Delphi Complete Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Illustrated) (590 page)

“I see your meaning,” said his son thoughtfully. “You would settle her, and then put her there.”

“Of course. What could be more delightfully simple. Friend Burt here does his work; we carry her through the garden gate, and lay her on the darkest part of the rails. Then we miss her at the house. There is an alarm and a search. The gate is found open. We naturally go through with lanterns, and find her on the line. I don’t think we need fear the coroner, or any one else then?”

“He’s a sharp ‘un, is the guv’nor,” cried Burt, slapping his thigh enthusiastically. “It’s the downiest lay I have heard this many a day.”

“I believe you are the devil incarnate,” said Ezra, looking at his father with a mixture of horror and of admiration. “But how about Jorrocks and Stevens and Rebecca? Would you trust them?”

“Certainly not!” Girdlestone answered. “It is not necessary. Mr. Burt can do his part of the business out of doors. We can entice her out upon some excuse. There is no reason why any one should have a suspicion of the truth.”

“But they know that she is not mad.”

“They will think that she did it on purpose. The secret will be locked up in our three breasts. After one night’s work our friend here goes to the colonies a prosperous man, and the firm of Girdlestone holds up its head once more, stainless and irreproachable.”

“Speak low!” said Ezra, in a whisper. “I hear her coming downstairs.”

They listened to her light springy footstep as it passed the door.

“Come here, Burt,” he said, after a pause. “She is at work on the lawn.

Come and have a look at her.”

They all went over to the window, and looked out. It was then that

Kate, glancing up, saw the three cruel faces surveying her.

“She’s a rare well-built ‘un,” said Burt, as he stepped back from the window. “It is the ugliest job as ever I was on.”

“But we can rely upon you?” Girdlestone asked, looking at him with puckered eyes.

“You bet — as long as you pay me,” the navvy answered phlegmatically, and went back to his pipe and to Mrs. Jorrocks’ bottle of Hollands.

CHAPTER XLIII
.

THE BAIT ON THE HOOK
.

The grey winter evening was beginning to steal in before the details had all been arranged by the conspirators. It had grown so chill that Kate had abandoned her attempt at gardening, and had gone back to her room. Ezra left his father and Burt by the fire and came out to the open hall-door. The grim old trees looked gaunt and eerie as they waved their naked arms about in the cutting wind. A slight fog had come up from the sea and lay in light wreaths over the upper branches, like a thin veil of gauze. Ezra was shivering as he surveyed the dreary scene, when he felt a hand on his arm, and looking round saw that the maid Rebecca was standing beside him.

“Haven’t you got one word for me?” she said sadly, looking up into his face. “It’s but once a week, and then never a word of greeting.”

“I didn’t see you, my lass,” Ezra answered. “How does the Priory suit you?”

“One place is the same as another to me,” she said drearily. “You asked me to come here, and I have come. You said once that you would let me know how I could serve you down here. When am I to know?”

“Why, there’s no secret about that. You do serve me when you look after my father as you have done these weeks back. That old woman isn’t fit to manage the whole place by herself.”

“That wasn’t what you meant, though,” said the girl, looking at him with questioning eyes. “I remember your face now as you spoke the words. You have something on your mind, and have now, only you keep it to yourself. Why won’t you trust me with it?”

“Don’t be a fool!” answered Ezra curtly. “I have a great deal to worry me in business matters. Much good it would do telling you about them!”

“It’s more than that,” said Rebecca doggedly. “Who is that man who has come down?”

“A business man from London. He has come to consult my father about money matters. Any more questions you would like to ask?”

“I should like to know how long we are to be kept down here, and what the meaning of it all may be.”

“We are going back before the end of the winter, and the meaning of it is that Miss Harston was not well and needed a change of air. Now are you satisfied?” He was determined to allay as far as possible any suspicions that the girl might have previously formed.

“And what brings you down here?” she asked, with the same searching look. “You don’t come down into this hole without some good reason. I did think at first that you might come down in order to see me, but you soon showed me that it wasn’t that. There was a time when you was fond of me.”

“So I am now, lass.”

“Ay, very fond! Not a word nor a look from you last time you came.

You must have some reason, though, that brings you here.”

“There’s nothing wonderful in a man coming to see his own father,”

“Much you cared for him in London,” she cried, with a shrill laugh. “If he was under the sod you would not be the sadder. It’s my belief as you come down after that doll-faced missy upstairs.”

“Dry up, now!” said Ezra roughly. “I’ve had enough of your confounded nonsense.”

“You don’t talk in that style to her,” she said excitedly. “You scorn me, but I know this, that if I can’t have your love no one else shall. I’ve got a dash of the gipsy in me, as you know. Rather than that girl should have you, I would knife her and you, too!” She shook her clenched right hand as she spoke, and her face was so full of vindictive passion that Ezra was astonished.

“I always knew that you were a spitfire,” he said, “but you never came it quite so strong as this before.”

The reaction had already come upon her, however, and tears were running down her cheeks. “You’ll never leave me entirely?” she cried, clasping his arm. “I could bear to share your love with another, but I wouldn’t have you turn altogether against me.”

“You’ll have my father out presently with your damned noise!” said Ezra.

“Get away, and wash your face.”

His word was law to her, and she turned away, still weeping bitterly. In her poor, dim, eventless life the sole bright spot had been the attention which the young merchant had occasionally shown her. To her distorted fancy he was a man among men, a hero, all that was admirable and magnificent. What was there which she would not do for him? She had the faithfulness of a dog, but like a dog she would snarl fiercely at any one who came between her master’s affection and herself. Deep down in her heart rankled the one suspicion which no assurances could remove, that an understanding existed between the man she loved and the woman she hated. As she withdrew to her room she determined that during this visit of Ezra’s she would manage in such a way that no communication could pass between them without her knowledge. She knew that it was a dangerous thing to play the spy upon the young man, for he had shown her before now that her sex was no precaution against his brutality. Nevertheless, she set herself to do it, with all the cunning and perseverance of a jealous woman.

As the light faded and the greys of evening deepened into darkness, Kate sat patiently in her bare little room. A coal fire sputtered and sparkled in the rusty grate, and there was a tin bucket full of coals beside the fender from which to replenish it. She was very cold, so she drew her single chair up to the blaze and held her hands over it. It was a lonesome and melancholy vigil, while the wind whistled through the branches of the trees and moaned drearily in the cracks and crannies of the old house. When were her friends coming? Perhaps something had occurred to detain them to-day. This morning such a thing would have appeared to her to be an impossibility, but now that the time had come when she had expected them, it appeared probable enough that something might have delayed them. To-morrow at latest they could not fail to come. She wondered what they would do if they did arrive. Would they come boldly up the avenue and claim her from the Girdlestones, or would they endeavour to communicate with her first? Whatever they decided upon would be sure to be for the best.

She went to the window once and looked out. It promised to be a wild night. Far away in the south-west lay a great cumulus of rugged clouds from which dark streamers radiated over the sky, like the advance guard of an army. Here and there a pale star twinkled dimly out through the rifts, but the greater part of the heavens was black and threatening. It was so dark that she could no longer see the sea, but the crashing, booming sound of the great waves filled the air and the salt spray came driving in through the open window. She shut it and resumed her seat by the fire, shivering partly from cold and partly from some vague presentiment of evil.

An hour or more had passed when she heard a step upon the stairs and a knock came to her door. It was Rebecca, with a cup of tea upon a tray and some bread-and-butter. Kate was grateful at this attention, for it saved her from having to go down to the dining-room and face Ezra and his unpleasant-looking companion. Rebecca laid down the tray, and then, to her mistress’s surprise, turned back and shut the door. The girl’s face was very pale, and her manner was wild and excited.

“Here’s a note for you,” she said. “It was given Mrs. Jorrocks to give you, but I am better at climbing stairs than she is, so I brought it up.” She handed Kate a little slip of paper as she spoke.

A note for her! Could it be that her friends had arrived and had managed to send a message to her? It must be so. She took it from the maid. As she did so she noticed that the other’s hands were shaking as though she had the ague. “You are not well, Rebecca,” said Kate kindly. “Oh yes, I am. You read your note and don’t mind me,” the girl answered, in her usual surly fashion. Instead of leaving the room, she was bustling about the bed as though putting things in order.

Kate’s impatience was too great to allow her to wait, so she untwisted the paper, which had no seal or fastening. She had hoped in her heart to see the name of her lover at the end of it. Instead of that, her eye fell upon the signature of Ezra Girdlestone. What could he have to say to her? She moved the solitary candle on to the mantelpiece, and read the following note, roughly scribbled upon a coarse piece of paper: —

“MY DEAR MISS HARSTON.”

“I am afraid your confinement here has been very irksome to you. I have repeatedly requested my father to alleviate or modify it, but he has invariably refused. As he still persists in his refusal, I wish to offer you my aid, and, to show you that I am your sincere friend in spite of all that has passed, it you could slip out to-night at nine o’clock and meet me by the withered oak at the head of the avenue, I shall see you safe to Bedsworth, and you can, if you wish, go on to Portsmouth by the next train. I shall manage so that you may find the door open by that time. I shall not, of course, go to Portsmouth with you, but shall return here after dropping you at the station. I do this small thing to show you that, hopeless as it may be, the affection which I bear you is still as deep as ever.”

“Yours,”

“E. GIRDLESTONE.”

Our heroine was so surprised at this epistle that she sat for some time dangling the slip of paper between her fingers and lost in thought. When she glanced round, Rebecca had left the room. She rolled the paper up and threw it into the fire. Ezra, then, was not so hard-hearted as she had thought him. He had used his influence to soften his father. Should she accept this chance of escape, or should she wait some word from her friends? Perhaps they were already in Bedsworth, but did not know how to communicate with her. If so, this offer of Ezra’s was just what was needed. In any case, she could go on to Portsmouth and telegraph from there to the Dimsdales. It was too good an offer to be refused. She made up her mind that she would accept it. It was past eight now, and nine was the hour. She stood up with the intention of putting on her cloak and her bonnet.

CHAPTER XLIV
.

THE SHADOW OF DEATH
.

This conversation with Rebecca had suggested to Ezra that he might still have influence enough with his father’s ward to induce her to come out of doors, and so put herself within the reach of Burt. He had proposed the plan to his father, who approved of it heartily. The only weak point in his scheme had been the difficulty which might arise in inducing the girl to venture out of the Priory on that tempestuous winter’s night. There was evidently only one incentive strong enough to bring it about, and that was the hope of escape. By harping skilfully upon this string they might lure her into the trap. Ezra and his father composed the letter together, and the former handed it to Mrs. Jorrocks, with a request that she should deliver it.

It chanced, however, that Rebecca, keenly alive to any attempt at communication between the young merchant and her mistress, saw the crone hobbling down the passage with the note in her hand.

“What’s that, mother?” she asked.

“It’s a letter for her,” wheezed the old woman, nodding her tremulous head in the direction of Kate’s room.

“I’ll take it up,” said Rebecca eagerly. “I am just going up there with her tea.”

“Thank ye. Them stairs tries my rheumatiz something cruel.”

The maid took the note and carried it upstairs. Instead of taking it straight to her mistress she slipped into her own room and read every word of it. It appeared to confirm her worst suspicions. Here was Ezra asking an interview with the woman whom he had assured her that he hated. It was true that the request was made in measured words and on a plausible pretext. No doubt that was merely to deceive any other eye which might rest upon it. There was an understanding between them, and this was an assignation. The girl walked swiftly up and down the room like a caged tigress, striking her head with her clenched hands in her anger and biting her lip until the blood came. It was some time before she could overcome her agitation sufficiently to deliver the note, and when she did so her mistress, as we have seen, noticed that her manner was nervous and wild. She little dreamed of the struggle which was going on in the dark-eyed girl’s mind against the impulse which urged her to seize her imagined rival by the white throat and choke the life out of her.

“It’s eight o’clock now,” Ezra was saying downstairs. “I wonder whether she will come?”

“She is sure to come,” his father said briefly.

“Suppose she didn’t?”

“In that case we should find other means to bring her out. We have not gone so far, to break down over a trifle at the last moment.”

“I must have something to drink,” Ezra said, after a pause, helping himself from the bottle. “I feel as cold as ice and as nervous as a cat. I can’t understand how you look so unconcerned. If you were going to sign an invoice or audit an account or anything else in the way of business you could not take it more calmly. I wish the time would come. This waiting is terrible.”

“Let us pass the time to advantage,” said John Girdlestone; and drawing a little fat Bible from his pocket he began to read it aloud in a solemn and sonorous voice. The yellow light illuminated the old merchant’s massive features as he stooped forwards towards the candle. His strongly marked nose and his hollow cheeks gave him a vulture-like aspect, which was increased by the effect of his deep-set glittering eyes.

Ezra, leaning back in his chair with the firelight flickering over his haggard but still handsome face, looked across at his father with a puzzled expression. He had never yet been able to determine whether the old man was a consummate hypocrite or a religious monomaniac. Burt lay with his feet in the light of the fire and his head sunk back across the arm of the chair, fast asleep and snoring loudly.

“Isn’t it time to wake him up?” Ezra asked, interrupting the reading.

“Yes, I think it is,” his father answered, closing the sacred volume reverently and replacing it in his bosom.

Ezra took up the candle and held it over the sleeping man. “What a brute he looks!” he said. “Did ever you see such an animal in your life?”

The navvy was certainly not a pretty sight. His muscular arms and legs were all a-sprawl and his head hung back at a strange angle to his body, so that his fiery red beard pointed upwards, exposing all the thick sinewy throat beneath it. His eyes were half open and looked bleared and unhealthy, while his thick lips puffed out with a whistling sound at every expiration. His dirty brown coat was thrown open, and out of one of the pockets protruded a short thick cudgel with a leaden head.

John Girdlestone picked it out and tried it in the air. “I think I could kill an ox with this,” he said.

“Don’t wave it about my head,” cried Ezra. “As you stand in the firelight brandishing that stick in your long arms you are less attractive than usual.”

John Girdlestone smiled and replaced the cudgel in the sleeper’s pocket. “Wake up, Burt,” he cried, shaking him by the arm. “It’s half-past eight.”

The navvy started to his feet with an oath and then fell back into his chair, staring round him vacantly, at a loss as to where he might be. His eye fell upon the bottle of Hollands, which was now nearly empty, and he held out his hand to it with an exclamation of recognition.

“I’ve been asleep, guv’nor,” he said hoarsely. “Must have a dram to set me straight. Did you say it was time for the job.”

“We have made arrangements by which she will be out by the withered oak at nine o’clock.”

“That’s not for half an hour,” cried Burt, in a surly voice. “You need not have woke me yet.”

“We’d better go out there now. She may come rather before the time”

“Come on, then!” said the navvy, buttoning up his coat and rolling a ragged cravat round his throat. “Who is a-comin’ with me?”

“We shall both come,” answered John Girdlestone firmly. “You will need help to carry her to the railway line.”

“Surely Burt can do that himself,” Ezra remarked. “She’s not so very heavy.”

Girdlestone drew his son aside. “Don’t be so foolish, Ezra,” he said. “We can’t trust the half-drunken fellow. It must be done with the greatest carefulness and precision, and no traces left. Our old business watchword was to overlook everything ourselves, and we shall certainly do so now.”

“It’s a horrible affair!” Ezra said, with a shudder. “I wish I was out of it.”

“You won’t think that to-morrow morning when you realise that the firm is saved and no one the wiser. He has gone on. Don’t lose sight of him.”

They both hurried out, and found Burt standing in front of the door. It was blowing half a gale now, and the wind was bitterly cold. There came a melancholy rasping and rustling from the leafless wood, and every now and again a sharp crackling sound would announce that some rotten branch had come crashing down. The clouds drove across the face of the moon, so that at times the cold, clear light silvered the dark wood and the old monastery, while at others all was plunged in darkness. From the open door a broad golden bar was shot across the lawn from the lamp in the hall. The three dark figures with their long fantastic shadows looked eerie and unnatural in the yellow glare.

“Are we to have a lantern?” asked Burt.

“No, no,” cried Ezra. “We shall see quite enough as it is. We don’t want a light.”

“I have one,” said the father. “We can use it if it is necessary. I think we had better take our places now. She may come sooner than we expect. It will be well to leave the door as it is. She will see that there is no obstacle in the way.”

“You’re not half sharp enough,” said Ezra. “If the door was left like that it might suggest a trap to her. Better close the dining-room door and then leave the hall door just a little ajar. That would look more natural. She would conclude that Burt and you were in there.”

“Where are Jorrocks and Rebecca?” Girdlestone asked, closing the door as suggested.

“Jorrocks is in her room. Rebecca, I have no doubt, is in hers also.”

“Things look safe enough. Come along, Burt. This way.”

The three tramped their way across the gravelled drive and over the slushy grass to the border of the wood.

“This is the withered oak,” said Girdlestone, as a dark mass loomed in front of them. It stood somewhat apart from the other trees, and the base of it was free from the brambles which formed a thick undergrowth elsewhere.

Burt walked round the great trunk and made as careful an examination of the ground as he could in the dark.

“Would the lantern be of any use to you?” Girdlestone asked.

“No, It’s all serene. I think I know how to fix it now. You two can get behind those trees, or where you like, as long as you’re not in the way. I don’t want no ‘sistance. When Jem Burt takes a job in hand he carries it through in a workmanlike manner. I don’t want nobody else foolin’ around.”

“We would not dream of interfering with your arrangements,” said

Girdlestone.

“You’d better not!” Burt growled. “I’ll lay down behind this oak, d’ye see. When she comes, she’ll think as he’s not arrived yet, and she’ll get standin’ around and waitin’. When I see my chance, I’ll get behind her, and she’ll never know that she has not been struck by lightnin’.”

“Excellent!” cried John Girdlestone; “excellent! We had best get into our places.”

“Mind you do it all in one crack,” Ezra said. “Don’t let us have any crying out afterwards. I could stand a good deal, but not that.”

“You should know how I hits,” Burt remarked with a malicious grin, which was hidden from his companion. “If your head wasn’t well nigh solid you wouldn’t be here now.”

Ezra’s hand involuntarily went up to the old scar. “I think such a one as that would settle her!” he said, as he withdrew with his father. The two took up their position under the shadow of some trees fifty yards off or more. Burt crouched down behind the withered oak with his weapon in his hand and waited for the coming of his victim.

Ezra, though usually resolute and daring, had completely lost his nerve, and his teeth were chattering in his head. His father, on the other hand, was emotionless and impassive as ever.

“It’s close upon nine o’clock,” Ezra whispered.

“Ten minutes to,” said the other, peering at his great golden chronometer through the darkness.

“What if she fails to come?”

“We must devise other means of bringing her out.”

From the spot where they stood they had a view of the whole of the Priory. She could not come out without being seen. Above the door was a long narrow window which opened upon the staircase. On this Girdlestone and his son fixed their eyes, for they knew that on her way down she would be visible at it. As they looked, the dim light which shone through it was obscured and then reappeared.

“She has passed!”

“Hush!”

Another moment and the door was stealthily opened. Once again the broad golden bar shot out across the lawn almost to the spot where the confederates were crouching. In the centre of the zone of light there stood a figure — the figure of the girl. Even at that distance they could distinguish the pearl-grey mantle which she usually wore and the close-fitting bonnet. She had wrapped a shawl round the lower part of her face to protect her from the boisterous wind. For a minute or more she stood peering out into the darkness of the night, as though uncertain whether to proceed or to go back. Then, with a quick, sudden gesture she closed the door behind her. The light was no longer there, but they knew that she was outside the house, and that the appointment would be kept.

What an age it seemed before they heard her footsteps. She came very slowly, putting one foot gingerly before the other, as if afraid of falling over something in the darkness. Once or twice she stopped altogether, looking round, no doubt, to make sure of her whereabouts. At that instant the moon shone out from behind a cloud, and they saw her dark figure a short distance on. The light enabled her to see the withered oak, for she came rapidly towards it. As she approached, she satisfied herself apparently that she was the first on the ground, for she slackened her pace once more and walked in the listless way that people assume when they are waiting. The clouds were overtaking the moon again, and the light was getting dimmer.

“I can see her still,” said Ezra in a whisper, grasping his father’s wrist in his excitement.

The old man said nothing, but he peered through the darkness with eager, straining eyes.