The sound ceased on the instant as its cause passed through some hole in
the panelling, and Stratton uttered a low gasping sigh, and caught hold
of Guest's arm with a grip which felt as if it was the grasp of a
skeleton.
"Are you faint?" whispered the young barrister. "Let me take you back
to your room."
"If the gentleman feels queer, sir, he'd better not go on with it," said
the sergeant, also in a low voice, as if impressed by the place. "He
isn't used to it; we are."
"Yes," said the workman. "Not our first case, eh, pardner?"
But even he spoke below his breath.
"No, I'll stay," said Stratton more firmly. "I have been ill, officer,
and it has left me weak."
"Then don't try it, sir. You can leave it to us."
"Go on," said Stratton, after drawing a long, gasping breath; "I am
quite right now."
"Spoken like an Englishman, sir," said the sergeant. "Party's likeness,
gents?" he said, as the light shone full on the oil-painting across the
room; the face of the grey, benevolent-looking man seeming to gaze at
them reproachfully.
"Yes, my old friend's portrait," said Stratton, with a sigh.
"Better let me go first, sir," said the sergeant, pressing before
Stratton, who was about to enter, but he was too late. Stratton took a
step forward, caught his foot against something, and nearly fell
headlong into the room.
"Mind my tools, please," growled the workman, stooping to pick up his
bag, which had lain in the darkness of the opening; and then all stepped
cautiously into the well-furnished room, which was, in almost every
respect, a repetition of Stratton's, only reversed, and a good deal
encumbered with large, open cases full of bulky folios, containing
series of pressed and dried plants. These hid a great deal of the
panelling and carving, save on the right, where, on either side of the
beautiful old fireplace, were two low doors, formerly the entrances to
the passages which connected the room with Stratton's when they were
part of a suite.
Away to the left was another door, matching those by the fireplace--that
leading into the botanist's bed-chamber; and wherever a space was left
on the panelling, there was a portrait, in an old tarnished gilt frame,
of some ancestor, each--dimly seen though it was--as the sergeant made
the light play round the walls--bearing a striking resemblance to that
which faced them.
"Looks as if he was watching us," said the workman huskily; and he
placed a piece of tobacco in his mouth, making Guest start as he closed
the brass box from which he had extracted it with a loud snap.
"Yes," said the sergeant, in a whisper, as if to himself, and he made
the light of his bull's-eye play from easy-chair to couch, and then all
about the floor; "I always wondered how they managed them eyes."
Everything looked in order, with one exception. The thick Turkey carpet
and heavy rug were exactly as they had been laid; the fireplace showed
the coal, wood, and paper neatly laid; and the chairs were all duly
ranged in their places; but the sergeant's light rested upon the table--
a heavy, oblong affair, with four massive carven legs--a part of whose
top was bare, for the thick green cloth cover, with bullion braiding at
the border, had been half dragged off, and lay in folds from the top to
floor, only kept from gliding right off by the heavy lamp, and looking
as if it had been hastily dragged down to cover something by the table,
or caught by someone's foot when passing hastily to the door.
The sergeant made his light play on the dark folds for a few moments,
and then jerked it away.
"Do you gentlemen mean to stop?" he said, speaking now a little more
rapidly.
There was no reply and the man stepped forward to the table, raised one
corner of the cloth quickly, and then swung it right up and steadily
lowered it again, while Guest uttered a sigh of relief, for there was
nothing visible but the heavy legs of the table.
"Enough to deceive any man," said the sergeant, who then stopped and
listened, walked back, and softly closed both doors.
"May as well be private, gentleman," he said. "Eh?"
This last to the workman, who had muttered something in a low voice.
"I says I could ha' swore he was there."
"So could I, Jemmy," replied the sergeant, as he made the light play
round the room again, and let it rest upon the chamber-door.
"There is nothing, you see," said Stratton, rather quickly.
"Haven't done yet, sir," replied the sergeant. Then, in a low voice to
Guest--"I'm pretty well used to this sort o' thing, sir, but 'pon my
soul I feel as if I should like to turn that picture round. It's just
as if it was watching me. There, let's get it over."
The man had, in spite of his being accustomed to scenes of horror,
seemed as if it were necessary to string himself up. He had gone to the
table finally to lift the cover, and that had used up a certain amount
of nerve force. He was forced to make a call on nature for a further
supply.
He strode across to the chamber-door, threw it open, and walked in, the
others following and standing just inside, as he made the light play
round a well-furnished bedroom where everything was exactly in its
place--the bed made, dressing table in perfect order, and a couple of
cupboards displaying nothing within but sundry clothes hanging from
pegs.
"Arn't in here," said the sergeant, after a final look round. "Been no
struggle--no sign of anyone having been took ill. Don't like one thing,
Jem," he added.
"Well," said the man, "if you mean, pardner, that everything looks too
tidy, and as if things had been straightened up all but the table-kiver,
that's just what I was a-thinking."
"Right," said the sergeant; "that was the one thing forgotten or left in
the hurry."
"Oh, no," said Guest quickly. "I see we have raised a false alarm."
"Maybe, sir," said the sergeant firmly, "but I'm not satisfied yet.
Let's go back in the other room, please. I want to know what that
table-cover means. Hallo! What's this?" he said sharply, as he stooped
down and picked up a piece of composition candle, gnawed nearly all
away. "Where's the candlestick?"
"Here," said Guest, pointing to where a little old-fashioned candlestick
lay by a stand containing folios of dried plants.
"Well, sir, that was knocked down," said the sergeant.
"We are wasting time," said Stratton firmly. "See if that lock is
uninjured, my man, so that the door will close."
"Stop a bit, sir, please," said the sergeant; "we haven't done yet."
He stepped at once to the panelled door on the left of the fireplace,
turned the handle, threw it open, and made his light play in the long,
deep, narrow closet, one side of which was filled from floor to ceiling
by a rack laden with books of pressed plants.
"Looks as if it had once been a passage," said the sergeant, "oak panels
right over the ceiling. Well, nobody there," he continued, as he backed
out and closed the door.
"That will do," said Stratton, speaking more firmly now.
"My friend and I made a mistake. We are much obliged for all you have
done, and--"
"Not quite done, sir," said the sergeant grimly; and he crossed to the
other side of the fireplace, took hold of the handle of the closed-up
door, left to make both sides match, and tried to turn it, but it was
fast.
Stratton turned ghastly, but he was in the shade.
"No cupboard there," said Guest sharply.
The sergeant turned quickly, and his light flashed across the faces of
the two friends. He saw Stratton's wild look, and he tapped on the
panel.
"No cupboard, sir? Sounds hollow, too."
Guest caught sight of his friend's face at the same moment, and his
pulses leaped; a confused mist of memories flooded his brain, and
something made him keep silence, though, had he been asked, he could not
have explained why.
"I should say there is a cupboard here," continued the sergeant, turning
back to examine it. "Fastened up, but been a cupboard like the other,
of course."
Guest glanced at Stratton again in the gloom, but he could see nothing
now, with the light averted, only hear his heavy breathing, which was
faintly stertorous, as if from exertion.
"Let me see, gentlemen, you live in the next chambers?"
Stratton was silent, while Guest met the officer's eye, and
involuntarily answered: "Yes."
"Do they back on to there?"
"Yes; part of the old suite," said Guest, answering, as it were, against
his will.
"I'll trouble you to take me in there for a moment, please," said the
man decisively.
Stratton drew a deep breath, and without a word led the way out into the
passage and round to his own door.