by Tom Gallon
CHAPTER IV.
A LITTLE WHITE GHOST.
With the putting of that most awkward question as to what had become ofGregory Pennington, it may be said that a sort of bombshell fell intoour midst. I leaned further back, determined to gain what respite Icould in the shadows of the room before the inevitable discovery shouldfall upon me; and of the four of us only the girl, Debora Matchwick,leaned forward eagerly, peering round the lamp at the man who had askedthe question.
"That's what we want to know," she said, in a quick, nervous voice."Gregory has disappeared."
"Nonsense!" It was the doctor who broke in testily, still keeping hisface in shadow. "You mustn't get such ideas into your head, child. Youngmen, strong, and well, and healthy, don't disappear in that fashion. Iordered him away from the house, and he has respected my wishes. Don'tlet me hear such nonsensical talk again."
The girl drew back, with a little quick sigh, and for a moment or twothere was an abashed silence on the part of Scoffold and myself. ButScoffold was never the man to be abashed long by anything; in a momentor two he leaned his big body forward over the table, so that I saw hisface fully in the light of the shaded lamp, and glanced quickly fromone to the other of us, and began to put questions. And with eachquestion it seemed that he probed the matter more deeply.
"But tell me, what had my young friend done to be forbidden the house?"he asked. Then, answered in a fashion by the silence about him, heshrugged his shoulders, and spread out his great hands deprecatingly.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" he went on. "I see that I'm prying into secrets, andthat was never my way at all. Only I was interested in Gregory--a finefellow, with a future before him. A little reckless, perhaps--a littlegiven to the spending of money; but then, that is ever a fault of theyoung. If I did not wish to pry into secrets," he added a littlemaliciously, as he peered round the lamp at the girl, "I might suggestthat perhaps his disappearance may have had something to do with MissDebora here--eh? There are so many hearts to be broken in this world ofpretty faces, Miss Debora."
The girl sat rigid and silent; presently the man leaned back in hischair again, with a little laugh, as the servants entered with the nextcourse. I saw the woman Leach hovering about near the doorway; Iwondered if we were to have another such scene as we had had thatmorning. But nothing happened until the servants had gone, with Leachfollowing last. Then this unlucky guest had another word to say.
"I see you still keep your faithful retainer," said Harvey Scoffold,with a jerk of his great head towards the door. "Remarkable woman,that--and quite devoted to you, doctor."
"Servants are servants, and are kept in their places," retorted BardolphJust coldly.
"But, my dear Just," broke in the irrepressible one again, "Leach issurely more than a servant. How many years has she been with you?"
"I haven't taken the trouble to count," replied the doctor. "Shall wechange the conversation?"
Mr. Scoffold abruptly complied, by turning his attention to me, somewhatto my dismay. "Do you belong to these parts, Mr.--Mr. John New?" heasked.
I murmured in a low tone that I belonged to London, and as I spoke I sawhim lean forward quickly, as if to get a better glimpse of me; but Iobstinately kept my face in shadow.
"Ah!" he went on. "London's a fine place, but with temptations. I oftenthink that it would be well if we could prevent young men from evergoing to London at all--let 'em wait until they have reached years ofdiscretion, and know what the world is like. I've seen so much in thatdirection--so many lives that have gone down into the shadows, and neveremerged again. I could give you a case in point--rather an interestingstory, if you would not be bored by it." He glanced round the table amidsilence.
Now, I knew instinctively what story he was going to tell, before everhe said a word of it; I knew the story was my own. I sat there,spellbound; I strove to get a glimpse of Bardolph Just at the furtherend of the table, but he did not move, and the only face of the four ofus that could be seen was the face, animated and smiling, of HarveyScoffold.
"The story is a little sad--and I detest sad things," the man began,"but it has the merit of a moral. You are to imagine a young man, ofgood education, and with a credulous and doting old man--an uncle, infact--as his sole guardian. He rewards the credulous old man by robbinghim right and left, and he spends the proceeds of his robberies invicious haunts in London."
I may here interpolate that the only vicious haunt I had known in Londonhad been the house of Mr. Harvey Scoffold, and that most of the money Ihad stolen had gone, in one way and another, into his pockets--but thisby the way.
"His name was Norton Hyde," went on Scoffold. "I beg your pardon--didyou speak?" This last was to the doctor, who had leaned forward, so thatI saw his face clearly, and had uttered an exclamation.
"No," he replied. "Pray proceed with your story." He leaned sideways,under pretence of filling his glass, and gave me a warning glance downthe length of the table.
"Well, this Norton Hyde paid the penalty, in due course, of his crime,"went on Scoffold, leaning back in his chair again. "He was sentenced toa certain term of penal servitude, served part of it, escaped from hisprison----"
"The story is well known, and we need hear no more, my dear Scoffold,"broke in the doctor. "I don't want to shock Miss Debora, nor to have hershocked."
"But I am interested," said the girl, leaning forward. "Please go on,Mr. Scoffold."
"You hear--she's interested," said the man with a smile, as he leanedforward again, and looked round the lamp at the girl. "It's verydreadful, but very fascinating. You must know, then, Miss Debora, thatthe fellow broke prison, and made a desperate attempt to get back toLondon; reached a house somewhere on its outskirts; and then, beingevidently hard pressed, gave up the game in despair, and committedsuicide."
"Poor, poor fellow!" commented the girl, in a low tone; and I felt myheart go out to her in gratitude.
"And that was the end of him," went on Mr. Scoffold, with a snap of thefingers. "They carried him back--dead--to his prison; and they buriedhim within its walls. So much for Buckingham!"
"Now, perhaps, you can contrive to talk of something a little morepleasant," said the doctor testily. "You've given us all the horrors,with your talk of imprisonments, and suicides, and what not. You used tobe pleasant company at one time, Harvey."
"And can be so still," exclaimed the other lightly. "But I'm afraid it'sthis dark room of yours that gave that turn to the conversation: onesits in shadow among shadows. May I move this lamp, or may I at leasttake the shade off?" He put a hand to it as he spoke.
If ever I had trembled in my life, I trembled then; but I sat rigid, andwaited, trusting in that stronger man at the further end of the table.Nor was my trust in him betrayed.
"Leave the lamp alone," he said sharply. "It's not safe to be moved;it's rather an old one, and shaky. Besides, I prefer this light."
"You always were a queer fellow," said Scoffold, dropping back into hisseat again. "And to-night you're a dull one. I swear I couldn't endureyour company," he proceeded with a laugh, "if it were not for thecharming lady who faces me, and who is mostly hidden by your beast of alamp. Even our friend, Mr. New here, hasn't a word to say for himself;but perhaps he'll come out stronger under the influence of one of yourcigars presently."
I vowed in my heart that there should be no cigars for me that night inhis company; my brain was active with the thought of how best I couldescape. I was perplexed to know how it was that he had not rememberedthat it was in this very house, according to the tale, that Norton Hydehad committed suicide; but for that point, he had the whole thing inchapter and verse. I was comforted, however, by the thought that it wasto the interests of Bardolph Just to help me out of the scrape; I sawthat he was as much astonished to learn that Harvey Scoffold knew me asI was to find the man in that house.
But for my desperate strait, I must have been amused at the doctor'sperplexity. I saw, just as surely as though he had stated it in words,that he was working hard at that puzzle:
how to get Norton Hyde out ofthat room unobserved. Fortunately for the solution of that problem, hemust have known how eager I was to get away; and presently he contrivedthe business in the simplest fashion.
We had come near to the end of the dinner, and it was about time forDebora to leave us. I knew that he dreaded that if she got up it wouldmean a breaking-up of our relative positions at the table, and I must bediscovered. I was dreading that, too, when relief came.
"I say, New," he called to me down the length of the table, "I know youhave that business of which you spoke to clear up to-night. We're allfriends here, and we'll excuse you."
I murmured my thanks, and got up, designing to pass behind HarveyScoffold, and so escape observation. But, as ill luck would have it,Debora saw in the movement an opportunity for her own escape; she rosequickly, and the inevitable happened. Harvey Scoffold blundered to hisfeet to open the door.
And there we were in a moment, above the light of the lamp, and allmaking for the door together; for the doctor, in his consternation, hadrisen also. Scoffold got to the door before me, and held it open forthe girl; and for one disastrous moment I hesitated. For there was alight outside in the hall, and I dared not face it. Properly, of course,I should have followed the girl with my face averted; but even in that Iblundered, and so found myself suddenly looking into the eyes of HarveyScoffold, as he stood there holding the door.
It was as though he had seen a ghost. He gasped, and took a step back;and the next moment I was out of the room, and had pulled the door closeafter me. Even as I did so, I heard his voice raised loudly andexcitedly in the room, and heard the deeper tones of Bardolph Just.
There was no time to be lost, and I looked about me for the quickest wayof escape. I was groping in the dark, as it were, because I did not evenknow whether the man was a chance visitor, and I might safely hide insome other room of the house, or whether he was staying there, and socould leave me no choice but to get away altogether. And while Ihesitated, my mind was made up for me, as it has been so often in mylife, in the most curious fashion.
I saw that Debora had stopped at the foot of the stairs, and was lookingback at me; and in a moment, in the thought of her, I forgot my ownperil. I took a step towards her, and she bent her head towards mine, asshe stood a step or two above me on the stairs, and whispered--
"For the love of God, don't leave me alone in this house to-night!"
Then she was gone, before I could make reply, and I was left there,standing helplessly looking after her.
In that moment I lost my chance. The dining-room door was opened, andthe two men came out quickly; it seemed to me that Harvey Scoffold wasspeaking excitedly, and that the doctor, who had a hand on his arm, wasstriving to soothe him. I made a dart for the stairs--too late, for thevoice of Scoffold called me back.
"Here, don't run away; I want to talk to you!" he cried. "There's amystery here----"
"Not so loud!" exclaimed the doctor sternly, in a low tone. "If you'veanything to say, don't shout it in the hall in that fashion. I trustwe're gentlemen; let us go and talk quietly in my study. John, you knowthe way--lead on."
So, knowing well what was to follow, I went on up the stairs, until Icame to the door of that room that was half study and half surgery; Iopened the door and went in. To gain time, I went to the further end ofit, and stood looking out of the window into the darkness. I calculatedthat it might be a drop of twelve or fourteen feet, if he drove me toofar and I had to take flight. I was prepared for everything, and had forthe moment--God forgive me!--clean forgotten what the girl had said tome. The two other men came into the room, and the door was closed. Iheard the doctor speak in his most genial tones.
"Now, my dear Harvey, let's understand what bee you have in your bonnet.What's this about an escaped convict--and in my house? If I didn't knowyou better, I should suggest that my wine had been too much for you."
"Don't bluff, doctor: it would be far better to ask our friend there toshow us his face clearly. If a man's honest he doesn't turn his back onhis friends."
At that I threw discretion to the winds; I faced round upon himsavagely. "Friends!" I exclaimed bitterly. "When were you ever a friendto me, Harvey Scoffold?"
The man laughed, and shrugged his shoulders. "Truly you are indiscreet,"he said, with a triumphant glance at the doctor. "But youth is everimpatient, and one cannot expect that you, of all men, should becautious. You never were. Come--can't we sit down and talk quietly, andsee what is to be done?"
"There is nothing to be done--at least nothing that concerns you," saidBardolph Just quickly, as he stopped in the act of pulling open thatdrawer in his desk which held the cigars. "What in the world is it to dowith you?"
"Oh-o! so _you_ are in the swim, too, eh?" exclaimed Scoffold, turningupon him with raised eyebrows. "I thought it possible that you mighthave been deceived--that our friend here might have come upon yousuddenly, and induced you to help him, without your knowing who he was."
The doctor shrugged his shoulders, and took out a cigar. In the act ofbiting the end of it with his sharp white teeth he looked at the otherman with a smile that was deadly--it was as though he snarled over thecigar. "I knew all about our friend here from the beginning," he said."Be careful, Harvey; you know me by this time, and you know it's betterto have me for a friend than an enemy. Once more I warn you not to askquestions, and not to interfere in what does not concern you. Take acigar, and sit down and smoke."
Scoffold took the cigar, and stood for a moment or two, while he lightedit, looking from one to the other of us, as though weighing the mattercarefully in his mind. He voiced his feelings as he put the match to thecigar, and puffed at it.
"Norton Hyde escaped from prison"--puff--"Norton Hyde hangshimself"--puff--"Norton Hyde is duly sat upon by a coroner and ajury"--puff--"Norton Hyde is buried in a prison grave." He looked at thelighted end of his cigar carefully, and tossed the match from him. "Andyet my dear friend, Norton Hyde, stands before me. Any answer to thatpuzzle?" He looked at me and at the doctor, and laughed quietly.
Truly the game appeared to be in his hands, and I knew enough of him toknow that he was a man to be feared. It was, of course, a merecoincidence that the man who had helped me to my ruin was a friend ofthis man upon whose hospitality I had so unceremoniously flung myself;nor did it mend matters to know that he was a friend of the dead boy. Ithink we both waited for his next remark, knowing pretty well what itwould be.
"A natural answer springs up at once to the puzzle," he went on, seemingliterally to swell his great bulk at us in his triumph. "Some man wasburied as Norton Hyde--some man who must have been able to pass musterfor him. What man could that have been?"
"You're getting on dangerous ground: I tell you you'd better let italone," broke in the doctor warningly.
But the other man went on as though the doctor had not spoken. "Some manlies in that grave, who has disappeared, and for whom no enquiry hasbeen made. Now, who can that man be? What man is there that hasn't beenseen for some days--what man is there that is being looked for now?"
In the tense silence of the room, while the man looked from one to theother of us, absolutely dominating the situation, there came aninterruption that was so terrible, and so much an answer to what the manwas asking, that I could have shrieked out like a frightened woman.Behind him, where he stood, I saw the door of the study slowly opening,and then the smiling face of the little grey-haired man looked round it.Scoffold did not see him; only the doctor and I turned our startledfaces to the smiling face of Capper. And Capper spoke--
"Forgive me, gentlemen"--and Scoffold swung round on the words and facedhim--"I'm looking for my master, Mr. Pennington."
"Gregory Pennington, by the Lord!" shouted Harvey Scoffold, with a greatclap of his hands together.
The doctor turned quickly to the door. I saw him thrust Capper outside,and close the door, and turn the key in it. He put the key in hispocket, and his eyes looked dangerous; he was as a man driven at bay.
"Well, yo
u think you've made some great and wonderful discovery," hesnapped. "Perhaps you have--at all events, you shall know the truth ofthe matter from beginning to end. I'll keep nothing back."
"You can't, you know," sneered the other, dropping his great bulk intoan arm-chair, and puffing luxuriously at his cigar.
I stood with my back to the window while the doctor told the story. Hetold it from beginning to end, and quite clearly. Of the coming of thedisappointed Gregory Pennington to the house, after an interview withthe girl; of that mad, rash act of the unsuccessful lover; of thefinding of him hanging dead. He told of my coming, and painted a littleluridly my desperate threats and pleadings; told of how he had givenway, and had dressed poor Gregory Pennington in my shameful clothes.When he had finished the narrative Harvey Scoffold nodded, as ifsatisfied with that part of it, and sat for a time smoking, while weawaited what he had to say.
"It never struck me that it was in this house the convict (as thenewspapers called him) hanged himself," he said at last. "Upon my word,the puzzle fits together very neatly. But what happens, my friends,when someone enquires for young Pennington? For instance, myself."
"You've no purpose to serve," I broke in quickly.
He laughed, and shook his head gaily. "Not so fast, my young friend, notso fast!" he answered me. "I may have an axe to grind--I have groundmany in my time. Besides--putting me right out of the question--what ofthe girl? How do you silence her?"
"I can find a way even to do that," replied the doctor in a low voice."Only let me warn you again, Harvey Scoffold, we are desperate menhere--or at least one of us--fighting for something more even thanliberty. I am fighting to keep this innocent girl's name out of thebusiness, and to keep scandal away from this house. Let Norton Hyde restin his grave; Gregory Pennington is not likely to be enquired for. Hewas young and restless; he may have gone abroad--enlisted--anything.That's our tale for the world, if questions are asked."
"It only occurs to me that the virtuous uncle of our young friendhere--the man who was robbed so audaciously--would give a great deal toknow that the nephew who robbed him was at large," suggested HarveyScoffold musingly over his cigar.
I took a quick step towards him. "You wouldn't dare!" I exclaimedthreateningly.
He held up a large protesting hand. "My dear boy, I am your friend; Iwas always your friend. You are quite safe with me," he said. Yet I knewthat he lied.
He made one other comment on the matter before wisely leaving thesubject alone. "It seems to me strange," he observed, with a furtivelook at the doctor, "that you should be so willing to help our youngfriend here--a man you have never seen."
"I do that," replied the other quickly, "because in that way I can coverup the miserable business of young Pennington. Unless you speak, it isscarcely likely that anyone else will ever drag that business into thelight of day. Both Gregory Pennington and our friend here happen to havebeen particularly alone in the world: in neither case is there anyonewho is likely to make awkward inquiries."
"Always excepting the girl," Harvey Scoffold reminded him. "So far as Iam concerned, you have nothing to fear from me; I shall merely be anamused spectator of the little comedy; I don't know yet exactly how it'sgoing to end."
He was tactful enough to say nothing more then, and we presentlydrifted, almost with cheerfulness, into some more ordinary conversation.Yet I saw that the man watched us both from between half-closed eyelidswhile he smoked and lounged in his chair; and I was far fromcomfortable. It was late when the doctor rose, and with a glance at theclock said that he had still much work to do before he could sleep. Heunlocked the door; at which hint Harvey Scoffold and I left him for thenight.
The excitement of the meeting had quite thrust out of my mind thequestion whether the man was stopping in the house or had merely comethere as a chance visitor; but the question was answered now, whenHarvey Scoffold told me that he had a long walk before him, and was gladthat the night was fine. I felt some sudden uplifting of the heart atthe thought that at least I should be relieved of his presence, only tofeel that heart sinking the next moment, at the remembrance that hewould be free to spread his news in the outer world, if he cared to doso. For it must be understood that my public trial, and all thedisclosures thereat, had given to the world the address of my uncle, andmy own movements on those secret expeditions of mine; it was possiblefor Harvey Scoffold to put that veiled threat of his into instantexecution.
I knew, moreover, that he was a dangerous man, by reason of the factthat he was chronically in want of money, and had never hesitated as tothe methods employed to obtain it. However, there was no help for itnow; the murder was out, and I could only trust to that extraordinaryluck that had befriended me up to the present.
I walked with him out into the grounds, and he shook hands with me atparting, with some cordiality. "You have had a miraculous escape, dearboy," he said, in his jovial fashion, "and you are quite a littleromance in yourself. I shall watch your career with interest. And youhave nothing to fear--I shall be as silent as the grave in which youought to be lying."
He laughed noisily at that grim jest, and took his way down the road inthe direction of London. I went back into the house and went to my room,and slept heavily until late the next morning.
The doctor had left the house when I went down to breakfast, and I had adim hope that I might see the girl alone. But she did not put in anappearance, nor did I see anything of her until the evening, when thedoctor had returned, and the three of us sat down to dinner. I had beenroaming desolately about the grounds, smoking the doctor's cigars, andinwardly wondering what I was going to do with the rest of the life thathad been miraculously given back to me; and I did not know at what hourBardolph Just had returned. Yet I had a feeling that there had been somestrange interview between the doctor and the girl before I had come uponthe scene--and a stormy interview at that. Bardolph Just sat at his endof the table, grim and silent, with his brows contracted, and with hishabitual smile gone from his lips; the girl sat white and silent,sipping a little wine, but touching no food. During the course of amelancholy meal no single word was heard in the room, for the doctor didnot even address the servants.
At the end of the meal, however, when the girl rose to quit the room,the doctor rose also, and barred her way. "Stop!" he said quickly. "I'vegot to speak to you. We'll have this matter cleared up--once and forall."
"I have nothing more to say," she replied, looking at him steadily. "Myanswer is what it has always been--No!"
"You can go, John New," said the man harshly, turning towards me. "Iwant to talk to Miss Matchwick alone."
"No, no!" exclaimed the girl, stretching out her hands towards me; andon the instant I stopped on my way to the door, and faced about.
But the doctor took a quick step towards me, and opened the door, andjerked his head towards the hall. "I am master here," he said. "Go!"
I saw that I should not mend matters by remaining, but I determined tobe within call. I passed quickly along the hall after the door wasclosed; I knew that just within the great hall door itself was anothersmaller door, opening to a verandah which ran round the front of thedining-room windows, on the old-fashioned early Victorian model. I knewthat the windows were open, and I thought that I might by good fortuneboth see and hear what went on in the room.
And so it turned out. I slipped through that smaller door, and came onto the verandah; and so stood drawn up in the shadows against the sideof the window, looking in and listening.
"I have given you the last chance," the doctor was saying, "and now Ishall trouble you no more. There is another way, and perhaps a betterone. I have treated you well. I have offered to make you my wife--toplace you in the position your father would have been glad to see youoccupy. Now I have done with you, and we must try the other way. Lookinto my eyes!"
Then I saw a curious thing happen. At first, while the man lookedintently at her with those extraordinarily bright eyes of his, shecovered her own with her hands, and strove to look away; but aft
er amoment or two she dropped her hands helplessly, and shivered, and lookedintently at him full. It was like the fascination of some helpless birdby a snake. I saw her sink slowly into a chair behind her; and still shenever took her eyes from those of the doctor, until at last her lidsfell, and she seemed to lie there asleep. Then I heard the man's voicesaying words that had no meaning for my ears at that time.
"You will not sleep well to-night, little one," he said, in a curiouscrooning voice. "You will rise from your bed, and you will come out insearch of something. Is it not so?"
Very softly she answered him: "Yes, I understand."
"You will be restless, and you will seek to get out into the air. Butall the doors will be bolted, and the windows fastened. So you will turnto the eastern corridor and will pass along there to the end wall. Doyou understand?"
And again she murmured: "Yes, I understand."
"And then you will walk on--into the air. You will do this at midnight."
She murmured, "At midnight"; and on a sudden he snapped his fingersviolently three times before her eyes, and she sprang up, wide awake,and stared at him, looking at him in perplexity.
"You've been asleep for ever so long," he said, with a smile. "You mustbe tired; go to your room."
She looked at him in a dazed fashion, and passed her hand across herforehead. "What were we speaking of?" she asked him, as though referringto the conversation they had had before he had sent her into thatspecies of trance.
"Nothing--nothing that matters now," he said, moving towards the door.
Fearing that he might come in my direction after he had sent her fromthe room, I vaulted over the railing of the verandah, which was onlyraised a few feet above the level of the ground. And so presently cameround by the side entrance into the house, and, as was my custom, wentup to the doctor's study to smoke with him.
I found him pacing up and down, chewing the butt of a cigar that hadlong gone out. He glanced up quickly when I entered, and jerked his headtowards the open drawer in the desk where the cigars were.
"I must ask you to take your cigar and smoke it elsewhere to-night," hesaid. "I have work to do, and I am very busy. Good-night."
I longed to stop and talk with him--cursed my own impotent position,which gave me no chance of trying conclusions with him and befriendingthe girl. I remembered bitterly the words she had said to me at the footof the staircase on the previous night, when she had begged me not toleave her alone in that house. So I went away, reluctantly enough, tosmoke my cigar elsewhere.
I wandered down into the dining-room, and dropped into a chair, andclosed my eyes. Suddenly I remembered that it was that chair into whichthe girl had dropped when the doctor had said those words I did notunderstand. I sat up, very wide awake, remembering.
She was to walk along the eastern corridor, and was to come to a wall atthe end. And yet she was to walk out into the air! What did it all mean?What trick was the man about to play upon her? What devilry was afoot?
I got up at once, and threw away my cigar, and set off to explore thehouse. I wanted to know where this eastern corridor was, if such a placeexisted, and what was meant by the doctor's words. I went up to my ownroom first, and made out, as well as I could, by remembering which waythe sun rose, and other matters, in what direction the house wassituated; and so came to the conclusion that the room to which I hadbeen assigned was at the end of the eastern corridor, nearest to thegreat bulk of the house. Which is to say, that if I stood in the doorwayof my room, and faced the corridor, the other rooms of the house wouldbe on my right hand, while on my left the corridor stretched away intodarkness, past rooms that, so far as I knew, were unoccupied.
Lest by any chance my windows should be watched, I lit the lamp in myroom and left it; then I came out into the corridor, and closed thedoor. I looked over the head of the great staircase; the house was incomplete silence, though not yet in darkness. Listening carefully, Imoved away swiftly into the gathering darkness to the left, until atlast, at the end of the corridor, my outstretched hand touched the wall.This was exactly as it should be, according to the doctor's words. I nowturned my attention to the wall itself, and found that it wasrecessed--much as though at some time or other it had been a window thathad been bricked up. I could make nothing of it, and I went back to myroom, sorely puzzled.
I must have a torpid brain, for I was ever given to much sleeping. Onthis occasion I sank down into a chair, intending to sit there for afew minutes and think the matter out. In less than five, I was asleep.When I awoke I felt chilled and stiff, and I blamed myself heartily fornot having gone to bed. While I yawned and stretched my arms, I becameaware of a curious noise going on in the house. With my arms stillraised above my head, I stopped to listen.
Whatever noise it was came from the end of the corridor where I hadfound that blank wall. Some instinct made me put out the light; then inthe darkness I stole towards the door, and cautiously opened it. Outsidethe corridor was dark, or seemed to be at my first glance; I dropped tomy knees, and peered round the edge of the door, looking to right andleft.
To the right all was in darkness; the servants had gone to bed, afterextinguishing the lights and locking up. To the left, strangely enough,a faint light shone; and as I turned my eyes in that direction I sawthat a small hand-lamp was standing on the floor, and that above itloomed the figure of a man, casting a grotesque shadow on the walls andceiling above him. I made enough of the figure to know that it was thedoctor, and that he was working hard at that end wall.
I was puzzling my brains to know what he was doing, and was strivinghard to connect his presence there with what he had said to the girl,when I heard a grinding and a creaking, and suddenly the lamp that stoodbeside him was blown out in a gust of wind that came down the corridorand touched my face softly as I knelt there. Then, to my utteramazement, I saw the night sky and the stars out beyond where that endwall had been.
I had just time to get back into my room and to close the door, when thedoctor came tiptoeing back along the corridor, and vanished like ashadow into the shadows of the house. I waited for a time, and thenstruck a match, and looked at the little clock on the mantelpiece. Itwanted four minutes of midnight.
I opened the door again, and looked out into the corridor; then, on animpulse, I stole along towards that newly-opened door, or whatever itwas, and, coming to it, looked out into the night. It was at a greaterheight from the ground than I had thought possible, because on that sideof the house the ground shelved away sharply, and there was in additiona deep, moat-like trough, into which the basement windows looked. Morethan ever puzzled, I was retracing my steps, when I heard a slight soundat the further end, like the light rustle of a garment mingled with theswift patter of feet.
I will confess that my nerves were unstrung, and they were thereforescarcely prepared for the shock they had now to endure. For coming downthe corridor, straight towards where I stood drawn up against the wall,was a little figure in a white garment, and with fair flowing hair overits shoulders; and that figure came swiftly straight towards that newdoor which opened to the floor. While I stood there, paralysed by thesight, certain words floated back to my mind.
"You will be restless, and you will seek to get out into the air. Butall the doors will be bolted, and the windows fastened. So you will turnto the eastern corridor, and will pass along there to the end wall ...and then you will walk on into the air.... You will do this atmidnight!"
With a great horror upon me, I leapt in a moment, though dimly, to whatwas meant. The girl was walking to her death, and walking in her sleep.In what devilish fashion Bardolph Just had contrived the thing, or whatascendency he had gained over her that he could suggest the very hour atwhich she should rise from her bed and do it, I did not understand; buthere was the thing nearly accomplished. She was within a couple of feetof the opening, and was walking straight out into the air at that giddyheight, when I sprang forward and caught her in my arms.
She shrieked once--a shriek that seemed to echo thro
ugh the night; then,with a long sobbing cry, she sank into my arms, and hid her face on myshoulder. And at the same moment I heard a door open down below in thehouse, and heard running footsteps coming towards me. I knew it was thedoctor, and I knew for what he had waited.