But as Paul strode in his eager foot found no foothold, and he pitched
forward, to find himself plunged up to the neck in icy water.
So great was the shock that a little involuntary exclamation escaped
him as he spluttered and blew the water from his mouth. A couple of
strokes brought him back to the gate again, and as he clutched it he
looked up at the silent house.
Even as he did so he caught a little spit of flame from one of the
windows and a bullet splashed into the water beside his head. There
was another spit of flame, and he felt his knuckles tingle as though
they had been rapped with a red-hot iron.
Then Andrieff gripped him by the collar, and with his aid he
scrambled back onto the path.
Alexis, who had been quick to see the necessity of instant action, was
by this time firing back at the place from which the little spits of
flame had come far above them. In the darkness he answered shot for
shot.
After the sound of the shots came a complete silence, and Paul, as he
stood stock-still beside the gate, which was now swinging idly over
the moat, could hear the patter of the water on the path as it dripped
from his clothes.
Andrieff, as soon as he had seen that Paul was safe, had run along the
hedge, and now he gave a shout.
"This is the gate we want," he cried.
But a third spit of flame came from the darkness overhead, and Paul
heard the overseer swearing softly under his breath. Whoever their
unknown assailant might be, he was no mean marksman.
Paul and Alexis ran to Andrieff's aid.
"What's up?" asked Paul.
"Nothing," answered Andrieff, and he got the gate opened. The three
men dashed up the path and reached a small door; but it was made of
stout oak, and securely fastened within.
They thrust their shoulders against it without avail, and then stood
looking at one another, panting, and for the moment baffled.
It was then that Paul's quick ear caught a woman's voice. He whipped
round and looked across the sheet of water. His eyes were now well
accustomed to the gloom, and he saw the form of a woman leaning far
out of a window and gesticulating wildly.
He held up his hand to the others for silence, and then once more
came a voice which he instantly recognized. It was the voice of the
red-haired woman.
"Be quick! Be quick!" she cried. "If you don't wish to be too late,
you must swim the moat--the door is barred."
Paul cast a quick glance behind him, and his eyes fell on the gate.
"Use that as a battering ram," he ordered, and then his jaws closed
over the butt of his revolver.
Without hesitation he waded in, and a few strong strokes brought him
beneath the window out of which Madame Estelle leant and waved.
He knew instinctively by her accents that she was terrified beyond
measure and that he need not expect treachery from her.
With one hand he clutched the sill, with the other he reached up and
shifting the safety-catch on with his thumb, let his revolver fall
into the room.
Soaked as he was with water, it was not an easy task to hoist himself
up and clamber through the window, and when at last he stood within
the room he leant against the wall partially exhausted and breathing
hard.
Madame Estelle stood before him wringing her hands.
"Be quick!" she said again. "Be quick! be quick! or you will be too
late. That fiend Boris is at his work."
By the light of the candles which flickered on the mantelpiece Paul
made his way to the door.
Seizing the handle, he turned it, but the lock held fast. He examined
it swiftly, and to his joy saw that it opened outwards. He drew back a
yard, and then sent the whole of his weight crashing against the
panels. And with good fortune the door of the room, although stoutly
built, was partially rotten. It burst wide open and sent him sprawling
onto his face in the passage.
As he lay there half-stunned his pulses throbbed again as the noise
which came from the main entrance told him that Alexis and Andrieff
were making good use of the gate.
He dragged himself up to his knees, still clutching his revolver, and
at the same moment the outer door gave up its resistance, and Alexis
and Andrieff came headlong into the hall-way.
He heard them give a warning shout as he struggled to his feet,
steadying himself by the pillars of the banisters.
Looking up the stairs, he saw the brutal face of the villain Michael
on the landing, his strong, yellow teeth bared in a vicious snarl.
Paul heard the sound of a shot, and at the same time felt the hands of
Madame Estelle give him a push.
Her intention was unselfish, almost heroic; she saved Paul's life, but
lost her own.
With a little gasping sigh she pitched forward and lay still, huddled
on the stairs. Then Paul heard a second shot rap out from behind his
back, and saw Michael stagger on the landing. The man reeled for a
couple of paces and then fell heavily.
Verdayne had by this time fully got back his senses and his breath;
and now he heard coming from somewhere high above him scream after
scream of dreadful terror.
He plunged up the staircase, and stepping across the body of Michael
as it lay on the landing, raced up the second flight of stairs. For a
moment he paused in the hall, in order to make doubly sure whence the
terrified scream came.
Then he heard it again, louder and shriller than before. There was a
dreadful note of fear in it. It was the scream of a woman.
As he stood there trying to locate the direction of the cry, a servant
bearing a lantern in his hand ran toward him. The man was unarmed,
apparently.
"What is that?" Paul demanded of him. But the man merely shrugged his
shoulders.
Then there came the scream again, louder and more terror-stricken than
before. Paul did not hesitate.
Before the servant had time to utter any protest he had snatched the
lantern from his hand and was racing up the third flight to the
topmost landing.
Again came the scream, and Paul suddenly found his way barred by a
door across the corridor.
Now there was no longer any doubt as to where the cries came from.
Paul dashed at the door, only to find it locked. In a second he had
his shoulder against the panel, and the door went in with a crash,
disclosing a small anteroom, formed by the end of the hall-way. And
then Paul saw before him another door, before which stood the fat
Frenchman, Virot, with a shining knife in his hand. Paul covered him
with his revolver.
"Drop that knife," he ordered.
"Not me!" said the portly rogue.
"Drop it!" said Paul again, with an unmistakable threat in his voice.
And this time the man dropped it.
"Now," Paul cried, "away with you, before I send you to hell before
your time."
Virot smiled in appreciation of the compliment, and at once started
down the hall as fast as his short legs could carry him. The rascal
was always careful of his precious skin.
Paul turned the handle of the door, only to find, as he had expected,
that the key on the inner side had been turned and he groaned within
himself. He was living in some awful nightmare at which a door faced
him at every turn.
He emptied his revolver in the lock and hurled himself in frenzy
against this further obstruction. It gave way, and he tottered into
the room, the lights of which for a moment dazzled him.
His half-blinded eyes were greeted by the sight which he had dreaded
ever since he had come to the farm on the hill.
Natalie was fighting desperately, and for life, with Boris.
With a great cry Paul leapt forward, but he was too late to exercise
that vengeance which had now full possession of his soul.
Boris flung Natalie to one side, and for a second turned his pallid
face, in which his eyes were burning like a madman's, full on Paul as
he dashed on him.
Then without a sound he leapt aside, and vaulting on to the sill of
the open window, jumped out.
Instinctively Paul knew what was coming, and catching Natalie to him,
held her head against his breast, stopping her ears with his hands.
Then as he stood there with his eyes bent on her hair, he heard the
sickening sound of Boris's body thud on to the stones below.
Releasing Natalie's ears, he put his hand under her chin and lifted up
her face. He marvelled that she had not fainted, but the dreadful
horror in her eyes struck into his heart like a blow.
He had to hold her to prevent her falling to the floor, and so he
stood for some few seconds with her form limp and shivering in his
arms.
Bracing himself for one last effort, Paul lifted her up and bore her
out of the room. Half-dazed, he stumbled down the stairs with her
until he reached the hall.
In the doorway he saw Peter, who came running forward with
outstretched arms.
"Just a minute," said Paul quickly, and he walked into the room, the
door of which he had shattered.
In the meantime Andrieff and the lad had picked up Madame Estelle and
carried her into the same room, and now she lay on the couch, her
face growing grey with the shadows of death, and her breath coming
fast and feebly. Her eyes stared up at the ceiling with an intense and
horrible fixity.
Paul pushed an armchair round with his foot and set his lady down on
it so that her back was turned to the dying woman.
Peter fell on his knees beside the chair, and seizing his sister's
hands, held them against his breast.
Paul crossed over to Madame Estelle and stood over her. He put his
hand against her heart and listened to her breathing.
"I am afraid," he said in a low voice to Andrieff, "that we can do
nothing for her. It is a bad business. Heaven forgive her for anything
she has done amiss! She did her best to make amends."
Then he drew Alexis out of the room and told him to fetch a lamp.
When he had fetched the lamp Paul took it and began rapidly to examine
round the ground floor of the rambling building. He was seeking for
the court-yard into which Boris had fallen.
At last they found it, and found, too, all that remained of Boris
Ivanovitch. He was battered and crushed and bruised almost beyond
recognition.
Paul set his face and straightened the twisted and distorted body out.
Then he straightened himself, and picking up the lamp led the way back
into the house.
By this time Natalie, though very pale and still shaken, was quite
composed. Indeed, she was now more self-possessed than her brother.
She was doing her utmost to quiet his still painful agitation.
Paul looked into her face, and seeing how strong and resolute it was,
felt no hesitation in speaking before her.
"Sir," he said very quietly to Peter, "Boris is dead."
Peter glanced at him quickly and then turned to his sister.
"Thank heaven!" he cried.
"Hush," said Natalie, gently, and taking her brother by the arm she
pointed to Madame Estelle.
Andrieff had done what he could, and the unhappy woman had, to some
extent, come back to consciousness.
She was indeed sufficiently alive to catch Paul's words. She brought
her fast fading eyes down from the ceiling and searched his face.
"Boris!" she muttered to herself: "Boris!"
Paul drew near and knelt down by the couch. He took one of her hands,
which was even then growing cold.
"Boris?" she asked again in a voice scarcely above a whisper.
Paul put his mouth down to her ear and said slowly, "He is dead."
The shock of the news acted on the woman in a most extraordinary way.
With a convulsive movement she suddenly gathered herself together and
sat bolt upright on the couch. She would have fallen back again had
not Paul caught her in his arms.
The woman opened her mouth and made two or three efforts before she
spoke again, and then she only breathed the word "Boris!"
Paul's gaze wandered over the side-board.
"See if you can find any brandy," he said to Andrieff, who instantly
produced a decanter.
Paul took the glass from his hand and pressed it to Madame Estelle's
lips. She revived a little, and suddenly spoke clearly and in almost
her normal voice.
"Sir Paul," she said, "forgive!" Then her eyes became fixed and
staring, and it was Paul who drew the dead woman's eyelids down.
"Sir Paul," said Peter, earnestly, "it is simply impossible that I
shall ever be able to repay you the great service you have rendered
me. But, believe me, if there is anything in the world it is within my
power to give you, you have but to ask to receive it."
Paul looked across at Natalie, but said nothing. The time had not yet
come when he could ask Peter for that which would a thousand times
repay him.