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diff --git a/1888.txt b/1888.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd2d345 --- /dev/null +++ b/1888.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7856 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bittermeads Mystery, by E. R. Punshon + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Bittermeads Mystery + +Author: E. R. Punshon + +Posting Date: September 21, 2008 [EBook #1888] +Release Date: September, 1999 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BITTERMEADS MYSTERY *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer + + + + + + + + + +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 +back of the house. Once she stopped and looked back. 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 through +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, for +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," Walter 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 jest, 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 an 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 through 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's The Bittermeads Mystery, by E. R. 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