You go back to Devizes Corner--corner of the road to De-vizes--you understand? There was a car--car--carriage there without lights an hour back. It was waiting under the hedge. I saw it, and I--I know what"s what!"
Sir George flung a guinea to the guard, and wheeled his horse about. In the act of turning his eye fell on the lawyer"s steed, which, chosen for sobriety rather than staying powers, was on the point of foundering.
"Get another," he cried, "and follow!"
Mr. Fishwick uttered a wail of despair. To be left to follow--to follow alone, in the dark, through unknown roads, with scarce a clue and on a strange horse--the prospect might have appalled a hardier soul. He was saved from it by Sir George"s servant, a stolid silent man, who might be warranted to ride twenty miles without speaking. "Here, take mine, sir,"
he said. "I must stop to get a lanthorn; we shall need one now. Do you go with his honour."
Mr. Fishwick slid down and was hoisted into the other"s saddle. By the time this was done Sir George was almost lost in the gloom eat the farther end of the street. But anything rather than be left behind. The lawyer laid on his whip in a way that would have astonished him a few hours before, and overtook his leader as he emerged from the town. They rode without speaking until they had retraced their steps to the foot of the hill, and could discern a little higher on the ascent the turn for Devizes.
It is possible that Sir George hoped to find the chaise still lurking in the shelter of the hedge; for as he rode up to the corner he drew a pistol from his holster, and took his horse by the head. If so, he was disappointed. The moon had risen high and its cold light disclosed the whole width of the roadway, leaving no place in which even a dog could lie hidden. Nor as far as the eye could travel along the pale strip of road that ran southward was any movement or sign of life.
Sir George dropped from his saddle, and stooping, sought for proof of the toper"s story. He had no difficulty in finding it. There were the deep narrow ruts which the wheels of a chaise, long stationary, had made in the turf at the side of the road; and south of them was a plat of poached ground where the horses had stood and shifted their feet uneasily. He walked forward, and by the moonlight traced the dusty indents of the wheels until they exchanged the sward for the hard road.
There they were lost in other tracks, but the inference was plain. The chaise had gone south to Devizes.
For the first time Sir George felt the full horror of uncertainty. He climbed into his saddle and sat looking across the waste with eyes of misery, asking himself whither and for what? Whither had they taken her, and why? The Bristol road once left, his theory was at fault; he had no clue, and felt, where time was life and more than life, the slough of horrible conjecture rise to his very lips.
Only one thing, one certain thing remained--the road; the pale ribbon running southward under the stars. He must cling to that. The chaise had gone that way, and though the double might be no more than a trick to throw pursuers off the trail, though the first dark lane, the first roadside tavern, the first farmhouse among the woods might have swallowed the unhappy girl and the wretches who held her in their power, what other clue had he? What other chance but to track the chaise that way, though every check, every minute of uncertainty, of thought, of hesitation--and a hundred such there must be in a t.i.the of the miles--racked him with fears and dreadful surmises?
There was no other. The wind sweeping across the hill on the western extremity of which he stood, looking over the lower ground about the Avon, brought the distant howl of a dog to his ears, and chilled his blood heated with riding. An owl beating the coverts for mice sailed overhead; a hare rustled through the fence. The stars above were awake; in the intense silence of the upland he could almost hear the great spheres throb as they swept through s.p.a.ce! But the human world slept, and while it slept what work of darkness might not be doing? That scream, shrill and ear-piercing, that suddenly rent the night--thank G.o.d, it was only a rabbit"s death-cry, but it left the sweat on his brow! After that he could, he would, wait for nothing and no man.
Lanthorn or no lanthorn, he must be moving. He raised his whip, then let it fall again as his ear caught far away the first faint hoof-beats of a horse travelling the road at headlong speed.
The sound was very distant at first, but it grew rapidly, and presently filled the night. It came from the direction of Chippenham. Mr.
Fishwick, who had not dared to interrupt his companion"s calculations, heard the sound with relief; and looking for the first gleam of the lanthorn, wondered how the servant, riding at that pace, kept it alight, and whether the man had news that he galloped so furiously. But Sir George sat arrested in his saddle, listening, listening intently; until the rider was within a hundred yards or less. Then, as his ear told him that the horse was slackening, he seized Mr. Fishwick"s rein, and backing their horses nearer the hedge, once more drew a pistol from his holster.
The startled lawyer discerned what he did, looked in his face, and saw that his eyes were glittering with excitement. But having no ear for hoof-beats Mr. Fishwick did not understand what was afoot, until the rider appeared at the road-end, and coming plump upon them, drew rein.
Then Sir George"s voice rang out, stern and ominous. "Good evening, Mr.
Dunborough," he said, and raised his hat. "Well met! We are travelling the same road, and, if you please, will do the rest of our journey together."
CHAPTER XIX
AN UNWILLING ALLY
Under the smoothness of Sir George"s words, under the subtle mockery of his manner, throbbed a volcano of pa.s.sion and vengeance. But this was for the lawyer only, even as he alone saw the moonlight gleam faintly on the pistol barrel that lurked behind his companion"s thigh. For Mr.
Dunborough, it would be hard to imagine a man more completely taken by surprise. He swore one great oath, for he saw, at least, that the meeting boded him 110 good; then he sat motionless in his saddle, his left hand on the pommel, his right held stiffly by his side. The moon, which of the two hung a little at Sir George"s back, shone only on the lower part of Dunborough"s face, and by leaving his eyes in the shadow of his hat, gave the others to conjecture what he would do next. It is probable that Sir George, whose hand and pistol were ready, was indifferent; perhaps would have hailed with satisfaction an excuse for vengeance. But Mr. Fishwick, the pacific witness of this strange meeting, awaited the issue with staring eyes, his heart in his mouth; and was mightily relieved when the silence, which the heavy breathing of Mr. Dunborough"s horse did but intensify, was broken on the last comer"s side, by nothing worse than a constrained laugh.
"Travel together?" he said, with an awkward a.s.sumption of jauntiness, "that depends on the road we are going."
"Oh, we are going the same road," Sir George answered, in the mocking tone he had used before.
"You are very clever," Mr. Dunborough retorted, striving to hide his uneasiness; "but if you know that, sir, you have the advantage of me."
"I have," said Sir George, and laughed rudely.
Dunborough stared, finding in the other"s manner fresh cause for misgiving. At last, "As you please," he said contemptuously. "I am for Calne. The road is public. You may travel by it."
"We are not going to Calne," said Sir George.
Mr. Dunborough swore. "You are d----d impertinent!" he said, reining back his horse, "and may go to the devil your own way. For me, I am going to Calne."
"No," said Sir George, "you are not going to Calne. She has not gone Calne way."
Mr. Dunborough drew in his breath quickly. Hitherto he had been uncertain what the other knew, and how far the meeting was accidental; now, forgetful what his words implied and anxious only to say something that might cover his embarra.s.sment, "Oh," he said, "you are--you are in search of her?"
"Yes," said Sir George mockingly. "We are in search of her. And we want to know where she is."
"Where she is?"
"Yes, where she is. That is it; where she is. You were to meet her here, you know. You are late and she has gone. But you will know whither."
Mr. Dunborough stared; then in a tempest of wrath and chagrin, "D----n you!" he cried furiously. "As you know so much, you can find out the rest!"
"I could," said Sir George slowly. "But I prefer that you should help me. And you will."
"Will what?"
"Will help me, sir," Sir George answered quickly, "to find the lady we are seeking."
"I"ll be hanged if I will," Dunborough cried, raging and furious.
"You"ll be hanged if you won"t," Sir George said in a changed tone; and he laughed contemptuously. "Hanged by the neck until you are dead, Mr.
Dunborough--if money can bring it about. You fool," he continued, with a sudden flash of the ferocity that had from the first underlain his sarcasm, "we have got enough from your own lips to hang you, and if more be wanted, your people will peach on you. You have put your neck into the halter, and there is only one way, if one, in which you can take it out. Think, man; think before you speak again," he continued savagely, "for my patience is nearly at an end, and I would sooner see you hang than not. And look you, leave your reins alone, for if you try to turn, by G--d, I"ll shoot you like the dog you are!"
Whether he thought the advice good or bad, Mr. Dunborough took it; and there was a long silence. In the distance the hoof-beats of the servant"s horse, approaching from the direction of Chippenham, broke the stillness of the moonlit country; but round the three men who sat motionless in their saddles, glaring at one another and awaiting the word for action, was a kind of barrier, a breathlessness born of expectation. At length Dunborough spoke.
"What do you want?" he said in a low tone, his voice confessing his defeat. "If she is not here, I do not know where she is."
"That is for you," Sir George answered with a grim coolness that astonished Mr. Fishwick. "It is not I who will hang if aught happen to her."
Again there was silence. Then in a voice choked with rage Mr. Dunborough cried, "But if I do not know?"
"The worse for you," said Sir George. He was sorely tempted to put the muzzle of a pistol to the other"s head and risk all. But he fancied that he knew his man, and that in this way only could he be effectually cowed; and he restrained himself.
"She should be here--that is all I know. She should have been here," Mr.
Dunborough continued sulkily, "at eight."
"Why here?"
"The fools would not take her through Chippenham without me. Now you know."
"It is ten, now."
"Well, curse you," the younger man answered, flaring up again, "could I help it if my horse fell? Do you think I should be sitting here to be rough-ridden by you if it were not for this?" He raised his right arm, or rather his shoulder, with a stiff movement; they saw that the arm was bound to his side. "But for that she would be in Bristol by now," he continued disdainfully, "and you might whistle for her. But, Lord, here is a pother about a college-wench!"
"College-wench, sir?" the lawyer cried scarcely controlling his indignation. "She is Sir George Soane"s cousin. I"d have you know that!"
"And my promised wife," Sir George said, with grim-ness.