Flockart stood motionless. The announcement which the woman had made staggered him.
Felix Krail had come to him in Paris, and after some hesitation, and with some reluctance, had described how he had followed the girl along the Nene bank and thrown her into the deepest part of the river, knowing that she would be hampered by her skirts and that she could not swim.
"She will not trouble us further. Never fear!" he had said. "It will be thought a case of suicide through love. Her mental depression is the common talk of the neighbourhood."
And yet the girl was safe and now home again at Glencardine! He reflected upon the ugly facts of "the other affair" to which her ladyship sometimes referred, and his face went ashen pale.
Just at the moment when success had come to them after all their ingenuity and all their endeavours--just at a moment when they could demand and obtain what terms they liked from Sir Henry to preserve the secret of the financial combine--came this catastrophe.
"Felix was a fool to have left his work only half-done," he remarked aloud, as though speaking to himself.
"What work?" asked the hollow-eyed woman eagerly. But he did not satisfy her. To explain would only increase her alarm and render her even more desperate than she was.
"Did I not tell you often that, from her, we had all to fear?" cried the woman frantically. "But you would not listen. And now I am--I"m face to face with the inevitable. Disaster is before me. No power can avert it.
The girl will have a bitter and terrible revenge."
"No," he cried quickly, with fierce determination. "No, I"ll save you, Winnie. The girl shall not speak. I"ll go up to Glencardine to-night and face it out. You will come with me."
"I!" gasped the shrinking woman. "Ah, no. I--I couldn"t. I dare not face him. You know too well I dare not!"
CHAPTER x.x.xV
DISCLOSES A SECRET
The grey mists were still hanging upon the hills of Glencardine, although it was already midday, for it had rained all night, and everywhere was damp and chilly.
Gabrielle, in her short tweed skirt, golf-cape, and motor-cap, had strolled, with Walter Murie at her side, from the house along the winding path to the old castle. From the contented expression upon her pale, refined countenance, it was plain that happiness, to a great extent, had been restored to her.
When he had gone to Woodnewton it was to fetch her back to Glencardine.
He had asked for an explanation, it was true; but when she had refused one he had not pressed it. That he was puzzled, sorely puzzled, was apparent.
At first, Sir Henry had point-blank refused to receive his daughter. But on hearing her appealing voice he had to some extent relented; and, though strained relations still existed between them, yet happiness had come to her in the knowledge that Walter"s affection was still as strong as ever.
Young Murie had, of course, heard from his mother the story told by Lady Heyburn concerning the offence of her stepdaughter. But he would not believe a single word against her.
They had been strolling slowly, and she had been speaking expressing her heartfelt thanks for his action in taking her from that life of awful monotony at Woodnewton. Then he, on his part, had pressed her soft hand and repeated his promise of lifelong love.
They had entered the old gra.s.s-grown courtyard of the castle, when suddenly she exclaimed, "How I wish, Walter, that we might elucidate the secret of the Whispers!"
"It certainly would be intensely interesting if we could," he said, "The most curious thing is that my old friend Edgar Hamilton, who is secretary to the well-known Baron Conrad de Hetzendorf, tells me that a similar legend is current in connection with the old chateau in Hungary.
He had heard the Whispers himself."
"Most remarkable!" she exclaimed, gazing blankly around at the ponderous walls about her.
"My idea always has been that beneath where we are standing there must be a chamber, for most mediaeval castles had a subterranean dungeon beneath the courtyard."
"Ah, if we could only find entrance to it!" cried the girl enthusiastically. "Shall we try?"
"Have you not often tried, and failed?" he asked laughingly.
"Yes, but let"s search again," she urged. "My strong belief is that entrance is not to be obtained from this side, but from the glen down below."
"Yes, no doubt in the ages long ago the hill was much steeper than it now is, and there were no trees or undergrowth. On that side it was impregnable. The river, however, in receding, silted up much earth and boulders at the bend, and has made the ascent possible."
Together they went to a breach in the ponderous walls and peered down into the ancient river-bed, now but a rippling burn.
"Very well," replied Murie, "let us descend and explore."
So they retraced their steps until, when about half-way to the house, they left the path and went down to the bottom of the beautiful glen until they were immediately beneath the old castle.
The spot was remote and seldom visited. Few ever came there, for it was approached by no path on that side of the burn, so that the keepers always pa.s.sed along the opposite bank. They had no necessity to penetrate there. Besides, it was too near the house.
Through the bracken and undergrowth, pa.s.sing by big trees that in the ages had sprung up from seedlings dropped by the birds or sown by the winds, they slowly ascended to the frowning walls far above--the walls that had withstood so many sieges and the ravages of so many centuries.
Half a dozen times the girl"s skirt became entangled in the briars, and once she tore her cape upon some thorns. But, enjoying the adventure, she went on, Walter going first and clearing a way for her as best he could.
"n.o.body has ever been up here before, I"m quite certain," Gabrielle cried, halting, breathless, for a moment. "Old Stewart, who says he knows every inch of the estate, has never climbed here, I"m sure."
"I don"t expect he has," declared her lover.
At last they found themselves beneath the foundations of one of the flanking-towers of the castle walls, whereupon he suggested that if they followed the wall right along and examined it closely they might discover some entrance.
"I somehow fear there will not be any door on the exposed side," he added.
The base of the walls was all along hidden by thick undergrowth, therefore the examination proved extremely difficult. Nevertheless, keenly interested in their exploration, the pair kept on struggling and climbing until the perspiration rolled off both their faces.
Suddenly, Walter uttered a cry of surprise. "Why, look here! This seems like a track. People _have_ been up here after all!"
And his companion saw that from the burn below, up through the bushes, ran a narrow winding path, which showed little sign of frequent use.
Walter went on before her, quickly following the path until it turned at right-angles and ended before a low door of rough wood which filled a small breach in the wall--a breach made, in all probability, at the last siege in the early seventeenth century.
"This must lead somewhere!" cried Walter excitedly; and, lifting the roughly constructed wooden latch, he pushed the door open, disclosing a cavernous darkness.
A dank, earthy smell greeted their nostrils. It was certainly an uncanny place.
"By Jove!" cried Walter, "I wonder where this leads to?" And, taking out his vestas, he struck one, and, holding it before him, went forward, pa.s.sing through the breach in the broken wall into a stone pa.s.sage which led to the left for a few yards and gave entrance to exactly what Gabrielle had expected--a small, windowless stone chamber probably used in olden days as a dungeon.
Here they found, to their surprise, several old chairs, a rough table formed of two deal planks upon trestles, and a couple of half-burned candles in candlesticks which Gabrielle recognised as belonging to the house. These were lit, and by their aid the place was thoroughly examined.
Upon the floor was a heap of black tinder where some papers had been burnt weeks or perhaps months ago. There were cigar-ends lying about, showing that whoever had been there had taken his ease.
In a niche was a small tin box containing matches and fresh candles, while in a corner lay an old newspaper, limp and damp, bearing a date six months before. On the floor, too, were a number of pieces of paper--a letter torn to fragments.
They tried to piece it together, laying it upon the table carefully, but were unsuccessful in discovering its import, save that it was in Russian, from somebody in Odessa, and addressed to Sir Henry.
Carrying the candles in their hands, they went into the narrow pa.s.sage to explore the subterranean regions of the old place. But neither way could they proceed far, for the pa.s.sage had fallen in at both ends and was blocked by rubbish. The only exit or entrance was by that narrow breach in the walls so cunningly concealed by the undergrowth and closed by the rudely made door of planks nailed together. Above, in the stone roof of the chamber, there was a wide crack running obliquely, and through which any sound could be heard in the courtyard above.