"Nor was Elsie wholly forgotten by her only near of kin. Twice or thrice a year there came from the cottage a web of fine cloth, woven as only Laird Stennis could weave it, with the inscription written plainly thereon, "To be sold for the benefit of the upkeep of my granddaughter, Elsie Stennis."
"After his accident, which n.o.body could explain and, indeed, few dared to ask about, Laird Stennis took a disgust at the Weaver"s Cot by the burnside. He got his miserly money out, and with it he bought the estate of Deep Moat Hollow, that had been in the market for long--and they say that he got it for a song, the late owner"s need being great and money terrible scarce. Then he and Daft Jeremy removed thither, and they had Jeremy"s sister, a queer old maid (madder, they said, than himself), to keep house for the pair of them. Then the Laird Stennis rode ever the more to market and tryst, and waxed ever the richer, laying field to field, as is forbidden in the Holy Book. Then good Mrs. Comline died, and, though I was no better than a field worker, I posted off to Dumfries, and took ye home to dwell with me in this house which is my very own. All for fear that your grandfather would claim you and take you to bide in the same house as Mad Jeremy and his sisters. Oh, yes, there are more of them, and, indeed, by what I can see and hear the place is like an asylum. Such antics were never heard tell of, and the poor creatures going dressed like zanies out of a booth at the Thorsby wakes."
Then we both cried out to Nance to know if she had seen these strange people, and to tell us what they were like.
"Seen them? Of course," she answered. "Do not I work there week in, week out for Bailiff Ball, who is a good man and honest in his payments."
"Tell us about Daft Jeremy," we said, both speaking together, in a fashion we had.
"Jeremy Orrin," said Nance, thoughtfully, giving the fire a poke with her clog; "well, at times the creature is fairly sensible. They say he will talk of wonders he has seen on the deep, and in foreign parts--evil deeds and worse talk that makes the blood run cold to listen. To look at--oh, he is a wild-looking fellow, with long black hair all any way under his broad bonnet--something between a gipsy and a black-corked minstrel at a fair."
"And his sister?"
"Oh," said Nance shortly, "I know little of her. She is old enough to be the mother of the lot, and if any of them have any sense it is Aphra Orrin--or Miss Orrin, as Mr. Stennis makes all call her. She is sixty, if she is a day. But she plays with her brood of antic lunatics all about the gardens, singing and making a mock of religion. Grown women they all are, but like so many scarecrows in their dress. Laird Stennis, they say, wanted their sister to send them to a home for such like. But she would not, and Jeremy was against it, too, so there they bide, a disgrace to all the countryside, though harmless enough, G.o.d knows."
Then Elsie"s eyes met mine. We nodded as Nance finished her tale.
Both of us knew that we meant to go and see for ourselves to-morrow what mysteries were contained within the Deep Moat in the Grange Hollow.
CHAPTER V
WE MEET DAFT JEREMY
The next morning, bright and early, Elsie and I were up and out.
Indeed, I was throwing up stones at her window when she was already dressed and out in the little back garden feeding the hens. Of course I know I should have tried to dissuade Elsie from going on such an errand. But I knew that would only make her all the keener to go.
And, indeed, once she had taken a thing in her head she would go through with it in spite of everything.
Poor Harry Foster and his fate was always in the background of my mind.
But not so much, as I could see, in Elsie"s. Now I like my father well enough, as fathers go. He is a grocer, not at all mysterious, but makes lots of money. Now if, instead, he were the Red Rover of the Seas--well, bless me if I would give twopence to find out about him.
But of course Elsie is different. She always was different from every one else, and now she was keen as a terrier at a rat hole to find out all about the Stennises, and the queer crew that was battening on her grandfather, old Hobby, the Golden Farmer of Deep Moat Hollow.
Before I saw her, Elsie had made Nance"s breakfast, shared it, and seen her off to her work. Nance was in great demand. She could act as foreman or grieve on occasion, and people who wanted their work quickly done, like my father, used often to give Nance as much as a shilling a day extra for coming to them.
I don"t think either of us had much thought of finding out about poor lost Harry Foster. How could we, with all those city detectives, from East Dene and Thorsby, even (they whispered) from Scotland Yard itself, ranging everywhere like pointer dogs over the heather?
Indeed we were almost like dogs on a scent ourselves, so keen were we to see with our eyes the mysterious Grange and all the queer folk there. I hardly think we would have turned aside to look at Harry Foster himself, had he been lying in his last b.l.o.o.d.y sleep, as plain as in a waxwork. But we were not tried. Nothing of the kind happened.
As we went across the moor, every low spiky arch of bramble and tuft of gorse was shining and sparkling. The wren and the gowdspink were preening themselves and shaking off the dews that fell on their feathers as they fussed to and fro about their nesting business. Then we dived into Sparhawk Wood, and came out again on the country cross-road along which Bailiff Ball had seen Dappled Bess plunging madly with her empty cart. The Brom Water flowed still as a ca.n.a.l on our left, down towards the Moat Pond. It was certainly heartsomer to be out under the sky and the crying whaups, with the blue Cheviots looking over the tree tops, than in Grange Longwood, where somebody might be watching you from behind every bush and you none the wiser.
But before we came to the Bridge End, where we had found the marks of the struggle that first morning, Elsie had an idea that if we struck across the road and kept round the edge of the Brom Water, we would escape the bailiff"s cottage and stand a good chance of seeing Deep Moat Grange without being discovered by anybody.
When we got there it was only about six in the morning, and eerie enough in the gloomy bits, where you could not see a handsbreadth of sky, and nasty things, which you told yourself were only rabbits, would keep moving and rustling in the undergrowth.
I would have been glad to go back even then, because after all, it was silly. Just imagine--mad folks, and murderers, maybe, skulking in coverts! I am as brave as anybody when all is open and I have a chance to run. I am too old to believe in ghosts, of course; but for all that there are queer things to be seen in old green droopy woods like that of Deep Moat Hollow. The trees whisper and seem to know such a lot.
After about an hour I get shivers down my back.
But it was no use arguing with Elsie. She went on first, and I guarded the rear--that being the most dangerous position. And I did it well, for I declare I got crick in the neck just with looking over my shoulder.
So we crept and crept, foot by foot, looking and testing everything.
And it was as well. Because, quite without warning, the thick bushes ceased, and there we were on the edge of a deep trench with very black water at the bottom. The sides were steep and green with gra.s.s. But on the other bank all was green and yellow, with spreading lawns and Lent lilies growing, and a woman in a short skirt, coming and going among them, with a gardening spade in her hand.
Somehow I knew at once that that was Daft Jeremy"s elder sister, Aphra Orrin, the one who was not so mad as the others, and kept house for Elsie"s grandfather.
She came quite near. We could have tossed a dog biscuit to her feet--could, that is--somehow, I didn"t want to. It might have startled the poor lady, and besides I hate making oneself conspicuous.
Over the lily patches and the flower beds we got glimpses of a red-tiled house, low and old, all overgrown with ivy about the gables and porches. It had small windows with criss-cross panes, and smoke was coming out of one of the chimneys, though it was yet so early.
That I took to be the kitchen of Deep Moat Grange.
The ca.n.a.l seemed to go all the way round, and to join on to the pond which we could see glimmering beyond the house, looking gray through a fringe of willows.
The place was nested in woods and water, like a dabchick"s nest, yet for all that comfortable and fair to see with its lawns and greenery set about it. I looked at Elsie to see if she was feared. But not she. Instead, there was a queer, eager look, and her eyes kept glittering, as if you could have struck a match at them. Then all at once it struck me that Elsie was going to be pretty; but I resolved to say nothing about that for the present.
It was thinking about her mother that did it, I expect. And that is a funny thing, too. For I care about my mother, and sometimes look eager, like Elsie; but it is when I tease her to tell me what we are going to have for dinner. Elsie was different. She said "S-h-h-h-!"
whenever I moved; and once, when a stick cracked underfoot, turned and gave me a look, which would have speaned a foal.
"You fidgety worm--_can"t_ you be quiet," that look said.
We went on watching the house and the woman watering the flower beds.
Nance had told us that the old housekeeper always did that herself. No hireling was allowed to put a spade in the soil of the Grange garden.
Very soon we had proof that she was quite mad. The Lent lilies grew about in great clumps, flourishing strong and high--a brave show. The gaunt old woman waved the rose of her watering can over each with a kind of ritual, like what I have since seen the priests use in Catholic churches. Then she kneeled down and prayed--yes, prayed to the lilies.
Actually I saw her--and so did Elsie.
But that was not all. Out of the house there came a company of three other women, one behind the other. They had their hair down their backs, and long cloaks with gold and silver patches covered them. Each was carrying something narrow and black in her arms. At first they were too far away for us to see clearly, but as they came nearer, I gasped and caught at Elsie"s hand. The long black things were little, tiny coffins, neatly modelled, and covered with black cloth all complete with fringe, name-plates, and cords. A little to the side, capering and dancing, flinging his legs high in the air, and blowing a merry marching tune on a soldier"s clarionet, pranced Daft Jeremy.
Every now and then he would stop blowing to give the bra.s.s instrument a shake. Then he would laugh and egg on the women with the coffins to dance also. But they went along quite peaceably, keeping their countenances wonderfully, and making quaint signs with their hands.
They marched round and round, the idiot laughing and blowing while the elder woman with the gardening spud went on praying, paying no attention whatever to them, till they came to a rude altar, just two upright posts and a stone laid across them, quite at the end of the garden, opposite to where we were.
Upon this they laid the coffins down, and the women-creatures kneeled.
But the monster with the clarionet leaped up between the coffins nimbly as a jackanapes, crossed his legs, and began to play.
Now I cannot tell whether it was because of the little elevation on the crossbar of the altar which enabled him to spot us, or if I moved; but in another instant Mad Jeremy seemed to spring down, swift and unexpected, and before we could move, he had jerked out a big "gully"
knife, and rushed to the ca.n.a.l bank, leaped into the middle, driving the black sc.u.m of the water every way, and almost before we could think he was upon us.
The madman made for me first with the big knife uplifted, and but for my ducking and running in, there would have been an end of me on the spot. We fell, and his weapon now being in his way, he let go, and I felt the grip of immense hands about my neck. That had almost been my last memory on earth. For though Elsie had seized the knife and was about to kill the madman, it would have been too late so far as I was concerned.
But out of the undergrowth, as if he had been watching, came a little quick-tripping old man, bow-backed and wizened, who called, "Jeremy!
Jeremy!" in a high, piping key.
At the sound the madman lifted himself up from my neck, as if moved by a spring, and stood before the little man smiling and sucking his thumb--for all the world like a child caught stealing sugar.
The little old man pointed to the moat. "Go back as you came!" he said.
The "mounster" threw himself into the black water without a complaint.
I saw him come out on the opposite side dripping, and with long threads of green sc.u.m trailing about him. He never looked round once, but made for the house.
Then the little old man turned fiercely upon Elsie and me, with a kind of cold hateful sneer on his face.