"It"s mine!"
Sydney dodged it out of his reach.
"What do you mean, it"s yours?"
"It"s the ring I gave Marjorie for an engagement ring. Give it me, you hound!-unless you wish me to do you violence in the cab."
With complete disregard of the limitations of s.p.a.ce,-or of my comfort,-Lessingham thrust him vigorously aside. Then gripping Sydney by the wrist, he seized the gaud,-Sydney yielding it just in time to save himself from being precipitated into the street. Ravished of his treasure, Sydney turned and surveyed the ravisher with something like a glance of admiration.
"Hang me, Lessingham, if I don"t believe there is some warm blood in those fishlike veins of yours. Please the piper, I"ll live to fight you after all,-with the bare ones, sir, as a gentleman should do."
Lessingham seemed to pay no attention to him whatever. He was surveying the ring, which Sydney had trampled out of shape, with looks of the deepest concern.
"Marjorie"s ring!-The one I gave her! Something serious must have happened to her before she would have dropped my ring, and left it lying where it fell."
Atherton went on.
"That"s it!-What has happened to her!-I"ll be dashed if I know! -When it was clear that there she wasn"t, I tore off to find out where she was. Came across old Lindon,-he knew nothing;-I rather fancy I startled him in the middle of Pall Mall, when I left he stared after me like one possessed, and his hat was lying in the gutter. Went home,-she wasn"t there. Asked Dora Grayling,-she"d seen nothing of her. No one had seen anything of her,-she had vanished into air. Then I said to myself, "You"re a first-cla.s.s idiot, on my honour! While you"re looking for her, like a lost sheep, the betting is that the girl"s in Holt"s friend"s house the whole jolly time. When you were there, the chances are that she"d just stepped out for a stroll, and that now she"s back again, and wondering where on earth you"ve gone!" So I made up my mind that I"d fly back and see,-because the idea of her standing on the front doorstep looking for me, while I was going off my nut looking for her, commended itself to what I call my sense of humour; and on my way it struck me that it would be the part of wisdom to pick up Champnell, because if there is a man who can be backed to find a needle in any amount of hay-stacks it is the great Augustus.-That horse has moved itself after all, because here we are. Now, cabman, don"t go driving further on,-you"ll have to put a girdle round the earth if you do; because you"ll have to reach this point again before you get your fare.-This is the magician"s house!"
CHAPTER x.x.xVII
WHAT WAS HIDDEN UNDER THE FLOOR
The cab pulled up in front of a tumbledown cheap "villa" in an unfinished cheap neighbourhood,-the whole place a living monument of the defeat of the speculative builder.
Atherton leaped out on to the gra.s.s-grown rubble which was meant for a footpath.
"I don"t see Marjorie looking for me on the doorstep."
Nor did I,-I saw nothing but what appeared to be an unoccupied ramshackle brick abomination. Suddenly Sydney gave an exclamation.
"Hullo!-The front door"s closed!"
I was hard at his heels.
"What do you mean?"
"Why, when I went I left the front door open. It looks as if I"ve made an idiot of myself after all, and Marjorie"s returned,-let"s hope to goodness that I have."
He knocked. While we waited for a response I questioned him.
"Why did you leave the door open when you went?"
"I hardly know,-I imagine that it was with some dim idea of Marjorie"s being able to get in if she returned while I was absent,-but the truth is I was in such a condition of helter skelter that I am not prepared to swear that I had any reasonable reason."
"I suppose there is no doubt that you did leave it open?"
"Absolutely none,-on that I"ll stake my life."
"Was it open when you returned from your pursuit of Holt?"
"Wide open,-I walked straight in expecting to find her waiting for me in the front room,-I was struck all of a heap when I found she wasn"t there."
"Were there any signs of a struggle?"
"None,-there were no signs of anything. Everything was just as I had left it, with the exception of the ring which I trod on in the pa.s.sage, and which Lessingham has."
"If Miss Lindon has returned, it does not look as if she were in the house at present."
It did not,-unless silence had such meaning. Atherton had knocked loudly three times without succeeding in attracting the slightest notice from within.
"It strikes me that this is another case of seeking admission through that hospitable window at the back."
Atherton led the way to the rear. Lessingham and I followed. There was not even an apology for a yard, still less a garden,-there was not even a fence of any sort, to serve as an enclosure, and to shut off the house from the wilderness of waste land. The kitchen window was open. I asked Sydney if he had left it so.
"I don"t know,-I dare say we did; I don"t fancy that either of us stood on the order of his coming."
While he spoke, he scrambled over the sill. We followed. When he was in, he shouted at the top of his voice,
"Marjorie! Marjorie! Speak to me, Marjorie,-it is I,-Sydney!"
The words echoed through the house. Only silence answered. He led the way to the front room. Suddenly he stopped.
"Hollo!" he cried. "The blind"s down!" I had noticed, when we were outside, that the blind was down at the front room window. "It was up when I went, that I"ll swear. That someone has been here is pretty plain,-let"s hope it"s Marjorie."
He had only taken a step forward into the room when he again stopped short to exclaim.
"My stars!-here"s a sudden clearance!-Why, the place is empty,- everything"s clean gone!"
"What do you mean?-was it furnished when you left?"
The room was empty enough then.
"Furnished?-I don"t know that it was exactly what you"d call furnished,-the party who ran this establishment had a taste in upholstery which was all his own,-but there was a carpet, and a bed, and-and lots of things,-for the most part, I should have said, distinctly Eastern curiosities. They seem to have evaporated into smoke,-which may be a way which is common enough among Eastern curiosities, though it"s queer to me."
Atherton was staring about him as if he found it difficult to credit the evidence of his own eyes.
"How long ago is it since you left?"
He referred to his watch.
"Something over an hour,-possibly an hour and a half; I couldn"t swear to the exact moment, but it certainly isn"t more."
"Did you notice any signs of packing up?"