"I am intensely interested," he repeated, watching the lovely, sensitive face which pride and dread of misinterpretation had slightly flushed again.
"It is only to explain--perhaps to justify myself for writing--for asking that an officer be sent here from Lorient for a few days----"
"I understand, Countess."
"Thank you.... Had it been merely for myself--for my own fears--my personal safety, I should not have written. But our misfortunes seem to be coincident with my country"s mishaps.... So I thought--if they sent an officer who would be kind enough to understand----"
"I understand ... L"Ombre has appeared in the moat again, has it not?"
"Yes, it came a week ago, suddenly, at five o"clock in the afternoon."
"And--the clocks?"
"For a week they have been all wrong."
"What hour do they strike?" he asked curiously.
"Five."
"No matter where the hands point?"
"No matter. I have tried to regulate them. I have done everything I could do. But they continue to strike five every hour of the day and night.... I have"--a pale smile touched her lips--"I have been a little wakeful--perhaps a trifle uneasy--on my country"s account. You understand...." Pride and courage had permitted her no more than uneasiness, it seemed. Or if fear had threatened her there in her lonely bedroom through the still watches of the night, she desired him to understand that her solicitude was for France, not for any daughter of the race whose name she bore.
The simplicity and directness of her amazing narrative had held his respect and attention; there could be no doubt that she implicitly believed what she told him.
But that was one thing; and the wild extravagance of the story was another. There must be, of course, an explanation for these phenomena other than a supernatural one. Such things do not happen except in medieval romance and tales of sorcery and doom. And of all regions on earth Brittany swarms with such tales and superst.i.tions. He knew it. And this young girl was Bretonne after all, however educated, however accomplished, however honest and modern and sincere. And he began to comprehend that the germs of superst.i.tion and credulity were in the blood of every Breton ever born.
But he merely said with pleasant deference: "I can very easily understand your uneasiness and perplexity, Madame. It is a time of mental stress, of great nervous tension in France--of heart-racking suspense----"
She lifted her dark eyes. "You do not believe me, Monsieur."
"I believe what you have told me. But I believe, also, that there is a natural explanation concerning these matters."
"I tell myself so, too.... But I brood over them in vain; I can find no explanation."
"Of course there must be one," he insisted carelessly. "Is there anything in the world more likely to go queer than a clock?"
"There are five clocks in the house. Why should they all go wrong at the same time and in the same manner?"
He smiled. "I don"t know," he said frankly. "I"ll investigate, if you will permit me."
"Of course.... And, about L"Ombre. What could explain its presence in the moat? It is a creature of icy waters; it is extremely limited in its range. My father has often said that, except L"Ombre which has appeared at long intervals in our moat, L"Ombre never has been seen in Brittany."
"From where does this clear water come which fills the moat?" he asked, smiling.
"From living springs in the bottom."
"No doubt," he said cheerfully, "a long subterranean vein of water connects these springs with some distant Alpine river, somewhere--in the Pyrenees, perhaps--" He hesitated, for the explanation seemed as far-fetched as the water.
Perhaps it so appeared to her, for she remained politely silent.
Suddenly, in the house, a clock struck five times. They both sat listening intently. From the depths of the ancient mansion, the other clocks repeated the strokes, first one, then another, then two sounding their clear little bells almost in unison. All struck five. He drew out his watch and looked at it. The hour was three in the afternoon.
After a moment her att.i.tude, a trifle rigid, relaxed. He muttered something about making an examination of the clocks, adding that to adjust and regulate them would be a simple matter.
She sat very still beside him on the stone coping--her dark eyes wandered toward the forest--wonderful eyes, dreamily preoccupied--the visionary eyes of a Bretonne, full of the mystery and beauty of magic things unseen.
Venturing, at last, to disturb the delicate sequence of her thoughts: "Madame," he said, "have you heard any rumours concerning enemy airships--or, undersea boats?"
The tranquil gaze returned, rested on him: "No, but something has been happening in the Aulnes etang."
"What?"
"I don"t know. But every day the wild ducks rise from it in fright--clouds of them--and the curlew and lapwings fill the sky with their clamour."
"A poacher?"
"I know of none remaining here in Finistere."
"Have you seen anything in the sky? An eagle?"
"Only the wild fowl whirling above the _etang_."
"You have heard nothing--from the clouds?"
"Only the _vanneaux_ complaining and the wild curlew answering."
"Where is L"Ombre?" he asked, vaguely troubled.
She rose; he followed her across the bridge and along the mossy border of the moat. Presently she stood still and pointed down in silence.
For a while he saw nothing in the moat; then, suspended midway between surface and bottom, motionless in the transparent water, a shadow, hanging there, colourless, translucent--a phantom vaguely detached from the limpid element through which it loomed.
L"Ombre lay very still in the silvery-grey depths where the gla.s.s of the stream reflected the facade of that ancient house.
Around the angle of the moat crept a ripple; a rat appeared, swimming, and, seeing them, dived. L"Ombre never stirred.
An involuntary shudder pa.s.sed over Neeland, and he looked up abruptly with the instinct of a creature suddenly trapped--but not yet quite realizing it.
In the grey forest walling that silent place, in the monotonous sky overhead, there seemed something indefinitely menacing; a menace, too, in the intense stillness; and, in the twisted, uplifted limbs of every giant tree, a subtle and suspended threat.
He said tritely and with an effort: "For everything there are natural causes. These may always be discovered with ingenuity and persistence....
Shall we examine your clocks, Madame?"
"Yes.... Will your General be annoyed because I have asked that an officer be sent here? Tell me truthfully, are _you_ annoyed?"
"No, indeed," he insisted, striving to smile away the inexplicable sense of depression which was creeping over him.
He looked down again at the grey wraith in the water, then, as they turned and walked slowly back across the bridge together, he said, suddenly: