CHAPTER XVIII
MADGE APPLIES MORE STRENGTH
Was it imagination? Or was it fact? Did some one or something reallypass from the room, causing in going a little current of air? Withstartled faces each put to the other an unspoken query.
Which none answered.
The woman lay there, motionless, her exceeding stillness seemingaccentuated by the sudden silence which filled the room. Bruce Graham,moving forward, took her up in his arms, as if she were but afeather's weight. His knife fell from her nerveless fingers, tumblingto the floor with startling clatter. Madge picked it up. Her voicerang out with clarion clearness--the voice of a woman whose nerveswere tense as fiddle-strings.
"I'll see if I cannot press harder. This mystery must be solvedto-night--before some of us go mad; if pressing will do it, it shallsoon be done--if there's strength in me at all."
There was strength in her--and not a little.
She went on her knees where the woman had been; and, as she had done,fumbled with her fingers where the paper had been scraped from thewall, peering closely at it, as she did so.
"A dog's head, is it?--it doesn't look as if it were a dog's head tome, and that's not because I'm stupid. It's to be pressed, isit?--Well, if pressing will do it, here's for pressing!"
She exerted all her force against the point to which the woman hadbeen directed.
"It gives! It gives!--something gives beneath my thumb: it's the knobof a spring or something--I'm sure of it."
Turning, she looked up at Graham with flaming cheeks and flashingeyes.
"The spring is sure to be rusty. It will need all your strength. Tryit again."
She tried again.
"It does give--it does! But whatever it is supposed to open is notlikely to act now that the wall has been repapered. Some one go andfetch the hammer and the chisel from downstairs--we'll try anotherway."
She glanced at Jack, as if intending the suggestion to apply to him.But Ella clung to his arm, which perhaps prevented him from movingwith the speed which might have been expected.
"Will no one go?" cried Madge. "Why, then, I'll go myself."
But that Bruce Graham would not permit. Swiftly depositing his stillunconscious burden on Ella's bed, he went in search of the requiredtools, returning almost as soon as he had gone.
"I think, Miss Brodie, that perhaps you had better allow me to try myhand. I am stronger than you."
She gave way to him unhesitatingly.
"Drive the chisel into the wall and see if it is hollow."
He did as she bade him. A couple of blows put the thing beyond adoubt. The chisel disappeared up to the hilt through what wasevidently but an outer shell. Madge continued to issue herinstructions.
"Break the wall in! It's no use fumbling with dogs' head in search ofhidden springs--with us it's a case of the shortest road's the best.Whatever's inside that wall has been there long enough to excuse us ifwe're a little neglectful of ceremonious observances."
In a few minutes the wall was broken in, the ancient woodwork offeringno resistance to Bruce Graham's vigorous onslaught. A cavity was madelarge enough to thrust one's head in. Madge stopped him.
"That'll do--for the present! Now let's see what there is inside!"
She went down on her knees the better to enable her to see, Grahammoving aside to give her room. She thrust her fair young face as farinto the opening as she could get it--only to discover that she wasobscuring her own light. Out it came again.
"Give me a light--a match, or something. It's as dark as pitch inthere."
Graham gave her a box of matches. Striking one, she introduced it intowhat was as the heart of the wall.
"There is something in there!"
She dropped the match. Fortunately it went out as it fell.
"It's the hidden fortune!"
She gave a gasp. Then in an instant she was on her feet and washastening towards the recumbent figure on the bed.
The woman still lay motionless. Madge, bending down, caught her by theshoulder, forgetful of all in her desire to impart the amazing news.
"Your husband's fortune's in the wall--we've found it there."
Something on the woman's face, in her utter stillness, seemed to fillher with new alarm. She called to the others.
"Ella!--Mr. Graham! Jack!" Her voice sank to a whisper; there was acatching of her breath. "Is she dead?"
They came hastening towards her. Jack Martyn, stopping halfway,looking round, startled them with a fresh inquiry, to which he himselfsupplied the answer.
"By George!--I say!--where's Ballingall?--Why, he's gone!"