The Riddle of the Mysterious Light

  CHAPTER XIII

  THE MYSTERIOUS LIGHT

  A good sprinter at all times, to-night it seemed to the Superintendentthat the man was fairly outdoing himself, in this wild "cross-country"race; and, although Mr. Narkom put forth all the energy and all thespeed that was in him, never once could he lessen the space which laybetween him and that flying figure in front of him. And all the time thejangling bells went on, flinging their harsh discord out upon the night.

  As yet Cleek could get no sight of the church tower, for thecenturies-old luxuriance of a group of fir trees screened tower andbells alike from view on this side of the church, and the upward slopeof the land from the river's edge to the graveyard wall rendered theirscreen doubly effective. But presently he came abreast of that wall,vaulted over it, zigzagged his way through a wilderness of crowdedtombstones, came out into the open, and looking upward--saw!

  It was the first moment since the beginning of the sound that he hadchecked his speed or halted for so much as a second. That he did so nowwas only natural. For here was a thing totally unexpected. Here wascorroboration of James Overton's story. Here was, indeed, a suggestionof the supernatural.

  High up in the open space where the bells--themselves unseen--wereswinging and clashing out their jarring discords, a globe of light, itsradiance intensified by the black shadow of the tower's roof, wascareering about as if it hung in mid-air, and was dancing a ghostlytarantella to the time of the clanging bells.

  He stood stock still and looked at it, conscious of a swift, pricklingsensation travelling up his spine to his very hair; then catching agasping sort of sound and a low exclamation from somewhere behind him,he knew that Mr. Narkom, too, had come within sight of the thing, and,pulling himself together, took up the lead again and ran toward thetower.

  Racing behind in a state of mind bordering closely upon panic, Mr.Narkom saw Cleek run to the tower's foot, whip out his electric torch,and splash the light of it about its base--a square now spread inchesdeep with fullers' earth--and then, almost immediately, he saw him throwup both hands as if to recover an equilibrium disturbed by a violentblow, and stagger backward.

  "My God! What is it?" Mr. Narkom called in a shaking voice, as he made amad rush toward him. And indeed there was sufficient cause for thehorror in his voice.

  For Cleek, crying out that he was burning up, had suddenly faced about,dashed through the lich-gate, and lurched out into the road, and when,presently, the Superintendent dodged out of the churchyard after him, itwas in time to see him stagger to the Hurdons' cottage, fall so heavilyagainst the door of it that it flew inward with a bang, and drop, acrumpled heap, upon the threshold--limp and inert as a man shot dead.

  Narkom, a picture of terror too real to admit of any doubt, was acrossthat road and kneeling beside him before you could have counted twenty,and to the astonished eyes of Mrs. Hurdon, drawn to the window by theuproar, and well-nigh carried off her feet by the bursting in of thedoor, there appeared a man's hat rolling across her floor and afashionably dressed gentleman sprawling over her threshold in a faintingcondition, while another was bending over him trying to revive him aswell as terror would permit.

  "Old man, wake up, pull yourself together, speak to me!" exclaimed theSuperintendent with the utmost concern and then, becoming aware of thewoman's presence, appealed to her.

  "Help me!" he cried. "Don't stand there like a stone! Can't you see theman's ill? Get some sort of a stimulant, quick!"

  Here the woman's wits came back to her.

  "We haven't any," she replied, tartly. "And what's more, you can't bringhim in here. There's no room for him--none at all. Besides, I never saweither of you before. Take him outside--take him where he belongs. Ican't have him here, I tell you. I've got a sick husband, and--and I'mgoing to shut the door."

  She caught hold of it as she spoke, intending to carry her words intoexecution, and Narkom, fairly bursting with indignation, had just begunto call her everything his concerned mind was capable of, when therecame the sound of a voice and the rush of footsteps up the red-tiledpath behind him. In another moment the vicar of St. Saviour's put in anunexpected appearance.

  "God bless me, it will be Mr. Barch, will it not, Mr. Williams?" hesaid, as he met Mr. Narkom's upturned glance. "I guessed as much when Iheard the noise. I told you--I told you, you foolish men! What madnessto let a weak-nerved, weak-minded fellow like that go prowling aboutcountry roads in the night. Mrs. Hurdon, these are two London gentlemen,Mr. John Williams and Mr. Philip Barch, who have just come down to spendthe week-end with me at the vicarage, and Mr. Barch is unhappilyaddicted to fainting fits."

  "Deary me! That is it?" said Mrs. Hurdon with suddenly awakenedsympathy. "Oh, the poor, dear gentleman. But he did scare the wits halfout of me, sir, bursting into a body's house like that."

  "No doubt, no doubt. Hand me his hat, please. Thank you. Now, my dearMr. Williams, you get hold of his head, and I'll take his feet, andwe'll carry him back to the vicarage between us."

  Mr. Narkom, his head in a whirl with an overwhelming sense of havingbeen taken in, acted upon the suggestion without a word, and two minuteslater he and the vicar were trudging down the dark road with Cleek lyinga dead weight between them.

  "I'd let you put me down, only one never knows what may happen," he tookthe opportunity of saying in a low voice when they were some twenty orthirty yards down the road. "Mr. Saintly, you were excellent; but I hadsome groggy moments lying there, and not being sure if you wouldunderstand the note or not. And your worried expression, Narkom,couldn't be beaten."

  "I should say not. It was perfectly genuine, and I was pretty well offmy head with fright. I think you might have given me a hint."

  "It wouldn't have been anything like so natural. You were positivelysuperb. Sorry to be such a burden, gentlemen, but we shall soon be atthe vicarage, and after that---- Mr. Saintly!"

  "Yes, Mr. Cleek?"

  "We are close to the end. If you will write and invite the duke and afew other gentlemen at the Castle to honour you with a call at St.Saviour's vicarage to-morrow night at half-past ten o'clock, I will givethem the riddle's answer as soon as the bells begin to ring!"