"Thank G.o.d for that!" he exclaimed, with profound grat.i.tude. "Then I"m saved, and you"re saved. We can both understand one another in that case. We know how it all happened!"
"Perfectly," I answered. "I know all now. As I sat there and cowered, I heard a knock at the door, and before papa could answer, you entered hastily. Papa looked round, I could hear, and saw who it was in a second.
""Oh, it"s you!" he said, coldly. "It"s you, Dr. Ivor. And pray, sir, what do you want here this evening?""
"Go on!" Jack cried, intensely relieved, I could feel. "Let me see how much more you can remember, Una."
"So you shut the door softly and said:
""Yes, it"s I, Mr. Callingham,"" I continued all aglow, and looking into his eyes for confirmation. ""And I"ve come to tell you a fact that may surprise you. Prepare for strange news. Richard Wharton has returned to England!"
"I knew Richard Wharton was mamma"s first husband, who was dead before I was born, as I"d always been told: and I sat there aghast at the news: it was so sudden, so crushing. I"d heard he"d been wrecked, and I thought he"d come to life again; but as yet I didn"t suspect what was all the real meaning of it.
"But papa drew back, I could hear, in a perfect frenzy of rage, astonishment, and terror.
""Richard Wharton!" he hissed out between his teeth, springing away like one stung. "Richard Wharton come back! You liar! You sneak!
He"s dead this twenty years! You"re trying to frighten me."
"I never meant to overhear your conversation. But at that, it was so strange, I drew back and cowered even closer. I was afraid of papa"s voice. I was afraid of his rage. He spoke just like a man who was ready to murder you.
"Then you began to talk with papa about strange things that astonished me--strange things that I only half understood just then, but that by the light of what you"ve told me to-day I quite understand now--the history of my real father.
""I"m no liar," you answered. "Richard Wharton has come back. And by the aid of what he"s disclosed, I know the whole truth. The girl you call your daughter, and whose money you"ve stolen, is not yours at all. She"s Richard Wharton"s daughter Mary!"
"Papa staggered back a pace or two, and came quite close to the screen. I cowered behind it in alarm. I could see he was terrified.
For a minute or two you talked with him, and urged him to confess.
Bit by bit, as you went on, he recovered his nerve, and began to bl.u.s.ter. He didn"t deny what you said: he saw it was no use: he just sneered and prevaricated.
"As I listened to his words, I saw he admitted it all. A great horror came over me. Then my life was one long lie! He was never my father. He had concocted a vile plot. He had held me in this slavery so many years to suit his own purposes. He had crushed my mother to death, and robbed me of my birthright. Even before that night, I never loved him. I thought it very wicked of me, but I never could love him. As he spoke to you and grew cynical, I began to loathe and despise him. I can"t tell you how great a comfort it was to me to know--to hear from his own lips I was not that man"s daughter.
"At last, after many recriminations, he looked across at you, and said, half laughing, for he was quite himself again by that time:
""This is all very fine, Courtenay Ivor--all very fine in its way; but how are you going to prove it? that"s the real question. Do you think any jury in England will believe, on your unsupported oath, such a c.o.c.k-and-bull story? Do you think, even if Richard Wharton"s come back, and you"ve got him on your side, I can"t cross-examine all the life out of his body?"
"At that you said gravely--wanting to touch his conscience, I suppose:--
""Richard Wharton"s come back, but you can"t cross-examine him. For Richard Wharton died some six or eight weeks since at my cottage at Babbicombe, after revealing to me all this vile plot against himself and his daughter."
"Then papa drew back with a loud laugh--a hateful laugh like a demon"s. I can"t help calling him papa still, though it pains me even to think of him. That loud laugh rings still in my ears to this day. It was horrible, diabolical, like a wild beast"s in triumph.
""You fool!" he said, with a sneer. "And you come here to tell me that! You infernal idiot! You come here to put yourself in my power like this! Courtenay Ivor, I always knew you were an a.s.s, but I didn"t ever know you were quite such a born idiot of a fellow as that. Hold back there, you image!" With a rapid dart, before you could see what he was doing, he pa.s.sed a wire round your body and thrust two k.n.o.bs into your hands. "You"re in my power now!" he exclaimed. "You can"t move or stir!"
"I saw at once what he"d done. He"d pinned you to the spot with the handles of his powerful electric apparatus. It was so strong that it would hold one riveted to the spot in pain. You couldn"t let go. You could hardly even speak or cry aloud for help. He had pinned you down irresistibly. I thought he meant to murder you.
"Yet I was too terrified, even so, to scream aloud for the servants.
I only crouched there, rooted, and wondered what next would happen.
"He went across to the door and turned the key in it. Then he opened the cabinet and took out some things there. It was growing quite dusk, and I could hardly see them. He returned with them where you stood, struggling in vain to set yourself free. His voice was as hard as adamant now. He spoke slowly and distinctly, in a voice like a fiend"s. Oh, Jack, no wonder that scene took away my reason!"
"And you can remember what he said next, Una?" Jack asked, following me eagerly.
"Yes, I can remember what he said next," I went on. "He stood over you threateningly. I could see then the thing he held in his right hand was a loaded revolver. In his left was a bottle, a small medical phial.
""If you stir, I"ll shoot you," he said; "I"ll shoot you like a dog!
You fool, you"ve sealed your own fate! What an idiot to let me know Richard Wharton"s dead! Now, hear your fate! n.o.body saw you come into this house to-night. n.o.body shall see you leave. Look here, sir, at this bottle. It"s chloroform: do you understand?
Chloroform--chloroform--chloroform! I shall hold it to your nose--so. I shall stifle you quietly--no blood, no fuss, no nasty mess of any sort. And when I"m done,--do you see these flasks?--I can reduce your d.a.m.ned carcase to a pound of ashes with chemicals in half-an-hour! You"ve found out too much. But you"ve mistaken your man! Courtenay Ivor, say your prayers and commend your soul to the devil! You"ve driven me to bay, and I give you no quarter!""
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE FATAL SHOT
"Thank G.o.d, Una," Jack cried, "you remember it now even better than I do!"
"Remember it!" I answered, holding my brow with my hands to keep the flood of thought from bursting it to fragments. "Remember it! Why, it comes back to me like waves of fire and burns me. I remember every word, every act, every gesture. I lifted my head slowly, Jack, and looked over the screen at him. In the twilight, I saw him there--the man I called my father--holding the bottle to your face, that wicked bottle of chloroform, with his revolver in one hand, and a calm smile like a fiend"s playing hatefully and cruelly round that grave-looking mouth of his. I never saw any man look so ghastly in my life. I was rooted to the spot with awe and terror. I dared hardly cry out or move. Yet I knew this was murder. He would kill you! He would kill you! He was trying to poison you before my very eyes. Oh, heaven, how I hated him! He was no father of mine. He had never been my father. And he was murdering the man I loved best in the world. For I loved you better than life, Jack! Oh, the strain of it was terrible! I see it all now. I live it all over again. With one wild bound I leapt forward, and, hardly knowing what I did, I pressed the b.u.t.ton, turned off the current from the battery, and rushed wildly upon him. I suppose the k.n.o.b I pressed not only released you, but set the photographic machine at work automatically.
But I didn"t know it then. At any rate, I remember now, in the seconds that followed, flash came fast after flash. There was a sudden illumination. The room was lighter than day. It grew alternately bright as noon and then dark as pitch again by contrast. And by the light of the flashes, I saw you, half-dazed with the chloroform, standing helpless there.
"I rushed up and caught the man"s arm. He was never my father! He dropped the bottle and struggled hard for possession of the pistol.
First he pointed it at you, then at me, then at you again. He meant to shoot you. I was afraid it would go off. With a terrible effort I twisted his wrist awry, in the mad force of pa.s.sion, and wrenched the revolver away from him. He jumped at my throat, still silent, but fierce like a tiger at bay. I eluded him, and sprang back. Then I remember no more, except that I stood with the pistol pointed at him. Next, came a flash, a loud roar. And then, in a moment, the Picture. He lay dead on the floor in his blood. And my Second State began. And from that day, for months, I was like a little child again."
Jack looked at me as I paused.
"And then?" he went on in a very low voice, half prompting me.
"And then all I can remember," I said, "is how you got out of the window. But I didn"t know when I saw you, it was you or anyone else.
That was my Second State then. The shot seemed to end all. What comes next is quite different. It belongs to the new world. There, my life stopped dead short and began all over again."
There was a moments silence. Jack was the first to break it.
"And now will you give yourself up to the police, Una?" he asked me quietly.
The question brought me back to the present again with a bound.
"Oh! what ought I to do?" I cried, wringing my hands. "I don"t quite know all yet. Jack, why did you run away that last moment and leave me?"
Jack took my hand very seriously.
"Una, my child," he said, fixing his eyes on mine, "I hardly know whether I can ever make you understand all that. I must ask you at first at least just simply to believe me. I must ask you to trust me and to accept my account. When you rushed upon me as I stood there, all entangled in that hateful apparatus, and unable to move, I didn"t know where you had been; I didn"t know how you"d come there.
But I felt sure you must have heard at least your false father"s last words--that he"d stifle me with the chloroform and burn my body up afterwards to ashes with his chemicals. You seized the pistol before I could quite recover from the effects of the fumes.
He lay dead at my feet before I realised what was happening.
"Then, in a moment, as I looked at you, I took it all in, like a flash of lightning. I saw how impossible it would be ever to convince anybody else of the truth of our story. I saw if we both told the truth, no one would ever believe us. There was no time then to reflect, no time to hesitate. I had to make up my mind at once to a plan of action, and to carry it out without a second"s delay. In one burst of inspiration, I saw that to stop would be to seal both our fates. I didn"t mind so much for myself; that was nothing, nothing: but for your sake I felt I must dare and risk everything.
Then I turned round and looked at you. I saw at one glance the horror of the moment had rendered you speechless and almost senseless. The right plan came to me at once as if by magic. "Una,"
I cried, "stand back! Wait till the servants come!" For I knew the report of the revolver would soon bring them up to the library. Then I waited myself. As they reached the door, and forced it open, I jumped up to the window. Just outside, my bicycle stood propped against the wall. I let them purposely catch just a glimpse of my back--an unfamiliar figure. They saw the pistol on the floor,--Mr.
Callingham dead--you, startled and horrified--a man unknown, escaping in hot haste from the window. I risked my own life, so as to save your name and honour. I let them see me escape, so as to exonerate you from suspicion. If they hanged me, what matter? Then I leapt down in a hurry, jumped lightly on my machine, and rode off like the wind down the avenue to the high-road. For a second or two they waited to look at you and your father. That second or two saved us. By the time they"d come out to look, I was away down the grounds, past the turn of the avenue, and well on for the high-road.
They"d seen a glimpse of the murderer, escaping by the window. They would never suspect YOU. You were saved, and I was happy."