THE "NOTE"
Miss Arnott displayed somewhat singular unwillingness to break the
seals. She watched Mr Adams retreating on his bicycle; not only till
the machine itself was out of sight, but the cloud of dust which marked
its progress had vanished also. Then she turned the scrap of paper over
and over in her fingers, possessed by an instinctive reluctance to
learn what it contained. It seemed ridiculous to suppose that Jim Baker
could have anything to cause her disturbance, yet she had an eerie
feeling that there was something disagreeable inside his "note,"
something which she would much rather not come into contact with. Had
she followed her own inclination she would have shredded it into
pieces, and scattered the pieces over the roadway. In some
indescribable fashion she was actually afraid of the scrap of paper
which she held between her fingers.
It was the sudden realisation that this was so which stung her into
action. Afraid of anything Jim Baker might have to say? She? Nonsense!
The idea! Could anything be more absurd!
There and then she broke the seals, unfolded the sheet of paper. But
when she had got so far again she hesitated. The thing was fresh from a
prison; had about it, she fancied, a prison atmosphere, a whiff of
something sordid which it had borne with it out of gaol. It was that,
she told herself, which she did not relish. Why should she read the
scrawl? What interest could it have for her? Better instruct Mr
Parsloe, or that eminent practitioner in the conduct of criminal cases
with whose name Mr Stacey had furnished her, to undertake Baker's
defence, and spare no expense in doing so, and so have done with it.
Let her keep her own fingers out of the mire; leave the whole thing to
the lawyers; that would be better for everyone concerned. So it would
not be necessary for her to spell her way through the man's ill-written
scribble.
And then she read Jim Baker's "note."
As Mr Adams had surmised it was written in pencil; apparently with a
blunt stump of pencil used by unaccustomed fingers, probably under
circumstances in which a skilful writer would have been uneasy. Here
and there it seemed that the pencil had refused to write; possibly only
by dint of pressure had it been induced to write at all. The letters
were blurred and indistinct, ill-formed, irregular, disjoined--in
general, mere hieroglyphics. And yet, despite the crabbed writing, the
eccentric spelling, the clumsy wording, Jim Baker's "note" made a
stronger impression on Miss Arnott than the most eloquent epistle with
which she had ever been favoured.
"Miss Arnott I see you done it but I wouldnt say nuthink about it if it
wasnt that from what I ear they are going to hang me for what I se you
doing and I wont say nuthin about it now if you se I have a loryer and
all regular so as to get me out of this were it aint rite I should be
sein I saw you they may cutt my tung out before Ill speak unless they
make out I dun it so if you dont se I have a loryer and all regular Ill
have to speke Jim Baker."
That was Mr Baker's note; unpunctuated, formless, badly put together,
ill-spelt, but alive and eloquent in spite of its obvious deficiencies.
It was plain why he was so anxious that Mr Adams should not peep at the
contents, why he had insisted on the three seals, why he had stipulated
on its being given into Miss Arnott's own hands. From his point of view
the "note" was a messenger of life and death, with hanging matter in
every line.
The lady read it once and again and then again. As she crumpled it up
in her hand it seemed to her that the country round about had assumed a
different appearance, the cloudless sky had become dimmed, a grey tint
had settled upon everything; for her the sunlight had gone out of the
world.
Here was Jim Baker calling to her out of his prison cell that he was
where she ought to be, because he had seen her do it, warning her, if
she did not provide him with a lawyer "and all regular" to get him "out
of this," that he would have to speak. What hallucination was this
which all at once possessed men's minds? Could it be possible that the
hallucination was actually hers? Could what, first Hugh Morice, now Jim
Baker, said be true, and that they had seen her do it? What condition
could she have been in at the time? Was it conceivable that a person
could do such a deed unwittingly? During what part of her sojourn in
the wood had she been in her sober senses? When had she ceased to be
responsible for her own actions? and how? and why? Which of those awful
happenings had been plain material fact and which nightmare imaginings?
She re-read Jim Baker's opening words,--"Miss Arnott I see you done
it." The accusation was bold enough, plain enough, conclusive enough.
It staggered her; forced her to wonder if she was, unknowingly, this
dreadful thing.
But, by degrees, her common sense regained the upper-hand, and she
began to put two and two together in an attempt to solve the mystery of
Jim Baker's words. The man was drunk; so much was admitted. He had
probably seen her, hazily enough, bearing away the blood-stained knife;
and had, therefore, jumped to an erroneous conclusion. Then she
remembered that he had sworn that, after firing the shot, he had gone
straight home; then, how came he to see her? More, he had sworn that on
his homeward way he had seen nothing; so, somewhere, there was a lie.
At the very worst, Jim Baker was labouring under a misapprehension; the
statement in his note was capable of no other explanation.
Still, it was awkward that he should be under such a misapprehension,
in view of the attitude which Hugh Morice had just been taking up. The
problem of saving Jim Baker's life became involved. If freeing him
meant that Mr Morice would prefer against her such a charge, and that
Baker himself would support it; then it behoved her to be careful how
she went. In any case it was not agreeable to think that that ancient
but muddle-headed family retainer believed--with some considerable
foundation in truth--that she was willing--to say no more--that he
should suffer for her offences.
Her thoughts were not pleasant companions on her homeward journey. Nor
was her peace of mind heightened by a brief interview which she had
with Mrs Plummer almost immediately on her return. The lady, waylaying
her on the landing, followed her into her sitting-room. She was
evidently in a state of considerable agitation.
"My dear, there is something which I must say to you at once--at once!"
Miss Arnott looked at her with that mixture of amusement and resentment
with which she had been conscious that, of late, Mrs Plummer's near
neighbourhood was wont to fill her.
"Then by all means speak, especially if refraining from doing so would
occasion you inconvenience."
"Mrs Forrester called; you are never in when people come."
"I am not sorry that I was out when Mrs Forrester came; she bores me."
"You ought to fix a regular day, so that people might know when to find
you."
"You have made that remark before. Is that all you have to say?"
"No, it is not; and let me tell you that this flippant way you have of
treating everything I say may have the most serious and unlooked-for
consequences."
Miss Arnott laughed, which caused Mrs Plummer to resort to a trick she
had--when at all put out--of rubbing the palms of her hands briskly
together.
"Oh, you may laugh; but I can assure you that if things go on like this
much longer I don't know what will be the end of it."
"The end of what?"
"Do you know what Mrs Forrester has been saying? She tells me that
there is a story going about the place that that evening you were out
in the woods till all hours of the night; and she wanted to know if she
should contradict it."
"That's as she pleases."
"But don't you see how serious it is? Won't you understand? I
understand; if you don't. Violet, I insist upon your telling me what
time it was when you came in that night; where you went, and what you
did. I insist! I insist!"
At each repetition Mrs Plummer brought her hands together with quite a
smart clap. Miss Arnott looked down at the excited little woman as if
she was still divided between two moods.
"You insist? Mrs Plummer, aren't you--rather forgetting yourself?"
"Of course I am prepared for you to adopt that tone. You always adopt
it when I ask you a question, and I am ready to leave the house this
moment if you wish it; but I can only assure you that if you won't give
me an answer you may have to give one to somebody else before very
long."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean exactly what I say. Won't you see?"
"I can see that you are in a state of excitement which is not warranted
by anything I understand."
It was odd what a disinclination the elder lady showed to meet the
young one's eyes. She moved hither and thither, as if possessed by a
spirit of restlessness; but, though Miss Arnott kept her gaze fixed on
her unfalteringly wherever she went, she herself never glanced in the
girl's direction.
"Excited! I can't help being excited! How you can keep so cool is what
I don't know! Everyone is pointing a finger and saying that you were
out in the woods at the very time that--that wretched man was--was
being murdered"--Mrs Plummer cast furtive looks about her as if the
deed was being enacted that very moment before her eyes--"and asking
where you were and what you were doing all alone in the woods at that
hour, and how it was that you knew nothing at all of what was taking
place, possibly quite close by you; and you let them ask, and say and
do nothing to stop their tongues; and if they are not stopped heaven
only knows where they'll lead them. My dear, won't you tell me where
you went? and what it was that you were doing?"
"No, Mrs Plummer, I won't--so now your question is answered. And as I
have some letters to write may I ask you to leave me?"
Mrs Plummer did glance at Miss Arnott for one moment; but for only one.
Then, as if she did not dare to trust herself to speak again, she
hurried from the room. Left alone, the young lady indulged in some
possibly ironical comments on her companion's deportment.
"Really, to judge from Mrs Plummer's behaviour, one would imagine that
this business worried her more than it does me. If she doesn't exercise
a little more self-control I shouldn't be surprised if it ends in
making her actually ill."