The Dark House at Highgate

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10698, 20 August 1912, Page 2

The Dark House at Highgate

OUR SERIAL.)

CHAPTER XXIL— As night approached all fears and anxictys were swallowed up in one dominating anxiety. I found myself hoping with a curious intensity that there would he no repetition of Cluny's outcries. To hoar a mail speaking in the still night to a God whom lie believed to be justly angry may be a disquieting thing under any circumstances; in that place I knew the dread of hearing thjrt mournful and t'M-rihlo voice would keep me wakeful through the dark .hours. It was as well ;1 might'have need to he wakeful, for I felt that the unseen end was approaching, and, although with less confidence, with less courage than before, T was prepared for a struggle The twilight deepened and deepened and the rain nattered motonously on the laurels, ft seemed to me as if all my friends,'all the people I had over known, all .the protective power of th-e law of England, had deserted me,and given mc oyer to. enemies, through my lonliness and misery, the wish again asserted itself —"I hope I shant hear Cluny's voice tonight." If it came in the morning I could bear it: in the darkner;; I folc that the horror of it would drive me mad.

I w-as standing, just before it grew totally dark, by the open window, leaning my head against the bars, when there was a sudden shivering of the bushes close in front of me. Before I could start back, something lightly struck mo in the face, and a flicker of raindrops from the wet leaves accompanied it. I gave, 1 dare sav, a'cry of alarm, for I had been taken completely by .surprise. Was it some foul night creature—a bat or a beetle—that had flown into my face? Or had one of my human enemies thrust at me through the laurels? For a moment I hada ridiculous idea that I was wounded. After that I would not approach the window; and with a sick weariness that only prisoners can know I began to pace the room, on the. side away from the window, and continued to walk up and down. Then a sudden lightening of the room ; - hiy heart into my mouth., ami I saw an orange glow show through the fanlight over the door. Some one was coming bown the passage with a candle, and I knew—or so it seemod to me now. in the retrospect — next hour would be big with fate for me, for all in the house, perhaps.

BY DERWENT Ml ALL. 2k thor of "Lady Rosalie's Legacy," "CeJlaniy'? Warning, 1 " "Th« Strange Case Yinceni Hume," "In the Web." Etc L:c.

CHAPTER XXIIT

THE WAY OUT

The finger of light travelled over the ceiling as the candle bearer neared mv door, and I waited on the inner side'of the door, with .such feelings as one may imagine were experienced bv hapless morals in the dungeons of the Inquisition, who never knew until it was imminent, at what hour or in what shape annihilating doom was to spring upon them. Then the oath of light lay across j the middle of the ceiling, and rethe door was pushed and two men 1 came in. My executioners? I could ■ not say. One of them was Rimington; the other, the crooked fellow carried a trav with a white cloth a I'd loaded with olates and tiahes. But though the .scent of food touched some chord in my jiature not unpleasantly, I argued no safety from these preparations for a more sumptuous meal than any I had so far in my comfortlera prison. I believe an improved dietary is allowed to condemmed wretches in his majesty's jails when the awful hour approaches, and it struck ,me .that my jailers were adopting ordinary prison methods. But I was in a condition to see sinister indications in every trifling circumstance.

The crookocV follow —his name, by the way, was Thompson —put the tray on the'table, and Doctor Rimington came toward me with a ghastly a *" sumption of bonhomie, for the man's real mood was. I knew, grave and anxious, and his face was pale with the stress of strong emotion.

"Come, Mr Rycroft," he said,_ in a strained, unnatural voice, "this is too bad. Here have I been away on a journey these past three {lays, and I hear they've pxit you on short commons in my absence. To make up for it I concluded I'd take my supper with you to-night, and we'll see if we. can't end this unfortunate business amicably." The man Thompson looked at me curiously.and went out. I don't know why, but his parting 100k —not malignant, but merely one of quiet curiosity —heightened my sense of impending catastrophe.. Rimington walked up and down the room, in the space between the window and the table, with bowed head ami hands elapsed behind him. Then he came to a .halt and forced himself —so it seemed —to look me. in the face. "I'm real hungry," he said, "and I guess you are." He feigned a laugh ; it was more like &■ groan. And then my heart gave a jump, for, lying on the floor, almost between his feet, was something that had notbeen lying o'n the floor before the daylight faded. It looked like a folded .note, and I remembered the thing that had struck my face and startled me in the darkness. Could it bo possiblo that I had a friend outside? All my wishes now were concentrated upon getting 'hold of that Jiote be fore Doctor' Rimington spied it. It

] seemed impossible that it should cvs- ! cape his attention. • "I do really regret," continued Doctor Rimington, speaking in ;; voice of unaccustomed solemnity, "that you should have been kept hero so long. lam not naturally a hnrsh man, and I have, not had altogether a free hand in all this." I CoSild T get hold of that scrap of 'paper? How was I to get hold of it unnoticed? These, T think, were the onjy thoughts that occupied my mind, to the exclusion of everything else i that had puzzled or worried me during ithe past week. Rimington went on talking, hut I was not listening to him ; I was as if hvpnotisod by that scrap of paper. Of course it had been flung in through the window bars; and I had mistaken it for something foul and horrible. ..; In ray agony of anxiety I waited, while Doctor Rimington went on talking. To my horror he began to pace up and down, -with lxnved head and hands behind him. He must iee it now, though it lay in the shadow. Heavens! he stopped, he saw it! I think I should have thrown myself upon him and struggled for the'pos,session of it if he had not absentmindedly kicked it aside, and continued walking.

Then, instinctively, I did the right thing. I went to the table, and said: "I can discuss nothing with you till we've fed." He stepped forward at once, carrying a chair. I darted toward the window for the other chair, stumbled, as if my foot had caught in one of the many holes in the threadbare carpet, and then stooped, pyetending to smooth the nieked-up material. Jn doing so I picked up the paper. It j was a half sheet, folded once. At a glance I read its message: "Eat what you will. Drin knoth- , ing." I Then I knew the worst, and the best of my position. Here was an alarming warning; there was no further need to % speculate about possibilities; my murder was intended: hut the note brought mp the bless :d g!ft of hope. I had a friend about the place. Who could it b.i? CVcile?—GliriT? Most probably Gluny. My head was buzzing from weakness and excitement when I sat down at- table. Famished though I was I would not begin to eat tiH'l saw that Doctor Rimington ate without hosita- | tion, although sparingly. Then I felt assured that the warning note was true; only the wme was drugged or poisoned; and I ate with the ravening hunger of a man who lias b< en half starved for three days. Jn a ' w minutes I felt more like a man who means to lie master of his own fate. Then, with no word Doctor Rimington began to twist the wire from a champagne cork, his face ashen with excitement; or perhaps ifc was the pale candlelight that made it seem so. 'I i watched the wine cream in my glass. and then .saw him make as if to to fill a second glass, shake his head, and put down the battle. "Yon have not filled your own glass, Doctor Rimington," T said, looking at him squarely in the .face, "No, Mr kycroft," he renlied; "as T to!d yon once before. I'm very nigh a tolal abstainer, and champagne esj pecially gives me a head in the inornjing." "Very w?M." 1 said. "I will he a total abstainer, too.'' Eor about ten seconds there was silence.

"You are not ordinarily an abstainer from whip?" ho Miid, with a desperate- effort to speak naturally. "No; lmt I abstain from noiso'V T replied sharply. Ho stared at me dully: His lins moved, but no words oaiHc. Ho knew that all make-be-lieve was at an end botwoen us. that: I had fathomed his villainy, and that there was no use in protesting innocence. He had come there intoiKr.ng to kill mo, and T know it. and he was aware that I knew it. So wo sat, with the table between us, and T think both of us were, for the moment, at a dead loss how to act. Then it crept into my mind that a detected and determined man., balked of fulfilling his purpose in one way, mipht try another method, and that, would prompt him to shoot, unless I ccu/ld divert his thoughts for little while. I had a wild idea that the man. who had warned me miftht come to my help, and tlmt all T had to do was to keep talking to Rimington until help came. tTo be Continued.)