The Sign of the Stranger Part 28

For a long time we stood talking, until as though in fear that the man whose call had been so unwelcome and disturbing should grow tired of waiting in the hall below, she urged me gently to take leave of her.

"Go, Willoughby--for my sake--do!" she implored of me with those soft pleading blue eyes that were so resistless. "Let me see him alone. Let me do this--if--if you wish to save me," she urged.

And I saw by her pale anxious face that she was desperate.

Therefore I kissed her once again with fondness, and a.s.suring her of my trust and love, left her, promising to return next morning.

Yes, I foolishly left her to the threats and insults of that man who knew her secret.

Ah! Had I only known the truth!

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

WHEREBY RICHARD KEENE IS SURPRISED.

In the entrance-hall of the hotel I saw the man Logan, the man who held my love's secret, seated in a chair patiently awaiting her summons.

There were others, well-dressed men and women, in evening toilettes lounging there in the hour before retiring. It is curious with what studied ease women lounge at hotels. The woman who is alert and upright at home falls into the most graceful poses after dinner at a hotel, presumably to court the admiration of strangers.

The man Logan, however, still wore his light overcoat over his dinner-jacket, and his head was buried in an evening paper, whether, however, this was to conceal his features or not I was unable to determine. Still, he was wanted by the police, and was therefore taking every precaution against being recognised. From where I stood at the back of the large square hall, I saw that his features had been slightly altered by the darkening of his eyebrows, undoubtedly with that object in view.

As I stood watching unseen, a waiter approached, spoke to him, and then he followed the man upstairs to the presence of my adored.

Had I done wrong in allowing the fellow to go to her alone? That was the thought which next moment seized me. Yet when I recollected her earnest appeal I could only remain lost in wonderment at her motive.

But determined on watching the man in secret, I fetched my hat and overcoat, and sat patiently in the hall to await his return.

The clock chimed eleven musically, and a party of Americans noisily left to catch the night mail to London. The staff changed, the night-porter came on duty, and the little group of idlers in the hall gradually diminished. Indeed, they grew so few that I feared in pa.s.sing out he might recognise me. Therefore at half-past eleven I strode forth into the night. Princes Street with its long line of lights, looked bright and pleasant even at that hour, yet it was almost deserted save for one or two belated wayfarers.

I took up my position at the railings on the opposite side of the road, from where I could see each person emerging from the hotel. Long and anxiously I waited, wondering what was transpiring in that room the window of which was straight before me. The blind was down, but no shadow was cast upon it, so I could surmise nothing.

At last he came. For a moment he stood on the steps, evidently in hesitation. Then he descended and hurried away. I followed him closely, across the railway, up High Street, and then he plunged into an intricate labyrinth of narrow streets quite unknown to me. At the time I believed he was not aware that I was following him, but when I recollect how cleverly he evaded me I now quite recognise that he must have detected my presence from the first. At any rate, after leading me through a number of narrow thoroughfares in a low quarter of the city, he suddenly turned a corner and disappeared from my sight as completely as though he had vanished into air.

My own idea is that he disappeared into a house--probably into one of those whose doors are open always as a refuge for thieves, and there are many in every big city in the kingdom, houses where pressure on the door causes it to yield and close again noiselessly, and from which there is an exit into another thoroughfare.

I spent some little time in making an examination of the houses at the spot where he had so suddenly become lost, but finding myself baffled, turned, and after wandering for a full half-hour lost in those crooked streets of old Edinburgh, I at last found myself in a thoroughfare I recognised, and turned to the hotel more than ever convinced of the man's shrewdness.

Next morning, at ten o'clock, I found Lolita alone in her sitting-room, and on entering saw by her countenance that the night had, for her, been a sleepless one.

"Well," I said, raising her hand reverently to my lips as was my wont, "and what was the result of last night's interview?"

She drew a long breath, shook her head sadly, and replied--

"The situation is, for me, as perilous as it ever was. I am now convinced that what you have said regarding Marigold is right--she actually is my enemy, and yet I have foolishly taken her into my confidence!"

"But you are still hopeful?" I asked anxiously. "This man Logan has surely not refused to stand your friend?"

"He refuses to tell me certain facts which, if revealed, would place me in a position of safety," she responded blankly.

"But he must be compelled!" I cried. "I will compel him."

"Ah! you cannot," she cried despairingly. "If you approach him, you will upset everything. He must not know of your visit to me. If he did it would be fatal--fatal."

I held my breath, for had I not foolishly betrayed my presence to him on the previous night? And had he not cleverly tricked me? I hesitated whether to tell my love the bitter truth of my injudicious act, but at last resolved to do so, and explained the incident briefly, just as I have related it to you.

"Ah?" she exclaimed. "Then I fear that all I have arranged with him will be of no avail. He will now believe that I intend to play him false. My only hope now lies in Richard Keene."

"Then I will return to him and act as you wish," I said.

She stood thoughtfully looking out of the window for a long time. At last she said--

"I think it best, after all, to return to Sibberton. My aunt had a letter from George this morning asking her to join the house-party at once, and she seems anxious to do this and go to Lord Penarth's afterwards."

"Very well," I said eagerly; "let us all return together." I felt somehow that she would be safer at home beneath my protection than wandering about in hotels exposed to the perils which her unscrupulous enemies were placing before her.

And so it happened that on that same night we joined the party a.s.sembled in the drawing-room at Sibberton just before dinner, and there, in front of them all, the young Earl introduced Keene and Lolita, believing them to be unacquainted.

At the instant the introduction was made I chanced to glance around, and there saw Marigold standing in the doorway, her face pale as death. She had been out, and being unaware of Lolita's return was, I saw, amazed and filled with apprehension, while Keene on his part bowed over my love's hand with a distant respect as though they were perfect strangers.

Dinner was, as usual, a long function, served with that stateliness and ceremony that characterised everything in the Stanchester household.

George made a point of preserving punctiliously all the ancient traditions of his n.o.ble house, even to the ceremony, and, after the port, of pa.s.sing round the snuff to the men in the great old silver box that had been a present of King James the Second to the Earl of his time.

I saw that Marigold was ill at ease at Lolita's return. She had whispered something to her as they went in to dinner, but what it was I knew not. Keene, on the other hand, preserved an utter disregard of what was in progress, except that once I detected a meaning glance cast at the brilliant hostess upon whose throat scintillated the wonderful Stanchester diamonds.

Afterwards, in order to learn something more, I played billiards with him. We were alone in the room, for bridge and music were attracting the others. He was, I found, an excellent player, yet not in good practice.

"You know," he said apologetically, "I get so little billiards, living as I do mostly in the forest. I played a good deal in town a few years ago, but nowadays rarely ever touch a cue."

I complimented him upon a break of eighteen he had that moment made, whereupon he exclaimed suddenly--

"Oh, by the way! Lord Stanchester told me yesterday that it was you who discovered that mysterious affair in the park here some time ago. Tell me all about it. I'm always fond of mysteries."

He hid his dark-bearded face from me, occupying himself in chalking his cue. But his demand told me that, as I expected, he had not recognised me as Warr's visitor on the evening when, tired and dusty, he had refreshed himself at the _Stanchester Arms_.

"I suppose you read all about it in the papers?" I said, not quite understanding his motive.

"George showed me some of the accounts. Most extraordinary affair-- wasn't it? They don't even know the poor fellow's name, do they?"

"The police axe in ignorance of it as far as I know," was my response.

"But explain to me the exact position in which you found him," he urged, leaving off playing, leaning with his back against the stone mantelshelf, and drawing heavily at his cigar. "I take a keen interest in such matters as this. Out after big game, we become almost like detectives so necessary it is to follow clues and footprints."

"Well," I said, "I simply heard a cry in the darkness, and got Warr, the publican from the village, to help me to search--and we found him."

"He was dead, of course--quite dead?" he asked eagerly, as though, it seemed, in fear that the victim had still been conscious and had spoken.

"Quite," I replied, still much puzzled. He had himself invited me to billiards, and it seemed for the purpose of obtaining from me the exact details of the discovery. "He had been struck a cowardly blow in the back which the doctors declared must have proved fatal at once."

"You heard his cry?" he said, looking me straight in the face. "It was that which attracted you?"

"I heard _a_ cry," was my answer.