"What are you hinting at?" snapped the late Lord Scarlett. "Do you intimate that we"ve hidden our own child at home and come to you with some blackmailing scheme----"
"No," I stopped him. "I don"t think you"re in a position to try a blackmail "stunt." My "hints," as you call them, concerned the _real_ Lady Scarlett; the legitimate daughter of your elder brother Cecil, and his namesake."
As I flung this bomb I sprang up and stood conspicuously close to the old-fashioned bell rope.
The man and woman sprang up also. The former had turned yellowish green, the latter brick-red. They looked like badly lit stage demons.
"So _that"s_ it!" spluttered the German wine merchant"s daughter, when she could speak.
"That"s it," I echoed. "Now, do you still want to call the police and charge me with kidnapping? You can search my rooms yourselves if you like. You"ll find nothing. _Can you say the same of your own?_"
"Yes!" Scarlett jerked the word out. "We can and do say the same. Do you think we"re fools enough to leave the place alone with only Kramm on guard, if we had someone concealed there?"
"Ah, the cap fits!" I cried. "I didn"t accuse you. As you said, I merely "hinted.""
I scored a point, to judge by their looks. But they had scored against me also. I realized that my guess had not been wrong. There was a secret hiding-place to which the garden court suite had access. That was one reason why the Scarletts had chosen the suite. By this time Terry Burns was there, with Kramm laughing in her sleeve while pretending to be outraged at his intrusion. If only _I_ were on the spot instead of Terry, I might have a sporting chance to ferret out the secret, for I--so to speak--had been reared in an atmosphere of "hidie-holes" for priests, cavaliers, and kings, of whom several in times of terror had found asylum at our old Abbey. But Terry Burns was an American. It wasn"t in his blood to detect secret springs and locks!
I ceased to depend on what Terry might do, and "fell back upon myself."
"You talk like a madwoman!" sneered Madame Defarge. But her hands trembled. She must have missed her knitting!
"Mine is inspired madness," said I. And then I did feel an inspiration coming--as one feels a sneeze in church. "Of course," I went on, "if you"ve hidden the poor drugged girl in that cubby-hole under the twisted chimney----"
The woman would have sprung at me if Scarlett had not grabbed her arm.
My hand was on the ta.s.sel of the bell rope; and joy was in my heart, for at last I"d grabbed their best trump. If Bertie The Second was the Ace, the twisted chimney had supplied its Jack!
"Keep your head, Hilda," Scarlett warned his wife. "There"s a vile plot against us. This--er--lady and her American partner have tricked us into letting Dun Moat, with the object of blackmail. We must be careful----"
"No," I corrected him, "you must be _frank_. So will I. We knew nothing of your secret when we came to Dun Moat. We got on the track by accident. As a matter of fact, Captain Burns saw the real Lady Scarlett at the window, and she would have called to him for help if she could.
No doubt by that time she"d realized that you were slowly doing her to death----"
"What a devilish accusation!" Scarlett boomed. "Since you know so much, in self-defence I"ll tell you the true history of this girl. We _have_ taken my brother"s daughter into the house. We have given her shelter.
She is _not_ legitimate. My brother was married in England before going to Australia, and his wife--an actress--still lives. Therefore, to make known Cecil"s parentage would be to accuse her father of bigamy and soil the name. Hearing the truth about him turned her brain. She fell into a kind of fit and was very ill, raving in delirium for days on end. My wife was nursing her in the garden court rooms when you came with Burns and begged us to let the house. My poverty tempted me to consent. For the honour of my family I wished to hide the girl! And frankly (you ask for frankness!), had she died despite my wife"s care, I should have tried to give the body--_private burial_. Now, you"ve heard the whole unvarnished tale."
"Doubtless I"ve heard the tale told to that poor child," I said. "At last I understand how you persuaded her to hide like a criminal while you two thoroughly cooked up your plot against her. But the tale _isn"t_ unvarnished! It"s all varnished and nothing else. I"m not my grandmother"s grand-daughter for nothing! What _she_ didn"t know and remember about the "n.o.ble families of England"--especially in her own country--wasn"t worth knowing! I inherit some of her stories and all of her memory. The last Lord Scarlett, your elder brother, went to Australia because that actress he was madly in love with had a husband who popped up and made himself disagreeable. Oh, I can prove _everything_ against you! And I know where the true Lady Scarlett is at this minute. You can prove _nothing_ against me. You don"t know where your son is, and you won"t know till you hand that poor child from Australia over to Captain Burns and me. If you do that, and she recovers from your wife"s "_nursing_," I can promise for all concerned that bygones shall be bygones, and your boy shall be returned to you. I dare say that"s "compounding a felony" or something. But I"ll go as far as that. What"s your answer?"
The two glared into one another"s eyes. I thought each said to the other, "This was _your_ idea. It"s all your fault. I _told_ you how it would end!" But wise pots don"t waste time in calling kettles black.
They saved their soot-throwing for me.
"You are indeed a true descendant of old Elizabeth Courtenaye," rasped the man. "You"re even more dangerous and unscrupulous than your grandmother! My wife and I are innocent. But you and your American are in a position to turn appearances against us. Besides, you have our son in your power; and rather than the police should be called into this affair by _either_ side, my brother"s daughter--ill as she is--shall be handed over to you when Bertie is returned to us."
"That won"t do," I objected. "Bertie is at a distance. I can"t communicate with--his guardian--till the post office opens to-morrow. On condition that Lady Scarlett is released _to-night_, however, and _only_ on that condition, I will guarantee that the boy shall be with you by ten-thirty A. M. Meanwhile, you can be packing to clear out of Dun Moat, as I hardly think you"ll care to claim your niece"s hospitality longer, in the circ.u.mstances."
"We have no money!" the woman choked.
"You"ve forgotten what you took from Lady Scarlett. And six weeks"
advance of rent paid you by Captain Burns: twelve hundred pounds. He"ll forget, too, if you offer the right inducement. You could have had more from him, if you hadn"t insisted on the clause leaving you free to turn your tenant out at a fortnight"s notice after the first month. I understand _now_ why you wanted it. If the girl had signed her name to a doc.u.ment you"d prepared, leaving her money to you--shares in some Australian mine, perhaps--it would have been convenient to you for her to die. And then----"
"Why waste time in accusations?" quailed Scarlett. "_We_ won"t waste it defending ourselves! If you"re so anxious to get hold of the girl, come home with us and we"ll turn over all responsibility to you."
"Very well," I said, and pulled the bell.
The woman started. "What are you doing that for?" she jerked.
"I wish to order the taxi to take us to Dun Moat," I explained. "I confess I"m not so fond of your society that I"d care to walk a mile with you at night along a lonely road. I"m not a coward, I hope. But you"d be two against one. And you might hold me up----"
"As you"ve held us up!" the man snapped.
"Exactly," I agreed.
Wolves in sheep"s clothing have to behave like sheep when they"re in danger of having their nice white wool stripped off. No doubt this is the reason that, when we arrived at the outside entrance of the bachelor"s wing, my companions were meek as Mary"s lamb.
Inside the suite of the garden court we found Terry Burns and his man raging, and Kramm sulking, in a room with a broken window. Terry had smashed the gla.s.s in order to get in, but his search had been vain. To do the old servant justice, she had the instinct of loyalty. I believe that no bribe would have induced her to betray her mistress. It remained for the Scarletts to give themselves away, which they did--with the secret of the room under the twisted chimney.
The room was built into the huge thickness of the wall which formed a junction between the old house and the more modern wing. The wonderful chimney was not a true chimney at all, but gave ventilation and light, also a means of escape by way of a rope ladder over the roof. But the rope had fallen to pieces long ago, and the prisoner of these days might never have found means of escape, had it not been for that trump-card named Bertie. The room under the twisted chimney would have been a convenient home subst.i.tute for the family vault.
Fate was for us, however--and for her. Even the Lady with the Shears might have felt compunction in cutting short the thread of so fair, so sweet a life as Cecil Scarlett"s. Anyhow, that was what Terry said in favour of Destiny, when some days had pa.s.sed, and it was clear that with good care the girl would live.
We didn"t take her to the inn, as I had planned when keeping the taxi, for Terry--caring less than nothing now for the night"s rest of Princess Avalesco--ruthlessly routed the ladies from their beauty sleep. What they thought about us, and about the half-conscious invalid, I don"t know; for true to my bargain with the Scarletts, no explanations detrimental to them were made. I think it pa.s.sed with the ladies that the girl had arrived ill, in a late train; and that Terry, emboldened by love of her, begged his tenant"s hospitality. So, you see, they were partly right. Besides, the Princess Avalesco had lived in Roumania, where _anything_ can happen.
When Jim brought back Bertie, he brought also a doctor--by request. The doctor was his friend; and Jim"s friends are generally ready to--well, to overlook unconventionalities.
I told you Princess Avalesco loved herself so much that she didn"t miss Terry"s love. She missed it so little that after a few weeks" romance she proposed a bedside wedding at Dun Moat, with herself as hostess; for, of course, nothing would induce her to shorten her tenancy!
Cecil had confessed to falling in love with Terry through the window, at first sight.
Therefore the wedding did take place, with Jim Courtenaye as best man, and myself as "Matron of Honour," as Americans say. Cecil looked so divine as a bride that no woman who saw her could have helped wishing to be married against a background of pillows! I almost envied her. But Jim said that he didn"t envy Terry. His ideal of a bride was entirely different, and he was prepared to describe her to me some day when I was in a good humour!
BOOK III
THE DARK VEIL
CHAPTER I
THE GIRL WITH THE LETTER
Brightening continued to be fun. As time went on I brightened charming people, queer people, people with their hearts in the right place and their "H"s" in the wrong one. I was an expensive luxury, but it paid to have me, as it pays to get a good doctor or the best quality in boots.
After several successful operations and some lurid adventures, I was doing so well on the whole that I felt the need of a secretary. How to hit on the right person was the problem, for I wanted her young, but not too young; pretty, but not too pretty; lively, not giddy; sensible, yet never a bore; a lady, but not a howling swell; accomplished, but not overwhelming; in fact, perfection.