THE ALLY IN THE HOUSE
The first gray of dawn roused Eaton, and drawing on trousers and coat
over his pajamas, he seated himself by the open window to see the house
by daylight. The glow, growing in the east, showed him first that the
house stood on the shore of the lake; the light came to him across
water, and from the lake had come the crisp, fresh-smelling breeze that
had blown into his windows through the night. As it grew lighter, he
could see the house; it was an immense structure of smooth gray stone.
Eaton was in its central part, his windows looking to the south. To
the north of him was a wing he could not see--the wing which had
contained the porte-cochere under which the motor-car had stopped the
night before; and the upper part of this wing, he had been able to
tell, contained the servants' quarters. To the south, in front of him,
was another wing composed, apparently in part at least, of family
bedrooms.
Between the house and the lake was a terrace, part flagged, part
gravel, part lawn not yet green but with green shoots showing among the
last year's grass. A stone parapet walled in this terrace along the
top of the bluff which pitched precipitously down to the lake fifty
feet below, and the narrow beach of sand and shingle. As Eaton
watched, one of the two nurses who had been on the train came to a
window of the farthest room on the second floor of the south wing and
stood looking out; that, then, must be Santoine's room; and Eaton drew
back from his window as he noted this.
The sun had risen, and its beams, reflected up from the lake, danced on
his ceiling. Eaton, chilled by the sharp air off the water--and
knowing now the locality where he must be--pulled off his coat and
trousers and jumped back into bed. The motor driveway which stretches
north from Chicago far into Wisconsin leaves between it and the lake a
broad wooded strip for spacious grounds and dwellings; Santoine's house
was one of these.
Eaton felt that its location was well suited for his plans; and he
realized, too, that circumstances had given him time for anything he
might wish to do; for the night's stop at Minneapolis and Santoine's
unexpected taking him into his own charge must have made Eaton's
disappearance complete; for the present he was lost to "them" who had
been "following" him, and to his friends alike. His task, then, was to
let his friends know where he was without letting "them" learn it; and
thinking of how this was to be done, he fell asleep again.
At nine he awoke with a start; then, recollecting everything, he jumped
up and shut his windows. There was a respectful, apologetic knock at
the door; evidently a servant had been waiting in the hall for some
sound within the room.
"May I come in, sir?"
"Come in."
The man who had attended him the evening before entered.
"Your bath, sir; hot or cold in the morning, sir?"
"Hot," Eaton answered.
"Of course, sir; I'd forgotten you'd just come from the Orient, sir.
Do you wish anything first, sir?"
"Anything?"
"Anything to drink, sir."
"Oh, no."
The man again prepared the bath. When Eaton returned to his
dressing-room, he found the servant awaiting him with shaving mug,
razor and apron. The man shaved him and trimmed his hair.
"I shall tell them to bring breakfast up, sir; or will you go down?"
the man asked then.
Eaton considered. The manners of servants are modeled on the feelings
of their masters, and the man's deference told plainly that, although
Eaton might be a prisoner, he was not to be treated openly as such.
"I think I can go down," Eaton replied, when the man had finished
dressing him. He found the hall and the rooms below bright and open
but unoccupied; a servant showed him to a blue Delft breakfast room to
the east, where a fire was burning in an old-fashioned Dutch fireplace.
A cloth was spread on the table, but no places were set; a number of
covered dishes, steaming above electric discs, were on the sideboard.
The servant in attendance there took covers off these dishes as Eaton
approached; he chose his breakfast and sat down, the man laying one
place for him. This manner of serving gave Eaton no hint as to how
many others were in the house or might be expected to breakfast. He
had half finished his bacon and greens before any one else appeared.
This was a tall, carefully dressed man of more than fifty, with
handsome, well-bred features--plainly a man of position and wealth but
without experience in affairs, and without power. He was dark haired
and wore a mustache which, like his hair, was beginning to gray. As he
appeared in the hall without hat or overcoat, Eaton understood that he
lived in the house; he came directly into the breakfast room and
evidently had not breakfasted. He observed Eaton and gave him the
impersonal nod of a man meeting another whom he may have met but has
forgotten.
"Good morning, Stiles," he greeted the servant.
"Good morning, sir," the man returned.
The newcomer sat down at the table opposite Eaton, and the servant,
without inquiring his tastes, brought pineapple, rolls and coffee.
"I am Wallace Blatchford," the stranger volunteered as Eaton looked up.
He gave the name in a manner which seemed to assume that he now must be
recalled; Eaton therefore feigned recognition as he gave him his name
in return.
"Basil Santoine is better this morning," Blatchford announced.
"I understood he was very comfortable last evening," Eaton said. "I
have not seen either Miss Santoine or Mr. Avery this morning."
"I saw Basil Santoine the last thing last night," the other boasted.
"He was very tired; but when he was home, of course he wished me to be
beside him for a time."
"Of course," Eaton replied, as the other halted. There was a humility
in the boast of this man's friendship for Santoine which stirred
sympathy, almost pity.
"I believe with the doctors that Basil Santoine is to be spared," the
tall man continued. "The nation is to be congratulated. He is
certainly one of the most useful men in America. The President--much
as he is to be admired for unusual qualities--cannot compare in
service. Suppose the President were assassinated; instantly the Vice
President would take his place; the visible government of the country
would go on; there would be no chaos, scarcely any confusion. But
suppose Basil Santoine had died--particularly at this juncture!"
Eaton finished his breakfast but remained at the table while
Blatchford, who scarcely touched his food, continued to boast, in his
queer humility, of the blind man and of the blind man's friendship for
him. He checked himself only when Harriet Santoine appeared in the
doorway. He and Eaton at once were on their feet.
"My dear! He wants to see me now?" the tall man almost pleaded. "He
wants me to be with him this morning?"
"Of course, Cousin Wallace," the girl said gently, almost with
compassion.
"You will excuse me then, sir," Blatchford said hastily to Eaton and
hurried off. The girl gazed after him, and when she turned the next
instant to Eaton her eyes were wet.
"Good morning!"
"Good morning, Miss Santoine. You are coming to breakfast?"
"Oh, no; I've had my breakfast; I was going out to see that things
outside the house have been going on well since we have been away."
"May I go with you while you do that?" Eaton tried to ask casually.
Important to him as was the plan of the house, it was scarcely less
essential for him to know the grounds.
She hesitated.
"I understand it's my duty at present to stay wherever I may be put;
but I'd hardly run away from you while inside your own grounds."
This did not seem to be the question troubling her. "Very well," she
said at last. The renewed friendliness--or the reservation of judgment
of him--which she had let him see again after the interview with her
father in the car the morning before, was not absent; it seemed only
covered over with responsibilities which came upon her now that she was
at home. She was abstracted as they passed through the hall and a man
brought Eaton's overcoat and hat and a maid her coat. Harriet led the
way out to the terrace. The day was crisp, but the breeze had lost the
chill it had had earlier in the morning; the lake was free from ice;
only along the little projecting breakwaters which guarded the bluff
against the washing of the waves, some ice still clung, and this was
rapidly melting. A graveled path led them around the south end of the
house.
"Your father is still better this morning?" Eaton asked.
"What did you say?" she asked.
He repeated his question. Was her constraint, he wondered, due to her
feeling, somehow, that for the first time in their short acquaintance
he was consciously "using" her, if only for the purpose of gaining an
immediate view of the grounds? He felt that; but he told himself he
was not doing the sort of thing he had refused to do when, on the
train, he had avoided her invitation to present him to her father.
Circumstances now were entirely different. And as he shook off the
reproach to himself, she also came from her abstraction.
"Yes; Father's improving steadily and--Dr. Sinclair says--much more
rapidly than it would have been right to expect. Dr. Sinclair is going
to remain only to-day; then he is to turn Father over to the village
doctor, who is very good. We will keep the same nurses at present."
"Mr. Blatchford told me that might be the arrangement."
"Oh, you had some talk with Mr. Blatchford, then?"
"We introduced ourselves."
Harriet was silent for a moment, evidently expecting some comment from
him; when he offered none, she said, "Father would not like you to
accept the estimate of him which Mr. Blatchford must have given you."
"What do you mean?"
"Didn't Mr. Blatchford argue with you that Father must be the greatest
man living?"
"He certainly expressed great admiration for your father," Eaton said.
"He is your cousin?"
"I call him that; he's Father's cousin. They were very close friends
when they were boys, though Cousin Wallace is a few years older. They
entered preparatory school together and were together all through
college and ever since. I suppose Cousin Wallace told you that it was
he-- Those are the garages and stables over there to the north, Mr.
Eaton. This road leads to them. And over there are the toolhouses and
gardeners' quarters; you can only just see them through the trees."
She had interrupted herself suddenly, as though she realized that his
attention had not been upon what she was saying but given to the plan
of the grounds. He recalled himself quickly.
"Yes; what was it you were saying about Mr. Blatchford?"
She glanced at him keenly, then colored and went on. "I was saying
that Father and he went through college together. They both were
looked upon as young men of very unusual promise--Mr. Blatchford
especially; I suppose because Father, being younger, had not shown so
plainly what he might become. Then Father was blinded--he was just
sixteen; and--and Cousin Wallace never fulfilled the promise he had
given."
"I don't quite see the connection," Eaton offered.
"Oh, I thought Cousin Wallace must have told you; he tells almost every
one as soon as he meets them. It was he who blinded Father. It was a
hunting accident, and Father was made totally blind. Father always
said it wasn't Cousin Wallace's fault; but Mr. Blatchford was almost
beside himself because he believed he had ruined Father's life. But
Father went on and did all that he has done, while it stopped poor
Cousin Wallace. It's queer how things work out! Cousin Wallace
thought it was Father's, but it was his own life that he destroyed.
He's happy only when Father wants him with him; and to himself--and to
most people--he's only the man that blinded Basil Santoine."
"I think I shall understand him now," Eaton said quietly.
"I like the way you said that.... Here, Mr. Eaton, is the best place
to see the grounds."
Their path had topped a little rise; they stopped; and Eaton, as she
pointed out the different objects, watched carefully and printed the
particulars and the general arrangement of the surroundings on his
memory.
As he looked about, he could see that further ahead the path they were
on paralleled a private drive which two hundred yards away entered what
must be the public pike; for he could see motor-cars passing along it.
He noted the direction of this and of the other paths, so that he could
follow them in the dark, if necessary. The grounds were broken by
ravines at right angles to the shore, which were crossed by little
bridges; other bridges carried the public pike across them, for he
could hear them rumble as the motor-cars crossed them; a man could
travel along the bottom of one of those ravines for quite a distance
without being seen. To north and south outside of the cared-for
grounds there were clumps of rank, wild-growing thicket. To the east,
the great house which the trees could not hide stood out against the
lake, and beyond and below it, was the beach; but a man could not
travel along the beach by daylight without being visible for miles from
the top of the bluff, and even at night, one traveling along the beach
would be easily intercepted.
Could Harriet Santoine divine these thoughts in his mind? He turned to
her as he felt her watching him; but if she had been observing him as
he looked about, she was not regarding him now. He followed her
direction and saw at a little distance a powerful, strapping man,
half-concealed--though he did not seem to be hiding--behind some
bushes. The man might have passed for an undergardener; but he was not
working; and once before during their walk Eaton had seen another man,
powerfully built as this one, who had looked keenly at him and then
away quickly. Harriet flushed slightly as she saw that Eaton observed
the man; Eaton understood then that the man was a guard, one of
several, probably, who had been put about the house to keep watch of
him.
Had Harriet Santoine understood his interest in the grounds as
preparatory to a plan to escape, and had she therefore taken him out to
show him the guards who would prevent him? He did not speak of the
men, and neither did she; with her, he went on, silently, to the
gardeners' cottages, where she gave directions concerning the spring
work being done on the grounds. Then they went back to the house,
exchanging--for the first time between them--ordinary inanities.
She left him in the hall, saying she was going to visit her father; but
part way up the stairs, she paused.
"You'll find books in the library of every conceivable sort, Mr.
Eaton," she called down to him.
"Thank you," he answered; and he went into the library, but he did not
look for a book. Left alone, he stood listening.
As her footsteps on the stairs died away, no other sound came to him.
The lower part of the house seemed deserted. He went out again into
the hall and looked about quickly and waited and listened; then he
stepped swiftly and silently to a closet where, earlier, he had noticed
a telephone. He shut himself in and took up the receiver of the
instrument. As he placed it to his ear, he heard the almost
imperceptible sound of another receiver on the line being lifted; then
the girl at the suburban central said, "Number, please."
Eaton held the receiver to his ear without making reply. The other
person on the line--evidently it was an extension in the house--also
remained silent. The girl at central repeated the request; neither
Eaton nor the other person replied. Eaton hung up the receiver and
stepped from the closet. He encountered Donald Avery in the hall.
"You have been telephoning?" Avery asked.
"No."
"Oh; you could not get your number?"
"I did not ask for it."
Eaton gazed coolly at Avery, knowing now that Avery had been at the
other telephone on the line or had had report from the person who had
been prepared to overhear.
"So you have had yourself appointed my--warden?"
Avery took a case from his pocket and lighted a cigar without offering
Eaton one. Eaton glanced past him; Harriet Santoine was descending the
stair. Avery turned and saw her, and again taking out his cigar-case,
now offered it to Eaton, who ignored it.
"I found Father asleep," Harriet said to Eaton.
"May I see you alone for a moment?" he asked.
"Of course," she said; and as Avery made no motion, she turned toward
the door of the large room in the further end of the south wing. Eaton
started to follow.
"Where are you taking him, Harriet?" Avery demanded of her sharply.
She had seemed to Eaton to have been herself about to reconsider her
action; but Avery decided her.
"In here," she replied; and proceeded to open the door which exposed
another door just within, which she opened and closed after she had
entered and Eaton had followed her in. Her manner was like that of
half an hour before, when she showed him the grounds beyond the house.
And Eaton, feeling his muscles tighten, strove to control himself and
examine the room with only casual curiosity. It would well excuse any
one's interest.
It was very large, perhaps forty feet long and certainly thirty in
width. There was a huge stone fireplace on the west wall where the
wing connected with the main part of the house; and all about the other
wall, and particularly to the east, were high and wide windows; and
through those to the south, the sunlight now was flooding in.
Bookcases were built between the windows up to the ceiling, and
bookcases covered the west wall on both sides of the fireplace. And
every case was filled with books; upon a table at one side lay a pile
of volumes evidently recently received and awaiting reading and
classification. There was a great rack where periodicals of every
description--popular, financial, foreign and American--were kept; and
there were great presses preserving current newspapers.
At the center of the room was a large table-desk with a chair and a
lounge beside it; there were two other lounges in the room, one at the
south in the sun and another at the end toward the lake. There were
two smaller table-desks on the north side of the room, subordinate to
the large desk. There were two "business phonograph" machines with
cabinets for records; there was a telephone on the large desk and
others on the two smaller tables. A safe, with a combination lock, was
built into a wall. The most extraordinary feature of the room was a
steep, winding staircase, in the corner beyond the fireplace, evidently
connecting with the room above.
The room in which they were was so plainly Basil Santoine's work-room
that the girl did not comment upon that; but as Eaton glanced at the
stairs, she volunteered:
"They go to Father's room; that has the same space above."
"I see. This is a rather surprising room."
"You mean the windows?" she asked. "That surprises most people--so
very much light. Father can't see even sunlight, but he says he feels
it. He likes light, anyway; and it is true that he can tell, without
his eyes, whether the day is bright or cloudy, and whether the light is
turned on at night. The rooms in this wing, too, are nearly
sound-proof. There is not much noise from outside here, of course,
except the waves; but there are noises from other parts of the house.
Noise does not irritate Father, but his hearing has become very acute
because of his blindness, and noises sometimes distract him when he is
working.... Now, what was it you wished to say to me, Mr. Eaton?"
Eaton, with a start, recollected himself. His gaining a view of that
room was of so much more importance than what he had to say that, for a
moment, he had forgotten. Then:
"I wanted to ask you exactly what my position here is to be."
"Oh," she said. "I thought that was plain to you from what Father
said."
"You mean that I am to be kept here?"
"Yes."
"Indefinitely?"
"Until--as Father indicated to you on the train--he has satisfied
himself as to the source of the attack upon him."
"I understand. In the meantime, I am not to be allowed to communicate
at all with any one outside?"
"That might depend upon the circumstances."
He gazed at the telephone instrument on the desk. "Miss Santoine, a
moment ago I tried to telephone, when I--" He described the incident
to her. The color on her cheeks heightened. "Some one was appointed
to listen on the wire?" he challenged.
"Yes." She hesitated, and then she added, in the manner in which she
had directed him to the guard outside the house: "And besides, I
believe there are--or will be--the new phonographic devices on every
line, which record both sides of a conversation. Subject to that, you
may use the telephone."
"Thank you," said Eaton grimly. "I suppose if I were to write a
letter, it would be taken from me and opened and read."
She colored ruddier and made no comment.
"And if I wished to go to the city, I would be prevented or followed?"
"Prevented, for the present," she replied.
"Thank you."
"That is all?"
The interview had become more difficult for her; he saw that she was
anxious to have it over.
"Just one moment more, Miss Santoine. Suppose I resist this?"
"Yes?"
"Your father is having me held here in what I might describe as a free
sort of confinement, but still in confinement, without any legal charge
against me. Suppose I refuse to submit to that--suppose I demand right
to consult, to communicate with some one in order, let us say, to
defend myself against the charge of having attacked your father. What
then?"
"I can only answer as before, Mr. Eaton."
"That I will be prevented?"
"For the present. I don't know all that Father has ordered done about
you; but he is awaiting the result of several investigations. The
telegrams you received doubtless are being traced to their sources;
other inquiries are being made. As you have only lately come back to
America, they may extend far and take some time."
"Thank you," he acknowledged. He went to the door, opened it and went
out; he closed it after him and left her alone.
Harriet stood an instant vacantly staring after him; then she went to
the door and fastened it with a catch. She came back to the great
table-desk--her blind father's desk--and seated herself in the great
chair, his chair, and buried her face in her hands. She had
seemed--and she knew that she had seemed--quite composed as she talked
to Eaton; now she was not composed. Her face was burning hot; her
hands, against her cheeks, were cold; tremors of feeling shook her as
she thought of the man who just had left her. Why, she asked herself,
was she not able to make herself treat this man in the way that her
mind told her she should have treated him? That he might be the one
who had dealt the blow intended to kill her father--her being could not
and would not accept that. Yet, the only reason she had to deny it,
was her feeling.
That Eaton must have been involved in the attack or, at least, must
have known and now knew something about it which he was keeping from
them, seemed certain. Yet she did not, she could not, abominate and
hate this man. Instead, she found herself impelled, against all
natural reason, more and more to trust him. Moreover, was it fair to
her father for her to do this?
Since childhood, since babyhood, even, no one had ever meant anything
to her in comparison with her father. Her mother had died when she was
young; she had never had, in her play as a child, the careless abandon
of other children, because in spite of play she had been thinking of
her father; the greatest joy of childhood she could remember was
walking hand in hand with her father and telling him the things she
saw; it had been their "game"; and as she grew older and it had ceased
to be merely a game--as she had grown more and more useful to the blind
man, and he had learned more fully to use and trust her--she had found
it only more interesting, a greater pleasure. She had never had any
other ambition--and she had no other now--except to serve her father;
her joy was to be his eyes; her triumph had been when she had found
that, though he searched the world and paid fortunes to find others to
"see" for him, no one could serve him as she could; she had never
thought of herself apart from him.
Now her father had been attacked and injured--attacked foully, while he
slept; he had come close to death, had suffered; he was still
suffering. Certainly she ought to hate, at least be aloof from any
one, every one, against whom the faintest suspicion breathed of having
been concerned in that dastardly attack upon her father; and that she
found herself without aversion to Eaton, when he was with her, now
filled her with shame and remorse.
She crouched lower against this desk which so represented her father in
his power; she felt tears of shame at herself hot on her cold hands.
Then she got up and recollected herself. Her father, when he would
awake, would wish to work; there were certain, important matters he
must decide at once.
Harriet went to the end of the room and to the right of the entrance
door. She looked about, with a habit of caution, and then removed a
number of books from a shelf about shoulder high; she thus exposed a
panel at the back of the bookcase, which she slid back. Behind it
appeared the steel door of a combination wall-safe. She opened it and
took out two large, thick envelopes with tape about them, sealed and
addressed to Basil Santoine; but they were not stamped, for they had
not been through the mail; they had been delivered by a messenger.
Harriet reclosed the safe, concealed it and took the envelopes back to
her father's desk and opened them to examine their contents preparatory
to taking them to him. But even now her mind was not on her work; she
was thinking of Eaton, where he had gone and what he was doing and--was
he thinking of her?
Eaton had left the room, thinking of her. The puzzle of his position
in relation to her, and hers to him, filled his mind too. That she had
been constrained by circumstances and the opinions of those around her
to assume a distrust of him which she did not truly feel, was plain to
him; but it was clear that, whatever she felt, she would obey her
father's directions in regard to him. And she had told that Basil
Santoine, if he was to hold his prisoner as almost a guest in his house
pending developments, was to keep that guest strictly from
communication with any one outside. Santoine, of course, was aware
from the telegram that others had been acting with Eaton; the incident
at the telephone had shown that Santoine had anticipated that Eaton's
first necessity would be to get in touch with his friends. And this,
now, indeed was a necessity. The gaining of Santoine's house, under
conditions which he would not have dared to dream of, would be
worthless now unless immediately--before Santoine could get any further
trace of him--he could get word to and receive word from his friends.
He had stopped, after leaving Santoine's study, in the alcove of the
hall in front of the double doors which he had closed behind him; he
heard Harriet fasten the inner one. As he stood now, undecided where
to go, a young woman crossed the main part of the hall, coming
evidently from outside the house--she had on hat and jacket and was
gloved; she was approaching the doors of the room he just had left, and
so must pass him. He stared at sight of her and choked; then, he
controlled himself rigidly, waiting until she should see him.
She halted suddenly as she saw him and grew very pale, and her gloved
hands went swiftly to her breast and pressed against it; she caught
herself together and looked swiftly and fearfully about her and out
into the hall. Seeing no one but himself, she came a step nearer,
"Hugh!" she breathed. Her surprise was plainly greater than his own
had been at sight of her; but she checked herself again quickly and
looked warningly back at the hall; then she fixed on him her blue
eyes--which were very like Eaton's, though she did not resemble him
closely in any other particular--as though waiting his instructions.
He passed her and looked about the hall. There was no one in sight in
the hall or on the stairs or within the other rooms which opened into
the hall. The door Eaton had just come from stayed shut. He held his
breath while he listened; but there was no sound anywhere in the house
which told him they were likely to be seen; so he came back to the spot
where he had been standing.
"Stay where you are, Edith," he whispered. "If we hear any one coming,
we are just passing each other in the hall."
"I understand; of course, Hugh! But you--you're here! In his house!"
"Even lower, Edith; remember I'm Eaton--Philip Eaton."
"Of course; I know; and I'm Miss Davis here--Mildred Davis."
"They let you come in and out like this--as you want, with no one
watching you?"
"No, no; I do stenography for Mr. Avery sometimes, as I wrote you.
That is all. When he works here, I do his typing; and some even for
Mr. Santoine himself. But I am not confidential yet; they send for me
when they want me."
"Then they sent for you to-day?"
"No; but they have just got back, and I thought I would come to see if
anything was wanted. But never mind about me; you--how did you get
here? What are you doing here?"
Eaton drew further back into the alcove as some one passed through the
hall above. The girl turned swiftly to the tall pier mirror near to
which she stood; she faced it, slowly drawing off her gloves, trembling
and not looking toward him. The foot-steps ceased overhead; Eaton,
assured no one was coming down the stairs, spoke swiftly to tell her as
much as he might in their moment. "He--Santoine--wasn't taken ill on
the train, Edith; he was attacked."
"Attacked!" Her lips barely moved.
"He was almost killed; but they concealed it, Edith--pretended he was
only ill. I was on the train--you know, of course; I got your
wire--and they suspected me of the attack."
"You? But they didn't find out about you, Hugh?"
"No; they are investigating. Santoine would not let them make anything
public. He brought me here while he is trying to find out about me.
So I'm here, Edith--here! Is it here too?"
Again steps sounded in the hall above. The girl swiftly busied herself
with gloves and hat; Eaton stood stark in suspense. The servant
above--it was a servant they had heard before, he recognized
now--merely crossed from one room to another overhead. Now the girl's
lips moved again.
"It?" She formed the question noiselessly.
"The draft of the new agreement."
"It either has been sent to him, or it will be sent to him very
soon--here."
"Here in this house with me!"
"Mr. Santoine has to be a party to it--he's to draft it, I think.
Anyway, he hasn't seen it yet--I know that. It is either here now,
Hugh, or it will be here before long."
"You can't find out about that?"
"Whether it is here, or when it will be? I think I can."
"Where will it be when it is here?"
"Where? Oh!" The girl's eyes went to the wall close to where Eaton
stood; she seemed to measure with them a definite distance from the
door and a point shoulder high, and to resist the impulse to come over
and put her hand upon the spot. As Eaton followed her look, he heard a
slight and muffled click as if from the study; but no sound could reach
them through the study doors and what he heard came from the wall
itself.
"A safe?" he whispered.
"Yes; Miss Santoine--she's in there, isn't she?--closed it just now.
There are two of them hidden behind the books one on each side of the
door."
Eaton tapped gently on the wall; the wall was brick; the safe
undoubtedly was backed with steel.
"The best way is from inside the room," he concluded.
She nodded. "Yes. If you--"
"Look out!"
Some one now was coming downstairs. The girl had time only to whisper
swiftly, "If we don't get a chance to speak again, watch that vase."
She pointed to a bronze antique which stood on a table near them.
"When I'm sure the agreement is in the house, I'll drop a glove-button
in that--a black one, if I think it'll be in the safe on the right,
white on the left. Now go."
Eaton moved quietly on and into the drawing-room. Avery's voice
immediately afterwards was heard; he was speaking to Miss Davis, whom
he had found in the hallway. Eaton was certain there was no suspicion
that he had talked with her there; indeed, Avery seemed to suppose that
Eaton was still in the study with Harriet Santoine. It was her lapse,
then, which had let him out and had given him that chance; but it was a
lapse, he discovered, which was not likely to favor him again. From
that time, while never held strictly in restraint, he found himself
always in the sight of some one. Blatchford, in default of any one
else, now appeared to assume the oversight of him as his duty. Eaton
lunched with Blatchford, dined with Blatchford and Avery--Blatchford's
presence as a buffer against Avery's studied offense to him alone
making the meal endurable. Eaton went to his room early, where at last
he was left alone.
The day, beginning with his discovery of the fact that he was in
Santoine's house and continuing through the walk outside, which first
had shown him the lay of the grounds, and then the chance at the sight
of Santoine's study followed by the meeting just outside the study
door--all this had been more than satisfactory to him. He sat at his
window thinking it over. The weather had been clear and there was a
moon; as he watched the light upon the water and gazed now and again at
the south wing where Santoine had his study, suddenly several windows
on the first floor blazed out simultaneously; some one had entered
Santoine's work-room and turned on the light. Almost at once the light
went out; then, a minute or so later, the same windows glowed dully.
The lights in the room had been turned on again, but heavy, opaque
curtains had been drawn over the windows before the room was relighted.
These curtains were so close over the windows that, unless Eaton had
been attracted by the first flash of light, he scarcely would have
noticed that the lights were burning within the room.
He had observed, during the day, that Avery or Harriet had been at work
in that room--one of them or both--almost all day; and besides the girl
he had met in the hall, there had been at least one other stenographer.
Must work in this house go on so continuously that it was necessary for
some one to work at night, even when Santoine lay ill and unable to
make other than the briefest and most important dispositions? And who
was working in that room now, Avery or Harriet? He let himself think,
idly, about the girl--how strange her life had been--that part of it at
least which was spent, as he had gathered most of her waking hours of
recent years had been spent, with her father. Strange, almost, as his
own life! And what a wonderful girl it had made of her--clever, sweet,
lovable, with more than a woman's ordinary capacity for devotion and
self-sacrifice.
But, if she were the one working there, was she the sort of girl she
had seemed to be? If her service to her father was not only on his
personal side but if also she was intimate in his business affairs,
must she not therefore have shared the cruel code which had terrorized
Eaton for the last four years and kept him an exile in Asia and which,
at any hour yet, threatened to take his life? A grim set came to
Eaton's lips; his mind went again to his own affairs.