"I very much doubt that there is anything in Lord Kneedrock"s life which Mr. Widdicombe doesn"t know," was her answer.
She returned to her chair, but Gerald Andrews remained standing. "Is there anything else I can do?" he inquired. "If not, I"ll--"
"You can stay for luncheon," she interrupted.
He thanked her, but declined.
"I"ve a little business to look after while I"m up," he added, "and I should be back in Bath to-night."
"You"ve been so good," she said, giving him her hand. "I shall miss you awfully. You"ll be up again soon, won"t you, Gerald?"
The door-bell echoed, and at the same instant Tara lifted his head and growled. Neither seemed to notice.
The man drew her closer and placed his disengaged hand on her shoulder.
"I"d give the world, Nina," he said, "to make this thing lighter for you. If I could only help in some real way!"
"You do; you do," she a.s.sured him. "Your sympathy is everything to me."
There was a step in the pa.s.sage, but neither heard it. For it was at that moment that he caught her almost roughly in his arms and crushed her close to him.
And then the door opened, and Kneedrock was gazing at them from the threshold.
CHAPTER XXVIII
Incarnate or Reincarnate
Nina saw him first; for she was facing that way. Most women would have screamed; she only became rigid. It was the situation in the Umballa bungalow over again--save that there was no pistol at hand, and Andrews knew now that the cobra was made of bronze.
Nina became rigid; Gerald sensed the unexpected. He looked over his shoulder and caught the glare of Kneedrock"s eyes piercing the gloomy half-light.
They weren"t sane eyes. He saw that at once. And a creepy shiver ran along his spine.
Nina"s rigidity gave way to trembling, and all in the brief s.p.a.ce of two seconds at the most--two seconds that were as taut as a fiddle-string.
Then the staghound sprang up, snarling, his fangs bared, and the hair along his back bristling. But he didn"t spring. He pressed close against Nina"s legs and cowered as though he had seen a ghost.
And then Kneedrock laughed. It was the very last thing that they expected, and the strain tightened to the point of snapping.
Because of everything--the whole wretched ensemble--the laugh seemed wilder, madder, weirder, possibly, than it was. It broke off in a sort of choking gurgle, and in a flash the laugher had wheeled about and was swallowed up in the murk of the pa.s.sage.
This only, probably, could have aroused Nina to action. Swiftly as light itself she sped after him with an imploring cry of:
"Hal! Hal!"
Andrews, too, pulled himself together--shook himself free, as it were, of the dread, deathlike inertia that had held him pa.s.sive and followed to the room door. And there Nina"s voice came back to him from the lighted entrance-hall.
"You mustn"t go! You must not! I want to see you. I want to make it all clear."
"It"s clear enough as it is," he heard Kneedrock say. "Infernally clear, and--funny. You"d try to take the fun out of it. I know what you"d do. I always know what you"d do. You"ve never fooled me yet. That"s because I never let you shut my eyes with your kisses--because I"m strong enough to keep you out of my arms."
There was silence for the briefest moment, and it was Kneedrock"s voice that resumed: "Keep your hands off me. Good Lord, if there"s one thing I fear it"s your velvet paws! I"ve seen the sharp claws too often. For G.o.d"s sake, Nina, keep them off, I say!"
"You"ll come back?" she pleaded.
"I"ll come back if you won"t touch me."
"But your mackintosh is dripping, and your hat. Give them to me."
Andrews heard their steps approaching and withdrew from the doorway. He wished to avoid the madman, yet feared to leave Nina alone with him.
Then he noticed that Tara was still in the room--on guard, as it were--and seeing a connecting door ajar, he slipped through it, closing it after him.
The staghound snarled again as Nibbetts returned; but at a word from Nina he retreated and lay down, stretched at full length, his watchful eyes still fixed, however, on the viscount, who took a stand before the fireplace, his hands thrust deep into the pockets of his morning coat, and his gaze on the floor.
Nina chose the end of a couch, and faced him over its piled pillows, on which, half-reclining, she rested her arms. To her own amazement, now that she was with him alone, all her fear had gone. Her poise and address were perfect.
Yet the change that had been wrought in him since the Monday she parted from him at Bellingdown struck her to the heart.
He must have lost twenty pounds in weight. His clothes, then so well-fitting, hung on his almost gaunt frame. His cheeks were hollow, and his eyes gleamed with that odd, lurid, uncanny light from deepening sockets.
"If I had known you came to Bath I should surely have seen you," she said.
"They told me you saw no one," he returned, "and yet you had your lover there at that moment."
"You know I have no lover--that I never have had."
"Why quibble over terms?" he asked. "I saw you in his arms in India. I saw you in his arms to-day. That"s enough for me."
"He did me a great service," she tried to explain. "I didn"t even know he was in Bath. It was my surgeon who brought him. He gave the skin that restored my poor burned face."
Her visitor chuckled cynically.
"You hadn"t any poor burned face at Umballa," he sneered. "What had he sacrificed there?"
"His happiness, his faith in women, for my idle amus.e.m.e.nt."
"One of a thousand," he muttered. "You were never so considerate of the rest."
"I"m not altogether without heart."
"You amaze me."
"It"s you who are heartless. You could save us both."