CHAPTER XIII
WHAT FLOCKART FORESAW
The following afternoon was glaring and breathless. Gabrielle had takenStokes, with May Spencer (a girl friend visiting her mother), and driventhe "sixteen" over to Connachan with a message from her mother--aninvitation to Lady Murie and her party to luncheon and tennis on thefollowing day. It was three o'clock, the hour when silence is upon asummer house-party in the country. Beneath the blazing sun Glencardinelay amid its rose-gardens, its cut beech-hedges, and its bowers ofgreenery. The palpitating heat was terrible--the hottest day thatsummer.
At the end of the long, handsome drawing-room, with its pale blue carpetand silk-covered furniture, Lady Heyburn was lolling lazily in her chairnear the wide, bright steel grate, with her inseparable friend, JamesFlockart, standing before her.
The striped blinds outside the three long, open windows subdued thesun-glare, yet the very odour of the cut flowers in the room seemedoppressive, while without could be heard the busy hum of insect life.
The Baronet's handsome wife looked cool and comfortable in her gown ofwhite embroidered muslin, her head thrown back upon the silken cushion,and her eyes raised to those of the man, who was idly smoking acigarette, at her side.
"The thing grows more and more inexplicable," he was saying to her in alow, strained voice. "All the inquiries I've caused to be made in Londonand in Paris have led to a negative result."
"We shall only know the truth when we get a peep of those papers inHenry's safe, my dear friend," was the woman's reply.
"And that's a pretty difficult job. You don't know where the old fellowkeeps the key?"
"I only wish I did. Gabrielle knows, no doubt."
"Then you ought to compel her to divulge," he urged. "Once we get holdof that key for half-an-hour, we could learn a lot."
"A lot that would be useful to you, eh?" remarked the woman, with ameaning smile.
"And to you also," he said. "Couldn't we somehow watch and see where hehides the safe-key? He never has it upon him, you say."
"It isn't on his bunch."
"Then he must have a hiding-place for it, or it may be on hiswatch-chain," remarked the man decisively. "Get rid of all the guests asquickly as you can, Winnie. While they're about there's always a dangerof eavesdroppers and of watchers."
"I've already announced that I'm going up to Inverness next week, sowithin the next day or two our friends will all leave."
"Good! Then the ground will be cleared for action," he remarked, blowinga cloud of smoke from his lips. "What's your decision regarding thegirl?"
"The same as yours."
"But she hates me, you know," laughed the man in gray flannel.
"Yes; but she fears you at the same time, and with her you can do moreby fear than by love."
"True. But she's got a spirit of her own, recollect."
"That must be broken."
"And what about Walter?"
"Oh, as soon as he finds out the truth he'll drop her, never fear. He'salready rather fond of that tall, dark girl of Dundas's. You saw her atthe ball. You recollect her?"
Flockart grunted. He was assisting this woman at his side to play adesperate game. This was not, however, the first occasion on which theyhad acted in conjunction in matters that were not altogether honourable.There had never been any question of affection between them. The pairregarded each other from a purely business standpoint. People mightgossip as much as ever they liked; but the two always congratulatedthemselves that they had never committed the supreme folly of falling inlove with each other. The woman had married Sir Henry merely in order toobtain money and position; and this man Flockart, who for years had beenher most intimate associate, had ever remained behind her, to advise andto help her.
Perhaps had the Baronet not been afflicted he would have disapproved ofthis constant companionship, for he would, no doubt, have overheard insociety certain tittle-tattle which, though utterly unfounded, would nothave been exactly pleasant. But as he was blind and never went intosociety, he remained in blissful ignorance, wrapped up in his mysterious"business" and his hobbies.
Gabrielle, on her return from school, had at first accepted Flockart asher friend. It was he who took her for walks, who taught her to cast afly, to shoot rooks, and to play the national winter game ofScotland--curling. He had in the first few months of her return homedone everything in his power to attract the young girl's friendship,while at the same time her ladyship showed herself extraordinarily welldisposed towards her.
Within a year, however, by reason of various remarks made by people inher presence, and on account of the cold disdain with which Lady Heyburntreated her afflicted father, vague suspicions were aroused within her,suspicions which gradually grew to hatred, until she clung to herfather, and, as his eyes and ears, took up a position of open defiancetowards her mother and her adventurous friend.
The situation each day grew more and more strained. Lady Heyburn was,even though of humble origin, a woman of unusual intelligence. Invarious quarters she had been snubbed and ridiculed, but she graduallymanaged in every case to get the better of her enemies. Many a man andmany a woman had had bitter cause to repent their enmity towards her.They marvelled how their secrets became known to her.
They did not know the power behind her--the sinister power of thatingenious and unscrupulous man, James Flockart--the man who made it hisbusiness to know other people's secrets. Though for years he had beenseized with a desire to get at the bottom of Sir Henry's privateaffairs, he had never succeeded. The old Baronet was essentially arecluse; he kept himself so much to himself, and was so careful that noeyes save those of his daughter should see the mysterious documentswhich came to him so regularly by registered post, that all Flockart'sefforts and those of Lady Heyburn had been futile.
"I had another good look at the safe this morning," the man went onpresently. "It is one of the best makes, and would resist anything,except, of course, the electric current."
"To force it would be to put Henry on his guard," Lady Heyburn remarked,"If we are to know what secrets are there, and use our knowledge for ourown benefit, we must open it with a key and relock it."
"Well, Winnie, we must do something. We must both have money--that'squite evident," he said. "That last five hundred you gave me will staveoff ruin for a week or so. But after that we must certainly be wellsupplied, or else there may be revelations well--which will be as uglyfor yourself as for me."
"I know," she exclaimed. "I fully realise the necessity of gettingfunds. The other affair, though we worked it so well, proved a miserablefiasco."
"And very nearly gave us away into the bargain," he declared. "I tellyou frankly, Winnie, that if we can't pay a level five thousand in threeweeks' time the truth will be out, and you know what that will mean."
He was watching her handsome face as he spoke, and he noticed how paleand drawn were her features as he referred to certain ugly truths thatmight leak out.
"Yes," she gasped, "I know, James. We'd both find ourselves underarrest. Such a _contretemps_ is really too terrible to think of."
"But, my dear girl, it must be faced," he said, "if we don't get themoney. Can't you work Sir Henry for a bit more, say another thousand.Make an excuse that you have bills to pay in London--dressmakers,jewellers, milliners--any good story will surely do. He gives youanything you ask for."
She shook her head and sighed. "I fear I've imposed upon his good-naturefar too much already," she answered. "I know I'm extravagant; I'm sorry,but can't help it. Born in me, I suppose. A few months ago he found outthat I'd been paying Mellish a hundred pounds each time to decorate ParkStreet with flowers for my Wednesday evenings, and he created an awfulscene. He's getting horribly stingy of late."
"Yes; but the flowers were a bit expensive, weren't they?" he remarked.
"Not at all. Lady Fortrose, the wife of the soap-man, pays two hundredand fifty pounds for flowers for her house every Thursday in the season;and mine looked quite as good as hers. I think Mellish
is much cheaperthan anybody else. And, just because I went to a cheap man, Henry washorrible. He said all sorts of weird things about my recklessextravagance and the suffering poor--as though I had anything to do withthem. The genuine poor are really people like you and me."
"I know," he said philosophically, lighting another cigarette. "But allthis is beside the point. We want money, and money we must have in orderto avoid exposure. You--"
"I was a fool to have had anything to do with that other little affair,"she interrupted.
"It was not only myself who arranged it. Remember, it was you whosuggested it, because it seemed so easy, and because you had an oldscore to pay off."
"The woman was sacrificed, and at the same time an enemy learnt oursecret."
"I couldn't help it," he protested. "You let your woman's vindictivenessoverstep your natural caution, my dear girl. If you'd taken my advicethere would have been no suspicion."
Lady Heyburn was silent. She sat regarding the toe of her patent-leathershoe fixedly, in deep reflection. She was powerless to protest, she wasso entirely in this man's hands. "Well," she asked at last, stirringuneasily in her chair, "and suppose we are not able to raise the money,what do you anticipate will be the result?"
"A rapid reprisal," was his answer. "People like them don'thesitate--they act."
"Yes, I see," she remarked in a blank voice. "They have nothing to lose,so they will bring pressure upon us."
"Just as we once tried to bring pressure upon them. It's all a matter ofmoney. We pay the price arranged--a mere matter of business."
"But how are we to get money?"
"By getting a glance at what's in that safe," he replied. "Once we getto know this mysterious secret of Sir Henry's, I and my friends can getmoney easily enough. Leave it all to me."
"But how--"
"This matter you will please leave entirely to me, Winnie," he repeatedwith determination. "We are both in danger--great danger; and that beingso, it is incumbent upon me to act boldly and fearlessly. I mean to getthe key, and see what is within that safe."
"But the girl?" asked her ladyship.
"Within one week from to-day the girl will no longer trouble us," hesaid with an evil glance. "I do not intend that she shall remain abarrier against our good fortune any longer. Understand that, and remainperfectly calm, whatever may happen."
"But you surely don't intend--you surely will not--"
"I shall act as I think proper, and without any sentimental advice fromyou," he declared with a mock bow, but straightening himself instantlywhen at the door was heard a fumbling, and the gray-bearded man in bluespectacles, his thin white hand groping before him, slowly entered theroom.
The House of Whispers Page 13