"IT MIGHT BE YOU"
Marion caught her breath quickly. The marble pallor of her face showed
up more strongly against her dark hair. Geoffrey caught the look and his
eyes grew sympathetic.
"What's the matter, little girl?" he asked. "It isn't like you to
faint."
"Neither am I going to faint, Geoff. But I had forgotten all about that
box. I cannot go into details, for there are some things that we don't
talk about to anybody. But that box is connected with rather an unhappy
time in my youth."
"Hundreds of years ago," Geoffrey said flippantly.
"Oh, but it is no laughing matter, I assure you. When my mother was a
child she was surrounded by all the craft and superstition of her race
and religion. That was long before she got converted and married my
father. I don't know how it was managed, but my mother never quite broke
with her people, and once or twice, when she went to stay in Tibet, I
accompanied her.
"My mother used to get restless at times, and then nothing would do but
a visit to Tibet. And yet, at other times, nobody could possibly have
told her from a European with foreign blood in her veins. For months and
months she would be as English as you and I. Then the old fit would come
over her.
"There was not a cleverer or more brilliant woman in India than my
mother. When she died she gave me these things, and I was not to part
with them. And, much as I should like to disobey, I cannot break that
promise."
It seemed to Geoffrey that Marion spoke more regretfully than feelingly.
He had never heard her say so much regarding her mother before.
Affectionate and tender as Marion was, there was not the least trace of
these characteristics in her tone now.
"Did you really love your mother?" Geoffrey asked suddenly.
"I always obeyed her," Marion stammered. "And I'd rather not discuss the
subject, Geoff. Oh, they were bad people, my mother's ancestors. They
possessed occult knowledge far beyond anything known or dreamt of by the
wisest Western savants. They could remove people mysteriously, they
could strike at a long distance, they could wield unseen terrors. Such
is the terror that hangs over Ravenspur, for instance."
Marion smiled sadly. Her manner changed suddenly and she was her old
self again.
"Enough of horrors," she said. "I came here to help you. Come along."
The boxes were carried below until only the brass-bound one remained.
Geoffrey stooped to lift it. The wood was light and thin, the brass-work
was the merest tracing.
A sudden guilty feeling came over Geoffrey as he raised it
shoulder-high. He felt half inclined to defy his uncle Ralph and take
the consequences. It seemed a mean advantage, a paltry gratifying of
what, after all, might be mere curiosity.
But the vivid recollection of those strained, sightless eyes rose before
him. Ralph Ravenspur was not the man to possess the petty vice of
irrepressible curiosity. Had it not been a woman he had to deal with,
and Marion at that, Geoffrey would not have hesitated for a moment. Down
below in the hall he heard the hollow rasp of Ralph's voice.
Geoffrey made up his mind grimly. He seemed to stumble forward, and the
box fell from his shoulder, crashing down on the stone floor. The force
of the shock simply shivered it in pieces, a great nest of grass and
feathers dropped out, and from the inside a large mass of strange
objects appeared.
[Illustration: The force of the shock simply shivered it in pieces, and
from inside a large mass of strange objects appeared.--Page 78.]
"I am very sorry," Geoffrey stammered after the box had fallen.
"Never mind," she said, "accidents will happen."
But Geoffrey was rapt in the contemplation of what he saw before
him--some score or more of ivory discs, each of which contained some
painting; many of them appeared to be portraits.
Geoffrey picked up one of them and examined it curiously. He was
regarding an ivory circle with a dark face upon it, the face of a
beautiful fury.
"Why, this is you," Geoffrey cried. "If you could only give way to a
furious passion, it is you to the life."
"I had forgotten that," Marion gasped. "Of course, it is not me. See how
old and stained the ivory is; hundreds of years old, it must be. Don't
ask any more questions, but go and throw that thing in the sea. Never
speak of the subject again."
Geoffrey promised. He strode out of the house and along the terrace. As
he was descending the steps, a hand touched his arm. Ralph stood there.
"Give it me," he said, "at once."
"Give you what, uncle?"
"That ivory thing you have in your pocket. I felt certain it was there.
Give it to me. Assume you have cast it over the cliffs. Marion will be
satisfied."
"But I promised Marion that----"
"Oh, I know. And if you knew everything, you would not hesitate for a
moment to comply with my request."
"Uncle, I cannot do this thing."
A hard expression came over Ralph's face.
"Listen," he said in his rasping voice. "The lives and happiness of us
all are at stake. The very existence of the woman you love is in your
hands."
"I have schemed for this," he said. "I expected it. And now you are
going to balk me. It is not as if I did not know what you possess."
"That is because you must have overheard my conversation with Marion."
"I admit it," Ralph said coolly. "I listened, of course. But you found
it and I heard what I expected. It is for you to say whether the truth
comes out or not."
"The truth, the truth," Geoffrey cried passionately. "It must out."
"Then give me that miniature. I'll ask you on my knees if you like."
There was an imploring ring in the speaker's voice. Geoffrey hesitated.
"If no harm is to come to Marion," he said, "I might break my word."
Ralph gripped him by the arm convulsively.
"I swear it," he whispered. "On my honor be it. Have I not told you
before that not for all Ravenspur would I have a hair of that girl's
head injured! If ever a man in this world meant anything, I mean that.
The miniature, come!"
And Geoffrey, with a sigh, handed the ivory disc to Ralph.