I told him briefly that our visit to London had given us no satisfaction at all, and gave him the General"s invitation to come up to the house.
"I wouldn"t think of it, Mr. Ewart," he declared emphatically. "Very kind of General McLeod, but he don"t want to worry with strangers just now."
He was very determined; but I insisted, and he eventually gave way. I was glad he had come. I had a somewhat unreasonable esteem for his abilities and resource, and every a.s.sistance was welcomed with open arms at Invermalluch Lodge at that time. His extensive knowledge even included some slight acquaintance with the body"s most wonderful organ, for he told us some very interesting eye cases he had heard of in the States. He was genuinely dumbfoundered when we told him that Sholto was an additional victim.
"You don"t say so!" he exclaimed. "Well, that _is_ remarkable. It sounds as if it came out of a book. In broad daylight a young lady goes out, and is as well as can be. An hour later she is stone blind.
Two days afterwards her dog goes out, and _he_ comes in blind. Yes, it"s got me beaten."
"It"s got us all beaten," said Garnesk deliberately, and I was shocked to hear him say it. I reflected that he had not even examined Myra, and my disappointment was the keener that he should admit himself nonplussed so early. But he left me no loophole of doubt.
"I can make nothing whatever of it," he added, ruefully shaking his head. "I wonder if I ever shall?"
"Come, come! my dear sir," said Hilderman cheerily. "You scientist fellows have a knack of making your difficulties a little greater than they really are, in order to get more credit for surmounting them. I know your little ways. I"m an American, you know, professor; you can"t get me that way."
Garnesk laughed--fortunately. And again I was grateful to Hilderman for his timely tact, for it cheered the old man immensely, and helped me a little, too. Presently the General left the room, and Garnesk leaned forward.
"Mr. Hilderman," he said earnestly, "do everything in your power to keep the old man"s spirits up. I can give him no hope, professionally--I dare not. But you, a layman, can. It is difficult in the circ.u.mstances for Mr. Ewart to give much encouragement, but I know he will do his best."
"J. G. Hilderman is yours to command," said the American, with a bow that included us both. And then the oculist suggested that we should have a look at Sholto. I led the way to the coach-house with a heavy heart. I should not have minded a mystery which would have endangered my own life. Apart from any altruism, the personal peril would have afforded a welcome stimulant. But this unseen horror, which stabbed in the dark and robbed my beautiful Myra of her sight, chilled my very soul. I climbed wearily up the wooden stair to Sholto"s new den, carrying a stable lantern in my hand, for it was getting late, and the carefully darkened room would be as black as ink. The other two followed close on my heels. I opened the door and called to the dog. A faint, sickly-sweet odour met me as I did so.
"You give your dogs elaborate kennels," said Hilderman, as he climbed the stairs, and I laughed in reply.
At that instant Garnesk stood still and sniffed the air. With a sudden jerk he wrenched the lantern from my hand and strode into the room.
Sholto was gone. Only half his chain dangled from the hook, cut through the middle with a pair of strong wire-nippers.
The oculist turned to us with an expression of acute interest.
"Chloroform," he said quietly.
CHAPTER VII.
THE CHEMIST"S ROCK.
By the time we gave up our hunt for Sholto that night and saw Hilderman into the _Baltimore II._ at the landing-stage, the harvest moon had splashed the mountain side with patches of silver in reckless profusion. But we were in no mood for aesthetics. We applied the moonlight to more practical purposes.
"Show me the river, Mr. Ewart," said Garnesk, as we turned away from the sh.o.r.e. Accordingly I took him up stream till we came to Dead Man"s Pool.
"What do you make of things now?" I asked, as we walked along.
"I can"t make anything of the stealing of a dog except that someone coveted it and has now got it. Can you?"
"No," I answered thoughtfully, "I can"t. But it"s an extraordinary coincidence, at the least; and who on earth could have stolen him? You see, no one round here would dream of taking anything that belonged to Miss McLeod. And, though Sholto is well enough bred, he"s never been in a show, and has no reputation. I can"t make it out."
"I"m very sorry it happened just now," said the oculist. "I was in hopes that by experimenting on the animal I could cure the girl. But at any rate that is beyond grieving about now. Is this the place?"
"Yes," I said, "this is Dead Man"s Pool. That dim white shape there is the Chemist"s Rock. It was there that Miss McLeod lost her sight, and here that the General had his extraordinary experience. It looks innocent and peaceful enough," I added, with a sigh.
"The General was very lucky--very lucky indeed!" murmured my companion.
"Why?" I asked.
"He was down here looking at the rock, and he saw some sort of vision; Miss McLeod was up at the rock looking down at the pool, and she lost her sight. The General might have been looking this way instead of that, in which case we might have had another case on our hands."
"Then you think the two adventures are different aspects of the same thing? If only we knew where Sholto was it might give us even more to go on."
"Have you any tobacco?" he asked abruptly. "I"ve got a pipe, but I left my tobacco in my room."
We were in evening dress, and my pouch and pipe were in the house; so I left him there while I ran in to fetch them. When I returned he was nowhere to be seen, and for a moment I half suspected some new tragedy; but as I looked round I caught the gleam of the moonlight on his shirt-front. I found him kneeling on the Chemist"s Rock, looking out to sea.
"Many thanks, Mr. Ewart," he said, as he handed me back my pouch and took the light I offered him. "Ah! I"m glad to see you smoke real tobacco. By the way," he added, "have you a friend--a real friend--you can trust?"
"I have, thank G.o.d!" I replied fervently. "Why?"
"I should like you to send for him. Do anything you can to get him here at once. Go and drag him here, if you like--only get him here."
"But why this urgency?" I asked again. "I admit that we have some very horrible natural phenomena to deal with; but, apart from the fact that some wretched poacher has stolen a dog, we have no human element to fear. I don"t see how he can help, and he might run a risk himself."
"Never mind--fetch him or send for him. If you could have seen yourself start when you returned to the pool yonder to find me missing, you would realise that your nervous system would be the better for a little congenial companionship. Frankly, Mr. Ewart, I don"t like the idea of you being left alone here during the next few days with a blind girl and an old man--if you"ll pardon me for being so blunt."
"But you"ll be here," I said; "and I hope you will have something to say to us that will put nerves out of the question when you have examined Myra."
Garnesk rose to his feet and laid a friendly hand on my arm.
"As soon as I"ve seen what this place looks like at a quarter-past four to a quarter-past five in the afternoon I shall leave you."
"But--good heavens, man!" I cried, aghast, "you won"t leave us like that. We hoped for so much from your visit. You can"t realise, man, what it may mean to--to us all! You see----"
"My dear chap," said my companion, cutting me short with a laugh, "it is just because I do realise that my presence here may be dangerous to Miss McLeod that I propose to leave."
"Dangerous to her?" I gasped. "What on earth do you mean now?" The whole world seemed to have taken leave of its senses, and I mentally vowed that I should wire for Dennis first thing in the morning.
"I say that because her dog has been drugged and taken away."
"But some fool of a poacher was responsible for that!" I cried.
My companion looked at me thoughtfully as he puffed at his pipe.
"I was the cause of the dog"s disappearance," he said quietly.
"I see what you"re driving at," I said. "You pretended to steal the dog because you were afraid Myra would make overwhelming objections to your vivisecting him, or whatever you want to do. Of course, now I see you would be the only person about Invermalluch Lodge likely to have chloroform. But even then I don"t see what you mean by saying that your presence here would be dangerous to Miss McLeod."
"That"s a very ingenious construction to put on my words, my dear fellow," he said; "but in my mind I was relying on you to overcome my patient"s objections to any experiments that might be deemed advisable on her dog. I meant something much more serious than that. I have known you only a few hours, Mr. Ewart; but n.o.body need tell me you are anything of a fool, unless he wants a very flat contradiction. You are looking at this affair from a personal point of view--and no wonder, either. But if you were not so worried about your _fiancee_ your brain would have grasped my point at once. That is why I want you to send for a friend."
"I will," I promised solemnly. "Now tell me--what did you mean?"