"I remain, "My dear Miss Caldegard, "Yours very sincerely, "ALBAN MELCHARD."
"H"m, in Paris, is he? No more in Paris than I am. Wrote this in case he should be suspected, but didn"t count on having to cart the girl along.
False addresses wouldn"t help him. These two are straight goods. Clever move, if it hadn"t been for the girl. Your alibi"ll hang you, Alban Melchard. That fixes Millsborough."
Savagely he cranked up his engine and jumped into the driving-seat. The car rushed forward.
When St. Albans was behind him the confusion of excitement began to settle, and his thoughts presented themselves clear as those of a dispa.s.sionate spectator. For him, in all this tangle, there was one thing, and one thing only, that mattered; to be in time. He did not fear murder; but the very reason of her security from death was the cause of a fear so horrible, that he knew inaction would have been torture past endurance.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SWINE THAT STANK.
When Amaryllis left her bedroom, having laid Melchard"s letter on her table, she had intended returning at once to pleasant and frivolous conversation with d.i.c.k Bellamy. For to-night she was nervous--a little unstrung, it may be, by the pain she had given to his brother; and d.i.c.k, with his quiescent vitality, his odd phrases and uncompromising directness of expression, seemed to her at that moment the most restful companion in the world. If she could only get him started, he might amuse and interest her as on the long drive the day before. And then, he seemed to be one of those people who understand even when you don"t talk--and she remembered how he had cut into her father"s chatter about Melchard by upsetting the candles.
But Sir Randal had met her between the door and the stairhead.
"d.i.c.k tells me I"ve got to play billiards all alone," he said; and though his self-pity was merely playful, it struck the girl painfully.
"What a shame!" she began--and then a stupid lump came in her throat, and Randal saw the change in her face.
"My dear," he said, "you mustn"t. I"m all right. Believe me, if it does hurt a little, it won"t spoil things for me as it might for a young fellow. The world"s a very interesting place, and I"m going to be jolly in it, just the same."
He looked at her for a moment anxiously.
"Be jolly too--there"s a good girl. And, I say," he added with simple eagerness, "you won"t go running away from here to some dreadful aunt, will you?"
"I"ll stay just as long as you and father want me to," she replied; but, finding speech difficult, finished with the best smile she could command, and went down the stair, avoiding d.i.c.k and seeking refuge in Randal"s study.
There the tears overcame her--though she tried to hide from herself their full reason.
Randal she had known for many weeks, and for Randal she was indeed tenderly grieved; but the other man, with his abruptness, his humour, and his lurking intensity, she had first seen the day before yesterday; and although she knew nothing of Mr. Richard Bellamy"s opinion of herself, and admitted in regard to her own future no more than that she found him interesting, she was too well aware to deny, even to herself, that he had pushed his brother out of his chance.
To say this, she told herself, was but to confess that the younger man had unconsciously reminded her of possibilities and dangers; but it seemed to be not only unkind but unjust that Sir Randal"s misfortune should arise out of the very eagerness of his affection for this weird brother of his.
And then her father! He had said nothing, implied nothing, but she foresaw disappointment.
It was all rotten, and the tears flowed.
Then came that hand on her shoulder, whose touch, although they had never, she remembered, even shaken hands, she knew before lifting her eyes to his.
When he had left her, although her tears were soon dry, she felt a curious restlessness of mind, and what she would have called "an excited tiredness," and she stretched her body on the cushions of the settee for a moment"s relaxation, which slipped at once into half an hour"s sleep.
A whisper awoke her. She raised her head. The voice was behind her.
Cautiously, kept silent between fear and curiosity, she rose and turned her face to the alcove.
A man was there, with his back towards her--not one of her men. His clothes were grey; his right hand was on the open door of the safe, the left holding a small parcel wrapped in white paper, and, separate, an envelope.
Amaryllis knew what he held, and the courage rose in her to hold back the scream which was coming, until she should have tight hold of the thief--the fingers of both hands, she hoped, fast in his collar.
She was close behind him, and he was locking the safe, when suddenly he felt or heard her presence and swung round.
It was the face of Melchard; astonishment and disgust for a fatal moment took away her breath. Before she could scream, his hands were on her mouth and naked neck, pushing her roughly backward until she was against the right-hand curtain and the corner of the wall. From behind the curtain, it seemed, two small, soft hands stole over her shoulders and gripped her neck, squeezing it savagely.
Melchard took his left hand from her mouth, and as she tried in vain to scream in spite of the double grip on her throat, he crammed a handful of the linen curtain between her tongue and palate with his long fingers.
"Take your cat"s claws off her neck," she heard him mutter. "I"ll keep her quiet."
And that was all before she fainted.
Her next sensation was of half-sitting, half-lying in an uneasy arm-chair--a chair which jolted, slid and swung, and then again glided smoothly. There was something hairy over her face, and she drew her breath with difficulty.
She was in a car--the weight on her face was the hairy side of a rug.
Movement seemed impossible, and the fur now and then hurt her eyes. With an effort she managed to close the lids, and as tears slowly refreshed the eye-b.a.l.l.s, she was so much relieved that she might have fallen asleep, but for Melchard"s detested voice sounding above her.
"I think that"s Escrick we"ve just run through. York in ten minutes about. When I say "now," down you go under the rug again. I"m the only pa.s.senger through the town."
"Why not go round York?" asked another voice, which Amaryllis had heard before; but where, she could not remember.
"We mustn"t waste any time," answered Melchard. "Besides, if more people see you in the streets of a town, fewer look at you than in the country.
You"ll have to duck in a minute, and I shall pile the bags and things on top."
"They hurt me last time," said the softer voice.
"A thousand apologies," replied Melchard carelessly. "But it"s all in the good cause. By the way, you"d better have a look, and see if the girl"s all right before I cover you over."
"Oh, d.a.m.n the girl!" answered the woman. "What"s it matter if she dies?"
"If I"d wanted that, I"d have left her dead in her lover"s study."
"Lover! Old Bellamy!" said the woman--and laughed.
"Not old enough, I guess, to help it."
"Nor you, Alban, to hide it," she retorted, groping at the rug which covered Amaryllis. "You gave her enough to keep her quiet another hour or two, didn"t you?"
"It"s hard to tell with a new subject," he answered. "Morphine is tricky in opiate doses."
Then Amaryllis knew she had been drugged, and to appear as when they last saw her, she half-opened her eyes, showed her teeth between drawn lips, and managed to keep her face rigid without even the quiver of an eyelid.
The rug was lifted for a moment and a face peered at hers; and she knew it for that of Sir Randal"s late parlour-maid and lamented coffee-maker.
"She"s just the same," said the woman. "Quite insensible, but not dead yet. Blast her!"