CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE INCIDENT OF THE CORRIDOR.
Ezra Girdlestone hardly went through the formality of greeting Kate nextmorning when she came down to breakfast. He was evidently ill at ease,and turned away his eyes when she looked at him, though he glanced ather furtively from time to time. His father chatted with him upon Citymatters, but the young man's answers were brusque and monosyllabic.His sleep had been troubled and broken, for the conversation of thenight before had obtruded unpleasantly on his dreams.
Kate slipped away from them as soon as she could and, putting on herbonnet, went for a long walk through the grounds, partly for the sake ofexercise, and partly in the hope of finding some egress. The one-eyedgate-keeper was at his post, and set up a hideous shout of laughter whenhe saw her; so she branched off among the trees to avoid him, and walkedonce more very carefully round the boundary wall. It was no easy matterto follow it continuously, for the briars and brambles grew in aconfused tangle up to its very base. By perseverance, however, shesucceeded in tracing every foot of it, and so satisfying herself finallythat there was no diminution anywhere in its height, no break in itscontinuity, save the one small wooden door which was securely fastened.
There was one spot, however, where a gleam of hope presented itself.At an angle of the wall there stood a deserted wooden shed, which hadbeen used for the protection of gardeners' tools in the days when thegrounds had been kept in better order. It was not buttressed up againstthe wall, but stood some eight or ten feet from it. Beside the shed wasan empty barrel which had once been a water-butt. The girl managed toclimb to the top of the barrel, and from this she was easily able togain the sloping roof of the shed. Up this she clambered until shestood upon the summit, a considerable height above the ground. From itshe was able to look down over the wall on to the country-road and therailway line which lay on the other side of it. True that an impassablechasm lay between her and the wall, but it would be surely possible forher to hail passers-by from here, and to persuade some of them to carrya letter to Bedsworth or to bring paper from there. Fresh hope gushedinto her heart at the thought.
It was not a very secure footing, for the planks of, which the shed wascomposed were worm-eaten and rotten. They cracked and crumbled beneathher feet, but what would she not dare to see a friendly human face?As she stood there a couple of country louts, young lads about sixteen,came strolling down the road, the one whistling and the other munchingat a raw turnip. They lounged along until they came opposite to Kate'spoint of observation, when one of them looking up saw her pale facesurmounting the wall.
"Hey, Bill," he cried to his companion, "blowed if the mad wench bean'tup on the shed over yander!"
"So she be!" said the other eagerly. "Give me your turnip. Jimmy, an'I'll shy it at her."
"Noa, I'll shy it mysel'," said the gallant Jimmy; and at the word whizzcame the half of a turnip within art inch of Kate's ear.
"You've missed her!" shrieked the other savage. "'Ere, quick, where bea stone?" But before he could find one the poor girl, sick at heart,clambered down from her exposed situation.
"There is no hope for me anywhere," she sobbed to herself. "Every man'shand is against me. I have only one true friend, and he is far away."She went back to her room utterly disheartened and dispirited.
Her guardian knocked at her door before dinner time. "I trust," hesaid, "that you have read over the service. It is as well to do so whenyou cannot go to church."
"And why should you prevent me from going to church?" she asked.
"Ah, my lady," he said with a sneer, "you are reaping what you havesown. You are tasting now, the bitter fruits of your disobedience.Repent before it is too late!"
"I have done no wrong," she said, turning on him with flashing eyes."It is for _you_ to repent, you violent and hypocritical man. It is foryou to answer for your godly words and your ungodly and wicked actions.There is a power which will judge between us some day, and will exactatonement for your broken oath to your dead friend and for your crueltreatment of one who was left to your care." She spoke with burningcheeks and with such fearless energy that the hard City man fairlycowered away from her.
"We will leave that to the future," he said. "I came up to do you akindness, and you abuse me. I hear that there are insects about thehouse, beetles and the like. A few drops from this bottle scatteredabout the room would keep them away. Take care, for it is a violentthough painless poison if taken by a human being." He handed her aphial, with a brownish turbid liquid in it, and a large red poisonlabel, which she took without comment and placed upon the mantelpiece.Girdlestone gave a quick, keen glance at her as he retired. In truth hewas astonished at the alteration which the last few days had made in herappearance. Her cheeks were colourless and sunken, save for the singlehectic spot, which announced the fever within. Her eyes wereunnaturally bright. A strange and new expression had settled upon herwhole countenance. It seemed to Girdlestone that there was every chancethat his story might become a reality, and her reason be permanentlyderanged. She had, however, more vitality than her guardian gave hercredit for. Indeed, at the very time when he set her down in his mindas a broken woman, she had formed a fresh plan for escape, which itwould require both energy and determination to put into execution.
During the last few days she had endeavoured to make friends with themaid Rebecca, but the invincible aversion which the latter hadentertained for her, ever since Ezra had visited her with his unwelcomeattentions, was not to be overcome by any advances which she could make.She performed her offices with a heart full of malice, and an eye whichtriumphed in her mistress's misfortunes.
Kate had bethought herself that Stevens, the gatekeeper, only mountedguard during the day. She had observed, too, at the time of herconversation with him, that the iron gate was in such a state ofdisrepair that, even if it were locked, it would not be a difficultmatter to scramble through or over it. If she could only gain the openair during the night there would be nothing to prevent her from makingher way to Bedsworth, whence she could travel on to Portsmouth, whichwas only seven miles away. Surely there she would find some charitablepeople who would communicate with her friends and give her a temporaryshelter.
The front door of the house was locked every night, but there was a nailbehind it, on which she hoped to find the key. There was another doorat the back. Then there were the windows of the ground-floor, whichmight be tried in case the doors were too securely fastened. If onlyshe could avoid waking any one there was no reason why she should notsucceed. If the worst came to the worst and she was detected, theycould not treat her more cruelly than they had already done.
Ezra had gone back to London, so that she had only three enemies tocontend against, Girdlestone, Rebecca, and old Mrs. Jorrocks. Of these,Girdlestone slept upon the floor above, and Mrs. Jorrocks, who mighthave been the most dangerous of all, as her room was on theground-floor, was fortunately so deaf that there was little risk ofdisturbing her. The problem resolved itself, therefore, into being ableto pass Rebecca's room without arousing her, and, as she knew the maidto be a sound sleeper, there seemed to be every chance of success.
She sat at her window all that afternoon steeling her mind to the ordealbefore her. She was weak, poor girl, and shaken, little fit foranything which required courage and resolution. Her mind ran much uponher father, and upon the mother whom she had never known, but whoseminiature was among her most precious treasures. The thought of themhelped to dispel the dreadful feeling of utter loneliness, which was themost unendurable of all her troubles.
It was a cold, bright day, and the tide was in, covering the mudbanksand lapping up against the walls of the Priory grounds. So clear was itthat she could distinguish the houses at the east end of the Isle ofWight. When she opened her window and looked out she could perceivethat the sea upon her right formed a great inlet, dreary and dry at lowtide, but looking now like a broad, reed-girt lake. This was LangstonHarbour, and far away at its mou
th she could make out a clump ofbuildings which marked the watering-place of Hayling.
There were other signs, however, of the presence of man. From herwindow she could see the great men-of-war steaming up the Channel, toand from the anchorage at Spithead. Some were low in the water andvenomous looking, with bulbous turrets and tiny masts. Others were longand stately, with great lowering hulks and broad expanse of canvas.Occasionally a foreign service gunboat would pass, white and ghostly,like some tired seabird flapping its way home. It was one of Kate's fewamusements to watch the passing and repassing of the vessels, and tospeculate upon whence they had come and whither they were bound.
On that eventful evening Rebecca went to bed rather earlier than usual.Kate retired to her room, and having made her final preparations andstuffed her few articles of jewelry into her pockets, to serve in placeof money, she lay down upon her bed, and trembled at the thought of whatwas in front of her. Down below she could hear her guardian's shufflingstep as he moved about the refectory. Then came the creaking of therusty lock as he secured the door, and shortly afterwards he passedupstairs to his room. Mrs. Jorrocks had also gone to bed, and all wasquiet in the house.
Kate knew that some hours must elapse before she could venture to makethe attempt. She remembered to have read in some book that the sleep ofa human being was usually deepest about two in the morning, so she hadchosen that hour for her enterprise. She had put on her strongest dressand her thickest shoes, but had muffled the latter in cloth, so thatthey should make no sound. No precaution which she could think of hadbeen neglected. There was now nothing to be done but to spend the timeas best she might until the hour of action should arrive.
She rose and looked out of the window again. The tide was out now, andthe moon glittered upon the distant ocean. A mist was creeping up,however, and even as she looked it drew its veil over the water.It was bitterly cold. She shivered and her teeth began to chatter.Stretching herself upon the bed once more, she wrapped the blanketsround her, and, worn out with anxiety and fatigue, dropped into atroubled sleep.
She slumbered some hours before she awoke.
Looking at her watch she found that it was after two. She must notdelay any longer. With the little bundle of her more valuablepossessions in her hand, she gave such a gasp as a diver gives before hemakes his spring, and slipping past Rebecca's half-opened door she felther way down the wooden stair, picking her steps very carefully.
Even in the daytime she had often noticed how those old planks creakedand cracked beneath her weight. Now, in the dead silence of the night,they emitted such sounds that her heart sank within her. She stoppedseveral times, convinced that she must be discovered, but all was hushedand still. It was a relief when at last she reached the ground-floor,and was able to feel her way along the passage to the door.
Shaking in every limb from cold and fear, she put her hand to the lock;the key was not there. She tried the nail; there was nothing there.Her wary gaoler had evidently carried it away with him to his room.Would it occur to him to do the same in the case of the back door?It was very possible that he might have overlooked it. She retraced hersteps down the passage, passed Mrs. Jorrocks' room, where the old womanwas snoring peacefully, and began to make her way as best she couldthrough the great rambling building.
Running along the basement floor from front to back there was a longcorridor, one side of which was pierced for windows. At the end of thiscorridor was the door which she wished to reach. The moon had brokenthrough the fog, and pouring its light through each opening cast asuccession of silvery flickering spots upon the floor. Between each ofthese bars of uncertain light was an interval of darkness. Kate stoodat the head of this corridor with her hand against the wall, awed by thesudden sight of the moonlight and by the weird effect which was producedby the alternate patches of shadow and brightness. As she stood there,suddenly, with eyes distended with horror, she became aware thatsomething was approaching her down the corridor.
She saw it moving as a dark formless mass at the further end. It passedthrough the bar of light, vanished, appeared once more, lost itself inthe darkness, emerged again. It was half-way down the passage and stillcoming on. Petrified with terror, she could only wait and watch.Nearer it came and nearer. It was gliding into the last bar of lightImmediately in front of her! It was on her! God of mercy, it was aDominican friar! The moon shone clear and cold upon his gaunt figureand his sombre robes. The poor girl threw up her hands, gave oneterrible scream of horror, which rang through the old house, and sanksenseless to the ground.
The Firm of Girdlestone Page 36