The Bittermeads Mystery Part 18

"Well, good night," said then a voice both Dunn and Clive knew at once for Deede Dawson's. "That was a pretty check by the knight I showed you, wasn't it?"

A thin, high, somewhat peculiar voice cursed Deede Dawson, chess, and the pretty mate by the knight very comprehensively.

"It's young Clive that worries me," said the voice when it had finished these expressions of disapproval.

"No need," answered Deede Dawson's voice with that strange mirthless laugh of his. "No need at all; before the week's out he'll trouble no one any more."

When he heard this, Clive would have betrayed himself by some startled movement or angry exclamation had not Dunn's heavy hand upon his shoulder held him down with a grave and steady pressure there was no disregarding.

Deede Dawson and his unknown companion went on towards the house, and admitted themselves, and as the door closed behind them Clive swung round sharply in the darkness towards Dunn.

"What's it mean?" he muttered in the bewildered and slightly-pathetic voice of a child at once frightened and puzzled. "What for? Why should any one--?"

"It's a long story," began Dunn, and paused.

He saw that the unexpected confirmation of his warning Clive had thus received from Deede Dawson's own lips had rendered his task of convincing Clive immensely more easy.

What he had wished to say had now at least a certainty of being listened to, a probability of being believed, and there was at any rate, he supposed, no longer the danger he had before dreaded of Clive's going straight with the whole story to Deede Dawson in arrogant disbelief of a word of it.

But he still distrusted Clive's discretion, and feared some rash and hasty action that might ruin all his plans, and allow Deede Dawson time to escape.

Besides he felt that the immediate task before him was to find out who Deede Dawson's new companion was, and, if possible, overhear anything they might have to say to each other.

That, and the discovery of the new-comer's ident.i.ty, might prove to be of the utmost importance.

"I can't explain now," he said hurriedly. "I'll see you tomorrow sometime. Don't do anything till you hear from me. Your life may depend on it--and other people's lives that matter more."

"Tell me who you are first," Clive said quickly, incautiously raising his voice. "I can manage to take care of myself all right, I think, but I want to know who you are."

"H-ss.h.!.+" muttered Dunn. "Not so loud."

"There was a fellow made an attack on me one night a little while ago,"

Clive went on unheedingly. "You remind me of him somehow. I don't think I trust you, my man. I think you had better come along to the police with me."

But Dunn's sharp ears had caught the sound of the house door opening cautiously, and he guessed that Deede Dawson had taken the alarm and was creeping out to see who invaded so late at night the privacy of his garden.

"Clear out quick! Quiet! If you want to go on living. I'll stop them from following if I can. If you make the least noise you're done for."

Most likely the man they had seen in his company would be with him, and both of them would be armed. Neither Clive nor Dunn had a weapon, and Dunn saw the danger of the position and took the only course available.

"Go," he whispered fiercely into Clive's ear.

CHAPTER XV. THE SOUND OF A SHOT

He melted away into the darkness as he spoke, and through the night he slipped, one shadow more amongst many, from tree to bush, from bush to tree. Across a patch of open gra.s.s he crawled on his hands and knees; and once lay flat on his face when against the skyline he saw a figure he was sure was Deede Dawson's creep by a yard or two on his right hand.

On his left another shadow showed, distinguishable in the night only because it moved.

In a moment both shadows were gone, secret and deadly in the dark, and Dunn was very sure that Clive's life and his own both hung upon a slender chance, for if either of them was discovered the leaping bullet would do the rest.

It would be safe and easy--suspected burglars in a garden at midnight--nothing could be said. He lay very still with his face to the dewy sod, and all the night seemed full to him of searching footsteps and of a swift and murderous going to and fro.

He heard distinctly from the road a sudden, m.u.f.fled sound as Clive in the darkness blunderingly missed his footing and fell upon one knee.

"That's finished him," Dunn thought grimly, his ears straining for the sharp pistol report that would tell Clive's tale was done, and then he was aware of a cat, a favourite of Ella's and often petted by himself, that was crouching near by under a tree, most likely much puzzled and alarmed by this sudden irruption of hurrying men into its domain.

Instantly Dunn saw his chance, and seizing the animal, lifted it and threw it in the direction where he guessed Deede Dawson to be.

His guess was good and fortune served him well, for the tabby flying caterwauling through the air alighted almost exactly in front of Deede Dawson on top of a small bush. For a moment it hung there, quite unhurt, but very frightened, and emitted a yell, then fled.

In the quietness the tumult of its scrambling flight sounded astonis.h.i.+ngly loud, so that it sounded as through a miniature avalanche had been let loose in the garden.

"Only cats," Deede Dawson exclaimed disgustedly, and from behind, nearer the house, Dunn called:

"Who's there? What is it? What's the matter? Is it Mr. Dawson? Is anything wrong?"

"I think there is," said Deede Dawson softly. "I think, perhaps, there is. What are you doing out here at this time of night, Charley Wright?"

"I heard a noise and came down to see what it was," answered Dunn.

"There was a light in the breakfast-room, but I didn't see any one, and the front door was open so I came out here. Is anything wrong?"

"That's what I want to know," said Deede Dawson. "Come back to the house with me. If any one is about, he can just take himself off."

He spoke the last sentence loudly, and Dunn took it as a veiled instruction to his companion to depart.

He realized that if he had saved Clive he had done so at the cost of missing the best opportunity that had yet come his way of obtaining very important, and, perhaps, decisive information.

To have discovered the ident.i.ty of this stranger who had come visiting Deede Dawson might have meant much, and he told himself angrily that Clive's safety had certainly not been worth purchasing at the cost of such a lost chance, though he supposed that was a point on which Clive himself might possibly entertain a different opinion.

But now there was nothing for it but to go quietly back to the house, for clearly Deede Dawson's suspicions were aroused and he had his revolver ready in his hand.

"I suppose it was only cats all the time," he observed, with apparent unconcern. "But at first I made sure there were no burglars in the house."

"And I suppose," suggested Deede Dawson. "You think one burglar's enough in a household."

"I don't mean to have any one else mucking around," growled Dunn in answer.

"Very admirable sentiments," said Deede Dawson and asked several more questions that showed he still entertained some suspicion of Dunn, and was not altogether satisfied that his appearance in the garden was quite innocent, or that the noise heard there was due solely to cats.

Dunn answered as best he could, and Deede Dawson listened and smiled, and smiled again, and watched him from eyes that did not smile at all.

"Oh, well," Deede Dawson said at last, with a yawn. "Anyhow, it's all right now. You had better get along back to bed, and I'll lock up." He accompanied Dunn into the hall and watched him ascend the stairs, and as Dunn went slowly up them he felt by no means sure that soon a bullet would not come questing after him, searching for heart or brain.

For he was sure that Deede Dawson still suspected him, and he knew Deede Dawson to be very sudden and swift in action. But nothing happened, he reached the broad, first landing in safety, and he was about to go on up to his attic when he beard a door at the end of the pa.s.sage open and saw Ella appear in her dressing-gown.

"What is the matter?" she asked, in a low voice.