I had reached the end of my "beat", and had stopped to relight my pipe, when drama broke loose with the swift unexpectedness which was characteristic of the place. The stillness of the night was split by a sound which I could have heard in a gale and recognized among a hundred conflicting noises. It was a scream, a shrill, piercing squeal that did not rise to a crescendo, but started at its maximum and held the note; a squeal which could only proceed from one throat: the deafening war-cry of the Little Nugget.
I had grown accustomed, since my arrival at Sanstead House, to a certain quickening of the pace of life, but tonight events succeeded one another with a rapidity which surprised me. A whole cinematograph-drama was enacted during the s.p.a.ce of time it takes for a wooden match to burn.
At the moment when the Little Nugget gave tongue, I had just struck one, and I stood, startled into rigidity, holding it in the air as if I had decided to const.i.tute myself a sort of limelight man to the performance.
It cannot have been more than a few seconds later before some person unknown nearly destroyed me.
I was standing, holding my match and listening to the sounds of confusion indoors, when this person, rounding the angle of the house in a desperate hurry, emerged from the bushes and rammed me squarely.
He was a short man, or he must have crouched as he ran, for his shoulder--a hard, bony shoulder--was precisely the same distance from the ground as my solar plexus. In the brief impact which ensued between the two, the shoulder had the advantage of being in motion, while the solar plexus was stationary, and there was no room for any shadow of doubt as to which had the worst of it.
That the mysterious unknown was not unshaken by the encounter was made clear by a sharp yelp of surprise and pain. He staggered.
What happened to him after that was not a matter of interest to me. I gather that he escaped into the night. But I was too occupied with my own affairs to follow his movements.
Of all cures for melancholy introspection a violent blow in the solar plexus is the most immediate. If Mr Corbett had any abstract worries that day at Carson City, I fancy they ceased to occupy his mind from the moment when Mr Fitzsimmons administered that historic left jab. In my case the cure was instantaneous. I can remember reeling across the gravel and falling in a heap and trying to breathe and knowing that I should never again be able to, and then for some minutes all interest in the affairs of this world left me.
How long it was before my breath returned, hesitatingly, like some timid Prodigal Son trying to muster up courage to enter the old home, I do not know; but it cannot have been many minutes, for the house was only just beginning to disgorge its occupants as I sat up. Disconnected cries and questions filled the air. Dim forms moved about in the darkness.
I had started to struggle to my feet, feeling very sick and boneless, when it was borne in upon me that the sensations of this remarkable night were not yet over. As I reached a sitting position, and paused before adventuring further, to allow a wave of nausea to pa.s.s, a hand was placed on my shoulder and a voice behind me said, "Don"t move!"
II
I was not in a condition to argue. Beyond a fleeting feeling that a liberty was being taken with me and that I was being treated unjustly, I do not remember resenting the command. I had no notion who the speaker might be, and no curiosity. Breathing just then had all the glamour of a difficult feat cleverly performed. I concentrated my whole attention upon it. I was pleased, and surprised, to find myself getting on so well. I remember having much the same sensation when I first learned to ride a bicycle--a kind of dazed feeling that I seemed to be doing it, but Heaven alone knew how.
A minute or so later, when I had leisure to observe outside matters, I perceived that among the other actors in the drama confusion still reigned. There was much scuttering about and much meaningless shouting. Mr Abney"s reedy tenor voice was issuing directions, each of which reached a dizzier height of futility than the last. Glossop was repeating over and over again the words, "Shall I telephone for the police?" to which n.o.body appeared to pay the least attention. One or two boys were darting about like rabbits and squealing unintelligibly. A female voice--I think Mrs Attwell"s--was saying, "Can you see him?"
Up to this point, my match, long since extinguished, had been the only illumination the affair had received; but now somebody, who proved to be White, the butler, came from the direction of the stable-yard with a carriage-lamp. Every one seemed calmer and happier for it. The boys stopped squealing, Mrs Attwell and Glossop subsided, and Mr Abney said "Ah!" in a self-satisfied voice, as if he had directed this move and was congratulating himself on the success with which it had been carried out.
The whole strength of the company gathered round the light.
"Thank you, White," said Mr Abney. "Excellent. I fear the scoundrel has escaped."
"I suspect so, sir."
"This is a very remarkable occurrence, White."
"Yes, sir."
"The man was actually in Master Ford"s bedroom."
"Indeed, sir?"
A shrill voice spoke. I recognized it as that of Augustus Beckford, always to be counted upon to be in the centre of things gathering information.
"Sir, please, sir, what was up? Who was it, sir? Sir, was it a burglar, sir? Have you ever met a burglar, sir? My father took me to see Raffles in the holidays, sir. Do you think this chap was like Raffles, sir? Sir--"
"It was undoubtedly--" Mr Abney was beginning, when the ident.i.ty of the questioner dawned upon him, and for the first time he realized that the drive was full of boys actively engaged in catching their deaths of cold. His all-friends-here-let-us- discuss-this-interesting-episode-fully manner changed. He became the outraged schoolmaster. Never before had I heard him speak so sharply to boys, many of whom, though breaking rules, were still t.i.tled.
"What are you boys doing out of bed? Go back to bed instantly. I shall punish you most severely. I--"
"Shall I telephone for the police?" asked Glossop. Disregarded.
"I will not have this conduct. You will catch cold. This is disgraceful. Ten bad marks! I shall punish you most severely if you do not instantly--"
A calm voice interrupted him.
"Say!"
The Little Nugget strolled easily into the circle of light. He was wearing a dressing-gown, and in his hand was a smouldering cigarette, from which he proceeded, before continuing his remarks, to blow a cloud of smoke.
"Say, I guess you"re wrong. That wasn"t any ordinary porch-climber."
The spectacle of his _bete noire_ wreathed in smoke, coming on top of the emotions of the night, was almost too much for Mr Abney. He gesticulated for a moment in impa.s.sioned silence, his arms throwing grotesque shadows on the gravel.
"How _dare_ you smoke, boy! How _dare_ you smoke that cigarette!"
"It"s the only one I"ve got," responded the Little Nugget amiably.
"I have spoken to you--I have warned you--Ten bad marks!--I will not have--Fifteen bad marks!"
The Little Nugget ignored the painful scene. He was smiling quietly.
"If you ask _me_," he said, "that guy was after something better than plated spoons. Yes, sir! If you want my opinion, it was Buck MacGinnis, or Chicago Ed., or one of those guys, and what he was trailing was me. They"re always at it. Buck had a try for me in the fall of "07, and Ed.--"
"Do you hear me? Will you return instantly--"
"If you don"t believe me I can show you the piece there was about it in the papers. I"ve got a press-clipping alb.u.m in my box.
Whenever there"s a piece about me in the papers, I cut it out and paste it into my alb.u.m. If you"ll come right along, I"ll show you the story about Buck now. It happened in Chicago, and he"d have got away with me if it hadn"t been--"
"Twenty bad marks!"
"Mr Abney!"
It was the person standing behind me who spoke. Till now he or she had remained a silent spectator, waiting, I suppose, for a lull in the conversation.
They jumped, all together, like a well-trained chorus.
"Who is that?" cried Mr Abney. I could tell by the sound of his voice that his nerves were on wires. "Who was that who spoke?"
"Shall I telephone for the police?" asked Glossop. Ignored.
"I am Mrs Sheridan, Mr Abney. You were expecting me to-night."
"Mrs Sheridan? Mrs Sher--I expected you in a cab. I expected you in--ah--in fact, a cab."
"I walked."
I had a curious sensation of having heard the voice before. When she had told me not to move, she had spoken in a whisper--or, to me, in my dazed state, it had sounded like a whisper--but now she was raising her voice, and there was a note in it that seemed familiar. It stirred some chord in my memory, and I waited to hear it again.