The Motor Pirate
Page 17
CHAPTER XVII
STORM
MY tub pulled me together to some extent, but I still felt restless whenI went downstairs. Forrest had already gone out, leaving word that heexpected to be back to breakfast at the usual hour. I went into thegarden, but the sun was shining in a cloudless sky and there was not abreath of air stirring. It was insufferably hot and I was glad to returninto the shade of the house.
The detective came in panting, a little later, with disappointmentplainly written in his face.
"The surgeon out?" I inquired.
"No," he answered. "But he was not much use though. Mannering kept thebullet. He wanted to retain it, so he said, as a memento of hisadventure."
"Perfectly natural," I commented.
"Perfectly," returned Forrest. "The unfortunate result is, that hisdoing so prevents me from dismissing the possibility of his being thePirate from my mind. And I ought to be doing something. Last night therascal seems to have been everywhere. Apparently he was actuated with adesire to destroy everything which stood in his path. One would judgehim to have become absolutely reckless. Instead of avoiding the towns,he courted observation by passing through them. This morning at thepolice office, I heard particulars of at least half a dozen cases ofunoffending people being ruthlessly ridden down, and Heaven only knowshow many more there may be of which the details are not yet to hand. Thesheer devilry of his progress is simply amazing. What it comes to isthis, Sutgrove. If I can't get hold of him within the next week I may aswell resign the force at once. If I don't resign I shall be dismissed,and quite deservedly."
I tried to say something consolatory, but he would not hear me; and itwas not until after he had made a savage attack upon the eggs andrashers and had swallowed three cups of tea, that his usual equanimityreturned.
"What's the next move?" I asked, when breakfast was done.
"I am going to town to see if I can identify the purchaser of thisbottle," he replied, holding up the phial he had taken from the bag inMannering's house the night before; "and to inquire whether anythingmore has been heard of the fair-haired German."
"Then I can be of no assistance to you, to-day?" I said.
"None whatever beyond remaining here and keeping an eye upon our friend.I shall ask for another man to-day to assist in shadowing him, butuntil his arrival I should be glad for some one to keep me acquaintedwith his movements. If, as I presume you will, you go over to ColonelMaitland's, you cannot help seeing whether he leaves his house."
I promised to do as he wished, and shortly after he had gone, I took myhat and strolled over to the Colonel's place.
Evie appeared to have quite recovered from her fears of the previousevening, and being busily engaged upon domestic duties, she sent me tojoin her father under the shade of a big tree on the lawn. There solacedby an iced lemon squash and the newspaper, I managed to pass the morningvery comfortably. Mannering gave no sign of existence.
I took myself home for lunch, remembering letters I had to write. I feltmuch easier in mind, and made a hearty meal in consequence. The resultwas that I fell asleep over my cigar afterwards.
I awoke suddenly, wondering where I was. Then I thought I must haveslept for hours, for a blackness only one degree less than that of nightbrooded over the earth. I took out my watch lazily, and was surprised tosee that the hands only pointed to five. I sat still for a minute or twostriving to collect my thoughts, for my head was heavy. I held my watchto my ear. It had not stopped. I jumped up and walked to the window, andI saw at once the reason why I had imagined that night had fallen. Fromeast to west and from north to south a dense pall of cloud hung overthe earth. Not a leaf moved, and except for the shrill chirp of agrasshopper, not a sound broke the uncanny stillness.
"By Jove!" I muttered, "we are going to have it hot."
There came upon me an intense desire to be near Evie during the progressof the storm which threatened every moment to break. I did not wait toanalyse the feeling, but catching up my hat I bolted straight out of thewindow. I had only a couple of hundred yards to traverse, but when Ireached the Colonel's house, so hot and heavy was the air, that I wassoaked from head to foot in perspiration. I paused at the gate to wipemy brow with my handkerchief, and at the moment the storm broke. I heardthe crackle of the lightning as it slid from the sky, and the thunderclap followed so swiftly that for a moment I felt deafened. I waited nolonger, but raced across the lawn and into the open French window of thedrawing-room. The apartment was unoccupied, so I passed through into thehall. That was vacant too, and I continued my search through themorning-room to the Colonel's sanctum. There I saw the genial warriorstanding at the window, and watching the play of the lightning withevery appearance of interest.
"Hullo, Colonel!" I said. "Where's Evie?"
"Isn't she in the drawing-room? She was there twenty minutes ago," hereplied.
"She is not there now, I have just come through," I explained.
"Then I fancy she will be in all probability in her bedroom with herhead under the sheets," he said, chuckling.
"At all events I will send one of the maids to see," I said.
I rang the bell, and after giving a message to the maid who answered thesummons, I joined the Colonel at the window. He appeared to be verypleased with the progress the storm was making.
"Thank goodness this will clear the air," he explained, as a reason forhis satisfaction. "It was so hot that I could take no lunch but amayonnaise, iced strawberries, and a glass of hock. Don't you think theair is cooler already? I begin to feel quite an appetite for dinner. Myonly fear is that, if the thunder has not turned everything sour, itwill have frightened my cook out of her senses, and there will benothing to appease my appetite."
The window at which we were standing faced towards Mannering's house.There was a stretch of lawn outside and, beyond, a thicket of shrubs andsmall trees between the grounds of the two residences. I was glancing inthe direction of these, when I thought I saw something white moving inthe shrubbery. I was about to say something to the Colonel when a crashof thunder drowned the utterance. At the next flash of lightning, Iperceived that my eyes had not deceived me, and in an instant I jumpedto the conclusion that it was Evie who was out there in the storm.Without a moment's hesitation I vaulted through the window and racedacross the lawn. The Colonel must have thought me mad.
It was something of a shock for me to find that I was right in myconjecture. There, huddled up under the spreading branches of a cedar,stood my darling, her eyes wide open, her cheeks blanched with terror.
"Why, Evie, dear heart! What is the matter?" I cried.
At the sound of my voice she started, and, with a little cry of delight,she threw herself into my arms.
"I knew you would come--I knew you would come!" she sobbed hysterically.
The cedar under which she was standing was close to the hedge, and Ifancied, as she spoke, that I saw a figure move away from the other sideof the hedge. I could not verify my suspicion, for Evie needed all myattention. She had fainted. Catching her up, I bore her across the lawnto the house.
It was some time before she came to herself, and then, at her ownrequest, I left her with her maid and returned to the Colonel. Needlessto say I was very much worried in my mind. Why Evie should have beensheltering in the shrubbery from the storm, with the house so near,seemed unexplainable, and I awaited with anxiety the time when I couldlearn the reason from her own lips. The presence of the figure--thefigure of a man--on the opposite side of the hedge, was alsoinexplicable. I should have guessed it to be Mannering, but I would havestaked my life upon Evie's truthfulness when she had told me how muchshe had learned to detest him. Besides, her delight was obvious when Iarrived on the scene.
Not until the evening, however, did I get a chance of speaking to Evieagain. The Colonel and I dined alone, Evie sending word to say that thestorm had left her with a headache, and that she would join us later. Iwas so silent during the meal that my host grew quite merry at myexpense.
"Wait t
ill you are married, my boy," he remarked. "There will come timeswhen you will be grateful for these feminine headaches."
I hate cheap witticisms of this sort, but I could hardly resent themfrom the Colonel as I could have done had they fallen from any oneelse's lips; but I fancy he saw at last that they were distasteful tome, for after a while he forebore to comment upon my dour looks.
About ten Evie came downstairs. By this time the storm had passed awayentirely, and the air was deliciously fresh and cool after the rain. Itwas a strangely subdued girl who came nervously to me, and shrank awayfrom me as I kissed her.
"No, Jim, no! You mustn't do that," she said.
Colonel Maitland had slipped away upon his daughter's entrance, and wewere alone.
"Why, darling, what ails you?" I asked.
"Nothing--nothing. Oh! don't ask me," she almost wailed in reply.
I put my arm about her waist, and drew her down beside me to a seat ona big Chesterfield drawn before one of the windows. She resisted faintlyat first, but presently I heard her give a sigh of content, and felt hernestle towards me. Then I spoke.
"Tell me, dear, what possessed you to go out into the storm?"
"I don't know," she murmured--"I don't know. I--I felt that I must. Ididn't think it was going to break so soon, and then the first flash oflightning and the voice of the thunder! It was like judgment day."
"It is all passed and over," I remarked, with a man's clumsy attempt atconsolation.
"I wish it were--I wish it were," she repeated, with an indrawn sigh.
"It is all over hours ago," I said.
She broke away from me passionately. "Oh! Jim, you don't know," shecried.
"I don't know what?" I inquired, as I attempted to draw her to me again.
She pushed my hands away with a gesture of despair. Then with an effortshe rose to her feet, and looking at me straight in the face, she said--
"Jim, this must not go on. It is more than I can bear."
I rose to my feet too, my heart beating wildly. "I don't understandyou," I answered, though I comprehended her meaning only too well. "Whatmust not go on?"
"Our--our engagement," she faltered. She was white to the lips as shesaid the words.
I staggered back under the blow, then leaning forward I sought to takeher hand.
"No, Jim, no!" she said. "It's no use; I can never be yours. It isimpossible--quite impossible. My love would be fatal to you! I know itwill! He said so."
"He?" I asked.
She faltered. "Oh! I cannot help believing him. He tells me that I am tobe his." She shuddered. "Jim, you must leave me, and never see me again.I cannot have your--your blood on my hands."
She held out her slender white fingers, and I saw that the ring which Ihad placed there had been removed. Though my brain was awhirl, I triedmy utmost to be calm. I think the effort was successful, and that myvoice was fairly even when I said--
"Come, darling, a promise is a promise, and my own little girl is notgoing to break her promise because of the threats of a jealous rival."
She shuddered from head to foot. "You don't know him as I know him," shemurmured. "He would stick at nothing, Jim. I don't think he is a man; hemust be a devil. He can do things no man ever thought of doing."
"You exaggerate his capacities for evil," I said, as equably as I wasable, for her agitation was so great that I feared for her reason. "Whathas Mannering been saying to you, for it was he whom I saw behind thehedge when I brought you out of the storm, I suppose?"
"You saw him?" she queried. "Then it is true. I have been hoping youwould tell me I had been dreaming again."
"I saw nothing very terrible about him," I remarked.
"You don't know him," she said again.
"He will have cause to know me before many hours have passed," Ideclared savagely.
She clung to me in terror. "No, Jim. You must not go near him. You donot know the power he exercises. This afternoon I was sitting thinkingof you when I became conscious that he was telling me to come to him.There was no reason why I should have thought so. He was not in sight,but I was bound to go."
"And you found him waiting for you?" I asked quietly, though my brainwas aflame, for I was determined to ascertain all that had passedbetween them.
"He was waiting for me," she repeated--"waiting for me and the storm.That must have come at his bidding too. It was horrible waiting for himto speak--horrible! I tried to ask him what he wanted, but my tongue wastied. Not until after the first peal of thunder did he utter a word.Then he told me the time was nearly at hand when he should come for me."I clenched my fists involuntarily, but I did not interrupt my darling'sstory. "I begged of him to leave me free. He paid no heed. 'I am goingaway,' he said. 'For three days you will see nothing of me, though allEngland will be talking of my deeds. On the third I shall return. Mindyou are ready.'"
"Did you not mention me?" I remarked weakly. I hardly knew what to say,for it seemed to me that either Evie must be the victim of someextraordinary hallucination, or else that Mannering was mad.
"He mentioned you," she replied. "'Tell Sutgrove,' he said, 'that he hasthree days in which to capture the Motor Pirate and make sure of hisbride. After that he will be too late. Tell him, too, that death waitson the fool who fails.'"
"It's a sporting challenge," I muttered, for I had no doubt now in mymind that Mannering and the Pirate were identical.
My words did not reach Evie's ear, for she continued,
"Now you know why I have put away your ring. He is too strong for us. Imust do as he bids me. I----"
I interrupted her sharply. "Have you everything packed to go away onyour visit to Norfolk to-morrow?" I asked.
The tone of my voice roused her. She looked at me wildly.
"Why--why----" she said. Then the expression faded out of her face. Forthe second time that day she had fainted.