CHAPTER XII
THE OGRE'S CASTLE
"Let's go out into the garden!" said Bunny urgently.
Dinner was over, and Maud and Saltash were at the piano at the far end ofthe great room. Jake and Larpent were smoking in silent companionship ata comfortable distance. Toby, who had been very quiet the whole evening,sat silently apart in a low chair with her hands clasped about her knees.Bunny alone was restless.
She lifted her eyes to him as he prowled near her, and they held a hintof mischief. At his murmured words she rose.
"You'd like to?" he questioned.
She nodded. "Of course; love it. You know the way. You lead!"
Bunny needed no second bidding. He went straight to the tall door andheld it open for her. Toby, very slim and girlish in her white raiment,cocked her chin and walked out in state. But the moment they were aloneshe turned upon him a face brimful of laughter.
"Oh, now we can enjoy ourselves! I've been feeling so proper all theevening. Quick! Where shall we go?"
"Into the garden," said Bunny. "Or wait! Come up on to the battlements!It's ripping up there."
She thrust her hand eagerly into his. "I shall love that. Which way do wego?"
"Through the music-room," said Bunny.
He caught and held her hand. They ran up one of the wide stairways thatbranched north and south to the Gallery. Saltash's music followed themfrom the drawing-room as they went. He was playing a haunting Spanishlove-song, and Toby shivered and quickened her pace.
They reached another oak door which Bunny opened, drawing her impetuouslyforward. "This is Charlie's own particular sanctum. Rather a rippingplace, isn't it? He's got a secret den that leads somewhere out of it,but no one knows how to get in."
He led her over a polished oak floor into a long, almost empty apartmentwith turreted windows at each end, and a grand piano near one of themthat shone darkly in the shaded lamplight. Underfoot were Persian rugs,exquisite of tint and rich of texture. Two or three deep divans completedthe furniture of the room giving it a look of Eastern magnificence thatstrangely lured the senses.
"Rather like a harem I always think," said Bunny, pausing to look round."There's an Arabian Nights sort of flavour about it that rather gets holdof one. Why? You're shivering! Surely you're not cold!"
"No, I'm not cold," said Toby. "But I don't like this place. It's creepy.Let's go!"
But Bunny lingered. "What's the matter with it? It's luxurious enough.I've always rather liked coming in here."
Toby made a small but vehement gesture of protest. "Then you like horridthings," she said. "There's no air in here;--only--only--scent."
Bunny sniffed. "Well, it's quite subtle anyhow; not enough to upsetanybody. Rather a seductive perfume, what?"
She surprised him by stamping in sudden fury upon the bare floor."It's beastly! It's hateful! How can you like it? It--it--it's bad!It's--damnable!"
Bunny stared at her. "Well, Charlie designed it anyway. It's the onecorner in the whole Castle that is individually his. What on earth isthere that you don't like about it?"
"Everything--everything!" declared Toby passionately. "I don't want tostay here another minute. Show me the way out!"
She spoke with such imperiousness that Bunny judged it best to comply. Heshowed her a door in the eastern wall that was draped by a heavy redcurtain.
"You can get up on to the ramparts that way. But wait a minute while Ifind the switch! What are you running away from? There isn't a bogey-mananywhere."
Toby drew in her breath sharply with a nervous glance over her shoulder."I think it's a dreadful place," she said. "I want to get out into theair."
Bunny opened the door, and a dark passage gaped before them. "This looksmuch more eerie," he observed, feeling about for a switch. "Do you reallylike this better?"
"Much better," said Toby, going boldly into the darkness.
"Don't believe there is a switch," said Bunny, striking a match. "No,there isn't! How beastly medieval! Look here! Wait while I go and get anelectric torch!"
"No, no! Let's feel our way! I'm sure we can," urged Toby. "Come on!It'll be fun. Shut the door!"
The spirit of adventure seized upon Bunny. He let the door swing closedand caught her hand again.
Toby's delighted chuckle told him that she had fully recovered herequilibrium. Her fingers twined closely about his own.
"Now we shall have some fun!" she said.
They went forward together for a few yards in total darkness. Then, fromsomewhere high above them a faint light filtered through.
"That's on the stairs," said Bunny. "One of those window-slits throughwhich in the old hospitable days all comers were potted at. Look out howyou go!"
The words were scarcely uttered when they both kicked against the loweststair and blundered forward. A squeal of laughter came from Toby. Bunnysaid "Damn!" with much heartiness and then laughed also.
"I knew it would be fun," said Toby. "Are you hurt?"
He raised her with a strong young arm. "No, I'm all right. Are you?"
"Yes. I'm loving it. What happens next? Do the stairs wind round andround till we get to the top?"
"Yes. There are about six hundred of 'em. Feel equal to it?"
"Equal to anything," said Toby promptly. "Let me go first!"
"Why don't I go and get a light?" said Bunny.
"Because you're not to. Because it's heaps more fun without. Besides,there's lots of light up there. Now then? Are you ready? Come on! Let'sgo!"
Indomitable resolution sounded in Toby's voice. She drew herself freefrom Bunny's hold, and began to mount.
"You know it's haunted, don't you?" said Bunny cheerily. "A beautifullady was once captured and imprisoned in this turret in the dear old dayswhen everyone did those things. She had to choose between throwingherself from the battlements and marrying her wicked captor--an ancestorof Charlie's, by the way. She did the latter and then died of a brokenheart. They always did, you know. Her poor little ghost has wandered upand down this stair ever since."
"Idiot!" said Toby tersely.
"Who?" said Bunny. "And why?"
"The woman. Why didn't she throw herself over? It would have been mucheasier."
"Perhaps she didn't find it so," said Bunny. "And she'd doubtless havedone the haunting stunt even if she had."
"Well, then, why didn't she marry the brute and--and--give him hell?"said Toby tensely.
Bunny uttered a shout of laughter that echoed and re-echoed up and downthe winding stair.
"Is that what you would have done?"
"I'd have done one or the other," said Toby.
"By Jove, how bloodthirsty you sound!" ejaculated Bunny. "Are you inearnest by any chance?"
"Yes, I am in earnest." There was a note of bitter challenge in Toby'sreply. "If a woman hasn't the spunk to defend herself, she's betterdead."
"I agree with you there," said Bunny with decision. "But I don't know howyou come to know it."
"Oh, I know a lot of things," said Toby's voice in the darkness, and thistime it sounded oddly cold and desolate as if the stone walls around themhad somehow deadened it.
He put out a hand and touched her, for she seemed in some fashion to havewithdrawn from him, to have become remote as the echoes about them."There are heaps of things you don't know anyway," he said. "You're onlya kid after all."
"Think so?" said Toby.
She evaded his hand, flitting up before him towards that grim slit in thewall through which the dim half-light of the summer night vaguelyentered. Her light figure became visible to him as she reached it. Therecame to him a swift memory of the butterfly-beauty that had so astoundedhim earlier in the evening.
"No, I don't," he said. "You're past that stage. What on earth has Maudbeen doing to you? Do you know when you first came into the drawing-roomtonight I hardly knew you?"
Toby's light laugh came back to him. She was like a white butterflyflitting before him in the twilight. "I wondered what you'd say. I'vegiven up jumping
rosebushes, and I'm learning to be respectable. It'srather fun sometimes. Maud is very good to me--and I love Jake, don'tyou?"
"Yes, he's a brick; always was," said Bunny enthusiastically. "I'd backhim every time. But, I say. Don't get too respectable, will you? Somehowit doesn't suit you."
Again he heard her laugh in the darkness--a quick, rather breathlesslaugh. "I don't think I'll ever be that," she said. "Do you?"
"I don't know," said Bunny. "But you looked scared to death when you camein--as if you were mounted on a horse that was much too high for you. Ibelieve you were afraid of that old daddy of yours."
"I am rather," said Toby. "You see, I don't know him very well. And I'mnot sure he likes me."
"Of course he likes you," said Bunny.
"Why? I don't know why he should."
"Everyone does," said Bunny, with assurance.
"Don't be silly!" said Toby.
They were past the slit in the wall, and were winding upwards now towardsanother. Bunny postponed argument, finding he needed all his breath forthe climb. The steps had become narrower and more steeply spiral thanbefore. His companion mounted so swiftly that he found it difficult tokeep close to her. The ascent seemed endless.
Again they passed a window-slit, and Bunny suddenly awoke to the factthat the flying figure in front was trying to out-distance him. It cameto him in a flash of intuition. She was daring him, she was fooling him.Some imp of mischief had entered into her. She was luring him to pursuit;and like the whirling of a torch in a dark place, the knowledge firstdazzled, and then drew him. All his pulses beat in a swift crescendo.There was a considerable mixture of Irish deviltry in Bunny Brian'sveins, and anything in the nature of a challenge fired him. He uttered awild whoop that filled the eerie place with fearful echoes, and gavechase.
It was the maddest race he had ever run. Toby fled before him like thewind, up and up, round and round the winding stair, fleet-footed, almostas though on wings, leaving him behind. He followed, fiercely determined,putting forth his utmost strength, sometimes stumbling on the unevenstairs, yet always leaping onward, urged to wilder effort by thebutterfly elusiveness of his quarry. Once he actually had her within hisreach, and then he stumbled and she was gone. He heard her maddeninglaughter as she fled.
The ascent seemed endless. His heart was pumping, but he would notslacken. She should never triumph over him, this mocking imp, thisbutterfly-girl, who from the first had held him with a fascination hecould not fathom. He would make her pay for her audacity. He would teachher that he was more than a mere butt for her drollery. He would showher--
A door suddenly banged high above him. He realized that she had reachedthe top of the turret and burst out upon the ramparts. A very curioussensation went through him. It was almost a feeling of fear. She was sucha wild little creature, and her mood was at its maddest. The chill of theplace seemed to wrap him round. He felt as if icy fingers had clutchedhis heart.
It was all a joke of course--only a joke! But jokes sometimes endeddisastrously, and Toby--Toby was not an ordinary person. She was either afeatherbrain or a genius. He did not know which. Perhaps there was novery clear dividing line between the two. She was certainlyextraordinary. He wished he had not accepted her challenge. If he hadrefused to follow, she would soon have abandoned her absurd flightthrough the darkness.
It was absurd. They had both been absurd to come to this eerie placewithout a light. Somehow her disappearance, the clanging of that door,had sobered him very effectually. He cursed himself for a fool as hegroped his way upwards. The game had gone too far. He ought to haveforeseen.
And then suddenly he blundered into an iron-clamped door and swore again.Yes, this thing was beyond a joke.
The door resisted him, and he wrestled with it furiously as though it hadbeen a living thing obstructing his passage.
He had begun to think that she must have bolted it on the outside whenabruptly it yielded to his very forcible persuasion, and he stumbledheadlong forth into the open starlight. He was out upon the ramparts, anddim wooded park-lands stretched away to the sea before his dazzled eyes.
The first thing that struck him was the emptiness of the place. It seemedto catch him by the throat. There was something terrible about it.
Behind him the door clanged, and the sound seemed the only sound in allthat wonderful June night. It had a fateful effect in the silence--likethe tolling of a bell. Something echoed to it in his own heart, and heknew that he was afraid.
Desperately he flung his fear aside and moved forward to the parapet. Thewall was thick, but between the battlements it was only the height of hisknee. Below was depth--sheer depth--stark emptiness.
He looked over and saw the stone terrace dimly lit by the stars far belowhim. The gardens were a blur of darkness out of which he vaguelydiscerned the glimmer of the lake among its trees.
His heart was beating suffocatingly; he struggled to subdue his pantingbreath. She was somewhere close to him of course--of course. But thezest of the chase had left him. He felt dizzy, frightened, sick. Hetried to raise his voice to call her, and then realized with a start ofself-ridicule that it had failed him. He leaned against the parapet andresolutely pulled himself together.
Then he went forward and found himself in a stone passage, actually onthe castle wall, between two parapets; the one on his left towering abovethe inner portion of the castle with its odd, uneven roofs of stone, theone on his right still sheer above the terrace--a drop of a hundred feetor more.
The emptiness and the silence seemed to strike at him with a nebuloushostility as he went. He had a vague sense of intrusion, of being in aforbidden place. The blood was no longer hot in his veins. He evenshivered in the warmth of the summer night as he followed the windingwalk between the battlements.
But he was his own master now, and as he moved forward through theglimmering starlight he called to her:
"Toby! Toby, I say! Come out! I'm not playing."
He felt as if the silence mocked him, and again that icy constructionabout the heart made him catch his breath. He put up a hand to his browand found it wet.
"Toby!" he cried again, and this time he did not attempt to keep theurgency out of his voice. "The game's up. Come back!"
She did not answer him, neither did she come; but he had a strongconviction that she heard. A throb of anger went through him. He strodeforward with decision. He knew that the battlement walk ended on thenorth side of the Castle in a blank wall, built centuries before as afinal defence from an invading enemy. Only by scaling this wall could theeastern portion be approached. He would find her here. She could notpossibly escape. Something of confidence came back to him as heremembered this. She could not elude him much longer.
He quickened his stride. His face was grim. She had carried the thing toofar, and he would let her know it. He rounded the curve of the castlewall. He must be close to her now. And then suddenly he stopped dead.For he heard her mocking laughter, and it came from behind him, from theturret through which he had gained the ramparts.
He wheeled round with something like violence and began to retrace hissteps. He had never been so baffled before, and he was angry,--hotlyangry.
He rounded the curve once more, and approached the turret. His eyes wereaccustomed to the dim half-light, but still he could not see her. Fuming,he went back the whole distance along the ramparts till he came to theiron-clamped door that had banged behind him. He put forth an impatienthand to open it, for it was obvious that she must have eluded him byhiding behind it, and now she was probably on the stair. And then, verysuddenly, from far behind him, in the direction of the northern wall, heheard her laugh again.
He swung about in a fury, almost too incensed to be amazed. She had thewings of a Mercury, it was evident; but he would catch her--he wouldcatch her now, or perish in the attempt. Once more he traversed the stonypromenade between the double line of battlements, searching eachembrasure as he went.
All the way back to the wall on the north side he pursued hi
s way withfierce intention, inwardly raging, outwardly calm. He reached theobstructing wall, and found nothing. The emptiness came all about himagain. The ghostly quiet of the place clung like a tangible veil. She hadevaded him again. He was powerless.
But at that point his wrath suddenly burst into flame, the hotter and thefiercer for its long restraint. He wheeled in his tracks with furiousfinality and abandoned his quest.
His intention was to go straight down by the way he had come and leaveher to play her will-o'-the-wisp game in solitude. It would soon pallupon her, he was assured; but in any case he would no longer dance to herpiping. She had fooled him to the verge of frenzy.
Again he rounded the curve of the wall and came to the door of theturret. A great bastion of stone rose beside this, and as he reached it asmall white figure darted forward from its shadow with dainty, butterflymovements, pulled at the heavy oak door and held it open with anelaborate gesture for him to pass.
It was a piece of exquisite daring, and with an older man it would havetaken effect. Saltash would have laughed his quizzing, cynical laugh andaccepted his defeat with royal grace. But Bunny was young and vehementof impulse, and the flame of his anger still scorched his soul with aheat intolerable. She had baffled him, astounded him, humiliated him, andhis was not a nature to endure such treatment tamely.
He hung on his stride for a single moment, then hotly he turned andsnatched her into his arms.
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