“It is enough to give one the creeps.”
“I pray that I may never see such a sight again. Oh, Rebecca, if you have the heart of a woman, help me to get away from this place. They mean that I should never go from it alive. I have read it in my guardian’s eyes. He longs for my death. Do, do tell me what I should do for the best.”
“I’m surprised at you!” the maid said with dignity. “When Mr. Girdlestone and Mr. Ezra is so good to you, and provides you with a country-house and every convenience as ‘eart could wish, all you can find to do is to go screamin’ about at night, and then talk as if you was a-goin’ to be murdered in the day. I really am surprised. There’s Mr. Girdlestone a-callin.’ He’d be shocked, poor gentleman, if he knew how you was abusin’ of him.” Rebecca’s face assumed an expression of virtuous indignation as she swept out of the room, but her black eyes shone with the unholy light of cruelty and revenge.
Left to herself, Kate rose and dressed as well as her weakness would permit. Her nerves were so shaken that she started at the least sound, and she could hardly recognise the poor pale face which she saw in the glass as her own. She had scarcely finished her toilet before her guardian came up into her room.
“You are better, then?” he said.
“I am very ill,” she answered gently.
“No wonder, after rushing about the corridors in that absurd fashion in the dead of the night. Rebecca tells me that you imagine you met with some apparition. You are crying. Are you so unhappy, then?”
“Very, very miserable,” Kate answered, sinking her face upon her hands.
“Ah,” said Girdlestone softly, “it is only in some higher life that we shall find entire peace and contentment.” His voice had altered, so that a little warm spring of hope began to rise in the girl’s heart, that perhaps the sight of her many miseries was beginning to melt this iron man.
“Beyond the grave is rest,” he continued, in the same gentle tones. “It has seemed to me sometimes that if it were not for the duties which I have to perform in this world, and the many who are dependent upon me, I should be tempted to shorten my existence in order to attain the peace which is to come. Some precisians have pronounced it to be sinful to cut the thread of life. For my part I have never thought it so, and yet my view of morals has been a strict one. I hold that of all things in this world one’s life is the thing which belongs most entirely to one’s self, and may therefore most freely be terminated when it seems good to us.” He picked up the phial from the mantelpiece and gazed thoughtfully at it. “How strange,” he said, “to think that within the compass of this tiny bottle lies a cure for every earthly evil! One draught and the body slips off like a garment, while the soul walks forth in all its beauty and freedom. Trouble is over. One draught, and — Ah, let go, I say! What have you done?”
Kate had snatched the bottle from him, and with a quick feminine gesture had hurled it against the wall, where it splintered to pieces, sending a strong turpentiney odour through the apartment. Her strength was so impaired that she staggered back after this feat, and sat down on the side of the bed, while her guardian, grim and threatening, stood over her with his long, bony fingers opening and shutting, as though he found it difficult to keep them from her throat.
“I will not help you in it,” she said, in a low but firm voice.
“You would kill my soul as well.”
The mask had fairly dropped from Girdlestone. No gaunt old wolf could have glared down with fiercer eyes or a more cruel mouth. “You fool!” he hissed.
“I am not afraid to die,” she said, looking up at him with brave, steadfast eyes.
Girdlestone recovered his self-possession by an effort. “It is clear to me,” he said calmly, “that your reason is unhinged. What is all this nonsense about death? There is nothing that will harm you except your own evil actions.” He turned abruptly and strode out of the room with the firm and decided step of a man who has taken an irrevocable resolution.
With a set and rigid face he ascended the steps which led to his bedroom, and, rummaging in his desk, produced a telegram form. This he filled up and took with him downstairs. There he put on his hat and started off to the Bedsworth Post-office at full speed.
At the avenue gate he met his sentinel, who was sitting on his camp stool as grim as ever.
“She is very bad, Stevens,” Girdlestone said, stopping and jerking his head in the direction of the house. “She is going downhill. I am afraid that she can’t last long. If any one asks you about her, you can say that she was despaired of. I am just sending off a telegram to a doctor in London, so that she may have the best advice.”
Stevens touched his greasy-peaked cap as a token of respect. “She was down here behavin’ outrageous the other day,” said he. “‘Let me pass,’ says she, ‘and you shall have ten golden guineas.’ Them’s her very words. ‘Not for ten hundred golden guineas,’ I answers, ‘would William Stevens, hesquire, do what he didn’t ought to.’”
“Very proper, very proper indeed,” said Girdlestone approvingly. “Every man in his own station has his own duties to fulfil, and he will be judged as he has fulfilled them, well or ill. I shall see that you are no loser by your staunchness.”
“Thank ye, guv’nor.”
“She is wild and delirious, and can get about in spite of her low state of health. It is possible that she may make some effort to get away, so be vigilant. Good day to you.”
“Good day, sir.” William Stevens stood at the gate, looking pensively after his employer; then he reseated himself upon his camp-stool, and, lighting his pipe, resumed his meditations. “I can’t make nought of it,” he muttered, scratching his head, “It do seem uncommon queer, to be sure. The boss he says, ‘She’s very low,’ says he, and then next minute he says, ‘She may be comin’ down and tryin’ to escape. ‘I’ve seen diers o’ all shapes and sizes, but I’ve never seed one as went a galivantin’ about like this — at least, not among them as died a nat’ral death. It do seem uncommon strange. Then, again, he’s off telegrayphin’ for a doctor to Lunnon, when there’s Doctor Corbett, o’ Claxton, or Doctor Hutton, o’ Bedsworth, would come quick enough if he wanted them. I can’t make no sense of it. Why, bust my buttons!” he continued, taking his pipe out of his mouth in a paroxysm of astonishment, “if here hain’t the dier herself!”
It was, indeed, Kate, who, learning that her guardian was gone, had come out with some vague idea of making a last struggle for her life and freedom. With the courage of despair, she came straight down the avenue to the sole spot where escape seemed possible.
“Good mornin’, missy,” cried Stevens, as she approached. “You don’t look extra bright this mornin’, but you ain’t as bad as your good guardian made me think. You don’t seem to feel no difficulty in gettin’ about.”
“There is nothing the matter with me,” the girl answered earnestly.
“I assure you there is not. My mind is as sound as yours.”
“That’s what they all says,” said the ex-warder with a chuckle.
“But it is so. I cannot stay in that house longer. I cannot, Mr.
Stevens, I cannot! It is haunted, and my guardian will murder me.
He means to. I read it in his eyes. He as good as tried this morning.
To die without one word to those I love — without any explanation of what
has passed — that would give a sting to death.”
“Well, if this ain’t outragis!” cried the one-eyed man; “perfectly outragis! Going to murder you, says you! What’s he a-goin’ to do that for?”
“God knows! He hates me for some reason. I have never gone against his wishes, save in one respect, and in that I can never obey him, for it is a matter in which he has no right to command.”
“Quite so!” said Stevens, winking his one eye. “I knows the feeling myself, cuss me, but I do! ‘Thine for once and thine for never,’ as the song says.”
“Why won’t you let me pass?” pleaded Kate. “You may have had dau
ghters of your own. What would you do if they were treated as I have been? If I had money you should have it, but I have none. Do, do let me go! God will reward you for it. Perhaps when you are on your last bed of sickness the memory of this one good deed may outweigh all the evil that you have done.”
“Lor’, don’t she speak!” said Stevens, appealing confidentially to the nearest tree. “It’s like a dictionary.”
“And you won’t lose by it in this life,” the girl added eagerly. “See, here is my watch and my chain. You shall have that if you will let me through?”
“Let’s see it.” He opened it and examined it critically.
“Eighteen carat — it’s only a Geneva, though. What can you expect for a
Geneva?”
“And you shall have fifty pounds when I get back to my friends. Do let me pass, good Mr. Stevens, for my guardian may return at any moment.”
“See here, miss,” Stevens said solemnly; “dooty is dooty, and if every hair of your ‘ead was tagged wi’ a jewel, and you offered to make me your barber, I wouldn’t let you through that gate. As to this ‘ere watch, if so be as you would like to write a line to your friends, I’ll post it for you at Bedsworth in exchange for it, though it be only a Geneva.”
“You good, kind man!” cried Kate, all excitement and delight. “I have a pencil in my pocket. What shall I do for paper?” She looked eagerly round and spied a small piece which lay among the brushwood. With a cry of joy she picked it out. It was very coarse and very dirty, but she managed to scrawl a few lines upon it, describing her situation and asking for aid. “I will write the address upon the back,” she said. “When you get to Bedsworth you must buy an envelope and ask the post-office people to copy the address on to it.”
“I bargained to post it for the Geneva,” he said. “I didn’t bargain to buy envelopes and copy addresses. That’s a nice pencil-case of yourn. Now I’ll make a clean job of it if you’ll throw that in.”
Kate handed it over without a murmur. At last a small ray of light seemed to be finding its way through the darkness which had so long surrounded her. Stevens put the watch and pencil-case in his pocket, and took the little scrap of paper on which so much depended. As Kate handed it to him she saw over his shoulder that coming up the lane was a small pony-carriage, in which sat a buxom lady and a very small page. The sleek little brown pony which drew it ambled along at a methodical pace which showed that it was entirely master of the situation, while the whole turnout had an indescribable air of comfort and good nature. Poor Kate had been so separated from her kind that the sight of people who, if not friendly, were at least not hostile to her, sent a thrill of pleasure into her heart. There was something wholesome and prosaic too about this homely equipage, which was inexpressibly soothing to a mind so worn by successive terrors.
“Here’s some one a-comin’,” cried Stevens. “Clear out from here — it’s the governor’s orders.”
“Oh, do let me stay and say one word to the lady!” Stevens seized his great stick savagely. “Clear out!” he cried in a hoarse, angry voice, and made a step towards her as if he would strike her. She shrank away from him, and then, a sudden thought seizing her, she turned and ran through the woods as fast as her feeble strength would allow. The instant that she was out of sight, Stevens very deliberately and carefully tore up the little slip of paper with which she had entrusted him, and scattered the pieces to the wind.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
A GLEAM OF LIGHT.
Kate Harston fled as quickly as she could through the wood, stumbling over the brambles and crashing through the briars, regardless of pain or scratches or anything else which could stand between her and the possibility of safety. She soon gained the shed and managed to mount on to the top of it by the aid of the barrel. Craning her neck, she could see the long dusty lane, with the bare withered hedges upon either side, and the dreary line of the railway embankment beyond. There was no pony-carriage in sight.
She hardly expected that there would be, for she had taken a short cut, and the carriage would have to go some distance round. The road along which it was travelling ran at right angles to the one which she was now overlooking, and the chances were equal as to whether the lady would turn round or go straight on. In the latter case, it would not be possible for her to attract her attention. Her heart seemed to stand still with anxiety as she peered over the high wall at the spot where the two roads crossed.
Presently she heard the rattle of wheels, and the brown pony trotted round the corner. The carriage drew up at the end of the lane, and the driver seemed to be uncertain how to proceed. Then she shook the reins, and the pony lumbered on along the road. Kate gave a cry of despair and the last ray of hope died away from her heart.
It chanced, however, that the page in the carriage was just at that happy age when the senses are keen and on the alert. He heard the cry, and glancing round he saw through a break in the hedge that a lady was looking over the wall which skirted the lane they had passed. He mentioned the fact to his mistress.
“Maybe we’d better go back, ma’am,” he said.
“Maybe we’d better not, John,” said the buxom lady. “People can look over their garden walls without our interfering with them, can’t they?”
“Yes, ma’am, but she was a-hollerin’ at us.”
“No, John, was she though? Maybe this is a private road and we have no right to be on it.”
“She gave a holler as if some one was a-hurtin’ of her,” said John with decision.
“Then we’ll go back,” said the lady, and turned the pony round.
Hence it came about that just as Kate was descending with a sad heart from her post of observation, she was electrified to see the brown pony reappear and come trotting round the curve of the lane, with a rapidity which was altogether foreign to that quadruped’s usual habits. Indeed, the girl turned so very white at the sight, and her face assumed such an expression of relief and delight, that the lady who was approaching saw at once that it was no common matter which had caused her to summon them.
“What is it, my dear?” she cried, pulling up when she came abreast of the place. Her good, kind heart was touched already by the pleading expression upon the girl’s sweet face.
“Oh, madam, whoever you may be,” said Kate, in a low, rapid voice, “I believe God has sent you here this day. I am shut up in these grounds, and shall be murdered unless help comes.”
“Be murdered!” cried the lady in the pony-carriage, dropping back in her seat and raising her hands in astonishment.
“It is only too true,” Kate said, trying to speak concisely and clearly so as to enforce conviction, but feeling a choking sensation about her throat, as though an hysterical attack were impending. “My guardian has shut me up here for some weeks, and I firmly believe that he will never let me out alive. Oh, don’t, pray don’t think me mad! I am as sane as you are, though, God knows, what I have gone through has been enough to shake my reason.”
This last appeal of Kate’s was in answer to an expression of incredulity and doubt which had passed over the face of the lady below. It was successful in its object, for the ring of truth with which she spoke and the look of anxiety and terror upon her face were too genuine to be mistaken. The lady drew her rein so as to bring the carriage as near the wall as was possible without losing sight of Kate’s face.
“My dear,” she said, “you may safely tell me everything. Whatever I can do to help you shall be done, and where I am powerless there are others who are my friends and may be of assistance. Scully is my name — Mrs. Lavinia Scully, of London. Don’t cry, my poor girl, but tell me all about it, and let us see how we can put matters right.”
Thus encouraged, Kate wiped away the tears which had been brought to her eyes by the unwonted sound of a friendly voice. Leaning forward as far as she could, and preventing herself from falling by passing her arm round a great branch which shot across the top of the shed, she gave in as few words as she could a detailed account of a
ll that had befallen her. She described her guardian’s anxiety that she should marry his son, her refusal, their sudden departure from London, their life at the Priory, the manner in which she was cut off from all human aid, and the reasons which made her believe that an attempt would be made upon her life. In conclusion, she narrated the scene which had occurred that very morning, when her guardian had tempted her to commit suicide. The only incident which she omitted from her story was that which had occurred the night before, for she felt that it might put too severe a tax upon Mrs. Scully’s credulity. Indeed, looking back at it, she almost persuaded herself that the sight which she had seen might be some phantom conjured up by her own imagination, weakened as she was in mind and in body.
Having concluded her narrative, she wound up by imploring her new-found friend to assist her by letting her friends in London know what had become of her and where she was. Mrs. Scully listened with a face which expressed alternately the most profound pity and the most burning indignation. When Kate had finished, she sat silent for a minute or more entirely absorbed in her own thoughts. She switched her whip up and down viciously, and her usually placid countenance assumed an expression so fierce that Kate, looking down at her, feared that she had given her offence. When she looked up at last, however, she smiled so pleasantly that the poor girl was reassured, and felt instinctively that she had really found a true and effective friend at last.
“We must act promptly,” she said, “for we don’t know what they may be about, or what their plans are for the future. Who did you say your friends were?”
“Dr. Dimsdale, of Phillimore Gardens, Kensington.”
“Hasn’t he got a grown-up son?”
“Yes,” said Kate, with a slight flush on her pale cheeks.
“Ah!” cried the good lady, with a very roguish smile. “I see how the land lies. Of course, of course, why shouldn’t it? I remember hearing about that young man. I have heard about the Girdlestones also. African merchants they were in the City. You see I know all about you.”
Delphi Complete Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Illustrated) Page 525
