THE SECOND LATCHKEY
Without another word Smith opened the door and sprang out. As Annesley
put her hand into his to descend she gave him the latchkey. It had been
inside the neck of her dress, and the metal was warm from the warmth of
her heart.
"Take this," she whispered. "If _they_ are watching, it will be best for
you to have the key."
Mr. Smith bestowed a generous tip on the driver, and was rewarded with a
loud, cheerful "Thank you, sir!" which must have reached the ears of a
chauffeur in the act of stopping before a house near by. Annesley,
glancing sidewise at the other taxi, thought that it drew up with
suspicious suddenness, as if it had awaited a "cue."
There was little doubt in her mind as to who the occupants were, and her
heart beat fast, though she controlled herself to walk with calmness
across the strip of pavement. On the doorstep she turned to wait for her
companion, and, without seeming to look past him, saw that no one got out
from the neighbouring taxi.
"They don't care whether we guess who they are or not," was her thought.
"They mean to find out whether we have a latchkey and can let ourselves
into a house in this square. When they see us go in, will they believe
the story and drive away, or--will they stay on?"
What would happen if the watchers persisted Annesley dared not think; but
she knew that she would sacrifice herself in any way rather than send the
man she loved (yes, she _did_ love him!) out to face peril.
Having paid the chauffeur, Mr. N. Smith joined the figure on the
doorstep, and fitted into the lock Annesley's latchkey. Then he opened
the door for the girl, and followed her in with a cool air of
proprietorship which ought to have impressed the watchers. A minute
later, if another proof had been needed that Mr. and Mrs. Smith were
actually at home, it was given by a sudden glow of red curtains in the
two front windows of the ground floor.
This touch of realism meant extra risk for Annesley in case Mrs.
Ellsworth were awake; but she took it with scarcely a qualm of fear. The
house was quiet, and there were ten chances to one against its mistress
being on the alert at this hour, so long past her bedtime.
When the girl had switched on the lights of the two-branched chandelier
over the dining table she beckoned to her companion, who noiselessly
followed her from the dark corridor into the room. There, with one
sweeping glance at the dull red walls, the oil-painted landscapes in
sprawling gilt frames, the heavy plush curtains, the furniture with its
"saddle-bag" upholstery, the common Turkish carpet, and the mantel mirror
with tasteless, tasselled draperies, "Nelson Smith" seemed to comprehend
the deadly "stuffiness" of Annesley Grayle's existence.
The look of Mrs. Ellsworth's middle-class dining room, and the atmosphere
whence oxygen had been excluded, were enough to tell him, if he had not
realized already, why the lady's companion had gone out to meet a strange
man "with a view to marriage."
To Annesley, however, for the first time, this room was neither hideous
nor depressing. It seemed years since she had seen it. She was a
different girl from the spiritless slave who had crept out after
luncheon, in the wake of her mistress: that short, shapeless form with
a large head set on a short neck, and a trailing, old-fashioned dress
of black.
Now, with a man holding her hands and calling her an angel--a "dear,
brave angel!"--it looked to the girl a beautiful room. There was glamour
upon it, and upon the rest of the world. Surely life could never seem
commonplace again!
"Ssh!" Annesley whispered. "We mustn't wake Mrs. Ellsworth, or she'll run
to the front door in her dressing gown and call 'Police!' She's old, but
her ears are sharp as a cat's. She can almost hear one _thinking_. But
I'm glad she can't quite. How frightful if she could!"
"Nothing about her need be frightful to you any more," said the man. "You
have saved me. Soon it will be my turn to rescue you."
"I haven't saved you yet," the girl reminded him. "_They_ are sure to be
waiting to see whether you come out. But I've thought of one more thing
to make them believe that you live here. I can steal softly upstairs to
the front room on the second floor, above the drawing room--the one we
call 'Mr. Smith's'--to turn on the lights, and then those hateful
creatures will think----". She hesitated, and the colour sprang to her
cheeks.
"That Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Smith have gone to their room," the man
finished her sentence. His eyes beamed love and gratitude, a glorious
reward. "You're wonderful! You forget nothing that can help. Do you know,
your trust, your faith in me, in spite of appearances, are the best
things that have come into my life? You call those fellows 'hateful
creatures,' because they're my enemies. Yet, for all you know, _they_
may be injured innocents and I the 'hateful' one. This may be my way
of getting into a rich old woman's house to steal her jewels and
money--making you a cat's paw."
"Don't!" Annesley cut him short. "I can't bear to hear you say such
things. I trust you because--surely a woman can tell by instinct which
men to trust. I don't need proof."
"By Jove!" he exclaimed, his eyes fixed upon her face. "You are the kind
of girl whose faith could turn Lucifer back from devil into archangel.
I--you're a million times too good for me. I didn't even _want_ to meet a
white saint like you. But now I have met you, nothing on earth is going
to make me give you up, if you'll stand by me. I'm unworthy, and I don't
expect to be much better. But there's one thing: I can give you a gayer
life than here. Perhaps I can even make you happy, if you don't ask for
a saint to match yourself. You shall have my love and worship, and I'll
be true as steel----"
"Oh, listen!" Annesley broke in. "Don't you hear a sound?"
"Yes," he said. "A door creaked somewhere."
"Mrs. Ellsworth's bedroom door. What shall we do? There's just the short
passage at the back, and then she'll be at the baize door that opens
into the front corridor. Quick! You, not I, must go upstairs--to that
second-floor front room I spoke of. Hurry! Before she gets to the swing
door----"
Without a word he obeyed, remembering his hat, which he had laid on the
table. One step took him out of the lighted dining room into the dimness
beyond. Another step and he was on the stairs. There, for the moment at
least, he was safe from detection; for the staircase faced the front
door, and Mrs. Ellsworth must approach from the back. She would come to
the door of the dining room, and, expecting only the girl, would not
think of spying at the foot of the stairs.
Besides, there was no light in the corridor except that which streamed
through the reddish globes of the chandelier above the dining table. If
only the man did not stumble on his way up, the situation might be saved.
He was alert, deft, quick-witted, and light of foot as a panther. Who but
he would have remembered at such a moment to snatch up a compromising hat
and take it with him?
Annesley stood still, rigid in every muscle, fighting to control her
heart-throbs, that she might be ready to answer a flood of questions. She
dared not even let her thoughts rush ahead. It was all she could do to
face the present. The rest must take care of itself.
_He_ had said that she would "make a good actress." Now was the moment
to prove that he had judged her truly! She began to unfasten one of her
long gray gloves. A button was loose. She must give it a few stitches
to-morrow. Strange that there should be room for such a thought in her
mind. But she caught at it gladly.
It calmed her as she heard a shuffling tread of slippered feet along the
corridor; and she forced herself not to look up until she was conscious
that a shapeless figure in a dressing gown filled the doorway, like a
badly painted portrait too large for its frame.
"A nice time of night for you to be back!" barked the bronchitic voice
hoarsened by years of shut windows. "Give you an inch and you take an
ell! I told you half-past ten. Here it is eleven!"
Annesley looked up as if surprised. "Oh, Mrs. Ellsworth, you frightened
me!" she exclaimed. "I was delayed. But it won't be eleven for ten
minutes. This dining-room clock keeps such good time, you know. And I've
been in the house for a few moments. I thought I came so softly! I'm
sorry I waked you up."
"Waked me up!" repeated Mrs. Ellsworth. "I have not been to sleep. I
never can close my eyes when I know anybody is out and has got to come
back, especially a careless creature as likely as not to leave the front
door unlatched. That's why I said half-past ten at _latest_! If I don't
fall asleep before eleven I get nervous and lose my night's rest. You've
heard me say that twenty times, yet you have _no_ consideration!"
"This is the first time I've been out late," Annesley defended herself.
As she spoke she looked at Mrs. Ellsworth as she might have looked at a
stranger.
This fat old woman, with hard eyes, low, unintelligent forehead, and
sneering yet self-indulgent mouth, had been for five years the mistress
of her fate. The slave had feared to speak lest she should say the wrong
thing, had hesitated before taking the most insignificant step, knowing
that Mrs. Ellsworth's sharp tongue would accuse her of foolishness or
worse. But now Annesley wondered at her bondage. If only the man upstairs
could escape, never again would she be afraid of this old tyrant.
"You don't need to tell me how long you have been in," said Mrs.
Ellsworth, blissfully ignorant that the iron chain was broken, and
enjoying her power to wound. "I've been sitting up watching the clock. My
fire's nearly out, and no more coals in the scuttle, the servants all
three snoring while I am kept up. If I'm in bed with a cold to-morrow I
shall have you to thank, Miss Grayle."
"I'll get you some more coal if you want it," said Annesley. "Hadn't you
better go to bed now I am back?"
"Not till I've made you understand that this must never occur again,"
insisted the old woman. (Annesley was shocked at herself for daring to
think that the unwieldy bulk in the gray flannel dressing gown looked
like a hippopotamus.) "You don't seem to realize that you've done
anything out of the way. You're as calm as if it was eight o'clock. Not
a word of regret! Not a question as to _my_ evening, you're so taken up
with yourself and your smart clothes--clothes I gave you."
"I haven't had much chance to ask questions, have I?" Annesley ventured
to remind her mistress. "Won't you tell me about your evening when you
are in bed and I have made up your fire? You say it is bad for you to
stand."
"I say so because it is the truth, and doctor's orders," rapped out Mrs.
Ellsworth. "I thought I had been upset enough for one evening, but this
last straw had to be added to my burden."
"Why, what can have upset you?" Annesley inquired, more for the sake
of appearing interested than because she was so. But the look on her
mistress's face told her that something really had happened.
"I don't care to be kept out of my bed, to be catechized by you,"
returned Mrs. Ellsworth, pleased that she had aroused curiosity and
determined not to gratify it. "Turn on the light in the corridor and
give me your arm. My rheumatism is very bad, owing to the chill I have
caught, and if I stumble I may be laid up for a week."
The girl proffered a slender arm, hoping that the pounding of her heart
might not be detected by Mrs. Ellsworth's hand. She wished that she could
have slipped it under her right arm instead of the left, but owing to
Mrs. Ellsworth's position in the doorway it was impossible to do so,
except by pushing her aside.
She rejoiced, however, in the order to put on the light in the corridor,
for this meant that after settling her mistress in bed and transferring
the dining-room coal scuttle to the bedroom she must return to switch the
electricity off. Then, with Mrs. Ellsworth out of the way, she could help
the man upstairs to escape, if the watchers had abandoned the game.
The tyrant, shuffling along in heelless woollen slippers, made the most
of her infirmity, and hung on the arm of her tall companion. In silence
they passed through the baize door at the end of the corridor, so into
the addition at the back of the house, which contained Mrs. Ellsworth's
room and bath, with another small room suitable for a maid, and occupied
by Annesley. This addition had been built a year or two before Annesley's
arrival, and saved Mrs. Ellsworth the necessity of mounting and
descending the stairs, as she used the dining room to sit in and seldom
went into the drawing room on the floor above. Annesley was not surprised
to see that the fire in her mistress's room was still a bank of glowing
coals, for one of Mrs. Ellsworth's pleasures was to represent herself in
the light of a martyr. The girl made no remark, however: she was far too
experienced for such mistakes in tact.
Still in silence, she peeled the stout figure of its dressing gown and
helped it into a short, knitted bed-jacket.
"When you get the dining-room scuttle, put out the light there and in the
corridor," Mrs. Ellsworth said. "If you leave this door open you can see
your way with the coals. No use your creaking back and forth just as I've
settled down to rest. Besides, there's somebody else to think of. I hope
he hasn't been disturbed already!"
"Somebody else?" echoed the girl with a gasp. There was no longer any
fear that her curiosity had not caught fire. Mrs. Ellsworth was
satisfied.
"Yes, somebody else," she condescended to repeat. "A certain person has
come since you went out. I suppose, _in the circumstances_, you do not
need to be told _who_."
"I--I don't know what you mean by 'in the circumstances'," Annesley
stammered.
"That's not intelligent of you, considering where you have spent the
evening," sneered Mrs. Ellsworth.
Annesley's ears tingled as if they had been boxed. Could it be that Mrs.
Ellsworth knew of the trick played on her--knew that her companion had
not been to the Smiths'?
"I'm afraid I don't understand," she deprecated.
Mrs. Ellsworth sat in bed staring up at her. "Either you are a fool," she
said, "or else I have caught you or _him_ in a lie. I don't know which
yet. But I soon shall. Perhaps you were not the only person in this house
who went out to-night with a latchkey. Now do you guess?"
"No, I don't," the girl had to answer, though a dreadful idea was
whirring an alarm in her brain.
"I dare say he is back before this, being more considerate of my feelings
than you, and less noisy," went on the old woman, anxious to prove that
Annesley Grayle and nobody else was responsible for keeping her from
rest. "Anyhow, what a man does is not my business. What you do, is. Now,
did or did _not_ a certain person walk in and surprise you at the
Archdeacon's? Don't stand there blinking like an owl. Speak out. Yes
or no?"
"No," Annesley breathed.
"Then you haven't been to the Smiths'. I can more easily believe you are
lying than _he_. Hark! There he comes. Isn't that a latchkey in the front
door?"
"It--sounds like it. But--perhaps it's a mouse in the wall. Mice--make
such strange noises."
"They're not making this one. He never could manage that key properly.
Nobody with ears could mistake the sound, with both my door and the baize
door open between, as they are now.
"No! You aren't to run and let him in. I don't want him to think we spy
on him. He's free to come and go as he pleases, but I wish he wasn't so
fond of surprises. It's not fair to me, at my time of life. As I was
sitting down to dinner he walked in. Of course I had to ask him to dine,
though there wasn't enough food for two. However, he refused, saying he
would drop in at the Archdeacon's----"
"Mr. Smith has come!" Annesley cried out, wildly, interrupting her
mistress for the first time in all their years together. "Oh, he will go
upstairs! I must stop him--I mean, speak to him! I----"
"You will do nothing of the kind!" Mrs. Ellsworth leaned out of bed and
seized the girl's dress. Careless of any consequence save one, Annesley
struggled to free herself. But the old hand with its lumpy knuckles was
strong in spite of fat and rheumatism. It clung leechlike to chiffon of
cloak and gown, and though Annesley tore at the yellow fingers, she could
not loosen them.
Desperate, she cried out in a choked voice, "Mr. Smith! Mr. Smith!" then
checked herself lest the wrong Mr. Smith should answer.
But her voice was like the voice of one who tries to scream in a
nightmare. It was muffled; and though the two intervening doors were
ajar--the door of Mrs. Ellsworth's bedroom and the baize door dividing
the corridors old and new--her call did not reach even the real Mr.
Smith. To be sure, he was slightly deaf, and had to use an electric
apparatus if he went to the theatre or opera; still, Annesley hoped that
her choked cry might arrest him, that he might stop and listen for it to
come again, thus giving time for the man upstairs to change his quarters
after the grating of the latchkey in its lock.
"Wicked, wicked girl!" Mrs. Ellsworth was shrilling. "How dare you hurt
my hand? Have you lost your _senses_? Out of my house you go to-morrow!"
But Annesley did not hear. Her mind, her whole self, had escaped from her
body and rushed out into the hall to intercept Mr. Ruthven Smith. It
seemed that he _must_ feel the influence and stop. If he did not, some
terrible thing would happen--unless, indeed, the other man had heard and
heeded the warning sound at the front door. What if those two met on the
stairs, or in the room on the second floor? Her lover would believe that
she had betrayed him!
"Mrs. Ellsworth," she said in a fierce, low voice utterly unlike her own,
"you must let me go, or you will regret it. I don't want to hurt you,
but--there's only one thing that matters. If----"
The words seemed to be beaten back against her lips with a blow. From
somewhere above a sharp, dry explosion struck the girl's brain and
shattered her thoughts like breaking glass.
Mrs. Ellsworth let go the chiffon cloak and dress so suddenly that
Annesley almost lost her balance. The noise had dazed the girl. The world
seemed full and echoing with it. She did not know what it was until she
heard Mrs. Ellsworth gasp, "A pistol shot! In my house! _Thieves!
Murder!_"