RALPH TAKES CHARGE
The troubled house had fallen asleep at last. They were all used to the
swooping horrors; they could recall the black times spread out over the
weary years; they could vividly recollect how one trouble after another
had happened.
And it had been an eventful day. For the last few hours they had lived a
fresh tragedy. True, the tragedy itself had been averted, but for some
time there had been the agony of the real thing. The Ravenspurs,
exhausted by the flood of emotion, had been glad of rest.
They were presumably asleep now, all but Ralph. Long after deep silence
had fallen on the house he sat alone in the darkness. The glow of his
pipe just touched his inscrutable features and a faint halo of light
played about his grizzled head. A mouse nibbling behind the panels
sounded clear as the crack of a pistol shot. The big stable clock boomed
two.
Ralph laid aside his pipe and crept to the door. He opened it silently
and passed out into the corridor. A cat would not have made less noise.
Yet he moved swiftly and confidently, as one who has eyes to see
familiar ground. He came at length to the room where Mrs. May was lying.
She had been made fairly comfortable. Her dress had been loosened at the
throat, but she still wore the clothes in which she had been dressed at
the time of her accident.
Later she would perhaps find it difficult to account for masquerading in
the castle in that strange guise. That she would have some ingenious
plea to put forward Ralph felt certain. But the dress was another
matter. Ralph grinned to himself as he thought of it.
There was a light in the room. He could tell that by the saffron glow
that touched lightly on his sightless eyeballs. He knew the disposition
of the room as well as if he could see it. He felt his way across until
he came to the bed on which the woman lay.
His hand touched her throat--a gentle touch--yet his fingers crooked and
a murderous desire blossomed like a rose in his heart. Nobody was about
and nobody would know. Who could connect the poor blind man with the
deed? Why not end her life now?
"Far better," Ralph muttered. "It would have been no crime to shoot her
like a dog. Yet fancy hanging for such a creature as that!"
The grim humor of the suggestion restored Ralph to himself. His relaxed
fingers just touched the cold throat and face. He could hear the sound
of regular breathing. From a tiny phial he took two or three drops of
some dark cordial and brushed them over the woman's rigid lips. She
stirred faintly.
"Just as well to hasten events," he muttered. "One cannot afford to play
with the thing."
He replaced the bottle in his pocket. He drew himself up listening.
Other ears could not have heard a sound. Ralph could plainly hear
footsteps. But how near they were he could not tell. His brows
contracted with annoyance.
"So soon," he muttered. "I did not expect this."
He dropped down between the bed and the wall. Then he crawled under the
deep valance. He had not long to wait. Somebody had crept into the room,
somebody light of foot and light of body who crossed to the bed. And
this somebody shook the sleeping figure with passionate force.
"Wake up!" a voice said. "Oh, will you never wake up?"
The listener smiled. He could hear the figure of his arch-enemy
stirring uneasily. She muttered something and once more was passionately
shaken.
"What is the matter?" she muttered. "Where am I?"
"Here, in the castle. Don't you remember?"
Pause for a moment. Ralph was listening intently.
"I begin to recollect. There was an accident; the door refused to open;
I fought for my life as long as I could before the fumes overcame me,
and I gave myself up for lost. Oh, it was something to remember,
Marion," muttered Mrs. May.
Marion, for it was she, made no reply. She was crying quietly.
"What is the matter with the girl?" the woman asked irritably.
"Oh, it is good for you to ask me that question," said Marion, "after
all the bitter trouble and humiliation you have put upon me. Get up and
follow me."
"I cannot. The thing is impossible. You forget that I have been almost
dead. My limbs are paralyzed. I shall not be able to walk for at least
two days. I must remain like a dog here. But there is no hurry. What
happened?"
"I can't tell; I don't know. You were found in the corridor, I am told,
insensible. When they came back to the castle they found you lying here.
They had all been down on the beach searching for Geoffrey."
The woman laughed. It was a laugh to chill the blood.
"I hope they found him," she said.
"Oh, yes, they found him," Marion said quietly.
"Drowned, with a placid smile on his face, after the fashion of the
novel?"
"No, very much alive. You failed. Geoffrey Ravenspur is here safe and
sound. On my knees I have thanked God for it."
The woman muttered something that the listener failed to catch. She
seemed to be suppressing a tendency to a violent outburst.
"I will not fail next time," she said. "And you are a love-sick,
soft-hearted, sentimental fool. All this time I have to remain here.
But, at any rate, I have you to do my bidding. Put your hand in my
breast pocket and you will find a key."
"Well, what am I to do with it?"
"You are to go to my rooms at Jessop's farm at once. They will be fast
asleep, so that you need not be afraid. Jessop's people have the slumber
that comes of a tired body and an easy conscience. But there are foes
about and it is not well to trust to anybody.
"If I am to remain here for a day or two I must have certain things. In
my sitting room, by the side of the fireplace, is a black iron box. Open
it with the key I have given you and bring the casket to me. You can get
into my sitting room by gently raising the window, which is not
fastened. They are so honest in these parts that people don't fasten
their windows. Now go."
"You are sure you cannot get up?"
"Certain. I have been drugged and it will be some time before I am able
to get about. That is why I am anxious to have the box. Young Ravenspur
would never have got away had he had no friends to assist him or a
simple fool to give him warning."
"The fool you speak of does not regret it."
"Perhaps not. How did he escape?"
"In the simplest possible way. He was picked up by a passing yacht."
"Well, accidents will happen," the woman muttered. "Now do my bidding.
The heavy drugged sleep is coming upon me again, and I shall not be able
to keep my eyes open much longer. Go at once."
As Marion crept away Ralph could catch her heavy indrawn breath and the
sobs that seemed to burst from her overcharged heart. Then he knew that
the woman was asleep again.
A minute or two later and he was standing in the hall. He waited in
shadow, silent and patient. The stairs creaked slightly and a stealthy
footstep came creeping down.