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Till the Clock Stops, a fiction by John Joy Bell |
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Chapter 27 |
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_ CHAPTER XXVII "I think that's everything, Caw. We shan't be much later than eleven. Don't forget that Mr. Harvie wants to catch the first steamer in the morning." Alan, in evening dress, was smoking a cigarette in the study pending the assembling of his guests in the drawing-room, all of whom had been bidden to dinner that evening by the hospitable Handyside. "Mr. Harvie shall be looked after, sir." Caw retired to the door, closed it and came back to the hearth. "May I ask you to cast your eye over this list, Mr. Alan?" he said, presenting a sheet of notepaper. "Why," exclaimed Alan, "this is my uncle's writing ... and it's a list of the people who are now in the house--" "With one exception, sir. Mr. Bullard." "That's so. Where did this come from?" "That, sir, is one of the instructions left me by my master. Those are the names of all the people who are to be present on the night when the clock stops. I ventured to bring it to your notice now merely because it struck me as a little curious, sir, especially since Mr. Harvie, the lawyer, had not intended to stay the night." Alan smiled. "And so we want only Mr. Bullard to make the party complete! Pity he sailed to-day for South Africa!" "If I may say so, I should like very much to have seen him off, sir." "Good heavens, man! Didn't that telegram of an hour ago convince you?" "It struck me afterwards that your agent might have watched his--well, his double go on board. You will remember that wire from Paris--" "Oh, really, Caw, your imagination carries you too far! Bullard, as you well know, is bound for South Africa on serious business: his fortune is at stake. Doesn't that satisfy you? Is it this list that has upset you?" "Well, to tell the truth, sir, it did give me a bit of a turn, and I'm not superstitious every evening." "You've got your big dog." Caw smiled apologetically. "I didn't say I was afraid, sir. Perhaps you are right to laugh at me, sir; still, Mr. Bullard has always done the unexpected thing in the past, and--" Teddy came in. "Teddy," said Alan, "shut the door, and in the fewest words possible tell Caw what Bullard did to Flitch in the fog." Three minutes later Caw went out, with his list, easier in his mind than he had ever been since that midnight hour when he set the clock going. And now Alan glanced at the clock. "Time's about up. We had better go downstairs." In the drawing-room they found Lancaster and Mr. Harvie. Three days of the free and friendly atmosphere of Grey House had worked wonders on the former: a rather painful diffidence was still in evidence now and then, but the man was beginning to hold up his head, his nervousness was becoming less noticeable, and his old kindly manner was once more asserting itself. Once Caw had caught him watching Alan unawares, and had forgiven him much because of the gratitude in his gaze. The lawyer had run down from Glasgow to see Alan respecting that young man's recent and serious onslaught on his capital, and had allowed himself to be persuaded to remain over night. He and Lancaster appeared to take kindly to each other, much to the host's gratification. Thus far Alan could congratulate himself on the success of his little house-party. Doris seemed to have found the friend he had hoped for her in Marjorie Handyside. As for Mrs. Lancaster, she had been a cheering surprise in her graciousness to every one and her open appreciations of her surroundings, while she had quite captivated the doctor. It was therefore something of a blow when Doris, lovely in a wild-rose pink, but a little pale and anxious looking, appeared with the news that her mother had been stricken with a headache so severe as to necessitate her going to bed. "I never knew your mother to have a headache before," said Lancaster, perturbed. "I hope it is nothing serious." "She wants us not to bother about her," said the girl. "She has not been sleeping so well lately, she says, but hopes to get to sleep now, and she will ring if she requires anything. No, father; she would rather you didn't go up." Alan expressed his regrets. "It doesn't seem right to go out and leave her--" "I'm afraid it would just upset her if we made any difference," said Doris, "and she certainly does not look alarmingly ill." "I will leave orders with Caw to communicate at once should she want you, Doris," Alan said at last, and presently the party went forth into the starry, moonless night. Alan, as host, escorted Doris. As he drew her hand through his arm he felt it tremble. "Are you troubled about your mother?" he asked. "Just a little, Alan," she replied, after a moment. "But I'm not going to let it make me a skeleton at the feast," she added with a small laugh. She would have given much then to have been walking with Teddy; her answer to a similar question from him would have been somewhat different, for her mind was full of vague fears. And just then Alan spoke of Teddy. "Is there anything wrong between you and Teddy, Doris? I may be mistaken, but these last few days I have been fancying you were avoiding each other. No quarrel, surely." "Oh, nonsense! Teddy is my oldest friend, and neither of us is quarrelsome. On the other hand, we are interested in people besides each other." Her lighter tone was very well assumed. "That's all right then," he said, and there was a pause. Then, suddenly, he put another question: "Doris, must I go on waiting till--till the clock stops?" Her reply was, to say the least of it, unexpected. "No, I don't think it's necessary, Alan." "Doris!" He may have imagined his voice sounded eager as he proceeded: "Then I may speak now!" "Please, no," she gently forbade. "I meant that you must never speak at all--to me--of marriage. For you don't really love me, dear Alan, and I--I'm really awfully glad! Now don't say another word, my friend. Who could be dishonest under such a sky?" And having nothing to say, he held his peace till they reached the gates of the doctor's garden where the others awaited them. * * * * * To Mrs. Lancaster, as a matter of course, the chief guest-chamber had been allotted. Its door faced that of the study across the spacious landing; viewed from outside, its bay-window balanced that of the study and suggested an equally large apartment. It lacked, however, the depth of the opposite room, and further differed from the latter in having a window of ordinary size in the side wall, looking north. Elegance and comfort it possessed to satisfy the most fastidious senses. White walls and furniture, rose velvet carpet, and hangings, silver electric fittings and a silver bedstead. The warmed atmosphere would have been pleasant to the body without the fire, yet those glowing and flaming logs made cheerfulness for the imagination--or would have done so for the imagination of any person save Mrs. Lancaster. At intervals she shivered. She was half sitting, half reclining on the couch drawn near to the hearth. She was wearing an elaborate tea-gown which had cost her, or, to be precise, had added to her debts, more guineas than some of us earn in a year. Her hands and neck blazed with gems, but her eyes would have made you forget the jewels, so intensely they gleamed. The finger of feverishness had touched her dusky cheeks to a rare flush. Waiting there in the soft light of a single lamp of the cluster in the ceiling, Carlotta Lancaster had never looked so splendid. And she had never felt so afraid. Afraid of what? Ruin for her husband, misery for her daughter? Oh, dear, no! Afraid of being herself caught in a most dishonourable and traitorous act? A little, perhaps. But the fear that now made her shiver and burn was the fear lest Bullard should fail in his latest and last, as he had said it should be, plan to obtain the diamonds. Failure on his part spelled ruin for her--not just social ruin, though that were terrible enough, but financial ruin, hideous, complete. Debts, debts, debts! The night before leaving London, and for the first time in her life there, she had sat down with paper and pencil and made up a statement--rough, of course--of all she owed, and added it up.... Appalling! Thousands and thousands of pounds! Why, great Heavens! if she used her recent windfall to pay her debts, she would have nothing left worth mentioning. And Bullard was going to give her a hundred thousand--if--if ... Oh, but he must not fail! It was her final chance, her final hope, of averting downfall into sordid obscurity. An hour ago another hope had glimmered, but briefly. "Doris," she said, "you seem happy here. Will you give me a straight answer to a straight question? Suppose your father's affairs came right; suppose, also, I gave you back that money; would you--would you marry Alan Craig?" But Doris, who had made a discovery since coming to Grey House, answered shortly yet cheerfully-- "No!" Mrs. Lancaster did not press the matter. She was too well aware that the twenty-five thousand pounds had been the price of the remnants of her daughter's faith in her. Doris had ceased to call her "mother" except in company, and then as seldom as possible; in times of unavoidable privacy she treated her with extreme but distant courtesy. So the glimmer had gone out, and now there was no way of salvation but Bullard's way. The silver carriage-clock on the mantel tingled eight. Mrs. Lancaster rose and went to the door, which she opened an inch. Awhile she listened intently, then closed it and turned the key. She had heard nothing. Twenty minutes earlier she had heard Caw moving about the study, mending the fire and putting things in order; then he had gone downstairs--to his supper, she presumed. He would not likely be up again within the next two hours--unless she summoned him. With another shudder she moved away from the door. Presently she unlocked one of her trunks and took out a little white package with a red cross scored on it. Undoing the sealed waxed paper she uncovered several neatly cut strips of meat. She regarded them with disgust. It was by no means the first little white package she had opened since her arrival at Grey House, but none of the previous ones had been crossed with red. She switched off the light and went towards the side window, slipped between the curtains and drew them close behind her. When her eyes were grown accustomed to the darkness, she raised the sash. Like the others in the house it worked easily, noiselessly. A bitter air from the snow-capped Argyll hills made her wish she had donned furs. Crouching, she reached out and peered downwards. The darkness baffled her, but something had to be left to chance. She let fall a strip of meat, and closed the window--for about five minutes. Then she peered down again. A live thing was moving on the gravel. She let fall the rest of the meat, and a snuffling sound came up to her ears. Caw's Great Dane had lately been finding frequent tit-bits in that particular spot, and now he was making another tasty meal--his last. Mrs. Lancaster closed the window and after washing her hands went back to the fire. It supplied all the light she required for the present. There was nothing that needed to be done for an hour. But she grew more and more restless, and before half the time had passed she was opening another of her trunks. From it she took that which in the doubtful light seemed a mere mass of silk, but which was later to resolve itself into a sort of ladder carefully rolled up and fitted with a steel clamp at the top. She placed the bundle behind the curtains of the side window, and returned to the trunk. From a nest of soft materials she drew a wooden box about eight inches square. Gingerly she carried it to the couch, seated herself, and took off the lid. The removal of a quantity of cotton wool revealed a glass sphere of the size of an average orange, filled with a clear, colourless fluid. She let the sphere stay where it was, and after gazing at it awhile placed the box very cautiously on the mantel. Feeling faintish, she got her smelling-salts and cologne and lay down on the couch. The half hour that followed was the longest she had ever spent, and yet she was not relieved when the clock tinkled nine. The fire had burned low, but she let it die.... Once more she lurked at the window--fearing one moment, hoping the next, that her message had not reached him in time, that he would not come--till another night, though she was aware that it must be now or never.... And at last, down below, a mere spark of light moved in the mirk. Mrs. Lancaster was no weakling. The spark roused as though it had touched and scorched her. She cleared her mind for action. No useless hampering thoughts littered it now. Her intelligence reckoned nothing save the work on hand; its details she had by heart. She acted. * * * * * Bullard came from between the curtains white and breathing hard, but smiling. He had no head for climbing--and a loosely hung ladder of silken loops in the darkness is poor support to the nerves--but he had the will for anything that meant great gain. "You will excuse me," he gasped, taking a sip from a tiny gold flask. "I've come out of one darkness to go into another. Is all clear? You managed the dog, I noticed. Yes, yes, very disagreeable, but necessary.... Well?" "So far as I know," she whispered, "your way is clear, unless"--she glanced at the box on the mantel--"I fail, or that thing there does. Have you found out about the clock?" "Not much. Nothing, in fact. The Frenchman would not take my order for a clock exactly similar to my dear old friend's, and he was not talkative. But I'm very much mistaken if Christopher's diamonds are not there." "Tell me," she said, her hand to her heart, "how you are going to escape--detection. I must know that before we go further, for, if they catch you, they will never, with such a fortune involved, spare you for my husband's sake." He seated himself beside her on the couch and lit a cigarette. "There is no time for full details, dear lady. Be satisfied with these. First, I sailed this afternoon from London--by deputy, you understand. To-night I shall travel a certain distance south by car, afterwards by rail. At a certain port, a Mr. So-and-So will board and occupy his reserved cabin on a swift steamer bound for Madeira. At Madeira Mr. So-and-So and Mr. Deputy will meet--just meet and no more. Then Mr. Deputy will disappear as such, Mr. So-and-So will disappear as such, and Mr. Bullard will continue his journey to Cape Town." "Oh, you are horribly clever! ... Your deputy is like you in appearance?" "Very; and as I've had occasion to use him before, he knows my little ways.... But now, Mrs. Lancaster, I must ask you to get busy." He rose, took the box from the mantel and extracted the sphere. "Don't be afraid," he said, as she rose, also, with a shiver. "Only be careful." He laid it in her hand. "Will it hurt much?" she whispered. "No--not much. Disagreeable of course, but not deadly." "You're sure it won't--kill?" "I give you my word. Now, please,--at once." He went over to the door and unlocked it. "Come!" She joined him. "Oh, yes, I know exactly what to do," she said, answering a question. "Very well." He returned to the hearth. "Now I'm going to ring for Mr. Caw.... There!" She opened the door and slipped out. At the rail directly over the foot of the stair she took her stand. Ere long she heard a door in the distance open and shut. Then she heard Caw coming along the passage leading from the kitchen premises.... As Caw placed his foot on the first step, something bright flashed down within a yard of his eyes and burst on the stair with a slight report. When Bullard looked over, a moment later, he nodded and said: "That's all right. He won't stir for fifteen minutes, anyway, and I hope I shan't need five." It then appeared necessary to conduct Mrs. Lancaster back to her room and administer to her what remained in the tiny gold flask. _ |
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