Nell, of Shorne Mills Part 77

Burden had switched off some of the electric lights in the corridor--was, indeed, prepared to switch the remainder if any one happened to come up--and she could just see a face through the window.

The sight of it almost made her scream, for the face was partially covered by a c.r.a.pe mask, through which the eyes gleamed fiercely.

Burden clapped her hand to her mouth to stifle the cry of terror, and, absolutely incapable of remaining on the spot, fled to her own room and locked herself in.

Ted raised the window noiselessly and stepped into the corridor. He had a plan of the house, drawn from Burden's description, and he made straight for the countess' room. The Parson stood at the bottom of the ladder on guard. And each man carried a revolver loaded in all six barrels.

A few minutes before the burglar had so neatly effected his entrance, the men left the smoking room for the drawing-room--all excepting Lord Turfleigh, who had taken a soda and brandy with his cigar, and deemed it prudent to indulge in a little nap before joining the ladies.

Drake was a little less excited than he had been, but he was still resolved to ask Luce to be his wife, and he meant to take her into the conservatory, or one of the rooms where they could be alone for a few minutes. But when he entered the drawing-room she was playing. He went up to the piano, and, bending over it as if to look at the music, whispered:

"Will you go into the conservatory presently?"

She nodded, and without raising her eyes, but with a sudden flush. Drake went across the room to where Lady Angleford and Lady Wolfer were seated, talking, and the first word he heard was Nell's name.

"Of course it is the same," Lady Wolfer was saying eagerly. "Her brother was at the engineers, Bardsley & Bardsley! And Nell has been near us all this time, and in this house, and I didn't know it! If I had, I would have gone to her at once. She's the dearest and sweetest girl in all the world, and I owe her----" She stopped and sighed, but not sadly. "She left us quite suddenly to go to her stepmother, who was a cousin of my husband's; and I have only seen her once since. They--she and her brother--were living in one of these large mansions--a dreadfully crowded and noisy place; but, though they were poor, she seemed quite happy and contented. I begged her to come and live with me, but she would not leave her brother--though for that matter we should have been delighted to have him also, especially if he is anything like her. Oh, yes, the dearest girl! And you don't know how much I owe her! Some day I may be tempted to tell you." She sighed again, and was silent for a moment, as she recalled the scene in her bedroom on the night of the dinner party, the night before Nell had left Wolfer House so suddenly.

"I must go and see her to-morrow morning. They say she is engaged to the young man, the violinist."

Lady Angleford nodded.

"Yes; and if she was engaged to him when you last saw her, that would account for her happiness, notwithstanding her poverty. She is an extremely pretty girl. I remember her quite well. I saw her at your dinner party, you know. I hope she is going to marry a man worthy of her. I'll go with you to see her to-morrow, if you'll let me."

Drake stood listening, his hands clasped behind his back, his face set sternly. Every word they said caused him a pang of pain; and as he listened, his mind went back to the happy weeks when Nell was engaged to a man who certainly was not worthy of her.

Lady Angleford looked up at him.

"We were talking of Miss Lorton and her brother, Drake," she said.

"She's a kind of connection of Lady Wolfer's, and lived with them for a time. I wish you would see the brother and see if he really is too young to be the resident engineer. It would be so nice to have some one whom one knows."

"I will see," he said, so grimly that Lady Wolfer glanced up at him with some surprise; and, as he moved away, Lady Angleford looked after him and sighed.

"How changed he is!" she said, in a low voice.

"In what way?" asked Lady Wolfer.

The countess was silent for a moment or two.

"He seems as if he were unhappy about something," she said; "as if something were worrying him. I only saw him twice before he came into the t.i.tle, and though he was by no means 'loud' or effusive, he was bright and cheerful; but now----I noticed the change the moment he came into the Hall on his return. It seems so strange. He had cause for anxiety then, for there was a chance of his losing Angleford; but now one would think he possessed all that a man could desire."

"The vanity of human wishes, my dear!" said Lady Wolfer. "Something may have happened while he was abroad," she suggested in a low voice.

"You mean a love affair? I don't think so."

The countess glanced toward the piano. She felt sure that Drake was about to renew his engagement with Lady Luce, and she deemed him the last man in the world to marry for the sake of "convenience."

Drake moved about the room restlessly, waiting for Luce to rise from the piano; but she was playing a long piece--an interminable one, as it seemed to him. Presently he felt for his pocket handkerchief, and, not finding it, remembered leaving it on the dressing table where Sparling had placed it. He went into the hall to send a servant for it; but there was not one in sight, and he went quickly up the stairs and entered his dressing room. He noticed that most of the electric lights were down, and, disliking the gloom, went toward the row of switches. They were fixed to the wall almost opposite Lady Angleford's dressing room, and as his hand went up to them, he heard a slight sound in the room.

It was a peculiar sound, like the soft bang which is made by the closing of a safe door. For a moment Drake paid no heed to it; then suddenly its significance struck upon him. Lady Angleford was in the drawing-room.

Who could be at the safe?

He stepped outside the door, and waited for a second or two, then he opened the door softly, and saw a man rising from his knees in front of the safe. The man turned at the moment and stood with the case of diamonds in his hand--two other cases bulged from his side pockets--his eyes gleaming through his mask.

Now, in fiction the hero who is placed in this position always cries aloud for help, and instantly springs at the burglar; but in real life the element of surprise has to be taken into account; and Drake was too amazed at the moment to fling himself upon the thief. Besides, it is your weak and timid man who immediately cries for help. Drake was neither weak nor timid, and it would not occur to him to shriek for a.s.sistance. So the two men stood motionless as statues, and glanced at each other while you could count twenty. Then the burglar whipped a revolver from his pocket and presented it.

"Stand out of my way!" he said gruffly, and disguising his voice, for he knew how easily a voice can become a means of identification. "Better stand out of my way, or, by G.o.d! I'll fire!"

Drake laughed, the short laugh of a strong man ridiculing the proposal that he shall probably stand aside and permit a thief to pa.s.s with his booty.

"Put down that thing," he said. "You know you can't fire; too much noise. Put it down--and the cases. No? Very well!"

He sprang aside with one movement, and with the next went for the man.

Ted was really a skillful craftsman, and had taken the precaution to fasten a string across the room, from the bed to the grate.

Drake's foot caught in it, and he went sprawling on his face.

Ted sprang over him, and gained the corridor. With a dexterity beyond all praise, he switched off the remaining lights and then pushed up the window and dropped, rather than climbed, down the ladder.

Drake was on his feet in a moment and out in the corridor in the next.

He had heard the window pushed up, and knew the point at which the man had made his escape.

Even then he did not give the alarm, and he did not turn up the lights, for he could see into the night better without them. He leaned out of the window and peered into darkness, and distinguished two forms gliding toward the shrubbery.

It was a long drop, but he intended taking it. He swung one leg over the sill as some one came up the stairs.

It was Sparling.

"Why are all the lights out?" he exclaimed. "Who's there?" for there was light enough from the hall for him to see Drake dimly.

"All right; it's I," said Drake quietly. "Turn up the lights. There are burglars. Don't shout; you'll frighten the ladies. Get the bicycle lamp from my room--quick!"

Sparling tore into the room, and came das.h.i.+ng out with the lamp, and, with trembling hands, lit it.

"Drop it down to me when I call," said Drake. "I'll risk its going out.

Then get some of the men and search the grounds. And--mind!--no frightening the ladies!"

Then he lowered himself, dropped, and called up. He caught the lamp, which was still alight, and covering the gla.s.s with his hand, ran in the direction the men had taken; and as he ran he b.u.t.toned his dress coat over the big patch of white made by his wide s.h.i.+rt front.

He had stalked big game often enough to be aware that his only chance of tracking the thieves lay in his following them quietly and unseen, and he ran on tiptoe, and keeping as much as possible among the shrubs as he went, his ears and eyes strained attentively, he endeavored to put himself in their place.

"Yes," he muttered, "they'll make for the road, where there'll be a trap waiting for them--or bicycles; but which part of the road?"

The park fence was high, but easily climbable by an experienced burglar, and they might make for it at any point; presumably the nearest.

By this time he was cool enough, but extremely angry; and he blamed himself for falling so easily into the string trap. What he ought to have done----At this point in his futile reflections he stopped and listened, not for the first time, and he fancied he heard a rustling among the trees in front of him. He ran on as softly as possible, and presently saw a figure--one only--going swiftly in the direction of the lodge.

Drake understood in a moment; one man had gone to bring the vehicle near the gates, and this other man was waiting for it.

Up to this instant Drake had given no thought to the fact that he was pursuing two men, desperate, and, no doubt, armed, while he had no kind of weapon upon him. But now he smiled with a grim satisfaction as he saw that he had only one man to deal with.