When she had finished he read what he had written, tapping his teeth with the end of his pencil and looking most important.
"I shouldn"t be surprised if you"ve laid your finger on the very man--and if we lay our fingers on him before the day is over.
You will excuse my saying, miss, that you"ve got the faculty of observation--marked. I couldn"t have given a better description of a chap myself--and I"ve been a bit longer at the game than you have. Now I"ll just go through the place once more, and then I"ll go; and then in due course you"ll hear from us again."
He did go through the place once more--and he did go.
"Now," observed Madge to herself, as she watched him going down the road, "all that remains, is for us in due course to hear from you again--to some effect--and that, if you"re the sort of blunderbuss I take you to be, will be never."
Turning from the window, she looked about the room, speaking half in jest and half in earnest.
"This is a delightful state of things--truly! It seems as if we couldn"t have found a more undesirable habitation, if we had tried Petticoat Lane. Not the first burglar that"s been in the place! And the house well known to the police--not to speak of a sinister reputation in all the country side! Charming! Clover Cottage seems to be an ideal place of residence for two lone, lorn young women. The abode of mystery, and, so far as I can make out, a sink of crime, one wonders if it still waits to become the scene of some ghastly murder to give to the situation its crowning touches. I shiver--or, at any rate, I ought to shiver--when I reflect on the horrors with which I may be, and probably am, surrounded!"
Ella returned earlier than the day before, and, this time, she came alone. The question burst from her lips the instant she was in the house.
"Well, has anything happened?"
"Nothing--of importance. It"s true the police have been, but as it appears that they"ve been here over and over again before, that"s a trifle. There"s been at least one previous burglar upon the premises, and it seems that the house has been known to the police--and to the whole neighbourhood--for years, in the most disreputable possible sense."
Ella could but gasp.
"Madge!"
The statements which the officer had made were retailed, with comments and additions--and, it may be added, interpolations. Ella was more impressed even than Madge had been--being divided between concern and indignation.
"To think that we should have been inveigled into taking such a place!
We ought to claim damages from those scamps of agents who let it us without a word of warning. You can"t think how I have been worrying about you the whole day long; the idea of our being together in the place is bad enough, but the idea of your being alone in it is worse.
What that policeman has said, settles it. Jack may laugh if he likes, but my mind is made up that I won"t stop a moment longer in the house than I can help; the notion of your being all those hours alone here would worry me into the grave if nothing else did--and so I shall tell him when he comes."
Madge"s manner was more equable.
"He will laugh at you, you"ll find; and, unless I"m in error, here he is to do it."
As she spoke there was a vigorous knock at the front door.
CHAPTER VI
THE LONG ARM OF COINCIDENCE
"Go," said Ella, as she hastened from the room, "and open the door, while I go upstairs and take my hat off."
Madge did as she was told. There were two persons at the door--Jack Martyn and another.
"This," said Jack, referring to his companion, "is a friend of mine."
It was dark in the pa.s.sage, and Madge was a little flurried. She perceived that Jack had a companion, and that was all.
"Go into the sitting-room, I"ll bring you a lamp in a minute. Ella has gone to take her hat off."
Presently, returning with the lighted lamp in her hand, placing it on the table, she glanced at Jack"s companion--and stared. In her astonishment, she all but knocked the lamp over. Jack laughed.
"I believe," he said, "you two have met before."
Madge continued speechless. She pa.s.sed her hand before her eyes, as if to make sure she was not dreaming. Jack laughed again.
"I repeat that I believe you two have met before."
Madge drew herself up to her straightest and her stiffest. Her tone was icy.
"Yes, I rather believe we have."
She rather believed they had?--If she could credit the evidence of her own eyes the man in front of her was the stranger who had so unwarrantably intruded on pretence of seeking music lessons--who had behaved in so extraordinary a fashion!
"This," went on Jack airily, "is a friend of mine, Bruce Graham,--Graham, this is Miss Brodie."
Madge acknowledged the introduction with an inclination of the head which was so faint as to be almost imperceptible. Mr. Graham, on the contrary, bent almost double--he seemed scarcely more at his ease than she was.
"I"m afraid, Miss Brodie, that I"ve behaved very badly. I trust you will allow me to express my contrition."
"I beg you will not mention it," she turned away; "I will go and tell Ella you have come."
There came a voice from behind her.
"You needn"t--Ella is aware of it already."
As Ella came into the room, she moved to leave it. Jack caught her by the arm.
"Madge, don"t go away in a fume!--you wait till you have heard what I have got to say. Do you know that we"re standing in the presence of a romance in real life--on the verge of a blood-curdling mystery?
Fact!--aren"t we, Graham?"
Mr. Graham"s language was slightly less emphatic.
"We are, or rather we may be confronted by rather a curious condition of affairs."
Jack waved his arm excitedly.
"I say it"s the most extraordinary thing. Now, honestly, Graham, isn"t it a most extraordinary thing?"
"It certainly is rather a striking ill.u.s.tration of the long arm of coincidence."
"Listen to him. Isn"t he cold-blooded? If you"d heard him an hour or two ago, he was hot enough to melt all the ice-cream in town. But you wait a bit. This is my show, and I"ll let you know it. Sit down, Ella--sit down, Madge--Graham, take a chair. To you a tale I will unfold."
Taking up his position on the hearthrug in front of the fireplace, he commenced to orate.
"You see this man. His name"s Graham. He digs in the same house I do.
To be perfectly frank, his rooms are on the opposite side of the landing. You may have heard me speak of him."