It might have been somewhere in the middle of the morning, or a trifle
earlier, that Mervyn, from his bedroom window descried a well-looking,
comfortably-dressed stranger leisurely descending the stair-like path
which led down from the sluice, and him he eyed with curiosity, for
visitors were scarce.
He himself, being unseen, was able to take in every detail of the new
arrival's outward appearance with all the more ease and accuracy. He
noted for instance that the other had a keen, clear, sunburnt face, and
a light, firm, easy step, that showed the very pink of condition, that
he was tall, and carried himself well, and then he fell to wondering who
the devil he was and what he wanted. Some friend of Melian's perhaps,
possibly a former admirer--and somehow the idea of such a contingency
seemed unpalatable. Here they were--the two of them--as jolly as
possible together; he, at any rate, didn't want any interloping nuisance
from outside.
But from that his mind flew off to another conjecture--one less
palatable still. He had had about enough of mysterious strangers, he
told himself. What if this one had come on the same sort of errand, and
with the thought he slipped his Browning pistol into a handy pocket, and
made up his mind to keep the other man carefully in front of him.
Likewise he took his time about admitting the said other man.
"I'm afraid I'm taking rather a liberty," began the latter. "The fact
is, Mr Mervyn, I'm particularly interested in old houses, old
furniture, old panelling, and such like, and I have heard a good deal
about Heath Hover in that line. Allow me to introduce myself,"--
tendering a card.
"Yes? Come in, Mr--Helston Varne," said the other, having glanced at
it. "There are odds and ends of old sticks, but they are for the most
part stowed away in unused rooms that would take about a week's dusting
to render fit for entrance. That's a quaint old fireplace, if you
notice."
"I should think it was," answered Varne, vividly interested. And then
he expatiated in technical terms, which increasingly bored his host and
made the latter wish him at the devil more heartily than ever. That was
the worst of these collectors and antiquarians and people, they were
always ramming their jargon down unappreciative throats. It was a pity
Melian was not on hand, he began to think. She had an eye to all that
sort of thing, and could answer with knowledge. And then he suddenly
decided that his own boredom was the lesser evil. The stranger was a
well-looking man--a fine looking man--and spoke with a pleasant voice
and refined accent. Her uncle preferred Melian fancy free, at any rate
for some time to come. Were she here, these two would be finding out
tastes in common. Yes, on the whole, he was glad she had driven into
Clancehurst with old Joe after breakfast. Up till then he had not been
glad; in fact, hardly was she out of sight than he had regretted not
having accompanied her. It was rare indeed that he failed to accompany
her anywhere; but that morning he had felt somewhat out of sorts.
The stranger passed from one thing to another, admiring the panelling
and discanting thereon. Then he said:
"I should like to take another view of the house from outside, Mr
Mervyn. It's marvellously picturesque as seen from the road, and now
I've seen the interior I shall be able to read new beauties into it."
"Certainly," assented Mervyn, beginning to think the speaker was a
little over enthusiastic, or a little cracked--only he didn't look the
last. "We'll go up to the road. The path you came down is the
shortest."
They went up, Mervyn contriving that the other should lead. When they
gained the sluice, Varne stood expatiating afresh, on gables and old
chimney stacks. His host was more bored than ever, and was wishing to
this and to that he would straightway take himself off as he had come.
Would he?
"That's a curious old door I noticed in the corner of your room, Mr
Mervyn," he said, when he had exhausted his instructive technicalities,
which Mervyn had defined to himself as a damned boring prosy lecture.
"If I might venture to trespass upon your kindness for a minute or two
further I should so greatly like to examine it. The fact is," he went
on, "I'm quite a stranger in these parts, I found a homely little pub
quite by the merest chance, _The Woodcock_, at Upper Gidding, homely but
clean--you know it, I dare say--and I concluded to rest there for a day
or two, and look around this lovely bit of country. I've got a bicycle
with me, but I walked over here to-day."
"Oh," groaned Mervyn to himself. "That means I shall have to ask the
fool to stay lunch, I suppose."
"The fool" had turned, and was looking up the pond.
"Is this--excuse me, Mr Mervyn, it must be. Is this the place they
were telling me about where an unknown man was bravely rescued from
drowning under the ice in the middle of the night, by--by, I am sure,
yourself?" And he turned to his host with a pleasant suggestion of
admiration in his eyes.
"This is the place you mean, Mr--Varne. But I don't know there's
anything particularly `brave' in shoving out a ladder for the other fool
to claw hold of."
He spoke shortly--almost rudely. This he recognised in time.
"I'm afraid I'm rather abrupt, Mr Varne," he explained. "If so, excuse
me. The fact is, I've been more than `fed-up' with that particular
episode, and, not to put too fine a point upon it, I'm dead sick of the
barest references to it. It was fairly unpleasant to me having the poor
devil dying in my house, and all the nuisance of inquest and police
investigations, and the rest of it--as you can imagine. Now the whole
thing's a thing of the past, and I want to forget all about it."
"Quite so, Mr Mervyn, quite so. It is I who must apologise."
"Oh, no need for that. If you're ready I shall be happy to show you
that door."
"That will be very good of you."
They went down the path again, Mervyn still contriving that his visitor
should lead the way. Halfway down, the latter stopped short.
"Here is another point that hitherto has escaped me," he said. "That
foreground of chimney stack, thrown out by the background of
tree-masses, leafless now, but even with a characteristic beauty at
that--`wine-coloured woods' some one called it--I forget who--now
there's a picture for you, one that a Yeend King for instance, would be
at his best with, and still more so when it's a soaring wall of
foliage."
"No doubt," agreed Mervyn. And then he felt glad that the stranger had
his back turned full towards him, for even he could hardly restrain a
sudden, if ever so slight change of colour caused by that which now set
all his pulses humming. For the said stranger's right foot as he stood,
was planted, firmly planted, on a stone, a rounded stone half embedded
in the earth, and that foot was obviously, though stealthily, trying
whether that stone was easily movable, or not movable at all. And with
this consciousness a sudden resolve had come upon Mervyn.
"Yes, it's all you say," he went on, in an equable tone. "Are you an
artist, may I ask, as well as a connoisseur in antiquities?"
"Oh well, only as amateur. I have done a little with the brush--but,
only as an amateur."
They had re-entered the house, chatting lightly, easily. Then the
visitor made a set at the door in the corner.
"Yes. That's something of a bit of old work," he pronounced admiringly.
"Why there are connoisseurs who would give tall prices for that bit of
wood, I can tell you, Mr Mervyn."
"Then I wish to the devil `that bit of wood' belonged to me," returned
Mervyn, with something of a sour grin. "They could have it and welcome.
One door's as good as another to me, as long as it shuts tight and
keeps draughts out. I'd much rather have the `tall prices.' Will you
take a whisky and soda?"
"No thanks. I rarely touch spirits in the daytime. A `nightcap' before
turning in is a very good thing. But--you're very kind."
He was feeling the graining of the door with his finger nails, then he
turned the handle. This he held admiringly.
"Why, what a splendid piece of antique. This handle is worth a lot.
And, what's on the other side?"
"Only a black hole of a cellar, where I don't keep anything. It's too
damp, for one thing. Like to see it?"
"Immensely."
"Right. I'll get a bit of candle and the key."
Having done both, Mervyn opened the door.
"Mind the steps," he said, holding the candle over the head of the other
and still contriving that he should be in advance. "There are ten of
them."
"All right. I can see--What the--?"
He broke off, turning to rush back. But it was too late. With the soft
but quick closing of the door above and behind him, Helston Varne
realised that he had made a fool of himself--as Nashby had not done; but
this he did not know, for Nashby had not told him quite everything. Now
he stood in dense, impenetrable pitchy blackness--and feeling very damp
and chill at that.
"Well I'm damned?" he ejaculated to himself. "Well I _am_ damned." And
sitting down on a cold stone step he began to think the matter out.
His gaoler the while, saying nothing, calmly withdrew the key from the
lock and put it in his pocket. Then he went leisurely to the front door
and looked out. There was no sign of anybody moving on the strip of
lonely road above. He stood apparently unconcerned on the sluice, but
in reality, listening intently. There were twitterings of small birds
and the sweet singing of an early thrush, but of human footsteps or
voices, or of wheels, there was no sound. Then he descended, equally
leisurely. On one of the earth steps he paused; then, drawing out his
handkerchief, blew his nose. The handkerchief dropped, by accident. He
stooped to pick it up; was equally leisurely over the process too.
Finally, when he did pick it up, he stood for a moment, stamping as
though in the most natural way in the world to warm his feet--or one
foot--upon a stone. Then he returned to the house, but he had forgotten
to return his handkerchief to his pocket. He was carrying it--in a
somewhat absent minded manner--in his hand. Incidentally, he was
thinking that it was not an unmixed evil that old Judy should be
suffering from a return of her "roomatics" that day, and should have
remained "to whoam." There was no one at Heath Hover but himself--and
his prisoner.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The latter, meanwhile, was beginning to experience what the expression
"outer darkness" meant, for assuredly he was now in it. No glimmer of
light--not the very faintest, was there to relieve it. Black as
impenetrable pitch. He waited till his eyesight should have been
accustomed to the change to see if any stray dim thread came in from
anywhere; a grating, a ventilator, what not? But none came. The door
itself might have been cemented into the wall for any thread of light
that came from it. But Varne felt no alarm. He was unarmed, but on
that account felt no misgiving; "What was the game?" was the thought
that held possession of his mind.
He struck a wax vesta and looked around. He was about halfway down the
flight of stone steps. The walls of the vault glistened with slime and
damp in the flickering light. Nashby had described the place exactly.
He struck another. Yes. It was all solid, massive masonry--hard,
unyielding. But here he was--at about twelve midday--entombed in a
dungeon of blackest night. He began to feel interested. But,
meanwhile, it was cold--devilish cold.
Then, being there, he thought he might as well take a look round this--
cellar, Mervyn had called it--on his own, and to this end he cautiously
descended to the bottom of the stone stairs. But of wax vestas he had
only a limited supply, and it behoved him to be careful with them.
Still he managed to obtain a good reconnaissance of the floor and walls,
enough to bear out Nashby's description of the place.
He returned up the steps. The door, he noticed, was quite smooth on
this side, with no handle, and--no key hole; so that any one shut in, as
he was, might shout or call till the crack of doom. It fitted its
aperture like a slab.
For the first time Varne began to feel a little uneasy. He was also
feeling more than a little cold. The place had almost the temperature
of an ice-vault. What if Mervyn had purposely shut him in and proposed
to leave him here until cold and starvation had done their work? After
all, he could pretend he had done the thing for a practical joke, and it
would be difficult to prove the contrary. And the worst of it was he--
Varne--had given nobody the slightest idea as to where he intended
going. Even Nashby would not have occasion to miss him--not for some
days at any rate. But it certainly was getting most confoundedly cold.
He thought he would try the effect of knocking, and to this end got out
the hardest thing about him, a substantial pocket knife to wit. Surely
the rat-tat-tat would carry through the door. He also called out
several times. But--no answer.
He began to feel resentful--grim. Had he carried a pistol he would have
felt himself justified in blowing the lock of the door away--if he could
locate it, that is. But he had not. Really, this was past a joke.
And--the cold!
A very unpleasant idea now struck Varne. What if this vault really were
a secret refrigerating chamber, in which, for purposes of his own, his
"host" now intended to reduce him to frozen meat? He had taken pretty
accurate stock of Mervyn during their brief intercourse, and had formed
the conclusion that he was a man who would be quite capable of such a
thing, given an adequate motive. It was a rotten way of ending a
startlingly successful, though not much blazoned career, decided Helston
Varne, sitting there in the inky blackness, his teeth now chattering
like the proverbial castanets. But he almost told himself that he
deserved it for being such a poisonous fool as to allow himself to be
entrapped in so transparently callow a fashion.
The shadowless ink of the atmosphere weighed him down more and more, and
strong man as he was, he felt that it was affecting his nerve. And the
cold! His theory of the refrigerating chamber had now become a fixed
idea. Oh, for light--for warmth! He must have been hours in that
dreadful vault.
He would make another trial. With the handle of the pocket knife he
hammered again and again upon the door with all his might. Also he
shouted, but his ordinarily strong voice sounded in his now appalled
ears a mere quavering rumble. A moment's pause to listen, and--the door
opened.
Mervyn was standing looking at him with a faintly enquiring, half-amused
expression on his face, Helston Varne almost staggered into the blessed
light of day.