The Sign of the Stranger
Page 21
blind."
We thanked him, and rode eagerly onward, Pink opening the gate with hishunting-crop. Up the hill we cantered, skirting a broad stretch ofpasture land and presently coming into sight of a small old redbrickhouse with tall square chimneys and quaint gable ends, while at a littledistance were several barns and cow-houses.
Pink recognised the place in an instant, and we resolved that while Idismounted, tied my horse to a tree and walked on to the house, heshould approach boldly and inquire after his patient of the previousnight.
I had found a convenient tree and was walking in the direction of thefarm when I saw a decrepit blear-eyed old man leaning on a stick, emergefrom the door and hold a conversation with Pink, who had not dismounted.
A moment later my friend beckoned to me, and as I hurried forward hecried dismayed--"They've gone. We're too late."
"Gone!" I cried in disappointment, turning to the old farmer forexplanation.
"Yes, sir," the old fellow answered. "I've just been telling this 'eregentleman. They were a funny lot, an' I was glad to get rid of 'em outo' my house."
"Tell us all about them," exclaimed Pink dismounting, tying his horse toa ring in the wall, and entering the house with us. It was a poor,neglected, old-fashioned place, not over-clean, for it appeared thatboth Hayes and his wife were very infirm and kept no woman-servant.
"Well, gentlemen, it happened just like this," explained the decrepitold fellow, when we were in his stone-floored living room, with itsgreat open hearth and big chimney corner. "One evening, back in lastmonth, a gentleman called here. He'd walked a long way, and was verytired, so the missus, she gives 'im a mug o' milk. He would insist onme 'avin a shillin' for it, and then 'e sat here smoking 'is cigar--an'a good un it wor. After we'd been talking some time and he got to knowwe were livin' alone 'e asked whether we wouldn't care to let four ofour rooms to some friends of 'is up in London, who wanted to come andstay in a farm-'ouse for a month. What people wanted to come and stayin this 'ere place in preference to their own 'omes I couldn't quiteunderstand. Still, as 'e offered us five poun' a week, I an' the missusagreed. 'E stayed with us that night, 'ad a bit o' supper, and went tobed. Next morning 'e went away, and in the afternoon 'e came back withone of his friends, a young man who was called Ben, while the older manthey called Dick."
"Dick what?" I inquired breathlessly.
"I don't know. I never 'eered his other name." Was it possible thatthe stranger who had walked so far was none other than Richard Keene? Iinquired what day of August he had arrived.
"It wor the night of the sixteenth," was old Hayes's reply.
The very night of the tragedy in Sibberton Park! I asked him todescribe the man known as Dick, but his description was somewhat hazy onaccount of his defective sight. Having, however, no doubt that the manwho had arranged for apartments for the others was really the mysteriouswayfarer, I allowed him to proceed with his highly-interestingnarrative:
"The two stayed 'ere about a week, but 'ardly went out. I'd got someold fishin' tackle, so they spent their time mostly down at the riveryonder. They were very pleasant gentlemen, both on 'em, and at the endo' the week they gave me a five-poun' note. Then they went away sayin'that their friends were comin' soon to occupy the rooms. At the end o'the next week there arrived, without any notice, a young lady--the oneyou saw last night, Doctor--the big man with a beard, named Logan, twoother younger men, and an old woman-servant. The two men wereforeigners, as well as the woman-servant, but Logan seemed to be head ofthe household, and the young lady was 'is daughter. At least 'e saidso, but I don't think they were related at all. Well, from the veryfirst 'our they were in the 'ouse they puzzled me: Logan took me aside,and explained that he and his friends wanted perfect quiet, and theydidn't want a lot o' gossipin' about what they did, and where they went.He told me to open my mouth to nobody, and if he found I kept my owncounsel he'd make me a present o' an extra five poun'. They seemed to'ave plenty o' money," remarked old Hayes in parenthesis:
"So it seems," I observed. "Well, and what then?"
"Well, they occupied the four upstairs rooms, the two younger menoccupying one room. They were thin-faced, dark-eyed fellows, whom Inever liked at all, they seemed so sly and cunnin', always whispering tothemselves in their own language. If anybody chanced to come up 'ere Isaw how alarmed they all were. That's what first aroused mysuspicions."
"Why didn't you speak to the constable at Brigstock?"
"And lose my five poun'? Not likely! They did me no harm, even if theywere forriners. Well," he went on, "they all five of 'em remained 'ere,and like the men Dick and Ben, hardly ever went out in the day-time.The servant, an ugly old woman, did their cookin' an' looked after 'emwhile the three men amused themselves very often by playin' cards for'ours and readin' their forrin' papers. I've kept some of 'em--'erethey are," and he took from a chair several well-thumbed newspapers,which I saw were the Italian _Avanti_, and other Continental journals ofadvanced socialistic policy.
"They had no letters?"
"Only one. The man Logan received it about four days ago."
"But the young lady. Was she English?" I asked.
"I suppose so. But she would talk with the forriners just like one o'themselves. I rather liked 'er. She was very kind to my missus, andseemed quite a lady, much more refined than that big bullyin' fellow whosaid he was her father."
"They gambled, you said, merely to kill time--or for money?" inquiredPink.
"I never saw 'em play for money. They used to play a forrin' game and Icould never make anythin' out of it. After some little time the younglady went back to London for a day or two. While she was absent the manDick called. He was differently dressed and took Logan out for a walkin the wood, in order to talk, I suppose. Logan came back alone, and Isaw from his face that 'e was in a vile temper, so I suppose the two 'adquarrelled. Howsomever, next day the young lady, who was known as MissAlice, rejoined her friends, and that night they sat talkin' togethertill very late. I listened at the door, and 'eard 'em one by onea-arguin', it seemed, in their forrin language. It was just as thoughthey were 'olding a council about something, but the tone of theirvoices showed that something alarmin' had happened. What it was, ofcourse, I didn't know. But when I went up, I told my old woman thatthere was something unusual in the wind. Nothin' happened, however,till last night."
"And what happened last night?" I asked quickly.
"Well, as you'll remember, it was a beautiful evening, and after supperthey all four went out for a walk, leaving the servant at home with us.When they'd been gone nearly two hours, I saw Logan return in themoonlight across the grass-field from the wood, smoking 'is pipeleisurely. When he saw me sittin' in the shadow outside the door, 'esaid 'e'd missed the others and been wandering about the wood in thedark for more'n 'arf a hour. This struck me as rather peculiar, but Iwent inside with 'im, and presently went up to bed. I 'adn't been therelong afore I 'eard a great scufflin' and whisperin', and on lookin' outo' my door saw the two forriners a carryin' Miss Alice upstairs to herroom! I inquired what was the matter, but they said she'd only faintedand 'ud be better presently. So I went back to bed. Logan, howsomever,seems to 'ave gone out to old Jim Pywell's cottage down the hill andsent him for a doctor, telling 'im not to get one close at hand, butfrom a distance. Pywell called you, sir," he added turning to Pink,"and the first time I knew that anythin' was wrong was after you'd goneand the poor thing began to cry out and say that an attempt had beenmade to kill 'er. Both me and my ole woman are a bit 'ard o' hearin',an' they brought you very quietly up the stairs that I'd no idea youwere in the 'ouse."
"And what occurred afterwards?" Pink inquired eagerly.
"They were evidently frightened lest what the poor girl had said in 'erravings might arouse your curiosity a bit too much, for they were earlyastir this mornin', and by eleven they paid me and all of 'em left,walkin' by separate ways over to Oundle station, Jim Pywell a-takin' intheir trunks on a wagon."
&
nbsp; "But the young lady?" the doctor exclaimed. "Was she well enough towalk?"
"Yes. She was bandaged, of course, but she 'ad one o' them big featherruffles that 'id her throat an'