The House of Strange Secrets: A Detective Story

  CHAPTER X

  THE AFFAIR OF THE BICYCLE

  To the amazement of the venerable butler, Mr. Carrington intimated hisintention of taking a drive in the closed carriage that afternoon. Mrs.Knox offered to accompany him. Lena, perforce, went too. For reasonsthat need not be explained to the reader who has followed thisnarrative, the Squire thought it fit to order that the footman shouldride on the box of the carriage, an order which considerably annoyedthat worthy, who, having never received similar instructions before,being an indoor servant, had planned a quiet perambulation with acertain young lady of his acquaintance.

  Laurence did not accompany the party. He was not fond of driving in theclosed carriage, and even though he deprived himself of thecompanionship of Lena by refusing the Squire's invitation, he did notgreatly regret the fact, for at home there were many matters whichrequired his attention.

  The first of these was the barn itself, to which he repaired on thedeparture of the carriage. He was determined to make every effortpossible to discover the manner of the disappearance of the creaturewhom he believed to be his father's intended murderer. In broad daylightit was difficult to imagine that his grotesque experience of theprevious night was stern reality.

  With the aid of a step-ladder he swung himself on to the ledge wherefirst he had caught sight of the lurking creature. To further follow inthe stranger's footsteps he found quite impossible, but by other meanshe managed to reach the spot whence the hay had been thrown down uponhim in order to conceal the vanishing figure's disappearance. But,search as he might, he was unable to discover any clue to the manner ofthat disappearance. No hiding-place was apparent. Certainly there was nocrack or crevice in the roof in which it was possible for even a childto conceal itself. So, perforce, Laurence had to set this down also as amystery, when he gave up the search and disconsolately returned to thehouse.

  His next step was to prepare himself for the interview with the occupantof Durley Dene. Lena's common sense had assured him that the ordeal ofthe coming night might in all probability be attended by a certainamount of personal danger, and he decided to arm himself to the best ofhis ability before setting out to interview Major Jones-Farnell. He hadthe small pistol found in the barn on the previous day, but,unfortunately, was not supplied with the necessary ammunition. Therewas, however, still plenty of time before dinner, so Laurence, notobjecting to a little exercise, decided to ride over to East Cave, wherehe knew there was a gunsmith.

  Carrington was a fairly accomplished cyclist, and the possessor of amachine, which he occasionally rode, though more usually his "mount" wasa live one. His bicycle was kept in a shed adjoining the barn, andsituated nearer the Dene boundary than the larger building.

  Strolling down to this shed, he found the door unlocked. As he alonepossessed a key to it he was somewhat astonished on making thisdiscovery, but his astonishment gave place to a feeling of consternationwhen he entered the building to find that the machine was gone!

  And then in an instant an idea flashed across his brain. The unknown manon the moor who had so desperately attacked his father in the carriagehad ridden his (Laurence's) own bicycle on that memorable occasion!

  Impossible as the idea seemed at first, on second thoughts Laurencerealised how extremely probable it was that the mysterious creature whohaunted Squire Carrington should borrow on the French leave system, oreven steal, the machine which would enable him to follow his terrifiedvictim. He had been compelled to steal a dish of food and an old raggedcoat; it was hardly conceivable that he should nevertheless possess asafety bicycle. And certainly there could be no doubt but that themachine had been stolen, for every one of the servants, whom Laurencenext proceeded to question, professed entire ignorance of even thewhereabouts of a key that would fit the lock on the shed door.Undoubtedly they had nothing to do with the disappearance of the "ironhorse."

  Since Carrington was anxious to procure the ammunition for his littlepistol in time to be of use, if required, at the coming interview withJones-Farnell, he ordered the stable-boy to saddle the Squire's mare, onwhich he would ride into East Cave. Until the animal should be ready hepaid another visit to the cycle shed, and examined the lock on the door.It had been tampered with. The thief had used that harmless little toolwhich a professional burglar finds so useful when following his"profession"--a bent piece of copper wire. Examination of the interiorof the little erection revealed no trace of the unknown man who hadentered the shed. Who was he? That was a question that Laurence couldnot answer until the approaching ordeal was a thing of the past.