The Solitary Farm Part 36

"Yes, now that I know Miss Huxham played the ghost. Granny"--he turned to the old woman--"all your teachings of the unseen have proved false, so you can take yourself out of this house, and never come near it again."

Bella, quite believing that the old woman was a fraud, and knew the truth of what she had spoken when in her so-called trance, expected to see her defy the man she had accused. But in place of doing so Granny Tunks flung the tail of her white cloak over her head and moved towards the door. Seeing her retreat, Mrs. Vand, after the manner of bullies and cowards, became suddenly brave. Leaping towards the old creature, and before her husband could restrain her, she struck her hard once or twice between the shoulders. "Get out of this, you lying cat! Go to the devil, your master, you vile animal!"

Vand caught back his infuriated wife with a fierce oath, but Granny still continued on her way out of the room. As she pa.s.sed into the dark hall she turned and sent a glance at Mrs. Vand which made that triumphant tyrant s.h.i.+ver in her shoes. But she did not defend herself in any way, and shortly the three in the vast drawing-room heard the front door open and shut. Granny Tunks was gone, and with her seemed to disappear the malignant influence which had hung over the house for so long. Bella did not believe in witchcraft, but she could not help thinking that the old woman must have exercised some evil spell, and now had departed taking her familiar with her. At all events, the air seemed to be clearer for her absence.

"Now then," said Vand, addressing Bella in his usual courteous way, "as you are satisfied, Miss Huxham, perhaps you will go also."

"No," said Bella determinedly. "I believe that Granny spoke truly, and that you and my aunt have something to do with the murder."

"It's a lie!" shouted Mrs. Vand furiously, and would have struck her niece, as she had struck Granny, but that Vand kept her back. "Why should I murder my own dear brother?"

"To get the heritage you now enjoy," said Bella firmly. "I don't say you actually murdered him, but----"

"I should think you didn't, indeed," raved Mrs. Vand, stamping in impotent wrath. "You heard what I said at the inquest. What I said then is true. I left this house at seven o'clock with Tunks, as he can prove.

I was all the evening with Henry, as he can swear to, and he left me on the other side of the boundary channel. I came in quietly at ten and went to bed. I never knew that Jabez was dead until the next morning, and then I woke you. And as I was out of the house from seven until ten, how could I have murdered my brother--your poor dead father--when the doctor declared that he was struck down shortly after eight? How dare----"

"You forget," interrupted Bella quickly, "that Dr. Ward said the murder was committed between eight and eleven, so that gave you an hour to----"

"Grant me patience, heaven!" cried Mrs. Vand, casting up her eyes. "Why, the coroner himself said that the poor dear must have been murdered shortly after eight o'clock, since I came in at ten and saw no light in the study."

"Ah," said Bella significantly, "he declared that on your evidence and because he hated Dr. Ward, and wished to put him in the wrong."

"Then you accuse me of murder?"

"No; I accuse you of nothing."

"You say that I am guilty?" asked Vand, suddenly but quietly.

"I do not say so, but Granny Tunks did."

"If so, would she not have accused me to my face when I turned her out of the house?" said Vand earnestly. "I a.s.sure you, Miss Huxham, that I had no motive to kill your father. I was quite content to wait, even though Rosamund and I were secretly married. Besides, on that night I left Rosamund on the further side of the boundary channel, as she can prove. Also my mother can show that I returned to my home at fifteen minutes past ten, and that I was in bed by half-past. There is not a shred of evidence to support this unfounded charge you have made."

"I did not make it Granny said----"

"I know what she said," interrupted Vand imperiously. "Hold your tongue, Rosamund, and let me speak. Granny said what she did say in a trance. At one time I really believed in such things; now, and especially since our ghost has proved to be you, I have ceased to believe. You heard merely the raving of an old beldame. I dare say she wished to blackmail myself and Rosamund by bringing this unfounded charge, and chose this so-called trance to bring the charge. If she really has any grounds to go upon--and I swear that she has not--she will doubtless go to the police to-morrow."

"And I hope she will go!" cried Mrs. Vand angrily, "for then Henry and I can have her up for libel. No wonder everyone is so disagreeable!

Granny, no doubt, has been spreading all manner of reports against us. I daresay we are regarded as a couple of criminal, gory, murdering a.s.sa.s.sins," ended Mrs. Vand, with a fine choice of words.

Bella was puzzled. Like the Vands themselves, she did not believe in the occult arts with which Granny Tunks was supposed to be familiar, and it was not unlikely that the clever old woman intended to risk blackmail.

Certainly, if Mrs. Tunks could really prove the guilt of Vand, she would not have retreated so easily when he ordered her out of the house, much less would she have condoned the blow of Mrs. Vand. If Granny honestly could prove her case, she was mistress of the situation; but as she had slunk away so quietly, it seemed that she had merely spoken from conjecture. Bella began to think she had been too precipitate in revealing herself, as the Vands decidedly had right on their side.

"Yet, after all," she said reluctantly, "how did Granny come to know about the jewels?"

"Jewels! Had Jabez really jewels?" asked Mrs. Vand avariciously.

"Yes," said Bella coldly. "I read some papers which proved that he had jewels valued at forty thousand pounds."

"Where did you get those papers?"

"I refuse to tell you that," retorted the girl, anxious not to incriminate Mrs. Tunks until she had interviewed her.

"You must tell!" yelled Mrs. Vand, her face on fire with rage and expectation. "You've come in sneaking by these secret pa.s.sages to steal.

Jabez never gave you any of his papers. They are mine, and if they tell where the jewels are, you minx----"

"They don't tell where the jewels are," interrupted Bella, "but they state how Captain Huxham murdered Maxwell Faith in Nigeria to get them."

"You talk of your dead father as Captain Huxham," said Mrs. Vand sniffing.

Her husband made a gesture of silence. "Maxwell Faith was the name mentioned by Granny in her trance, and she also spoke of this murder.

Did she see the papers?"

"Ah!" Bella was suddenly enlightened. Perhaps Granny had learned about the jewels from the papers which had been taken from the carved chest in the attic. But then in that first set of papers, as she thought, the name of Maxwell Faith had not been mentioned. "Granny saw one set of papers, but not the set I mean."

"Then there are other papers you have stolen," cried Mrs. Vand furiously. "Upon my word, Bella, you are a fine thief and no mistake.

Give up those papers, so that we may learn where my jewels are."

"They are not your jewels, but mine," said Bella, stepping back into the hollow left by the open panel, "and you shall not have them."

"Where are they? where are they?" cried Vand, becoming excited in his turn.

"I wish I knew, but I don't. Captain Huxham had them, before he died----"

"Then the a.s.sa.s.sin must have them."

"Yes. Perhaps you can tell me who is the a.s.sa.s.sin?"

"I can't say; you know as much as we do," said Vand coldly. "If I had murdered the old man, as you were so ready to think, on Granny Tunk's ravings, I should have the jewels and long since would have cleared out with them. But the fact that I am still here with Rosamund proves that I am innocent."

"We must go and see the police to-morrow, Henry," said Mrs. Vand, "and have this wicked girl arrested. She must be made to give up the papers she has stolen. Oh!"--Mrs. Vand plunged forward--"I could scratch her eyes out!"

Undoubtedly the furious woman would have made the attempt, but that Bella was on her guard. Already in the secret pa.s.sage, she had only to touch a spring and the panel sprang back into its place with a click. In the darkness Bella heard her so-called aunt hurl herself against the hard wood, using very bad language. Then came the beating of fists against the panel in the vain attempt to break it down. Bella knew that the panel was too strong to break, but thought it was best to leave the house as speedily as possible. Cyril was waiting for her near the boundary channel, and the sooner she joined him the better. As she turned to go she heard the high, screaming voice of Mrs. Vand raging wildly.

"Go up on the roof and use the search-light, Henry!" shouted Mrs. Vand.

"The minx will get out of the house by some way we don't know of, and must get down the corn-path. I'll catch her there, and you show the light so that I can seize her. I'll tear her hair out! I'll scratch her eyes out! I'll make her ill, and----" what else Mrs. Vand was about to do to her, Bella did not hear, as there was no time to be lost in getting away from the dangerous neighborhood of the infuriated woman.

Bella sped along the narrow pa.s.sage fearlessly, as long experience had made her acquainted with its intricacies. It was contrived in the thick dividing walls of the old house on the ground floor. At one part there was a shaft leading to another pa.s.sage on the first floor, and up this it was possible to scramble by notches cut in the walls. Bella had half a mind to ascend to the upper story, and linger for a chance of escape.

But as Cyril waited her at the boundary channel, it was possible that he might come into contact with Mrs. Vand, who would be furiously hunting.

Therefore, she judged it best to leave the house and gain the corn-path before Mrs. Vand could intercept her. With this scheme in her mind Bella ran along the pa.s.sage until she came to a door, which turned on a central pivot. This she twisted, and slipped like an eel through the opening to find herself in a kind of tiny chamber. Groping round this she soon discovered the hasp of a closed door, which she skilfully manipulated. The door--a narrow one and somewhat high--swung open, and the girl was outside in a quiet corner at the back of the house, and hidden fairly well by a projecting b.u.t.tress. A screen of ivy clothed the Manor wall at this point, and the door was concealed behind the screen, so that its existence had never been suspected. Bella had discovered the exit from the inside, and had cut round the ivy that masked the door so that she could get it open. Of course, the cut ivy had more or less withered, but even so, no one guessed that there was a door behind the brownish oblong.

The night was dark and warm and silent. Bella stole along the footpath, which ran between the house and the tall, rustling stalks of the corn.

Several times she paused, thinking she heard a noise, but everything was still, and she speedily turned the corner of the mansion. Apparently Mrs. Vand was not on the hunt yet, or perhaps she was busy with the search-light which she had asked her husband to use. However this might be, Bella saw that the course was clear, and stealing round to the front door, which she found to be closed, she sped like an antelope down the winding corn-path which led to the boundary channel. Just as she reached the top of this and was prepared to start down it, the beam of the electric light struck into the dark sky.

Huxham had rigged up the light on the flat roof, between the sloping tiles, but Vand had transferred it to the quarter deck, which was slung round the chimney. Thus he was enabled to sweep the whole horizon without being interrupted by the tall roofs of the Manor. The beam swung round here and there, pointing like a great finger, and finally settled on the corn-path and on Bella's dark figure running for dear life from the mansion. The girl heard Vand's shout as he espied her, heard also the front door opening, as Mrs. Vand rushed in pursuit.

But Mrs. Vand, like Hamlet, was stout and scant of breath, and with all the will in the world urged by a venomous hatred, could not gain on her detested niece, who ran like Atlanta. The search-beam revealed the path plainly, and showing the flying figure of Bella, with Mrs. Vand panting in vindictive pursuit. Towards the end of the path near the boundary channel Bella called softly and breathlessly, "Cyril! Cyril! Mrs. Vand is following. Hide! hide!"

At that moment the beam struck the boundary channel, and revealed the white-clothed figure of young Lister. It rested for a moment there, and then dropped back to aid the steps of Mrs. Vand. Cyril seized the chance of the friendly darkness, and as Bella ran into his arms he dragged her into the standing corn. In less than a moment they were lying some distance from the path amongst the crushed stalks, while Mrs. Vand blundered past, running unsteadily. If Vand had kept the beam on Bella, she and her lover would not have been able to hide, but having been forced to give light to his stout wife, the two were enabled to escape.

They could hear Mrs. Vand puffing and panting like a grampus, as she searched round and round. In Cyril's arms, on Cyril's breast, Bella felt perfectly safe, and in spite of the position and of the near presence of her enemy, was bubbling over with laughter.