VII.

"But at supper there was no Kate; Mr. Birchmore and I were served by

Christina, while the voices of Slurk and our landlord could be heard in

the kitchen. My conversation was naturally somewhat constrained; Mr.

Birchmore had a good deal to say about some excursion which he had in

view for the morrow, but I failed to pay very close attention to his

remarks. Once, however, I caught Christina's eyes fixed upon me, and

smiled as I remembered her warnings respecting the supposed danger of

solitary rambles.

"After supper I felt more restless than ever. Mr. Birchmore brought

out his invariable cigars, expecting me to join him in a smoke; but I

was not in the mood for it, neither did I feel at ease in his company

until things should have begun to look a little more comprehensible.

I left him, therefore, and wandered aimlessly about outside the house,

exploring the farmyard and buildings, and then coming round to the road,

and pacing up and down on a beat about a quarter of a mile in length. It

was a clear moonlight night, and so warm as to be almost oppressive. At

length I returned to the house, it being then after nine o'clock. Mr.

Birchmore had apparently retired; Christina was nowhere to be seen;

so I got a lamp from my surly landlord, and found my way without much

difficulty to my own chamber.

"The warmth within doors was still more oppressive than outside. I

opened both the windows, drew up my bed between them, and placed the

table with the lamp on it near the bed's head. I had previously thrown

off my coat and waistcoat, and laid them across one end of the table.

The diamonds were still in the pocket of the coat; I intended taking

them out before going to sleep, and putting them under my pillow, or in

some equally secure place. My revolver I also placed beside the lamp.

Then, having provided myself with a book out of my trunk, and drawn the

bolt of the door, I reclined on the outside of the bed and began to

read.

"I could not, however, fix my mind upon the page. First my attention

and then my eyes would wander: I took a futile and absurd interest in

scrutinising all the details of the room. I recollect them distinctly

now. The walls were not papered, but the plaster was washed over with a

dark gray tint, which rubbed off on the fingers, and the uniformity of

which was relieved by vertical bands of dull red painted at intervals

of about five feet from floor to ceiling. The ceiling was low--about

eight feet from the floor--and whitewashed. In one corner stood the

china stove, a glistening, pallid structure of plain tiles, built up

four-square nearly to the top of the room. On the side of the room

opposite the two windows and the bed was fastened a tall looking-glass,

formed of three plates set one above the other, edge to edge, in such

a manner as painfully to cut up and distort whatever was reflected in

them. In front of the looking-glass was a lilliputian washstand, and

beside it a straight-legged chair without rungs. In a word, a room more

utterly devoid of every kind of picturesque or ornamental attraction

could not be imagined; yet I could not keep my eyes from vacantly

traversing and retraversing its vacancy. The door was behind me, as I

lay turned towards the little table on which the lamp stood, but I could

see the free edge of it brokenly reflected in the mirror, with the

cracked black porcelain latch-handle and the iron bolt which I had shot

into its place.

"I was anything but sleepy: the heat, and the pest of midges and beetles

which the light attracted in through the windows, would have sufficed to

keep me awake even had my mind been at ease. In order to disperse the

insects I finally extinguished the lamp; the moonlight in the room was

so bright that I could almost have seen to read by it. I closed the

book, however, and clasping my hands under my head, I gave myself up

to meditation. Not a sound of any kind was audible except the muffled

ticking of the watch in my waistcoat pocket, and the faint rustle of

the pillow as I breathed. The white moonlight seemed to augment the

stillness; the whole great night, and the house with it, seemed silently

and intently listening; and at length I found myself listening intently

too! For what? I could not tell; but I listened nevertheless.

"By-and-by I fancied a sound came--a sound from somewhere within the

house. It was a very faint sound, and did not come again; but it was

such as might have been caused by the light pressure of a foot in one

of the passages outside. Instinctively I reached forth my hand and laid

hold of my revolver; but I did not rise from the bed nor otherwise alter

my position. I still lay as if asleep, with the revolver in one hand,

the other beneath my head, and my eyes fixed upon the edge of the door,

which was obscurely visible in the mirror.

"Several minutes passed thus, and there was no return of the noise. Then

I saw the handle of the door move and turn. The latch clicked slightly;

the door, bolted though it was, opened as if on oiled hinges, admitting

an indistinct figure in a long robe of soft gray. So much I saw in

the mirror. Then the door was closed again, and the figure, advancing

towards the bed, ceased to be reflected in the glass. It advanced close

to the bed, and paused there a moment; I could hear its deep regular

breathing. All this time I had not moved, but lay with my back turned,

feigning slumber.

"Presently the figure passed round the foot of the bed and came up the

other side. The full white light of the moon fell upon it. It was Kate,

as I had known it was from the first moment she entered the room. She

was clad in a dressing-gown of soft flowing material, which was fastened

at the throat and trailed on the ground. It had wide sleeves, one of

which fell back from the bare smooth arm and hand that carried a lamp.

The lamp was not lighted. Her black hair hung down on her shoulders, and

on each side of her pale face. Her eyes were wide open, but fixed and

vacant. Her breathing was long and measured, as of one sound asleep.

"She put the lamp down on the table beside mine, and then stood quite

still in the moonlight, her face wholly expressionless and without

motion. It was an appalling thing to see her thus. I, too, remained

motionless, but it was because I knew not what to do. To awaken her

might bring on the worst consequences. If she were not disturbed, she

might possibly retire as quietly and unconsciously as she had come. But

the mystery of her being there at all appeared utterly inexplicable.

What had led her, in her trance, to visit my room? how had she ever

known where it was? What had she dreamt of doing here? and above all,

how had she contrived to enter through a bolted door with as much ease

as though she had been a spirit? Perhaps this was but a spirit--or a

phantom of my own brain! Was I awake?

"She stretched out her hand, not following its motion with her eyes, but

mechanically and as it were involuntarily. She laid it on my coat--on

the pocket which contained the diamonds. Then, slowly and deliberately,

and still with averted face and eyes, and that long-drawn, slumberous

breathing, she unbuttoned the fastenings one after one, and her soft

tapering fingers closed upon the case.

"Meanwhile my mind had been rapidly canvassing all the pros and cons of

action; and I had come to the conclusion that it would be better for

her that I should interfere. Of my personal interest in the matter I

believe I did not think; indeed, knowing that the diamonds would not

be lost, there was no reason why I should. But it would not do to risk

compromising Kate. It was dangerous enough that she should be here

at all; but that she should carry away the diamonds with her was

inadmissible. I rose from my bed and laid my hand gently on her wrist.

"She was no spirit, but warm flesh and blood. For a few moments the

restraint in which I held her seemed to baffle and distress her; I

fancied I could feel her pulse beat under my fingers: a kind of spasm

crossed her face, her eyelids quivered and the eyes moved in their

sockets. Then her breathing became irregular, and caught in her throat

in a kind of sob. The moment of her awakening was evidently at hand, and

I dreaded its coming, lest she should scream out and rouse the house.

But fortunately she uttered no sound. Slowly speculation grew within

her eyes; she fixed them on me, first with an expression of strange

pleasure, soon changing to bewilderment and fear. Then, with a cry

that was none the less thrilling because it was a whisper, she drooped

forwards into my arms. It was a delicious moment, for all its peril.

"'You are perfectly safe,' I whispered in her ear; 'only make no noise.'

"'Tom,' she said, suddenly freeing herself from my arms, and putting a

hand on either shoulder, while her wild black eyes searched my face,

'you understand--you don't think----?'

"'Of course I understand, my poor darling!'

"'What shall I do--what shall I do? Let me kill myself!'

"With a motion swift as the glide of a serpent, she reached towards the

revolver, which I had left on the bed. I was barely in time to catch her

arm. The look in the girl's face at that moment was terrible.

"'Let me!--I will!'

"'Hush, Kate! You never shall.'

"'Oh, what shall I do!' she murmured again slipping down on her knees

and running both hands through her thick black hair. 'Tom, if you loved

me you would kill me!'

"'Kate, everyone in the house is asleep. You can go back to your room,

and no one know. Only be calm.'

"'And no one know? You think that?'

"'I am sure of it!'

"'I know better! Someone knows it now: he made it happen!'

"'Don't kneel there, dear. You're not yourself yet. You don't know what

you're saying.' I said this reassuringly, but her words had inspired me

with a vague alarm that I ventured not to define. I brought a chair and

made her sit upon it, and sat down beside her.

"'Not here!' she whispered, drawing back out of the moonlight into the

shadow. 'Come here, Tom. He may be looking!'

"'Why, Kate, who can see us here? The door is shut.'

"'Oh--why was not the door bolted?'

"'It was. I can't conceive how you opened it.'

"'Oh the villain! how I hate him!'

"'Kate, I love you, and whoever you hate must have to do with me.'

"'You can do nothing--no one can do anything!--unless you'll help me to

kill him!'

"'Whom? Do you mean Slurk?--tell me that!'

"'Yes!' she answered with a shiver; not looking me in the face, but with

her hands clasped tight between her knees. 'I do mean--him!'

"'Now tell me all that he has done, dear,' said I, quietly. 'I must

know everything; and then I promise you that you shall be freed from

him.'

"'He is my master!' she said, in a frightened whisper. 'He has been so

ever so long! He makes me do what he will--he sent me here to-night. He

shames me and destroys me--he loves to do it! He makes me sleep, and

then I cannot help myself. I wake, and find it done; and he has no

mercy.'

"'Why does he do this?'

"'It was when I was only a little girl that he first got that power over

me. He knew my father was rich, and he wanted me to be promised to him

for his--wife, Tom. Then my father put me in the convent, and I stayed

there seven years, till we thought he had lost the power, or was dead

perhaps. But he found me in America, and made me come back; and now it's

worse than ever.'

"'Why doesn't your father have him arrested and imprisoned? It can be

done.'

"'Oh my poor father! He cannot, Tom; do not ask me that!'

"'I must ask it, Kate. Remember, I love you! Why is it?'

"'My father is afraid of him too,' she said, chafing one hand with the

other with a piteous expression of pain. 'If he did anything against

him, he would be ruined. My father cannot help me, Tom.'

"'But I do not understand. What has your father done that he should be

afraid of such a scoundrel as Slurk?' I demanded sternly.

"She hesitated long before answering, moving her hands and head

restlessly and fetching many troubled sighs. At last she laid her hand

shrinkingly on mine, and I grasped it firmly. 'I will tell you, Tom,'

she said in a faltering voice; 'but you know I would tell no one in the

world but you. My dear papa did not do wrong himself; but there were

people connected with him who did, and made the blame seem to be his.

And there were some papers of papa's which--which--oh----'

"'Yes, yes, I understand, darling; and Slurk stole the papers?'

"'Yes--that is--no; it was worse than that, for he didn't know where the

papers were kept; no one knew that but I. Tom, he made me sleep, and in

my sleep he made me go to the place where they were, and take them out,

and give them to him. He made me rob my own father--put my own dear

papa in his hateful power. I would rather have died! And papa forgave

me--think of that!'

"'Then Slurk has the papers in his possession? and he uses them for

blackmail? But have you never thought of trying to--it sounds badly, but

it would be perfectly justifiable--to steal them back again?'

"'I can do nothing. He can make me helpless by a look; and he always

carries them with him. But, Tom, if it could be done without being found

out, I would tell papa to kill him. But I cannot let my dear papa be

hanged for that wretch; and, you see, we have no evidence.'

"'Good God! What a fearful thing it is!' I muttered. What help, what

consolation could I offer? A refined and sensitive girl under the

mesmeric control of a ruffian; her father subject to his extortions and

insults; and the only escape a worse misery even than this--Kate to

yield herself to him in marriage! Faugh! the thought sickened me; but it

enraged me, too! Kate was right; death, sudden and merciless, was the

proper measure to be meted out to Slurk. If he had appeared at that

moment, I believe I would have shot him unhesitatingly, and rejoiced in

the deed. Murder would be a righteous work when wrought on such as he;

and if the murder were brought home to me, could I suffer in a better

cause?

"Kate had risen slowly from her chair, and was now fronting me, scanning

my face and bearing with curious eagerness. She held her hands across

her bosom, alternately interlacing the tips of the fingers and pulling

them free again. Her lips moved as if in speech, but no sound came from

them.

"I got up presently, looking I daresay very solemn, as indeed I felt.

Her eyes followed mine as I rose; and now we gazed straight at each

other for some moments.

"'I promised you that you should be freed,' I said, 'and you shall be.

I shall be sorry to have any man's blood on my hands; but if you can

be saved in no other way, it must be so.'

"'You do love me, indeed!' she murmured, with a sort of sad exultation

in her tone. But she added: 'I cannot let you do it. I cannot lose you,

even to be freed from him. It is my father's fault, after all.

Besides----'

"'I take it upon myself,' interrupted I, with a dignity which may have

been absurd, but which did not seem so to me at the time.

"'But it would be murder--at any rate, the law would call it so. No, you

must not be called a murderer, Tom. But I--they would not hang a woman:

let me do it! I should love to do it!'

"And she spoke with a look that confirmed the words.

"Before I could reply, however, her expression changed again. She

appeared to think intensely for a few moments, and then her face lighted

up. Suddenly she caught my hand and kissed it!

"'And kiss me, Tom!' she cried, excitedly. 'Kiss me, for I deserve it!

I have thought of a way that will save us all!'

"Much startled, and half fearing that the girl's mind had given way

under the pressure of trouble, I was attempting to quiet her; but she

silenced me by an impetuous gesture, and went on speaking eagerly and

rapidly.

"'To-morrow we had planned to go to Kohlstein for a picnic. It's a

great, immense rock, where robbers lived hundreds of years ago. Hardly

anyone ever goes there now. I have been there, and I remember that on

the top it is full of deep clefts and holes; and I thought how, if

anyone were to fall into one, they might lie there for months without

being found; and they could never get out of themselves. So now--listen!

We will go up there--you and I and--he; and I will lead him near the

brink of one of those clefts, and then you must rush forward and take

him, and drop him down--down to the bottom! So we shall get what we

want, and yet there need be no murder.'

"'Not be murder, Kate?'

"'It need not be; for when he was safe down there, rather than be left

to starve, he would give up those papers. Don't you think he would?'

"She was trembling with excitement, and her state communicated itself

in some degree to me, so that I was scarcely able to think coherently.

But there certainly seemed to be plausibility in her scheme; at the

worst, it would be better than shooting the man outright. But would the

recovery of the papers put an end to Slurk's persecution of Kate as

well as of her father? Would not his power over her remain?

"'But we can have him imprisoned then, you see,' was her answer to my

objection; 'and for fear of that, he would never dare to trouble me

again. He would have been in prison long ago but for the papers.'

"'It certainly seems a good plan,' I said, after a confused attempt

to turn the matter over in my mind. 'We'll ask your father's opinion

to-morrow.'

"'Oh, he must know nothing of it!' she exclaimed, with a gesture of

vehement dissent. 'He would betray it. You don't know how--what a power

that villain has over him. Slurk treats him like a child when they are

alone. No, Tom; we must do it all ourselves, or it will fail. Only when

it is done will dear papa get back his courage.'

"I knew more about how Mr. Birchmore was treated by his valet in

private than Kate was aware; but I made no allusion to this. The more I

reflected upon the enterprise, the more inclined I was to assent to it.

It was wild, fantastic, unconventional; but it had important practical

merits nevertheless. Moreover, it possessed the powerful recommendation

(as I deemed it) of allowing for a fair man-to-man struggle between

Slurk and myself. I was to overpower him by main strength; and from

what I had observed of the fellow, I fancied he would be able to make

resistance enough to save my self-respect. On the other hand, he might

be able to do more than this; and if the worst came to the worst,

of course I might be compelled to maim him with my revolver. But

altogether, the prospect kindled my imagination; I was stimulated by

the thought of distinguishing myself by my personal prowess before

my mistress's eyes, in conflict with her dastardly oppressor. And as

I looked at her standing there before me, so lovely and so full of

courageous fire, I said to myself that no knight of yore ever did battle

in the lists for a worthier lady-love!

"However, I realised that this was neither the place nor the hour to

enter upon a detailed discussion of our plans. Every moment that Kate

remained with me increased her peril, especially if, as she seemed to

think was the case, Slurk had despatched her thither. As to his motive

in so doing, I had no difficulty in forming an opinion. There was little

doubt that he meant to use her as an unconscious cat's-paw to steal the

diamonds, as, before, to purloin the papers compromising her father.

Had I been asleep, the device could hardly have failed of success. But

as Kate seemed herself not to suspect the real nature of her involuntary

errand, I would not additionally distress her by alluding to it; it was

enough that it furnished me with a sufficient pretext, had others been

wanting, for inflicting chastisement on the valet.

"Kate said, in answer to my inquiry as to the proposed time of our

starting on the picnic expedition the next day, that it would probably

be about eleven in the forenoon; we would, therefore, have ample time to

settle the particulars of our scheme before the hour of action arrived.

At parting, she clung to me with peculiar tenderness; nor had I ever

loved her so well as that moment, when I looked forward to liberating

her for ever from the evil spell that had been blighting her young life.

"After she had gone, I had the curiosity to examine the bolt on the

door. The explanation of its mysterious opening proved simple enough.

The screws whereby the socket of the bolt had been fastened to the

door-frame had been removed, and the holes so enlarged that they could

be slipped in and out without difficulty. Socket and screws had then

been replaced, so that the bolt could be shot as readily as before. But

the security was only an illusion; for, the latch being turned, a slight

push would bring away the socket and screws attached to the bolt; and

thus the supposed means of safety be ingeniously used to disguise the

real absence thereof.