The Voice from the Void
The Great Wireless Mystery.
By William Le Queux
Published by Cassell and Company Ltd, London, NY, Toronto, Melbourne.
The Voice from the Void, by William Le Queux.
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THE VOICE FROM THE VOID, BY WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
CHAPTER ONE.
CONCERNS A STRANGER.
"Yes! I'm certain it was Gordon Gray--the man whose face I can never
forget, and whom I could identify among a million! Gordon Gray!
_Returned from, the dead_!"
The white-haired rector, the Reverend Norton Homfray, a tall,
sparely-built man of sixty-five, pursed his lips and drew a long breath.
He was evidently greatly upset.
He had taken off his surplice in the vestry after evening service, and
now stood motionless against the old rood-screen gazing into the
cavernous darkness of the empty Norman church.
The congregation had dispersed into the winter darkness, wandering
slowly and piously through the churchyard and out by the old lych-gate
and down the hill, and old Morley, the verger, had already turned out
the lights.
"Yes," murmured the old clergyman, "he sat in the last pew yonder
listening to me as I preached! Surely he cannot have risen from the
grave, for I heard that he died at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York
eighteen months ago! Forget him? Ah!" he sighed. "How can I ever
forget? Why is he here in Little Farncombe, I wonder?"
For a few moments he remained motionless in the silent gloom of the
historic old church, with its beautiful Norman arches so admired by
archaeologists from all parts of the country. The stillness was broken
only by the creaking of old Morley's Sunday boots and the slow deep tick
of the clock in the belfry.
Then, at last, he buttoned his overcoat and made his way out into the
windy December night, passing round the churchyard and entering the
grounds of his quiet old-world, ivy-clad rectory, a sixteenth-century
house too large for his needs and too expensive for his slender pocket.
Norton Homfray was a fine type of country rector, a theological scholar
and highly popular with all in his rural parish.
As a young man at Balliol he had taken high honours, and when a curate
at Durham he had married. After twenty-seven years of married happiness
Mrs Homfray had died four years ago leaving one son, Roderick, a
heavy-jawed young fellow, now twenty-six. Mr Homfray had been utterly
crushed by his wife's death, and his house was now conducted by Mrs
Bentley, a deaf old woman with a high-pitched voice.
When the latter, in order to make up the fire, came into the long old
dining-room, a heavily-furnished apartment with several old portraits on
the walls and French windows across which heavy dark-green curtains were
drawn, she found Mr Homfray sitting beside the glowing logs staring
straight at the embers.
Of late he had been unusually silent and morose. Therefore she put on a
couple of logs and left the room without speaking.
When she had closed the door the old man, whose strong face was thrown
into bold relief by the fitful light of the fire, stirred uneasily in a
manner that showed him to be highly nervous and anxious.
"Roddy must never know! _Roddy must never know--never_!" he kept
whispering to himself.
And the light of the blazing logs rose and fell, illuminating his fine
old face, the countenance of an honest, upright man.
"No!" he murmured to himself, too agitated even to enjoy his pipe which
he always smoked as relaxation after preaching his sermon. "No, I am
not mistaken! Gordon Gray is still in the flesh! But why should he
come here, as though risen from the grave? I saw him come in after the
service had commenced. He sat there staring straight at me--staring as
though in evil triumph. Why? What can it mean?"
And the thin, white-haired man lapsed into silence again, still staring
into the blazing logs, the light from which danced about the long
dining-room. On a little mahogany side-table near where the rector was
seated stood a small tin tobacco-box attached by a cord to a pair of
wireless telephones, and also to a thick, rubber-covered wire which ran
to the window and passed out to the garden. Roddy Homfray, the rector's
son, was a young mining engineer, and also an enthusiastic wireless
amateur. In an adjoining room he had a very fine wireless set, most of
which he had constructed himself, but the little tobacco-box was a
"freak" crystal-receiver set which he could carry in his pocket,
together with the telephones, and by using a little coil of wire, also
easily carried--which he could stretch anywhere as an aerial--he could
listen to any of the high-power stations such as Paris, Leafield,
Carnarvon, Nantes or Bordeaux. It was a remarkably sensitive little
piece of apparatus, ships and "spark" stations being also received with
peculiar clearness. That wonderful little contrivance had been
described in several of the journals devoted to the science of radio,
together with photographs, and had caused a sensation.
As the old clergyman's eyes fell upon it he drew a long breath, and then
whispered to himself:
"Poor Roddy! If he knew! Ah! If he knew! But he must never know the
truth. It would break his heart, poor boy!"
Sight of the stranger who had sat alone in the pew at the back of the
church had brought to him a flood of bitter memories, haunting
recollections of a closed page in his history--one that he never dared
reopen.
Meanwhile Roddy Homfray, a tall, dark-haired, clean-limbed fellow who,
though young, had made several mining expeditions in Brazil and Peru as
assistant to a well-known engineer, had left the church after service
and walked down the hill towards the village. Recently he had been in
Peru for five months, and had only returned a week ago and again taken
up his hobby of wireless.
Three days before, while walking down the road from Little Farncombe
into Haslemere to take train to London, he had overtaken an extremely
dainty chestnut-haired girl, _petite_ and full of charm, warmly clad in
rich furs. She was evidently a lady. With her was a black toy pom
which ran yapping at Roddy, as was its nature.
"Tweedles! Come here," she cried, and having called off her pet she in
a sweet refined voice apologised. Roddy laughed, assuring her that he
was not in the least alarmed, and then they walked the remainder of the
way side by side, chatting about the picturesqueness of the Surrey
hills, until at last he lifted his hat and left her. She did not look
more than seventeen, though he afterwards found that she was twenty. He
had become fascinated by her extreme beauty, by her manner, and her
inexpressible grace and charm, and as he sat in the express rushing
towards London her sweet oval face and deep violet eyes arose time after
time before him.
On that Sunday morning he had called upon his old friend Hubert Denton,
the village doctor, and while smoking before the fire in the low-pitched
sitting-room, he had described his meeting with the fair stranger.
"Oh! That's Elma Sandys," replied the doctor, a thick-set man of about
forty-five.
"What? The daughter of Mr Purcell Sandys who has just bought Farncombe
Towers?" asked Roddy in surprise.
"Yes. As I dare say you know, Purcell Sandys is a well-known financier
in the City and has a house in Park Lane," said the doctor. "A few
months ago he bought the Towers and the great estates, including three
villages with their advowsons, from the Earl of Farncombe."
"He must be immensely rich," remarked Roddy reflectively.
"Yes, no doubt. He is a widower and Elma is his only daughter. She
looks only a child. I was asked to dinner at the Towers a fortnight
ago, and I found both father and daughter charming--the girl especially
so. Since leaving school her father has taken her travelling quite a
lot. Last winter they spent in Egypt."
Roddy listened to his description of the dinner-party. Then he said:
"Poor Lord Farncombe! I'm sorry he had to sell the place. He is a real
good type of the British nobility. It seems nothing short of vandalism
that the historic houses of our peers should pass into the hands of the
magnates of commerce."
"I quite agree. Lord Farncombe has gone to America, I believe. They
say he was broken-hearted at being compelled to sell the house which his
ancestors had held for five centuries."
"Mr Sandys' daughter is a very charming girl," Roddy said.
"Very. She acts as hostess for her father. Mrs Sandys died some years
ago, I understand," replied the doctor. "Sandys is spending an enormous
sum in improving the Towers, putting in a new electrical plant and
building a new range of glass-houses. Halton, the builder, was telling
me of it."
But Roddy's thoughts were afar. He was thinking of the _chic_, dainty
little girl at whose side he had walked down to Haslemere, little
dreaming that she was the daughter of the man who had purchased the
whole Farncombe estates, including the living which his father held.
That night, after church, he decided to stroll down through the village
and out to the house of an old retired colonel, who was a friend of his
father.
The new moon was shining, but the sky was growing dull and overcast. He
had lingered until all the congregation had passed out of the old
churchyard, and following them down the hill, he turned to the left at
the Market Cross, where he overtook a small, fur-clad female figure,
whom he at once recognised by the light of the moon, which had
reappeared from a bank of cloud, as that of Elma Sandys.
She, too, recognised him as he raised his hat and joined her.
"We are hardly strangers, Mr Homfray," she exclaimed in her sweet
musical voice. "Since we met the other day I learned who you are."
"May I walk with you?" he asked, laughing. "You are going home, I
suppose, and it's lonely beyond the bridge."
"You're really awfully kind," she said. "I've just been taking some
chicken broth the cook made for a poor old lady named Bamford. Do you
know her?"
"Oh, yes, poor old Betty Bamford! She's been bedridden for years, poor
old woman," replied Roddy. "My mother used to go and see her. It
certainly is good of you to look after her. Lady Farncombe also used to
be very kind to her, I've heard my father say."
And as they sauntered slowly along over the ancient moss-grown bridge
and down the road where the bare trees met overhead, they chatted on
merrily as young people will chat.
Roddy Homfray found her a delightful companion. He had on their first
meeting believed her to be a visitor in the locality, for many people
came from London to Little Farncombe on account of its picturesque
surroundings, and its fine views across to the Hog's Back and over in
the direction of Petersfield. But he had been disappointed to find that
she was the only daughter of Purcell Sandys, the millionaire purchaser
of the Farncombe estates.
From the moment her father had entered possession of the Towers, the
magnificent Tudor mansion which had been the home of the Farncombes,
Elma had interested herself in the welfare of the village and had, with
the assistance of two lady residents, sought out the poor. Her father,
unlike most financiers, was a straightforward, upright, honest man who
believed in giving charity in secret where it was needed. In this Elma
assisted him, hence the new owner had already become popular in the
neighbourhood, though, naturally, great sympathy was felt on all sides
for the old earl who had been compelled to part with his estates.
As Roddy walked at Elma's side down the dark, lonely road, the girl
suddenly said:
"It's really awfully good of you to come with me all this way, Mr
Homfray. I expected to be home earlier, but the poor old lady was alone
and begged me to stay a little longer. I was surprised when I saw how
dark it had grown."
"I assure you that it is a pleasure," he declared briefly. There was
regret in his heart that she was what she was. From the very first
moment they had met, when little Tweedles had bristled his black hair
and barked at him, he had fallen in love with her. Thoughts of her
obsessed him, and her face rose ever before him. But as they walked
together he knew that the difference in their stations would ever be a
barrier between them. He was poor and could never aspire to her hand.
"I hear you have just returned from abroad," she remarked.
"Yes. I sailed from Buenos Ayres six weeks ago," he replied. "I'm a
mining engineer, and we've been prospecting in the Andes."
"And were you successful?"
"Fortunately, yes. But I expect to go away again very soon--that is, if
I can obtain what I want, namely, a concession from the Moorish
Government to prospect for emeralds beyond the Atlas Mountains.
According to records left by the ancients there is a rich deposit of
emeralds in the Wad Sus district, and I am hoping to be able to discover
it."
"How exciting! Fancy discovering emeralds?" Roddy laughed, and
replied:
"The probability is that I shall fail. But if I get the concession I
shall do my best."
"I certainly wish you every good luck," the girl said. "It must be
awfully exciting to go prospecting. I suppose you meet with all sorts
of adventures?"
"Oh! We have curious experiences sometimes," he said lightly, and then
he went on to describe a very narrow escape from drowning he had had
once while at work on the bank of the Amazon.
On her part, she told him she was delighted with Farncombe.
"I'm tired of the rush of life in London," she said. "My father is
compelled to entertain a great deal at Park Lane, and I have to be
hostess. But it is so very pleasant to live here in the country and
have one's friends down from town. We had a big house-party last week
and had a ripping time. We shall have a shooting-party next week, and
another the week after."
Roddy was silent for a few moments, for they were already in the avenue
and in sight of the lights of the great mansion.
"I had better leave you here, Miss Sandys," he said, with undisguised
regret. "And if you are to be so busy I fear I shall not have the
pleasure of meeting you again before I go." Then as he raised his hat,
she replied cheerily: "Perhaps we may meet again very soon. Who knows?
Thanks ever so much, Mr Homfray. It was very good of you to come all
this way. Good-night?"
And she turned and left him.
CHAPTER TWO.
THE RECTOR'S SECRET VISITOR.
While Roddy Homfray had been strolling at Elma's side, his father had
still sat, gloomy and thoughtful, in the firelight at the Rectory.
The light evening meal which the rector always took on Sunday evening
had been placed upon the table by old Mrs Bentley, who, after lighting
the gas, had retired to her part of the rambling house. But the food
had remained untouched.
The rector had sat nearly half an hour in the silence of the long, old
room with its low-pitched ceiling and black oak beams. Deep in his
arm-chair he did not stir, his bearded chin resting upon his thin hands,
his brows knit in reflection. He was thinking--thinking, as ghosts of
the past arose before him, visions of scenes which in vain he had always
tried to put from him, and to blot out from his memory.
The silence of the room was broken only by the crackling of the big logs
and the slow tick of the grandfather clock in the corner by the door,
till suddenly the church clock chimed the hour of nine across the hills.
Then, scarcely had it ceased when there was the noise of a door handle
being slowly turned, and next moment the heavy green curtains before the
French window were drawn aside and a dark-haired, rather handsome woman
of forty, wearing a close-fitting hat and a coney seal coat with skunk
collar, stepped into the room.
Old Mr Homfray, startled at the sound, turned in his chair, and then
springing to his feet faced her.
"_You_!" he gasped. "Why do you dare to come here? What do you want?"
he asked angrily.
"To speak privately with you," was her hard reply. "I didn't want
others to know of my visit, and thinking the window might possibly be
unlatched, I tried it, and came in this way."
"Then go out the same way!" commanded the old clergyman angrily. "How
dare you come here?"
"Because I want to say something to you."
"I don't wish to--and won't hear it!"
"You shall, Mr Homfray!" replied the woman, whose face was full of
evil, her eyes glittering like those of a serpent. "I come to-night as
messenger from a man you know--from Gordon Gray."
"From Gordon Gray--_you_?" gasped the rector in surprise. "Why should
he send you to me?"
"Because he thought it best not to come himself."
"If he wishes to speak to me let him face me here," Mr Homfray said
boldly.
"Ah?" laughed the woman as though in triumph. "I seem to be an
unwelcome visitor."
"How could you be otherwise, after what has passed?" queried the old
fellow.
"Well, don't let us have any more bickering. Let's come to business.
Mr Gray wants to know whether you intend paying?"
"Not a penny--until the money is due next August."
"But it was due last August," the woman declared.
"That is quite untrue," replied the rector very quietly.
"Well, the date is on the deed."
"If it is, then the date has been altered."
"But you have a copy."
"No. I can't find it. I must have mislaid it. Is there no stamp, with
date?"
"It was never stamped. Mr Gray's solicitors have already written to
you three times about it, and you have not replied."
"I have been away, taking duty in Switzerland. Besides, I understood
that Gordon Gray died in New York last year, and--"
"And you thought that by that fact you would escape your indebtedness--
eh?" laughed the woman as she stood beside the table, an erect smart
figure which was well known in certain disreputable night-clubs in the
West End. "But Gordon Gray attended service in your church to-night,
and you must have seen him in the flesh."
"I did," replied the old man hoarsely. "Sight of him recalled many
events of the past."
"Things that you wish to forget--eh, Mr Homfray?" she said in a hard
voice. "But Gordon wants his money. If you allege fraud on the part of
his solicitors you had better write to them."
"Why does Gray send you here? You, of all women! What does he intend
to do?" asked the grave old man.
"To sell the property if you can't pay him. He has already given you
several months' grace. And besides, you've never answered any letters,
nor have you paid any interest on the loan."
"Because the money is not yet due," declared the Rector of Little
Farncombe. "If you knew the facts you would never make this illegal
demand."
"I know all the facts. Gordon means to sell the property if you cannot
pay at once."
Norton Homfray bit his lip. Only during the past two years had he
suspected his whilom friend Gordon Gray, and that suspicion had that
night been confirmed by the presence there of that vampire woman, Freda
Crisp, whose dark, handsome face he had hoped never to look upon again.
Gray, the son of a rich City merchant, had long been the black sheep of
his family, and had, when at Oxford, been sent down from Balliol for
forging a cheque to a tailor in the Broad. A few years later Homfray,
who had recently taken Holy Orders, met him and, ignorant of his past,
had become his bosom friend. After six years Gordon went to America,
and not until fifteen years afterwards did the pair see each other, when
one day they found themselves staying at the Bath Hotel in Bournemouth
and resumed their close friendship.
Now old Mr Homfray was at that moment in serious difficulties, partly
owing to his business instinct and his innocent generosity and
trustfulness. He was a real upright and pious man who, unlike many
parsons, practised what he preached. He had, in fact, stood security
for an old college chum who had died suddenly from pneumonia and "let
him in."
He had been compelled to confess to Gray that he was ruined, whereupon
his old friend had at once told him not to worry, and offered to lend
him the sum upon his little piece of house property in the steep main
street of Totnes, in Devon, from which he derived his slender income,
the stipend at Little Farncombe being hardly sufficient to pay the
housekeeper and the gardener at the Rectory.
But by the sudden appearance of the woman and her demands he realised
that there was some sinister design afoot. That woman who stood before
him he had strong cause to hate, yet hatred never entered his soul--even
at that moment.
He now realised with blank amazement that her friend Gordon Gray, the
man returned from the grave, was trying to swindle him, and that the
date of the deed--the copy of which he had mislaid--had been altered and
pre-dated a year.
"If your friend Gray dares to sell my little property--all I have--then
I shall institute criminal proceedings against him," he told the woman
frankly, whereupon his unwelcome visitor opened her little brown leather
handbag and from it produced a crumpled envelope, out of which she took
three tattered newspaper cuttings, saying coldly:
"Perhaps you had better read these before you utter threats," and she
handed them to him.
He held his breath, and the light died from his thin countenance. He
pushed them aside with trembling hands.
"You know to what they refer, Mr Homfray--to your appearance under
another name!" sneered Freda Crisp. "You are the highly respected
rector of this picturesque, though obscure, little parish, but if your
parishioners knew the truth I fancy that they and your bishop would have
something to say about it. Is it just to the public that a man such as
yourself should dare to wear a surplice and have the audacity to preach
sermons?"
The Rector of Little Farncombe remained silent. His face was deathly
white, his hands trembled, and his eyes were staring. He had suspected
that the one great secret of his life was known. But it appeared that
not only was it known to the unscrupulous man who had once been his
friend, but also to the woman before him, who was his bitterest enemy!
"So the pair of you have learnt my secret!" he said in a low, hard
voice. "And I suppose you intend to blackmail me--eh?"
The dark-haired woman laughed.
"Gordon only wants his money back, that's all."
"And you have forced him to take up this hostile attitude," he said.
"You are my enemy. I know it. Well, what do you intend to do?"
"It isn't my affair," she declared. "Gray now knows that the money you
borrowed from him was in order to help your fellow-criminal--a man who
once did him an evil turn--after he had served his sentence. He wants
his money back, and he is going to take it. The property will be up for
auction in a week or so."
"But I won't be swindled in this way!" cried old Mr Homfray.
"Act just as you wish--but remember, if you make any move it will be the
worse for you. Gordon is not a man to stick at trifles," the woman
said.
"I know that," said the rector.
"And it is a very ugly skeleton you have in your cupboard," remarked the
woman with a sinister smile.
"The property at Totnes is worth over four thousand pounds," he said.
"You have only to repay the money with interest and the matter is
ended."
Mr Homfray paused.
Then, looking straight into the woman's evil face, he said:
"It is you, woman, who once swore to ruin me because I would not assist
you in that vile plot of yours! You thought to trap me, a minister of
the Church, into assisting you to entice that fly into the web you had
so cunningly spun for him. But you were mistaken! I saw through your
evil game, and because I did so you vowed vengeance upon me. And this
is the hour of your triumph!" he added bitterly in a deep, hoarse voice,
and one quite unusual to him.
The woman's thin lips were pressed together, but she made no immediate
reply.
At last she said:
"I am only here on Mr Gray's behalf."
"But it is you who have goaded him to do this--to take this action, well
knowing that at the moment I cannot pay."
"That surely is not my affair," snapped the woman, while old Mr Homfray
stood aghast at the sudden blow which had fallen to crush him.
What would his son Roddy think if he learnt the truth concerning that
closed chapter of his father's past? What would the parish of Little
Farncombe say if they knew that their respected rector had fallen among
thieves?
"Won't Gray come here himself and talk over the matter?" he asked
presently.
"No. He motored back to London as soon as the service was over. He had
a fancy to see you and hear you preach to your dear parishioners, who,
in all their innocence, believe in you, Mr Homfray," and again the
woman laughed sardonically. "So he sent me to see you in private, and
to tell you his intentions."
"Are you quite certain he will not come and see me?"
"I urged him to do so, but he refused," said the woman.
"Because he fears to face me!" exclaimed the rector. "He fears lest I,
on my part, should speak the truth. I trusted Gordon Gray--trusted him
as my friend--but I have been sadly disillusioned to-night, for I have
found that he is my enemy, and I am now forearmed."
"That is no concern of mine whatever. I have given you his message."
The Rector of Little Farncombe looked straight into her face with his
calm grey eyes behind his shaggy brows.
"Then I will send a message back to him," he slowly replied. "As he
refuses to come here and deliver his ultimatum in person, I will, in
return, deliver my ultimatum to him. Go back and tell him that I defy
him. Tell him that if either he or you lift a finger against me, then
the truth concerning the death of young Hugh Willard will be known to
Scotland Yard, and the affair of Hyde Park Square will be cleared up by
the arrest of the assassin. Tell him that though he thinks there was no
witness, yet one still exists--one who will come forward with
indisputable proof. You know his name. Gordon Gray and I were friends
until to-night. But we are no longer so. We are enemies. And you know
to much of the affair as I do?"
The woman staggered as though he had dealt her a blow. Her evil face
went ashen in an instant, and her dark eyes started from her head.
"What--what do you mean?" she gasped.
"What I have said! You heard my message to Gordon Gray; go and deliver
it. Remember that if either of you molest me, or attempt to swindle me
as you are now doing, then I shall reveal all that I know. My silence
depends upon you both. So begone!" he added calmly, with firm resolve.
For a few moments the woman in furs stood motionless and silent.
"You will regret those words, Mr Homfray!" she said at last,
threateningly. "I will deliver your message, but you will regret it.
Remember that!"
"I assure you I have no fear," laughed the old rector. "While Gordon
Gray acted honestly as the friend I believed him to be, I remained his
friend. Now that we are enemies it is I who can--and will--speak in
self-defence. He threatens me with ruin, but little does he dream what
I know concerning the young fellow's death and who was implicated in
it--how the snare was set to ruin him, and afterwards to close his
lips!"
The handsome woman shrugged her shoulders, but her face had entirely
changed. She had been taken entirely aback by the open defiance of the
man who, in her fierce vindictiveness, she had intended should be her
victim. She had believed the hour of her triumph to be at hand, instead
of which she saw that an abyss had opened before her--one into which she
and her accomplice Gray must assuredly fall unless they trod a very
narrow and intricate path.
"Very well," she laughed with well-feigned defiance. "I will give
Gordon your message. And we shall see!"
With those words she passed to the heavy plush curtains and disappeared
behind them out upon the lawn, beyond which, separated only by a wire
fence, lay a small and picturesque wood which ran down the hill for a
quarter of a mile or so.
Old Mr Homfray followed her, and with a sigh, closed the long glass
door and bolted it.
Then, returning to the fireplace, he stood upon the hearthrug with
folded arms, thinking deeply, faintly murmured words escaping his pale
lips.
"Roddy must never know!" he repeated.
"If he knew the truth concerning that slip in my past what would he
think of me? He would regard his father as a liar and a hypocrite!"
Again he remained silent for a considerable time.
"Gordon Gray!" he muttered. "It seems impossible that he should rise
from the grave and become my enemy, after all I have done in his
interests. I believed him to be my friend! But he is under the
influence of that woman--that woman who means to ruin me because I
refused to render her assistance in that vile scheme of hers!"
Suddenly, as he stood there before the blazing logs, he recollected the
sixth chapter of St Luke.
"Love your enemies," he repeated aloud. "Do good to those who hate you.
And unto him that smiteth you on the one cheek, offer also the other."
And there before the big arm-chair the fine old fellow sank upon his
knees and prayed silently for his enemy and his female accomplice.
Afterwards he rose, and re-seating himself in his chair sat with his
eyes closed, recalling all the tragedy and villainy concerned with young
Hugh Willard's mysterious death in London five years before--an enigma
that the police had failed to solve.
Meanwhile Roddy Homfray, having left Elma, was strolling slowly home
full of thoughts of the slim and charming girl who had bewitched him,
and yet whose station was so far above his own.
Through the sharp frosty night he walked for some distance along the
broad highway, until he came to the cross roads, where he stopped to
gossip with the village chemist. Then, after ten minutes or so, he
walked on, crossed a stile and took a short cut across a field and up
the hill to the woods at the back of the Rectory.
The night had now grown very dark, and as he entered the wood, he saw a
figure skirting it. Whether man or woman he could not distinguish. He
found the path more difficult than he expected, but he knew that way
well, and by the aid of his pocket torch he was able to keep to the
path, a rather crooked one, which led to the boundary of the Rectory
lawn.
Suddenly, as he passed, his footsteps rustling among the dead leaves, he
thought he heard a curious sound, like a groan. He halted, quickly
alert.
Again the sound was repeated somewhere to his left--a low groan as
though of someone in great pain.
He stepped from the path, examining the ground with its many tree trunks
by the aid of his torch.
A third time the groan was repeated, but fainter than before, therefore
he began to search in the direction whence the cry came, until, to his
surprise, he discovered lying upon the ground at a short distance from
the wire fence which divided the wood from the Rectory property, a
female form in a neat navy-blue costume, with a small red hat lying a
short distance away.
She was in a crouching position, and as the young man shone his light
upon her, she again drew a deep sigh and groaned faintly.
"What is the matter?" he cried in alarm, dropping upon his knees and
raising the fair head of a young and pretty girl.
She tried to speak, but her white lips refused to utter a sound. At
last, by dint of desperate effort, she whispered in piteous appeal:
"Save me! Oh!--_save me--do_!"
Then next second she drew a deep breath, a shiver ran through her body,
and she fell inert into the young fellow's arms!
CHAPTER THREE.
WHICH CONTAINS ANOTHER MYSTERY.
Roddy Homfray, with the aid of his flash-lamp, gazed in breathless
eagerness, his strong jaw set, at the girl's blanched countenance.
As he brushed back the soft hair from the brow, he noted how very
beautiful she was.
"Speak!" he urged eagerly. "Tell me what has happened?"
But her heart seemed to have ceased beating; he could detect no sign of
life. Was he speaking to the dead?
So sudden had it all been that for some moments he did not realise the
tragic truth. Then, in a flash, he became horrified. The girl's
piteous appeal made it only too plain that in that dark wood she had
been the victim of foul play.
She had begged him to save her. From what? From whom?
There had been a struggle, for he saw that the sleeve of her coat had
been torn from the shoulder, and her hat lying near was also evidence
that she had been attacked, probably suddenly, and before she had been
aware of danger. The trees were numerous at that spot, and behind any
of their great, lichen-covered trunks a man could easily hide.
But who was she? What was she doing in Welling Wood, just off the
beaten path, at that hour?
Again he stroked the hair from her brow and gazed upon her half-open but
sightless eyes, as she lay heavy and inert in his arms. He listened
intently in order to satisfy himself that she no longer breathed. There
seemed no sign of respiration and the muscles of her face and hands
seemed to have become rigid.
In astonishment and horror the young man rose to his feet, and placing
his flash-lamp, still switched on, upon the ground, started off by a
short cut to the Rectory by a path which he knew even in the darkness.
He was eager to raise the alarm regarding the unexpected discovery, and
every moment of delay might mean the escape of whoever was responsible
for the crime.
The village police inspector lived not far from the Rectory, and it was
his intention first to inform his father, and then run on to the police.
But this intention was never carried out, because of a strange and
bewildering circumstance.
Indeed, till long past midnight the Reverend Norton Homfray sat in his
rather shabby little study reflecting upon the unwelcome visit of that
woman Freda Crisp, and wondering what it portended. Her threatening
attitude was the reverse of reassuring. Nevertheless, the rector felt
that if Gray and his unscrupulous accomplice really meant mischief, then
he, after all, held the trump card which he had so long hesitated to
play.
The clock ticked on. The time passed unnoticed, and at last he dozed.
It was not until nearly three o'clock in the morning that he suddenly
awakened to the lateness of the hour, and the curious fact that Roddy
had not been in since he had left church.
The old man rose, and ascending to his son's room, believing that Roddy
might have come in and retired while he slept, found to his surprise
that the bed had not been occupied. He walked round the house with the
aid of his electric torch. The front door was still unlocked, and it
was quite evident that his son had not yet returned.
"This is a night of strange incidents!" he said aloud to himself as he
stood upon the staircase. "First that man Gordon Gray rises as though
from the tomb, then Freda Crisp visits me, and now Roddy is missing!
Strange indeed--very strange!"
He returned to his study, and lighting his green-shaded reading-lamp
upon the writing-table, sat down to attend to some letters. He was too
wakeful now to retire to rest. Besides, Roddy was out, and he had
decided to remain up until his son returned.
Why Roddy should be out all night puzzled the old man greatly. His only
intimate friend was the village doctor, Hubert Denton, and perhaps the
doctor being called to a patient early in the evening Roddy had gone out
in the car with him. Such seemed the only explanation of his absence.
"That woman!" remarked the old rector angrily, as he took some writing
paper from a drawer. "That woman intends mischief! If she or Gray
attempts to harm me--then I will retaliate!"
And he drew a long breath, his dark, deep-set eyes being fixed straight
before him.
"Yet, after all, ought I to do so?" he went on at length. "I have
sinned, and I have repented. I am no better than any other man, though
I strive to do right and to live up to the teaching of the Prince of
Peace. `Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.' Ah! it is
so hard to carry out that principle of forgiveness--so very hard!"
And again he lapsed into silence.
"What if Roddy knew--what if those fiends told him? Ah! what would he
think of the other side of his father's life? No!" he cried again in
anguish some minutes later, his voice sounding weirdly in the old-world
little room. "No! I could not bear it! I--I would rather die than my
son should know!"
Presently, however, he became calmer. As rector of Little Farncombe he
was beloved by all, for few men, even ministers of religion, were so
upright and pious or set such an example to their fellow-men.
Old Mr Purcell Sandys had been to church on two successive Sunday
mornings, and had acknowledged himself greatly impressed by Mr
Homfray's sermons.
"They're not chanted cant, such as we have in so many churches and which
does so much harm to our modern religion," he had told his daughter as
they had walked back to the Towers. "But they are straight, manly talks
which do one real good, and point out one's faults."
"Yes, father," Elma agreed. "The whole village speaks exceedingly well
of Mr Homfray." And so it was that the man seated writing his letters
in the middle of the night and awaiting the home-coming of his son, had
gained the high esteem of the new owner of Farncombe even before he had
made his first ceremonial call upon the great City magnate.
That night, however, a cloud had suddenly arisen and enveloped him. As
he wrote on, the old rector could not put from him a distinct presage of
evil. Where was Roddy? What could have happened that he had not
returned as usual to supper after church? The boy was a roamer and an
adventurer. His profession made him that, but when at home he always
kept regular hours as became a dutiful son.
The bitter east wind had grown stronger, causing the bare branches of
the trees in the pleasant old garden to shake and creak, while in the
chimney it moaned mournfully.
At last the bell in the ivy-clad church tower chimed the hour of five.
The wild winter night was past, and it was morning, though still dark.
The old rector drew aside the blind, but the dawn was not yet showing.
The fire was out, the lamp burned dim and was smoking, and the room was
now cold and cheerless.
"I wonder where Roddy can possibly be?" again murmured the old man.
Then, still leaving the front door unlocked, he blew out the lamp and
retired for a few hours' rest.
At noon Roderick Homfray had not returned, and after sending a message
to Doctor Denton and receiving word that he had not seen the young man
since the previous morning, Mr Homfray began to be seriously alarmed.
He went about the village that afternoon making inquiries, but nobody
seemed to have seen him after he had passed through the churchyard after
the evening service.
Only Mr Hughes, who kept a small tobacconist's at the further end of
the village, apparently had any information to give.
"I passed along the Guildford road about ten o'clock or so, and I
believe I saw Mr Roddy talking to a man--who was a stranger. I noticed
the man in church. He sat in one of the back pews," said old Mr
Hughes.
In an instant Norton Homfray became alert.
Could Roddy have been speaking with Gordon Gray?
"Are you quite sure it was my son?" he asked eagerly.
"Well, it was rather dark, so I could not see the young man's face. But
I'm sure that the other was the stranger."
"Then you are not absolutely certain it was Roddy?"
"No, Mr Homfray, I couldn't swear to it, though he looked very much
like Mr Roddy," was the old tobacconist's reply. "My sight isn't what
it used to be," he added.
Still, the incident aroused suspicions in the rector's mind. Was it
possible that Gray had told Roddy the truth, and the latter had gone off
with his father's enemy? In any case, his son's absence was a complete
mystery.
That evening Mr Homfray called at the village police station and there
saw the inspector of the Surrey County Constabulary, a big, burly man
named Freeman, whom he knew well, and who frequently was an attendant at
church.
He, of course, told him nothing of the reappearance of Gordon Gray, but
simply related the fact that Roddy had left the church on Sunday night,
and with the exception of being seen in the Guildford road two hours
later, had completely disappeared.
"That's peculiar!" remarked the dark-bearded man in uniform. "But I
dare say there's some explanation, sir. You'll no doubt get a wire or a
letter in the morning." Then he added: "Mr Roddy is young, you know,
sir. Perhaps there's a lady in the case! When a young man disappears
we generally look for the lady--and usually we find her!"
"Roddy has but few female friends," replied the old rector. "He is not
the sort of lad to disappear and leave me in anxiety."
"Well, sir, if you like, I'll phone into Guildford and circulate his
description," Freeman said. "But personally I think that he'll come
back before to-morrow."
"Why?"
"Well--I know Mr Roddy. And I agree that he would never cause you, his
father, an instant's pain if he could help it. He's away by force of
circumstances, depend upon it!"
Force of circumstances! The inspector's words caused him to ponder.
Were those circumstances his meeting with Gordon Gray for the first time
that night?
Roddy, he knew, had never met Gray. The man's very existence he had
hidden from his son. And Roddy was abroad when, in those later years,
the two men had met. The old rector of Little Farncombe felt
bewildered. A crowd of difficulties had, of late, fallen upon him, as
they more or less fall upon everybody in every walk of life at one time
or another. We all of us have our "bad times," and Norton Homfray's was
a case in point. Financial troubles had been succeeded by the rising of
the ghosts of the past, and followed by the vanishing of his only son.
Three eager, breathless, watchful days went by, but no word came from
the fine well-set-up young man who had led such a daring and adventurous
life in South America. More than ever was his father convinced that old
Hughes was correct in his surmise. He had stood upon the pathway of the
Guildford road--the old tar-macked highway which leads from London to
Portsmouth--and had been approached by Gordon Gray, the man who meant to
expose his father to the parishioners. The world of the Reverend Norton
Homfray was, after all, a very little one. The world of each of us,
whether we be politician or patriot, peer or plasterer, personage or
pauper, has its own narrow confines. Our enemies are indeed well
defined by the Yogi teaching as "little children at play." Think of
them as such and you have the foundation of that great philosophy of the
East which raises man from his ordinary level to that of superman--the
man who wills and is obeyed.
The fact that the son of the rector of Little Farncombe was missing had
come to the knowledge of an alert newspaper correspondent in Guildford,
and on the fourth day of Roddy's disappearance a paragraph appeared in
several of the London papers announcing the fact.
Though the story was happily unembroidered, it caused the rector great
indignation. Why should the Press obtrude upon his anxiety? He became
furious. As an old-fashioned minister of religion he had nothing in
common with modern journalism. Indeed, he read little except his weekly
_Guardian_, and politics did not interest him. His sphere was beyond
the sordid scramble for political notoriety and the petticoat influence
in high quarters.
His son was missing, and up and down the country the fact was being
blazoned forth by one of the news agencies!
Next day brought him three letters from private inquiry agents offering
their services in the tracing of "your son, Mr Roderick Homfray,"--with
a scale of fees. He held his breath and tore up the letters viciously.
Half an hour afterwards Inspector Freeman called. Mrs Bentley showed
him into the study, whereupon the inspector, still standing, said:
"Well, sir, I've got into trouble about your son. The Chief Constable
has just rung me up asking why I had not reported that he was missing,
as it's in the papers."
The rector was silent for a moment.
"I'm sorry, Freeman, but my anxiety is my own affair. If you will tell
Captain Harwood that from me, I shall feel greatly obliged."
"But how did it get into the papers, sir?"
"That I don't know. Local gossip, I suppose. But why," asked the
rector angrily, "why should these people trouble themselves over my
private affairs? If my son is lost to me, then it is my own concern--
and mine alone!" he added with dignity.
"I quite agree, sir," replied the inspector. "Of course, I have my duty
to do and I am bound to obey orders. But I think with you that it is
most disgraceful for any newspaper man to put facts forward all over the
country which are yours alone--as father and son."
"Then I hope you will explain to your Chief Constable, who, no doubt, as
is his duty, has reproached you for lack of acumen. Tell him that I
distinctly asked you to refrain from raising a hue and cry and
circulating Roddy's description. When I wish it I will let the Chief
Constable of Surrey know," he added.
That message Inspector Freeman spoke into the ear of the Chief Constable
in Guildford and thus cleared himself of responsibility. But by that
time the whole of Little Farncombe had become agog at the knowledge that
the rector's tall, good-looking son was being searched for by the
police.
Everyone knew him to be a wanderer and an adventurer who lived mostly
abroad, and many asked each other why he was missing and what allegation
there could possibly be against him--now that the police were in active
search of any trace of him.
CHAPTER FOUR.
LOST DAYS.
It was a bright, crisp afternoon on the seventh day of Roddy's
disappearance.
The light was fading, and already old Mrs Bentley had carried the lamp
into Mr Homfray's study and lit it, prior to bringing him his simple
cup of tea, for at tea-time he only drank a single cup, without either
toast or bread-and-butter.
He was about to raise his cup to his lips, having removed his old briar
pipe and laid it in the ash-tray, when Mrs Bentley tapped and,
re-entering, said:
"There's Miss Sandys to see you, sir."
The rector rose and, rather surprised, ordered his visitor to be shown
in.
Next moment from the square stone hall the pretty young girl, warmly
clad in furs, entered the room.
She met the eyes of the grey old man, and after a second's pause said:
"I have to apologise for this intrusion, Mr Homfray, but--well, I have
seen in the paper that your son is missing. He went out on Sunday
night, it is said, and has not been seen since."
"That is so, Miss Sandys," replied the old man, offering her a chair
beside the fire. "As you may imagine, I am greatly concerned at his
disappearance."
"Naturally. But I have come here, Mr Homfray, to speak to you in
confidence," said the girl hesitatingly. "Your son and I were
acquainted, and--"
"I was not aware of that, Miss Sandys," exclaimed the rector,
interrupting her.
"No. I do not expect that he told you. My father does not know either.
But we met quite casually the other day, and last Sunday we again met
accidentally after church and he walked home with me. I suppose it was
half-past nine when we parted."
"There was no reason why he should not return home, I suppose?" asked
Mr Homfray eagerly.
"None whatever. In wishing me good-bye he told me that he might be
leaving here very soon, and perhaps we might not have another
opportunity of meeting before he went. I thanked him for walking so far
with me, and we parted the best of friends."
"He said he would be leaving Little Farncombe very soon, did he?"
remarked the rector thoughtfully.
"Yes. I understood from him that he was obtaining, or had obtained, a
concession to prospect for a deposit of emeralds somewhere in the Atlas
Mountains, in Morocco."
"That is true. Some ancient workings are known to exist somewhere in
the wild Wad Sus region, and through a friend he has been in treaty with
the Moorish Government, with the hope of obtaining the concession. If
he found the mine which is mentioned by several old Arabic writers it
would no doubt bring him great fortune."
"Yes. But where can he be?"
"Who knows, Miss Sandys!" exclaimed the distracted father blankly.
"He must be found," declared the girl. "He left me to return home.
What could possibly have occurred to prevent him from carrying out his
intention?"
What indeed, reflected the old man, except perhaps that he met Gordon
Gray and perhaps left for London with him? He was now more than ever
inclined to believe the rather vague story told by the village
tobacconist.
"Yes, Miss Sandys, he must be found. I have now asked the police to
circulate his description, and if he is alive no doubt he will be
discovered."
"You surely don't suspect that something tragic has happened to him--for
instance, that he has met with foul play?" cried the girl.
"It certainly looks like it, or he would no doubt have set my mind at
rest by this time," replied his father.