Billy"s Oriental placidity remained unruffled. He neither admitted nor denied. He shrugged his shoulders.
"Funny house," he said laconically. "Find window open--n.o.body there.
Door slam--n.o.body there!"
On the heels of his words came a single, startling bang from the kitchen quarters--the bang of a slammed door!
CHAPTER FIVE
ALOPECIA AND RUBEOLA
Miss Cornelia dropped her newspaper. Lizzie, frankly frightened, gave a little squeal and moved closer to her mistress. Only Billy remained impa.s.sive but even he looked sharply in the direction whence the sound had come.
Miss Cornelia was the first of the others to recover her poise.
"Stop that! It was the wind!" she said, a little irritably--the "Stop that!" addressed to Lizzie who seemed on the point of squealing again.
"I think not wind," said Billy. His very lack of perturbation added weight to the statement. It made Miss Cornelia uneasy. She took out her knitting again.
"How long have you lived in this house, Billy?"
"Since Mr. Fleming built."
"H"m." Miss Cornelia pondered. "And this is the first time you have been disturbed?"
"Last two days only." Billy would have made an ideal witness in a courtroom. He restricted himself so precisely to answering what was asked of him in as few words as possible.
Miss Cornelia ripped out a row in her knitting. She took a deep breath.
"What about that face Lizzie said you saw last night at the window?"
she asked in a steady voice.
Billy grinned, as if slightly embarra.s.sed. "Just face--that"s all."
"A--man"s face?"
He shrugged again.
"Don"t know--maybe. It there! It gone!"
Miss Cornelia did not want to believe him--but she did. "Did you go out after it?" she persisted.
Billy"s yellow grin grew wider. "No thanks," he said cheerfully with ideal succinctness.
Lizzie, meanwhile, had stood first on one foot and then on the other during the interrogation, terror and morbid interest fighting in her for mastery. Now she could hold herself in no longer.
"Oh, Miss Neily!" she exploded in a graveyard moan, "last night when the lights went out I had a token! My oil lamp was full of oil but, do what I would, it kept going out, too--the minute I shut my eyes out that lamp would go. There ain"t a surer token of death! The Bible says, "Let your light shine"--and when a hand you can"t see puts your lights out--good night!"
She ended in a hushed whisper and even Billy looked a trifle uncomfortable after her climax.
"Well, now that you"ve cheered us up," began Miss Cornelia undauntedly, but a long, ominous roll of thunder that rattled the panes in the French windows drowned out the end of her sentence. Nevertheless she welcomed the thunder as a diversion. At least its menace was a physical one--to be guarded against by physical means.
She rose and went over to the French windows. That flimsy bolt! She parted the curtains and looked out--a flicker of lightning stabbed the night--the storm must be almost upon them.
"Bring some candles, Billy," she said. "The lights may be going out any moment--and Billy," as he started to leave, "there"s a gentleman arriving on the last train. After he comes you may go to bed. I"ll wait up for Miss Dale--oh, and Billy," arresting him at the door, "see that all the outer doors on this floor are locked and bring the keys here."
Billy nodded and departed. Miss Cornelia took a long breath. Now that the moment for waiting had pa.s.sed--the moment for action come--she felt suddenly indomitable, prepared to face a dozen Bats!
Her feelings were not shared by her maid. "I know what all this means," moaned Lizzie. "I tell you there"s going to be a death, sure!"
"There certainly will be if you don"t keep quiet," said her mistress acidly. "Lock the billiard-room windows and go to bed."
But this was the last straw for Lizzie. A picture of the two long, dark flights of stairs up which she had to pa.s.s to reach her bedchamber rose before her--and she spoke her mind.
"I am not going to bed!" she said wildly. "I"m going to pack up tomorrow and leave this house." That such a threat would never be carried out while she lived made little difference to her--she was beyond the need of Truth"s consolations. "I asked you on my bended knees not to take this place two miles from a railroad," she went on heatedly. "For mercy"s sake, Miss Neily, let"s go back to the city before it"s too late!"
Miss Cornelia was inflexible.
"I"m not going. You can make up your mind to that. I"m going to find out what"s wrong with this place if it takes all summer. I came out to the country for a rest and I"m going to get it."
"You"ll get your heavenly rest!" mourned Lizzie, giving it up. She looked pitifully at her mistress"s face for a sign that the latter might be weakening--but no such sign came. Instead, Miss Cornelia seemed to grow more determined.
"Besides," she said, suddenly deciding to share the secret she had hugged to herself all day, "I might as well tell you, Lizzie. I"m having a detective sent down tonight from police headquarters in the city."
"A detective?" Lizzie"s face was horrified. "Miss Neily, you"re keeping something from me! You know something I don"t know."
"I hope so. I daresay he will be stupid enough. Most of them are. But at least we can have one proper night"s sleep."
"Not I. I trust no man," said Lizzie. But Miss Cornelia had picked up the paper again.
""The Bat"s last crime was a particularly atrocious one,"" she read.
""The body of the murdered man...""
But Lizzie could bear no more.
"Why don"t you read the funny page once in a while?" she wailed and hurried to close the windows in the billiard room. The door leading into the billiard room shut behind her.
Miss Cornelia remained reading for a moment. Then--was that a sound from the alcove? She dropped the paper, went into the alcove and stood for a moment at the foot of the stairs, listening. No--it must have been imagination. But, while she was here, she might as well put on the spring lock that bolted the door from the alcove to the terrace.
She did so, returned to the living-room and switched off the lights for a moment to look out at the coming storm. It was closer now--the lightning flashes more continuous. She turned on the lights again as Billy re-entered with three candles and a box of matches.
He put them down on a side table.
"New gardener come," he said briefly to Miss Cornelia"s back.
Miss Cornelia turned. "Nice hour for him to get here. What"s his name?"
"Say his name Brook," said Billy, a little doubtful. English names still bothered him--he was never quite sure of them at first.