CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
THE LADY AT THE GATE
Cleek was conscious of a sense of keen disappointment at this piece ofintelligence, it so completely upset all his calculation. Hitherto, thebits of the puzzle had fitted nicely and bade fair to make a smooth andflawless whole.
"Are you sure?" he whispered, laying a tense hand upon Dollops's arm."Don't jump to a conclusion without positive evidence. Are you _sure_?"
"Rath-_er_! Of course it's too dark to see her face, gov'ner; but whenshe come to the gate the first time--she's been several, sir--it was adeal lighter on account of the moon not bein' hid so much with themblessed clouds, sir; and I could see then that she was wot you mightcall a high-stepper--summink classy and up in the nines, gov'ner, andhad a way with her that you don't pick up if you aren't born to it. Shecouldn't have been putting it on for effect, 'cause she didn't knowthere was anybody there to see. Gone she is now, sir; slipped off overthe Common, and I lost sight of her among all them furze bushes, butshe'll come back, never fear. She's went away like that two or threetimes before, but always come back and tried the door, and jist struckher hands together and rocked back and forwards like she was halfbeside herself when she found it locked and nobody there to meet her."
"And you didn't succeed in seeing her face at all?"
"No, sir. It never was light enough for me to do that. But even if ithad been, it wouldn't 'a' been no use, sir. She had summick that lookedlike a white lace scarf wrapped all round her head and over her face.But I was near enough to make out as she smelt summink beautiful ofvoylits, and had on one of them shiny, silky-lookin' kind ofmackintoshes and a dress of pink silk."
A black mackintosh and a dress of pink silk! _Not_ a black cloak linedwith ermine! Not a dress of pink gauze! Of course Dollops was right inhis statement that it was not Margot; that fact alone proved it. Sothere was a second woman who prowled about Wuthering Grange andendeavoured to see somebody in secret, was there? Whom? Harry Raynor orLord St. Ulmer?
Clearly the one in the pink gauze--Margot beyond all possiblequestion--came to see Raynor, for Hamer had identified her as the womanhe had seen in that young man's company that day at Kingston. Who, then,was this other woman in pink? And whom did _she_ come to see? What was_her_ mission, her place in this elusive puzzle?
Come to think of it, he had been a fool to imagine when Dollops firstspoke of her that it could possibly be Margot. The pink dress itselfought to have told him that. For although young Raynor had said thatthe lady he knew as Mademoiselle Mignon de Varville nearly alwaysdressed in pink, Margot was no such fool as to prowl round this placeto-night in the identical frock she had worn at the time of the tragedy,and from which that tiny scrap had been torn by the nail head in thefloor of Gleer Cottage.
True, nobody but Narkom and Ailsa and he himself knew, as yet, of thefinding of that betraying scrap, but---- Ah, well, you couldn't catchMargot napping! She might not know when, how, nor _where_ that scrap hadbeen torn off, but _her_ shrewd eyes would detect the missing bit in theskirt: she would be on to it like a cat on a mouse. He knew her methods,knew her miscroscopic carefulness and attention to detail. What, then,was this other woman's place in the puzzle? What was she after? Whom hadshe come to see? He'd make it his business to find that out, and inshort order, too.
These things had travelled through Cleek's thoughts rapidly. It wasscarcely more than a moment after Dollops had last spoken when headdressed the boy again.
"I've got something important on hand for you, as I told you, my lad,"he said in a cautious whisper. "But, first, tell me: where is this otherdoor in the wall of which you speak, the one where the Pink Woman goes?"
"Jist about thirty feet farther up, gov'ner; there where them mulberrytrees is so blessed thick. You don't notice the place till you comesmack on to it, on account of furze bushes and ivy along the foot of thewall. You can creep up till you're almost on it, though, without a bodyseein' of you, 'specially if you go before the party comes back."
"Right you are," said Cleek in reply. "I'll act on that tip, my lad.Now, then, listen here. There's a ruin in the grounds of this place, andthat ruin I particularly wish to have closely watched to-night. For onething, the man who murdered the Common keeper made his way to that placeand buried his victim's clothing there; and for another--oh, well, nevermind. That will keep for later. Miss Lorne"--he turned to Ailsa, who allalong had remained silent and closely huddled back in the shadow of thewall-angle and the trees--"Miss Lorne, we shall have to defer our strollon the Common until later, I'm afraid. I shall have to look into thematter of this mysterious woman in pink before we can give any furtherthought to Lady Clavering and her possible anxiety over her stepson. Inthe meantime, will you, as silently and as expeditiously as you can,steal back through the grounds and show Dollops the way to the ruin?Afterward, you and I can meet again here. And you, Dollops, listenclosely to what I say. The chances are that some one, either man orwoman, will secretly visit that ruin to-night. Keep yourself well hiddenand your eyes wide open. If a woman comes, slip away from the place asquietly as you can, come round to the shrubbery near the front entranceto the house, and hoot like an owl three times in succession; then lielow until I come out and join you. But if, on the other hand, it shouldbe a man who puts in an appearance--here, lay hold of this pair ofhandcuffs--look sharp! At all costs, at any hazard, get those things onhim and then blow your police whistle as a signal to me. I'll be withyou like a shot. Now, then, cut along with you. Show him the way, MissLorne, and be as quiet as you can in your movements, both of you."
"Mice'll be fools to us, sir," whispered Dollops.
Cleek waited a minute to let them get well on their way, then stooped inthe darkness, crept to the wall door, opened it cautiously, and wentdown on all-fours upon the strip of grass and the row of furze bushesthat flanked that wall upon the outer side and made a narrow black alleybetween it and the crowded mulberry trees.
The moon had ridden farther than ever into the depths of the thick,slow-moving clouds, and the darkness was almost opaque. To the left thegreat Common stretched out, a thing of gloom and shadows, blotted hereand there with deeper black where the furze clumps were thickest or thefull-leaved tree reached up above the skyline. On the right, the blankwall rose, flat, smooth as your hand, so tall it shut out even thelights in the windows of the Grange; and between these lay MulberryLane, a black funnel leading on to deeper darkness and the shapelessnessof crowded trees.
In the shadows of that narrow alley made by the wall and the furzebushes Cleek crouched a moment and listened before he ventured to moveanother inch. Not a sound, not the merest ghost of a sound. If the womanwere in the immediate neighbourhood, she was keeping extremely quiet;therefore it behoved him to progress with infinite caution. Inch byinch, on hands and knees, he moved up that narrow alley, stopping everynow and then to prick up his ears and listen breathlessly. But uponevery occasion he found the stillness yet unbroken and no sign or soundof breathing life anywhere about him.
Two minutes passed--three--five--half a dozen, and still all was as ithad been in the beginning. By this time this slow, cautious creeping hadcarried him over two thirds of the distance, and he was now within tenor eleven feet of the hidden gate; and still no sound or sign of thewoman's return. Indeed, no sound of any sort until, with one handoutstretched and one knee lifted to edge forward yet a trifle more, hepaused abruptly, sucked in his breath, and huddled softly down, becomingbut a mere dark heap on the damp, dark grass.
A sound had come at last! The unmistakable sound of some one movingcautiously through close-pressing branches and crowded leaves.
It was so faint a thing that ears less keen than his might not havedetected it. Yet, at the first rustle of the first stirred leaf hecaught the hiss of it and knew it was not the woman that made it; forthe prickly foliage of furze makes no rustling sound when a passingbody brushes it, and there was nothing upon the outer side of the wall_but_ furze that was low enough to be brushed in passing.
Clear
ly, then, the sound was from the other side of the wall, fromwithin the grounds of the Grange! Some one was coming to keep thetryst--some one who, evidently, had been delayed past an agreed time,otherwise the woman would not have made all those anxious pilgrimages tothe door and been so upset when she found it still locked and nobodythere to meet her.
Well, this was a stroke of good fortune at all events; for if by anychance the woman did not return there would at least be the satisfactionof discovering----A sound interrupted: a cat's mew to the life. And fromthe shadow of a thick furze hedge on the Common side of the lane it wasanswered.
"Yes, I am here," a shrill, eager voice called out in a sharp, keenwhisper. "Oh, come quickly or I shall go insane!"
Almost instantly there was a rustle of silken garments, a patter offootsteps, the swift moving of a figure across the lonely lane, followedby the rattle and click of a key in a spring lock, the creak of anin-swung gate moving upon its hinges, and with these things the sound ofan excited man whispering warningly, "Sh-h-h!" as the woman swept downupon him in a state bordering on absolute hysteria.
"Oh, if you could but know what agonies I have suffered, what horrorsof suspense I have endured!" she said in a wailing sort of whisper, "Ifeared that you might not be able to come, after I have risked so muchto be here; but when I heard the cat's mew, I wonder that I did notscream."
And again the man's whispered "Sh-h-h!" sounded, but fuller than ever ofexcitement and fear.
But Cleek scarcely heard it. Other and more startling things wereclaiming his thoughts. A scent of violets was in his nostrils; a stingof bitter recollection was in his memory. What was it the dying Commonkeeper had said? "All shiny pale green satin, sir, with sparklin' thingson her bosom, and smellin' like a field of voylits in the month of May!"
He did not need Ailsa Lorne to point her out to him after this. He knewwithout anybody telling him; knew in that first moment, as surely as heever lived to know in moments yet to come, that this veiled andnight-hidden woman who stood there by the garden door keeping tryst witha man was she who had been out on the Common last night: Sir PhilipClavering's wife!
And the man she was meeting, this crafty fellow who hung back in theshadow of the solid gate, who and what was he? What part was his in thisgrim riddle of death?
It was Lady Clavering herself who gave the answer.
"Oh, it is so easy to say that," she went on, answering his warning"Sh-h-h" in a whisper that was shrill with agony and despair, "but thedread of shrieking will be on me forever after this, the horrible dreadthat if I do not cry out in my waking moments I may unconsciously do soin my sleeping ones. I know it was mad of me to do this thing, to takethis dreadful risk in coming here; but I couldn't sleep until I saw you,until I had told you that I know! I think I knew it yesterday; I think Iforesaw it when you wrote and warned me, and if I had not been a coward,if fate had not sent him to Clavering Close last night and let me seethat it was written he should come back into my life again----"
Her voice snapped off and failed her for an instant, sinking down to adull, whimpering sound like the wail of an animal that is beaten; thenit came back to her and she spoke again.
"I knew you would kill him, I knew that you would!" she said in thathorrible, excited whisper. "I felt it in my soul the moment he looked upand recognized me, and I knew what I--what you--had to dread. It wasthat that drove me out on the Common. I wanted to find you; I wanted tostop you. But it was too late, too late! I know that you did it for mysake as much as for your own, but the thought of the thing, the_thought_ of it! If anything can palliate that, if God can in any wayexcuse it, it will be that you got the letters; that you tore them up,burnt them, did anything in the world but let them fall into that womanMargot's hands! Oh, did you? I cannot sleep until I know. For if you didnot----"
Here her voice snapped again, but for quite another reason this time, areason which made Cleek groan inwardly.
Far down at the other end of the dark alley where he lay breathlesslylistening, a faint rustling sound had suddenly risen--the sound of someone creeping gently toward him. He knew and understood what washappening, what an unkindly blow fate had dealt him. Ailsa wasreturning. She had taken his expression, "Afterward you and I can meethere again," to mean after she had conducted Dollops to the ruin, notafter Cleek's own work was done; and lo! here she was returning at thisinopportune moment. She was creeping along on tiptoe, it was true, andmoving as stealthily and as silently as she knew how, but in that utterstillness, with silk skirts that brushed the wall as she advanced----
The end came abruptly. There was just one second of breathlesslistening, then without a word the two people at the open doorwayparted. Lady Clavering jumped back, darted across the lane, and vanishedin the blackness of the Common; the wall door closed, the spring lockclicked, and the sound of a man's running echoed faintly from the otherside. No time this for craft and finesse. Here was a call for action, ademand for muscle, not brain. If that man was a member of thishousehold, if fleet running could do it, if any man who should be underthat roof was _not_ there----
Cleek was on his feet like a flash. He scudded down the lane openly, heducked into the door and vanished into the gardens without so much as aword to Ailsa, he struck through the plantation and made a short cut forthe lawn and the front door, and with jaw squared and teeth shut, ranand ran and ran.