"It's the unnatural life, sir, that you've condemned yourself to
recently. You come out of this and hunt with me in Gloucestershire and
I'll protect you as well as you're protected here, and you'll get as
right as rain."
"You're very kind," he replied, "but--take care of her, Kirby, for God's
sake, take care of her. She'll have no one else in the world but you if
they get me or Pu-Yi."
I was about to expostulate again when the door opened and Boss Mulligan
slouched in.
"Been all round the City, governor, with the usual patrol. Everything
quiet, nothing unusual anywhere. All the servants have given in their
tallies and are safe in their quarters."
Morse looked at me.
"That's our system, Tom," he said. "At a certain hour all the servants
go to the lower stage, except those that may be urgently wanted. For
instance, there's a fellow in your house to valet you to-night. Juanita
has her little Spanish maid, and I think Pu-Yi keeps some one. Otherwise
we are all to ourselves up here. All the lift doors are locked on the
second stage and so is the central staircase. Mulligan here is on guard
all night in the room where you saw him."
"An' watchin' ye from the ind of me eye, Sorr Thomas," said the genial
ruffian, "av ye'll belave ut."
"You're a good actor, Mulligan," I said--it seemed about the only thing
I could say.
"Sure, an' I am that," he said, "I am that, sorr, but I'm a bether doer.
An' av ye'd reely bin staling in--"
His immense fist clenched itself and he shook it in my direction.
"Mulligan, go back to the guard-room," said Morse, "you're drunk."
The giant's face changed from ferocity into pained surprise.
"But av course, sorr," he said, "it's me usual time, as your honor must
know. But begob, I'm efficient!"
The mingled grin and glare on his countenance when Mr. Mulligan went
away left no doubt in my mind about that.
A few minutes afterwards, certainly not drunk, and I hope efficient, I
left the Palacete Mendoza, and walked through the gardens to the villa.
Morse himself barred the door after me.
It was bitter, aching cold and the wind was razor-keen. Gaunt wreaths of
mist were all around like a legion of ghosts, and I realized that the
clouds were descending upon us, and soon I should not be able to see a
yard before me, though the electric lamps that never went out all night,
over the whole City, glowed with a dim blueness here and there through
the fog.
However, I found the villa all right, and my Chinese boy waiting in the
hall. He took my coat, saw that the fires in the sitting-room and the
adjoining bedroom were made up, and then I told him he might be off to
his quarters on the second stage, for which he seemed extremely
thankful.
I don't suppose he had been gone more than a minute when the door of my
sitting-room opened and Rolston came in quickly. He was wearing a
dressing-gown and pyjamas and his hair was all rough like one recently
aroused from sleep.
"What on earth's the matter?" I said.
"I undressed," he said, "in my bedroom, which is just above yours as you
know, and fell asleep in my chair with all the lights on. I woke only a
short time ago, and before switching off the lamps I went to the window
to see what sort of a night it was."
"Hellish, if you want to know."
"The light streamed out upon a great curtain of mist, almost like the
projector lamp upon a screen of a kinema. Sir Thomas, as I stood there I
could swear that something big, black and oblong sank down from that
darkness above, passed through my zone of light and disappeared in the
blackness below."
"What on earth do you mean, what sort of a thing?"
He hesitated for a moment and then he said:
"Almost like a group of statuary, though I only saw it for a mere
instant."
He had obviously been half dreaming when he went to the window, his
eyes, even now, were heavy with sleep.
"Simply and solely a trick of the wind upon the mist, and your own
figure interposing between the light and the window, and throwing a
momentary shade on the swaying white curtain outside. The mist's as
thick as linen and it changes every moment. You go to bed properly, and
sleep the sleep of the just."
He didn't attempt to argue, but looked a little ashamed of himself for
obtruding for such a trivial reason. Ten minutes afterwards I was also
in bed and fast asleep.