The wind swept down the crooked main street of the little village of
Keys with a shriek that made those fortunate inhabitants who had
nothing to tempt them from their warm firesides draw their chairs
closer and speculate as to the number of trees that would be found
blown down on the morrow.
All through the month of March it had rained, almost without ceasing,
and now, in the fourth week, the north of England had been visited by
an icy gale which had already lasted two days and showed no signs of
abating. The lanes, that for weeks had been knee-deep in mud, had
dried with almost miraculous swiftness and the more frugal of the
cottagers had gleaned a fine store of wood from the branches with
which they were strewn. To-night they were thankful to sit indoors and
enjoy the fruits of their industry.
The gale swept on its devastating way across the open meadow-land that
surrounded Keys, increasing every moment in violence and causing the
timbers of the small farmhouse which stood at the end of a blind lane
about a mile from the village to creak and groan under its terrific
onslaught.
The front door of the house stood open and, with each gust of wind, it
swung with a heavy thud against the inside wall of the dark passage,
but no one came to close it and there was no light at any of the
windows of the apparently deserted house.
Once the gale dropped for a moment and the monotonous barking of a dog
in a distant farmhouse could be heard; beyond this there was no sound
but the renewed, long-drawn howl of the wind, the protesting creak of
the trees as the heavy branches were swept across each other, and the
dull thud of the swinging door.
The sun had set and it was already dark when the first sound of
footsteps was heard in the lane. The walker approached quickly, with
an odd, shuffling tread that became almost noiseless as he neared the
house. Arrived at the gate which led into the little front garden, he
paused for a moment, then, without opening it, slid away like a shadow
in the direction of the barn that stood on the other side of the
farmyard. Whatever his business may have been there he made no sound,
and for nearly an hour after he had passed the farmhouse stood silent
and deserted and the open door continued to swing monotonously on its
hinges.
Then a second shadow loomed out of the darkness of the lane. This time
there was the click of the latch as the newcomer opened the gate and
went quickly up the path to the front door. Here he paused with a
sharp exclamation of surprise, then passed on into the hallway beyond.
There was the scratch and flare of a match, followed by a steadier
glow as he lit an oil-lamp that stood by the door. Carrying the lamp,
he went first to the front door and examined the latch to see that it
was undamaged before closing it. Then he passed on into the little
kitchen at the back of the house, placed the lamp on the table, and
was about to put a light to the fire when he discovered that his
matches had run out. He had used the last one to light the lamp.
With an exclamation of annoyance he picked up the lamp once more and
made his way to the sitting-room, one of the two rooms that lay right
and left of the front door. He moved quickly, his mind intent on the
food and warmth he needed badly, for he had walked a long way in the
bitter wind and was feeling both hungry and tired. Dazzled by the
glare of the lamp in his eyes, he was already well inside the door of
the sitting-room when he saw the thing that pulled him up with a jerk
as sharp as though some one had laid a detaining hand on his shoulder.
He stood arrested, holding the lamp at such an angle that it smoked
violently. But the black fumes drifted past his nose unheeded.
For the room which he had thought untenanted save for himself held yet
another occupant.
Seated at the writing-table facing the door, her arms outflung across
it and her head pillowed on the open blotter between them, was a
woman.
From where he stood he could see only the top of her head, a tangle of
fair curls that gleamed yellow as spun gold in the lamplight, and the
rich fur collar of the coat in which she was wrapped. He could see her
hands, too, and the sparkle of her rings. There was something about
those hands, with their strangely crisped fingers, as though they had
been arrested in the very act of closing, that somehow gave the lie to
the woman’s attitude of sleep.
But it was not her hands or the beauty of her hair that held the eyes
of the man at the door. They were glued to the open blotter and the
stain which had spread across it, a stain which had already stiffened
the fair curls that lay so still upon the once white paper into hard
little rings and which was even now fading from its first bright
scarlet into a dull rust.
He stood motionless, oblivious of the acrid odour of the smoking lamp,
then, with an effort, pulled himself together and crossed the room.
Placing the light on the mantelpiece, he bent over the woman and laid
his hand gently on hers; but he knew, even before he touched her, that
she was beyond all human aid. Raising the thick fair hair at the side
of her head he revealed a wound in the temple from which the blood had
already ceased to flow.
As he straightened himself after his brief examination, his eyes went
instinctively to the window; but he was not quick enough.
Had he been a second earlier he would have seen the white face of a
man, pressed against the glass outside, taking in every detail of the
room and its grim occupant. As he was in the very act of raising his
head the watcher ducked below the sill of the window and when, a few
minutes later, he ran out of the front door, after a hurried search
through the house, there was no one either in the barn or any of the
outhouses.
The unseen watcher at the window had vanished like a shadow into the
darkness of the night.