Madge looked at her, more in sorrow than in anger.
"I think, Mr. Graham, that perhaps you had better stop."
He detected the mournful intonation.
"At any rate, I"ll finish this side."
He continued to add to the uncomfortable appearance of the room; for there certainly was something in what Ella said.
He had worked for another quarter of an hour, or twenty minutes, and had torn off three or four more strips of wood--for they had been firmly secured in their places, and took some tearing--and the others were gathered round them, a.s.sisting and looking on, momentarily expecting that something would come to light better worth having than dust and cobwebs, of which articles there were very much more than sufficient, when Ella gave a sudden exclamation.
"Madge! Jack!" she cried. "Who--who"s this man?"
"What man?" asked Madge.
Turning, she saw.
CHAPTER XIV
THE CAUSE OF THE INTERRUPTION
What she saw, and what they saw, spoke eloquently of the engrossed attention with which they had watched the work of destruction being carried on. So absorbed had they been in Bruce Graham"s proceedings that, actually without their knowledge, a burglarious entry had been all but effected into the very room in which they were.
There was the proof before them.
The window had been raised, the blind and curtains pushed away, and a man"s head and shoulders thrust inside.
When Ella"s exclamation called their attention to the intruder"s presence, they stared at him, as well they might, for a moment or two with stupefied amazement; the impudence of the act seemed almost to surpa.s.s the bounds of credibility. He, on his part, met their gaze with a degree of fort.i.tude, not to say a.s.surance, which was more than a little surprising.
To the fellow"s character his looks bore evidence. The b.u.t.toning of his coat up to his chin failed to conceal the fact that his neck was bare, while the crushing of a dilapidated billyc.o.c.k down over his eyes served to throw into clearer relief his unshaven cheeks and hungry-looking eyes.
For the s.p.a.ce of perhaps thirty seconds they looked at him, and he at them, in silence. Then Jack moved hastily forward.
"You"re a cool hand!" he cried.
But Madge caught him by the arm.
"Don"t!" she said. "This is the man who stared through the window."
Jack turned to her, bewildered.
"The man who stared through the window? What on earth do you mean?"
"Don"t!" she repeated. "I think that Mr. Graham knows this man."
The man himself endorsed her supposition.
"Yes, I"m rather inclined to think that Mr. Graham does."
His voice was not a disagreeable one; not at all the sort of voice which one would have expected from a person of his appearance. He spoke, too, like an educated man, with, however, a strenuous something in his tone which suggested, in some occult fashion, the bitterness of a wild despair.
Seeing that he remained unanswered, he spoke again.
"What"s more, if there is a cool hand it"s Mr. Graham, it isn"t me. I am a poor, starving, police-ridden devil, being hounded to h.e.l.l, full pelt, by a hundred other devils--but, Bruce Graham, what are you?"
They turned to the man who was thus addressed.
At the moment of interruption he had been levering a strip of wainscot from its place with the aid of the inserted chisel. He still kept one hand upon the handle, holding the hammer with the other, while he drew his body back against the wall as close as it would go, and, with pallid cheeks and startled eyes, he stared at the intruder as if he had been some straggler from the spiritual world. From between his lips, which seemed to tremble, there came a single word--
"Ballingall!"
"Yes, Ballingall! That"s my name. And what"s yours--cur, hound, thief?
By G.o.d! there have been people I"ve used badly enough in my time, but none worse than you"ve used me."
"You are mistaken."
"Am I? It looks like it. What are you doing here?"
"You know what I"m doing."
"By G.o.d! I do--you"re right there. And it"s because you know I know, that, although you"re twice my size, and have got all the respectability and law of England at your back, you stand there shivering and shaking, afraid for your life at the sight of me."
"I am not afraid of you. I repeat that you are mistaken."
"And I say you lie--you are afraid of me, penniless, shoeless, hungry beggar though I am. Your face betrays you; look at him! Isn"t there cowardice writ large?"
The man stretched out his arm, pointing to Graham with a dramatic gesture, which certainly did not tend to increase that gentleman"s appearance of ease.
"Do you think I didn"t see you the other day, knowing that the time was due for me to come out of gaol, trying to screw your courage to the striking point to play the traitor; how at the sight of me the blood turned to water in your veins? Deny it--lie if you can."
"I do not wish to deny it, nor do I propose to lie. I repeat, for the third time, that in the conclusions you draw you are mistaken. Miss Brodie, this is the person of whom I was telling you--Charles Ballingall."
"So you have told them of me, have you? And a pretty yarn you"ve spun, I bet my boots. Yes, madam, I am Charles Ballingall, lately out of Wandsworth Prison, sent there for committing burglary at this very place. My G.o.d, yes! this house of haunting memories of a thousand ghosts! I only came out the day before yesterday, and that same night I committed burglary again--here! And now I"m at it for the third time, driven to it--by a ghost! And, my G.o.d! he"s behind me now."
A sudden curious change took place in the expression of the fellow"s countenance. Partially withdrawing his head, he turned and looked behind him--as if constrained to the action against his will. His voice shrank to a hoa.r.s.e whisper.
"Is that you, Tom Ossington?"
None replied.
Madge moved forward, quite calm, and, in her own peculiar fashion, stately, though she was a little white about the lips, and there was an odd something in her eyes.
"I think you had better come inside--and, if convenient, please moderate your language."