XXXVIII. A TERRIBLE DISCOVERY
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I Called softly to Grooton from my room upstairs.
“Grooton!”
“Yes, sir.”
“You are alone?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is Mr. Hill still up at the Court?”
“He will be there until midnight, sir.”
A gust of wind came suddenly roaring through the wood, drowning even the muffled thunder of the sea below. The rain beat upon the window panes. The little house, strongly built though it was, seemed to quiver from its very foundations. I caught up my overcoat, and boldly descended the narrow staircase. Grooton stood at the bottom, holding a lamp in his hand.
“You are quite safe to-night, sir,” he said. “There’ll be no one about in such a storm.”
I stood still for a moment. The raging and tearing of the sea below had momentarily triumphed over the north wind.
“The trees in the spinney are snapping like twigs, sir,” Grooton remarked. “There’s one lying right across the path outside. But you’ll excuse me, sir—you’re not going out!”
“I think so, Grooton,” I answered, “for a few minutes. Remember that I have been a prisoner here for three days. I’m dying for some fresh air.”
“I don’t think it’s hardly safe, sir,” he protested, deprecatingly. “Not that there’s any fear of your being seen: the wind’s enough to carry you over the cliff.”
“I shall risk it, Grooton,” I answered. “I think that the wind is going down, and there won’t be a soul about. It’s too good a chance to miss.”
I waited for a momentary lull, and then I opened the door and slipped out. The first breath of cold strong air was like wine to me after my confinement, but a moment later I felt my breath taken away, and I was lifted almost from my feet by a sudden gust. I linked my arm around the trunk of a swaying pine tree and hung there till the lull came. Up into the darkness from that unseen gulf below came showers of spray, white as snow, falling like rain all about me. It was a night to remember.
Presently I turned inland, and reached the park. I left the footpath so that I should avoid all risk of meeting any one, and followed the wire fencing which divided the park from the belt of fir trees bordering the road. I walked for a few hundred yards, and then stopped short.
I had reached the point where that long straight road from Braster turned sharply away inland for the second time. At a point about a quarter of a mile away, and rapidly approaching me, came a twin pair of flaring eyes. I knew at once what they were—the head lights of a motor car. Without a moment’s hesitation I doubled back to the “Brand.”
“Grooton!” I called sharply.
Grooton appeared.
“Is any one at Braster Grange?” I asked.
“Not that I have heard of, sir,” he answered.
“You do not know whether Mrs. Smith-Lessing is expected back?”
“I have not heard, sir. They left no servants there—not even a caretaker.”
I stepped back again into the night and took the shortest cut across the park to the house. As I neared the entrance gates I left the path and crept up close to the plantation which bordered the road. My heart gave a jump as I listened. I could hear the low level throbbing of a motor somewhere quite close at hand. The lights had been extinguished, but it was there waiting. I did not hesitate any longer. I kept on the turf by the side of the avenue and made my way up to the house.
The library alone and one small window on the ground floor were lit. I crept up on the terrace and tried to peer in, but across each of the library windows the curtains were too closely drawn. There remained the small window at the end of the terrace. I crept on tiptoe towards this, feeling my way through the darkness by the front of the house. Suddenly I came to a full stop. I flattened myself against the stonework and held my breath. Some one else was on the terrace. What I had heard was unmistakable. It was the wind blowing amongst a woman’s skirts, and the woman was very close at hand.
I almost felt her warm breath as she stole past me. I caught a gleam of a pale face, sufficient to tell me who she was. She passed on and took up her stand outside that small end window.
I, too, crept nearer to it.—About a yard away there was a projection of the front. I stole into the deep corner and waited. A few feet from me I knew that she too was waiting.
Half an hour, perhaps an hour, passed. My ears became trained to all sounds that were not absolutely deadened by the roar of the wind. I heard the crash of falling boughs in the wood, the more distant but unchanging thunder of the sea, the sharp spitting of the rain upon the stone walk. And I heard the opening of the window by the side of which I was leaning.
I was only just in time. Through the raised sash there came a hand, holding a packet of some sort, and out of the darkness came another hand eagerly stretched out to receive it. I brushed it ruthlessly aside, tore the packet from the fingers which suddenly strove to retain it, and with my other hand I caught the arm a little above the wrist. I heard the flying footsteps of my fellow-watcher, but I did not even turn round. A fierce joy was in my heart. Now I was to know. The veil of mystery which had hung over the doings at Braster was to be swept aside. I stooped down till my eyes were within a few inches of the hand. I passed my fingers over it. I felt the ring—
Then I remember only that mad headlong flight back across the park, where the very air seemed full of sobbing, mocking voices, and the ground beneath my feet swayed and heaved. I could not even think coherently. I heard the motor go tearing down the road past me, and come to a standstill at the turn. Still I had no thought of any danger. It never occurred to me to leave the footpath and make my way back to the “Brand,” as I might well have done, by a more circuitous route. I kept on the footpath, and just as I reached the little iron gate which led into the spinney, I felt a man’s arm suddenly flung around my neck, and with a jerk I was thrown almost off my feet.
“He is here, madame,” I heard a low voice say. “Take the papers from him. I have him safe.”
I think that my desperate humour lent me more than my usual strength. With a fierce effort I wrenched myself free. Almost immediately I heard the click of a revolver. “If you move,” a low voice said, “I fire!” “What do you want?” I asked. “The papers.” I laughed bitterly. “Are they worth my life?” I asked. “The life of a dozen such as you,” the man answered. “Quick! Hand them over.”
Then I heard a little cry from the woman who had been standing a few feet off. In the struggle I had lost my cap, and a faint watery moon, half hidden by a ragged bank of black clouds, was shining weakly down upon us.
“Guy,” she cried, and her voice was shaking as though with terror. “Guy, is that you?”
I lost my self-control. I forgot her sex, I forgot everything except that she was responsible for this unspeakable corruption. I said terrible things to her. And she listened, white—calm—speechless. When I had finished she signed to the man to leave us. He hesitated, but with a more peremptory gesture she dismissed him.
“Guy,” she said, “you have not spared me. Perhaps I do not deserve it. Now listen. The whole thing is at an end. Those few papers are all we want. Your father is already in France. I am leaving at once. Give me those papers and you will be rid of us for ever. If you do not I must stay on until I have received copies of a portion of them, at any rate. You know very well now that I can do this. Give me those that you have. It will be safer—in every way.”
“Give them to you?” I answered scornfully. “Are you serious?”
“Very serious, Guy. Do you not see that the sooner it is all over—the better—the safer—up there?”
She pointed towards the house. I could have struck the white fingers with their loathsome meaning.
“I shall take this packet to Lord Chelsford,” I said. “I am down here as a spy—a spy upon spies. He is up at the house now, and to-morrow this packet will be in his hands. I shall tell him how I secured it. I t
hink that after that you will not have many opportunities for plying your cursed trade.”
“You know the consequences?”
“They are not my concern,” I answered coldly.
She looked over her shoulder.
“If I,” she said, “were as unwavering in my duty as you I should call Jean back.”
“I am indifferent,” I answered. “I do not value my life enough to shrink from fighting for it.”
She turned away.
“You are very young, Guy,” she said, “and you talk like a very young man. You must go your own way. Send for Lord Chelsford, if you will. But remember all that it will mean. Can’t you see that such stern morality as yours is the most exquisite form of selfishness? Good-bye, Guy.”
She glided away. I reached the “Brand” undisturbed.
XXXIX. THE TRAITOR
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“I do not understand you, Ducaine,” Lord Chelsford said slowly. “You have been a faithful and valuable servant to your country, and you know very well that your services are not likely to be forgotten. I want you only to be consistent. I must know from whom you received this packet.”
“I cannot tell you, sir,” I answered. “It was a terribly dark night, and it is not easy to identify a hand. Besides, it was snatched away almost at once.”
“In your own mind, Ducaine,” Chelsford said, “have you hazarded a guess as to who that unseen person might be?”
“It is too serious a matter to hazard guesses about, sir,” I answered.
“Nevertheless,” Lord Chelsford continued, eyeing me closely, “in your own mind you know very well who that person was. You are a bad liar, Ducaine. There was something about the hand which told you the truth—a ring, perhaps. At any rate, something.”
“I had no time to feel for such things, sir,” I answered.
“Ducaine,” Lord Chelsford said, “I am forced to connect your refusal to hazard even a surmise as to the identity of that hand with your sudden desire to break off all connection with this matter. I am forced to come to a conclusion, Ducaine. You have discovered the truth. You know the traitor!”
“On the contrary, Lord Chelsford,” I answered, “I know nothing.”.
Later in the day he came to me again. I could see that he had made no fresh discovery.
“Ducaine,” he said, “what time did you say that you left here last night?”
“At midnight, sir.”
“And you were back?”
“Before one.”
“That corresponds exactly with Grooton’s statement,” Lord Chelsford said. “And yet I have certain information that from a few minutes before eleven till two o’clock not one member of the Military Board quitted the library.”
I bowed.
“That is conclusive,” I remarked.
“It is remarkably inconclusive to me,” Lord Chelsford remarked grimly. “Whom else save one of your friends who are all upon the Board could you possibly wish to shield?”
“That I even wish to do so,” I answered, “is purely an assumption.”
“You are fencing with me, young man,” Lord Chelsford said grimly, “and it is not worth while. Hush!”
There was a rap at the door downstairs. We heard the Duke’s measured tones.
“I understood that Lord Chelsford was here,” he said.
“Lord Chelsford has left, your Grace,” Grooton answered.
“And Mr. Hill?”
“He has been at the house all day, your Grace.”
The Duke appeared to hesitate for a moment.
“Grooton,” he said, “I rely upon you to see that Lord Cheisford has this note shortly. I am going for a little walk, and shall probably return this way. I wish you to understand that this note is for Lord Chelsford’s own hand.”
“Certainly, your Grace.”
“Not only that, Grooton, but the fact that I called here and left a communication for Lord Chelsford is also—to be forgotten.”
“I quite understand, your Grace,” Grooton assured him.
The Duke struck a match, and a moment or two later we saw him strolling along the cliff side, smoking a cigarette, his hands behind him, prim, carefully dressed, walking with the measured ease of a man seeking an appetite for his dinner. He was scarcely out of sight, and Lord Chelsford was on the point of descending for his note, when my heart gave a great leap. Lady Angela emerged from the plantation and crossed the open space in front of the cottage with swift footsteps. Her hair was streaming in the breeze as though she had been running, but there was not a vestige of colour in her cheeks. Her eyes, too, were like the eyes of a frightened child.
Lord Chelsford descended the stairs and himself admitted her.
“Why, Angela,” he exclaimed, “you look as though you had seen a ghost. Is anything the matter?”
“Oh, I am afraid so,” she answered. “Have you seen my father?”
“Why?” he asked, fingering the note which Grooton had silently laid upon the table.
“Something has happened!” she exclaimed. “I am sure of it. Last night he came to me before dinner. He told me that Blenavon was in trouble. It was necessary to send him money by a special messenger, by the only person who knew his whereabouts. He gave me a packet, and he told me that at a quarter-past twelve last night I was to be in my music-room, and directly the stable clock struck that I was to open the window, and some one would be there on the terrace and take the packet. I did exactly as he told me, and there was someone there; but I had just held out the packet when a third person snatches it away, and held my hand close to his eyes as though to try and guess who I was. I managed to get it away and close the window, but I think that the wrong person must have taken the packet. I told my father to-day, and—you know that terribly still look of his. I thought that he was never going to speak again. When I asked him if there was a good deal of money in it—he only groaned.”
Up on the top of the stairs I was shaking with excitement. I heard Lord Cheisford speak, and his voice was hoarse.
“Since then,” he asked, “what?”
“A man came to see father. He drove from Wells. He looked like a Frenchman, but he gave no name. He was in the library for an hour. When he left he walked straight out of the house and drove away again. I went into the library, and—you know how strong father is—he was crouching forward across the table, muttering to himself. It was like some sort of a fit. He did not know me when I spoke to him. Lord Chelsford, what does it all mean?”
“Go on!” he answered. “Tell me the rest.”
“There is nothing else,” she faltered. “He got better presently, and he kissed me. I have never known him to do such a thing before, except at morning or night. And then he locked himself in the study and wrote. About an hour afterwards I heard him—asking everywhere for you. The servants thought that you had come here. I saw him crossing the park, so I followed.”
Lord Chelsford came to the bottom of the stairs and called me by name. I heard Lady Angela’s little cry of surprise. I was downstairs in a moment, and she came straight into my arms. Her dear tear-stained little face buried itself upon my shoulder.
“I am so thankful, so thankful that you are here,” she murmured.
And all the while, with the face of a man forced into the presence of tragedy, Lord Chelsford was reading that letter. When he had finished his hands were shaking and his face was grey. He moved over to the fireplace, and, without a moment’s hesitation, he thrust the letter into the flames. Not content with that, he stood over it, poker in hand, and beat the ashes into powder. Then he turned to the door.
“Take care of Angela, Ducaine,” he exclaimed, and hurried out.
But Lady Angela had taken alarm. She hastened after him, dragging me with her. Lord Cheisford was past middle age, but he was running along the cliff path like a boy. We followed. Lady Angela would have passed him, but I held her back. She did not speak a word. Some vague prescience of the truth even then, I think, had dawned upon her.
We must have gone a mile before we came in sight of him. He was strolling along, only dimly visible in the gathering twilight, still apparently smoking, and with the air of a man taking a leisurely promenade. He was toiling up the side of the highest cliff in the neighbourhood, and once we saw him turn seaward and take off his hat as though enjoying the breeze. Just as he neared the summit he looked round. Lord Chelsford waved his hand and shouted.
“Rowchester,” he cried. “Hi! Wait for me.”
The Duke waved his hand as though in salute, and turned apparently with the object of coming to meet us. But at that moment, without any apparent cause, he lurched over towards the cliff side, and we saw him fall. Lady Angela’s cry of frenzied horror was the most awful thing I had ever heard. Lord Chelsford took her into his arms.
“Climb down, Ducaine,” he gasped. “I’m done!”
I found the Duke on the shingles, curiously unmangled. He had the appearance of a man who had found death restful.
XL. THE THEORIES OF A NOVELIST
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The novelist smiled. He had been buttonholed by a very great man, which pleased him. He raised his voice a little. There were others standing around. He fancied himself already the centre of the group. He forgot the greatness of the great man.
“In common with many other people, my dear Marquis,” he said, “you labour under a great mistake. Human character is governed by as exact laws as the physical world. Give me a man’s characteristics, and I will undertake to tell you exactly how he will act under any given circumstances. It is a question of mathematics. We all carry with us, inherited or acquired, a certain amount of resistance to evil influence, certain predilections towards good and vice versa, according as we are decent fellows or blackguards. Some natures are more complex than others, of course—that only means that the weighing up of the good and evil in them is a more difficult matter. There are experts who can tell you the weight of a haystack by looking at it, and there are others who are able at Christmas-time to indulge in an unquenchable thirst by accurately computing the weight, down to ounces, of the pig or turkey raffled for at their favourite public-house. So the trained student of his fellows can also diagnose his subjects and anticipate their actions.”
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