HARE AND HOUNDS
To say that Cleek was startled was to underestimate the matter
altogether. Here was a pretty kettle of fish indeed! It took exactly
three seconds for him to act, and to act in such an extraordinary
fashion as to call forth a gasp from Dollops, whose head was still half
ducked, with one arm upthrown to hide it from the woman's eyes, and to
register in his loyal heart the fact that this master whom he served was
a miracle-worker indeed.
For Cleek's hand had flashed up in the darkness and taken the moustache
from his lip, and as the woman still continued to plead with him in her
soft voice Dollops, peering through the upthrown arm, saw the features
of the man he loved writhe suddenly as though they had been made of
rubber, saw him twitch up his hand and muffle his coat-collar about his
neck, and then realized with a gasp that here at his side lay such a
fair representative of Ross Duggan as might even be mistaken for that
gentleman in this dark hour of the night.
And from the lips of this astonishing person proceeded Ross Duggan's
voice, with its curious clipped Scotch inflection and the little habit
of clearing the throat which was so indicative of the man, and which
Dollops--trained as he was by Cleek's quick observation--had already
noticed for himself in the couple of times he had seen and listened
unseen to the gentleman.
He saw Cleek get to his feet, and twitch his shoulders up and his cap
down, as he faced the lady in her thin dark wrap through which the
glimmer of some light satiny material showed like a line of fire.
"My dear girl," said Ross Duggan's voice a trifle testily, "what a fool
you are to come out here at this time--if you'll excuse my saying so!
Sit down, for heaven's sake, if you must be here, and don't let those
men down there see you. I'm--I'm making some observations on my own, but
at any minute someone may come up here--and I wouldn't answer for the
consequences. You've fallen into a hornet's nest, Catherine, and only a
woman with some desperate plan of action would do that. Don't you know
what's being carried on down there?"
She shook her dark head, and dropped instantly into a little heap of
satin and dark-coloured velvet beside him in the darkness.
"No," she whispered softly. "I wondered what you were doing, and who
your companion might be. Send him away, Ross. I _must_ speak with you
alone!"
"All right." The inflection of voice was so identical with that of the
new lord of the manor as to make Dollops fairly jump at sound of it. He
would hardly have been able to believe the evidence of his own ears if
he had not seen this thing done before in those old Apache days, in the
Inn of The Twisted Arm, when the notorious Margot and her crew had run
them to earth and this was the only way out: "Get along there, Parsons.
There's nothing more to be seen now. You can meet me some time next
week--if things go all right with me and I'm not already swinging at the
end of a long rope! And we'll have another confab together. But you'd
better make yourself scarce now. There'll be a dickens of a kybosh if
they find we've broken parole, and I don't want you hauled into the
beastly thing. So long. And _listen--listen_: be careful--do!"
Dollops nodded his head forthwith, and by dint of wriggling and
scrambling made his exit from this astonishing pair, and, free of the
bare moorside at last, broke cover and started off at a good run,
wondering what the dickens they had stumbled into _now_.
Meanwhile the erstwhile Ross and his lady friend sat on behind the
furze-bush in their somewhat ridiculous predicament, and talked in
whispers.
"What is it you want to say to me?" said "Ross," a hint of sharpness in
his low-pitched voice. "That you should run this risk--it is madness,
Catherine--madness!"
"Nothing is madness that I could do for _your_ sake," she responded
passionately, putting a hand over his as it rested upon the brown earth,
and bending toward him. "Don't you know, Ross, haven't you guessed my
secret yet? Surely you must have seen it? I have tried to tell you with
my eyes, time and time again, and when I have caught that odd look in
yours when you looked at Cynthia. I felt my heart bound with gladness
that you did not care for her. And that has made me brave. Oh, my
dear--my dear! Listen to me, and do what I ask of you. If you _did_ kill
your father, Ross, that man down there at the Castle will make you swing
for it. I know it--I feel it here--here! Those penetrating eyes of his
can see beyond the veil of deception right down into your heart. If you
have done this dreadful thing, tell me, and I have made all arrangements
that you can escape at once. I've a car waiting in the lane. I 'phoned
for it at the garage by the station only a bare two hours ago--and I had
a difficulty, too, as you can imagine, with the whole house full of
policemen and our every action watched. But I was desperate--desperate!
I couldn't see you arrested for _that_! And so, while there is yet
time.... Oh, don't you see? It's your liberty I'm offering you! And we
could start away together and make our lives afresh in a new country.
Ross, Ross, don't you hear, don't you _see_? Every minute is precious
while that man is in command at the Castle. He looks a fool--but he is a
clever fool at that. I don't trust him. I'm not a weak woman, Ross, to
be afraid of a murderer--pshaw! what is that? If a man has need to do
it, and the courage, I can even _admire_! And I love you! Don't speak
now, Ross--just come, and let us slip away together. In this wild
country we can soon be lost--slip down the coast and get away on the
first steamer to--anywhere! I've money on me--see here. Plenty of it! I
sent Hilda down to draw it all out of the bank this morning. (Thank God
for the comfort of your telephone!) She'd do anything for me--that
girl--since I caught her stealing Cynthia's pearl necklace, and
threatened her if she didn't return it to tell the whole sordid story to
the family. And she swore to help me any time I needed her. So come,
Ross--come now--come quickly! but come--come!"
Her whispered words trailed off into silence at last, and Cleek,
catching his breath for a moment at the whole audacious plot which she
had laid so successfully, could not help but admire, even as he felt the
rush of contempt that a man must feel for every woman who can cheapen
herself thus in his eyes. But here was a pretty kettle of fish indeed!
What to say to her? what to do? It took time to think, so he merely
caught her hand and squeezed it, and felt all sorts of a beast for
making such use of her confession as to lead her on to even deeper
things.
She reached a hand out at the pressure of his fingers, and wound it
about his neck.
"You'll come?" she whispered close against his ear.
He shrugged his shoulders. The issue must be faced, and faced now.
"Let's get out of this danger-zone, where we can talk in a little more
comfort and less fear of our lives," he responded quickly, casting his
eyes about him to see if the coast was clear. "Quick! draw your dark
wrap over your head and make for cover. That furze-bush over there! Get
behind it, and drop down, and I'll follow. From there, there is a chain
of bushes behind which we can make for the high-road at last. Quick! the
men are coming this way, some of them. And if we're caught...!"
Her face was fearless. She acted instantly upon his suggestion,
gathering her dark velvet cloak about her and pulling it up over her
face and head, and then sped out suddenly across the open space like a
fleet shadow, until a shaft of moonlight, penetrating through the
clouded sky, fell full upon her hurrying figure, etching it almost as
clearly as though it had been day.
Cleek sucked in his breath and, half-crouching, half-running, sped after
her. God! what if the men had seen! He glanced back quickly over his
shoulder, and then redoubled his pace. For, of a sudden, with the speed
of a lightning-flash every flare in that valley had gone out--zip!--like
that. Every voice had dropped to stillness, and the night was a hideous
thing of running footsteps, pelting, he knew only too well, up the
hillside after them--those watchers who had seen the secret of the
night, and to-morrow might give it forth to an unsuspecting world. Their
lives wouldn't be worth much if _this_ crew caught them, that was
certain.
Panting, he reached her side, caught hold of her elbow, and pinning it
close in his fingers hurried her forward, every faculty alert, every
nerve a-tremble. Her panting breath was like the breath of a spent
runner; she wouldn't last far in those high heels, he knew; the going
was too hard. It was only a matter of time now. The hurrying footsteps
seemed to be coming nearer and nearer.
He bent his face down to hers.
"The motor-car? Where?" he said in a quick, panting voice.
She managed to stammer out a reply, stumbling feet falling over the
rough ground, tripping in clumps of heather, bruising themselves against
harsh stones.
"In the lane--beyond--over there! I've been a fool--leave me and go
yourself!" she panted out in disjointed sentences that were ringing
with despair.
"Never! We'll get there yet. Gather up your skirts.... Gad! you're
done!" It was his own voice that spoke to her, and for a sudden moment
he had forgotten the part he played in the exigencies of this
distressing situation. He heard her gasp suddenly, send startled eyes up
into his face, and then sway against him, and realized his folly--too
late. The shock of the thing had unnerved her. In the darkness she could
not see his face clearly but the voice had been--different. He'd brought
the whole structure about his ears by one foolish momentary mistake.
Then quite suddenly she fainted against him.
"Fool!" he apostrophized himself. "Blind fool!" and, stopping instantly,
caught her up in his arms just as the lane hove in sight, and throwing
her across his shoulder, took the added burden in his best athletic
fashion, and ran.