"This room must be cleared. Let no one touch _her_," she shudders and looks away, "until Sir Victor comes. Ellen, Pool, Hooper, you three had better remain to watch. Edwards, mount the fastest horse in the stables and ride to Powyss Place for your life."
"Yes, miss," Edwards answers, in a low voice; "and please, miss, am I to tell Sir Victor?"
She hesitates a moment--her face changes, her voice shakes a little for the first time.
"Yes," she answers, faintly, "tell him."
Edwards leaves the room. She turns to another of the men servants.
"You will ride to Chesholm and fetch Dr. Dane. On your way stop at the police station and apprise them. The rest of you go. Jane Pool, where is the baby?"
"Up stairs in the night nursery," Jane Pool answers sullenly.
"And crying, too--I hear him. Hannah," to the under nurse, "go up and remain with him. I am going to my own room. When," she pauses a second and speaks with an effort, "when Sir Victor comes, you will receive your further orders from him. I can do nothing more."
She left the room. Jane Pool looked ominously after her.
"No," she said, between her set lips; "you have done enough."
"Oh, Jane, hush!" Ellen whispers in terror.
There has still been no direct accusation, but they understand each other perfectly.
"When the time comes to speak, you"ll see whether I"ll hush," retorts Jane. "What was she doing in this room fifteen minutes before you found my lady dead? Why wouldn"t she let me in? why did she tell me a lie? what made her say my lady was still asleep? Asleep! Oh, poor soul, to think of her being murdered here, while we were all enjoying ourselves below. And if I hadn"t took away the baby its my opinion it would have been--"
"Oh, Jane!"
""Oh, Jane," as much as you please, it"s the gospel truth. Them that killed the mother hated the child. When the time comes I"ll speak, if she was twice the lady she is, Ellen!"
"Lor!" Ellen cried with a nervous jump, "don"t speak so jerky Mrs.
Pool. You make my blood a mask of ice. What is it?"
"Ellen," Jane Pool said solemnly, "where is the dagger?"
"What dagger?"
"The furrin dagger with the gold handle and the big ruby set in it, that my lady used as a paper knife. I"ll take my oath I saw it lying on the table there, shining in the moonlight, when I took away baby.
Where is it now?"
The dagger the nurse spoke of, was a curious Eastern knife, that had belonged to Sir Victor"s mother. It had a long, keen steel blade, a slim handle of wrought gold set with a large ruby. Sir Victor"s wife had taken a fancy to the pretty Syrian toy, and converted it into a paper knife.
"I saw it on that there table when I took away baby," Jane said compressing her lips; "_it_ would do it. Where is it now?"
"Gone," Ellen answered. "Oh, Jane do you think--"
"She has been stabbed, you see, right through the heart, and there isn"t much blood. That devilish little glittering knife has done the deed. There it was ready for its work, as if Satan himself had left it handy. Oh, poor lady--poor lady! to think that the toy she used to play with, should one day take her life!"
While they whispered in the death room, up in her chamber, while the hours of the dreary night wore on, Inez Catheron sat, crouched in a heap, as Hooper had found her, her face hidden in her hands. Two hours had pa.s.sed, an awful silence filled the whole house, while she sat there and never stirred. As eleven struck from the turret clock, the thunder of horses" hoofs on the avenue below, came to her dulled ears.
A great shudder shook her from head to foot--she lifted her haggard face. The lull before the storm was over--Sir Victor Catheron had come.
CHAPTER VIII.
IN THE DARKNESS.
Half an hour"s rapid gallop had brought Edwards, the valet, to Powyss Place. The stately mansion, park, lawn, and terraces, lay bathed in the silvery shower of moonlight. From the upper windows, where the sick man lay, lights streamed; all the rest of the house was in deep shadow.
In one of those dimly lighted rooms Sir Victor Catheron lay upon a lounge fast asleep. He had remained for about two hours by the sick man"s bedside; then, persuaded by his aunt, had gone to lie down in an inner department.
"You look pale and ill yourself," she had said, tenderly; "lie down and rest for a little. If I need you, I will call you at once."
He had obeyed, and had dropped off into a heavy sleep. A dull oppression of heart and soul beset him; he had no mind to slumber--it had come upon him unawares. He was awakened suddenly by some one calling his name.
"Victor! Victor!" the voice called, "awake!"
He sat up with a bewildered face. Was that his aunt"s voice, so hoa.r.s.e, so strange? Was this his aunt with that white, horror-struck face?
"Victor!" she cried, the words a very wail. "Oh, my boy! my boy! how shall I ever tell you? Oh, why did I send for you this dreadful night?
Ethel"--her voice choked.
He rose to his feet, staring at her blankly.
"Ethel!" he repeated. "Ethel--"
She covered her face with her hands and burst into a hysterical outbreak of tears. Edwards, standing behind her in the doorway, made a step forward.
"Tell him, Edwards," said Lady Helena. "I cannot. It seems too horrible to tell or to believe. Oh, my poor Victor! my poor, poor boy!"
Edwards came forward reluctantly, with a very pale, scared face.
"It"s dreadful news, Sir Victor--I don"t know how to tell you, but my lady, I"m afraid she--she"s dead."
"Dead!"
He repeated the word dully, staring almost stupidly at the speaker.
"Dead, Sir Victor!" the man repeated, solemnly. "I"m sore afraid, murdered!"
There was a sudden, headlong rush from the room; no other reply. Like a flash Sir Victor pa.s.sed them both. They heard him clear the stairs, rush along the lower hall, and out of the house. The next instant the valet and Lady Helena were in pursuit.
He was mounted on Edwards" horse and dashing furiously away, before they reached the court-yard. They called to him--he neither heard nor heeded. He dashed his spurred heel into the horse"s side and flew out of sight like the wind.
"Follow him!" Lady Helena cried, breathlessly, to the groom. "Overtake him, for the love of Heaven! Oh, _who_ can have done this awful deed?
Edwards, you are sure there is no mistake? It seems too unnatural, too impossible to believe."
"There is no mistake, my lady," the man answered, sadly. "I saw her myself, the blood flowing where they had stabbed her, cold and dead."