"There is none. The powder is an opiate; it will harm no one. They will go to sleep a little earlier, and sleep a little longer and a little sounder than usual--that is all."
Mrs. Sharpe took the paper, but with evident reluctance.
"I tell you it is all right," reiterated Hugh Ingelow; "no one is to be murdered but the dogs. Doctor Oleander will have no scruple about drugging Miss Dane on Friday night, you will see. The choice lies between her and them. Are you going to fail me at the last, Sarah?"
sternly.
"No," said the woman. She dropped the little package in her pocket, and looked him firmly in the face. "I"ll do it, Mr. Ingelow. And then?"
"And then the dogs will be dead, and the people asleep, before ten o"clock. At ten I"ll be at the gate; a vehicle will be waiting down below in the clump of cedars. You will open the house door and the garden gate, and let me in. Before another day we"ll be in the city."
"So be it. And now," said Mrs. Sharpe, drawing her shawl around her, "I must go. I came to walk off a bad headache; I find it is gone, so I had better return."
"Good-bye, and G.o.d speed you!" said Hugh Ingelow.
Mrs. Sharpe walked back to the house. Old Peter admitted her, and all three were solicitous about her headache.
"Much better," Mrs. Sharpe said, quietly. "I knew that walk would cure it."
All the rest of the afternoon she helped old Sally to manufacture pies.
Tea-time came, and, ever willing, she volunteered to make the tea.
"Do so," said old Sally. "I can"t abear to take my hands out o" dough when they"re into it."
The tea was made, the supper-table set, and then Mrs. Sharpe begged permission to make herself a cup of coffee.
"I find it better for my head than tea. It will cure me quite, I know."
Mrs. Oleander a.s.sented, and the coffee was made. The quartet sat down to supper, and Susan Sharpe felt an inward quaking as she watched them drink the tea. Mrs. Oleander complained that it was weak; Sally said it must have boiled, it had such a nasty taste; but they drank it for all that.
Supper over, Mrs. Sharpe brought up her patient"s. But she carried her coffee, and left the doctored tea behind.
"We are to escape to-night," she said to Mollie. "Be ready. We will start at ten. Don"t ask me to explain now. I feel nervous and am going down."
Before an hour had elapsed the drug began its work. Mrs. Oleander nodded over her knitting; Sally was drowsy over her dishes; Peter yawned audibly before the fire.
"I don"t know what makes me so sleepy this evening," Mrs. Oleander said, gaping. "The weak tea, I suppose. Peter, close up early to-night; I think I"ll go to bed."
"I"ll let the dogs loose now," said Peter. "I"m blamed sleepy myself."
The old man departed. Very soon the hoa.r.s.e barking of the dogs was heard as they scampered out of their kennel. Peter returned to find the two old women nodding in company.
"You had better go to bed," suggested Mrs. Sharpe. "I"m going myself.
Good-night."
She quitted the kitchen. Mrs. Oleander, scarcely able to keep her eyes open, rose up also.
"I will go. I never felt so sleepy in my life. Good-night; Sally."
"Good-night," said Sally, drowsily. "I"ll go after you."
Before the kitchen clock struck nine, sleep had sealed the eyelids of Mrs. Oleander and her servants more tightly than they were ever sealed before. And out in the yard, stiff and stark, lay Nero and Tiger. They had eaten the poisoned beef, and, like faithful sentinels, were dead at their posts.
CHAPTER XXII.
A MOONLIGHT FLITTING.
The big Dutch clock on the kitchen mantel struck nine. The silence of the grave reigned within the house. With the first clear chime Mrs.
Susan Sharpe rose from the bed on which she had thrown herself, dressed and prepared for action.
She drew the curtain and looked out. The night was celestial. A brilliant, full moon flooded the dark earth and purple sea with silvery radiance; the sky was cloudless--blue as Mollie Dane"s eyes, the stars beyond number, big and bright.
A faint sea-breeze just stirred the swaying trees; the surf broke in a dull, monotonous wash on the shining strand; even the dreary Long Island farmhouse and its desolate surroundings were transfigured and glorified by the radiant moonlight.
Mrs. Susan Sharpe was an inestimable woman in her way, but neither a poet nor an artist. She gave a complacent glance at earth, and sky, and water, thankful that the benign influences, in the way of weather, were at work to aid them.
"It"s a very nice night," murmured Mrs. Susan Sharpe. "Couldn"t be better if they tried ever so much. It would have been dreadful awkward if it rained. How still the house is--like a tomb! Dear me, I hope there was no harm done by that drug! I must go and get ready at once."
But just at that moment she heard a sharp, shrill, prolonged whistle.
She paused. An instant more and a man vaulted lightly over the high board fence.
"Lor"!" said Mrs. Sharpe, "if it isn"t him already! I hope the dogs are done for."
It seemed as if they were, for, as she looked and listened, in considerable trepidation, the man approached the house in swift, swinging strides. Of course, it was the peddler. Mrs. Sharpe threw up her window and projected her head.
"Mr. Ingelow!"
"Halloo!"
The man halted and looked up.
"Where are the dogs?"
"In the dogish elysium, I hope. Dead and done for, Sarah. Come down, like a good girl, and let me in."
"I"m not sure that they"re fast asleep."
"Oh, they are," said Hugh Ingelow, confidently, "if you administered the drug and they drank the tea."
"I did," said Mrs. Sharpe, "and they drank the tea and went to bed awful sleepy. If you think it"s safe, I"ll go down."
"All right. Come along."
Mrs. Sharpe lowered the sash and hurried down stairs. Bolts clattered, the lock creaked, but the sleepers in the house made no sign. A second or two and the nocturnal marauders were together in the hall.
"I told you it was safe," said Mr. Ingelow. "You are a woman in a thousand, Sarah, to manage so cleverly! Now, then, for Miss Dane!