sort about here."
+
+"I certainly have no intention of staying," retorted the other as
+gruffly as before.  "But I think you'll remember Bobbie Dunn next
+time I come this way."
+
+"Let me down; please let me down," wailed the boy, clinging
+desperately to the gate-post on whose top he had been so
+unceremoniously deposited, and Dunn laughed and walked away, leaving
+the porter to rescue his youthful colleague and to cuff his ears
+soundly as soon as he had done so, by way of a relief to his feelings.
+
+"That will learn you to be a bit civil to folk, I hope," said the
+porter severely.  "But that there chap must have an amazing strong
+arm," he added thoughtfully.  "Lifting you up there all the same as
+you was a bunch of radishes."
+
+For some distance after leaving the station, Dunn walked on slowly.
+
+He seemed to know the way well or else to be careless of the
+direction he took, for he walked along deep in thought with his eyes
+fixed on the ground and not looking in the least where he was going.
+
+Abruptly, a small child appeared out of the darkness and spoke to
+him, and he started violently and in a very nervous manner.
+
+"What was that?  What did you say, kiddy?" he asked, recovering
+himself instantly and speaking this time not in the gruff and harsh
+tones he had used before but in a singularly winning and pleasant
+voice, cultivated and gentle, that was in odd contrast with his
+rough and battered appearance.  "The time, was that what you wanted
+to know?"
+
+"Yes, sir; please, sir," answered the child, who had shrunk back in
+alarm at the violent start Dunn had given, but now seemed reassured
+by his gentle and pleasant voice.  "The right time," the little one
+added almost instantly and with much emphasis on the "right."
+
+Dunn gravely gave the required information with the assurance that
+to the best of his belief it was "right," and the child thanked him
+and scampered off.
+
+Resuming his way, Dunn shook his head with an air of grave
+dissatisfaction.
+
+"Nerves all to pieces," he muttered.  "That won't do.  Hang it all,
+the job's no worse than following a wounded tiger into the jungle,
+and I've done that before now.  Only then, of course, one knew what
+to expect, whereas now--And I was a silly ass to lose my temper
+with that boy at the station.  You aren't making a very brilliant
+start, Bobby, my boy."
+
+By this time he had left the little town behind him and he was
+walking along a very lonely and dark road.
+
+On one side was a plantation of young trees, on the other there was
+the open ground, covered with furze bush, of the village common.
+
+Where the plantation ended stood a low, two-storied house of medium
+size, with a veranda stretching its full length in front.  It stood
+back from the road some distance and appeared to be surrounded by a
+large garden.
+
+At the gate Dunn halted and struck a match as if to light a pipe,
+and by the flickering flame of this match the name "Bittermeads,"
+painted on the gate became visible.
+
+"Here it is, then," he muttered.  "I wonder--"
+
+Without completing the sentence he slipped through the gate, which
+was not quite closed, and entered the garden, where he crouched
+down in the shadow of some bushes that grew by the side of the
+gravel path leading to the house, and seemed to compose himself
+for a long vigil.
+
+An hour passed, and another.  Nothing had happened--he had seen
+nothing, heard nothing, save for the passing of an occasional
+vehicle or pedestrian on the road, and he himself had never stirred
+or moved, so that he seemed one with the night and one with the
+shadows where he crouched, and a pair of field-mice that had come
+from the common opposite went to and fro about their busy occupations
+at his feet without paying him the least attention.
+
+Another hour passed, and at last there began to be signs of life
+about the house.
+
+A light shone in one window and in another, and vanished, and soon
+the door opened and there appeared two people on the threshold,
+clearly visible in the light of a strong incandescent gas-burner
+just within the hall.
+
+The watcher in the garden moved a little to get a clearer view.
+
+In the paroxysm of terror at this sudden coming to life of what
+they had believed to be a part of the bushes, the two little
+field-mice scampered away, and Dunn bit his lip with annoyance,
+for he knew well that some of those he had had traffic with in the
+past would have been very sure, on hearing that scurrying-off of
+the frightened mice, that some one was lurking near at hand.
+
+But the two in the lighted doorway opening on the veranda heard and
+suspected nothing.
+
+One was a man, one a woman, both were young, both were
+extraordinarily good-looking, and as they stood in the blaze of the
+gas they made a strikingly handsome and attractive picture on which,
+however, Dunn seemed to look from his hiding-place with hostility
+and watchful suspicion.
+
+"How dark it is, there's not a star showing," the girl was saying.
+"Shall you be able to find your way, even with the lantern?  You'll
+keep to the road, won't you?"
+
+Her voice was low and pleasant and so clear Dunn heard every word
+distinctly.  She seemed quite young, not more than twenty or
+twenty-one, and she was slim and graceful in build and tall for a
+woman.  Her face, on which the light shone directly, was oval in
+shape with a broad, low forehead on which clustered the small,
+unruly curls of her dark brown hair, and she had clear and very
+bright brown eyes.  The mouth and chin were perhaps a little large
+to be in absolute harmony with the rest of her features, and she
+was of a dark complexion, with a soft and delicate bloom that
+would by itself have given her a right to claim her possession of
+a full share of good looks.  She was dressed quite simply in a
+white frock with a touch of colour at the waist and she had a very
+flimsy lace shawl thrown over her shoulders, presumably intended
+as a protection against the night air.
+
+Her companion was a very tall and big man, well over six feet in
+height, with handsome, strongly-marked features that often bore an
+expression a little too haughty, but that showed now a very tender
+and gentle look, so that it was not difficult to guess the state of
+his feelings towards the girl at his side.  His shoulders were broad,
+his chest deep, and his whole build powerful in the extreme, and
+Dunn, looking him up and down with the quick glance of one accustomed
+to judge men, thought that he had seldom seen one more capable of
+holding his own.
+
+Answering his companion's remark, he said lightly:
+
+"Oh, no, I shall cut across the wood, it's ever so much shorter,
+you know."
+
+"But it's so dark and lonely," the girl protested.  "And then, after
+last week--"
+
+He interrupted her with a laugh, and he lifted his head with a
+certain not unpleasing swagger.
+
+"I don't think they'll trouble me for all their threats," he said.
+"For that matter, I rather hope they will try something of the sort
+on.  They need a lesson."
+
+"Oh, I do hope you'll be careful," the girl exclaimed.
+
+He laughed again and made another lightly-confident, almost-boastful
+remark, to the effect that he did not think any one was likely to
+interfere with him.
+
+For a minute or two longer they lingered, chatting together as they
+stood in the gas-light on the veranda and from his hiding-place Dunn
+watched them intently.  It seemed that it was the girl in whom he
+was chiefly interested, for his eyes hardly moved from her and in
+them there showed a very grim and hard expression.
+
+"Pretty enough," he mused.  "More than pretty.  No wonder poor
+Charles raved about her, if it's the same girl--if it is, she ought
+to know what's become of him.  But then, where does this big chap
+come in?"
+
+The "big chap" seemed really going now, though reluctantly, and it
+was not difficult to see that he would have been very willing to
+stay longer had she given him the least encouragement.
+
+But that he did not get, and indeed it seemed as if she were a
+little bored and a little anxious for him to say good night and go.
+
+At last he did so, and she retired within the house, while he came
+swinging down the garden path, passing close to where Dunn lay
+hidden, but without any suspicion of his presence, and out into the
+high road.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE FIGHT IN THE WOOD
+
+
+From his hiding-place in the bushes Dunn slipped out, as the big
+man vanished into the darkness down the road, and for the fraction
+of a second he seemed to hesitate.
+
+The lights in the house were coming and going after a fashion that
+suggested that the inmates were preparing for bed, and almost at
+once Dunn turned his back to the building and hurried very quickly
+and softly down the road in the direction the big man had just
+taken.
+
+"After all," he thought, "the house can't run away, that will be
+still there when I come back, and I ought to find out who this big
+chap is and where he comes from."
+
+In spite of the apparent clumsiness of his build and the ungainliness
+of his movements it was extraordinary how swiftly and how quietly he
+moved, a shadow could scarcely have made less sound than this man
+did as he melted through the darkness and a swift runner would have
+difficulty in keeping pace with him.
+
+An old labourer going home late bade the big man a friendly good
+night and passed on without seeing or hearing Dunn following close
+behind, and a solitary woman, watching at her cottage door, saw
+plainly the big man's tall form and heard his firm and heavy steps
+and would have been ready to swear no other passed that way at that
+time, though Dunn was not five yards behind, slipping silently and
+swiftly by in the shelter of the trees lining the road.
+
+A little further beyond this cottage a path, reached by climbing a
+stile, led from the high road first across an open field and then
+through the heart of a wood that seemed to be of considerable extent.
+
+The man Dunn was following crossed this stile and when he had gone
+a yard or two along the path he halted abruptly, as though all at
+once grown uneasy, and looked behind.
+
+From where he stood any one following him across the stile must have
+shown plainly visible against the sky line, but though he lingered
+for a moment or two, and even, when he walked on, still looked back
+very frequently, he saw nothing.
+
+Yet Dunn, when his quarry paused and looked back like this, was only
+a little distance behind, and when the other moved on Dunn was still
+very near.
+
+But he had not crossed the stile, for when he came to it he realised
+that in climbing it his form would be plainly visible in outline for
+some distance, and so instead, he had found and crawled through a gap
+in the hedge not far away.
+
+They came, Dunn so close and so noiseless behind his quarry he might
+well have seemed the other's shadow, to the outskirts of the wood,
+and as they entered it Dunn made his first fault, his first failure
+in an exhibition of woodcraft that a North American Indian or an
+Australian "black-fellow" might have equalled, but could not have
+surpassed.
+
+For he trod heavily on a dry twig that snapped with a very loud,
+sharp retort, clearly audible for some distance in the quiet night,
+and, as dry twigs only snap like that under the pressure of
+considerable weight, the presence of some living creature in the
+wood other than the small things that run to and fro beneath the
+trees, stood revealed to all ears that could hear.
+
+Dunn stood instantly perfectly still, rigid as a statue, listening
+intently, and he noted with satisfaction and keen relief that the
+regular heavy tread of the man in front did not alter or change.
+
+"Good," he thought to himself.  "What luck, he hasn't heard it."
+
+He moved on again, as silently as before, perhaps a little inclined
+to be contemptuous of any one who could fail to notice so plain a
+warning, and he supposed that the man he was following must be some
+townsman who knew nothing at all of the life of the country and was,
+like so many of the dwellers in cities, blind and deaf outside the
+range of the noises of the streets and the clamour of passing traffic.
+
+This thought was still in his mind when all at once the steady sound
+of footsteps he had been following ceased suddenly and abruptly, cut
+off on the instant as you turn off water from a tap.
+
+Dunn paused, too, supposing that for some reason the other had
+stopped for a moment and would soon walk on again.
+
+But a minute passed and then another and there was still no sound of
+the footsteps beginning again.  A little puzzled, Dunn moved
+cautiously forward.
+
+He saw nothing, he found nothing, there was no sign at all of the
+man he had been following.
+
+It was as though he had vanished bodily from the face of the earth,
+and yet how this had happened, or why, or what had become of him,
+Dunn could not imagine, for this spot was, it seemed, in the very
+heart of the wood, there was no shelter of any sort or kind anywhere
+near, and though there were trees all round just the ground was
+fairly open.
+
+"Well, that's jolly queer," he muttered, for indeed it had a strange
+and daunting effect, this sudden disappearance in the midst of the
+wood of the man he had followed so far, and the silence around seemed
+all the more intense now that those regular and heavy footsteps had
+ceased.
+
+"Jolly queer, as queer a thing as ever I came across," he muttered
+again.
+
+He listened and heard a faint sound from his right.  He listened
+again and thought he heard a rustling on his left, but was not sure
+and all at once a great figure loomed up gigantic before him and the
+light of lantern gleamed in his face.
+
+"Now, my man," a voice said, "you've been following me ever since I
+left Bittermeads, and I'm going to give you a lesson you won't
+forget in a hurry."
+
+Dunn stood quite still.  At the moment his chief feeling was one of
+intense discomfiture at the way in which he had been outwitted, and
+he experienced, too, a very keen and genuine admiration for the
+woodcraft the other had shown.
+
+Evidently, all the time he had known, or at any rate, suspected,
+that he was being followed, and choosing this as a favourable spot
+he had quietly doubled on his tracks, come up behind his pursuer,
+and taken him unawares.
+
+Dunn had not supposed there was a man in England who could have
+played such a trick on him, but his admiration was roughly disturbed
+before he could express it, for the grasp upon his collar tightened
+and upon his shoulders there alighted a tremendous, stinging blow,
+as with all his very considerable strength, the big man brought down
+his walking-stick with a resounding thwack.
+
+The sheer surprise of it, the sudden sharp pain, jerked a quick cry
+from Dunn, who had not been in the least prepared for such an attack,
+and in the darkness had not seen the stick rise, and the other
+laughed grimly.
+
+"Yes, you scoundrel," he said.  "I know very well who you are and
+what you want, and I'm going to thrash you within an inch of your
+life."
+
+Again the stick rose in the air, but did not fall, for round about
+his body Dunn laid such a grip as he had never felt before and as
+would for certain have crushed in the ribs of a weaker man.  The
+lantern crashed to the ground, they were in darkness.
+
+"Ha!  Would you?" the man exclaimed, taken by surprise in his turn,
+and, giant as he was, he felt himself plucked up from the ground as
+you pluck a weed from a lawn and held for a moment in mid-air and
+then dashed down again.
+
+Perhaps not another man alive could have kept his footing under
+such treatment, but, somehow, he managed to, though it needed all
+his great strength to resist the shock.
+
+He flung away his walking-stick, for he realized very clearly now
+that this was not going to be, as he had anticipated, a mere case
+of the administration of a deserved punishment, but rather the
+starkest, fiercest fight that ever he had known.
+
+He grappled with his enemy, trying to make the most of his superior
+height and weight, but the long arms twined about him, seemed to
+press the very breath from his body and for all the huge efforts he
+put forth with every ounce of his tremendous strength behind them,
+he could not break loose from the no less tremendous grip wherein
+he was taken.
+
+Breast to breast they fought, straining, swaying a little this way
+or that, but neither yielding an inch.  Their muscles stood out like
+bars of steel, their breath came heavily, neither man was conscious
+any more of anything save his need to conquer and win and overthrow
+his enemy.
+
+The quick passion of hot rage that had come upon Dunn when he felt
+the other's unexpected blow still burned and flamed intensely, so
+that he no longer remembered even the strange and high purpose which
+had brought him here.
+
+His adversary, too, had lost all consciousness of all other things
+in the lust of this fierce physical battle, and when he gave
+presently a loud, half-strangled shout, it was not fear that he
+uttered or a cry for aid, but solely for joy in such wild struggle
+and efforts as he had never known before.
+
+And Dunn spake no word and uttered no sound, but strove all the more
+with all the strength of every nerve and muscle he possessed once
+again to pluck the other up that he might dash him down a second
+time.
+
+In quick and heavy gasps came their breaths as they still swayed
+and struggled together, and though each exerted to the utmost a
+strength few could have withstood, each found that in the other he
+seemed to have met his match.
+
+In vain Dunn tried again to lift his adversary up so that he might
+hurl him to the ground.  It was an effort, a grip that seemed as
+though it might have torn up an oak by the roots, but the other
+neither budged nor flinched beneath it.
+
+And in vain, in his turn, did he try to bend Dunn backwards to crush
+him to the earth, it was an effort before which one might have
+thought that iron and stone must have given away, but Dunn still
+sustained it.
+
+Thus dreadfully they fought, there in the darkness, there in the
+silence of the night.
+
+Dreadfully they wrestled, implacable, fierce, determined, every
+primeval passion awake and strong again, and slowly, very slowly,
+that awful grip laid upon the big man's body began to tell.
+
+His breathing grew more difficult, his efforts seemed aimed more
+to release himself than to overcome his adversary, he gave way an
+inch or two, no more, but still an inch or two of ground.
+
+There was a sharp sound, like a thin, dry twig snapping beneath a
+careless foot.
+
+It was one of his ribs breaking beneath the dreadful and
+intolerable pressure of Dunn's enormous grip.  But neither of the
+combatants heard or knew, and with one last effort the big man put
+forth all his vast strength in a final attempt to bear his enemy
+down.
+
+Dunn resisted still, resisted, though the veins stood out like
+cords on his brow, though a little trickle of blood crept from
+the corner of his mouth and though his heart swelled almost to
+bursting.
+
+There was a sound of many waters in his ears, the darkness all
+around grew shot with little flames, he could hear some one
+breathing very noisily and he was not sure whether this were himself
+or his adversary till he realized that it was both of them.  With
+one sudden, almost superhuman effort, he heaved his great adversary
+up, but had not strength enough left to do more than let him slip
+from his grasp to fall on the ground, and with the effort he himself
+dropped forward on his hands and knees, just as a lantern shone at
+a distance and a voice cried:
+
+"This way, Tom.  Master John, Master John, where are you?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A COINCIDENCE
+
+
+Another voice answered from near by and Dunn scrambled hurriedly to
+his feet.
+
+He had but a moment in which to decide what to do, for these new
+arrivals were coming at a run and would be upon him almost instantly
+if he stayed where he was.
+
+That they were friends of the man he had just overthrown and whose
+huge bulk lay motionless in the darkness at his feet, seemed plain,
+and it also seemed plain to him that the moment was not an opportune
+one for offering explanations.
+
+Swiftly he decided to slip away into the darkness.  What had
+happened might be cleared up later when he knew more and was more
+sure of his ground; at present he must think first, he told himself,
+of the success of his mission.
+
+Physically, he was greatly exhausted and his gait was not so steady
+nor his progress so silent and skillful as it had been before, as
+now he hurried away from the scene of the combat.
+
+But the two new-comers made no attempt to pursue him and indeed did
+not seem to give his possible presence in the vicinity even a
+thought, as with many muttered exclamations of dismay and anger,
+they stooped over the body of his prostrate enemy.
+
+It was evident they recognized him at once, and that he was the "Mr.
+John" whose name they had called, for so they spoke of him to each
+other as they busied themselves about him.
+
+"I expect I've been a fool again," Dunn thought to himself ruefully,
+as from a little distance, well-sheltered in the darkness, he
+crouched upon the ground and listened and watched.  "I may have
+ruined everything.  Any one but a fool would have asked him what he
+meant when he hit out like that instead of flying into a rage and
+hitting back the way I did.  Most likely it was some mistake when
+he said he knew who I was and what I wanted--at least if it
+wasn't--I hope I haven't killed him, anyhow."
+
+Secure in the protection the dark night afforded him, he remained
+sufficiently near at hand to be able to assure himself soon that
+his overthrown adversary was certainly not killed, for now he began
+to express himself somewhat emphatically concerning the manner in
+which the two new-comers were ministering to him.
+
+Presently he got to his feet and, with one of them supporting him
+on each side, began to limp away, and Dunn followed them, though
+cautiously and at a distance, for he was still greatly exhausted
+and in neither the mood nor the condition for running unnecessary
+risks.
+
+The big man, Mr. John, as the others called him, seemed little
+inclined for speech, but the others talked a good deal, subsiding
+sometimes when he told them gruffly to be quiet but invariably
+soon beginning again their expressions of sympathy and vows of
+vengeance against his unknown assailant.
+
+"How many of them do you think there were, Mr. John, sir?" one
+asked presently.  "I'll lay you marked a fair sight of the villains."
+
+"There was only one man," Mr. John answered briefly.
+
+"Only one?" the other repeated in great surprise.  "For the Lord's
+sake, Mr. John--only one?  Why, there ain't any one man between
+here and Lunnon town could stand up to you, sir, in a fair tussle."
+
+"Well, he did," Mr. John answered.  "He had the advantage, he took
+me by surprise, but I never felt such a grip in my life."
+
+"Lor', now, think of that," said the other in tones in which
+surprise seemed mingled with a certain incredulity.  "It don't
+seem possible, but for sure, then, he don't come from these here
+parts, that I'll stand to."
+
+"I knew that much before," retorted Mr. John.  "I said all the time
+they were outsiders, a London gang very likely.  You'll have to get
+Dr. Rawson, Bates.  I don't know what's up, but I've a beast of a
+pain in my side.  I can hardly breathe."
+
+Bates murmured respectful sympathy as they came out of the shelter
+of the trees, and crossing some open ground, reached a road along
+the further side of which ran a high brick wall.
+
+In this, nearly opposite the spot where they emerged on the road,
+was a small door which one of the men opened and through which they
+passed and locked it behind them, leaving Dunn without.
+
+He hesitated for a moment, half-minded to scale the wall and
+continue on the other side of it to follow them.
+
+Calculating the direction in which the village of Ramsdon must lie,
+he turned that way and had gone only a short distance when he was
+overtaken by a pedestrian with whom he began conversation by asking
+for a light for his pipe.
+
+The man seemed inclined to be conversational, and after a few casual
+remarks, Dunn made an observation on the length of the wall they
+were passing and to the end of which they had just come.
+
+"Must be a goodish-sized place in there," he said.  "Whose is it?"
+
+"Oh, that there's Ramsdon Place," the other answered.  "Mr. John
+Clive lives there now his father's dead."
+
+Dunn stood still in the middle of the road.
+
+"Who?  What?" he stammered.  "Who--who did you say?"
+
+"Mr. John Clive," the other repeated.  "Why--what's wrong about
+that?"
+
+"Nothing, nothing," Dunn answered, but his voice shook a little
+with what seemed almost fear, and behind the darkness of the
+friendly night his face had become very pale.  "Clive--John
+Clive, you say?  Oh, that's impossible."
+
+"Needn't believe it if you don't want to," grumbled the other.
+"Only what do you want asking questions for if you thinks folks
+tells lies when they answers them?"
+
+"I didn't mean that, of course not," exclaimed Dunn hurriedly, by
+no means anxious to offend the other.  "I'm very sorry, I only meant
+it was impossible it should be the same Mr. John Clive I knew once,
+though I think he came from about here somewhere.  A little,
+middle-aged man, I mean, quite bald and wears glasses?"
+
+"Oh, that ain't this 'un," answered the other, his good humour quite
+restored.  "This is a young man and tremendous big.  I ain't so
+small myself, but he tops me by a head and shoulders and so he does
+most hereabouts.  Strong, too, with it, there ain't so many would
+care to stand up against him, I can tell you.  Why, they do say he
+caught two poachers in the wood there last month and brought 'em out
+one under each arm like a pair of squealing babes."
+
+"Did he, though?" said Dunn.  "Take some doing, that, and I daresay
+the rest of the gang will try to get even with him for it."
+
+"Well, they do say as there's been threats," the other agreed.  "But
+what I says is as Mr. John can look after hisself all right.  There
+was a tale as a man had been dodging after him at night, but all he
+said when they told him, was as if he caught any one after him he
+would thrash them within an inch of their lives."
+
+"Serve them right, too," exclaimed Dunn warmly.
+
+Evidently this explained, in part at least, what had recently
+happened.  Mr. Clive, finding himself being followed, had supposed
+it was one of his poaching enemies and had at once attempted to
+carry out his threat he had made.
+
+Dunn told himself, at any rate, the error would have the result of
+turning all suspicion away from him, and yet he still seemed very
+disturbed and ill at ease.
+
+"Has Mr. Clive been here long?" he asked.
+
+"It must be four or five years since his father bought the place,"
+answered his new acquaintance.  "Then, when the old man was killed
+a year ago, Mr. John inherited everything."
+
+"Old Mr. Clive was killed, was he?" asked Dunn, and his voice
+sounded very strange in the darkness.  "How was that?"
+
+"Accident to his motor-car," the other replied.  "I don't hold with
+them things myself--give me a good horse, I say.  People didn't
+like the old man much, and some say Mr. John's too fond of taking
+the high hand.  But don't cross him and he won't cross you, that's
+his motto and there's worse."
+
+Dunn agreed and asked one or two more questions about the details
+of the accident to old Mr. Clive, in which he seemed very interested.
+
+But he did not get much more information about that concerning which
+his new friend evidently knew very little.  However, he gave Dunn a
+few more facts concerning Mr. John Clive, as that he was unmarried,
+was said to be very wealthy, and had the reputation of being
+something of a ladies' man.
+
+A little further on they parted, and Dunn took a side road which he
+calculated should lead him back to Bittermeads.
+
+"It may be pure coincidence," he mused as he walked slowly in a very
+troubled and doubtful mood.  "But if so, it's a very queer one, and
+if it isn't, it seems to me Mr. John Clive might as well put his
+head in a lion's jaws as pay visits at Bittermeads.  But of course
+he can't have the least suspicion of the truth--if it is the truth.
+If I hadn't lost my temper like a fool when he whacked out at me
+like that I might have been able to warn him, or find out something
+useful perhaps.  And his father killed recently in an accident--is
+that a coincidence, too, I wonder?"
+
+He passed his hand across his forehead on which a light sweat stood,
+though he was not a man easily affected, for he had seen and endured
+many things.
+
+His mind was very full of strange and troubled thoughts as at last
+he came back to Bittermeads, where, leaning with his elbows on the
+garden gate, he stood for a long time, watching the dark and silent
+house and thinking of that scene of which he had been a spectator
+when John Clive and the girl had stood together on the veranda in
+the light of the gas from the hall and had bidden each other good
+night.
+
+"It seems," he mused, "as though the last that was seen of poor
+Charley must have been just like that.  It was just such a dark
+night as this when Simpson saw him.  He was standing on that
+veranda when Simpson recognized him by the light of the gas behind,
+and a girl was bidding him good night--a very pretty girl, too,
+Simpson said."
+
+Silent and immobile he stood there a long time, not so much now as
+one who watched, but rather as if deep in thought, for his head was
+bent and supported on his hands and his eyes were fixed on the
+ground.
+
+"As for this John Clive," he muttered presently, rousing himself.
+"I suppose that must be a coincidence, but it's queer, and queer
+the father should have died--like that."
+
+He broke off, shuddering slightly, as though at thoughts too awful
+to be endured, and pushing open the gate, he walked slowly up the
+gravel path towards the house, round which he began to walk, going
+very slowly and cautiously and often pausing as if he wished to
+make as close examination of the place as the darkness would permit.
+
+More by habit than because he thought there was any need of it, he
+moved always with that extreme and wonderful dexterity of quietness
+he could assume at will, and as he turned the corner of the building
+and came behind it, his quick ear, trained by many an emergency to
+pick out the least unusual sound, caught a faint, continued
+scratching noise, so faint and low it might well have passed
+unnoticed.
+
+All at once he understood and realized that some one quite close at
+hand was stealthily cutting out the glass from one of the panes of
+a ground-floor window.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A WOMAN WEEPS
+
+
+Cautiously he glided nearer, moving as noiselessly as any shadow,
+seeming indeed but one shadow the more in the heavy surrounding
+darkness.
+
+The persistent scratching noise continued, and Dunn was now so close
+he could have put out his hand and touched the shoulder of the man
+who was causing it and who still, intent and busy, had not the least
+idea of the other's proximity.
+
+A faint smile touched Dunn's lips.  The situation seemed not to be
+without a grim humour, for if one-half of what he suspected were
+true, one might as sensibly and safely attempt to break into the
+condemned cell at Pentonville Gaol as into this quiet house.
+
+But then, was it perhaps possible that this fellow, working away so
+unconcernedly, within arm's-length of him, was in reality one of
+them, seeking to obtain admittance in this way for some reason of
+his own, some private treachery, it might be, or some dispute?  To
+Dunn that did not seem likely.  More probably the fellow was merely
+an ordinary burglar--some local practitioner of the housebreaking
+art, perhaps--whose ill-fortune it was to have hit upon this house
+to rob without his having the least idea of the nature of the place
+he was trying to enter.
+
+"He might prove a useful recruit for them, though," Dunn thought,
+and a sudden idea flashed into his mind, vivid and startling.
+
+For one moment he thought intently, weighing in his mind this idea
+that had come to him so suddenly.  He was not blind to the risks it
+involved, but his eager temperament always inclined him to the most
+direct and often to the most dangerous course.  His mind was made up,
+his plan of action decided.
+
+The scratching of the burglar's tool upon the glass ceased.  Already
+he had smeared treacle over the square of glass he intended to
+remove and had covered it with paper so as to be able to take it out
+easily and in one piece without the risk of falling fragments
+betraying him.
+
+Through the gap thus made he thrust his arm and made sure there were
+no alarms fitted and no obstacles in the way of his easy entrance.
+
+Cautiously he unfastened the window and cautiously and silently
+lifted the sash, and when he had done so he paused and listened for
+a space to make sure no one was stirring and that no alarm had been
+caused within the house.
+
+Still very cautiously and with the utmost precaution to avoid making
+even the least noise, he put one knee upon the window-sill,
+preparatory to climbing in, and as he did so Dunn touched him lightly
+on the shoulder.
+
+"Well, my man, what are you up to?" he said softly.  And without a
+word, without giving the least warning, the burglar, a man evidently
+of determination and resource, swung round and aimed at Dunn's head
+a tremendous blow with the heavy iron jemmy he held in his right
+hand.
+
+But Dunn was not unprepared for an attack and those bright, keen
+eyes of his seemed able to see as well in the dark as in the light.
+He threw up his left hand and caught the other's wrist before that
+deadly blow he aimed could descend and at the same instant he
+dashed his own clenched fist full into the burglar's face.
+
+As it happened, more by good luck than intended aim, the blow took
+him on the point of the chin.  He dropped instantly, collapsing in
+on himself as falls a pole-axed bullock, and lay, unconscious, in a
+crumpled heap on the ground.
+
+For a little Dunn waited, crouching above him and listening for the
+least sound to show that their brief scuffle had been heard.
+
+But it had all passed nearly as silently as quickly.  Within the
+house everything remained silent, there was no sound audible, no
+gleam of light to show that any of the inmates had been disturbed.
+
+Taking from his pocket a small electric flash-lamp Dunn turned its
+light on his victim.
+
+He seemed a man of middle age with a brutal, heavy-jawed face and a
+low, receding forehead.  His lips, a little apart, showed yellow,
+irregular teeth, of which two at the front of the lower jaw had been
+broken, and the scar of an old wound, running from the corner of his
+left eye down to the centre of his cheek, added to the sinister and
+forbidding aspect he bore.
+
+His build was heavy and powerful and near by, where he had dropped
+it when he fell, lay the jemmy with which he had struck at Dunn.
+It was a heavy, ugly-looking thing, about two feet in length and
+with one end nearly as sharp as that of a chisel.
+
+Dunn picked it up and felt it thoughtfully.
+
+"Just as well I got my blow in first," he mused.  "If he had landed
+that fairly on my skull I don't think anything else in this world
+would ever have interested me any more."
+
+Stooping over the unconscious man, he felt in his pockets and found
+an ugly-looking revolver, fully loaded, a handful of cartridges, a
+coil of thin rope, an electric torch, a tiny dark lantern no bigger
+than a match-box, and so arranged that the single drop of light it
+permitted to escape fell on one spot only, a bunch of
+curiously-shaped wires Dunn rightly guessed to be skeleton keys
+used for opening locks quietly, together with some tobacco, a pipe,
+a little money, and a few other personal belongings of no special
+interest or significance.
+
+These Dunn replaced where he had found them, but the revolver, the
+rope, the torch, the dark lantern, and the bunch of wires he took
+possession of.
+
+He noticed also that the man was wearing rubber-soled boots and
+rubber gloves, and these last he also kept.  Stooping, he lifted the
+unconscious man on to his shoulder and carried him with perfect ease
+and at a quick pace out of the garden and across the road to the
+common opposite, where, in a convenient spot, behind some furze
+bushes, he laid him down.
+
+"When he comes round," Dunn muttered.  "He won't know where he is
+or what's happened, and probably his one idea will be to clear off
+as quickly as possible.  I don't suppose he'll interfere with me at
+all."
+
+Then a new idea seemed to strike him, and he hurriedly removed his
+own coat and trousers and boots and exchanged them for those the
+burglar was wearing.
+
+They were not a good fit, but he could get them on and the idea in
+his mind was that if the police of the district began searching, as
+very likely they would, for Mr. John Clive's assailant, and if they
+had discovered any clues in the shape of footprints or torn bits of
+clothing or buttons--and Dunn knew his attire had suffered
+considerably during the struggle--then it would be as well that
+such clues should lead not to him, but to this other man, who, if
+he were innocent on that score, had at any rate been guilty of
+attempting to carry out a much worse offence.
+
+"I'm afraid your luck's out, old chap," Dunn muttered, apostrophizing
+the unconscious man.  "But you did your best to brain me, and that
+gives me a sort of right to make you useful.  Besides, if the police
+do run you in, it won't mean anything worse than a few questions it'll
+be your own fault if you can't answer.  Anyhow, I can't afford to run
+the risk of some blundering fool of a policeman trying to arrest me
+for assaulting the local magnate."
+
+Much relieved in mind, for he had been greatly worried by a fear that
+this encounter with John Clive might lead to highly inconvenient legal
+proceedings, he left the unlucky burglar lying in the shelter of the
+furze bushes and returned to the house.
+
+All was as he had left it, the open window gaped widely, almost
+inviting entrance, and he climbed silently within.  The apartment
+in which he found himself was apparently the drawing-room and he
+felt his way cautiously and slowly across it, moving with infinite
+care so as to avoid making even the least noise.
+
+Reaching the door, he opened it and went out into the hall.  All
+was dark and silent.  He permitted himself here to flash on his
+electric torch for a moment, and he saw that the hall was spacious
+and used as a lounge, for there were several chairs clustered in
+its centre, opposite the fireplace.  There were two or three doors
+opening from it, and almost opposite where he stood were the stairs,
+a broad flight leading to a wide landing above.
+
+Still with the same extreme silence and care, he began to ascend
+these stairs and when he was about half-way up he became aware of
+a faint and strange sound that came trembling through the silence
+and stillness of the night.
+
+What it was he could not imagine.  He listened for a time and then
+resumed his silent progress with even more care than previously,
+and only when he reached the landing did he understand that this
+faint and low sound he heard was caused by a woman weeping very
+softly in one of the rooms near by.
+
+Silently he crossed the landing in the direction whence the sound
+seemed to come.  Now, too, he saw a thread of light showing beneath
+a door at a little distance, and when he crept up to it and listened
+he could hear for certain that it was from within this room that
+there came the sound of muffled, passionate weeping.
+
+The door was closed, but he turned the handle so carefully that he
+made not the least sound and very cautiously he began to push the
+door back, the tiniest fraction of an inch at a time, so that even
+one watching closely could never have said that it moved.
+
+When, after a long time, during which the muffled weeping never
+ceased, he had it open an inch or two, he leaned forward and peeped
+within.
+
+It was a bed-chamber, and, crouching on the floor near the fireplace,
+in front of a low arm-chair, her head hidden on her arms and resting
+on the seat of the chair, was the figure of a girl.  She had made no
+preparations for retiring, and by the frock she wore Dunn recognized
+her as the girl he had seen on the veranda bidding good-bye to John
+Clive.
+
+The sound of her weeping was very pitiful, her attitude was full of
+an utter and poignant despair, there was something touching in the
+extreme in the utter abandonment to grief shown by this young and
+lovely creature who seemed framed only for joy and laughter.
+
+The stern features and hard eyes of the unseen watcher softened,
+then all at once they grew like tempered steel again.
+
+For on the mantlepiece, just above where the weeping girl crouched,
+stood a photograph--the photograph of a young and good-looking,
+gaily-smiling man.  Across it, in a boyish and somewhat unformed
+hand, was written
+
+            "Devotedly yours,
+                      Charley Wright."
+
+It was this photograph that had caught Dunn's eyes.  Both it and
+the writing and the signature he recognized, and his look was very
+stern, his eyes as cold as death itself, as slowly, slowly he pushed
+back the door of the room another inch or so.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A WOMAN AND A MAN
+
+
+The girl stirred.  It was as though some knowledge of the slow
+opening of the door had penetrated to her consciousness before as
+yet she actually saw or heard anything.
+
+She rose to her feet, drying her eyes with her handkerchief, and
+as she was moving to a drawer near to get a clean one her glance
+fell on the partially-open door.
+
+"I thought I shut it," she said aloud in a puzzled manner.
+
+She crossed the floor to the door and closed it with a push from
+her hand and in the passage outside Dunn stood still, not certain
+what to do next.
+
+But for that photograph he might have gone quietly away, giving up
+the reckless plan that had formed itself so suddenly in his mind
+while he watched the burglar at work.
+
+That photograph, however, with its suggestion that he stood indeed
+on the brink of the solution of the mystery, seemed a summons to
+him to go on.  It was as though a voice from the dead called him to
+continue on his task to punish and to save, and slowly, very slowly,
+with an infinite caution, he turned again the handle of the door
+and still very slowly, still with the same infinite caution, he
+pushed back the door the merest fraction of an inch at a time so
+that not even one watching could have said that it moved.
+
+When he had it once more so far open that he could see within, he
+bent forward to look.  The girl was beginning her preparations for
+the night now.  She had assumed a long, comfortable-looking
+dressing-gown and, standing in front of the mirror, she had just
+finished brushing her hair and was beginning to fasten it up in a
+long plait.  He could see her face in the mirror; her deep, sad
+eyes, swollen with crying, her cheeks still tear-stained, her mouth
+yet quivering with barely-repressed emotion.
+
+He was still watching her when, as if growing uneasy, she turned
+her head and glanced over her shoulder, and though he moved back
+so quickly that she did not catch sight of him, she saw that the
+door was open once more.
+
+"What can be the matter with the door?" she exclaimed aloud, and
+she crossed the room towards it with a quick and somewhat impatient
+movement.
+
+But this time, instead of closing it, she pulled it open and found
+herself face to face with Dunn.
+
+He did not speak or move, and she stood staring at him blankly.
+Slowly her mouth opened as though to utter a cry that, however,
+could not rise above her fluttering throat.  Her face had taken on
+the pallor of death, her great eyes showed the awful fear she felt.
+
+Still without speaking, Dunn stepped forward into the room and,
+closing the door, stood with his back to it.
+
+She shrank away and put her hand upon a chair, but for the support
+of which she must certainly have fallen, for her limbs were
+trembling so violently they gave her little support.
+
+"Don't hurt me," she panted.
+
+In truth he presented a strange and terrifying appearance.  The
+unkempt hair that covered his face and through which his keen eyes
+glowed like fire, gave him an unusual and formidable aspect.  In
+one hand he held the ugly-looking jemmy he had taken from the
+burglar, and the new clothes he had donned, ill-fitting and soiled,
+served to accentuate the ungainliness of his form.
+
+The frightened girl was not even sure that he was human, and she
+shrank yet further away from him till she sank down upon the bed,
+dizzy with fear and almost swooning.
+
+As yet he had not spoken, for his eyes had gone to the mantlepiece
+on which he saw that the photograph signed with the name "Charley
+Wright," did not now stand upright, but had fallen forward on its
+face so that one could no longer see what it represented.
+
+It must have fallen just as he entered the room and this seemed to
+him an omen, though whether of good or ill, he did not know.
+
+"Who are you?" the girl stammered.  "What do you want?"
+
+He looked at her moodily and still without answering, though in his
+bright and keen eyes a strange light burned.
+
+She was lovely, he thought, of that there could be no question.
+But her beauty made to him small appeal, for he was wondering what
+kind of soul lay behind those perfect features, that smooth and
+delicate skin, those luminous eyes.  Yet his eyes were still hard
+and it was in his roughest, gruffest tones that he said:
+
+"You needn't be afraid, I won't hurt you."
+
+"I'll give you everything I have," she panted, "if only you'll go
+away."
+
+"Not so fast as all that," he answered, coolly, for indeed he had
+not taken so mad a risk in order to go away again if he could help
+it.  "Who is there in the house besides you?"
+
+"Only mother," she answered, looking up at him very pleadingly as
+if in hopes that he must relent when he saw her in distress.
+"Please, won't you take what you want and go away?  Please don't
+disturb mother, it would nearly kill her."
+
+"I'm not going to hurt either you or your mother if you'll be
+sensible," he said irritably, for, unreasonably enough, the extreme
+fear she showed and her pleading tones annoyed him.  He had a
+feeling that he would like to shake her, it was so absurd of her
+to look at him as though she expected him to gobble her up in a
+mouthful.
+
+She seemed a little reassured.
+
+"Mother will be so dreadfully frightened," she repeated, "I'll give
+you everything there is in the house if only you'll go at once."
+
+"I can take everything I want without your giving it me," he
+retorted.  "How do I know you're telling the truth when you say
+there's no one else in the house?  How many servants have you?"
+
+"None," she answered.  "There's a woman comes every day, but she
+doesn't sleep here."
+
+"Do you live all alone here with your mother?" he asked, watching
+her keenly.
+
+"There's my stepfather," she answered.  "But he's not here tonight."
+
+"Oh, is he away?" Dunn asked, his expression almost one of
+disappointment.
+
+The girl, whose first extreme fear had passed and who was watching
+him as keenly as he watched her, noticed this manner of
+disappointment, and could not help wondering what sort of burglar
+it was who was not pleased to hear that the man of the house was
+away, and that he had only two women to deal with.
+
+And it appeared to her that he seemed not only disappointed, but
+rather at a loss what to do next.
+
+As in truth he was, for that the stepfather should be away, and this
+girl and her mother all alone, was, perhaps, the one possibility that
+he had never considered.
+
+She noticed, too, that he did not pay any attention to her jewellery,
+which was lying close to his hand on the toilet-table, and though in
+point of actual fact this jewellery was not of any great value, it
+was exceedingly precious in her eyes, and she did not understand a
+burglar who showed no eagerness to seize on it.
+
+"Did you want to see Mr. Dawson?" she asked, her voice more
+confident now and even with a questioning note in it.
+
+"Mr. Dawson!  Who's he?" Dunn asked, disconcerted by the question,
+but not wishing to seem so.
+
+"My stepfather, Mr. Deede Dawson," she answered.  "I think you knew
+that.  If you want him, he went to London early today, but I think
+it's quite likely he may come back tonight."
+
+"What should I want him for?" growled Dunn, more and more,
+disconcerted, as he saw that he was not playing his part too well.
+
+"I don't know," she answered.  "I suppose you do."
+
+"You suppose a lot," he retorted roughly.  "Now you listen to me.
+I don't want to hurt you, but I don't mean to be interfered with.
+I'm going over the house to see what I can find that's worth
+taking.  Understand?"
+
+"Oh, perfectly," she said.
+
+She was watching him closely, and she noticed that he still made no
+attempt to take possession of her jewellery, though it lay at his
+hand, and that puzzled her very much, indeed, for she supposed the
+very first thing a burglar did was always to seize such treasures
+as these of hers.  But this man paid them no attention whatever, and
+did not even notice them.
+
+He was feeling in his pockets now and he took out the revolver and
+the coil of thin rope he had secured from the burglar.
+
+"Now, do you know what I'm going to do?" he asked, with an air of
+roughness and brutality that was a little overdone.  He put the
+revolver and the rope down on the bed, the revolver quite close to
+her.
+
+"I'm going," he continued, "to tie you up to one of those chairs.
+I can't risk your playing any tricks or giving an alarm, perhaps,
+while I'm searching the house.  I shall take what's worth having,
+and then I shall clear off, and if your stepfather's coming home
+tonight you won't have to wait long till he releases you, and if he
+don't come I can't help it."
+
+He turned his back to her as he spoke and took hold of one of the
+chairs in the room, and then of another and looked at them as though
+carefully considering which would be the best to use for the
+carrying out of his threat.
+
+He appeared to find it difficult to decide, for he kept his back
+turned to her for two or three minutes, during all of which time the
+revolver lay on the bed quite close to her hand.
+
+He listened intently for he fully expected her to snatch it up, and
+he wished to be ready to turn before she could actually fire.  But,
+indeed, nothing was further from her thoughts, for she did not know
+in the least how to use the weapon or even how to fire it off, and
+the very thought of employing it to kill any one would have terrified
+her far more even than had done her experiences of this night.
+
+So the pistol lay untouched by her side, while, very pale and
+trembling a little, she waited what he would do, and on his side he
+felt as much puzzled by her failure to use the opportunity he had put
+in her way as she was puzzled by his neglect to seize her jewellery
+lying ready to his hand.
+
+He was still hesitating, still appearing unable to decide which chair
+to employ in carrying out his proclaimed purpose of fastening her up
+when she asked a question that made him swing round upon her very
+quickly and with a very startled look.
+
+"Are you a real burglar?" she said.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A DISCOVERY
+
+
+"What do you mean?" Dunn asked quickly.  The matted growth of hair
+on his face served well to hide any change of expression, but his
+eyes betrayed him with their look of surprise and discomfiture, and
+in her own clear and steady glance appeared now a kind of puzzled
+mockery as if she understood well that all he did was done for some
+purpose, though what that purpose was still perplexed her.
+
+"I mean," she said slowly, "well--what do I mean?  I am only asking
+a question.  Are you a burglar--or have you come here for some
+other reason?"
+
+"I don't know what you're getting at," he grumbled.  "Think I'm here
+for fun?  Not me.  Come and sit on this chair and put your hands
+behind you and don't make a noise, or scream, or anything, not if
+you value your life."
+
+"I don't know that I do very much," she answered with a manner of
+extreme bitterness, but more as if speaking to herself than to him.
+
+She did as he ordered, and he proceeded to tie her wrists together
+and to fasten them to the back of the chair on which she had seated
+herself.  He was careful not to draw the cords too tight, but at the
+same time he made the fastening secure.
+
+"You won't disturb mother, will you?" she asked quietly when he had
+finished.  "Her room's the one at the end of the passage."
+
+"I don't want to disturb any one," he answered.  "I only want to get
+off quietly.  I won't gag you, but don't you try to make any noise,
+if you do I'll come back.  Understand?"
+
+"Oh, perfectly," she answered.  "May I ask one question?  Do you
+feel very proud of yourself just now?"
+
+He did not answer, but went out of the room quickly, and he had an
+impression that she smiled as she watched him go, and that her smile
+was bitter and a little contemptuous.
+
+"What a girl," he muttered.  "She scored every time.  I didn't find
+out a thing, she didn't do anything I expected or wanted her to.
+She seemed as if she spotted me right off--I wonder if she did?  I
+wonder if she could be trusted?"
+
+But then he thought of that photograph on the mantelpiece and his look
+grew stern and hard again.  He was careful to avoid the room the girl
+had indicated as occupied by her mother, but of all the others on that
+floor he made a hasty search without discovering anything to interest
+him or anything of the least importance or at all unusual.
+
+From the wide landing in the centre of the house a narrow stairway,
+hidden away behind an angle of the wall so that one did not notice it
+at first, led above to three large attics with steeply-sloping roofs
+and evidently designed more for storage purposes than for habitation.
+
+The doors of two of these were open and within was merely a collection
+of such lumber as soon accumulates in any house.
+
+The door of the third attic was locked, but by aid of the jemmy he
+still carried, he forced it open without difficulty.
+
+Within was nothing but a square packing-case, standing in the middle
+of the floor.  Otherwise the light of the electric torch he flashed
+around showed only the bare boarding of the floor and the bare
+plastered walls.
+
+Near the packing-case a hammer and some nails lay on the floor and
+the lid was in position but was not fastened, as though some
+interruption had occurred before the task of nailing it down could
+be completed.
+
+Dunn noted that one nail had been driven home, and he was on the
+point of leaving the attic, for he knew he had not much time and
+hoped that downstairs he would be able to make some discoveries of
+importance, when it occurred to him that it might be wise to see
+what was in this case, the nailing down the lid of which had not
+been completed.
+
+He crossed the room to it, and without drawing the one nail, pushed
+back the lid which pivoted on it quite easily.
+
+Within appeared a covering of coarse sacking.  He pulled this away
+with a careless hand, and beneath the beam of his electric torch
+showed the pale and dreadful features of a dead man--of a man, the
+center of whose forehead showed the small round hole where a bullet
+had entered in; of a man whose still-recognizable features were those
+of the photograph on the mantel-piece of the room downstairs, the
+photograph that was signed:
+
+            "Devotedly yours,
+                      Charley Wright."
+
+For a long time Robert Dunn stood, looking down in silence at that
+dead face which was hardly more still, more rigid than his own.
+
+He shivered, for he felt very cold.  It was as though the coldness
+of the death in whose presence he stood had laid its chilly hand on
+him also.
+
+At last he stirred and looked about him with a bewildered air, then
+carefully and with a reverent hand, he put back the sackcloth covering.
+
+"So I've found you, Charley," he whispered.  "Found you at last."
+
+He replaced the lid, leaving everything as it had been when he
+entered the attic, and stood for a time, trying to collect his
+thoughts which the shock of this dreadful discovery had so
+disordered, and to decide what to do next.
+
+"But, then, that's simple," he thought.  "I must go straight to the
+police and bring them here.  They said they wanted proof; they said
+I had nothing to go on but bare suspicion.  But that's evidence
+enough to hang Deede Dawson--the girl, too, perhaps."
+
+Then he wondered whether it could be that she knew nothing and was
+innocent of all part or share in this dreadful deed.  But how could
+that be possible?  How could it be that such a crime committed in
+the house in which she lived could remain unknown to her?
+
+On the other hand, when he thought of her clear, candid eyes; when
+he remembered her gentle beauty, it did not seem conceivable that
+behind them could lie hidden the tigerish soul of a murderess.
+
+"That's only sentiment, though," he muttered.  "Nothing more.
+Beautiful women have been rotten bad through and through before
+today.  There's nothing for me to do but to go and inform the police,
+and get them here as soon as possible.  If she's innocent, I suppose
+she'll be able to prove it."
+
+He hesitated a moment, as he thought of how he had left her, bound
+and a prisoner.
+
+It seemed brutal to leave her like that while he was away, for he
+would probably be some time absent.  But with a hard look, he told
+himself that whatever pain she suffered she must endure it.
+
+His first and sole thought must be to bring to justice the murderers
+of his unfortunate friend; and to secure, too, thereby, the success
+almost certainly of his own mission.
+
+To release her and leave her at liberty might endanger the attainment
+of both those ends, and so she must remain a prisoner.
+
+"Only," he muttered, "if she knew the attic almost over her head
+held such a secret, why, didn't she take the chance I gave her of
+getting hold of my revolver?  That she didn't, looks as if she knew
+nothing."
+
+But then he thought again of the photograph in her room and
+remembered that agony of grief to which she had been surrendering
+herself when he first saw her.  Now those passionate tears of hers
+seemed to him like remorse.
+
+"I'll leave her where she is," he decided again.  "I can't help it;
+I mustn't run any risks.  My first duty is to get the police here and
+have Deede Dawson arrested."
+
+He went down the stairs still deep in thought, and when he reached
+the landing below he would not even go to make sure that his captive
+was still secure.
+
+An obscure feeling that he did not wish to see her, and still more
+that he did not wish her to see him, prevented him.
+
+He descended the second flight of steps to the hall, taking fewer
+precautions to avoid making a noise and still very deep in thought.
+
+For some time he had had but little hope that young Charley Wright
+still lived.
+
+Nevertheless, the dreadful discovery he had made in the attic above
+had affected him profoundly, and left his mind in a chaos of
+emotions so that he was for the time much less acutely watchful than
+usual.
+
+They had spent their boyhood together, and he remembered a thousand
+incidents of their childhood.  They had been at school and college
+together.  And how brilliantly Charley had always done at work and
+play, surmounting every difficulty with a laugh, as if it were merely
+some new and specially amusing jest!
+
+Every one had thought well of him, every one had believed that his
+future career would be brilliant.  Now it had ended in this obscure
+and dreadful fashion, as ends the life of a trapped rat.
+
+Dunn found himself hardly able to realize that it was really so, and
+through all the confused medley of his thoughts there danced and
+flickered his memory of a young and lovely face, now tear-stained,
+now smiling, now pale with terror, now calmly disdainful.
+
+"Can she have known?" he muttered.  "She must have known--she can't
+have known--it's not possible either way."
+
+He shuddered and as he put his foot on the lowest stair he raised
+his hands to cover his face as though to shut out the visions that
+passed before him.
+
+Another step forward he took in the darkness, and all at once there
+flashed upon him the light of a strong electric torch, suddenly
+switched on.
+
+"Put up your hands," said a voice sharply.  "Or you're a dead man."
+
+He looked bewilderedly, taken altogether by surprise, and saw he
+was faced by a fat little man with a smooth, chubby, smiling face
+and eyes that were cold and grey and deadly, and who held in one
+hand a revolver levelled at his heart.
+
+"Put up your hands," this newcomer said again, his voice level and
+calm, his eyes intent and deadly.  "Put up your hands or I fire."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+QUESTION AND ANSWER
+
+
+Dunn obeyed promptly.
+
+There was that about this little fat, smiling man and his unsmiling
+eyes which proclaimed very plainly that he was quite ready to put
+his threat into execution.
+
+For a moment or two they stood thus, each regarding the other very
+intently.  Dunn, his hands in the air, the steady barrel of the
+other's pistol levelled at his heart, knew that never in all his
+adventurous life had he been in such deadly peril as now, and the
+grotesque thought came into his mind to wonder if there were room
+for two in that packing-case in the attic.
+
+Or perhaps no attempt would be made to hide his death since, after
+all, it is always permissible to shoot an armed burglar.
+
+The clock on the stairs began to strike the hour, and he wondered if
+he would still be alive when the last stroke sounded.
+
+He did not much think so for he thought he could read a very deadly
+purpose in the other's cold grey eyes, nor did he suppose that a man
+with such a secret as that of the attic upstairs to hide was likely
+to stand on any scruple.
+
+And he thought that if he still lived when the clock finished striking
+he would take it for an omen of good hope.
+
+The last stroke sounded and died away into the silence of the night.
+
+The revolver was still levelled at his heart, the grim purpose in
+the other's eyes had not changed, and yet Dunn drew a breath of
+deep relief as though the worst of the danger was past.
+
+Through his mind, that had been a little dulled by the sudden
+consciousness of so extreme a peril, thought began again to race
+with more than normal rapidity and clearness.
+
+It occurred to him, with a sense of the irony of the position, that
+when he entered this house it had been with the deliberate intention
+of getting himself discovered by the inmates, believing that to show
+himself to them in the character of a burglar might gain him their
+confidence.
+
+It had seemed to him that so he might come to be accepted as one of
+them and perhaps learn in time the secret of their plans.
+
+The danger that they might adopt the other course of handing him
+over to the police had not seemed to him very great, for he had his
+reasons for believing that there would be no great desire to draw
+the attention of the authorities to Bittermeads for any reason
+whatever.
+
+But the discovery he had made in the attic changed all that.  It
+changed his plans, for now he could go to the police immediately.
+And it changed also his conception of how these people were likely
+to act.
+
+Before, it had not entered his mind to suppose that he ran any
+special risk of being shot at sight, but now he understood that the
+only thing standing between him and instant death was the faint
+doubt in his captor's mind as to how much he knew.
+
+It seemed to him his only hope was to carry out his original plan
+and try to pass himself off as the sort of person who might be
+likely to be useful to the master of Bittermeads.
+
+"Don't shoot, sir," he said, in a kind of high whine.  "I ain't
+done no harm, and it's a fair cop--and me not a month out of
+Dartmoor Gaol.  I shall get a hot 'un for this, I know."
+
+The little fat man did not answer; his eyes were as deadly, the
+muzzle of his pistol as steady as before.
+
+Dunn wondered if it were from that pistol had issued the bullet that
+had drilled so neat and round a hole in his friend's forehead.  He
+supposed so.
+
+He said again
+
+"Don't shoot, Mr. Deede Dawson, sir; I ain't done no harm."
+
+"Oh, you know my name, do you, you scoundrel?"  Deede Dawson said,
+a little surprised.
+
+"Yes, sir," Dunn answered.  "We always find out as much as we can
+about a crib before we get to work."
+
+"I see," said Mr. Dawson.  "Very praiseworthy.  Attention to
+business and all that.  Pray, what did you find out about me?"
+
+"Only as you was to be away tonight, sir," answered Dunn.  "And that
+there didn't seem to be any other man in the house, and, of course,
+how the house lay and the garden, and so.  But I didn't know as you
+was coming home so soon."
+
+"No, I don't suppose you did," said Deede Dawson.
+
+"I ain't done no harm," Dunn urged, making his voice as whining and
+pleading as he could.  "I've only just been looking round the two
+top floors--I ain't touched a thing.  Give a cove a chance, sir."
+
+"You've been looking round, have you?" said Deede Dawson slowly.
+"Did you find anything to interest you?"
+
+"I've only been in the bedrooms and the attics," answered Dunn,
+changing not a muscle of his countenance and thinking boldness his
+safest course, for he knew well the slightest sign or hint of
+knowledge that he gave would mean his death.  "I'd only just come
+downstairs when you copped me, sir; I ain't touched a thing in one
+of these rooms down here."
+
+"Haven't you?" said Deede Dawson slowly, and his face was paler,
+his eyes more deadly, the muzzle of his pistol yet more inflexibly
+steady than before.
+
+More clearly still did Dunn realize that the faintest breath of
+suspicion stirring in the other's mind that he knew of what was
+hidden in the attic would mean certain death and just such another
+neat little hole bored through heart or brain as that he had seen
+showing in the forehead of his dead friend.
+
+"Haven't you, though?" Deede Dawson repeated.  "The bedrooms--the
+attics--that's all?"
+
+"Yes, sir, that's all, take my oath that's all,"  Dunn repeated
+earnestly, as if he wished very much to impress on his captor that
+he had searched bedrooms and attics thoroughly, but not these
+downstairs rooms.
+
+Deede Dawson was plainly puzzled, and for the first time a little
+doubt seemed to show in his hard grey eyes.
+
+Dunn perceived that a need was on him to know for certain whether
+his dreadful secret had been discovered or not.
+
+Until he had assured himself on that point Dunn felt comparatively
+safe, but he still knew also that to allow the faintest suspicion
+to dawn in Deede Dawson's mind would mean for him instant death.
+
+He saw, too, watching very warily and ready to take advantage of
+any momentary slip or forgetfulness, how steady was Deede Dawson's
+hand, how firm and watchful his eyes.
+
+With many men, with most men indeed, Dunn would have seized or made
+some opportunity to dash in and attack, taking the chance of being
+shot down first, since there are few indeed really skilled in the
+use of a revolver, the most tricky if the most deadly of weapons.
+
+But he realized he had small hope of taking unawares this fat
+little smiling man with the unsmiling eyes and steady hand, and he
+was well convinced that the first doubtful movement he made would
+bring a bullet crashing through his brain.
+
+His only hope was in delay and in diverting suspicion, and Deede
+Dawson's voice was very soft and deadly as he said:
+
+"So you've been looking in the bedrooms, have you?  What did you
+find there?"
+
+"Nothing, sir, not a thing," protested Dunn.  "I didn't touch a
+thing, I only wanted to look round before coming down here to see
+about the silver."
+
+"And the attics?" asked Deede Dawson.  "What did you find there?"
+
+"There wasn't no one in them," Dunn answered.  "I only wanted to
+make sure the young lady was telling the truth about there being
+no servants in the house to sleep."
+
+"Did you look in all the attics, then?" asked Deede Dawson.
+
+"Yes," answered Dunn.  "'There was one as was locked, but I tooked
+the liberty of forcing it just to make sure.  I ain't done no harm
+to speak of."
+
+"You found one locked, eh?" said Deede Dawson, and his smile grew
+still more pleasant and more friendly.  "That must have surprised
+you a good deal, didn't it?"
+
+"I thought as perhaps there was some one waiting already to give
+the alarm," answered Dunn.  "I didn't mind the old lady, but I
+couldn't risk there being some one hiding there, so I had to look,
+but I ain't done no damage to speak of, I could put it right for
+you myself in half-an-hour, sir, if you'll let me."
+
+"Could you, indeed?" said Deede Dawson.  "Well, and did you find
+any one sleeping there?"
+
+But for that hairy disguise upon his cheeks and chin, Dunn would
+almost certainly have betrayed himself, so dreadful did the question
+seem to him, so poignant the double meaning that it bore, so clear
+his memory of his friend he had found there, sleeping indeed.
+
+But there was nothing to show his inner agitation, as he said,
+shaking his head
+
+"There wasn't no one there, any more than in the other attics,
+nothing but an old packing-case."
+
+"And what?" said Deede Dawson, his voice so soft it was like a
+caress, his smile so sweet it was a veritable benediction.  "What
+was in that packing-case?"
+
+"Didn't look," answered Dunn, and then, with a sudden change of
+manner, as though all at once understanding what previously had
+puzzled him.  "Lum-me," he cried, "is that where you keep the
+silver? Lor', and to think I never even troubled to look."
+
+"You never looked?" repeated Deede Dawson.
+
+Dunn shook his head with an air of baffled regret.  "Never thought
+of it," he said.  "I thought it was just lumber like in the other
+attics, and I might have got clear away with it if I had known, as
+easy as not."
+
+His chagrin was so apparent, his whole manner so innocent, that
+Deede Dawson began to believe he really did know nothing.
+
+"Didn't you wonder why the door was locked?" he asked.
+
+"Lor'," answered Dunn, "if you stopped to wonder about everything
+you find rummy in a crib you're cracking, when would you ever get
+your business done?"
+
+"So you didn't look--in that packing-case?"  Deede Dawson repeated.
+
+"If I had," answered Dunn ruefully, "I shouldn't be here, copped
+like this.  I should have shoved with the stuff and not waited for
+nothing more.  But I never had no luck."
+
+"I'm not so sure of that," said Deede Dawson grimly, and as he spoke
+a soft voice called down from upstairs.
+
+"Is there any one there?" it said.  "Oh, please, is any one there?"
+
+"Is that you, Ella?" Deede Dawson called back. "Come down here."
+
+"I can't," she answered.  "I'm fastened to a chair."
+
+"I didn't hurt the young lady," Dunn interposed quickly.  "I only
+tied her up as gentle as I could to a chair so as to stop her from
+interfering."
+
+"Oh, that's it, is it?" said Deede Dawson, and seemed a little
+amused, as though the thought of his stepdaughter's plight pleased
+him rather than not.  "Well, if she can't come down here, we'll go
+up there. Turn round, my man, and go up the stairs and keep your
+hands over your head all the time.  I shan't hesitate to shoot if
+you don't, and I never miss."
+
+Dunn was not inclined to value his life at a very high price as he
+turned and went awkwardly up the stairs, still holding his hands
+above his head.
+
+But he meant to save it if he could, for many things depended on
+it, among them due punishment to be exacted for the crime he had
+discovered this night; and also, perhaps, for the humiliation he
+was now enduring.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE
+
+Up the stairs, across the landing, and down the passage opposite
+Dunn went in silence, shepherded by the little man behind whose
+pistol was still levelled and still steady.
+
+His hands held high in the air, he pushed open with his knee the
+door of the girl's room and entered, and she looked up as he did
+so with an expression of pure astonishment at his attitude of
+upheld hands that changed to one of comprehension and of faint
+amusement as Deede Dawson followed, revolver in hand.
+
+"Oh," she murmured.  "Captivity captive, it seems."
+
+At the fireplace Dunn turned and found her looking at him very
+intently, while from the doorway Deede Dawson surveyed them both,
+for once his eyes appearing to share in the smile that played about
+his lips as though he found much satisfaction in what he saw.
+
+"Well, Ella," he said.  "You've been having adventures, it seems,
+but you don't look too comfortable like that."
+
+"Nor do I feel it," she retorted.  "So please set me free."
+
+"Yes, so I will," he answered, but he still hesitated, and Dunn had
+the idea that he was pleased to see the girl like this, and would
+leave her so if he could, and that he was wondering now if he could
+turn her predicament to his own advantage in any way.
+
+"Yes, I will," he said again.  "Your mother--?"
+
+"She hasn't wakened," Ella answered.  "I don't think she has heard
+anything.  I don't suppose she will, for she took two of those pills
+last night that Dr. Rawson gave her for when she couldn't sleep."
+
+"It's just as well she did," said Deede Dawson.
+
+"Yes, but please undo my hands," she asked him.  "The cords are
+cutting my wrists dreadfully."
+
+As she spoke she glanced at Dunn, standing by the fireplace and
+listening gravely to what they said, and Deede Dawson exclaimed
+with an air of great indignation:--
+
+"The fellow deserves to be well thrashed for treating you like that.
+I've a good mind to do it, too, before handing him over to the
+police."
+
+"But you haven't released me yet," she remarked.
+
+"Oh, yes, yes," he said, starting as if this were quite a new idea.
+"I'll release you at once--but I must watch this scoundrel.  He
+must have frightened you dreadfully."
+
+"Indeed he did not," she answered quickly, again looking at Dunn.
+"No, he didn't," she said again with a touch of defiance in her
+manner and a certain slightly lifting her small, round chin.  "At
+least not much after just at first," she added.
+
+"I'll loose you," Deede Dawson said once more, and coming up to her,
+he began to fumble in a feeble, ineffectual way at the cords that
+secured her wrists.
+
+"Jove, he's tied you up pretty tight, Ella!" he said.
+
+"He believes in doing his work thoroughly, I suppose," she remarked,
+lifting her eyes to Dunn's with a look in them that was partly
+questioning and partly puzzled and wholly elusive.  "I daresay he
+always likes to do everything thoroughly."
+
+"Seems so," said Deede Dawson, giving up his fumbling and
+ineffectual efforts to release her.
+
+He stepped back and stood behind her chair, looking from her to Dunn
+and back again, and once more Dunn was conscious of an impression
+that he wished to make use for his own purposes of the girl's
+position, but that he did not know how to do so.
+
+"You are a nice scoundrel," said Deede Dawson suddenly, with an
+indignation that seemed to Dunn largely assumed.  "Treating a girl
+like this.  Ella, what would you like done to him?  He deserves
+shooting.  Shall I put a bullet through him for you?"
+
+"He might have treated me worse, I suppose," said Ella quietly.
+"And if you would be less indignant with him, you might be more
+help to me.  There are scissors on the table somewhere."
+
+"I'll get them," Deede Dawson said.  "I'll get them," he repeated,
+as though now at last finally making up his mind.
+
+He took the scissors from the toilet-table where they lay before
+the looking-glass and cut the cords by which Ella was secured.
+
+With a sigh of relief she straightened herself from the confined
+position in which she had been held and began to rub her wrists,
+which were slightly inflamed where the cords had bruised her soft
+skin.
+
+"Like to tie him up that way now?" asked Deede Dawson.  "You shall
+if you like."
+
+She turned and looked full at Dunn and he looked back at her with
+eyes as steady and as calm as her own.
+
+Again she showed that faint doubt and wonder which had flickered
+through her level gaze before as though she felt that there was
+more in all this than was apparent, and did not wish to condemn him
+utterly without a hearing.
+
+But it was plain also that she did not wish to say too much before
+her stepfather and she answered carelessly
+
+"I don't think I could tie him tight enough, besides, he looks
+ridiculous enough like that with his hands up in the air."
+
+It was her revenge for what he had made her suffer.  He felt himself
+flush and he knew that she knew that her little barbed shaft had
+struck home.
+
+"Well, go and look through his pockets," Deede Dawson said.  "And
+see if he's got a revolver.  Don't be frightened; if he lowers his
+hands he'll be a dead man before he knows it."
+
+"He has a pistol," she said.  "He showed it me, it's in his coat
+pocket."
+
+"Better get it then," Deede Dawson told her.  She obeyed and brought
+him the weapon, and he nodded with satisfaction as he put it in his
+own pocket.
+
+"I think we might let you put your hands down now," he remarked,
+and Dunn gladly availed himself of the permission, for every muscle
+in his arms was aching badly.
+
+He remained standing by the wall while Deede Dawson, seating himself
+on the chair to which Ella had been bound, rested his chin on his
+left hand and, with the pistol still ready in his right, regarded
+Dunn with a steady questioning gaze.
+
+Ella was standing near the bed.  She had poured a few drops of
+eau-de-Cologne on her wrists and was rubbing them softly, and for
+ever after the poignant pleasant odour of the scent has remained
+associated in Robert Dunn's mind with the strange events of that
+night so that always even the merest whiff of it conjures up before
+his mind a picture of that room with himself silent by the
+fireplace and Ella silent by the bed and Deede Dawson, pistol in
+hand, seated between them, as silent also as they, and very watchful.
+
+Ella appeared fully taken up with her occupation and might almost
+have forgotten the presence of the two men.  She did not look at
+either of them, but continued to rub and chafe her wrists softly.
+
+Deede Dawson had forgotten for once to smile, his brow was slightly
+wrinkled, his cold grey eyes intent and watchful, and Dunn felt very
+sure that he was thinking out some plan or scheme.
+
+The hope came to him that Deede Dawson was thinking he might prove
+of use, and that was the thought which, above all others, he wished
+the other to have.  It was, indeed, that thought which all his
+recent actions had been aimed to implant in Deede Dawson's mind
+till his dreadful discovery in the attic had seemed to make at last
+direct action possible.  How, in his present plight that thought,
+if Deede Dawson should come to entertain it, might yet prove his
+salvation.  Now and again Deede Dawson gave him quick, searching
+glances, but when at last he spoke it was Ella he addressed.
+
+"Wrists hurt you much?" he asked.
+
+"Not so much now," she answered.  "They were beginning to hurt a
+great deal, though."
+
+"Were they, though?" said Deede Dawson.  "And to think you might
+have been like that for hours if I hadn't chanced to come home.
+Too bad, what a brute this fellow is."
+
+"Men mostly are, I think," she observed indifferently.
+
+"And women mostly like to get their own back again," he remarked
+with a chuckle, and then turned sharply to Dunn.  "Well, my man,"
+he asked, "what have you got to say for yourself?"
+
+"Nothing," Dunn answered.  "It was a fair cop."
+
+"You've had a taste of penal servitude before, I suppose?" Deede
+Dawson asked.
+
+"Maybe," Dunn answered, as if not wishing to betray himself.
+"Maybe not."
+
+"Well, I think I remember you said something about not being long
+out of Dartmoor," remarked Deede Dawson.  "How do you relish the
+prospect of going back there?"
+
+"I wonder," interposed Ella thoughtfully.  "I wonder what it is in
+you that makes you so love to be cruel, father?"
+
+"Eh what?" he exclaimed, quite surprised.  "Who's being cruel?"
+
+"You," she answered.  "You enjoy keeping him wondering what you are
+going to do with him, just as you enjoyed seeing me tied to that
+chair and would have liked to leave me there."
+
+"My dear Ella!" he protested.  "My dear child!"
+
+"Oh, I know," she said wearily.  "Why don't you hand the man over
+to the police if you're going to, or let him go at once if you
+mean to do that?"
+
+"Let him go, indeed!" exclaimed Deede Dawson.  "What an idea!  What
+should I do that for?"
+
+"If you'll give me another chance," said Dunn quickly, "I'll do
+anything--I should get it pretty stiff for this lot, and that
+wouldn't be any use to you, sir, would it?  I can do almost anything
+--garden, drive a motor, do what I'm told, It's only because I've
+never had a chance I've had to take to this line."
+
+"If you could do what you're told you certainly might be useful,"
+said Deede Dawson slowly.  "And I don't know that it would do me
+any good to send you off to prison--you deserve it, of course.
+Still--you talk sometimes like an educated man?"
+
+"I had a bit of education," Dunn answered.
+
+"I see," said Deede Dawson.  "Well, I won't ask you any more
+questions, you'd probably only lie.  What's your name?"
+
+With that sudden recklessness which was a part of his impulsive and
+passionate nature, Dunn answered:
+
+"Charley Wright."
+
+The effect was instantaneous and apparent on both his auditors.
+
+Ella gave a little cry and started so violently that she dropped
+the bottle of eau-de-Cologne she had in her hands.
+
+Deede Dawson jumped to his feet with a fearful oath.  His face went
+livid, his fat cheeks seemed suddenly to sag, of his perpetual
+smile every trace vanished.
+
+He swung his revolver up, and Dunn saw the crooked forefinger quiver
+as though in the very act of pressing the trigger.
+
+The pressure of a hair decided, indeed, whether the weapon was to
+fire or not, as in a high-pitched, stammering voice, Deede Dawson
+gasped:
+
+"What--what do you mean?  What do you mean by that?"
+
+"I only told you my name," Dunn answered.  "What's wrong with it?"
+
+Doubtful and afraid, Deede Dawson stood hesitant.  His forehead had
+become very damp, and he wiped it with a nervous gesture.
+
+"Is that your name--your real name?" he muttered.
+
+"Never had another that I know of," Dunn answered.
+
+Deede Dawson sat down again on the chair.  He was still plainly
+very disturbed and shaken, and Ella seemed scarcely less agitated,
+though Dunn, watching them both very keenly, noticed that she was
+now looking at Deede Dawson with a somewhat strange expression and
+with an air as though his extreme excitement puzzled her and made
+her--afraid.
+
+"Nothing wrong with the name, is there?" Dunn muttered again.
+
+"No, no," Deede Dawson answered.  "No.  It's merely a coincidence,
+that's all.  A coincidence, I suppose, Ella?"
+
+Ella did not answer.  Her expression was very troubled and full of
+doubt as she stood looking from her stepfather to Dunn and back
+again.
+
+"It's only that your name happens to be the same as that of a friend
+of ours--a great friend of my daughter's," Deede Dawson said as
+though he felt obliged to offer some explanation.  "That's all--a
+coincidence.  It startled me for the moment."  He laughed.  "That's
+all.  Well, my man, it happens there is something I can make you
+useful in.  If you do prove useful and do what I tell you, perhaps
+you may get let off.  I might even keep you on in a job.  I won't
+say I will, but I might.  You look a likely sort of fellow for work,
+and I daresay you aren't any more dishonest than most people.  Funny
+how things happen--quite a coincidence, your name.  Well, come on;
+it's that packing-case you saw in the attic upstairs.  I want you
+to help me downstairs with that--Charley Wright."
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE ATTIC OF MYSTERY
+
+
+Robert Dunn was by no means sure that he was not going to his death
+as he went out of Ella's room on his way to the attics above, for
+he had perceived a certain doubt and suspicion in Deede Dawson's
+manner, and he thought it very likely that a fatal intention lay
+behind.
+
+But he obeyed with a brisk promptitude of manner, like one who saw
+a prospect of escape opening before him, and as he went he saw that
+Ella had relapsed into her former indifference and was once more
+giving all her attention to bathing her wrists with eau-de-Cologne;
+and he saw, too, that Deede Dawson, following close behind, kept
+always his revolver ready.
+
+"Perhaps he only wants to get me out of her way before he shoots,"
+he reflected.  "Perhaps there is room in that packing-case for two.
+It will be strange to die.  Shall I try to rush him?  But he would
+shoot at once, and I shouldn't have a chance.  One thing, if
+anything happens to me, no one will ever know what's become of poor
+Charley."
+
+And this seemed to him a great pity, so that he began to form
+confused and foolish plans for securing that his friend's fate
+should become known.
+
+With a sudden start, for he had not known he was there, he found
+himself standing on the threshold of that attic of death.  It was
+quite dark up here, and from behind Deede Dawson's voice told him
+impatiently to enter.
+
+He obeyed, wondering if ever again he would cross that threshold
+alive, and Deede Dawson followed him into the dark attic so that
+Dunn was appalled by the man's rashness, for how could he tell that
+his victim would not take this opportunity to rise up from the
+place where he had been thrust and take his revenge?
+
+"What an idea," he thought to himself.  "I must be going dotty, it's
+the strain of expecting a bullet in my back all the time, I suppose.
+I was never like this before."
+
+Deede Dawson struck a match and put it to a gas-jet that lighted up
+the whole room.  Between him and Dunn lay the packing-case, and Dunn
+was surprised to see that it was still there and that nothing had
+changed or moved; and then again he said to himself that this was a
+foolish thought only worthy of some excitable, hysterical girl.
+
+"It's being too much for me," he thought resignedly.  "I've heard
+of people being driven mad by horror.  I suppose that's what's
+happening to me."
+
+"You look--queer," Deede Dawson's voice interrupted the confused
+medley of his thoughts.  "Why do you look like that--Charley
+Wright?"
+
+Dunn looked moodily across the case in which the body of the
+murdered man was hidden to where the murderer stood.
+
+After a pause, and speaking with an effort, he said:
+
+"You'd look queer if some one with a pistol was watching you all
+the time the way you watch me."
+
+"You do what I tell you and you'll be all right," Deede Dawson
+answered.  "You see that packing-case?"
+
+Dunn nodded.
+
+"It's big enough," he said.
+
+"Would you like to know?" asked Deede Dawson slowly with his slow,
+perpetual smile.  "Would you like to know what's in it--Charley
+Wright?"
+
+And again Dunn was certain that a faint suspicion hung about those
+last two words, and that his life and death hung very evenly in
+the balance.
+
+"Silver, you said," he muttered.  "Didn't you?"
+
+"Ah, yes--yes--to be sure," answered Deede Dawson.  "Yes, so I
+did.  Silver.  I want the lid nailed down.  There's a hammer and
+nails there.  Get to work and look sharp."
+
+Dunn stepped forward and began to set about a task that was so
+terrible and strange, and that yet he had, at peril of his life--at
+peril of more than that, indeed--to treat as of small importance.
+
+Standing a little distance from the lighted gas-jet, Deede Dawson
+watched him narrowly, and as Dunn worked he was very sure that to
+betray the least sign of his knowledge would be to bring instantly
+a bullet crashing through his brain.
+
+It seemed curious to him that he had so carefully replaced
+everything after making his discovery, and that without any
+forethought or special intention he had put back everything so
+exactly as he had found it when the slightest neglect or failure
+in that respect would most certainly have cost him his life.
+
+And he felt that as yet he could not afford to die.
+
+One by one he drove in the nails, and as he worked at his gruesome
+task he heard the faintest rustle on the landing without--the
+faintest sound of a soft breath cautiously drawn in, of a light
+foot very carefully set down.
+
+Deede Dawson plainly heard nothing; indeed, no ear less acute and
+less well-trained than Dunn's could have caught sounds that were so
+slight and low, but he, listening between each stroke of his hammer,
+was sure that it was Ella who had followed them, and that she
+crouched upon the landing without, watching and listening.
+
+Did that mean, he wondered, that she, too, knew?  Or was it merely
+natural curiosity; hostile in part, perhaps, since evidently the
+relations between her and her stepfather were not too friendly--a
+desire to know what task there could be in the attics so late at
+night for which Deede Dawson had such need of his captive's help?
+
+Or was it by any chance because she wished to know how things went
+with him, and what was to be his fate?
+
+In any case, Dunn was sure that Ella had followed then, and was on
+the landing without.
+
+He drove home the last nail and stood up.  "That's done," he said.
+
+"And well done," said Deede Dawson.  "Well done--Charley Wright."
+
+He spoke the name softly and lingeringly, and then all at once he
+began to laugh, a low and somewhat dreadful laughter that had in it
+no mirth at all, and that sounded horrible and strange in the chill
+emptiness of the attic.
+
+Leaning one hand on the packing-case that served as the coffin of
+his dead friend, Dunn swore a silent oath to exact full retribution,
+and henceforth to put that purpose on a level with the mission on
+which originally he had come.
+
+Aloud, and in a grumbling tone he said:
+
+"What's the matter with my name?  It's a name like any other.  What's
+wrong with it?"
+
+"What should there be?" flashed Deede Dawson in reply.
+
+"I don't know," Dunn answered.  "You keep repeating it so, that's all."
+
+"It's a very good name," Deede Dawson said.  "An excellent name.
+But it's not suitable.  Not here."  He began to laugh again and then
+stopped abruptly.
+
+"Do you know, I think you had better choose another?" he said.
+
+"It's all one to me," declared Dunn.  "If Charley Wright don't suit,
+how will Robert Dunn do?  I knew a man of that name once."
+
+"It's a better name than Charley Wright," said Deede Dawson.  "We'll
+call you Robert Dunn--Charley Wright.  Do you know why I can't have
+you call yourself Charley Wight?"
+
+Dunn shook his head.
+
+"Because I don't like it," said Deede Dawson.  "Why, that's a name
+that would drive me mad," he muttered, half to himself.
+
+Dunn did not speak, but he thought this was a strange thing for the
+other to say and showed that even he, cold and remorseless and
+without any natural feeling, as he had seemed to be, yet had about
+him still some touch of humanity.
+
+And as he mused on this, which seemed to him so strange, though
+really it was not strange at all, his attentive ears caught the
+sound of a soft step without, beginning to descend the stairs.
+
+Had that name, then, been more than she also could bear?
+
+If so, she must know.
+
+"I don't see why, I don't see what's wrong with it," he said aloud.
+"But Robert Dunn will suit me just as well."
+
+"All a matter of taste," said Deede Dawson, his manner more composed
+and natural again.
+
+"It's a funny thing now--suppose my name was Charley Wright, then
+there would be two Charley Wrights in this attic, eh?   A coincidence,
+that would be?"
+
+"I suppose so," answered Dunn.  "I knew another man named Charley
+Wright once."
+
+"Did you?  Where's he?"
+
+"Oh, he's dead," answered Dunn.
+
+Deede Dawson could not repress the start he gave and for a moment
+Dunn thought that his suspicions were really roused.  He came a
+little nearer, his pistol still ready in his hand.
+
+"Dead, is he?" he said.  "That's a pity.  He's not here, then; but
+it would be funny wouldn't it, if there were two Charley Wrights in
+one room?"
+
+"I don't know what you mean," Dunn answered.  "I think there are
+lots of funnier things than that would be."
+
+"That's where you're wrong," retorted Deede Dawson, and he laughed
+again, shrilly and dreadfully, a laughter that had in it anything
+but mirth.
+
+"Can you carry that packing-case downstairs if I help you get it on
+your shoulder?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"It's heavy, but I might," Dunn answered.
+
+He supposed that now it was about to be hidden somewhere and he felt
+that he must know where, since that knowledge would mean everything
+and enable him to set the authorities to work at once immediately he
+could communicate with them.
+
+The weight of the thing taxed even his great strength to the utmost,
+but he managed it somehow, and bending beneath his burden, he
+descended the stairs to the hall and then, following the orders
+Deede Dawson gave him from behind, out into the open air.
+
+He was nearly exhausted when at last his task-master told him he
+could put it down as he stood still for a minute or two to recover
+his breath and strength.
+
+The night was not very dark, for a young moon was shining in a clear
+sky, and it appeared to Dunn, as he felt his strength returning,
+that now at last he might find an opportunity of making an attack
+upon his captor with some chance of success.
+
+Hitherto, in the house, in the bright glare of the gas lights, he
+had known that the first suspicious movement he made would have
+ensured his being instantly and remorselessly shot down, his mission
+unfulfilled.
+
+But here in the open air, in the night that the moon illumined but
+faintly, it was different, and as he watched for his opportunity he
+felt that sooner or later it was sure to come.
+
+But Deede Dawson was alert and wary, his pistol never left his hand,
+he kept so well on his guard he gave Dunn no opening to take him
+unawares, and Dunn did not wish to run too desperate a chance,
+since he was sure that sooner or later one giving fair chance of
+success would present itself.
+
+"Do you want it carried any further?" he asked.  "It's very heavy."
+
+"I suppose you mean you're wondering what's in it?" said Deede
+Dawson sharply.
+
+"It's nothing to me what's in it--silver or anything else,"
+retorted Dunn.  "Do you want me to carry it further, that's all I
+asked?"
+
+"No," answered Deede Dawson.  "No, I don't.  Do you know, if you
+knew what was really in it, you'd be surprised?"
+
+"Very likely," answered Dunn.  "Why not?"
+
+"Yes, you would be surprised," Deede Dawson repeated, and suddenly
+shouted into the darkness: "Are you ready?  Are you ready there?"
+
+Dunn was very startled, for somehow, he had supposed all along that
+Deede Dawson was quite alone.
+
+There was no answer to his call, but after a minute or two there
+was the sound of a motor-car engine starting and then a big car
+came gliding forward and stopped in front of them, driven by a form
+so muffled in coats and coverings as to be indistinguishable in that
+faint light.
+
+"Put the case inside," Deede Dawson said.  "I'll help you."
+
+With some trouble they succeeded in getting the case in and Deede
+Dawson covered it carefully with a big rug.
+
+When he had done so he stepped back.
+
+"Ready, Ella?" he said.
+
+"Yes," answered the girl's soft and low voice that already Dunn
+could have sworn to amidst a thousand others.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE NEW GARDENER
+
+
+"Go ahead, then," said Deede Dawson, and the great car with its
+terrible burden shot away into the night.
+
+For a moment or two Deede Dawson stood looking after it, and then
+he turned and walked slowly towards the house, and mechanically Dunn
+followed, the sole thought in his mind, the one idea of which he was
+conscious, that of Ella driving away into the darkness with the dead
+body of his murdered friend in the car behind her.
+
+Did she--know?  he asked himself.  Or was she ignorant of what it
+was she had with her?
+
+It seemed to him that that question, hammering itself so awfully
+upon his mind and clamouring for an answer, must soon send him mad.
+
+And still before him floated perpetually a picture of long, dark,
+lonely roads, of a rushing motor-car driven by a lovely girl, of the
+awful thing hidden in the car behind her.
+
+Dully he recognized that the opportunity for which he had watched
+and waited so patiently had come and gone a dozen times, for Deede
+Dawson had now quite relaxed his former wary care.
+
+It was as though he supposed all danger over, as though in the
+reaction after an enormous strain he could think of nothing but the
+immediate relief.  He hardly gave a single glance at Dunn, whose
+faintest movement before had never escaped him.  He had even put his
+pistol back in his pocket, and at almost any moment Dunn, with his
+unusual strength and agility, could have seized and mastered him.
+
+But for such an enterprise Dunn had no longer any spirit, for all
+his mind was taken up by that one picture so clear in his thoughts
+of Ella in her great car driving the dead man through the night.
+"She must know," he said to himself.  "She must, or she would never
+have gone off like that at that time--she can't know, it's
+impossible, or she would never have dared."
+
+And again it seemed to him that this doubt was driving him mad.
+
+Deede Dawson entered the house and got a bottle of whisky and a
+syphon of soda-water and mixed himself a drink.  For the first time
+since Ella's departure he seemed to remember Dunn's presence.
+
+"Oh, there you are," he said.
+
+Dunn did not answer.  He stood moodily on the threshold, wondering
+why he did not rush upon the other, and with his knee upon his chest,
+his hands about his throat, force him to answer the question that
+was still whispering, shouting, screaming itself into his ears:
+
+"Does she know what it is she drives with her on that big car through
+the black and lonely night?"
+
+"Like a drink?" asked Deede Dawson.
+
+Dunn shook his head, and it came to him that he did not attack Deede
+Dawson and force the truth from him because he dared not, because he
+was afraid, because he feared what the answer might be.
+
+"There's a tool-shed at the bottom of the garden," Deede Dawson said
+to him.  "You can sleep there, tonight.  You'll find some sacks you
+can make a bed of."
+
+Without a word in reply Dunn turned and stumbled away.  He felt very
+tired--physically exhausted--and the idea of a bed, even of sacks
+in an outhouse, became all at once extraordinarily attractive.
+
+He found the place without difficulty, and, making a pile of the
+sacks, flung himself down on them and was asleep almost at once.
+But almost as promptly he awoke again, for he had dreamed of Ella
+driving her car through the night towards some strange peril from
+which in his dream he was trying frantically and ineffectively to
+save her when he awoke.
+
+So it was all through the night.
+
+His utter and complete exhaustion compelled him to sleep, and every
+time some fresh, fantastic dream in which Ella and the huge motor-car
+and the dreadful burden she had with her always figured, awoke him
+with a fresh start.
+
+But towards morning he fell into a heavy sleep from which presently
+he awoke to find it broad daylight and Deede Dawson standing on the
+threshold of the shed with his perpetually smiling lips and his
+cold, unsmiling eyes.
+
+"Well, my man; had a good sleep?" he said.
+
+"I was tired," Dunn answered.
+
+"Yes, we had a busy night," agreed Deede Dawson.  "I slept well,
+too.  I've been wondering what to do with you.  Of course, I ought
+to hand you over to the police, and it's rather a risk taking on a
+man of your character, but I've decided to give you a chance.
+Probably you'll misuse it.  But I'll give you an opportunity as
+gardener and chauffeur here.  You can drive a car, you say?"
+
+Dunn nodded.
+
+"That's all right," said Deede Dawson.
+
+"You shall have your board and lodging, and I'll get you some decent
+clothes instead of those rags; and if you prove satisfactory and
+make yourself useful you'll find I can pay well.  There will be
+plenty of chances for you to make a little money--if you know how
+to take them."
+
+"When it's money," growled Dunn, "you give me the chance, and see."
+
+"I think," added Deede Dawson, "I think it might improve your looks
+if you shaved."
+
+Dunn passed his hand over the tangle of hair that hid his features
+so effectually.
+
+"What for?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, well: please yourself," answered Deede Dawson; "I don't know
+that it matters, and perhaps you have reasons of your own for
+preferring a beard.  Come on up to the house now and I'll tell Mrs.
+Dawson to give you some breakfast.  And you might as well have a
+wash, too, perhaps--unless you object to that as well as to shaving."
+
+Dunn rose without answering, made his toilet by shaking off some of
+the dust that clung to him, and followed his new employer out of the
+tool-house into the open air.
+
+It was a fresh and lovely morning, and coming towards them down one
+of the garden paths was Ella, looking as fresh and lovely as the
+morning in a dainty cotton frock with lace at her throat and wrists.
+
+That she could possibly have spent the night tearing across country
+in a powerful car conveying a dead man to an unknown destination,
+appeared to Dunn a clean impossibility, and for a moment he almost
+supposed he had been mistaken in thinking he recognized her voice.
+
+But he knew he had not, that he had made no mistake, that it had
+indeed been Ella he had seen dash away into the darkness on her
+strange and terrible errand.
+
+"Oh, my daughter," said Deede Dawson carelessly, noticing Dunn's
+surprise.  "Oh, yes, she's back--you didn't expect to see her this
+morning.  Well, Ella, Dunn's surprised to see you back so soon,
+aren't you, Dunn?"
+
+Dunn did not answer, for a kind of vertigo of horror had come upon
+him, and for a moment all things revolved about him in a whirling
+circle wherein the one fixed point was Ella's gentle lovely face
+that sometimes, he thought, had a small round hole with blue edges
+in the very centre of the forehead, above the nose.
+
+It was her voice, clear and a little loud, that called him back to
+himself.
+
+"He's not well," she was saying.  "He's going to faint."
+
+"I'm all right," he muttered.  "It was nothing, nothing, it's only
+that I've had nothing to eat for so long."
+
+"Oh, poor man!" exclaimed Ella.
+
+"Come up to the house," Deede Dawson said.
+
+"Breakfast's ready," Ella said.  "Mother told me to find you."
+
+"Has the woman come yet?" Deede Dawson asked.  "If she has, you
+might tell her to give Dunn some breakfast.  I've just been telling
+him I'm willing to give him another chance and to take him on as
+gardener and chauffeur, so you can keep an eye on him and see if he
+works well."
+
+Ella was silent for a moment, but her expression was grave and a
+little puzzled as though she did not quite understand this and
+wondered what it meant, and when she looked up at her stepfather,
+Dunn was certain there was both distrust and suspicion in her manner.
+
+"I suppose," she said then, "last night seemed to you a good
+recommendation?"  As she spoke she glanced at her wrists where the
+bruises still showed, and Deede Dawson's smile broadened.
+
+"One should always be ready to give another chance to a poor fellow
+who's down," he said.  "He may run straight now he's got an
+opportunity.  I told him he had better shave, but he seems to think
+a beard suits him best.  What do you say?"
+
+"Breakfast's waiting," Ella answered, turning away without taking
+any notice of the question.
+
+"I'll go in then," said Deede Dawson.  "You might show Dunn the way
+to the kitchen--his name's Robert Dunn, by the way--and tell Mrs.
+Barker to give him something to eat."
+
+"I should think he could find his way there himself," Ella remarked.
+
+But though she made this protest, she obeyed at once, for though she
+used a considerable liberty of speech to her stepfather, it was none
+the less evident that she was very much afraid of him and would not
+be very likely to disobey him or oppose him directly.
+
+"This way," she said to Dunn, and walked on along a path that led
+to the hack of the house.  Once she stopped and looked hack.  She
+smiled slightly and disdainfully as she did so, and Dunn saw that
+she was looking at a clump of small bushes near where they had been
+standing.
+
+He guessed at once that she believed Deede Dawson to be behind those
+bushes watching them, and when she glanced at him he understood that
+she wished him to know it also.
+
+He said nothing, though a faint movement visible in the bushes
+convinced him that her suspicions, if, indeed, she had them, were
+well-founded, and they walked on in silence, Ella a little ahead,
+and Dunn a step or two behind.
+
+The garden was a large one, and had at one time been well cultivated,
+but now it was neglected and overgrown.  It struck Dunn that if he
+was to be the gardener here he would certainly not find himself short
+of work, and Ella, without looking round, said to him over her
+shoulder:
+
+"Do you know anything about gardening?"
+
+"A little, miss," he answered.
+
+"You needn't call me 'miss,'" she observed.  "When a man has tied
+a girl to a chair I think he may regard himself as on terms of some
+familiarity with her."
+
+"What must I call you?" he asked, and his words bore to himself a
+double meaning, for, indeed, what name was it by which he ought to
+call her?
+
+But she seemed to notice nothing as she answered "My name is Cayley
+--Ella Cayley.  You can call me Miss Cayley.  Do you know anything
+of motoring?"
+
+"Yes," he answered.  "Though I never cared much for motoring at night."
+
+She gave him a quick glance, but said no more, and they came almost
+immediately to the back door.
+
+Ella opened it and entered, nodding to him to follow, and crossing a
+narrow, stone-floored passage, she entered the kitchen where a tall
+gaunt elderly woman in a black bonnet and, a course apron was at
+work.
+
+"This is Dunn, Mrs. Barker," she called, raising her voice.  "He is
+the new gardener.  Will you give him some breakfast, please?"  She
+added to Dunn:
+
+"When you've finished, you can go to the garage and wash the car,
+and when you speak to Mrs. Barker you must shout.  She is quite deaf,
+that is why my stepfather engaged her, because he was sorry for her
+and wanted to give her a chance, you know . . . "
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE PROBLEM
+
+
+When he had finished his breakfast, and after he had had the wash
+of which he certainly stood in considerable need, Dunn made his
+way to the garage and there occupied himself cleaning the car.
+He noticed that the mud with which it was liberally covered was of
+a light sandy sort, and he discovered on one of the tyres a small
+shell.
+
+Apparently, therefore, last night's wild journey had been to the
+coast, and it was a natural inference that the sea had provided a
+secure hiding-place for the packing-case and its dreadful contents.
+
+But then that meant that there was no evidence left on which he
+could take action.
+
+As he busied himself with his task, he tried to think out as clearly
+as he could the position in which he found himself and to decide
+what he ought to do next.
+
+To his quick and hasty nature the swiftest action was always the
+most congenial, and had he followed his instinct, he would have lost
+no time in denouncing Deede Dawson.  But his cooler thoughts told
+him that he dared not do that, since it would be to involve risks,
+not for himself, but for others, that he simply dared not contemplate.
+
+He felt that the police, even if they credited his story, which he
+also felt that very likely they would not do, could not act on his
+sole evidence.
+
+And even if they did act and did arrest Deede Dawson, it was certain
+no jury would convict on so strange a story, so entirely
+uncorroborated.
+
+The only result would be to strengthen Deede Dawson's position by
+the warning, to show him his danger, and to give him the
+opportunity, if he chose to use it, of disappearing and beginning
+again his plots and plans after some fresh and perhaps more deadly
+fashion.
+
+"Whereas at present," he mused, "at any rate, I'm here and he
+doesn't seem to suspect me, and I can watch and wait for a time,
+till I see my way more clearly."
+
+And this decision he came to was a great relief to him, for he
+desired very greatly to know more before he acted and in especial
+to find out for certain what was Ella's position in all this.
+
+It was Deede Dawson's voice that broke in upon his meditations.
+
+"Ah, you're busy," he said.  "That's right, I like to see a man
+working hard.  I've got some new things for you I think may fit
+fairly well, and Mrs. Dawson is going to get one of the attics
+ready for you to sleep in."
+
+"Very good, sir," said Dunn.
+
+He wondered which attic was to be assigned to him and if it would
+be that one in which he had found his friend's body.  He suspected,
+too, that he was to be lodged in the house so that Deede Dawson
+might watch him, and this pleased him, since it meant that he, in
+his turn, would be able to watch Deede Dawson.
+
+Not that there appeared much to watch, for the days passed on and
+it seemed a very harmless and quiet life that Deede Dawson lived
+with his wife and stepdaughter.
+
+But for the memory, burned into Dunn's mind, of what he had seen
+that night of his arrival, he would have been inclined to say that
+no more harmless, gentle soul existed than Deede Dawson.
+
+But as it was, the man's very gentleness and smiling urbanity
+filled him with a loathing that it was at times all he could do
+to control.
+
+The attic assigned to him to sleep in was that where he had made
+his dreadful discovery, and he believed this had been done as a
+further test of his ignorance, for he was sure Deede Dawson
+watched him closely to see if the idea of being there was in any
+way repugnant to him.
+
+Indeed at another time he might have shrunk from the idea of
+sleeping each night in the very room where his friend had been
+foully done to death, but now he derived a certain grim
+satisfaction and a strengthening of his nerves for the task that
+lay before him.
+
+Only a very few visitors came to Bittermeads, especially now that
+Mr. John Clive, who had come often, was laid up.  But one or two
+of the people from the village came occasionally, and the vicar
+appeared two or three times every week, ostensibly to play chess
+with Deede Dawson, but in reality, Dunn thought, drawn there by
+Ella, who, however, seemed quite unaware of the attraction she
+exercised over the good man.
+
+Dunn did not find that he was expected to do very much work, and in
+fact, he was left a good deal to himself.
+
+Once or twice the car was taken out, and occasionally Deede Dawson
+would come into the garden and chat with him idly for a few minutes
+on indifferent subjects.  When it was fine he would often bring out
+a little travelling set of chessmen and board and proceed to amuse
+himself, working out or composing problems.
+
+One day he called Dunn up to admire a problem he had just composed.
+
+"Pretty clever, eh?" he said, admiring his own work with much
+complacence.  "Quite an original idea of mine and I think the key
+move will take some finding.  What do you say?  I suppose you do
+play chess?"
+
+"Only a very little," answered Dunn.
+
+"Try a game with me," said Deede Dawson, and won it easily, for in
+fact, Dunn was by no means a strong player.
+
+His swift victory appeared to delight Deede Dawson immensely.
+
+"A very pretty mate I brought off there against you," he declared.
+"I've not often seen a prettier.  Now you try to solve that problem
+of mine, it's easy enough once you hit on the key move."
+
+Dunn thought to himself that there were other and more important
+problems which would soon be solved if only the key move could be
+discovered.
+
+He said aloud that he would try what he could do, and Deede Dawson
+promised him half a sovereign if he solved it within a week.
+
+"I mayn't manage it within a week," said Dunn.  "I don't say I will.
+But sooner or later I shall find it out."
+
+During all this time he had seen little of Ella, who appeared to
+come very little into the garden and who, when she did so, avoided
+him in a somewhat marked manner.
+
+Her mother, Mrs. Dawson, was a little faded woman, with timid eyes
+and a frightened manner.  Her health did not seem to be good, and
+Ella looked after her very assiduously.  That she went in deadly
+fear of her husband was fairly evident, though he seemed to treat
+her always with great consideration and kindness and even with a
+show of affection, to which at times she responded and from which
+at other times she appeared to shrink with inexplicable terror.
+
+"She doesn't know," Dunn said to himself. "But she suspects
+--something."
+
+Ella, he still watched with the same care and secrecy, and sometimes
+he seemed to see her walking amidst the flowers as an angel of
+sweetness and laughing innocence; and sometimes he saw her, as it
+were, with the shadow of death around her beauty, and behind her
+gentle eyes and winning ways a great and horrible abyss.
+
+Of one thing he was certain--her mind was troubled and she was not
+at ease; and it was plain, also, that she feared her smiling
+soft-spoken stepfather.
+
+As the days passed, too, Dunn grew convinced that she was watching
+him all the time, even when she seemed most indifferent, as closely
+and as intently as he watched her.
+
+"All watching together," Dunn thought grimly.  "It would be simple
+enough, I suppose, if one could hit on the key move, but that I
+suppose no one knows but Deede Dawson himself.  One thing, he can't
+very well be up to any fresh mischief while he's lounging about here
+like this.  I suppose he is simply waiting his time."
+
+As for the chess problem, that baffled him entirely.  He said as
+much to Deede Dawson, who was very pleased, but would not tell him
+what the solution was.
+
+"No, no, find it out for yourself," he said, chuckling with a
+merriment in which, for once his cold eyes seemed to take full share.
+
+"I'll go on trying," said Dunn, and it grew to be quite a custom
+between them for Deede Dawson to ask him how he was getting on
+with the problem; and for Dunn to reply that he was still searching
+for the key move.
+
+Several times little errands took Dunn into the village, where,
+discreetly listening to the current gossip, he learned that Mr.
+John Clive of Ramsdon Place had been injured in an attack made upon
+him by a gang of ferocious poachers--at least a dozen in number
+--but was making good progress towards recovery.
+
+Also, he found that Mr. John Clive's visits to Bittermeads had not
+gone unremarked, or wholly uncriticized, since there was a vague
+feeling that a Mr. Clive of Ramsdon Place ought to make a better
+match.
+
+"But a pretty face is all a young man thinks of," said the more
+experienced; and on the whole, it seemed to be felt that the open
+attention Clive paid to Ella was at least easily to be understood.
+
+Almost the first visit Clive paid, when he was allowed to venture
+out, was to Bittermeads; and Dunn, returning one afternoon from an
+errand, found him established on the lawn in the company of Ella,
+and looking little the worse for his adventure.
+
+He and Ella seemed to be talking very animatedly, and Dunn took the
+opportunity to busy himself with some gardening work not far away,
+so that he could watch their behaviour.
+
+He told himself it was necessary he should know in what relation
+they stood to each other, and as he heard them chatting and
+laughing together with great apparent friendliness and enjoyment,
+he remembered with considerable satisfaction how he had already
+broken one rib of Clive's, and he wished very much for an opportunity
+to break another.
+
+For, without knowing why, he was beginning to conceive an intense
+dislike for Clive; and, also, it did not seem to him quite good
+taste for Ella to sit and chat and laugh with him so readily.
+
+"But we were told," he caught a stray remark of Ella's, "that it
+was a gang of at least a dozen that attacked you."
+
+"No," answered Clive reluctantly.  "No, I think there was only one.
+But he had a grip like a bear."
+
+"He must have been very strong," remarked Ella thoughtfully.
+
+"I would give fifty pounds to meet him again, and have it out in
+the light, when one could see what one was doing," declared Clive
+with great vigour.
+
+"Oh, you would, would you?" muttered Dunn to himself.  "Well, one
+of these days I may claim that fifty."
+
+He looked round at Clive as he thought this, and Clive noticed him,
+and said:
+
+"Is that a new man you've got there Miss Cayley?  Doesn't he rather
+want a shave?  Where on earth did Mr. Dawson pick him up?"
+
+"Oh, he came here with the very best testimonials, and father
+engaged him on the spot," answered Ella, touching her wrists
+thoughtfully.  "He certainly is not very handsome, but then that
+doesn't matter, does it?"
+
+She spoke more loudly than usual, and Dunn was certain she did so
+in order that he might hear what she said.  So he had no scruple
+in lingering on pretence of being busy with a rose bush, and heard
+Clive say:
+
+"Well, if he were one of my chaps, I should tell him to put the
+lawn-mower over his own face."
+
+Ella laughed amusedly.
+
+"Oh, what an idea, Mr. Clive," she cried, and Dunn thought to himself:
+
+"Yes, one day I shall very certainly claim that fifty pounds."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AN AVOWAL
+
+
+When Clive had gone that afternoon, Ella, who had accompanied him
+as far as the gate, and had from thence waved him a farewell, came
+back to the spot where Dunn was working.
+
+She stood still, watching him, and he looked up at her and then
+went on with his work without speaking, for now, as always, the
+appalling thought was perpetually in his mind: "Must she not have
+known what it was she had with her in the car when she went driving
+that night?"
+
+After a little, she turned away, as if disappointed that he took no
+notice of her presence.
+
+At once he raised himself from the task he had been bending over,
+and stood moodily watching the slim, graceful figure, about which
+hung such clouds of doubt and dread, and she, turning around
+suddenly, as if she actually felt the impact of his gaze, saw him,
+and saw the strange expression in his eyes.
+
+"Why do you look at me like that?" she asked quickly, her soft and
+gentle tones a little shrill, as though swift fear had come upon her.
+
+"Like what?" he mumbled.
+
+"Oh, you know," she cried passionately.  "Am I to be the next?" she
+asked.
+
+He started, and looked at her wonderingly, asking himself if these
+words of hers bore the grim meaning that his mind instantly gave
+them.
+
+Was it possible that if she did know something of what was going on
+in this quiet country house, during these peaceful autumn days, she
+knew it not as willing accomplice, but as a helpless, destined victim
+who saw no way of escape.
+
+As if she feared she had said too much, she turned and began to
+walk away.
+
+At once he followed.
+
+"Stop one moment," he exclaimed.  "Miss Cayley."
+
+She obeyed, turning quickly to face him.  They were both very pale,
+and both were under the influence of strong excitement.  But between
+them there hung a thick cloud of doubt and dread that neither could
+penetrate.
+
+All at once Dunn, unable to control himself longer, burst out with
+that question which for so long had hovered on his lips.
+
+"Do you know," he said, "do you know what you took away with you in
+the car that night I came here?"
+
+"The packing-case, you meant" she asked.  "Of course I do; I helped
+to get it ready--what's the matter?"
+
+"Nothing," he muttered, though indeed he had staggered as beneath
+some sudden and violent blow.  "Oh--did you?" he said, with an
+effort.
+
+"Certainly," she answered.  "Now I've answered your question, will
+you answer me one?  Why did you tell us your name was Charley Wright?"
+
+"I knew a man of that name once," he answered.  "He's dead now."
+
+"I thought perhaps," she said slowly and quite calmly, "that it was
+because you had seen the name written on a photograph in my room."
+
+"No, it wasn't that," he answered gravely, and his doubts that for
+a moment had seemed so terribly confirmed, now came back again, for
+though she had said that she knew of the contents of the
+packing-case, yet, if that were really so, how was it conceivable
+that she should speak of such a thing so calmly?
+
+And yet again, if she could do it, perhaps also she could talk of
+it without emotion.  Once more there was fear in his eyes as he
+watched her, and her own were troubled and doubtful.
+
+"Why do you have all that hair on your face?" she asked.
+
+"Well, why shouldn't I?" he retorted.  "It saves trouble."
+
+"Does it?" she said.  "Do you know what it looks like--like a
+disguise?"
+
+"A disguise?" he repeated.  "Why should I want a disguise?"
+
+"Do you think I'm quite a fool because I'm a woman?" she asked
+impatiently.  "Do you suppose I couldn't see very well when you
+came that night that you were not an ordinary burglar?  You had
+some reason of your own for breaking into this house.  What was
+it?"
+
+"I'll tell you," he answered, "if you'll tell me truly what was in
+that packing-case?"
+
+"Oh, now I understand," she cried excitedly.  "It was to find that
+out you came--and then Mr. Dawson made you help us get it away.
+That was splendid."
+
+He did not speak, for once more a kind of horror held him dumb, as
+it seemed to him that she really--knew.
+
+She saw the mingled horror and bewilderment in his eyes, and she
+laughed lightly as though that amused her.
+
+"Do you know," she said, "I believe I guessed as much from the
+first, but I'm afraid Mr. Dawson was too clever for you--as he is
+for most people.  Only then," she added, wrinkling her brows as
+though a new point puzzled her, "why are you staying here like
+this?"
+
+"Can't you guess that too?" he asked hoarsely.
+
+"No," she said, shaking her head with a frankly puzzled air.  "No,
+I can't.  That's puzzled me all the time.  Do you know--I think
+you ought to shave?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"A beard makes a good disguise," she answered, "so good it's hardly
+fair for you to have it when I can't."
+
+"Perhaps you need it less," he answered bitterly, "or perhaps no
+disguise could be so effective as the one you have already."
+
+"What's that?" she asked.
+
+"Bright eyes, a pretty face, a clear complexion," he answered.
+
+He spoke with an extreme energy and bitterness that she did not in
+the least understand, and that quite took away from the words any
+suspicion of intentional rudeness.
+
+"If I have all that, I suppose it's natural and not a disguise,"
+she remarked.
+
+"My beard is natural too," he retorted.
+
+"All the same, I wish you would cut it off," she answered.  "I
+should like to see what you look like."
+
+She turned and walked away, and the more Dunn thought over this
+conversation, the less he felt he understood it.
+
+What had she meant by that strange start and look she had given him
+when she had asked if she were to be the next?  And when she
+asserted so confidently that she knew what was in the packing-case,
+was that true, or was she speaking under some mistaken impression,
+or had she wished to deceive him?
+
+The more he thought, the more disturbed he felt, and every hour that
+passed he seemed to feel more and more strongly the influence of her
+gracious beauty, the horror of his suspicions of her.
+
+The next day Clive came again, and again Ella seemed very pleased
+to see him, and again Dunn, hanging about in their vicinity,
+watched gloomily their friendly intercourse.
+
+That Clive was in love with Ella seemed fairly certain; at any rate,
+he showed himself strongly attracted by her, and very eager for
+her company.
+
+How she felt was more doubtful, though she made no concealment of
+the fact that she liked to see him, and found pleasure in having
+him there.  Dunn, moving about near at hand, was aware of an odd
+impression that she knew he was watching them, and that she wished
+him to do so for several times he saw her glance in his direction.
+
+He could always move with a most extraordinary lightness of foot,
+so that, big and clumsy as he seemed in build, he could easily go
+unheard and even unseen, and John Clive seemed to have little idea
+that he remained so persistently near at hand.
+
+This gift or power of Dunn's he had acquired in far-off lands, where
+life may easily depend on the snapping of a twig or the right
+interpretation of a trampled grass-blade, and he was using it now,
+almost unconsciously, so as to make his presence near Ella and Clive
+as unobtrusive as possible, when his keen eye caught sight of a bush,
+of which leaves and branches were moving against the wind.
+
+For that he knew there could be but one explanation, and when he
+walked round, so as to get behind this bush, he was not surprised
+to see Deede Dawson crouching there, his eyes very intent and eager,
+his unsmiling lips drawn back to show his white teeth in a
+threatening grin or snarl.
+
+Near by him was his little chess-board and men, and as Dunn came up
+behind he looked round quickly and saw him.
+
+For a moment his eyes were deadly and his hand dropped to his
+hip-pocket, where Dunn had reason to believe he carried a formidable
+little automatic pistol.
+
+But almost at once his expression changed, and with a gesture he
+invited Dunn to crouch down at his side.  For a little they remained
+like this, and then Deede Dawson moved cautiously away, signing to
+Dunn to follow him.
+
+When they were at a safe distance he turned to Dunn and said
+
+"Is he serious, do you think, or is he playing with her?  I'll make
+him pay for it if he is."
+
+"How should I know?" answered Dunn, quite certain it was no such
+anxiety as this that had set Deede Dawson watching them so carefully.
+
+Deede Dawson seemed to feel that the explanation he had offered was
+a little crude, and he made no attempt to enlarge on it.
+
+With a complete change of manner, with his old smile on his lips
+and his eyes as dark and unsmiling as ever, he said
+
+"Pretty girl, Ella--isn't she?"
+
+"She is more than pretty, she is beautiful," Dunn answered with an
+emphasis that made Deede Dawson look at him sharply.
+
+"Think so?" he said, and gave his peculiar laugh that had so little
+mirth in it.  "Well, you're right, she is.  He'll be a lucky man
+that gets her--and she's to be had, you know.  But I'll tell you
+one thing, it won't be John Clive."
+
+"I thought it rather looked," observed Dunn, "as if Miss Cayley
+might mean--"
+
+Deede Dawson interrupted with a quick jerk of his head.
+
+"Never mind what she means, it'll be what I mean," he declared.  "I
+am boss; and what's more, she knows it.  I believe in a man being
+master in his own family.  Don't you?"
+
+"If he can be," retorted Dunn.  "But still, a girl naturally--"
+
+"Naturally nothing," Deede Dawson interrupted again.  "I tell you
+what I want for her, a man I can-trust-trust-that's the great thing.
+Some one I can trust."
+
+He nodded at Dunn as he said this and then walked off, and Dunn
+felt very puzzled as he, too, turned away.
+
+"Was he offering her to me?" he asked himself.  "It almost sounded
+like it.  If so, it must mean there's something he wants from me
+pretty bad.  She's beautiful enough to turn any man's head--but
+did she know about poor Charlie's murder? --help in it, perhaps?
+--as she said she did with the packing-case."
+
+He paused, and all his body was shaken by strong and fierce emotion.
+
+"God help me," he groaned.  "I believe I would marry her tomorrow
+if I could, innocent or guilty."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+INVISIBLE WRITING
+
+
+It was the next day that there arrived by the morning post a letter
+for Dunn.
+
+Deede Dawson raised his eyebrows slightly when he saw it; and he
+did not hand it on until he had made himself master of its contents,
+though that did not prove to be very enlightening or interesting.
+The note, in fact, merely expressed gratification at the news that
+Dunn had secured steady work, a somewhat weak hope that he would
+keep it, and a still fainter hope that now perhaps he would be able
+to return the ten shillings borrowed, apparently from the writer, at
+some time in the past.
+
+Mr. Deede Dawson, in spite of the jejune nature of the communication,
+read it very carefully and indeed even went so far as to examine the
+letter through a powerful magnifying-glass.
+
+But he made no discovery by the aid of that instrument, and he
+neglected, for no man thinks of everything, to expose the letter to
+a gentle heat, which was what Dunn did when, presently, he received
+it, apparently unopened and with not the least sign to show that it
+had been tampered with in any way whatever.
+
+Gradually, however, as Dunn held it to the fire, there appeared
+between the lines fresh writing, which he read very eagerly, and
+which ran:
+
+"Jane Dunsmore, born 1830, married, against family wishes, John
+Clive and had one son, John, killed early this year in a motor-car
+accident, leaving one son, John, now of Ramsdon Place and third in
+line of succession to the Wreste Abbey property."
+
+When he had read the message thus strangely and with such
+precaution conveyed to him, Dunn burnt the letter and went that day
+about his work in a very grave and thoughtful mood.
+
+"I knew it couldn't be a mere coincidence," he mused.  "It wasn't
+possible.  I must manage to warn him, somehow; but, ten to one, he
+won't believe a word, and I don't know that I blame him--I shouldn't
+in his place.  And he might go straight to Deede Dawson and ruin
+everything.  I don't know that it wouldn't be wiser and safer to say
+nothing for the present, till I'm more sure of my ground--and then
+it may be too late."
+
+"Just possibly," he thought, "the job Deede Dawson clearly thinks
+he can make me useful in may have something to do with Clive.  If so,
+I may be able to see my way more clearly."
+
+As it happened, Clive was away for a few days on some business he
+had to attend to, so that for the present Dunn thought he could
+afford to wait.
+
+But during the week-end Clive returned, and on the Monday he came
+again to Bittermeads.
+
+It was never very agreeable to Dunn to have to stand aloof while
+Clive was laughing and chatting and drinking his tea with Ella and
+her mother, and of those feelings of annoyance and vexation he made
+this time a somewhat ostentatious show.
+
+That his manner of sulky anger and resentment did not go unnoticed
+by Deede Dawson he was very sure, but nothing was said at the time.
+
+Next morning Deede Dawson called him while he was busy in the garage
+and insisted on his trying to solve another chess problem.
+
+"I haven't managed the other yet," Dunn protested.  "It's not too
+easy to hit on these key-moves."
+
+"Never mind try this one," Deede Dawson said; and Ella, going out
+for a morning stroll with her mother, saw them thus, poring together
+over the travelling chess-board.
+
+"They seem busy, don't they?" she remarked.  "Father is making quite
+a friend of that man."
+
+"I don't like him," declared Mrs. Dawson, quite vigorously for her.
+"I'm sure a man with such a lot of hair on his face can't be really
+nice, and I thought he was inclined to be rude yesterday."
+
+"Yes," agreed Ella.  "Yes, he was.  I think Mr. Clive was a little
+vexed, though he took no notice, I suppose he couldn't very well."
+
+"I don't like the man at all," Mrs. Dawson repeated.  "All that
+hair, too.  Do you like him?"
+
+"I don't know," Ella answered, and after she and her mother had
+returned from their walk she took occasion to find Dunn in the
+garden and ask him some trifling question or another.
+
+"You are interested in chess?" she remarked, when he had answered
+her.
+
+"All problems are interesting till one finds the answer to them,"
+he replied.
+
+"There's one I know of," she retorted.  "I wish you would solve
+for me."
+
+"Tell me what it is," he said quickly.  "Will you?"
+
+She shook her head slightly, but she was watching him very intently
+from her clear, candid eyes, and now, as always, her nearness to
+him, the infinite appeal he found in her every look and movement,
+the very fragrance of her hair, bore him away beyond all purpose
+and intention.
+
+"Tell me what it is," he said again.  "Won't you?  Miss Cayley, if
+you and I were to trust each other--it's not difficult to see
+there's something troubling you."
+
+"Most people have some trouble or another," she answered evasively.
+
+He came a little nearer to her, and instead of the gruff, harsh
+tones he habitually used, his voice was singularly pleasant and low
+as he said:
+
+"People who are in trouble need help, Miss Cayley.  Will you let me
+help you?"
+
+"You can't," she answered, shaking her head.  "No one could."
+
+"How can you tell that?" he asked eagerly.  "Perhaps I know more
+already than you think."
+
+"I daresay you do," she said slowly.  "I have thought that a long
+time.  Will you tell me one thing? --Are you his friend or not?"
+
+There was no need for Dunn to ask to whom the pronoun she used
+referred.
+
+"I am so much not his friend," he answered as quietly and
+deliberately as she had spoken.  "That it's either his life or mine."
+
+At that she drew back in a startled way as though his words had gone
+beyond her expectations.
+
+"How do I know I can trust you?" she said presently, half to herself,
+half to him.
+
+"You can," he said, and it was as though he flung the whole of his
+enigmatic and vivid personality into those two words.
+
+"You can," he said again.  "Absolutely."
+
+"I must think," she muttered, pressing her hands to her head.  "So
+much depends--how can I trust you?  Why should I--why?"
+
+"Because I'll trust you first," he answered with a touch of
+exultation in his manner.  "Listen to me and I'll tell you
+everything.  And that means I put my life in your hands.  Well,
+that's nothing; I would do that any time; but other people's lives
+will be in your power, too--yes, and everything I'm here for,
+everything.  Now listen."
+
+"Not now," she interrupted sharply.  "He may be watching, listening
+--he generally is."  Again there was no need between them to
+specify to whom the pronoun referred.  "Will you meet me tonight
+near the sweet-pea border--about nine?"
+
+She glided away as she spoke without waiting for him to answer, and
+as soon as he was free from the magic of her presence, reaction
+came and he was torn by a thousand doubts and fears and worse.
+
+"Why, I'm mad, mad," he groaned.  "I've no right to tell what I
+said I would, no right at all."
+
+And again there returned to him his vivid, dreadful memory of how
+she had started on that midnight drive with her car so awfully laden.
+
+And again there returned to him his old appalling doubt:
+
+"Did she not know?"
+
+And though he would willingly have left his life in her hands, he
+knew he had no right to put that of others there, and yet it
+seemed to him he must keep the appointment and the promise he had
+made.
+
+About nine that evening, then, he made his way to the sweet-pea
+border, though, as he went, he resolved that he would not tell her
+what he had said he would.
+
+Because he trusted his own strength so little when he was with her,
+he confirmed this resolution by an oath he swore to himself: and
+even that he was not certain would be a sure protection against the
+witchery she wielded.
+
+So it was with a mind doubtful and troubled more than it had ever
+been since the beginning of these things that he came to the border
+where the sweet-peas grew, and saw a dark shadow already close by
+them.
+
+But when he came a little nearer he saw that it was not Ella who
+was there but Deede Dawson and his first thought was that she had
+betrayed him.
+
+"That you, Dunn?" Deede Dawson hailed him in his usual pleasant,
+friendly manner.
+
+"Yes," Dunn answered warily, keeping himself ready for any
+eventuality.
+
+Deede Dawson took a cigar from his pocket and lighted it and offered
+one to Dunn, who refused it abruptly.
+
+Deede Dawson laughed at that in his peculiar, mirthless way.
+
+"Am I being the third that's proverbially no company?" he asked.
+"Were you expecting to find some one else here?  I thought I saw a
+white frock vanish just as I came up."
+
+Dunn made no answer, and Deede Dawson continued after a pause
+
+"That's why I waited.  You are being just a little bit rapid in
+this affair, aren't you?"
+
+"I don't know why.  You said something, didn't you?" muttered Dunn,
+beginning to think that, after all, Deede Dawson's presence here
+was due to accident--or rather to his unceasing and unfailing
+watchfulness, and not to any treachery of Ella's.
+
+"Yes, I did, didn't I?" he agreed pleasantly.  "But you are a
+working gardener taken on out of charity to give you a chance and
+keep you out of gaol, and you are looking a little high when you
+think of your master's ward and daughter, aren't you?"
+
+"There was a time when I shouldn't have thought so," answered Dunn.
+
+"We're talking of the present, my good man," Deede Dawson said
+impatiently.  "If you want the girl you must win her.  It can be
+done, but it won't be easy."
+
+"Tell me how," said Dunn.
+
+"Oh, that's going too fast and too far," answered the other with
+his mirthless laugh.  "Now, there's Mr. John Clive--what about
+him?"
+
+"I'll answer for him," replied Dunn slowly and thickly.  "I've put
+better men than John Clive out of my way before today."
+
+"That's the way to talk," cried Deede Dawson.  "Dunn, dare you play
+a big game for big stakes?"
+
+"Try me," said Dunn.
+
+"If I showed you," Deede Dawson's voice sank to a whisper, "if I
+showed you a pretty girl for a wife--a fortune to win--what would
+you say?"
+
+"Try me," said Dunn again, and then, making his voice as low and
+hoarse as was Dunn's, he asked:
+
+"Is it Clive?"
+
+"Later--perhaps," answered Deede Dawson.  "There's some one else
+--first.  Are you ready?"
+
+"Try me," said Dunn for the third time, and as he spoke his quick
+ear caught the faint sound of a retreating footstep, and he told
+himself that Ella must have lingered near and had perhaps heard all
+they said.
+
+"Try me," he said once more, speaking more loudly and clearly this
+time.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+LOVE-MAKING AT NIGHT
+
+
+Dunn went to his room that night with the feeling that a crisis was
+approaching.  And he wished very greatly that he knew how much Ella
+had overheard of his talk with her stepfather, and what
+interpretation she had put upon it.
+
+He determined that in the morning he would take the very first
+opportunity he could find of speaking to her.
+
+But in the morning it appeared that Mrs. Dawson had had a bad night,
+and was very unwell, and Ella hardly stirred from her side all day.
+
+Even when Clive called in the afternoon she would not come down,
+but sent instead a message begging to be excused because of her
+mother's indisposition, and Dunn, from a secure spot in the garden,
+watched the young man retire, looking very disconsolate.
+
+This day, too, Dunn saw nothing of Deede Dawson, for that gentleman
+immediately after breakfast disappeared without saying anything to
+anybody, and by night had still not returned.
+
+Dunn therefore was left entirely to himself, and to him the day
+seemed one of the longest he had ever spent.
+
+That Ella remained so persistently with her mother troubled him a
+good deal, for he did not think such close seclusion on her part
+could be really necessary.
+
+He was inclined to fear that Ella had overheard enough of what had
+passed between him and Deede Dawson to rouse her mistrust, and that
+she was therefore deliberately keeping out of his way.
+
+Then too, he was troubled in another fashion by Deede Dawson's
+absence, for he was afraid it might mean that plans were being
+prepared, or possibly action being taken, that might mature
+disastrously before he himself was ready to act.
+
+All day this feeling of unrest and apprehension continued, and at
+night when he went upstairs to bed it was stronger than ever.  He
+felt convinced now that Ella was deliberately avoiding him.  But
+then, if she distrusted him, that must be because she feared he
+was on her stepfather's side, and if it seemed to her that who was
+on his side was of necessity an object of suspicion to herself, then
+there could be no such bond of dread and guilt between them as any
+guilty knowledge on her part of Wright's death would involve.
+
+The substantial proof this exercise in logic appeared to afford of
+Ella's innocence brought him much comfort, but did not lighten his
+sense of apprehension and unrest, for he thought that in this
+situation in which he found himself his doubts of Ella had merely
+been turned into doubts on Ella's part of himself, and that the one
+was just as likely as the other to end disastrously.
+
+"Though I don't know what I can do," he muttered as he stood in his
+attic, "if I gain Deede Dawson's confidence I lose Ella's, and if
+I win Ella's, Deede Dawson will at once suspect me."
+
+He went over to the window and looked out, supporting himself on his
+elbows, and gazing moodily into the darkness.
+
+As he stood there a faint sound came softly to his ear through the
+stillness of the quiet night in which nothing stirred.
+
+He listened, and heard it again.  Beyond doubt some one was stirring
+in the garden below, moving about there very cautiously and carefully,
+and at once Dunn glided from the room and down the stairs with all
+that extraordinary lightness of tread and agility of movement of
+which his heavy body and clumsy-looking build gave so small promise.
+
+He had not been living so many days in the house without having
+taken certain precautions, of which one had been to secure for
+himself a swift and silent egress whenever necessity might arise.
+
+Keys to both the front and back doors were in his possession, and
+the passage window on the ground floor he could at need lift
+bodily from its frame, leaving ample room for passage either in
+or out.  This was the method of departure he chose now since he
+did not know but that the doors might be watched.
+
+Lifting the window down, he swung himself outside, replacing behind
+him the window so that it appeared to be as firmly in position as
+ever, but could be removed again almost instantly should need arise.
+
+Once outside he listened again, and though at first everything was
+quiet, presently he heard again a cautious step going to and fro
+at a little distance.
+
+Crouching in the shadow of the house, he listened intently, and
+soon was able to assure himself that there was but one footstep
+and that he would have only one individual to deal with.
+
+"It won't be Deede Dawson's," he thought to himself, "but it may
+very likely be some one waiting for him to return.  I must find out
+who--and why."
+
+Slipping through the darkness of the night, with whose shadows he
+seemed to melt and mingle, as though he were but another one of
+them, he moved quickly in the direction of these cautious footsteps
+he had listened to.
+
+They had ceased now, and the silence was profound, for those faint
+multitudinous noises of the night that murmur without ceasing in
+the woods and fields are less noticeable near the habitations of men.
+
+A little puzzled, Dunn paused to listen again and once more crept
+forward a careful yard or two, and then lay still, feeling it would
+not be safe to venture further till he was more sure of his
+direction, and till some fresh sound to guide him reached his ears.
+
+He had not long to wait, for very soon, from quite close by, he
+heard something that surprised and perplexed him equally--a deep,
+long-drawn sigh.
+
+Again he heard it, and in utter wonder asked himself who this
+could be who came into another person's garden late at night to
+stand and sigh, and what such a proceeding could mean.
+
+Once more he heard the sigh, deeper even than before, and then after
+it a low murmur in which at first he could distinguish nothing, but
+then caught the name of Ella being whispered over and over again.
+
+He bent forward, more and more puzzled, trying in vain to make out
+something in the darkness, and then from under a tree, whose shadow
+had hitherto been a complete concealment, there moved forward a form
+so tall and bulky there could be little doubt whom it belonged to.
+
+"John Clive--what on earth--!" Dunn muttered, his bewilderment
+increasing, and the next moment he understood and had some difficulty
+in preventing himself from bursting out laughing as there reached
+him the unmistakable sound of a kiss lightly blown through the air.
+
+Clive was sending a kiss through the night towards Ella's room and
+his nocturnal visit was nothing more than the whim of a love-sick
+youth.
+
+With Dunn, his first amusement gave way almost at once to an extreme
+annoyance.
+
+For, in the first place, these proceedings seemed to him exceedingly
+impertinent, for what possible right did Clive imagine he had to
+come playing the fool like this, sighing in the dark and blowing
+kisses like a baby to its mammy?
+
+And secondly, unless he were greatly mistaken, John Clive might just
+as sensibly and safely have dropped overboard from a ship in
+mid-Atlantic for a swim as come to indulge his sentimentalities in
+the Bittermeads garden at night.
+
+"You silly ass!" he said in a voice that was very low, but very
+distinct and very full of an extreme disgust and anger.
+
+Clive fairly leaped in the air with his surprise, and turned and
+made a sudden dash at the spot whence Dunn's voice had come, but
+where Dunn no longer was.
+
+"What the blazes--?" he began, spluttering in ineffectual rage.
+"You--you--!"
+
+"You silly ass!" Dunn repeated, no less emphatically than before.
+
+Clive made another rush that a somewhat prickly bush very
+effectually stopped.
+
+"You--who are you--where--what--how dare you?" he gasped as he
+picked himself up and tried to disentangle himself from the
+prickles.
+
+"Don't make such a row," said Dunn from a new direction.  "Do you
+want to raise the whole neighbourhood?  Haven't you played the fool
+enough?  If you want to commit suicide, why can't you cut your
+throat quietly and decently at home, instead of coming alone to the
+garden at Bittermeads at night?"
+
+There was a note of sombre and intense conviction in his voice that
+penetrated even the excited mind of the raging Clive.
+
+"What do you mean?" he asked, and then:
+
+ "Who are you?"
+
+"Never mind who I am," answered Dunn.  "And I mean just what I say.
+You might as well commit suicide out of hand as come fooling about
+here alone at night."
+
+"You're crazy, you're talking rubbish!" Clive exclaimed.
+
+"I'm neither crazy nor talking rubbish," answered Dunn.  "But if
+you persist in making such a row I shall take myself off and leave
+you to see the thing through by yourself and get yourself knocked
+on the head any way you like best."
+
+"Oh, I'm beginning to understand," said Clive.  "I suppose you're
+one of my poaching friends--are you?  Look here, if you know who
+it was who attacked me the other night you can earn fifty pounds
+any time you like."
+
+"Your poaching friends, as you call them," answered Dunn, "are
+most likely only anxious to keep out of your way.  This has
+nothing to do with them."
+
+"Well, come nearer and let me see you," Clive said.  "You needn't
+be afraid.  You can't expect me to take any notice of some one I
+can't see, talking rubbish in the dark."
+
+"I don't much care whether you take any notice or not," answered
+Dunn.  "You can go your own silly way if you like, it's nothing to
+me.  I've warned you, and if you care to listen I'll make my warning
+a little clearer.  And one thing I will tell you--one man already
+has left this house hidden in a packing-case with a bullet through
+his brain, and I will ask you a question: 'How did your father die?'"
+
+"He was killed in a motor-car accident," answered Clive hesitatingly,
+as though not certain whether to continue this strange and puzzling
+conversation or break it off.
+
+"There are many accidents," said Dunn.  "And that may have been one,
+for all I know, or it may not.  Well, I've warned you.  I had to do
+that.  You'll probably go on acting like a fool and believing that
+nowadays murders don't happen, but if you're wise, you'll go home
+to bed and run no more silly risks."
+
+"Of course I'm not going to pay the least attention," began Clive,
+when Dunn interrupted him sharply.
+
+"Hush!  hush!" he said sharply.  "Crouch down: don't make a sound,
+don't stir or move.  Hush!"
+
+For Dunn's sharp ear had caught the sound of approaching footsteps
+that were drawing quickly nearer, and almost instantly he guessed
+who it would be, for there were few pedestrians who came along that
+lonely road so late at night.
+
+There were two of them apparently, and at the gate of Bittermeads
+they halted.
+
+"Well, good night," said then a voice both Dunn and Clive knew at
+once for Deede Dawson's. "That was a pretty check by the knight
+I showed you, wasn't it?"
+
+A thin, high, somewhat peculiar voice cursed Deede Dawson, chess,
+and the pretty mate by the knight very comprehensively.
+
+"It's young Clive that worries me," said the voice when it had
+finished these expressions of disapproval.
+
+"No need," answered Deede Dawson's voice with that strange mirthless
+laugh of his.  "No need at all; before the week's out he'll trouble
+no one any more."
+
+When he heard this, Clive would have betrayed himself by some
+startled movement or angry exclamation had not Dunn's heavy hand
+upon his shoulder held him down with a grave and steady pressure
+there was no disregarding.
+
+Deede Dawson and his unknown companion went on towards the house,
+and admitted themselves, and as the door closed behind them Clive
+swung round sharply in the darkness towards Dunn.
+
+"What's it mean?" he muttered in the bewildered and
+slightly-pathetic voice of a child at once frightened and puzzled.
+"What for?  Why should any one--?"
+
+"It's a long story," began Dunn, and paused.
+
+He saw that the unexpected confirmation of his warning Clive had
+thus received from Deede Dawson's own lips had rendered his task
+of convincing Clive immensely more easy.
+
+What he had wished to say had now at least a certainty of being
+listened to, a probability of being believed, and there was at
+any rate, he supposed, no longer the danger he had before dreaded
+of Clive's going straight with the whole story to Deede Dawson
+in arrogant disbelief of a word of it.
+
+But he still distrusted Clive's discretion, and feared some rash
+and hasty action that might ruin all his plans, and allow Deede
+Dawson time to escape.
+
+Besides he felt that the immediate task before him was to find
+out who Deede Dawson's new companion was, and, if possible,
+overhear anything they might have to say to each other.
+
+That, and the discovery of the new-comer's identity, might prove
+to be of the utmost importance.
+
+"I can't explain now," he said hurriedly.  "I'll see you tomorrow
+sometime.  Don't do anything till you hear from me.  Your life may
+depend on it--and other people's lives that matter more."
+
+"Tell me who you are first," Clive said quickly, incautiously
+raising his voice.  "I can manage to take care of myself all right,
+I think, but I want to know who you are."
+
+"H-ssh!" muttered Dunn.  "Not so loud."
+
+"There was a fellow made an attack on me one night a little while
+ago," Clive went on unheedingly.  "You remind me of him somehow.
+I don't think I trust you, my man.  I think you had better come
+along to the police with me."
+
+But Dunn's sharp ears had caught the sound of the house door
+opening cautiously, and he guessed that Deede Dawson had taken
+the alarm and was creeping out to see who invaded so late at night
+the privacy of his garden.
+
+"Clear out quick!  Quiet!  If you want to go on living.  I'll stop
+them from following if I can.  If you make the least noise you're
+done for."
+
+Most likely the man they had seen in his company would be with him,
+and both of them would be armed.  Neither Clive nor Dunn had a
+weapon, and Dunn saw the danger of the position and took the only
+course available.
+
+"Go," he whispered fiercely into Clive's ear.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE SOUND OF A SHOT
+
+
+He melted away into the darkness as he spoke, and through the night
+he slipped, one shadow more amongst many, from tree to bush, from
+bush to tree.  Across a patch of open grass he crawled on his hands
+and knees; and once lay flat on his face when against the skyline
+he saw a figure he was sure was Deede Dawson's creep by a yard or
+two on his right hand.
+
+On his left another shadow showed, distinguishable in the night
+only because it moved.
+
+In a moment both shadows were gone, secret and deadly in the dark,
+and Dunn was very sure that Clive's life and his own both hung
+upon a slender chance, for if either of them was discovered the
+leaping bullet would do the rest.
+
+It would be safe and easy--suspected burglars in a garden at
+midnight--nothing could be said.  He lay very still with his face
+to the dewy sod, and all the night seemed full to him of searching
+footsteps and of a swift and murderous going to and fro.
+
+He heard distinctly from the road a sudden, muffled sound as Clive
+in the darkness blunderingly missed his footing and fell upon one
+knee.
+
+"That's finished him," Dunn thought grimly, his ears straining for
+the sharp pistol report that would tell Clive's tale was done, and
+then he was aware of a cat, a favourite of Ella's and often petted
+by himself, that was crouching near by under a tree, most likely
+much puzzled and alarmed by this sudden irruption of hurrying men
+into its domain.  Instantly Dunn saw his chance, and seizing the
+animal, lifted it and threw it in the direction where he guessed
+Deede Dawson to be.
+
+His guess was good and fortune served him well, for the tabby
+flying caterwauling through the air alighted almost exactly in
+front of Deede Dawson on top of a small bush.  For a moment it
+hung there, quite unhurt, but very frightened, and emitted a yell,
+then fled.
+
+In the quietness the tumult of its scrambling flight sounded
+astonishingly loud, so that it sounded as through a miniature
+avalanche had been let loose in the garden.
+
+"Only cats," Deede Dawson exclaimed disgustedly, and from behind,
+nearer the house, Dunn called:
+
+"Who's there?  What is it?  What's the matter? Is it Mr. Dawson?
+Is anything wrong?"
+
+"I think there is," said Deede Dawson softly.  "I think, perhaps,
+there is.  What are you doing out here at this time of night,
+Charley Wright?"
+
+"I heard a noise and came down to see what it was," answered Dunn.
+"There was a light in the breakfast-room, but I didn't see any one,
+and the front door was open so I came out here.  Is anything wrong?"
+
+"That's what I want to know," said Deede Dawson.  "Come back to the
+house with me.  If any one is about, he can just take himself off."
+
+He spoke the last sentence loudly, and Dunn took it as a veiled
+instruction to his companion to depart.
+
+He realized that if he had saved Clive he had done so at the cost
+of missing the best opportunity that had yet come his way of
+obtaining very important, and, perhaps, decisive information.
+
+To have discovered the identity of this stranger who had come
+visiting Deede Dawson might have meant much, and he told himself
+angrily that Clive's safety had certainly not been worth purchasing
+at the cost of such a lost chance, though he supposed that was a
+point on which Clive himself might possibly entertain a different
+opinion.
+
+But now there was nothing for it but to go quietly back to the
+house, for clearly Deede Dawson's suspicions were aroused and he
+had his revolver ready in his hand.
+
+"I suppose it was only cats all the time," he observed, with apparent
+unconcern.  "But at first I made sure there were no burglars in the
+house."
+
+"And I suppose," suggested Deede Dawson.  "You think one burglar's
+enough in a household."
+
+"I don't mean to have any one else mucking around," growled Dunn
+in answer.
+
+"Very admirable sentiments," said Deede Dawson and asked several
+more questions that showed he still entertained some suspicion of
+Dunn, and was not altogether satisfied that his appearance in the
+garden was quite innocent, or that the noise heard there was due
+solely to cats.
+
+Dunn answered as best he could, and Deede Dawson listened and smiled,
+and smiled again, and watched him from eyes that did not smile at
+all.
+
+"Oh, well," Deede Dawson said at last, with a yawn.  "Anyhow, it's
+all right now.  You had better get along back to bed, and I'll lock
+up."  He accompanied Dunn into the hall and watched him ascend the
+stairs, and as Dunn went slowly up them he felt by no means sure
+that soon a bullet would not come questing after him, searching for
+heart or brain.
+
+For he was sure that Deede Dawson still suspected him, and he knew
+Deede Dawson to be very sudden and swift in action.  But nothing
+happened, he reached the broad, first landing in safety, and he was
+about to go on up to his attic when he beard a door at the end of
+the passage open and saw Ella appear in her dressing-gown.
+
+"What is the matter?" she asked, in a low voice.
+
+"It's all right," he answered.  "There was a noise in the garden,
+and I came down to see what it was, but it's only cats."
+
+"Oh, is that all?" she said distrustfully.
+
+"Yes," he answered, in a lower voice still, he said:
+
+"Will you tell me something?  Do you know any one who talks in a
+very peculiar shrill high voice?"
+
+She did not answer, and, after a moment's hesitation, went back
+into her room and closed the door behind her.
+
+He went on up to his attic with the feeling that she could have
+answered if she had wished to, and lay down in a troubled and
+dispirited mood.
+
+For he was sure now that Ella mistrusted him and would give him
+no assistance, and that weighed upon him greatly, as did also his
+conviction that what it behoved him above all else to know--the
+identity of the man who, in this affair, stood behind Deede Dawson
+and made use of his fierce and fatal energies--he had had it in
+his power to discover and had failed to make use of the opportunity.
+
+"I would rather know that," he said to himself, "than save a dozen
+Clives ten times over."  Though again it occurred to him that on
+this point Clive might hold another opinion.  "If he hadn't made
+such a blundering row I might have got to know who Deede Dawson's
+visitor was.  I must try to get a word with Clive tomorrow by hook
+or crook, though I daresay Deede Dawson will be very much on the
+lookout."
+
+However, next morning Deede Dawson not only made no reference to
+the events of the night, but had out the car and went off
+immediately after breakfast without saying when he would be back.
+
+As soon after his departure as possible, Dunn also set out and took
+his way through the woods towards Ramsdon Place on the look-out for
+an opportunity to speak to Clive unobserved.
+
+He thought it most likely that Clive would be drawn towards the
+vicinity of Bittermeads by the double fascination of curiosity and
+fear, and he supposed that if he waited and watched in the woods he
+would be sure presently to see him.
+
+But though he remained for long hidden at a spot whence he could
+command the road to Bittermeads from Ramsdon Place, he saw nothing
+at all of Clive, and the sunny lazy morning was well advanced when
+he was startled by the sound of a gun shot some distance away.
+
+"A keeper shooting rabbits, I suppose," he thought, looking round
+just in time to see Ella running through the wood from the direction
+whence the sound of the shot had seemed to come, and then vanish
+again with a quick look behind her into the heart of a close-growing
+spinney.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+IN THE WOOD
+
+
+There had been an air of haste, almost of furtiveness, about this
+swift appearance and more swift vanishing of Ella, that made Dunn
+ask himself uneasily what errand she could have been on.
+
+He hesitated for a moment, half expecting to see her return again,
+or that there would be some other development, but he heard and saw
+nothing.
+
+He caught no further glimpse of Ella, whom the green depths of the
+spinney hid well; and he heard no more shots.
+
+After a little, he left the spot where he had been waiting and went
+across to where he had seen her.
+
+The exact spot where she had entered the spinney was marked, for
+she had broken the branch of a young tree in brushing quickly by it,
+and a bramble she had trodden on had not yet lifted itself from the
+earth to which she had pressed it.
+
+By other signs like these, plain enough and easy to read--for she
+had hurried on in great haste and without care, almost, indeed, as
+one who fled from some great danger or from some dreadful sight,
+and who had no thought to spare save for flight alone--he followed
+the way she had gone till it took him to a beaten public path that
+almost at once led over a stile to the high road which passed in
+front of Bittermeads.  Along this beaten path, trodden by many,
+Ella's light foot had left no perceptible mark, and Dunn made no
+attempt to track her further, since it seemed certain that she had
+been simply hurrying back home.
+
+"She was badly frightened over something or another," he said to
+himself.  "She never stopped once, she went as straight and quick
+as she could.  I wonder what upset her like that?"
+
+He went back the way he had come, and at the spot where he had seen
+her enter the spinney he set to work to pick up her trail in the
+direction whence she had appeared, for he thought that if he followed
+it he might find out what had been the cause of her evident alarm.
+
+The ground was much more open here, and the trail correspondingly
+more difficult to follow, for often there was little but a trodden
+blade of grass to show where she had passed; and sometimes, where
+the ground was bare and hard, there was no visible sign left at all.
+
+Once or twice at such places he was totally at fault, but by casting
+round in a wide circle like a dog scenting his prey he was able to
+pick up her tracks again.
+
+They seemed to lead right into the depths of the wood, through lonely
+spots that only the keepers knew, and where others seldom came.
+
+But that he was on the right trail he presently had proof, for on
+the bank of a lovely and hidden dell he picked up a tiny embroidered
+handkerchief with the initials "E. C." worked in one corner.
+
+It had evidently been lying there only a very short time, for it
+was perfectly clean and fresh, and he picked it up and held it for
+a moment in his hands, smiling to himself with pleasure at its
+daintiness and smallness, and yet still uneasily wondering why she
+had come here, and why she had fled away again so quickly.
+
+The morning was very fine and calm, though in the west heavy clouds
+were gathering and seemed to promise rain soon.  But overhead the
+sun shone brightly, the air was calm and warm, and the little dell
+on whose verge he stood a very pretty and pleasant place.
+
+A small stream wandered through it, the grass that carpeted it was
+green and soft, near by a great oak stood alone and spread its
+majestic branches far out on every side to give cool shelter from
+the summer heat.
+
+The thought occurred to Dunn that this was just such a pretty and
+secluded spot as two lovers might choose to exchange their vows in,
+and the thought stung him intolerably as he wondered whether it was
+for such a reason that Ella had come here.
+
+But if so, why had she fled away again in such strange haste?
+
+He walked on slowly for a yard or two, not now attempting to follow
+Ella's trail, for he had the impression that this was her
+destination, and that she had gone no further than here.
+
+All at once he caught sight of the form of a man lying hidden in
+the long grass that nearly covered him from view just where the
+far-spreading branches of the great oak ceased to give their shade.
+
+At first Dunn thought he was sleeping, and he was just about to
+call out to him when something in the rigidity of the man's position
+and his utter stillness struck him unpleasantly.
+
+He went quickly to the man's side, and the face of dead John Clive,
+supine and still, stared up at him from unseeing eyes.
+
+He had been killed by a charge of small shot fired at such close
+quarters that his breast was shot nearly in two and his clothing
+and flesh charred by the burning powder.
+
+But Dunn, standing staring down at the dead man, saw not him, but
+Ella.  Ella fleeing away silently and furtively through the trees
+as from some sight or scene of guilt and terror.
+
+He stooped closer over the dead man.  Death had been instantaneous.
+Of course there could be no doubt.  From one hand a piece of folded
+paper had fallen.
+
+Dunn picked it up, and saw that there was writing on it, and he
+read it over slowly.
+
+  "Dear Mr. Clive,--Can you meet me as before by the oak
+  tomorrow at eleven?  There is something I very much want to
+  say to you.--Yours sincerely,
+                                                "ELLA CAYLEY."
+
+
+Was that, then, the lure which had brought John Clive to meet his
+death?  Was this the bait that had made him disregard the warnings
+he had received, and come alone to so quiet and solitary a spot?
+
+Dunn had a moment of quick envy of him; he lay so quiet and still
+in the warm sunshine, with nothing to trouble or distress him any
+more for ever.
+
+Then, stumblingly and heavily, Dunn turned an went away, and his
+eyes were very hard, his bearded face set like iron.
+
+Like a man in a dream, or one obsessed by some purpose before which
+all other things faded into nothingness, he went his way, the way
+Ella had taken in her flight--through the wood, through the spinney
+to the public foot-path, and then out on the road that led to
+Bittermeads.
+
+When he entered the garden there, he saw Ella sitting quietly on a
+deck-chair close to her mother, quietly busy with some fancy work.
+
+He could not believe it; he stood watching in bewilderment,
+appalled and wondering, watching her white hands flashing busily
+to and fro, hearing the soft murmur of her voice as now and then she
+addressed some remark to her mother, who nodded drowsily in the
+sunshine over a book open on her knees.
+
+Ella was dressed all in white; she had flung aside her hat, and the
+quiet breeze played in her fair hair, and stirred gently a stray
+curl that had escaped across her broad low brow.
+
+The picture was one of gentleness and peace and an innocence that
+thought no wrong, and yet with his own eyes he had seen her not
+an hour ago fleeing with hurried steps and fearful looks from the
+spot where lay a murdered man.
+
+Somewhat unsteadily, for he felt so little master of himself, it
+was as though he had no longer even control of his own limbs, Dunn
+stumbled forward, and Ella looked up and saw him, and saw also that
+he was looking at her very strangely.
+
+She rose and came towards him, her needlework still in her hands.
+
+"What is the matter?" she said in a voice of some concern.  "Are
+you ill?"
+
+"No," he answered.  "No.  I've been looking for Mr. Clive."
+
+"Have you?" she said, a little surprised apparently, but in no
+way flustered or disturbed.  "Did you find him?"
+
+Dunn did not answer, for indeed he could not, and she said again:
+
+"Did you find him?"
+
+Still he made no answer, for it seemed to him those four words were
+the most awful that any one had ever uttered since the beginning of
+the world.
+
+"What is the matter?" she said again.  "Is anything the matter?"
+
+"Oh, no, no," he said, and he gave himself a little shake like a
+man wakening from deep sleep and trying to remember where he was.
+
+"Well, then," she said.
+
+"I found Mr. Clive," he said hardly and abruptly.  And he repeated
+again: "Yes, I found him."
+
+They remained standing close together and facing each other, and
+he saw her as through a veil of red, and it was as though a red
+mist enveloped her, and where her shadow lay the earth was red, he
+thought, and where she put her foot it seemed to him red tracks
+remained, and never before had he understood how utterly he loved
+her and must love her, now and for evermore.
+
+But he uttered no sound and made no movement, only stood very still,
+thinking to himself how dreadful it was that he loved her so greatly.
+
+She was not paying him, any attention now.  A rose bush was near by,
+and she picked one of the flowers, and arranged it carefully at her
+waist.
+
+She said, still looking at him:
+
+"Do you know--I wish you would shave yourself?"
+
+"Why?" he mumbled.
+
+"I should like to see you," she answered.  "I think I have a
+curiosity to see you."
+
+"I should think you could do that well enough," he said in the same
+low, mumbled tones.
+
+"No," she answered.  "I can only see some very untidy hair and a
+pair of eyes--not very nice eyes, rather frightening eyes.  I
+should like to see the rest of your face some day so as to know
+what it's like."
+
+"Perhaps you shall--some day," he said.
+
+"Is that a threat?" she asked.  "It sounded like one."
+
+"Perhaps," he answered.
+
+She laughed lightly and turned away.
+
+"You make me very curious," she said.  "But then, you've always
+done that."
+
+She went back to her seat by her mother, and he walked on moodily
+to the house.
+
+Mrs. Dawson said to Ella:
+
+"How can you talk to that man, my dear?  I think he looks perfectly
+dreadful--hardly like a human being."
+
+"I was just telling him he ought to shave himself," said Ella.
+"I told him I should like to know what he was really like."
+
+"I shall ask father," said Mrs. Dawson sternly, "to make it a
+condition of his employment here."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A DECLARATION
+
+
+Dunn knew very well that he ought to give immediate information to
+the authorities of what had happened.
+
+But he did not.  He told himself that nothing could help poor John
+Clive, and that any precipitate action on his part might still
+fatally compromise his plans, which were now so near completion.
+
+But his real reason was that he knew that if he came forward he
+would be very closely questioned, and sooner or later forced to tell
+the things he knew so terribly involving Ella.
+
+And he knew that to surrender her to the police and proclaim her to
+the world as guilty of such things were tasks beyond his strength;
+though, to himself, with a touch of wildness in his thoughts, he
+said that no proved and certain guilt should go unpunished even
+though his own hand-- It was a train of ideas he did not pursue.
+
+"Charley Wright first and now John Clive," he said to himself.  "But
+the end is not yet."
+
+Again he would not let his thoughts go on but checked them abruptly.
+
+In this dark and troubled mood he went out to busy himself with the
+garden, and all the time he worked he watched with a sort of vertigo
+of horror where Ella sat in the sunshine by her mother's side, her
+white hands moving nimbly to and fro upon her needlework.
+
+It was not long, however, before the tragedy of the wood was
+discovered, for Clive had been seen to go in that direction, and
+when he did not return a search was made that was soon successful.
+
+The news was brought to Bittermeads towards evening by a tradesman's
+boy, who came up from the village to bring something that had been
+ordered from there.
+
+"Have you heard?" he said to Dunn excitedly.  "Mr. Clive's been shot
+dead by poachers."
+
+"Oh--by poachers?" repeated Dunn.
+
+"Yes, poachers," the boy answered, and went on excitedly to tell
+his tale with many, and generally very inaccurate, details.
+
+But that the crime had been discovered and instantly set down to
+poachers was at least certain, and Dunn realized at once that the
+adoption of this simple and apparently plausible theory would put
+an end to all really careful investigation of the circumstances
+and make the discovery of the truth highly improbable.
+
+For the idea that the murder was the work of poachers would, when
+once adopted, fill the minds of the police and of every one else,
+and no suspicion would be directed elsewhere.
+
+By the tremendous relief he felt, Dunn understood how heavy had been
+the burden of fear and apprehension that till now had oppressed him.
+
+If he had not found that handkerchief--if he had not secured that
+letter--why, by now the police would be at Bittermeads.
+
+"All the same," he thought.  "No one who is guilty shall escape
+through me."
+
+But what this phrase meant, and what he intended to do, he would
+not permit himself to think out clearly or try to understand.
+
+The boy, having told his story, hurried off to spread the news
+elsewhere to more appreciative ears, for, he thought disgustedly,
+it might have been just nothing at all for all the interest the
+gardener at Bittermeads had shown.
+
+As soon as he was gone, Dunn went across to the house, and going up
+to the window of the drawing-room where Ella and her mother were
+having tea, he tapped on the pane.
+
+Ella looked up and saw him, and came at once to open the window,
+while from behind Mrs. Dawson frowned in severe disapproval of what
+she considered a great liberty.
+
+"Mr. Clive has been shot," Dunn said abruptly.  "They say poachers
+did it.  He was killed instantly."
+
+Ella did not seem at first to understand.  She looked puzzled and
+bewildered, and did not seem to grasp the full import of his words.
+
+"What--what do you say?" she asked.  "Mr. Clive-- Who's killed?"
+
+Dunn thought to himself that her acting was the most wonderful thing
+he had ever seen.
+
+It was extraordinary that she should be able to make that grey
+pallor come over her cheeks as though the meaning of what he said
+were only now entering her mind; wonderful that she should be able
+so well to give the idea of a great horror and a great doubt coming
+slowly into her startled eyes.
+
+"Mr. Clive?" she said again.
+
+"Yes, he's been killed," Dunn said.  "By poachers, apparently."
+
+"What is that?  What is that man saying?" shrilled Mrs. Dawson from
+behind.  "Mr. Clive--John--why, he was here yesterday."
+
+Dunn turned his back and walked away.  He heard Ella call after him,
+but he would not look back because he feared what he might do if he
+obeyed her call.
+
+With an odd buzzing in his ears, with the blood throbbing through
+his brain as though something must soon break there, he walked
+blindly on, and as he came to the gate of Bittermeads he saw a
+motor-car coming up the road.
+
+It was Deede Dawson's car, and he was driving it, and by his side
+sat a sulkily-smiling stranger, his air that of one not sure of his
+welcome, but determined to enforce it, in whom, with a quick start,
+Dunn recognized his burglar, the man whose attempt to break into
+Bittermeads he had frustrated, and whose place he had taken.
+
+He put up his hand instinctively for them to stop, and Deede Dawson
+at once obeyed the gesture.
+
+Dunn noticed that the smile upon his lips was more gentle and
+winning than ever, the look in his eyes more dark and menacing.
+
+"Well, Dunn, what is it?" he said as pleasantly as he always spoke.
+"Mr. Allen," he added to his companion, "this is my man, Dunn, I
+told you about, my gardener and chauffeur, and a very industrious
+steady fellow--and quite trustworthy."
+
+He seemed to lay a certain emphasis on the last two words, and Allen
+put his head on one side and looked at Dunn with an odd, mixture of
+familiarity, suspicion, hesitation, and an uncertain assumption of
+superiority, but with no hint of recognition showing.
+
+"Glad to hear it," he said.  "You always want to know whom you can
+trust."
+
+"Mr. Clive has been murdered," Dunn said abruptly.  "Poachers, it
+is said.  Did you know?"
+
+"We heard about it as we came through the village," answered Deede
+Dawson.  "Very sad, very dreadful.  It will be a great shock to poor
+Ella, I fear.  Take the car on to the garage, will you?" he added.
+
+He drove on up the drive, and at the front door they alighted and
+entered the house together.  Dunn followed, and getting into the
+car, drove it to the garage, where he busied himself cleaning it.
+As he worked he wondered very much what was the meaning of this
+sudden appearance on terms of friendship with Deede Dawson of this
+man Allen, whom he had last seen trying to break into the house at
+night.
+
+Was Allen an accomplice of Deede Dawson, or a dupe, or, more
+probably, a new recruit?
+
+At any rate, to Dunn it seemed that the crisis he had expected and
+prepared for was now fast approaching, and he told himself that if
+he had failed in Clive's case, those others he was working for he
+must not fail to save.
+
+"Looks as if Dawson's plans were nearly ready," he said to himself.
+"Well, so are mine."
+
+He finished his work and shutting the garage door, he was turning
+away when he saw Ella coming towards him.
+
+She was extremely pale, and her eyes seemed larger than ever, and
+very bright against the deathly whiteness of her cheeks.
+
+She was wearing a blouse that was cut a little low, and he notice
+with a kind of terror how soft and round was her throat, like a
+column of pale and perfect ivory.
+
+He hoped she would not speak to him, for he thought perhaps he could
+not bear it if she did, but she halted near by, and said:
+
+"This is very dreadful about poor Mr. Clive."
+
+"Very," he answered moodily.
+
+"Why should poachers kill him?" she asked.  "Why should they want
+to?"
+
+"I don't know," he answered, watching not her but her soft throat,
+where he could see a pulse fluttering.  "Perhaps it wasn't poachers,"
+he added.
+
+She started violently, and gave a quick look that seemed to make yet
+more certain the certainty he already entertained.
+
+"Who else could it be?" she asked in a low voice.
+
+He did not answer.
+
+After what seemed a long time she said:
+
+"You asked me a question once--do you remember?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Why don't you speak?  Why can't you speak?" she cried angrily.
+"Why can't you say something instead of just shaking your head?"
+
+"You see, I've asked you so many questions," he said slowly.
+"Perhaps I shall ask you some more some day--which question do you
+mean?"
+
+"I mean when you asked me if I had ever met any one who spoke in a
+very shrill, high whistling sort of voice?  Do you remember?"
+
+"Yes," he said.  "You wouldn't tell me."
+
+"Well, I will now," she said.  "I did meet a man once with a voice
+like that.  Do you remember the night you, came here that I drove
+away in the car with a packing-case you carried downstairs?"
+
+"Do I--remember?" he gasped, for that memory, and the thought of
+how she had driven away into the night with, that grisly thing behind
+her on the car had never since left his mind by night or by day.
+
+"Yes," she exclaimed impatiently.  "Why do you keep staring so?  Are
+you as stupid as you choose to look?  Do you remember?"
+
+"I remember," he answered heavily.  "I remember very well."
+
+"Well, then, the man I took that packing-case to had a voice just
+like that--high and shrill, whistling almost."
+
+"I thought as much," said Dunn.  "May I ask you another question?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"May I smoke?"
+
+She nodded again with a touch of impatience.
+
+He took a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth and
+lighted a match, but the match, when he had lighted it, he used to
+put light to a scrap of folded paper with writing on it, like a note.
+
+This piece of paper he used to light his cigarette with and when he
+had done so he watched the paper burn to an ash, not dropping it to
+the ground till the little flame stung his fingers.
+
+The ash that had fallen he ground into the path where they stood
+with the heel of his boot.
+
+"What have you burned there?" she asked, as if she suspected it was
+something of importance he had destroyed.
+
+In fact it was the note that had fallen from dead John Clive's hand
+wherein Ella had asked him to meet her at the oak where he had met
+his death.
+
+That bit of paper would have been enough, Dunn thought, to place a
+harsh hempen noose about the soft white throat he watched where the
+little pulse still fluttered up and down.  But now it was burnt and
+utterly destroyed, and no one would ever see it.
+
+At the thought he laughed and she drew back, very startled.
+
+"Oh, what is the matter?" she exclaimed.
+
+"Nothing," he answered.  "Nothing in all the world except that I
+love you."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+ROBERT DUNN'S ENEMY
+
+
+When he had said this he went a step or two aside and sat down on
+the stump of a tree.  He was very agitated and disturbed for he had
+not in the very least meant to say such a thing, he had not even
+known that he really felt like that.
+
+It was, indeed, a rush and power of quite unexpected passion that
+had swept him away and made him for the moment lose all control
+of himself.  Ella showed much more composure.  She had become
+extraordinarily pale, but otherwise she did not appear in any way
+agitated.
+
+She remained silent, her eyes bent on the ground, her only movement
+a gesture by which she rubbed softly and in turn each of her wrists
+as though they hurt her.
+
+"Well, can't you say something?" he asked roughly, annoyed by her
+persistent silence.
+
+"I don't see that there's anything for me to say," she answered.
+
+"Oh, well now then," he muttered; quite disconcerted.
+
+She raised her eyes from the ground, and for the first time looked
+full at him, in her expression both curiosity and resentment.
+
+"It is perfectly intolerable," she said with a heaving breast.
+"Will you tell me who you are?"
+
+"I've told you one thing," he answered sullenly, his eyes on fire.
+"I should have thought that was enough.  I'll tell you nothing more."
+
+"I think you are the most horrid man I ever met," she cried.  "And
+the very, very ugliest--all that hair on your face so that no one
+can see anything else.  What are you like when you cut it off?"
+
+"Does that matter?" he asked, in the same gruff and surly manner.
+
+"I should think it matters a good deal when I ask you," she
+exclaimed.  "Do you expect any one to care for a man she has never
+seen--nothing but hair.   You hurt my wrists awfully that night,"
+she added resentfully.  "And you've never even hinted you're sorry."
+
+His reply was unexpected and it disconcerted her greatly and for
+the first time, for he caught both her wrists in his hands and
+kissed them passionately where the cords had been.
+
+"You mustn't do that, please don't do that," she said quickly,
+trying to release herself.
+
+Her strength was nothing to his and he stood up and put his arm
+around her and strained her to him in an embrace so passionate and
+powerful she could not have resisted it though she had wished to.
+
+But no thought of resistance came to her, since for the moment she
+had lost all consciousness of everything save the strange thrill of
+his bright, clear eyes looking so closely into hers, of his strong
+arms holding her so firmly.
+
+He released her, or rather she at last freed herself by an effort
+he did not oppose, and she fled away down the path.
+
+She had an impression that her hair would come down and that that
+would make her look a fright, and she put up her hands hurriedly
+to secure it.  She never looked back to where he stood, breathing
+heavily and looking after her and thinking not of her, but of two
+dead men whom he had seen of late.
+
+"Shall I make the third?" he wondered.  "I do not care if I do,
+not I."
+
+The path Ella had fled by led into another along which when she
+reached it she saw Deede Dawson coming.
+
+She stopped at once and began to busy herself with a flower-bed
+overrun with weeds, but she could not entirely conceal her agitation
+from her stepfather's cold grey eyes.
+
+"Oh, there you are, Ella," he said, with all that false geniality of
+his that filled the girl with such loathing and distrust.  "Have you
+seen Dunn?  Oh, there he is, isn't he?   I wanted to ask you, Ella,
+what do you think of Dunn?"
+
+She glanced over her shoulder towards where Dunn stood, and she
+managed to answer with a passable air of indifference.
+
+"Well, I suppose," she said, "that he is quite the ugliest man I
+ever saw.  Of course, if he cut all of that hair off--"
+
+Deede Dawson laughed though his eyes remained as hard and cold as
+ever.
+
+"I shall have to give him orders to shave," he said.  "Your mother
+was telling me I ought to the other day, she said it didn't look
+respectable to have a man about with all that hair on his face.
+Though I don't see myself why hair isn't respectable, do you?"
+
+"It looks odd," answered Ella carelessly.
+
+Deede Dawson laughed again, and walked on to where Dunn was standing
+waiting for him.  With his perpetual smile that his cold and evil
+eyes so strangely contradicted, he said to him:
+
+"Well, what have you and Ella been talking about?"
+
+"Why do you ask?" growled Dunn.
+
+"Because she looks upset," answered Deede Dawson.  "Oh, don't be shy
+about it.  Shall I give you a little good advice?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Never shave."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because that thick growth of hair hiding your face gives you an air
+of mystery and romance no woman could possibly resist.  You're a
+perpetual puzzle, and to pique a woman's curiosity is the surest way
+to interest her.  Why, there are plenty of women who would marry you
+simply to find out what is under all that hair.  So never you shave."
+
+"I don't mean to."
+
+"Unless, of course, you have to--for purposes of disguise, for
+example."
+
+"I thought you were hinting that the beard itself was a disguise,"
+retorted Dunn.
+
+"Removing it might become a better one," answered Deede Dawson.
+"You told me once you knew this part fairly well.  Do you know
+Wreste Abbey?"
+
+Dunn gave his questioner a scowling look that seemed full of anger
+and suspicion.
+
+"What about it if I do?" he asked.
+
+"I am asking if you do know it," said Deede Dawson.
+
+"Yes, I do.  Well?"
+
+"It belongs to Lord Chobham, doesn't it?"
+
+Dunn nodded.
+
+"Old man, isn't he?"
+
+"I'm not a book of reference about Lord Chobham," answered Dunn.
+"If you want to know his age, you can easily find out, I suppose.
+What's the sense of asking me a lot of questions like that?"
+
+"He has no family, and his heir is his younger brother, General
+Dunsmore, who has one son, Rupert, I believe.  Do you know if
+that's so?"
+
+"Look here," said Dunn, speaking with a great appearance of anger.
+"Don't you go too far, or maybe something you won't like will happen.
+If you've anything to say, say it straight out.  Or there'll be
+trouble."
+
+Deede Dawson seemed a little surprised at the vehemence of the
+other's tone.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked.  "Don't you like the family, or what's
+upsetting you?"
+
+Dunn seemed almost choking with fury.  He half-lifted one hand and
+let it fall again.
+
+"If ever I get hold of that young Rupert Dunsmore," he said with a
+little gasp for breath.  "If ever I come face to face with him--man
+to man--"
+
+"Dear me!" smiled Deede Dawson, lifting his eyebrows.  "I'm treading
+on sore toes, it seems.  What's the trouble between you?"
+
+"Never you mind," replied Dunn roughly.  "That's my business.  But
+no man ever had a worse enemy than he's been to me."
+
+"Has he, though?" said Deede Dawson, who seemed very interested and
+even a little excited.  "What did he do?"
+
+"Never you mind," Dunn repeated.  "That's my affair, but I swore I'd
+get even with him some day and I will, too."
+
+"Suppose," said Deede Dawson.  "Suppose I showed you a way?"
+
+Dunn did not answer at first, and for some moments the two men stood
+watching each other and staring into each other's eyes as though
+each was trying to read the depths of the other's soul.
+
+"Suppose," said Deede Dawson very softly.  "Suppose you were to meet
+Rupert Dunsmore--alone--quite alone?"
+
+Still Dunn did not answer, but somehow it appeared that his silence
+was full of a very deadly significance.
+
+"Suppose you did--what would you do?" murmured Deede Dawson again,
+and his voice sank lower with each word he uttered till the last
+was a scarce-audible whisper.
+
+Dunn stopped and picked up a hoe that was lying near by.  He placed
+the tough ash handle across his knee, and with a movement of his
+powerful hands, he broke the hoe across.
+
+The two smashed pieces he dropped on the ground, and looking at
+Deede Dawson, he said:
+
+"Like that--if ever Rupert Dunsmore and I meet alone, only one of
+us will go away alive."  And he confirmed it with an oath.
+
+Deede Dawson clapped him on the shoulder, and laughed.
+
+"Good!" he cried.  "Why, you're the man I've been looking for for
+a long time.  The fact is, Rupert Dunsmore played me a nasty trick
+once, and I want to clear accounts with him.  Now, suppose I show
+him to you--?"
+
+"You do that," said Dunn, and he repeated the oath he had sworn
+before.  "You show him to me, and I'll take care he never troubles
+any one again."
+
+"That's the way I like to hear a man talk," cried Deede Dawson.
+"Dunsmore has been away for a time on business I can make a guess
+at, but he is coming back soon.  Should you know him if you saw
+him?"
+
+"Should I know him?" repeated Dunn contemptuously.  "Should I know
+myself?"
+
+"That's good," said Deede Dawson again.  "By the way, perhaps you
+can tell me, hasn't Lord Chobham a rather distant cousin, Walter
+Dunsmore, living with him as secretary or something of the sort
+--quite a distant relative, I believe, though in the direct line
+of succession?"
+
+"Very likely," said Dunn indifferently.  "I think so, but I don't
+care anything about the rest of them.  It's only Rupert Dunsmore I
+have anything against."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE VISIT TO WRESTE ABBEY
+
+
+It was a little later when Deede Dawson returned to the subject of
+Wreste Abbey.
+
+"Lord Chobham has a very valuable collection of plate and jewellery
+and so on, hasn't he?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, there's plenty of the stuff there," Dunn answered.  "Why?"
+
+"Oh, I was thinking a visit might be made fairly profitable," Deede
+Dawson said carelessly, for the first time definitely throwing off
+his mask of law-abiding citizen under which he lived at Bittermeads.
+
+"It would be a risky job," answered Dunn, showing no surprise at the
+suggestion.  "The stuff's well guarded, and then, that's not what
+I'm thinking about--it's meeting Rupert Dunsmore, man to man, and
+no one to come between us.  If that ever happens--"
+
+Deede Dawson nodded reassuringly.
+
+"That'll be all right," he said.  "So you shall, I promise you that.
+But we might as well kill two birds with one stone and clear a bit
+of profit, too.  I've got to live, like any one else, and I haven't
+five thousand a year of my own, so I get my living out of those who
+have, and I don't see who has any right to blame me.  Mind, if there
+was any money in chess, I should be a millionaire, but there isn't,
+and if a man can make a fortune on the Stock Exchange, which takes
+no more thought or skill than auction-bridge, why shouldn't I make a
+bit when I can?  There's the 'D. D.' gambit I've invented, people
+will be studying and playing for centuries, but it'll never bring me
+a penny for all the brain-work I put into it, and so I've got to
+protect myself, haven't I?"
+
+"It's what I do with less talk about it," answered Dunn
+contemptuously.  "Why, I've guessed all that from the first when
+you weren't so all-fired keen on seeing me in gaol, as most of your
+honest, hard-working lot, who only do their swindling in business-hours,
+would have been.  And I've kept my eyes open, of course.  It wasn't
+hard to twig you did a bit on the cross yourself.  Well, that's your
+affair, but one thing I do want to know--how much does Miss Cayley
+know?"
+
+For all his efforts he could not keep his anxiety entirely out of
+his voice as he said this, and recognizing that thereby he had
+perhaps risked rousing some suspicion in the other's mind, he added:
+
+"And her mother--the young lady and her mother, how much do they
+know?"
+
+"Oh," answered Deede Dawson, with his false laugh and cold-watchful
+eyes.  "My wife knows nothing at all, but Ella's the best helper
+I've ever had.  She looks so innocent, she can take in any one, and
+she never gives the show away, she acts all the time.  A wonderful
+girl and useful--you'd hardly believe how useful."
+
+Dunn did not answer.  It was only by a supreme effort that he kept
+his hands from Deede Dawson's throat.  He did not believe a word of
+what the other said, for he knew well the utter falseness of the man.
+None the less, the accusation troubled him and chilled him to the
+heart, as though with the touch of the finger of death.
+
+"You remember that packing-case," Deede Dawson added.  "The one you
+helped me to get away from here the night you came.  Well, she knew
+what was in it, though you would never have thought so, to look at
+her, would you?"
+
+His cold eyes were very intent and keen as he said this, and Dunn
+thought to himself that it had been said more to test any possible
+knowledge or suspicion of his own than for any other reason.  With
+a manner of only slight interest, he answered carelessly:
+
+"Did she?  Why?  Wasn't it your stuff?  Had it been pinched?  But
+she was safe enough, the police would never stop a smart young lady
+in a motor-car, except on very strong evidence."
+
+"Perhaps not," agreed Deede Dawson.  "That's one reason why Ella's
+so useful.  But I've been thinking things out, and trying to make
+them work in together, and I think the first thing to do is for you
+to drive Allen and Ella over to Wreste Abbey this afternoon, so
+that they may have a good look around."
+
+"Oh, Miss Cayley and Allen," Dunn muttered.
+
+The new-comer, Allen, had been making himself very much at home at
+Bittermeads since his arrival, though he had not so far troubled
+to any great extent either Ella in the house or Dunn outside.  His
+idea of comfort seemed to be to stay in bed very late, and spend
+his time when he did get up in the breakfast-room in the company
+of a box of cigars and a bottle of whisky.
+
+The suggestion that he and Ella should pay a visit together to
+Wreste Abbey was one that greatly surprised Dunn.
+
+"All right," he said.  "This afternoon?  I'll get the car ready."
+
+"This is the afternoon the Abbey is thrown open to visitors, isn't
+it?" asked Deede Dawson.  "Allen and Ella can get in as tourists,
+and have a good look round, and you can look round outside and get
+to know the lie of the land.  There won't be long to wait, for
+Rupert Dunsmore will be back from his little excursion before long,
+I expect."
+
+He laughed in his mirthless way, and walked off, and Dunn, as he
+got the car ready, seemed a good deal preoccupied and a little
+worried.
+
+"How can he know that Rupert Dunsmore is coming back?" he said to
+himself.  "Can he have any way of finding out things I don't know
+about?  And if he did, how could he know--that?  Most likely it's
+only a guess to soothe me down, and he doesn't really know anything
+at all about it."
+
+After lunch, Allen and Ella appeared together, ready for their
+expedition.  Ella looked her best in a big motoring coat and a
+close-fitting hat, with a long blue veil.  Allen was, for almost
+the first time since his arrival, shaved, washed and tidy.
+
+He looked indeed as respectable as his sinister and forbidding
+countenance would permit, and though Deede Dawson had made him as
+smart as possible, he had permitted him to gratify his own florid
+taste in adornment, so that his air of prosperity and wealth had
+the appearance of being that of some recently-enriched vulgarian
+whose association with a motor-car and a well-dressed girl of Ella's
+type was probably due to the fact that he had recently purchased
+them both out of newly-acquired wealth.
+
+Dunn wore a neat chauffeur's costume, with which, however, his
+bearded face did not go too well.  He felt indeed that their whole
+turn-out was far too conspicuous considering the real nature of
+their errand, and far too likely to attract attention, and he
+wondered if Deede Dawson's subtle and calculating mind had not for
+some private reason desired that to be so.
+
+"He is keeping well in the background himself," Dunn mused.  "He may
+reckon that if things go wrong--in case of any pursuit--it's a
+good move perhaps in a way, but he may find an unexpected check to
+his king opened on him."
+
+The drive was a long one, and Ella noticed that though Dunn consulted
+his map frequently, he never appeared in any doubt concerning the way.
+
+A little before three they drove into the village that lay round the
+park gates of Wreste Abbey.
+
+Motors were not allowed in the park, so Dunn put theirs in the garage
+of the little hotel, that was already almost full, for visiting day
+at Wreste Abbey generally drew a goodly number of tourists, while
+Ella and Allen, in odd companionship, walked up to the Abbey by the
+famous approach through the chestnut avenue.
+
+Allen was quiet and surly, and much on his guard, and very
+uncomfortable in Ella's company, and Ella herself, though for
+different reasons was equally silent.
+
+But the beauty of the walk through the chestnut avenue, and of the
+vista with the great house at the end, drew from her a quick
+exclamation of delight.
+
+"How beautiful a place this is," she said aloud.  "And how peaceful
+and how quiet."
+
+"Don't like these quiet places myself," grumbled Allen.  "Don't like
+'em, don't trust 'em.  Give me lots of traffic; when everything's so
+awful quiet you've only got to kick your foot against a stone or drop
+a tool, and likely as not you'll wake the whole blessed place."
+
+"Wake," repeated Ella, noticing the word, and she repeated it with
+emphasis.  "Why do you say 'wake'?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+ELLA'S WARNING
+
+
+Ella did not say anything more, and in their character of tourists
+visiting the place, they were admitted to the Abbey and passed on
+though its magnificent rooms, where was stored a collection rich
+and rare even for one of the stateliest homes of England.
+
+"What a wonderful place!" Ella sighed wistfully.  Yet she could not
+enjoy the spectacle of all these treasures as she would have done
+at another time, for she was always watching Allen, who hung about
+a good deal, and seemed to look more at the locks of the cases that
+held some of the more valuable of the objects shown than at the
+things themselves, and generally spent fully half the time in each
+room at the window, admiring, the view, he said; but for quite
+another reason, Ella suspected.
+
+"I shall speak when I get back," she said to herself, pale and
+resolute.  "I don't care what happens; I don't care if I have to
+tell mother--perhaps she knows already.  Anyhow, I shall speak."
+
+Having come to this determination, she grew cheerful and more
+interested apparently in what they were seeing, as well as less
+watchful of her companion.  When, presently, they left the house to
+go into the gardens, it happened that they noticed an old gentleman
+walking at a little distance behind a gate marked "Private," and
+leaning on the arm of a tall, thin, clean-shaven man of middle-age.
+
+"Lord Chobham, the old gentleman," whispered a tourist, who was
+standing near.  "I saw him once in the House of Lords.  That's his
+secretary with him, Mr. Dunsmore, one of the family; he manages
+everything now the old gentleman is getting so feeble."
+
+Ella walked on frowning and a little worried, for she thought she
+had seen the secretary before and yet could not remember where.
+Soon she noticed Dunn, who had apparently been obeying Deede Dawson's
+orders to look round outside and get to know the lie of the land.
+
+He seemed at present to be a good deal interested in Lord Chobham
+and his companion, for he went and leaned on the gate and stared at
+them so rudely that one or two of the other tourists noticed it
+and frowned at him.  But he took no notice, and presently, as if
+not seeing that the gate was marked "Private," he pushed it open
+and walked through.
+
+Noticing the impertinent intrusion almost at once, Mr. Dunsmore
+turned round and called "This is private."
+
+Dunn did not seem to hear, and Mr. Dunsmore walked across to him
+with a very impatient air, while the little group of tourists
+watched, with much interest and indignation and a very comforting
+sense of superiority.
+
+"He ought to be sent right out of the grounds," they told each other.
+"That's the sort of rude behaviour other people have to suffer for."
+
+"Now, my man," said Mr. Dunsmore sharply, "this  is private, you've
+no business here."
+
+"Sorry, sir; beg pardon, I'm sure," said Dunn, touching his hat, and
+as he did so he said in a sharp, penetrating whisper: "Look out--
+trouble's brewing--don't know what, but look out, all the time."
+
+He had spoken so quickly and quietly, in the very act of turning away,
+that none of the onlookers could have told that a word had passed, but
+for the very violent start that Walter Dunsmore made and his quick
+movement forward as if to follow the other.  Immediately Dunn turned
+back towards him with a swift warning gesture of his hand.
+
+"Careful, you fool, they're looking," he said in a quick whisper,
+and in a loud voice:  "Very sorry,  sir; beg pardon--I'm sure
+I didn't mean anything."
+
+Walter Dunsmore swung round upon his heel and went quickly back to
+where Lord Chobham waited; and his face was like that of one who
+has gazed into the very eyes of death.
+
+"Lord in Heaven," he muttered, "it's all over, I'm done."  And his
+hand felt for a little metal box he carried in his waistcoat pocket
+and that held half a dozen small round tablets, each of them a strong
+man's death.
+
+But he took his hand away again as he rejoined his cousin, patron,
+and employer, old Lord Chobham.
+
+"What's the matter, Walter?" Lord Chobham asked.  "You look pale."
+
+"The fellow was a bit impudent; he made me angry," said Walter
+carelessly.  He fingered the little box in his waistcoat pocket and
+thought how one tablet on his tongue would always end it all.  "By
+the way, oughtn't Rupert to be back soon?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, he ought," said Lord Chobham severely.  "It's time he married
+and settled down--I shall speak to his father about it.  The boy
+is always rushing off somewhere or another when he ought to be
+getting to know the estate and the tenants."
+
+Walter Dunsmore laughed.
+
+"I think he knows them both fairly well already," he said.  "Not a
+tenant on the place but swears by Rupert.  He's a fine fellow, uncle."
+
+"Oh, you always stick up for him; you and he were always friends,"
+answered Lord Chobham in a grumbling tone, but really very pleased.
+"I know I'm never allowed to say a word about Rupert."
+
+"Well, he's a fine fellow and a good friend," said Walter, and the
+two disappeared into the house by a small side-door as Dunn pushed
+his way through the group of tourists who looked at him with marked
+and severe disapproval.
+
+"Disgraceful," one of them said quite loudly, and another added: "I
+believe he said something impudent to that gentleman.  I saw him go
+quite white, and look as if he were in two minds about ordering the
+fellow right out of the grounds."  And a third expressed the general
+opinion that the culprit looked a real ruffian with all that hair
+on his face.  "Might be a gorilla," said the third tourist.  "And
+look what a clumsy sort of walk he has; perhaps he's been drinking."
+
+But Dunn was quite indifferent to, and indeed unaware of this popular
+condemnation as he made his way back to the hotel garage where he had
+left their car.  He seemed rather well pleased than otherwise as he
+walked on.
+
+"Quite a stroke of luck for once," he mused, and he smiled to
+himself, and stroked the thick growth of his untidy beard.  "It's
+been worth while, for he didn't recognize me in the least, and had
+quite a shock, but, all the same, I shan't be sorry to shave and
+see my own face again."
+
+He had the car out and ready when Ella and Allen came back.  Allen
+at once made an excuse to leave them, and went into the hotel bar
+to get a drink of whisky, and when they were alone, Ella, who was
+looking very troubled and thoughtful, said to Dunn
+
+"We saw Lord Chobham in the garden with a gentleman some one told
+us was a relative of his, a Mr. Walter Dunsmore.  Did you see them?"
+
+"Yes," answered Dunn, a little surprised, and giving her a quick
+and searching look from his bright, keen eyes.  "I saw them.  Why--"
+
+"I think I've seen the one they said was Mr. Walter Dunsmore before,
+and I can't think where," she answered, puckering her brows.
+"I can't think--do you know anything about him?"
+
+"I know he is Mr. Walter Dunsmore," answered Dunn slowly, "and I
+know he is one of the family, and a great friend of Rupert Dunsmore's.
+Rupert Dunsmore is Lord Chobham's nephew, you know, and heir, after
+his father, to the title and estates.  His father, General Dunsmore,
+brought him and Walter up together like brothers, but recently Walter
+has lived at the Abbey as Lord Chobham's secretary and companion.
+The general likes to live abroad a good deal, and his son Rupert is
+always away on some sporting or exploring expedition or another."
+
+"It's very strange," Ella said again.  "I'm sure I've seen Walter
+Dunsmore before but I can't think where."
+
+Allen came from the bar, having quenched his thirst for the time
+being, and they started off, arriving back at Bittermeads fairly
+early in the evening, for Dunn had brought them along at a good
+rate, and apparently remembered the road so well from the afternoon
+that he never once had occasion to refer to the map.
+
+He took the car round to the garage, and Allen and Ella went into
+the house, where Allen made his way at once to the breakfast-room,
+searching for more whisky and cigars, while Ella, after a quick
+word with her mother to assure her of their safe return, went to
+find Deede Dawson.
+
+"Ah, dear child, you are back then," he greeted her.  "Well, how
+have you enjoyed yourself?  Had a pleasant time?"
+
+"It was not for pleasure we went there, I think," she said
+listlessly.
+
+He looked up quickly, and though his perpetual smile still played
+as usual about his lips, his eyes were hard and daunting as they
+fixed themselves on hers.  Before that sinister stare her own eyes
+sank, and sought the little travelling set of chessmen and board
+that were before him.
+
+"See," he said, "I've just brought off a mate.  Neat isn't it?
+Checkmate."
+
+She looked up at him, and her eyes were steadier now.
+
+"I've only one thing to say to you," she said.  "I came here to say
+it.  If anything happens at Wreste Abbey I shall go straight to the
+police."
+
+"Indeed," he said, "indeed."  He fingered the chessmen as though all
+his attention were engaged by them.  "May I ask why?" he murmured.
+"For what purpose?"
+
+"To tell them," she answered quietly, "what I--know."
+
+"And what do you know?" he asked indifferently.  "What do you know
+that is likely to interest the police?"
+
+"I ought to have said, perhaps," she answered after a pause, "what
+I suspect."
+
+"Ah, that's so different, isn't it?" he murmured gently.  "So very
+different.  You see we all of us suspect so many things."
+
+She did not answer, for she had said all she had to say and she was
+afraid that her strength would not carry her further.  She began to
+walk away, but he called her back.
+
+"Oh, how do you think your mother is today?" he asked. "Do you know,
+her condition seems to me quite serious at times.  I wonder if you
+are overanxious?"
+
+"She is better--much better!" Ella answered, and added with a sudden
+burst of fiercest, white-hot passion: "But I think it would be better
+if we had both died before we met you."
+
+She hurried away, for she was afraid of breaking down, and Deede
+Dawson smiled the more as he again turned his attention to his
+chessmen, taking them up and putting them down in turn.
+
+"She's turning nasty," he mused.  "I don't think she'll dare--but
+she might.  She's only a pawn, but a pawn can cause a lot of trouble
+at times--a pawn may become a queen and give the mate.  When a pawn
+threatens trouble it's best to--remove it."
+
+He went out and came back a little late and busied himself with a
+four-move chess problem which absorbed all his attention, and which
+he did not solve to his satisfaction till past midnight.  Then he
+went upstairs to bed, but at the door of his room he paused and went
+on very softly up the narrow stairs that led to the attics above.
+
+Outside the one in which Dunn slept, he waited a little till the
+unbroken sound of regular breathing from within assured him that
+the occupant slept.
+
+Cautiously and carefully he crept on, and entered the one adjoining,
+where he turned the light of the electric flashlight he carried on a
+large, empty packing-case that stood in one corner.
+
+With a two-foot rule he took from his pocket he measured it
+carefully and nodded with great satisfaction.
+
+"A little smaller than the other," he said to himself.  "But, then,
+it hasn't got to hold so much."  He laughed in his silent, mirthless
+way, as at something that amused him.  "A good deal less," he thought.
+"And Dunn shall drive."
+
+He laughed again, and for a moment or two stood there in the
+darkness, laughing silently to himself, and then, speaking aloud,
+he called out:
+
+"You can come in, Dunn."
+
+Dunn, whom a creaking board had betrayed, came forward unconcernedly
+in his sleeping attire.
+
+"I saw it was you," he remarked.  "At first I thought something was
+wrong."
+
+"Nothing, nothing," answered Deede Dawson.  "I was only looking at
+this packing-case.  I may have to send one away again soon, and I
+wanted to be sure this was big enough.  If I do, I shall want you to
+drive."
+
+"Not Miss Cayley?" asked Dunn.
+
+"No, no," answered Deede Dawson.  "She might be with you perhaps, but
+she wouldn't drive.  Night driving is always dangerous, I think, don't
+you?"
+
+"There's things more dangerous," Dunn remarked.
+
+"Oh, quite true," answered Deede Dawson.  "Well, did you enjoy your
+visit to Wreste Abbey?"
+
+"No," answered Dunn roughly.  "I didn't see Rupert Dunsmore, and it
+wouldn't have been any good if I had with all those people about."
+
+"You're too impatient," Deede Dawson smiled.  "I'm getting everything
+ready; you can't properly expect to win a game in a dozen moves.  You
+must develop your pieces properly and have all ready before you start
+your attack.  As soon as I'm ready--why, I'll act--and you'll have
+to do the rest."
+
+"I see," said Dunn thoughtfully.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+DOUBTS AND FEARS
+
+
+In point of fact Dunn had not been asleep when Deede Dawson came
+listening at his door.  Of late he had slept little and that little
+had been much disturbed by evil, haunting dreams in which perpetually
+he saw his dead friend, Charley Wright, and dead John Clive always
+together, while behind them floated the pale and lovely face of Ella,
+at whom the two dead men looked and whispered to each other.
+
+In the day such thoughts troubled him less, for when he was under
+the influence of Ella's gentle presence, and when he could watch her
+clear and candid eyes, he found all doubt and suspicion melting away
+like snow beneath warm sunshine.
+
+But in the silence of the night they returned, returned very
+dreadfully, so dreadfully that often as he lay awake in the darkness
+beads of sweat stood upon his forehead and he would drive his great
+hands one against the other in his passionate effort to still the
+thoughts that tormented him.  Then, in the morning again, the sound
+of Ella's voice, the merest glimpse of her grave and gracious
+personality, would bring back once more his instinctive belief in
+her.
+
+The morning after Deede Dawson had paid his visit to the attic there
+was news, however, that disturbed him greatly, for Mrs. Barker, the
+charwoman who came each morning to Bittermeads, told them that two
+men in the village--notorious poachers--had been arrested by the
+police on a charge of being concerned in Mr. Clive's death.
+
+The news was a great shock to Dunn, for, knowing as he thought he
+did, that the police were working on an entirely wrong idea, he had
+not supposed they would ever find themselves able to make any arrest.
+As a matter of fact, these arrests they had made were the result of
+desperation on the part of the police, who unable to discover
+anything and entirely absorbed by their preconceived idea that the
+crime was the work of poachers, had arrested men they knew were
+poachers in the vague hope of somehow discovering something or of
+somehow getting hold of some useful clue.
+
+But that Dunn did not know, and feared unlucky chance or undesigned
+coincidence must have appeared to suggest the guilt of the men and
+that they were really in actual danger of trial and conviction.  He
+had, too, received that morning, through the secret means of
+communication he kept open with an agent in London, conclusive proof
+that at the moment of Clive's death Deede Dawson was in town on
+business that seemed obscure enough, but none the less in town,
+and therefore undoubtedly innocent of the actual perpetration of
+the murder.
+
+Who, then, was left who could have fired the fatal shot?
+
+It was a question Dunn dared not even ask himself but he saw very
+plainly that if the proceedings against the two arrested men were
+to be pressed, he would be forced to come forward before his
+preparations were ready and tell all he knew, no matter at what cost.
+
+All the morning he waited and watched for his opportunity to speak
+to Ella, who was in a brighter and gayer mood than he had ever seen
+her in before.
+
+At breakfast Deede Dawson had assured her that he could not conceive
+what were the suspicions she had referred to the night previously,
+and while he would certainly have no objection to her mentioning
+them at any time, in any quarter she thought fit if anything happened
+at Wreste Abbey--and would indeed be the first to urge her to do so
+--he, for his part, considered it most unlikely that anything of the
+sort she seemed to dread would in fact occur.
+
+"Not at all likely," he said with his happy, beaming smile that
+never reached those cold eyes of his.  "I should say myself that
+nothing ever did happen at Wreste Abbey, not since the Flood, anyhow.
+It strikes me as the most peaceful, secluded spot in all England."
+
+"I'm very glad you think so," said Ella, tremendously relieved and
+glad to hear him say so, and supposing, though his smooth words and
+smiles and protestations deceived her very little, that, at any rate,
+what she had said had forced him to abandon whatever plans he had
+been forming in that direction.
+
+Her victory, as it seemed to her, won so easily and containing good
+promise of further success in the future, cheered her immensely, and
+it was in almost a happy mood that she went unto the garden after
+lunch and met Dunn in a quiet, well-hidden corner, where he had been
+waiting and watching for long.
+
+His appearance startled her--his eyes were so wild, his whole
+manner so strained and restless, and she gave a little dismayed
+exclamation as she saw him.
+
+"Oh, what's the matter?" she asked.  "Aren't you well?  You look--"
+
+She paused for she did not know exactly how it was he did look;
+and he said in his harshest, most abrupt manner
+
+"Do you remember Charley Wright?"
+
+"Why do you ask?" she said, puzzled.  "Is anything wrong?"
+
+"Do you remember John Clive?" he asked, disregarding this.  "Have
+you heard two men have been arrested for his murder?"
+
+"Mrs. Barker told me so," she answered gravely.  He came a little
+nearer, almost threateningly nearer.
+
+"What do you think of that?" he asked.
+
+She lifted one hand and put it gently on his arm.  The touch of it
+thrilled him through and through, and he felt a little dazed as he
+watched it resting on his coat sleeve.  She had become very pale
+also and her voice was low and strained as she said
+
+"Have you had suspicions too?"
+
+He looked at her as if fascinated for a moment, and then nodded
+twice and very slowly.
+
+"So have I," she sighed in tones so low he could scarcely hear them.
+
+"Oh, you, you also," he muttered, almost suffocating.
+
+"Yes," she said.  "Yes--perhaps the same as yours.  My stepfather,"
+she breathed, "Mr. Deede Dawson."
+
+He watched her closely and moodily, but he did not speak.
+
+"I was afraid--at first," she whispered.  "But I was wrong--quite
+wrong.  It is as certain as it can be that he was in London at the
+time."
+
+From his pocket Dunn took out the handkerchief of hers that he had
+found near the body of the dead man.
+
+"Is this yours?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," she answered.  "Yes, where did you get it?"
+
+He did not answer, but he lifted his hands one after the other, and
+put them on her shoulder, with the fingers outspread to encircle her
+throat.  It seemed to him that when she acknowledged the ownership
+of the handkerchief she acknowledged also the perpetration of the
+deed, and he became a little mad, and he had it in his mind that the
+slightest, the very slightest, pressure of his fingers on that soft,
+round throat would put it for ever out of her power to do such things
+again.  Then for himself death would be easy and welcome, and there
+would be an end to all these doubts and fears that racked him with
+anguish beyond bearing.
+
+"What are you going to do?" she asked, making no attempt to resist
+or escape.
+
+Ever so slightly the pressure of his hands upon her throat
+strengthened and increased.  A very little more and the lovely
+thing of life he watched would be broken and cold for ever.  Her
+eyes were steady, she showed no sign of fear, she stood perfectly
+still, her hands loosely clasped together before her.  He groaned,
+and his arms fell to his side, helpless.  Without the slightest
+change of expression, she said:
+
+"What were you going to do?"
+
+"I don't know," he answered.  "Do you ever go mad?  I do, I think.
+Perhaps you do too, and that explains it.  Do you know where Charley
+Wright is?"
+
+"Yes," she answered directly.  "Why?  Did you know him, then?"
+
+"You know where he is now?" Dunn repeated.
+
+She nodded quietly.
+
+"I heard from him only last week," she said.
+
+"I am certainly mad or you are," he muttered, staring at her with
+eyes in which such wonder and horror showed that it seemed there
+really was a touch of madness there.
+
+"What is the matter?" she asked.
+
+"You heard from him last week," he said again, and again she
+answered:
+
+"Yes--last week.  Why not?"
+
+He leaned forward, and before she knew what he intended to do he
+kissed her pale, cool cheek.
+
+Once more she stood still and immobile, her hands loosely clasped
+before her.  It might have been that he had kissed a statue, and
+her perfect stillness made him afraid.
+
+"Ella," he said.  "Ella."
+
+"Why did you do that?" she said, a little wildly now in her turn.
+"It was not that you were going to do to me before."
+
+"I love you," he muttered excusingly.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"You know too little of me; you have too many doubt and fears," she
+said.  "You do not love me, you do not even trust me."
+
+"I love you all the same," he asserted positively and roughly.  "I
+loved you--it was when I tied your hands to the chair that night
+and you looked at me with such contempt, and asked me if I felt
+proud.  That stung, that stung.  I loved you then."
+
+"You see," she said sadly, "you do not even pretend to trust me.  I
+don't know why you should.  Why are you here?  Why are you disguised
+with all that growth of hair?  There is something you are preparing,
+planning.  I know it.  I feel it.  What is it?"
+
+"I told you once before," he answered, "that the end of this will
+be Deede Dawson's death or mine.  That's what I'm preparing."
+
+"He is very cunning, very clever," she said.  "Do you think he
+suspects you?"
+
+"He suspects every one always," answered Dunn.  "I've been trying
+to get proof to act on.  I haven't succeeded.  Not yet.  Nothing
+definite.  If I can't, I shall act without.  That's all."
+
+"If I told him even half of what you just said," she said, looking
+at him.  "What would happen?"
+
+"You see, I trust you," he answered bitterly.
+
+She shook her head, but her eyes were soft and tender as she said:
+
+"It wasn't trust in me made you say all that, it was because you
+didn't care what happened after."
+
+"No," he said.  "But when I see you, I forget everything.  Do you
+love me?"
+
+"Why, I've never even seen you yet," she exclaimed with something
+like a smile.  "I only know you as two eyes over a tangle of hair
+that I don't believe you ever either brush or comb.  Do you know,
+sometimes I am curious."
+
+He took her hand and drew her to sit beside him on the bench under
+a tree near by.  All his doubts and fears and suspicions he set far
+from him, and remembered nothing save that she was the woman for
+whom yearned all the depths of his soul as by pre-ordained decree.
+ And she, too, forgot all else save that she had met her man--her
+man, to her strange, aloof, mysterious, but dominating all her life
+as though by primal necessity.
+
+When they parted, it was with an agreement to meet again that
+evening, and in the twilight they spent a halcyon hour together,
+saying little, feeling much.
+
+It was only when at last she had left him that he remembered all
+that had passed, that had happened, that he knew, suspected, dreaded,
+all that he planned and intended and would be soon called upon to put
+into action.
+
+"She's made me mad," he said to himself, and for a long time he sat
+there in the darkness, in the stillness of the evening, motionless
+as the tree in whose shade he sat, plunged in the most profound and
+strange reverie, from which presently his quick ear, alert and keen
+even when his mind was deep in thought, caught the light and careful
+sound of an approaching footstep.
+
+In a moment he was up and gliding through the darkness to meet who
+was coming, and almost at once a voice hailed him cautiously.
+
+"There you are, Dunn," Deede Dawson said.  "I've been looking for
+you everywhere.  Tomorrow or next day we shall be able to strike;
+everything is ready at last, and I'll tell you now exactly what we
+are going to do."
+
+"That's good news," said Dunn softly.
+
+"Come this way," Deede Dawson said, and led Dunn through the
+darkness to the gate that admitted to the Bittermeads grounds from
+the high road.
+
+Here he paused, and stood for a long time in silence, leaning on
+the gate and looking out across the road to the common beyond.
+Close beside him stood Dunn, controlling his impatience as best he
+could, and wondering if at last the secret springs of all these
+happenings was to be laid bare to him.
+
+But Deede Dawson seemed in no hurry to begin.  For a long time he
+remained in the same attitude, silent and sombre in the darkness,
+and when at last he spoke it was to utter a remark that quite took
+Dunn by surprise.
+
+"What a lovely night," he said in low and pensive tones, very unlike
+those he generally used.  "I remember when I was a boy--that's a
+long time ago."
+
+Dunn was too surprised by this sudden and very unexpected lapse into
+sentiment to answer.  Deede Dawson went on as if thinking to himself:
+
+"A long time--I've done a lot--seen a lot since then--too much,
+perhaps--I remember mother told me once--poor soul, I believe she
+used to be rather proud of me--"
+
+"Your mother?" Dunn said wondering greatly to think this man should
+still have such memories.
+
+But Deede Dawson seemed either to resent his tone or else to be
+angry with himself for giving way to such weakness.  In a voice more
+like his usual one, he said harshly and sneeringly:
+
+"Oh, yes, I had a mother once, just like everybody else.  Why not?
+Most people have their mothers, though it's not an arrangement I
+should care to defend.  Now then, Ella was with you tonight; you
+and she were alone together a long time."
+
+"Well," growled Dunn, "what of it?"
+
+"Fine girl, isn't she?" asked Deede Dawson, and laughed.
+
+Dunn did not speak.  It filled him with such loathing to hear this
+man so much as utter Ella's name, it was all he could do to keep
+his hands motionless by his side and not make use of them about the
+other's throat.
+
+"She's been useful, very useful," Deede Dawson went on meditatively.
+"Her mother had some money when I married her.  I don't mind telling
+you it's all spent now, but Ella's a little fortune in herself."
+
+"I didn't know we came to talk about her," said Dunn slowly.  "I
+thought you had something else to say to me."
+
+"So I have," Deede Dawson answered.  "That's why I brought you here.
+We are safe from eavesdroppers here, in a house you can never tell
+who is behind a curtain or a door.  But then, Ella is a part of my
+plans, a very important part.  Do you remember I told you I might
+want you to take a second packing-case away from here in the car
+one night?"
+
+"Yes, I remember," said Dunn slowly.  "I remember.  What would be
+in it?  The same sort of thing that was in--that other?"
+
+"Yes," answered Deede Dawson.  "Much the same."
+
+"I shall want to see for myself," said Dunn.  "I'm a trustful sort of
+person, but I don't go driving about the country with packing-cases
+late at night unless I've seen for myself what's inside."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+PLOTS AND PLAYS
+
+
+"Very wise of you," yawned Deede Dawson.  "That's just what Ella
+said--what's that?"
+
+For instinctively Dunn had raised his hand, but he lowered it again
+at once.
+
+"Oh, cut the cackle," he said impatiently.  "Tell me what you want
+me to do, and make it plain, very plain, for I can tell you there's
+a good deal about all this I don't understand, and I'm not inclined
+to trust you far.  For one thing, what are you after yourself?  Where
+do you come in?  What are you going to get?  And there's another
+thing I want to say.  If you are thinking of playing any tricks on
+me don't do it, unless you are ready to take big risks.  There's only
+one man alive who ever made a fool of me, and his name is Rupert
+Dunsmore, and I don't think he's today what insurance companies call
+a good risk.  Not by any manner of means."  He paused to laugh
+harshly.  "Let's get to business," he said.  "Look here, how do I
+know you mean all you say about Rupert Dunsmore?  What's he to you?"
+
+"Nothing," answered Deede Dawson promptly.  "Nothing.  But there's
+some one I'm acting for to whom he is a good deal."
+
+"Who is that?" Dunn asked sharply.
+
+"Do you think I'm going to tell you?" retorted the other, and
+laughed in his cold, mirthless manner.  "Perhaps you aren't the
+only one who owes him a grudge."
+
+"That's likely enough, but I want to know where I'm standing," said
+Dunn.  "Is this unknown person you say you are acting for anxious
+to bring about Rupert Dunsmore's death?"
+
+"I'm not answering any questions, so you needn't ask them," replied
+Deede Dawson.
+
+"But I will tell you that there's something big going on.  Or I
+shouldn't be in it, I don't use my brains on small things, you know.
+If it comes off all right, I--"  He paused, and for once a thrill
+of genuine emotion sounded in his voice.  "Thousands," he said
+abruptly.  "Yes, and more--more.  But there's an obstacle--Rupert
+Dunsmore.  It's your place to remove him.  That'll suit you, and
+it'll mean good pay, as much as you like to ask for in reason.  And
+Ella, if you want her.  The girl won't be any use to me when this
+is over, and you can have her if you like.  I don't think she'll
+object from what I can see--not that it would matter if she did.
+So there you are.  Put Rupert Dunsmore out of the way and it'll be
+the best day's work you've ever done, and you shall have Ella into
+the bargain--if you claim her.  Makeweight."
+
+He began to laugh again and Dunn laughed, too, for while he was not
+sure what it was that amused Deede Dawson, there were certain
+aspects of all this that bore for him a very curious and ironic
+humour.
+
+"All right," he said.  "You bring me face to face with Rupert
+Dunsmore and you won't have to grumble about the result, for I
+swear only one of us will go away alive.  But how are you going to
+do it?"
+
+"I've my plan, and it's simple enough," answered Deede Dawson.
+"Though I can tell you it took some working out.  But the simplest
+problem is always the best, whether in life or in chess."  Again he
+indulged in a low and guarded outburst of his thin, mirthless
+laughter before he continued:  "I suppose you know Rupert Dunsmore
+is one of those restless people who are never content except when
+wandering about in some out of the way place or another, as often
+as not no one having the least idea of his whereabouts.  Then he
+turns up unexpectedly, only to disappear again when the whim takes
+him.  Lately he has been away on one of these trips, but I happen
+to know he is coming back almost at once--what's the matter?"
+
+"I was only wondering how you knew that," answered Dunn, who had
+given a sudden start.
+
+"Oh, I know, never mind how," Deede Dawson said.  "I know that
+tomorrow afternoon at four o'clock he will be waiting by the side
+of Brook Bourne Spring in Ottom's Wood, near General Dunsmore's
+place.  Which is as out of the way and quiet and lonely a spot as
+you could wish for."
+
+"And you have information that he will be there?" Dunn said
+incredulously.  "How can you possibly be sure of that?"
+
+"Never mind how," answered Deede Dawson.  "I am sure.  That's enough.
+My information is certain."
+
+"Oh, it is, is it?" Dunn muttered.  "You are a wonderful man, Mr.
+Dawson.  You know everything--or nearly everything.  You are sure
+of everything--or nearly everything--but suppose he changes his
+mind at the last moment and doesn't come after all?"
+
+"He won't," answered Deede Dawson.  "You be there and you'll find
+him there all right."
+
+"Well, perhaps," said Dunn slowly.  "But what I want to know is why
+you are so sure?  There's a good deal hangs on your being right,
+you know."
+
+"I only wish I was as certain of everything else," Deede Dawson said.
+
+"Oh, all right," exclaimed Dunn.  "I suppose you know and you may
+be right."
+
+"I am," Deede Dawson assured him.  "Listen carefully now, there
+mustn't be any blunders.  You are to make an early start tomorrow.
+I don't want you to take the car for fear of its being seen and
+identified.  You must take the train to London and then another
+train back immediately to Delsby.  From Delsby you'll have an
+eighteen-mile walk through lonely country where you aren't likely
+to meet any one, and must try not to.  The less you are seen the
+better.  You know that for yourself, and for your own sake you'll
+be careful.  You'll have no time to spare, but you will be able to
+get to the place I told you of by four all right--no earlier, no
+later.  You must arrange to be there at four exactly.  You may
+spoil all if you are too early.  Almost as soon as you get there,
+Rupert Dunsmore will arrive.  You must do the rest for yourself,
+and then you must strike straight across country for here.  You can
+look up your routes on the map.  There will be less risk of
+attracting attention if you come and go by different ways.  You
+ought to be here again some time in the small hours.  I'll let you
+in, and you'll have cleared your own score with Rupert Dunsmore and
+earned more money than you ever have had in all your life before.
+Now, can I depend on you?"
+
+"Yes--yes," answered Dunn, over whom there had come a new and
+strange sense of unreality as he stood and listened to cold-blooded
+murder being thus calmly, coolly planned, as though it were some
+afternoon's pleasure trip that was being arranged, so that he
+hardly knew whether he did, in fact, hear this smooth, low,
+unceasing voice that from the darkness at his side laid down such
+a bloody road for his feet to travel.
+
+"Oh, yes, you can depend on me," he said.  "But can I depend on you,
+when you say Rupert Dunsmore will be there at that time and that
+place?"
+
+It was a moment or two before Deede Dawson answered, and then his
+voice was very low and soft and confident as he said:
+
+"Yes, you can--absolutely.  You see, I know his plans."
+
+"Oh, do you?" Dunn said as though satisfied.  "Oh, well then, it's
+no wonder you're so sure."
+
+"No wonder at all," agreed Deede Dawson.  "There's just one other
+thing I can tell you.  Some one else will be there, too, at Brook
+Bourne Spring in Ottam's Wood."
+
+"Who's that?" asked Dunn sharply.
+
+"The man," said Deede Dawson, "who is behind all this--the man you
+and I are working for--the man who's going to pay us, even better
+than he thinks."
+
+"He--he will be there?" repeated Dunn, drawing a deep, breath.
+
+"Yes, but you won't see him, and it wouldn't help you if you did,"
+Deede Dawson told him.  "Most likely he'll be disguised--a mask,
+perhaps; I don't know.  Anyhow, he'll be there.  Watching.  I'm
+not suggesting you would do such a thing as never go near the place,
+loaf around a bit, then come back and report Rupert Dunsmore out of
+the way for good, draw your pay and vanish, and leave us to find out
+he was as lively and troublesome as ever.  I don't think you would
+do that, because you sounded as if you meant what you said when you
+told me he was your worst enemy.  But it's just as well to be sure,
+and so we mean to have a witness; and as it's what you might call
+a delicate matter, that witness will most likely be our employer
+himself.  So you had better do the job thoroughly if you want your
+pay."
+
+"I see you take your precautions," remarked Dunn.  "Well, that's
+all right, I don't mind."
+
+"You understand exactly what you've got to do?" Deede Dawson asked.
+
+Dunn nodded.
+
+"What about Allen?" he asked.  "Does he take any part in this show?"
+
+"He and I are planning a little visit to Wreste Abbey rather early
+the same night, during the dinner-hour most likely," answered Deede
+Dawson carelessly.  "We can get in at one of the long gallery windows
+quite easily, Allen says.  He kept his eyes open that day you all
+went there.  It may be helpful to give the police two problems to
+work on at once; and besides, big as this thing is, there's a
+shortage of ready money at present.  But our little affair at Wreste
+Abbey will have nothing to do with you.  You mind what you've got
+to do, and don't trouble about anything else.  See?"
+
+"I see," answered Dunn slowly.  "And if you can arrange for Rupert
+Dunsmore to be there at that time all right, I'll answer for the
+rest."
+
+"You needn't be uneasy about that," Deede Dawson said, and laughed.
+"You see, I know his plans," he repeated, and laughed again; and
+still laughing that chill, mirthless way of his, he turned and
+walked back towards the house.
+
+Dunn watched him go through the darkness, and to himself he
+muttered:
+
+"Yes, but I wonder if you do."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+COUNTER-PLANS
+
+
+The hour was late by now, but Dunn felt no inclination for sleep,
+and there was no need for him to return indoors as yet, since Deede
+Dawson, who always locked up the house himself, never did so till
+past midnight.  Till the small hours, very often he was accustomed
+to sit up absorbed in those chess problems, the composing and
+solving of which were his great passion, so that, indeed, it is
+probable that under other circumstances he might have passed a
+perfectly harmless and peaceful existence, known to wide circles as
+an extraordinarily clever problemist and utterly unknown elsewhere.
+
+But the Fate that is, after all, but man's own character writ large,
+had decreed otherwise.  And the little, fat, smiling man bending
+over his travelling chess board on which he moved delicately to and
+fro the tiny red and white men of carved ivory, now and again
+removing a piece and laying it aside, had done as much with as
+little concern to his fellow creatures from the very beginning of
+his terrible career.
+
+Outside, leaning on the gate where Deede Dawson had left him, Dunn
+was deep in thought that was not always very comforting, for there
+was very much in all this laid out for him to accomplish that he
+did not understand and that disturbed him a good deal.
+
+A careful, cautious "Hist!" broke in upon his thoughts, and in an
+instant he stiffened to close attention, every nerve on the alert.
+
+The sound was repeated, a faint and wary footstep sounded, and in
+the darkness a form appeared and stole slowly nearer.
+
+Dunn poised for a moment, ready for attack or retreat, and then all
+at once his tense attitude relaxed.
+
+"You, Walter," he exclaimed.  "That's good!  But how did you get
+here?  And how did you know where I was?"
+
+The new-comer drew a little nearer and showed the tall, thin form
+of Walter Dunsmore to whom Dunn had spoken at Wreste Abbey.
+
+"I had to come," he murmured.  "I couldn't rest without seeing you.
+You upset me the other day, saying what you did.  Isn't it very
+dangerous your being here?  Suppose Deede Dawson--"
+
+"Oh, if he suspected, there would soon be an end of me," answered
+Dunn grimly.  "But I think I'm going to win--at least, I did till
+tonight."
+
+"What's happened?" the other asked sharply and anxiously.
+
+"He has been telling me his plans," answered Dunn.  "He has told me
+everything--he has put himself entirely in my power--he has done
+what I have been waiting and hoping for ever since I came here.
+He has given me his full confidence at last, and I never felt more
+uneasy or less certain of success than I do at this moment."
+
+"He has told you--everything?" Walter Dunsmore asked. "Everything,
+except who is behind it all," answered Dunn.  "I asked him who he
+was acting for, and he refused to say.  But we shall know that
+tomorrow, for he told me something almost as good--he told me where
+this employer would be at four o'clock tomorrow afternoon.  So then
+we shall have him, unless Deede Dawson was lying."
+
+"Of course, it all depends on finding that out," remarked Walter
+thoughtfully.  "Finding out his identity."
+
+"Yes, that's the key move to the problem," Dunn said.  "And tomorrow
+we shall know it, if Deede Dawson was speaking the truth just now."
+
+"I should think he was," said Walter slowly.  "I should think it is
+certain he was.  You may depend on that, I think."
+
+"I think so, too," agreed Dunn.  "But how did you find out where I
+was?"
+
+"You know that day you came to Wreste Abbey?  There was some fellow
+you had with you who told the landlord of the Chobham Arms, so I
+easily found out from him," answered Walter.
+
+"Anyhow, I'm glad you're here," Dunn said.  "I was wondering how to
+get in touch with you.  Well, this is Deede Dawson's plan in brief.
+Tomorrow, at four in the afternoon, Rupert Dunsmore is to be killed
+--and I've undertaken to do the deed."
+
+"What do you mean?" exclaimed Walter, starting.
+
+"I've promised that if Deede Dawson will bring me face to face with
+Rupert Dunsmore, I'll murder him," answered Dunn, laughing softly.
+
+"A fairly safe offer on your part, isn't it?" observed Walter.  "At
+least, unless there's any saving clause about mirrors."
+
+"Oh, none," answered Dunn.  "I told Deede Dawson Rupert Dunsmore
+was my worst enemy, and that's true enough, for I think every man's
+worst enemy is himself."
+
+"I wish I had none worse," muttered Walter.
+
+"I think you haven't, old chap," Dunn said smilingly.  "But come
+across the road.  It'll be safer on the common.  Deede Dawson is
+so cunning one is never safe from him.  One can never be sure
+he isn't creeping up behind."
+
+"Well, I daresay it's wise to take every precaution," observed
+Walter.  "But I can't imagine either him or any one else getting
+near you without your knowledge."
+
+Robert Dunn,--or rather, Rupert Dunsmore, as was his name by
+right of birth--laughed again to himself, very softly in the
+darkness.
+
+"Perhaps not," he said.  "But I take no chances I can avoid with
+Deede Dawson.  Come along."
+
+They crossed the road together and sat down on the common at an
+open spot, where none could well approach them unheard or unseen.
+Dunn laid his hand affectionately on Walter's shoulder as they
+settled themselves.
+
+"Old chap," he said.  "It was good of you to come here.  You've run
+some risk.  It's none too safe near Bittermeads.  But I'm glad to
+see you, Walter.  It's a tremendous relief after all this strain of
+doubt and watching and suspicion to be with some one I know--some
+one I can trust--some one like you, Walter."
+
+In the darkness, Walter put out his hand and took Dunn's and held
+it for a moment.
+
+"I have been anxious about you," he said.  Dunn returned the
+pressure warmly.
+
+"I know," he said.  "Jove, old chap, it's good to see you again.
+You don't know what it's like after all this long time, feeling that
+every step was a step in the dark, to be at last with a real friend
+again."
+
+"I think I can guess," Walter said softly.
+
+Dunn shook his head.
+
+"No one could," he said.  "I tell you I've doubted, distrusted,
+suspected till I wasn't sure of my own shadow.  Well, that's all
+over now.  Tomorrow we can act."
+
+"Tell me what I'm to do," Walter Dunsmore said.
+
+"There's a whole lot I don't understand yet," Dunn continued slowly.
+"I suppose it was that that was making me feel so jolly down before
+you came.  I don't feel sure somehow--not sure.  Deede Dawson is
+such a cunning brute.  He seems to have laid his whole hand bare,
+and yet there may be cards up his sleeve still.  Besides, his plan
+he told me about seems so bald.  And I don't understand why he
+should think he is so sure of what I--I mean, of what Rupert
+--it's a bit confusing to have a double identity--is going to do.
+He says he is sure Rupert Dunsmore is to be at the Brook Bourne
+Spring tomorrow at four.  He says his information is certain, and
+that he has full knowledge of what Rupert Dunsmore is going to do,
+which is more than I have.  But what can it be that's making him
+so sure?"
+
+"That's probably simple enough," said Walter.  "You said you
+suspected there was a leakage from Burns & Swift's office, and you
+told Burns to make misleading statements about your movements
+occasionally when he was dictating his letters.  Well, I expect this
+is one."
+
+"That may be; only Deede Dawson seems so very sure," answered Dunn.
+"But what's specially important is his saying that his employer,
+whoever it is, who is behind all this, will be there too."
+
+"A meeting?  Is that it?" exclaimed Walter.
+
+"No, that's not the idea," answered Dunn.  "You see, the idea is
+that Rupert Dunsmore will be there at four, and that I'm to be
+there in ambush to murder myself.  Whoever is behind all this will
+be there too--to see I carry out my work properly.  And that gives
+us our chance."
+
+"Oh, that's good," exclaimed Walter.  "We shall have him for
+certain."
+
+"That's what I want you to see to," said Dunn.  "I want you to have
+men you can trust well hidden all round, ready to collar him.  And
+I want you to have all the roads leading to Ottam's Wood well
+watched and every one going along them noted.  You understand?"
+
+"That's quite easy," declared Walter.  "I can promise not a soul
+will get into Ottam's Wood without being seen, and I'll make very
+sure indeed of getting hold of any one hiding anywhere near Brook
+Bourne Spring.  And once we've done that--once we know who it is--"
+
+"Yes," agreed Dunn.  "We shall be all right then.  That is the one
+thing necessary to know--the key move to the problem--the
+identity of who it is pulling the strings.  He must be a clever
+beggar; anyhow, I mean to see him hang for it yet."
+
+"I daresay he's clever," agreed Walter.  "He is playing for big
+stakes.  Anyhow, we'll have him tomorrow all right; that seems
+certain--at last."
+
+"At last," agreed Dunn, with a long-drawn sigh.  "Ugh!  it's all
+been such a nightmare.  It's been pretty awful, knowing there was
+some one--not able to guess who.  Ever since you discovered that
+first attempt, ever since we became certain there was a plot going
+on to clear out every one in succession to the Chobham estates--
+and that was jolly plain, though the fools of police did babble
+about no evidence, as if pistol bullets come from nowhere and
+poisoned cups of tea--"
+
+"Ah, I was to blame there, that was my fault," said Walter.  "You
+see, we had no proof about the shooting, and when I had spilt that
+tea, no proof of poison either.  I shall always regret that."
+
+"A bit of bad luck," Dunn agreed.  "But accidents will happen.
+Anyhow, it was clear enough some one was trying to make a jolly
+clear sweep.  It may be a madman; it may be some one with a grudge
+against us; it may be, as poor Charley thought, some one in the
+line of succession, who is just clearing the way to inherit the
+title and estates himself.  I wish I knew what made Charley
+suspicious of Deede Dawson in the first place."
+
+"You don't know that?" Walter asked.
+
+"No, he never told me," answered Dunn.  "Poor Charley, it cost him
+his life.  That's another thing we must find out--where they've
+hidden his body."
+
+"He was sure from the first," remarked Walter, "that it was a
+conspiracy on the part of some one in the line of succession?"
+
+"Yes," agreed Dunn.  "It's likely enough, too.  You see, ever since
+that big family row and dispersion eighty years ago, a whole branch
+of the family has been entirely lost sight of.  There may be half a
+dozen possible heirs we know nothing about.  Like poor John Clive.
+I daresay if we had known of his existence we should have begun by
+suspecting him."
+
+"There's one thing pretty sure," remarked Walter.  "If these
+pleasant little arrangements did succeed, it would be a fairly safe
+guess that the inheritor of the title and estates was the guilty
+person.  It might be brought home to him, too."
+
+"Perhaps," agreed Dunn dryly.  "But just a trifle too late to
+interest me for one.  And I don't mean to let the dad or uncle be
+sacrificed if I can help it.  I failed with Clive, poor fellow, but
+I don't mean to again, and I don't see how we can.  Deede Dawson
+has exposed his hand.  Now we can play ours."
+
+"But what are you going to do?" Walter asked.  "Are you going to
+follow out his instructions?"
+
+"To the letter," Dunn answered.  "We are dealing with very wary,
+suspicious people, and the least thing  might make them take alarm.
+The important point, of course, is the promise that Deede Dawson's
+employer will be at Brook Bourne Spring tomorrow afternoon.  That's
+our trump card.  Everything hangs on that.  And to make sure there's
+no hitch, I shall do exactly what I've been told to do.  I expect
+I shall be watched.  I shall be there at four o'clock, and ten
+minutes after I hope we shall have laid hands on--whoever it is."
+
+Walter nodded.
+
+"I don't see how we can fail," he said.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+AN APHORISM
+
+
+"No," Dunn agreed after a long pause.  "No, I don't see myself how
+failure is possible; I don't see what there is to go wrong.  All the
+same, I shan't be sorry when it's all over; I suppose I'm nervous,
+that's the truth of it.  But Deede Dawson's hardly the sort of man
+I should have expected to lay all his cards on the table so openly."
+
+"Oh, I think that's natural enough," answered Walter.  "Quite
+natural--he thinks you are in with him and he tells you what he
+wants you to do.  But I don't quite see the object of your visit to
+the Abbey the other day.  You gave me the shock of my life, I think.
+I hadn't the least idea who you were--that beard makes a wonderful
+difference."
+
+Dunn laughed quietly.
+
+"It's a good disguise," he admitted.  "I didn't quite know myself
+first time I looked in a mirror.  We went to the Abbey to prepare
+for a burglary there."
+
+"Oh, is that on the cards, too?" exclaimed Walter.  "I didn't expect
+that."
+
+"Yes," answered Dunn.  "My own idea is that Deede Dawson sees an
+opportunity for making a bit on his own.  After all of us are
+disposed of and his friend has got the title and estates, he won't
+dare to prosecute of course, and so Deede Dawson thinks it a good
+opportunity to visit the Abbey and pick up any pictures or heirlooms
+or so-so he can that it would be almost impossible to dispose of in
+the ordinary way, but that he expects he will be able to sell back
+at a good price to the new owner of the property.  I think he
+calculates that that gentleman will be ready to pay as much as he
+is asked.  I don't know, but I think that's his idea from something
+he said the other day about the uselessness of even good stuff from
+a big house unless you knew of a sure market, or could sell it back
+again to the owner."
+
+"Jolly clever idea if it works all right," said Walter slowly.  "I
+can see Mr. Deede Dawson is a man who needs watching.  And I suppose
+we had better be on the look-out at the Abbey tomorrow night?"
+
+"Evening," corrected Dunn.  "It's planned for the dinner-hour."
+
+"Right," said Walter.  "We shall see some crowded hours tomorrow, I
+expect.  Well, it's like this, as I understand it--we had better be
+sure everything is quite clear.  Their idea is that you will meet
+and murder Rupert Dunsmore, who they have no notion is really your
+own self, at Brook Bourne Spring at four tomorrow afternoon, and the
+unknown somebody who is behind all this business will be in hiding
+there to make sure you do your work properly.  Our idea is to watch
+all the roads leading to Ottam's Wood and to have men in ambush near
+the spring to seize any one hiding there at that time.  Then we shall
+know who is at the bottom of all these plots and shall be able to
+smash the whole conspiracy.  In addition, Deede Dawson and this other
+man you speak of, Allen, are going to break into the Abbey tomorrow
+evening and we are to be ready for them and catch them in the act?"
+
+"Yes," said Dunn, "that's the idea; you can manage all right?"
+
+"Oh, yes," answered Walter.  "It's all simple enough--you've
+planned it out so jolly well there's nothing much left for me to
+do.  And I don't see what you're nervous about; there's nothing
+that can go wrong very well--your plans are perfect, I think."
+
+"It's easy enough to make plans when you know just what the other
+side are going to do," observed Dunn.  "There's one point more.
+Miss Cayley--I mentioned her in one of the notes I sent you through
+Burns."
+
+"Yes, I remember--Deede Dawson's step-daughter," said Walter.  "I
+suppose she is in it?"
+
+"She is not; she knows nothing," declared Dunn vehemently.
+
+"But it was she who took away poor Charley's body, wasn't it?" asked
+Walter.  "But for that you would have had evidence enough to act on
+at once, wouldn't you?"
+
+"She did not know what she was doing," Dunn replied.  "And now she
+is in danger herself.  I am convinced Deede Dawson is growing afraid
+of her, he dropped hints; I'm sure he is planning something, perhaps
+he means to murder her as well.  So besides these other arrangements
+I want to see that there's a trustworthy man watching here.  I don't
+anticipate that there's any immediate danger--it's almost certain
+that if he means anything he will wait till he sees how this other
+business is turning out.  But I want some one trustworthy to be at
+hand in case of need.  You will see to that?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I can spare Simmonds; I'll send him," answered Walter.
+"Though, I must say, my dear chap, I don't think I should trouble
+much about that young lady.  But it can be easily managed, in fact
+everything you want me to do is easy enough; I only wish some of
+it was a bit difficult or dangerous."
+
+"You're a good chap, Walter," said Dunn, putting his hand on the
+other's  shoulder again.  "Well, I think it's all settled now.  I
+tell you I'm looking forward a good deal to four o'clock tomorrow
+afternoon.  I feel as if I would give all I possess to know who it
+is."
+
+"Don't make that offer," Waiter said with a smile, "or the fates
+may accept it."
+
+"I feel as though there's only one thing in the world I want one
+half so much," Dunn said.  "As to know who this--devil is."
+
+"Devil?" repeated Walter.  "Well, yes, devil's a word like any
+other."
+
+"I think it's justified in this case," said Dunn sternly.  "Poor
+Charley Wright dead!  One thing I can't understand about that is
+how they got him back here when you saw him in London when you did.
+But they're a cunning lot.  They must have worked it somehow.  Then
+Clive.  I feel to blame for Clive's death--as if I ought to have
+managed better and saved him.  Now there's this other devilry they
+are planning.  I tell you, Walter, I feel the whole world will be
+a sweeter place after four o'clock tomorrow afternoon."
+
+"At any rate," said Walter, "I think we may be sure of one thing
+--after four o'clock tomorrow afternoon you will know all--all."
+He paused and repeated, slightly varying the phrase: "Yes, after four
+o'clock tomorrow afternoon you will know everything--everything."
+He added in a brisker tone: "There's nothing else to arrange?"
+
+"No," said Dunn, "I don't think so, and I had better go now or
+Deede Dawson will be suspecting something.  He'll want to know what
+I've been stopping out so late for.  Good-bye, old chap, and good
+luck."
+
+They shook hands.
+
+"Good-bye and good luck, Rupert, old man," Walter said.  "You may
+depend on me--you know that."
+
+"Yes, I do know that," Dunn answered.
+
+They shook hands again, and Dunn said: "You've hurt your hand.  It's
+tied up.  Is it anything much?"
+
+"No, no," answered Walter with a little laugh.  "A mere scratch.  I
+scratched it on a bit of wood, a lid that didn't fit properly."
+
+"Well, good-bye and good luck," Dunn said again, and they parted,
+Walter disappearing into the darkness and Dunn returning to the
+house.
+
+Deede Dawson heard him enter, and he came to the door of the room
+in which he had been sitting.
+
+"Oh, there you are," he said.  "Been enjoying the night air or
+what?  You've been a long time."
+
+"I've been thinking," Dunn muttered in the heavy, sulky manner he
+always assumed at Bittermeads.
+
+"Not weakening, eh?" asked Deede Dawson.
+
+"No," answered Dunn.  "I'm not."
+
+"Good," Deede Dawson exclaimed.  "There's a lot to win, and no
+fear of failure.  I don't see that failure's possible.  Do you?"
+
+"No," answered Dunn.  "I suppose not."
+
+"The mate's sure this time," Deede Dawson declared.  "It's our
+turn to move, and whatever reply the other side makes, we're sure
+of our mate next move.  By the way, did you ever solve that problem
+I showed you the other day?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," answered Dunn.  "It was a long time before I
+could hit on the right move, but I managed it at last, I think."
+
+"Come and show me, then," said Deede Dawson, bustling back into
+his room and beginning to set up the pieces on his travelling
+chess-board.  "This was the position, wasn't it?  Now, what's your
+move?"
+
+Dunn showed him, and Deede Dawson burst into a laugh that had in
+it for once a touch of honest enjoyment.
+
+"Yes, that would do it, but for one thing you haven't noticed," he
+said.  "Black can push the pawn at KB7 and make it, not a queen, but
+a knight, giving check to your king and no mate for you next move."
+
+"Yes, that's so," agreed Dunn.  "I hadn't thought of that."
+
+"Unexpected, eh?  Making the pawn a knight?" smiled Deede Dawson.
+"But in chess, and in life, it's the unexpected you have to look
+out for."
+
+"That's quite an aphorism," said Dunn.  "It's true, too."
+
+He went up to bed, but did not sleep well, and when at last he fell
+into a troubled slumber, it seemed to him that Charley Wright and
+John Clive were there, one on each side of him, and that they had
+come, not because they sought for vengeance, but because they wished
+to warn him of a doom like their own that they could see approaching
+but he could not.
+
+Toward's morning he got an hour's sound rest, and he was down stairs
+in good time.  He did not see Ella, but he heard her moving about,
+so knew that she was safe as yet; and Deede Dawson gave him some
+elaborate parting instructions, a little money, and a loaded
+revolver.
+
+"I don't know that I want that," said Dunn.  "My hands will be all
+I need once I'm face to face with Rupert Dunsmore."
+
+"That's the right spirit," said Deede Dawson approvingly.  "But the
+pistol may be useful too.  You needn't use it if you can manage
+without, but you may as well have it.  Good-bye, and the best of
+luck.  Take care of yourself, and don't lose your head or do
+anything foolish."
+
+"Oh, you can trust me," said Dunn.
+
+"I think I can," smiled Deede Dawson.  "I think I can.  Good-bye.
+Be careful, avoid noise and fuss, don't be seen any more than you
+can help, and if you shoot, aim low."
+
+"There's a vade mecum for the intending assassin," Dunn thought
+grimly to himself, but he said nothing, gave the other a sullen
+nod, and started off on his strange and weird mission of murdering
+himself.  He found himself wondering if any one else had ever been
+in such a situation.  He did not suppose so.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE UNEXPECTED
+
+
+To the very letter Dunn followed the careful and precise
+instructions given him by Deede Dawson, for he did not wish to
+rouse in any way the slightest suspicion or run the least risk of
+frightening off that unknown instigator of these plots who was, it
+had been promised him, to be present near Brook Bourne Spring at
+four that afternoon.
+
+Even the thought of Ella was perhaps less clear and vivid to his
+mind just now than was his intense and passionate desire to discover
+the identity of the strange and sinister personality against whom he
+had matched himself.
+
+"Very likely it's some madman," he thought to himself.  "How in the
+name of common sense can he expect to inherit the title and estates
+quietly after such a series of crimes as he seems to contemplate?
+Does he think no one will have any suspicion of him when he comes
+forward?  Even if he is successful in getting rid of all of us in
+this way, how does he expect to be able to reap his reward?  Of
+course he may think that there will be no direct evidence if he
+manages cleverly enough, and that mere suspicion he will be able to
+disregard and live down in time, but surely it will be plain enough
+that 'who benefits is guilty'?  The whole thing is mad, fantastic.
+Why, the mere fact of any one making a claim to the title and
+estates would be almost enough to justify a jury in returning a
+verdict of guilty."
+
+But though his thoughts ran in this wise all the time he was
+journeying to London, and though he repeated them to himself over
+and over again, none the less there remained an uneasy consciousness
+in his mind that perhaps these people had plans more subtle than he
+knew, and that even this difficulty of making their claim without
+bringing instant suspicion on themselves they had provided for.
+
+It was late in the year now, but the day was warm and very calm and
+fine.  At the London terminus where he alighted he had a strong
+feeling that he was watched, and when he took the train back to
+Delsby he still had the idea that he was being kept under
+observation.
+
+He felt he had been wise in deciding to carry out Deede Dawson's
+instructions so closely, for he was sure that if he had failed to
+do so in any respect alarm would have been taken at once, and
+warning telegrams gone flying on the instant to all concerned.
+Then that self-baited trap at Brook Bourne Spring, wherein he hoped
+to see his enemy taken, would remain unapproached, and all his
+work and risk would have gone for nothing.
+
+When he alighted at his destination he was a little before time,
+and so he got himself something to eat at a small public-house near
+the station before starting on his fifteen-mile walk across country.
+Though he was not sure, he did not think any one was observing him
+now.  Most likely his movements up to the present had appeared
+satisfactory, and it had not been thought necessary to watch him
+longer.
+
+But he was careful to do nothing to rouse suspicion if he were
+still being spied upon, and after he had eaten and had a smoke he
+started off on his long tramp.
+
+Even yet he was careful, and so long as he was near the village he
+made a show of avoiding observation as much as possible.  Later on,
+when he had made certain he was not being followed, he did not
+trouble so much, though he still kept it in mind that any one he
+met or passed might well be in fact one of Deede Dawson's agents.
+
+He walked on sharply through the crisp autumn air, and in other
+circumstances would have found the walk agreeable enough.  It
+was a little curious that as he proceeded on his way his chief
+preoccupation seemed to shift from his immediate errand and intense
+eagerness to discover the identity of his unknown foe, with whom he
+hoped to stand face to face so soon, to a troubled and pressing
+anxiety about Ella.
+
+Up till now he had not thought it likely that she was in the least
+real danger.  He knew Simmonds, the man Walter had promised to put
+on watch at Bittermeads, and knew him to be capable and trustworthy.
+None the less, his uneasiness grew and strengthened with every mile
+he traversed, till presently her situation seemed to him the one
+weak link in his careful plans.
+
+That the trap the unknown had so carefully laid for himself to be
+taken in, would assuredly and securely close upon him, Dunn felt
+certain enough.  Walter would see to that.  Sure was it, too, that
+the enterprise Deede Dawson had planned for himself and Allen at
+the Abbey must result in their discomfiture and capture.  Walter
+would see to that also.  But concerning Ella's position doubt would
+insist on intruding, till at last he decided that the very moment
+the Brook Bourne Spring business was satisfactorily finished with
+he would hurry at his best speed to Bittermeads and make sure of
+her safety.
+
+Absorbed in these uneasy thoughts, he had insensibly slackened
+speed, and looking at his watch he saw that it was two o'clock, and
+that he was still, by the milestone at the roadside, eight miles
+from his destination.
+
+He wished to be there a little before the time arranged for him by
+Deede Dawson, and he increased his pace till he came to a spot
+where the path he had to take branched off from the road he had
+been following.  At this spot a heavy country lad was sitting on
+a gate by the wayside, and as Dunn approached he clambered heavily
+down and slouched forward to meet him.
+
+"Be you called Robert Dunn, mister?" he asked.
+
+Dunn gave him a quick and suspicious look, much startled by this
+sudden recognition in so lonely a spot.
+
+"Yes, I am," he said, after a moment's hesitation.  "Why?"
+
+"If you are, there's this as I'm to give you," the lad answered,
+drawing a note from his pocket.
+
+"Oh, who gave you that?" Dunn asked, fully persuaded the note
+contained some final instructions from Deede Dawson and wondering
+if this lad were one of his agents in disguise, or merely some
+inhabitant of the district hired for the one purpose of
+delivering the letter.
+
+But the lad's drawled reply disconcerted him greatly.
+
+"A lady," he said.  "A real lady in a big car, she told me to wait
+here and give you this.  All alone she was, and drove just like a
+man."
+
+He handed the letter over as he spoke, and Dunn saw that it was
+addressed to him in his name of Robert Dunn in Ella's writing.
+He blinked at it in very great surprise, for there was nothing he
+expected less, and he did not understand how she knew so well
+where he would be or how she had managed to get away from
+Bittermeads uninterfered with by Deede Dawson.
+
+His first impulse was to suspect some new trap, some new and
+cunning trap that, perhaps, the unconscious Ella was being used
+to bait.  Taking the letter from the boy, he said:
+
+"How did you know it was for me?"
+
+"Lady told me," answered the boy grinning.  "She said as I was to
+look out for a chap answering to the name of Robert Dunn, with his
+face so covered with hair you couldn't see nothing of it no more'n
+you can see a sheep's back for wool.  'As soon as I set eye on 'ee,'
+says I, 'That's him,' I says, and so 'twas."
+
+He grinned again and slouched away and Dunn stood still, holding
+the letter in his hand and not opening it at first.  It was almost
+as though he feared to do so, and when at last he tore the envelope
+open it was with a hand that trembled a little in spite of all
+that he could do.  For there was something about this strange
+communication and the means adopted to deliver it to him that struck
+him as ominous in the extreme.  Some sudden crisis must have arisen,
+he thought, and it appeared to him that Ella's knowledge of where
+to find him implied a knowledge of Deede Dawson's plans that meant
+she was either his willing and active agent and accomplice, or else
+she had somehow acquired a knowledge of her stepfather's proceedings
+that must make her position a thousand times more critical and
+dangerous than before.
+
+He flung the envelope aside and began to read the contents.  It
+opened abruptly, without any form of address, and it was written in
+a hand that showed plain signs of great distress and agitation:
+"You are in great danger.  I don't know what.  I heard them talking.
+They spoke as though something threatened you, something you could
+not escape.  Be careful, very careful.  You asked me once if I had
+ever heard a man with a high, squeaky voice, and I did not answer.
+It was to a man with a voice like that I gave the packing-case I
+took away from here the night you came.  Do you remember?  He was
+here all last night, I think.  I saw him go very early.  He is Mr.
+Walter Dunsmore.  I saw him that day at Wreste Abbey, and I knew I
+had seen him before.  This morning I recognized him.  I am sure
+because he hurt his hand on the packing-case lid, and I saw the mark
+there still.  He and my stepfather were talking all night, I think
+I couldn't hear everything.  There is a General Dunsmore.  Something
+is to happen to him at three o'clock and then to you later, and they
+both laughed a great deal because they think you will be blamed for
+whatever happens to General Dunsmore.  He is to be enticed somewhere
+to meet you, but you are not to be there till four, too late.  I am
+afraid, more afraid than ever I have been.  What shall I do?  I
+think they are making plans to do something awful.  I don't know
+what to do.  I think my stepfather suspects I know something, he
+keeps looking, looking, smiling all the time.  Please come back and
+take mother and me away, for I think he means to kill us both."
+
+There was no signature, but written like an afterthought across one
+corner of the note were the scribbled words:
+
+"You told me something once, I don't know if you meant it."  And
+then, underneath, was the addition--"He never stops smiling."
+
+Twice over Dunn read this strange, disturbing message, and then a
+third time, and he made a little gesture of annoyance for it did
+not seem to him that the words he read made sense, or else it was
+that his brain no longer worked normally, and could not interpret
+them.
+
+"Oh, but that's absurd," he said aloud.
+
+He looked all around him, surprised to see that the face of the
+country-side had not changed in any way, but was all just as it had
+been before this letter had been put into his hands.
+
+He began to read a third, but stopped half-way through the first
+sentence.
+
+"Then it's Walter all the time," he muttered.  "Walter--Walter!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+A RACE AGAINST TIME
+
+
+Even when he had said this aloud it was still as though he could not
+grasp its full meaning.
+
+"Walter," he repeated vaguely.  "Walter."
+
+His thoughts, that had seemed as frozen by the sudden shock of the
+tremendous revelation so unconsciously made to him by Ella, began
+to stir and move again, and almost at once, with an extraordinary
+and abnormal rapidity.
+
+As a drowning man is said to see flash before his eyes the whole
+history and record of his life, so now Dunn saw the whole story of
+his life-long friendship with Walter pictured before him.
+
+For when he was very small, Walter had been to him like an elder
+brother, and when he was older, it was Walter who had taught him to
+ride and to shoot, to hunt and to fish, and when he was at school
+it was Walter to whom he looked up as the dashing young man of the
+world, who knew all life's secrets, and when he was at college it
+was Walter who had helped him out of the inevitable foolish scrapes
+into which it is the custom of the undergraduate to fall.
+
+Then, when he had come to man's estate, Walter had still been his
+confidential friend and adviser.  In Walter's hand he had been
+accustomed to leave everything during his absences on his hunting
+and exploring trips; and at what time during this long and kindly
+association of good-fellowship had such black hate and poison of
+envy bred in Walter's heart?
+
+"Walter!" he said aloud once more, and he uttered the name as though
+it were a cry of anguish.
+
+Yet, too, even in his utter bewilderment and surprise, it seemed
+strange to him that he had never once suspected, never dreamed,
+never once had the shadow of a suspicion.
+
+Little things, trifling things, a word, an accent, a phrase that
+had passed at the time for a lest, a thousand such memories came
+back to him now with a new and terrible significance.
+
+For, after all, Walter was in the direct line.  Only just a few
+lives stood between him and a great inheritance, a great position.
+Perhaps long brooding on what might so easily be had made him mad.
+
+Dunn remembered now, too, that it was Walter who had discovered that
+first murderous attempt which had first put them on their guard, but
+perhaps he had discovered it only because he knew of it, and when it
+failed, saw his safest plan was to be foremost in tracking it out.
+
+And it was Walter who had last seen poor Charley Wright alone, and
+far from Bittermeads.  But perhaps that was a lie to confuse the
+search for the missing man, and a reason why that search had failed
+so utterly up to the moment of Dunn's own grim discovery in the
+attic.
+
+With yet a fresh shock so that he reeled as he stood with the impact
+of the thought, Dunn realized that all this implied that every one
+of his precautions had been rendered futile that of all his elaborate
+plans not one would take effect since all had been entrusted to the
+care of the very man against whom they were aimed.
+
+It was Walter for whom the net had been laid in Ottam's Wood; and
+Walter to whom had been entrusted the task of drawing that net tight
+at the right moment.
+
+It was Walter's friends and agents who were to break into Wreste
+Abbey, and Walter to whom had been entrusted the task of defeating
+and capturing them.  It was Walter from whom Ella stood in most
+danger if her action that morning had been observed, and it was
+Walter to whom he had given the task of protecting her.
+
+At this thought, he turned and began to run as fast as he could in
+the direction of Bittermeads.
+
+At all costs she must be saved, she who had exposed the whole awful
+plot.  For a hundred yards or so he fled, swift as the wind, till
+on a sudden he stopped dead with the realization of the fact that
+every yard he took that way took him further and further from Ottam's
+Wood.
+
+For there was danger there, too--grim and imminent--and sentences
+in Ella's hasty letter that bore now to his new knowledge a deep
+significance she had not dreamed of.
+
+As when a flash of lightning lights all the landscape up and shows
+the traveller dreadful dangers that beset his path, so a wave of
+intuition told Dunn clearly the whole conspiracy; so that he saw
+it all, and saw how every detail was to be fitted in together.  His
+father, General Dunsmore, was to be murdered first at the Brook
+Bourne Spring, to which he was being lured; and afterwards, when
+Dunn arrived, he was to be murdered, too.  And on him, dead and
+unable to defend himself, the blame of his father's death would be
+laid.  It would not be difficult to manage.  Walter would arrange
+it all as neatly as he had been accustomed to arrange the Dunsmore
+business affairs placed in his hands for settlement.
+
+A forged letter or two, Dunn's own revolver used to shoot the old
+man with and then placed in Dunn's dead hand when his own turn had
+come, convincing detail like that would be easy to arrange.  Why,
+the very fact of his disguise, the tangled beard that he had grown
+to hide his features with, would appear conclusive.  Any coroner's
+jury would return a verdict of wilful murder against his memory on
+that one fact alone.
+
+Walter would see to that all right.  A little false evidence
+apparently reluctantly given would be added, and all would be
+kneaded together into the one substance till the whole guilt of
+all that happened would appear to lie solely on his shoulders.
+
+As for motive, it would simply be put forward that he had been in
+a hurry to succeed his uncle.  And very likely some tale of a
+quarrel with his father or something of that sort would be invented,
+and would go uncontradicted since there would be no one to
+contradict it.
+
+And most probably what was contemplated at Wreste Abbey was no
+ordinary burglary, but the assassination of old Lord Chobham, of
+which the guilt would also be set down to him.
+
+Very clearly now he realized that this tremendous plot was aimed,
+not only at life, but at honour--that not only was his life
+required, but also that he should be thought a murderer.
+
+With the realization of the danger that threatened at Wreste Abbey
+he turned and began to run back in the direction where it lay, that
+he might take timely warning there, but he did not run a dozen
+strides when he remembered Ella again, and paused.
+
+Surely he must think of her first, alone and unprotected.  For she
+was the woman he loved; and besides, she had summoned him to her
+help, and then she was a woman, and at least, the others were men.
+
+All this flood of thoughts, this intuitive grasping of a situation
+terrible beyond conception, almost unparalleled in bloody and
+dreadful horror, passed through his mind with extreme rapidity.
+
+Once more he turned and began to run--to run as he had never run
+before, for now he saw that all depended on the speed with which
+he could cover the eight miles that lay between him and Ottam's
+Wood, whether he could still save his father or not.
+
+The district was lonely in the extreme, there was no human
+habitation near, no place where he could obtain any help or any
+swift means of conveyance.  His one hope must be in his speed, his
+feet must be swift to save, not only his own life and his father's,
+but his honour, too, and Ella and his old uncle as well; and all
+--all hung upon the speed with which he could cover the eight long
+miles that lay between him and Brook Bourne Spring in Ottam's Wood.
+Even as he ran, as he thought of Ella, he came abruptly to a pause,
+wrung with sudden anguish.  For each fleet stride he was making
+towards Brook Bourne Spring was taking him further and further away
+from Bittermeads just as before each step to Bittermeads had been
+taking him further from Ottam's Wood.
+
+He began to run again, even faster than before, and it was towards
+Ottam's Wood that he ran, each step taking him further from
+Bittermeads and further from the woman he loved in her bitter need
+and peril, who looked to him for the help he could not give.  With
+pain and anguish he ran on, ran as men have seldom run--as seldom
+so much was hung upon their running.
+
+On and on he sped, fleet as the wind, fleet as the light breeze that
+blew lightly by.  A solitary villager trudging on some errand in
+this lonely place, tells to this day the tale of the bearded,
+wild-eyed man who raced so madly by him, raced on and down the long,
+straight road till his figure dwindled and vanished in the distance.
+
+A shepherd boy went home with a tale of a strange thing he had seen
+of a man running so fast it seemed he was scarcely in sight before
+he was gone again.
+
+And except for those two and one other none saw him at all and he
+ran his race alone beneath the skies, across the bare country side.
+
+It was at a spot where the path ran between two high hedges that he
+came upon a little herd of cows a lad was driving home.
+
+It seemed impossible to pass through that tangle of horns and tails
+and plunging hoofs, and so indeed it was, but Dunn took another way,
+and with one leap, cleared the first beast clean and alighted on the
+back of the second.
+
+Before the startled beast could plunge away he leaped again from
+the vantage of its back and landed on the open ground beyond and
+so on, darting full speed past the staring driver, whose tale that
+he told when he got home caused him to go branded for years as a
+liar.
+
+On and on Dunn fled, without stay or pause, at the utmost of his
+speed every second of time, every yard of distance.  For he knew
+he had need of every ounce of power he possessed or could call to
+his aid, since he knew well that all, all, might hang upon a second
+less or more, and now four miles lay behind him and four in front.
+
+Still on he raced with labouring lungs and heart near to bursting
+--onward still, swift, swift and sure, and now there were six
+miles behind and only two in front, and he was beginning to come
+to a part of the country that he knew.
+
+Whether he was soon or late he had no idea or how long it was that
+he had raced like this along the lonely country road at the full
+extremity and limit of his strength.
+
+He dared not take time to glance at his watch, for he knew the
+fraction of a second he would thus lose might mean the difference
+between in time and too late.  On he ran still and presently he
+left the path and took the fields.
+
+But he had forgotten that though the distance might be shorter the
+going would be harder, and on the rough grass he stumbled, and
+across the bare ground damp earth clung to his boots and hindered
+him as though each foot had become laden with lead.
+
+His speed was slower, his effort greater if possible, and when he
+came to a hedge he made no effort to leap, but crashed through it
+as best he could and broke or clambered or tumbled a path for
+himself.
+
+Now Ottam's Wood was very near, and reeling and staggering like a
+man wounded to the death but driven by inexorable fate, he plunged
+on still, and there was a little froth gathering at the corners of
+his mouth and from one of his nostrils came a thin trickle of blood.
+
+Yet still he held on, though in truth he hardly knew any longer why
+he ran or what his need for haste, and as he came to the wood round
+a spur where a cluster of young beeches grew, he saw a tall, upright,
+elderly man walking there, well-dressed and of a neat, soldier-like
+appearance.
+
+"Hallo--there you are--father--" he gasped and fell down, prone
+unconscious.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+FLIGHT AND PURSUIT
+
+
+When he came to himself he was lying on his back, and bending over
+him was his father's familiar face, wearing an expression of great
+surprise and wonder, and still greater annoyance.
+
+"What is the matter?" General Dunsmore asked as soon as he saw that
+his son's senses were returning to him.  "Have you all gone mad
+together?  You send me a mysterious note to meet you here at three,
+you turn up racing and running like an escaped lunatic, and with a
+disgusting growth of hair all over your face, so that I didn't know
+you till you spoke, and then there's Walter dodging about in the
+wood here like a poacher hiding from the keepers.  Are you both
+quite mad, Rupert?"
+
+"Walter," Rupert repeated, lifting himself on one hand, "Walter
+--have you seen him?"
+
+"Over there," said the general, nodding towards the right.  "He was
+dodging and creeping about for all the world like some poaching
+rascal.  I waved, but he didn't see me, and when I tried to overtake
+him I lost sight of him somehow in the trees, and found I had come
+right out of my way for Brook Bourne Spring."
+
+"Thank God for that," said Rupert fervently as a picture presented
+itself to him of his unsuspecting father trying in that lonely wood
+to find and overtake the man whose murderous purpose was aimed at
+his life.
+
+"What do you mean?" snapped the general.  "And why have you made
+such a spectacle of yourself with all that beard?  Why, I didn't
+know you till you spoke--there's Walter there.  What makes him
+look like that?"
+
+For Walter had just come out of the wood about fifty yards to their
+right, and when he saw them talking together he understood at once
+that in some way or another all his plans had failed.
+
+He was looking at them through a gap in some undergrowth that hid
+most of his body, but showed his head and shoulders plainly, and
+as he stood there watching them his face was like a fiend's.
+
+"Walter," the general shouted, and to his son Rupert he said: "The
+boy's ill."
+
+Walter moved forward from among the trees.  He had a gun in his
+hand, and he flung it forward as though preparing to fire, and at
+the same moment Rupert Dunsmore drew from his pocket the pistol
+Deede Dawson had given him and fired himself.
+
+But at the very moment that he pulled the trigger the general
+struck up his arm so that the bullet flew high and harmless through
+the tops of the trees.
+
+Walter stepped back again into the wood, and Rupert said:
+
+"You don't know what you have done, father."
+
+"You are mad, mad," the general gasped.
+
+His face was very pale, and he trembled a little, for though he had
+heard many bullets whistle by his ears, that had happened in action
+against an enemy, and was altogether different from this.  He put
+out his hand in an attempt to take the pistol that Rupert easily
+evaded.
+
+"Give it to me," he said.  "I saved his life; you might have
+killed him."
+
+"Yes, you saved him, father," Rupert muttered, thinking to himself
+that the saving of Walter's life might well mean the loss of Ella's,
+since very likely the failure of their plots would be at once
+attributed by the conspirators to her.  "Father, I never wrote that
+letter you say you had.  Walter forged it to get you here, where he
+meant to kill us both.  That's why he looked like that, that's why
+he had his gun."
+
+General Dunsmore only stared blankly at him for a moment.
+
+"Kill me?  Kill you?  What for?" he gasped.
+
+"So that he might become Lord Chobham of Wreste Abbey instead of
+Lord Chobham's poor relation," answered Rupert.  "The poison attempt
+on uncle which Walter discovered was first of all his own doing; it
+was through him Charley Wright lost his life.  He has committed at
+least one other murder.  Today he meant to kill both of us.  Then
+he would have been heir to the title and estates, and when uncle
+died he would have been Lord Chobham."
+
+"Nonsense, absurd, impossible.  You're mad, quite mad," the general
+stammered.  "Why, he would have been hanged at once."
+
+"Not if he could have fixed the blame elsewhere," Rupert answered.
+"That was to have been my part; it was carefully arranged to make
+it seem I was responsible for it all.  I haven't time to explain now.
+I don't think he is coming back.  I expect he is only loaded with
+small shot, and he doesn't dare try a long range shot or come near
+now he knows I'm ready for him."
+
+"But it's--it's impossible--Walter," stammered the general.
+"Impossible."
+
+"The impossible so often happens," answered Rupert, and handed his
+pistol to him.  "You must trust me, father, and do what I tell you.
+Take this pistol in case you are attacked on the way home.  You may
+be, but I don't think it's likely.  Get the motor out and go straight
+to Wreste Abbey.  An attempt on uncle's life will be made tonight,
+if they still carry out their plans, about dinner-time tonight. See
+that every possible precaution is taken.  See to that first.  Then
+send help as soon as you can to Bittermeads, a house on the
+outskirts of Ramsdon; any one there will tell you where it is."
+
+"But what are you going to do?" General Dunsmore asked.
+
+"I'm going to find Walter, if he's still hiding in the wood here,
+as he may be," Rupert answered.  "I should like a little chat with
+him."  For a moment he nearly lost his self-control, and for a
+single moment there showed those fiery and tempestuous passions he
+was keeping now in such stern repression.  "Yes a little talk with
+him, just us two," he said.  "And if he's cleared out, or I can't
+find him I'm going straight on to Bittermeads.  There's some one
+there who may be in danger, so the sooner I am there the better."
+
+"But wait a moment," the general cried.  "Are you armed?"
+
+"Yes, with my hands, I shall want no more when Walter and I meet
+again," Rupert answered, and, without another word, plunged into
+the wood at the spot where Walter had vanished.
+
+At first the track of Walter's flying footsteps was plain enough
+for he had fled full speed, panic having overtaken him when he saw
+Rupert and his father together and understood that in some way his
+deep conspiracy had failed and his treachery become known.
+
+For a little distance, therefore, he had crashed through bracken
+and undergrowth, heedless of all but the one need that was upon him
+to flee away and escape while there was yet time.  But, after a
+while, his first panic subsiding, he had gone more carefully, and,
+as the weather had been very dry of late, when he came to open
+ground his footmarks were scarcely visible.
+
+In such spots Rupert could make but slow progress, and he was
+handicapped, too, by the fact, that all the time he had to be on
+his guard lest from some unsuspected quarter his enemy should come
+upon him unawares.
+
+For, indeed, this enterprise he had undertaken in the flood tide of
+his passion and fierce anger was dangerous enough since he, quite
+weaponless, was following up a very desperate armed man who would
+know that for him there could be henceforth no question of mercy.
+
+But there was that burning in Rupert's heart that made him heedless
+of all danger, and indeed, he who for mere love of sport and
+adventure, had followed a wounded tiger into the jungle and tracked
+a buffalo through thick reeds, was not likely to draw back now.
+
+Once he thought he had succeeded, for he saw a bush move and he
+rushed at once upon it.  But when he reached it there was nothing
+there, and the ground about was hard and bare, showing no marks to
+prove any one had lately been near.  And once he saw a movement in
+the midst of some bracken and caught a glimpse of what seemed like
+Walter's coat, so that he was sure he had him at last, and he
+shouted and ran forward.
+
+But again no one was there, though the bracken was all trampled and
+beaten down.  The tracks Walter had made in going were plain, too,
+but Rupert lost them almost at once and could not find them again,
+and when he came a little later to the further edge of the wood, he
+decided to waste no more time, but to make his way direct to
+Bittermeads so as at least to make sure of Ella's safety.
+
+He told himself that he had failed badly in woodcraft and, indeed,
+he had been too fierce and hot in his pursuit to show his wonted
+skill.
+
+The plan that had been in his mind from the moment when he left his
+father was to take advantage of the fact that on this edge of the
+wood was situated a farm belonging to Lord Chobham, where horses
+were bred and where he was well known.
+
+Some of these horses were sure to be out in the fields, and it would
+be easy for him, wasting no time in explanation, to catch one of them,
+mount bare-backed and ride through the New Plantation--the New
+Plantation was a hundred years old, but still kept that name--over
+the brow of the hill beyond, swim the canal in the valley, and so
+straight across-country to Ramsdon.
+
+Riding thus direct he would save time and distance, and arrive more
+quickly than by going the necessary distance to secure a motor-car
+which would have also to take a much more circuitous route.
+
+He jumped the hedge, therefore, that lay at the wood's edge and
+slid down the steep bank into the sunken road beyond where he found
+himself standing in front of Walter, who held in his hands a gun
+levelled straight at Rupert's heart.
+
+"I could have shot you time after time in there you know," he said
+quietly.  "From behind that bush and from out of the bracken, too.
+I don't know why I didn't.  I suppose it wasn't worth while, now
+I shall never be Lord Chobham."
+
+He flung down his gun as he spoke and sprang on a bicycle that he
+had held leaning against his legs.
+
+Quickly he sped away, leaving Rupert standing staring after him,
+realizing that his life had hung upon the bending of Walter's finger,
+and that Walter, with at least two cold-blooded murders to his
+account, or little more to hope for in this world or the next, had
+now inexplicably spared him for whose destruction, of life and honour
+alike, he had a little before been laying such elaborate, hellish
+plans.
+
+With a gesture of his hands that proved he failed to understand,
+Rupert ran on and crossed a field to where he saw some horses
+grazing.
+
+One he knew immediately for one of his father's mares, and he knew
+her also for an animal of speed and endurance.
+
+The mare knew him, too, and suffered him to mount her without
+difficulty, and without a soul on the farm being aware of what was
+happening and without having to waste any precious time on
+explanations or declaring his identity, Rupert rode away, sitting
+the mare bare-backed, through the New Plantation towards Bittermeads,
+where he hoped, arriving unexpectedly, to be able to save Ella
+before the danger he was sure threatened her came to a head.
+
+Of one thing he was certain.  Deede Dawson would never do what his
+companion in villainy had just done, he would spare no one; fierce,
+malignant and evil to the last, his one thought if he knew they had
+and vengeance approached would be to do what harm he could before
+the end.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+BACK AT BITTERMEADS
+
+
+When, riding fast, Rupert Dunsmore came in sight of Bittermeads he
+experienced a feeling of extreme relief.  Though what he had feared
+he did not quite know, for he did not see that any alarm could have
+reached here yet or any hint come to Deede Dawson of the failure of
+all his plotting.
+
+Even if Walter had had the idea of returning to give his accomplice
+warning, he could not have come by the road on his bicycle as quickly
+as Rupert had ridden across country.  And that Walter would spend
+either time or thought on Deede Dawson did not appear in any way
+probable.
+
+To Rupert, therefore, it seemed certain that Deede Dawson could know
+nothing as yet.  But all the same it was an immense relief to see
+the house again and to know that in a few moments he would be there.
+
+He tied up the mare to a convenient tree, and with eyes that were
+quick and alert and every nerve and muscle ready for all emergencies,
+he drew near the house.
+
+All was still and quiet, no smoke came from the chimneys, there was
+no sign of life or movement anywhere.  For a moment he hesitated
+and then made his way round to the back, hoping to find Mrs.
+Barker there and perhaps obtain from her information as to the
+whereabouts of Deede Dawson and of Ella and her mother.
+
+For it seemed to him it would be his best plan to get the two women
+quietly out of the way if he could possibly do so before making any
+attempt to deal with Deede Dawson or letting him know of his return.
+
+For the mere fact that he was back again so soon would show at once
+that something had gone seriously wrong, and once Deede Dawson knew
+that, he would be, Rupert well realized, in a very desperate and
+reckless mood and ripe for committing any mischief that he could.
+
+Cautiously Rupert opened the back door and found himself in the
+stone-paved passage that ran between the kitchen and the scullery
+and pantry.  Everything seemed very quiet and still, and there was
+no sign of Mrs. Barker nor any appearance that she had been that
+morning busy about her usual tasks.  The kitchen fire was not
+lighted, a pile of unwashed crockery stood on the table, there had
+apparently been no attempt to prepare any meals.
+
+Frowning uneasily, for all this did not seem to him of good omen,
+Rupert Went quickly on to the living rooms.
+
+They were unoccupied and did not seem to have been much used that
+day; and in the small breakfast-room Deede Dawson had been accustomed
+to consider his special apartment, his favourite little travelling
+chessboard stood on the table with pieces in position on it.
+
+There was a letter, too, he had begun but not finished, to the
+editor of a chess-column in some paper, apparently to the effect
+that a certain problem "cooked," and that by such and such a move
+"the mate for the first player that appeared certain was unexpectedly
+and instantly transferred in this dramatic manner into a mate for
+his opponent."
+
+The words seemed somehow oddly appropriate to Rupert, and he smiled
+grimly as he read them and then all at once his expression changed
+and his whole attitude became one of intense watchfulness and
+readiness.
+
+For his quick eye had noted that the ink on the nib of the pen that
+this letter had been written with, was not yet dry.
+
+Then Deede Dawson must have been here a moment or two ago and must
+have gone in a hurry.  That could only mean he was aware of Rupert's
+return and was warned and suspicious.  It is perhaps characteristic
+of Rupert's passionate and eager temperament that only now did it
+occur to him that he was quite unarmed and that without a weapon of
+any kind he was matching himself against as reckless and as
+formidable a criminal as had ever lived.
+
+For want of anything better he picked up the heavy glass inkpot
+standing on the table, emptied the contents in a puddle on the floor,
+and held the inkpot itself ready in his hand.
+
+He listened intently, but heard no sound--no sound at all in the
+whole house, and this increased his apprehensions, for he knew well
+that Deede Dawson was a man always the most dangerous when most
+silent.
+
+It was possible of course that he had fled, but not likely.  He
+would not go, Rupert thought, till he had made his preparations
+and not without a last effort to take revenge on those who had
+defeated him and in this dramatic way turned the mate he had
+expected to secure into a win for his opponent.
+
+Still Rupert listened intently, straining his ears to catch the
+least sound to hint to him where his enemy was, for he knew that if
+he failed to discover him his first intimation of his proximity
+might well come in the shape of the white-hot sting of a bullet,
+rending flesh and bone.
+
+Then, too, where was Ella, and where was her mother?
+
+There was something inexpressibly sinister in the utter quietness
+of the house, a quietness not at all of peace and rest but of a
+brooding, angry threat.
+
+Still he could hear nothing, and he left the room, very quickly and
+noiselessly, and he made sure there was no one anywhere in any of
+these rooms on the ground floor.
+
+He locked the front door and the back to make sure no one should
+enter or leave too easily, and returned on tiptoe, moving to and
+fro like a shadow cast by a changing light, so swift and noiseless
+were his movements.
+
+For a little he remained crouching against the side of the stairway,
+listening for any sound that might float down to him from above.
+
+But none came--and on a sudden, in one movement, as it were, he
+ran up the stairs and crouched down on the topmost one so that any
+bullet aimed at him as he appeared might perhaps fly overhead.
+
+But none was fired; there was still no sound at all, no sign that
+the house held any living creature beside himself.  He began to
+think that Deede Dawson must have sent the two women away and now
+have gone himself.
+
+But there was the pen downstairs with ink still wet upon the nib
+to prove that he had been here recently, and again very suddenly
+Rupert leaped to his feet and ran noiselessly down the corridor
+and entered quickly into Ella's room.
+
+He had not been in it since the night of his arrival at Bittermeads,
+but it appeared to him extraordinarily familiar and every little
+object in it of ornament or use seemed to speak to him softly of
+Ella's gracious presence.
+
+Of Ella herself there was no sign, but he noticed that the tassel
+at the end of the window blind cord was moving as if recently
+disturbed.
+
+The movement was very slight, almost imperceptible, indeed, but it
+existed; and it proved that some one must very shortly before have
+been standing at the window.  He moved to it and looked out.
+
+The view commanded the road by which he had approached Bittermeads,
+and he wondered if Ella had been standing there and had seen his
+approach, and then had concealed herself for some reason.
+
+But, if so, why and where was she hiding?  And where was Deede
+Dawson?  And why was everything so silent and so still?
+
+He turned from the window, and as he did so he caught a faint sound
+in the passage without.
+
+Instantly he crouched behind the bed, the heavy glass inkpot that
+was his one weapon poised in his hand.
+
+The sound did not come again, but as he waited, he saw the door
+begin to open very slowly, very quietly.
+
+Lower still he crouched, the inkpot ready to throw, every nerve taut
+and tense for the leap at his foe's throat with which he meant to
+follow it up.  The door opened a little more, very slowly, very
+carefully.  It was wide enough now to admit of entry, and through
+the opening there sidled, pale and red-eyed, Ella's mother, looking
+so frail and feeble and so ruffled and disturbed she reminded Rupert
+irresistibly of a frightened hen.
+
+She edged her way in as though she dared not open the door too
+widely, and Rupert hesitated in great perplexity and vexation, for
+he saw that he must show himself, and he feared that she would
+announce his presence by flight or screams.
+
+But he could not possibly get away without her knowledge; and
+besides, she might be able to give him useful information.
+
+He stood up quickly, with his finger to his lips.  "Hush!" he said.
+"Not a sound--not a sound."  The warning seemed unnecessary, for
+Mrs. Dawson appeared too paralysed with fear to utter even the
+faintest cry as she dropped tremblingly on the nearest chair.
+
+"Hush!  Hush!" he said.  "Where is Ella?"
+
+"I--I don't know," quavered Mrs. Dawson.
+
+"When did you see her last?"
+
+"A little while ago," Mrs. Dawson faltered.  "She went upstairs.
+She didn't come down, so I thought I would try to find her."
+
+"Where's Deede Dawson?" Rupert asked.
+
+"I--I don't know," she quavered again.
+
+"When did you see him last?"
+
+"I--I--a little while ago," she faltered.  "He went upstairs--he
+didn't come down again.  I thought I would try to find her--him--I
+was so frightened when they didn't either of them come down again."
+
+It was evident she was far too confused and upset to give any useful
+information of any nature, even if she knew anything.
+
+"Deede's been so strange," she said.  "And Ella too.  I think it's
+very hard on me--dreams, too.  He said he wanted her to help him
+get a packing-case ready he had to send away somewhere.  I don't
+know where.  I don't think Ella wanted to--"
+
+"A packing-case?" Rupert muttered.  "What for?"
+
+"It's what they came upstairs to do," Mrs. Dawson said.  "And--and
+--"  She began to cry feebly.  "It's my nerves," she said.  "He's
+looked so strange at us all day--and neither of them has come down
+again."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE ATTIC
+
+
+It was evident that more had occurred to make Mrs. Dawson afraid
+that she would, or perhaps could, say.
+
+"Wait here," Rupert said to her.  "Don't stir."  The command seemed
+superfluous, for she had not at that moment the appearance of still
+possessing the power to move.  Without speaking again, Rupert left
+the room and went quickly to the foot of the narrow stairs that led
+to the attics above.
+
+He listened, crouching there, and heard nothing, and a cold fear
+came to him that perhaps Deede Dawson had done up above what he
+wished to do and then effected his escape while he himself had been
+lingering in Ella's room.
+
+Adopting his plan of a rapid rush to disconcert the aim of any one
+who might be about to fire at him, he made a swift dash up the
+stairs and on the topmost one crouched down again and waited.
+
+But still nothing happened, all was very quiet, and the door of one
+attic, the one which had been assigned to him as a bed-chamber, was
+wide open so that he could see into it and see that it was unoccupied.
+
+But the doors of both the others were closed, and as he looked he
+made out in the gloom, for this landing by the attic was very
+badly-lighted by a small and awkwardly-placed skylight, a scattered
+dozen or so of hairpins, and a tortoiseshell comb such as he had
+seen sometimes in Ella's hair, lying on the floor near the door of
+the larger of the two attics, the one in which he remembered well
+he had found Deede Dawson on a certain night busy measuring and
+examining and empty packing-case.
+
+With one quick rush he crossed the landing and flung himself at the
+door.
+
+It opened at once, for it was not locked, and within he saw Deede
+Dawson, screw-driver in his hand, standing behind a large
+packing-case, the lid of which he had apparently that minute
+finished fastening down.
+
+He looked up as Rupert entered thus precipitately, and he showed no
+sign of surprise or alarm.
+
+"You're back early," he said.  "Something gone wrong?"
+
+"What are you doing?  What's in there?" Rupert asked, looking at
+the packing-case, his mouth and lips so suddenly dry he found it
+difficult to speak at all.
+
+Deede Dawson began to laugh, a low and dreadful laughter that had
+in it no trace of merriment at all, but only of mockery and malice.
+
+It was such laughter as a devil from the nethermost pit might give
+vent to when he saw at last a good man yield to long temptation.
+
+"What's in there?" Rupert said again, pointing to the packing-case,
+and it was as though his soul swooned within him for fear of what
+the answer might be.
+
+"What do the children say?" Deede Dawson returned with his terrible
+smile.  "I'll give you three guesses, isn't it?  See if you can
+guess in three tries."
+
+"What's in there?" Rupert asked the third time, and Deede Dawson
+laid down the screw-driver with which he had just driven home the
+last screw.
+
+"Oh, see for yourself, if you want to," he said.  "But you ought to
+know.  You know what was in the other case I sent away from here,
+the one I got Ella to take in the car for me?  I want you to take
+this one away now, the sooner it's away the better."
+
+"That's it, is it?" Rupert muttered.
+
+He no longer doubted, and for a moment all things swam together
+before him and he felt dizzy and a little sick, and so weak he
+staggered and nearly fell, but recovered himself in time.
+
+The sensation passed and he saw Deede Dawson as it were a long way
+off, and between them the packing-case, huge, monstrous, and evil,
+like a thing of dread from some other world.  Violent shudderings
+swept though him one after the other, and he was aware that Deede
+Dawson was speaking again.
+
+"What did you say?" he asked vacantly, when the other paused.
+
+"You look ill," Deede Dawson answered.  "Anything wrong?  Why have
+you come back so soon?  Have you failed?"
+
+Rupert passed his hand before his eyes to clear away the mist that
+hung there and that hampered his sight.
+
+He perceived that Deede Dawson held his right hand in the pocket
+of his coat, grasping something that bulged out curiously.
+
+He divined that it was a pistol, and that Deede Dawson was ready
+to shoot at any moment, but that he wished very greatly to know
+first of all what had happened and why Rupert had returned so soon
+and whether there was immediate necessity for flight or not.
+
+That he was uneasy was certain, for his cold eyes showed a
+hesitation and a doubt such as Rupert had never seen in them before.
+
+"I'll tell you what's happened," Rupert heard himself saying
+hoarsely.  "If you'll tell me what's in there."
+
+"A bargain, eh?" Deede Dawson said.  "It's easy enough.  You can
+look for yourself if you unscrew the lid, but then, after all, why
+should we take all that trouble?"
+
+As he spoke his pistol showed in his hand, and at once the heavy
+glass inkpot Rupert had held all this time flew straight and true,
+and with tremendous force, at Deede Dawson's head.
+
+He avoided it only by the extreme rapidity with which he dropped
+behind the packing-case, and it flew over his head and crashed
+against the centre panel of a big wardrobe that stood in one
+corner of the room, splitting the panel it struck from top to
+bottom.
+
+Following it, Rupert hurled himself forward with one great spring,
+but agile as a cat that leaps away from the mastiff's teeth, Deede
+Dawson slipped from his grasp to the other side of the room.  In
+doing so he knocked his arm against the corner of the packing-case,
+so that his revolver fell to the ground.
+
+With a shout Rupert stooped and seized it, and straightened himself
+to see that Deede Dawson had already another revolver in his hand
+--a second one that he had drawn from an inner pocket.
+
+They remained very still, watching each other intently, neither
+eager to fire, since both wished first to make the other speak.  For
+Rupert desired very greatly that Deede Dawson should tell him where
+Ella was, and Deede Dawson needed that Rupert should explain what
+had gone wrong, and how imminent and great was the danger that
+therefore most likely threatened him.
+
+Each knew, too, that the slightest movement he made would set the
+other shooting, and each realized that in that close and narrow
+space any exchange of shots must almost of necessity mean the death
+of both, since both were cool and deadly marksmen, well accustomed
+to the use of the revolver.
+
+Deede Dawson was the first to speak.
+
+"Well, what next?" he said.  "If that inkpot of yours had hit me it
+would pretty well have knocked my brains out, and if I hadn't hit
+my elbow against the corner of the packing-case I would have had you
+shot through with holes like a sieve by now.  So far the score's
+even.  Let's chat a bit, and see if we can't come to some arrangement.
+Look, I'll show I trust you."
+
+As he spoke he laid down, much to Rupert's surprise, and to his
+equal suspicion, his revolver on the top of a moth-eaten roll of
+old carpet that leaned against the wall near where he was standing.
+
+"You see, I trust you," he said once more.
+
+"Take your pistol up again," answered Rupert grimly.  "I do not
+trust you."
+
+"Ah, that's a pity." Deede Dawson smiled, making no effort to do as
+the other said.  "You see, we are both good shots, and if we start
+blazing away at each other up here we shall both be leaking pretty
+badly before long.  That's a prospect that has no attraction for me;
+I don't know if it has for you.  But there are things I can tell you
+that might be interesting, and things you can tell me I want to know.
+Why not exchange a little information, and then separate calmly,
+rather than indulge in pistol practice that can only mean the death
+of us both?  For if your first bullet goes though my brain I swear
+my first will be in your heart."
+
+"Likely enough," agreed Rupert, "but worth while perhaps."
+
+"Oh, that's fanaticism," Deede Dawson answered.  "Flattering perhaps
+to me, but not quite reasonable, eh?"
+
+"There's only one thing I want to know from you," Rupert said slowly.
+
+"Then why not ask it, why not agree to the little arrangement I
+suggest, eh?  Eh, Rupert Dunsmore?"
+
+"You know me, then?"
+
+"Oh, long enough."
+
+"Where is Ella?"
+
+Deede Dawson laughed again.
+
+"That's a thing I know and you don't," he said.  "Well, she's safe
+away in London by this time."
+
+"That's a lie, for her mother's here still," answered Rupert, even
+though his heart leapt merely to hear the words.
+
+"Unbelieving Thomas," smiled the other.  "Well, then, she is where
+she is, and that you can find out for yourself.  But I'll make
+another suggestion.  We are both good shots, and if we start to fire
+we shall kill each other.  I am certain of killing you, but I shan't
+escape myself.  Well, then, why not toss for it?  Equal chances for
+both, and certain safety for one.  Will you toss me, the one who
+loses to give up his pistol to the other?"
+
+"It seems to me a good idea," Deede Dawson argued.  "Here we are
+watching each other like cats, and knowing that the least movement
+of either will start the other off, and both of us pulling trigger
+as hard as we can.  My idea would mean a chance for one.  Well,
+let's try another way; the best shot to win.  You don't trust me,
+but I will you."
+
+Leaving his pistol lying where he had put it down, he crossed the
+attic, and with a pencil he took from his pocket drew a circle on
+the panel of the wardrobe door that Rupert had split with the
+inkpot he had thrown.
+
+In the centre of the circle he marked a dot, and turned smilingly
+to the frowning and suspicious Rupert.
+
+"There you are," he said, and made another circle near the first
+one.  "Now you put a bullet into the middle of this circle and I'll
+put one afterwards through the second circle, and the one who is
+nearest to the dots I've marked, wins.  What have you to say to that?
+Seems to me better than our killing each other.  Isn't it?"
+
+"I think you're playing the fool for some reason of your own,"
+answered Rupert.  "There's only one thing I want to know from you.
+Where is Ella?"
+
+"Let me know how you can shoot," answered Deede Dawson, "and I'll
+tell you, by all that's holy, I will."
+
+Rupert hesitated.  He did not understand all this, he could not
+imagine what motive was in Deede Dawson's mind, though it was
+certainly true enough that once they began shooting at each other
+neither man was at all likely to survive, for Rupert knew he would
+not miss and he did not think Deede Dawson would either.
+
+Above all, there was the one thing he wished to know, the one
+consideration that weighed with him above all others--what had
+become of Ella?  And this time there had been in Deede Dawson's
+voice an accent of twisted and malign sincerity that seemed to
+say he really would be willing to tell the truth about her if
+Rupert would gratify his whim about this sort of shooting-match
+that he was suggesting.
+
+The purpose of it Rupert could not understand, but it did not seem
+to him there would be any risk of harm in agreeing, for Deede
+Dawson was standing so far away from his own weapon he could not
+well be contemplating any immediate mischief or treachery.
+
+It did occur to him that the pistol he held might be loaded in one
+chamber only and that Deede Dawson might be scheming to induce him
+to throw away his solitary cartridge.
+
+But a glance reassured him on that point.
+
+"Let me see how you can shoot," Deede Dawson repeated, leaning
+carelessly with folded arms against the wall a little distance away.
+"And I promise you I'll tell you where Ella is."
+
+Rupert lifted his pistol and was indeed on the very point of firing
+when he caught a glimpse of such evil triumph and delight in Deede
+Dawson's cold eyes that he hesitated and lowered the weapon, and at
+the same time, looking more closely, searching more intently for
+some indication of Deede Dawson's hidden purpose, he noticed, caught
+in the crack of the wardrobe door, a tiny shred of some blue material
+only just visible.
+
+He remembered that sometimes of an afternoon Ella had been accustomed
+to wear a frock made of a material exactly like that of which so tiny
+a fragment showed now in the crack of the wardrobe door.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+SOME EXPLANATIONS
+
+
+He turned quickly towards Deede Dawson.  Their eyes met, and in that
+mutual glance Rupert Dunsmore read that his suspicions were correct
+and Deede Dawson that his dreadful trap was discovered.
+
+Neither spoke.  For a brief moment they remained impassive, immobile,
+their eyes meeting like blows, and then Deede Dawson made one spring
+to seize again the revolver he had laid down in the hope of enticing
+Rupert into the awful snare prepared for him.
+
+But quick as he was, Rupert was quicker still, and as Deede Dawson
+leaped he lifted his pistol and fired, though his aim was not at
+the man, but at the revolver lying on the top of the roll of carpet
+where Deede Dawson had placed it.
+
+The bullet, for Rupert was a man who seldom missed, struck the
+weapon fair and whirled it, shattered and useless, to the floor.
+Deede Dawson, whose hand had been already outstretched to seize it,
+drew back with a snarl that was more like the cry of a trapped wolf
+than any sound produced from human lips.
+
+Still, Rupert did not speak.  With the smoking pistol in his hand
+he watched silently and steadily his helpless enemy who, for his
+part, was silent, too, and very still, for he felt that doom was
+close upon him.
+
+Yet he showed not the least sign of fear, but only a fierce and
+sullen defiance.
+
+"Shoot away, why don't you shoot?" he sneered.  "Mind you don't miss.
+I trusted you when I put my revolver down and I was a fool, but I
+thought you would play fair."
+
+Without a word Rupert tossed his pistol through the attic window.
+
+They heard the tinkling fall of the glass, they heard more faintly
+the sound of the revolver striking the outhouse roof twenty feet
+below and rebounding thence to the paved kitchen yard beneath, and
+then all was quiet again.
+
+"I only need my hands for you," said Rupert softly, as softly as a
+mother coos to her drowsy babe.  "My hands for you."
+
+For the first time Deede Dawson seemed to fear, for, indeed, there
+was that in Rupert Dunsmore's eyes to rouse fear in any man.  With
+a sudden swift spring, Rupert leaped forward and Deede Dawson, not
+daring to abide that onslaught, turned and ran, screaming shrilly.
+
+During the space of one brief moment, a dreadful and appalling
+moment, there was a wild strange hunting up and down the narrow
+space of that upper attic, cumbered with lumber and old, disused
+furniture.
+
+Round and round Deede Dawson fled, screaming still in a high shrill
+way, like some wild thing in pain, and hard upon him followed Rupert,
+nor had they gone a second time about that room before Rupert had
+Deede Dawson in a fast embrace, his arms about the other's middle.
+
+One last great cry Deede Dawson gave when Rupert seized him, and
+then was silent as Rupert lifted him and swung him high at arm's
+length.
+
+As a child in play sports with its doll, so Rupert swung Deede
+Dawson twice about his head, round and round and then loosed him
+so that he went hurling through the air with awful force, like a
+stone shot from a catapult, clean through the window through which
+Rupert had the moment before tossed his pistol with but little
+more apparent effort.
+
+Right through the window, bearing panes and sash with him, Deede
+Dawson flew with the impetus of that great throw and out beyond
+and down, turning over and over the while, down through the empty
+air to fall and be shattered like a piece of worthless crockery
+on the stone threshold of the outhouse door.
+
+Surprised to find himself alone, Rupert put his hand to his
+forehead and looked vacantly around.
+
+"My God, what have I done?" he thought.
+
+He was trembling violently, and the fury of the passion that had
+possessed him and had given his mighty muscles a force more than
+human, was still upon him.
+
+Going to the window, he looked out, for he did not quite know what
+had happened and from it he looked back at the wardrobe door.
+
+"Oh, yes," he said.  "Yes."
+
+He ran to it and tore open the door and from within very tenderly
+and gently he lifted down the half-swooning Ella who, securely
+gagged and tightly bound, had been thrust into its interior to
+conceal her from him.
+
+Hurriedly he freed her from her bonds and from the handkerchief that
+was tied over her mouth and holding her in his arms like a child,
+pressing her close to his heart, he carried her lightly out of that
+dreadful room.
+
+Only once did she stir, only once did she speak, when lifting her
+pale, strained face to him she murmured very faintly something in
+which he just caught the words:
+
+"Deede Dawson."
+
+"He'll trouble us no more nor any one else, I think," answered
+Rupert, and she said no more but snuggled down in his arms as though
+with a feeling of perfect security and safety.
+
+He took her to her own room and left her with her mother, and then
+went down to the hall and took a chair and sat at the front door.
+
+All at once he felt very tired and one of his shoulders hurt him,
+for he had strained a muscle there rather badly.
+
+His one desire was to rest, and he did not even trouble to go round
+to the back of the house to see what had happened to Deede Dawson,
+though indeed that was not a point on which he entertained much
+doubt.
+
+For a long time he sat there quietly, till at last his father
+arrived in a motor-car from Wreste Abbey, together with a
+police-inspector from the county town whom he had picked up on
+the way.
+
+Rupert took them into the room where Deede Dawson's chessmen and
+the board were still standing and told them as briefly as he could
+what had happened since the first day when he had left his home
+to try to trace out and defeat the plot hatched by Walter Dunsmore
+and Deede Dawson.
+
+"You people wouldn't act," he said to the inspector.  "You said
+there was no evidence, no proof, and I daresay you were right
+enough from the legal point of view.  But it was plain enough to
+me that there was some sort of conspiracy against my uncle's life,
+I thought against my father's as well, but I was not sure of that
+at first.  It was through poor Charley Wright I became so certain.
+He found out things and told me about them; but for him the first
+attempt to poison my uncle would have succeeded.  Even then we
+had still no evidence to prove the reality of our suspicions, for
+Walter destroyed it, by accident, I thought at the time, purposely,
+as I know now.  It was something Walter said that gave Charley the
+idea of coming here.  Then he vanished.  He must have roused their
+suspicions somehow, and they killed him.  But again Walter put us
+all off the scent by his story of having seen Charley in London,
+so that it was there the search for him was made, and no one ever
+thought of Bittermeads.  I never suspected Walter, such an idea
+never entered my head; but luckily I didn't tell him of my idea of
+coming to Bittermeads myself to try to find out what was really
+going on here.  He knew nothing of where I was till I told him that
+day at Wreste Abbey, then of course he came over here at once.  I
+thought it was anxiety for my safety, but I expect really it was
+to warn his friends.  When I saw him here that night I told him
+every single thing, I trusted the carrying-out of everything I had
+arranged to him.  If it hadn't been for a note Miss Cayley wrote
+me to warn me, I should have walked right into the trap and so would
+my father too."
+
+The police-inspector asked a few questions and then made a search
+of the room which resulted in the discovery of quite sufficient
+proof of the guilt of Deede Dawson and of Walter Dunsmore.
+
+Among these proofs was also a hastily-scribbled note from Walter
+that solved the mystery of John Clive's death.  It was not signed,
+but both General Dunsmore and Rupert knew his writing and were
+prepared to swear to it.  Beginning abruptly and scribbled on a
+torn scrap of paper, it ran:
+
+"I found Clive where you said, lucky you got hold of the note and
+read it before she sent it, for no doubt she meant to warn him.
+Take care she gets no chance of the sort again.  I did Clive's
+business all right.  She saw me and I think recognized me from that
+time she saw me over the packing-case business, before I took it
+out to sink it at sea.  At any rate, she ran off in a great hurry.
+If you aren't careful, she'll make trouble yet."
+
+"Apparently," remarked the inspector when he had read this aloud,
+"the young lady was very luckily not watched closely enough and
+did make trouble for them.  Could I see her, do you think?"
+
+"I don't know, I'll go and ask," Rupert said.
+
+Ella was still very shaken, but she consented to see the inspector,
+and they all went together to her room where she was lying on her
+bed with her mother fussing nervously about her.
+
+She told them in as few words as possible the story of how she had
+always disliked and mistrusted the man whom so unfortunately her
+mother had married, and how gradually her suspicions strengthened
+till she became certain that he was involved in many unlawful deeds.
+
+But always her inner certainty had fallen short of absolute proof,
+so careful had he been in all he did.
+
+"I knew I knew," she said.  "But there was nothing I really knew.
+And he made me do all sorts of things for him.  I wouldn't have
+cared for myself, but if I tried to refuse he made mother suffer.
+She was very, very frightened of him, but she would never leave him.
+She didn't dare.  There was one night he made me go very late with
+a packing-case full of silver things he had, and he wouldn't tell
+me where he had got them.  I believe he stole them all, but I helped
+him pack them, and I took them away the night Mr. Dunsmore came and
+gave them to a man wearing a mask.  My stepfather said it was just a
+secret family matter he was helping some friends in, and later on I
+saw the same man in the woods near here one day--the day Mr. Clive
+was killed by the poachers--and when he came another time to the
+house I thought I must try to find out what he wanted.  I listened
+while they talked and they said such strange things I made up my
+mind to try to warn Mr. Dunsmore, for I was sure there was something
+they were plotting."
+
+"There was indeed," said Rupert grimly.  "And but for that warning
+you sent me they would have succeeded."
+
+"Somehow they found out what I had done," Ella continued.  "As soon
+as I got back he kept looking at me so strangely.  I was afraid--I
+had been afraid a long time, for that matter--but I tried not to
+show it.  In the afternoon he told me to go up to the attic.  He
+said he wanted me to help him pack some silver.  It was the same
+silver I had packed before; for some reason he had got it back again.
+This time I had to pack it in the little boxes, and after I had
+finished I waited up there till suddenly he ran in very quickly
+and looking very excited.  He said I had betrayed them, and should
+suffer for it, and he took some rope and he tied me as tightly as
+he could, and tied a great handkerchief over my mouth, and pushed
+me inside the wardrobe and locked it.  I think he would have
+killed me then only he was afraid of Mr. Dunsmore, and very anxious
+to know what had happened, and why Mr. Dunsmore had come home, and
+if there was any danger.  And I was a long time there, and I heard
+a great noise, and then Mr. Dunsmore opened the door and took me out."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+Three months had passed, and in a quiet little cottage on the
+outskirts of a small country town, situated in one of the most
+beautiful and peaceful vales of the south-west country, Ella was
+slowly recovering from the shock of the dreadful experiences
+through which she had passed.
+
+She had been ill for some weeks, but her mother, fussily
+incompetent at most times, was always at her best when sickness
+came, and she had nursed her daughter devotedly and successfully.
+
+As soon as possible they had come to this quiet little place where
+people, busy with their own affairs and the important progress of
+the town, had scarcely heard of what the newspapers of the day
+called "The Great Chobham Sensation."
+
+But, in fact, very much to Rupert's relief, comparatively little
+had been made known publicly, and the whole affair had attracted
+wonderfully little attention.
+
+The one public proceeding had been the inquest of Deede Dawson, and
+that the coroner, at the request of the police eagerly searching for
+Walter Dunsmore, had made as brief and formal as possible.  Under his
+direction the jury had returned a verdict of "justifiable homicide,"
+and Ella's illness had had at least one good result of making it
+impossible for her to attend to give her evidence in person.
+
+At a trial, of course, everything would have had to be told in full,
+but both Allen, Deede Dawson's accomplice, and Walter Dunsmore, his
+instigator and employer, had vanished utterly.
+
+For Walter the search was very hot, but so far entirely without
+result.  Now could Allen be found.  He was identified with a fair
+degree of certainty as an old criminal well known to the authorities,
+and it was thought almost certain that he had had previous dealings
+with Deede Dawson, and knew enough about him to be able to force
+himself into Bittermeads.
+
+Of the actual plot in operation there he most likely knew little
+or nothing, but probably Deede Dawson thought he might be useful,
+and the store of silver found in the attic that Ella had been
+employed in packing ready for removal was identified as part of
+the plunder from a recent burglary in a northern town.
+
+It was thought, therefore, that both Allen and Deede Dawson might
+have been concerned in that affair, that Deede Dawson had managed
+to secure the greater share of the booty, and that Allen, on the
+night when Rupert found him breaking into Bittermeads, was
+endeavouring to get hold of the silver for himself.
+
+But the actual facts are not likely now ever to be known, for from
+that day to this nothing has been heard of Allen.  His old haunts
+know him no more, and to his record, carefully preserved at Scotland
+Yard, there have been no recent additions.
+
+One theory is that Deede Dawson, finding him troublesome, took
+effectual steps to dispose of him.  Another is that Deede Dawson
+got him away by either bribes or threats, and that, not knowing
+of Deede Dawson's death, he does not venture to return.
+
+In any case, he was a commonplace criminal, and his fate is of
+little interest to any one but himself.
+
+It was Walter for whom the police hunted with diligence and effort,
+but with a total lack of success, so that they began to think at
+the end of three months that he must somehow have succeeded in
+making his way out of the country.
+
+During the first portion of this time Rupert had been very busy
+with a great many things that needed his attention.  And then Lord
+Chobham, his health affected by the crimes and treachery of a
+kinsman whom he had known and trusted as he had known and trusted
+Walter, was attacked by acute bronchitis which affected his heart
+and carried him off within the week.  The title and estates passed,
+therefore, to General Dunsmore, and Rupert became the Honourable
+Rupert Dunsmore and the direct heir.  All this meant for him a great
+deal more to see to and arrange, for the health of the new Lord
+Chobham had also been affected and he left practically everything
+in his son's hands, so that, except for the letters which came
+regularly but had been often written in great haste, Ella knew and
+heard little of Rupert.
+
+But today he was to come, for everything was finally in order, and,
+though this she did not know till later, Walter Dunsmore had at
+last been discovered, dead from poison self-administered, in a
+wretched lodging in an East End slum.   Rupert had been called to
+identify the body and he had been able to arrange it so that very
+little was said at the inquest, where the customary verdict of
+"Suicide during temporary insanity" was duly returned by a quite
+uninterested jury.
+
+That the last had been heard of the tragedy that had so nearly
+overwhelmed his life, Rupert was able now to feel fairly well
+assured, and it was therefore in a mood more cheerful than he had
+known of late that he started on his journey to Ella's new residence.
+
+He had sent a wire to confirm his letter, and it was in a mood that
+was more than a little nervous that she busied herself with her
+preparations.
+
+She chose her very simplest gown, and when there was absolutely
+nothing more to do she went into their little sitting-room to
+wait alone by the fire she had built up there, for it was winter
+now and today was cold and inclined to be stormy.
+
+Rupert had not said exactly when she was to expect him, and she sat
+for a long time by the fire, starting at every sound and imagining
+at every moment that she heard the front-door bell ring.
+
+"I shall not let him feel himself bound," she said to herself with
+great decision.  "I shall tell him I hope we shall always be friends
+but that's all; and if he wants anything more, I shall say No.  But
+most likely he won't say a word about all that nonsense, it would
+be silly to take seriously what he said--there."
+
+To Ella, now, Bittermeads was always "there," and though she told
+herself several times that probably Rupert had not the least idea
+of repeating what he had said to her--there--and that most likely
+he was coming today merely to make a friendly call, and that it
+would never do for either of them to think again of what they had
+said when they were both so excited and overwrought, yet in her
+heart she knew a great deal better than all that.
+
+But she said to herself very often:
+
+"Anyhow, I shall certainly refuse him."
+
+And on this point her mind was irrevocably made up since, after all,
+whether Rupert would accept refusal or not would still remain
+entirely for him to decide.
+
+At half-past three she heard the garden-gate creak, and when she
+ran to the window to peep, she saw with a kind of chill surprise
+that there was a stranger coming through.
+
+"Some one he's sent," she said to herself.  "He doesn't want to
+come himself and so he has sent some one else instead.  I am glad."
+
+Having said this and repeated again the last three words, and having
+gulped down a sob--presumably of joy--that unexpectedly fluttered
+into her throat, she went quickly to open the door.
+
+The newly-arrived stranger smiled at her as she showed herself but
+did not speak.  He was a man of middle height, quite young, and
+wrapped in a big, loose overcoat that very completely hid his figure.
+His face, clean-shaven, showed clear, strongly-marked well-shaped
+features with a firm mouth round which at this moment played a very
+gentle and winning smile, a square-cut chin, and extremely bright,
+clear kindly eyes that were just now smiling too.
+
+When he took off his hat she saw that his hair was cut rather
+closely, and very neatly brushed and combed, and she found his
+smile so compelling and so winning that in spite of her
+disappointment she found herself returning it.
+
+It occurred to her that she had some time or another seen some one
+like this stranger, but when or where she could not imagine.
+
+Still he did not speak, but his eyes were very tender and kind as
+they rested on her so that she wondered a little.
+
+"Yes?" she said inquiringly.  "Yes?"
+
+"Don't you know me, Ella?" he said then, very softly, and in a
+voice that she recognized instantly.
+
+"Is it you--you?" she breathed.
+
+Instinctively she lifted her hands to greet him, and at once she
+found herself caught up and held, pressed passionately to his
+strongly-beating heart.
+
+                               ***
+
+An hour later, by the fire in the sitting-room, Ella suddenly
+remembered tea.
+
+"Good gracious!  You must be starving," she cried, smitten with
+remorse.  "And there's poor mother waiting upstairs all this time.
+Oh, Rupert, are you very hungry?"
+
+"Starving," he asserted, but held her to him as closely as ever.
+
+"I must get the tea," she protested.  She put one cheek against his
+and sighed contentedly.
+
+"It's nice to see the real you," she murmured.  "But oh, Rupert,
+I do miss your dear bristly beard."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Bittermeads Mystery, by E. R. Punshon
+
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