"Dr. Gay"s letter said to me "start to-morrow,"" thought she, "but this man"s countenance as I read it, warns me to start to-night."
She dropped her distrustful eyes from his, and quietly opened her business.
"I am Miss Walsingham, of Castle Brand," she said, "and in the temporary absence of my own lawyer, Mr. Davenport, I have come to you. I am going out to Surrey presently, and I wish to leave some doc.u.ments in your charge until I return. They are important papers, which I must not lose, and, since some accident might occur to them or to you, in my absence, I will prefer that you undertake the charge in company with some other person whose honor is considered unimpeachable. Can you name such a person?"
The lawyer opened his eyes very wide at his new client"s strange request, but glibly ran over a list of the leading men of Regis as candidates for the honor of Miss Walsingham"s confidence.
"We shall try the Rev. Mr. Challoner," she said, "and while I arrange the papers, your boy can carry him a note from me."
Mr. Emersham darted for stationery and wheeled a desk to his visitor with profuse politeness, and when the note was finished he sent his boy off at full speed to the vicarage with it.
During his absence Margaret wrote a careful account of her enemy"s attempt upon her life the previous night; copied out the letter she had received that morning purporting to be from Dr. Gay, and concluded it with these remarks:
"Believing my life to be in danger so long as I remain in Roland Mortlake"s vicinity, I resolve to obey the above letter, although I expect it to lead me into some trap where I shall lose my life. However, in the faint hope that I may be mistaken, I will begin my journey to Llandaff to-night at seven o"clock, Dec. 1862, and return in the seven o"clock evening train the day after to-morrow, when I shall come straight to Mr. Emersham"s office, and reclaim this trust which I have put in his hands. If I do not return on the evening of the said day, I shall have met my death at the hands of Roland Mortlake, who personates Colonel St. Udo Brand, and I call upon Mr. Emersham to cause that man"s arrest for my murder."
This finished, she ordered Mr. Emersham to draw up the form of her will, wherein she declared her wish that the Brand property should be sold, and the proceeds used to found a charitable inst.i.tution in Regis, declaring, heedless, of Mr. Emersham"s looks of astonishment, that St.
Udo Brand being dead, she had resolved that an impostor should never occupy his place. In dead silence then she awaited the arrival of the vicar; the lawyer sitting opposite her gnawing the feather of his pen, and peering inquisitively at her.
Presently the blown office boy ushered in the vicar of Regis, a tall, snowy-haired divine, whose very presence diffused an atmosphere of safety around the persecuted woman.
She had already a slight acquaintance with him, and after a cordial greeting from him, she explained the favor she wished to receive, apologizing timidly for intruding her affairs upon him.
"My advisers, Mr. Davenport and Dr. Gay, are both away," she said, "and wishing to join the doctor, I feel that I must provide against any contingency which may arise. Will you, jointly with Mr. Emersham, undertake the charge of these doc.u.ments for two days?"
Mr. Challoner readily consented. He had always liked the earnest-faced woman, who took her place so regularly in church, and whose praises were sounded so frequently by the lowliest of his flock.
Symonds was called in to append his name as one of the witnesses to Margaret Walsingham"s will, Mr. Challoner being the other, and then the office door was shut mysteriously upon the lady and her two counselors, and gave them her instructions.
With her own hand she placed the doc.u.ment which condemned Roland Mortlake as St. Udo"s a.s.sa.s.sin, his note-book, and her will, in an empty pigeon-hole of the lawyer"s dusty drawers, locked it, and put the key in the old vicar"s hand.
"Come here on Thursday evening at seven o"clock," she said, "with that key; wait until fifteen minutes past the hour, and if I do not arrive then, you must take out the doc.u.ment and read it. If you fail to act up to its instructions, a murderer will escape. I place the key in your hand, because foul play might be attempted upon Mr. Emersham to force him to betray my trust--foul play will not be attempted upon you."
They silently regarded the whitening face, when her womanly terrors struggled with the fixed, fatal look of vengeance, and solemnly promised to do her will.
Then the vicar shook hands and went away.
She looked at her watch. It was six o"clock. She had been nearly two hours in the lawyer"s office.
He had long ago lit the gas and closed the shutters, and was waiting very patiently for her to conclude her business that he might go home to his dinner.
"I have one more letter to write, Mr. Emersham. Will you wait a few minutes longer?" said Margaret.
Again he poured out the a.s.surance of the honor, etc.; and, with a wild smile on her lips, she wrote the following daring words:
"ROLAND MORTLAKE, OR THOMS--which name you have least right to I cannot tell--I warn you, that if I meet my death while absent from Regis upon this journey, your doom is sealed!
"I warn you further, that if I return safely at the end of the time I have set, your doom is sealed, if you are here to brave it. Your only safety lies in flight before I return; and even then I shall do my best to convict you of the murder of St. Udo Brand, which you have confessed in your pocket-book, which has this day been placed in safe hands--which will break the seals, if I am not alive to break them when I intend to return to Regis. If I perish, vengeance shall surely overtake the murderer of St. Udo Brand and MARGARET WALSINGHAM."
She bade farewell to Mr. Emersham at last, and entering her carriage, drove straight to a hotel near the railway station, from which she sent Symonds home with the carriage, and intrusted her letter to him with directions to give it to the steward to deliver to the colonel; and warnings to Symonds not to allow himself to be questioned by Colonel Brand.
A note to Mr. Purcell conveyed her command that he would attend upon her journey; and cautioned him against giving Colonel Brand an inkling of his intentions.
In a quarter of an hour the steward of Castle Brand was ushered into her presence.
"All ready, Purcell?" demanded the lady.
"Quite ready, Miss Margaret."
"Where is Colonel Brand?"
"Still at the castle, miss."
"Did you give him my letter yourself?"
"I did, miss."
"What did he say?"
Mr. Purcell shook his head and looked disgusted.
"You must tell me what he said, Purcell?" insisted Margaret.
"He said nothing that I"d be proud to repeat, Miss Margaret," said Purcell, sourly.
"He up and cursed you like a madman, and said, "Let her go if she dares!""
"What else?"
"Ordered out his horse."
"Intending to find me before I started--do you think?"
"Yes, miss; but I left him cross-questioning Symonds, who wouldn"t give him any satisfaction."
"Very good. Now we must hasten, or we shall miss the train."
She hurried on her traveling-cloak, and, accompanied by Purcell, descended to the station, where the train was ready to start and got on board in time.
From behind her thick c.r.a.pe vail she watched every pa.s.senger who crossed the platform to enter any of the long line of cars, and the flaming street-lamps revealed every face distinctly.
Porters hustled each other; newsboys shouted their papers; ladies made blind sallies to the wrong cla.s.s car and lost themselves in the throng; gentlemen with umbrellas, carpet-bags and plaids elbowed their way into empty compartments; but Roland Mortlake was not among the mob.
She had slipped the chain and got free.
The train glided out of the shed and set itself to its night"s work, and Margaret sank back to her seat with a sigh of relief.
"I have outwitted him," she thought. "His calculations upon my expected movements are all astray. I have taken him by surprise. I shall find Dr.
Gay in Llandaff, sure enough. I did right to go in search of him."