Someone knocked at the door.
Mr. Rogers stepped to it quickly. "That you, Jim?"
"Yessir."
"Is Miss Brooks with you?" He held the door a very little ajar--not wide enough to give sight of us behind him.
"Yessir. A gentleman, too, sir: leastways he talks like one, though dressed like a private soldier. He won"t give his name." Jim"s tone was an aggrieved one.
"Thank you: that"s quite right. You may go home to bed, if you wish: but be ready for a call. I may want you later on."
"Be this all you want of me?" Jim was evidently disappointed.
"I fear so."
"P"rhaps you don"t know it, sir, but Hodgson"s gone. There was n.o.body at the gate when we came by."
"Hodgson has a little job on hand. It will certainly occupy him all night, but I am afraid you cannot help him. Now don"t stay asking questions, my man, but be off to bed. I"ll send word if I want you."
Jim grumbled and withdrew. "Best to get him out of the way,"
Mr. Rogers explained to the Rector. "You and I can take this fellow back to Plymouth at daybreak." He listened for a moment and announced, "He"s gone. Keep an eye on our friend, please, while I prepare Isabel for it. My word!"--and he heaved a prodigious sigh-- "I"d give something to be through with the next ten minutes!"
He opened the door and, pa.s.sing through, closed it as quickly behind him. He was absent for half an hour perhaps. We could hear the mutter of his voice in the next room and now and again another masculine voice interrupting--never Isabel"s. The Rector had found a seat for Miss Belcher beside the bureau. He himself took his stand beside the chimney and fingered a volume of the registers, making pretence to read but keeping his eye alert for any movement of Leicester. No one spoke; until the prisoner, intercepting a glance from Miss Belcher, broke into a sudden brutal laugh.
"Poor old lady!" he jeered, and his eyes travelled wickedly across the disordered floor. "Whitmore left a lot behind him, eh?"
She rose and turning her back on him, walked to the window.
There she leaned out, seeming to study the night: but I saw that her shoulders heaved.
The Rector looked across with a puzzled frown. Leicester laughed again: and with that, Miss Belcher came back to him, slipped out the riding-crop which trussed him, and held it under his nose. Her face was white, but calm. She lifted the stick slowly to bring it across his face, paused, and flung it on the floor.
"You tempt me to be as dirty as yourself," she said. "But one woman has shown you mercy to-night, despising you. Think of that, George Leicester."
The door opened again and Mr. Rogers nodded to us.
"Hallo!" he exclaimed, perceiving the riding-crop on the floor.
"He can"t run," said Miss Belcher nonchalantly. "But he can stand now, I fancy--and walk, if you loosen his legs a bit. He"ll be wanted for a witness, won"t he?"
"You"re all wanted." Mr. Rogers helped Leicester to stand and slackened the bond about his ankles. "We"ll tighten it again in the next room, my friend. Stay a moment, Rector!" He pointed to the wardrobe. The Rector went to it and unhitching a clean surplice laid it across his arm. So we filed into the room where Isabel and Archibald Plinlimmon awaited us.
They stood in the shadow of the window-curtains, talking together in low tones: and by their att.i.tudes she was vehemently pleading for a favour which he as vehemently rejected. But when she caught him by both hands he yielded, and they faced us together--she with her beautiful face irradiated.
Miss Belcher stepped to her at once and kissed her; and across that good lady"s shoulder she cast one look at the prisoner, now being shuffled into the room by Mr. Rogers. It was neither vindictive nor recriminatory, but cheerful and calm with an utter scorn. I looked nervously at Archibald Plinlimmon. His face was dusky red and sullen with rage; but I noted with a leap of my heart that he, too, looked Leicester squarely in the face: and from that moment (if a boy may say so) I felt there was hope for him.
The Rector unfolded and donned the surplice. Isabel disengaged herself from Miss Belcher"s arms and, drawing off her ring, handed it to her lover. Their eyes met, and hers were smiling bravely: but they brimmed on a sudden as the tears sprang into his. And now I felt that there was strong hope for him.
Thus I came to be present at their wedding. Indeed, the prisoner claimed so much of Mr. Rogers"s attention during the ceremony that you might almost say I acted as groomsman.
CHAPTER XX.
ISABEL"S REVENGE.
When all was over, and the book signed, Isabel walked across to Mr.
Rogers and held out her hand.
"You have been a good friend to me to-night. G.o.d will surely bless you for what you have done." She paused, with heightened colour.
Mr. Rogers awkwardly stammered that he hoped she wouldn"t mention it.
But if the speech was inadequate, his action made up for it. He took her hand and kissed it respectfully.
It seemed that she had more to say. "I have still another favour to ask," she went on--I have heard since that a woman always keeps some tenderness for an honest man who has once wooed her, however decidedly she may have said "no." Isabel"s smile was at once tender and anxious; but it drew no response from Mr. Rogers, who had let drop her fingers and stood now with eyes uncomfortably averted.
"I want a wedding gift," said she.
"Eh?" He turned a flushed face and perceived that she was pointing at Leicester.
"I want this man from you. Will you give him to me?"
"For what?"
"You shall see." She knelt at the prisoner"s feet and began to unbuckle the strap about his ankles; shrinking a little at first at the touch of him, but resolutely conquering her disgust.
Mr. Rogers put down a hand to prevent her.
"You never mean to set him free?"
"That is what I ask," she answered, with an upturned look of appeal.
"My dear Miss Brooks," he said, inadvertently using her maiden name, "I am sorry--no, that"s a lie--I am jolly glad to say that it can"t be done."
"Why? Against whom else has he sinned, to injure them?"
"Against a good many, even if we put it on that ground only.
Besides, he"ll have to answer another charge altogether."
"What charge?"
"Of having murdered the Jew Rodriguez. Did I not tell you that we found marked money in his pocket?"
"But he never took that money from Mr. Rodriguez?"
Mr. Rogers shrugged his shoulders. "That"s for him to prove."
"But we know he did not," Isabel insisted, and turned to me.