"Strange!"
Strangwise muttered the word just above Desmond"s head. Then, to his inexpressible relief, he heard the other add:
"He"s not there!"
And Desmond realized that the depth of the balcony had saved him.
Short of getting out of the window, as he had done, the others could not see him.
The two men returned to the room and silence fell once more.
Outside on the damp balcony in the growing darkness Desmond was fighting down the impulse to rush in and stake all in one desperate attempt to rescue the girl from her persecutors. But he was learning caution; and he knew he must bide his time.
Some five minutes elapsed during which Desmond could detect no definite sound from the red lacquer room except the occasional low murmur of voices. Then, suddenly, there came a high, quavering cry from the girl.
Desmond raised himself quickly erect, his ear turned so as to catch every sound from the room. The girl wailed again, a plaintive, tortured cry that seemed to issue forth unwillingly from her.
"My G.o.d!" said Desmond to himself, "I can"t stand this!"
His head was level with the sill of the window which was fortunately broad. Getting a good grip on the rough cement with his hands, he hoisted himself up on to the sill, by the sheer force of his arms alone, sat poised there for an instant, then very lightly and without any noise, clambered through the window and into the room. Even as he did so, the girl cried out again.
"I can"t! I can"t!" she wailed.
Every nerve in Desmond"s body was tingling with rage. The blood was hotly throbbing against his temples and he was literally quivering all over with fury. But he held himself in check. This time he must not fail. Both those men were armed, he knew. What chance could he, unarmed as he was, have against them? He must wait, wait, that they might not escape their punishment.
Steadying the black silk curtains with his hands, he looked through the narrow c.h.i.n.k where the two panels met. And this was what he saw.
Barbara Mackwayte was still in the chair; but they had unfastened her arms though her feet were still bound. She had half-risen from her seat. Her body was thrust forward in a strained, unnatural att.i.tude; her eyes were wide open and staring; and there was a little foam on her lips. There was something hideously deformed, horribly unlife-like about her. Though her eyes were open, her look was the look of the blind; and, like the blind, she held her head a little on one side as though eager not to miss the slightest sound.
Bellward stood beside her, his face turned in profile to Desmond.
His eyes were dilated and the sweat stood out in great beads on his forehead and trickled in broad lanes of moisture down his heavy cheeks. He was half-facing the girl and every time he bent towards her, she tugged and strained at her bonds as though to follow him.
"You say he has been here. Where is he? Where is he? You shall tell me where he is."
Bellward was speaking in a strange, vibrating voice. Every question appeared to be a tremendous nervous effort. Desmond, who was keenly sensitive to matters psychic, could almost feel the magnetic power radiating from the man. In the weird red light of the room, he could see the veins standing out like whipcords on the back of Bellward"s hands.
"Tell me where he is? I command you!"
The girl wailed out again in agony and writhed in her bonds. Her voice rose to a high, gurgling scream.
"There!" she cried, pointing with eyes staring, lips parted, straight at the curtains behind which Desmond stood.
CHAPTER XXVIII. AN OFFER FROM STRANGWISE
Desmond sprang for the window; but it was too late. Strangwise who had not missed a syllable of the interrogatory was at the curtains in a flash. As he plucked the hangings back, Desmond made a rush for him; but Strangwise, wary as ever, kept his head and, drawing back, jabbed his great automatic almost in the other"s face.
And then Desmond knew the game was up.
Barbara had collapsed in her chair. Her face was of an ivory pallor and she seemed to have fallen back into the characteristic hypnotic trance. As for Bellward, he had dropped on to a sofa, a loose ma.s.s, exhausted but missing nothing of what was going forward, though, for the moment, he seemed too spent to take any active part in the proceedings. In the meantime Strangwise, his white, even teeth bared in a quiet smile, was very steadily looking at his prisoner.
"Well, Desmond," he said at last, "here"s a pleasant surprise! I thought you were dead!"
Desmond said nothing. He was not a coward as men go; but he was feeling horribly afraid just then. The deviltry of the scene he had just witnessed had fairly unmanned him. The red and black setting of the room had a suggestion of Oriental cruelty in its very garishness. Desmond looked from Strangwise, cool and smiling, to Bellward, gross and beastly, and from the two men to Barbara, wan and still and defenceless. And he was afraid.
Then Bellward scrambled clumsily to his feet, plucking a revolver from his inside pocket as he did so.
"You sneaking rascal," he snarled, "we"ll teach you to play your dirty tricks on us!"
He raised the pistol; but Strangwise stepped between the man and his victim.
"Kill him!" cried Bellward, "and let"s be rid of him once and for all!"
"What" said Strangwise. "Kill Desmond? Ah, no, my friend, I don"t think so!"
And he added drily:
"At least not quite yet!"
"But you must be mad," exclaimed Bellward, toying impatiently with his weapon, "you let him escape through your fingers before!
I know his type. A man like him is only safe when he"s dead. And if you won"t..."
"Now, Bellward," said Strangwise not budging but looking the other calmly in the eye, "you"re getting excited, you know."
But Bellward muttered thickly:
"Kill him! That"s all I ask. And let"s get out of here! I tell you it isn"t safe! Minna can shift for herself!" he added sulkily.
"As she has always done!" said a voice at the door. Mrs.
Malplaquet stood there, a very distinguished looking figure in black with a handsome set of furs.
"But who"s this?" she asked, catching sight of Desmond, as she flashed her beady black eyes round the group. Of Barbara she took not the slightest notice. Desmond remarked it and her indifference shocked him profoundly.
"Of course, you don"t recognize him!" said Strangwise. "This is Major Desmond Okewood, more recently known as Mr. Basil Bellward!"
The woman evinced no surprise.
"So!" she said, "I thought we"d end by getting him. Well, Strangwise, what are we waiting for? Is our friend to live for ever?"
"That"s what I want to know!" bellowed Bellward savagely.
"I have not finished with our friend here!" observed Strangwise.
"No, no," cried Mrs. Malplaquet quickly, Strangwise, "you"ve had your lesson. You"ve lost the jewel and you"re not likely to get it back unless you think that this young man has come here with it on him. Do you want to lose your life, the lives of all of us, as well? Come, come, the fellow"s no earthly good to us! And he"s a menace to us all as long as he"s alive!"
"Minna," said Strangwise, "you must trust me. Besides..." he leaned forward and whispered something in her ear. "Now," he resumed aloud, "you shall take Bellward downstairs and leave me to have a little chat with our friend here."
To Bellward he added:
"Minna will tell you what I said. But first," he pointed to Barbara who remained apparently lifeless in her chair, "bring her round. And then I think she"d better go to bed."