But all was quiet in the nursery. The night-light burned near Miller's
bed. The embers made a soft jewelry of the iron grate. Under the pink
blanket could be seen the little mound of Bobby's curled body, and the
glow of his red locks on the pillow. Sophy went and sank down beside his
crib, stretching out her arms above him, her face hidden against the
blanket.
"What's a-matter? What's a-matter?" asked the nurse, a blue-eyed
Nottinghamshire woman, struggling to her elbow and staring, frightened,
at the valet. "What be _you_ doin' here?"
Fright had startled her into her childhood's tongue. She was as correct
in her ordinary speech as Gaynor himself.
"Keep quiet," he whispered. "The mistress thought she heard the child
scream. It gave her a turn. Be quiet. I'll fetch some brandy."
"I s'll be quiet enow. You need na' fret for that," said the woman
huffily. She resented being hectored in the middle of the night by that
"wizzening little stick of a man." She got up grumpily and shuffled on
her brown woolen wrapper. Looking like a sulky but dutiful she-bear in
the clumsy garment, she went over beside her mistress. She had recovered
her power of "proper" speech.
"I'm sorry you got a fright, madam. Won't you sit in a chair?"
Sophy did not move or answer. She could not. She felt as though some
violent natural force had flung her against the little crib. She clung
to it dizzily. A great void seemed waiting for her, should she loose her
hold on it an instant.
Gaynor came back with the brandy. She turned her head when he urged her,
respectfully insistent, and supped the liquor from the glass that Miller
held to her lips, like a child. It revived her. She gave a long sigh,
putting up her hand before her eyes, her elbow on the bed. She found
strength to rise in a few moments. There were things that she and Gaynor
must see to at once. She looked about the room. Thank God, the nursery
windows were barred! She had a dread feeling that Cecil might be able to
crawl over the sheer face of a building, like "Dracula." She turned to
Miller, whose little blue eyes still stared inquisitively. There was
something "beyond" in all this, the nurse was telling herself shrewdly.
"I wish you to lock the nursery doors on the inside to-night, Miller,"
Sophy said, looking frankly at her. "Mr. Chesney is delirious. I'm
afraid he might startle you. He is very restless."
Miller paled. Privately, she had decided, long ago, that the master was
"a bit off his head"; but she had orders never to lock the nursery
doors, for fear of fire.
"I will do, madam," she said with energy.
Sophy went to her own room again, bidding Gaynor come with her. She shut
the door and told him what had happened.
"Go and see if he is in his room now, Gaynor. I will wait here."
Gaynor returned saying that his master had again locked his door.
"Is he in the room, Gaynor?"
The man looked startled.
"I suppose so, madam. He would not answer when I knocked; but why else
would he lock the door?"
"I don't know," said Sophy. "But I feel very uneasy. Is there any way
that he could get out except by the door?"
"There's a ledge of the East Wing roof that passes under one of his
windows, madam. But why should he want to get out on the roof?"
"I don't know," said Sophy again. "Perhaps it is only that I'm nervous.
But we must tell Doctor Bellamy, Gaynor. You must go to his room and
wake him."
Bellamy hurried on his clothes when the valet had explained to him. He
went to Sophy's room, where Gaynor said that she was awaiting him. She,
too, had dressed herself fully, in serge skirt and jacket. Somehow she
felt that she must be dressed to meet emergencies--to go out into the
night, if necessary. She looked oddly girlish in the plain, dark-blue
costume. She had wound her long braid round and round her head to avoid
its weight at the nape of her neck. This added to the girlish, scared
look of her pale face.
"This is terrible, Mrs. Chesney," said Bellamy. "I feel that your life
has been in danger. He must be a madman for the time being, with that
crude spirit in him--nearly a quart within six hours, Gaynor tells me. I
think Lady Wychcote and his brother should be put on their guard."
"Yes. I wanted to ask you about that."
And Sophy told him about the access from Chesney's window to the roof.
"Come--they had better be roused at once!" said Bellamy, turning pale.
Pale faces were the custom at Dynehurst in those days.
Sophy went with the doctor along the corridor leading to Lady Wychcote's
room. Gerald slept on the other side of the house. They went cautiously,
being careful not to speak or make any sound that might rouse the
servants on the floor above. Gaynor was left on guard by his master's
door.
But as they trod, noiseless and silent, with cautious apprehension, the
sleeping house was roused by a long-drawn, fearful shriek--then another.
The silence that followed seemed to echo with it like the air with a
clap of thunder.
Transfixed for an instant, the next both Sophy and Bellamy were running
wildly towards Lady Wychcote's room. The scream had come from it.
They tore open the door without ceremony. Lady Wychcote was sitting up
in bed, staring at the open window as though Death had appeared to her
in its embrasure. Her eyes seemed to have set in her head.
Bellamy applied restoratives. She gasped, came to herself. She grew
rigid with self-control under his hands, as though made of fine steel.
Her thin lips snapped to--then parted.
"A nightmare," she said curtly. "I thought I saw Cecil's face." Shudders
took her in spite of her grim will. She put her hand over her eyes.
"Horrible!" she muttered. "'Twas horrible! I saw him as I see you--at
the window ... his face, yet not his face ... a murderer's ...
swollen...." Then she added, curt again: "You can leave me now. I have
these disgusting dreams occasionally. I am quite over it."
Then Bellamy explained matters to her. There was no doubt that she had
really seen Cecil's face at her window. She always slept with curtains
drawn back, and shutters wide. The light from the shaded lamp which she
kept burning all night on her writing-table would have just caught his
face, had he stood on the stone ledge beneath her window and looked in.
This is what he must have done.
When she had taken in the import of Bellamy's words, Lady Wychcote said
that she, too, would rise and dress. They left her and went out to find
the stairs and upper corridors rustling with frightened servants.
Jepson, the butler, was talking in low tones with Gaynor. He came
forward as he saw Sophy and the doctor.
"I tried to make them keep their rooms, madam," he said to Sophy. "But
there's no doing with them when they're frightened."
Bellamy explained that Lady Wychcote had screamed from nightmare, but,
as Mr. Chesney had been taken seriously ill and was delirious, she had
thought it better to get up.
"Just send the maids to bed, and come back, Jepson--we may need you," he
concluded.
He was nonplussed as to the next move to make. Should he have the door
of Chesney's bedroom forced, the man, frenzied with alcohol and drugs,
might commit some hideous act of folly--either against himself or
against others. He might just be climbing in again at his window as the
door was burst open, and throw himself backwards in his rage onto the
flagged court below.
Lady Wychcote and Gerald finally joined them as they stood perplexed,
looking at that locked door, listening for some sound from behind it
that would tell them that Cecil had come back safe from his perilous
clambering over the dark roof. It was agreed that all should await
events, together, in Sophy's bedroom. It was the nearest room to
Cecil's, and by leaving the door open they could still see his door, and
Gaynor sitting before it.
The night dragged on interminably--one of those grisly nights, when not
only illness but peril and fear and madness squat on the hearthstone.
About five o'clock, they saw Gaynor start and rise, listening. They all
rose. Bellamy went towards the door. Gaynor turned and came to meet him.
"He's back, sir," the man whispered. "He's moving round heavy-like. Do
you think it may have worn off, sir?"
"I don't know," said Bellamy.
He, too, went and listened. Suddenly harsh, snoring breaths--slow,
regular--fell on his ear. He straightened, giving a long sigh of relief.
"What is it, sir?" whispered the valet eagerly.
"He's asleep, Gaynor. He'll sleep for hours now. You'd better get some
rest."
He went back to the others.
"It's over for the present," he explained. "You need have no more
anxiety for the next seven or eight hours--maybe more. By what train do
you expect Nurse Harding, Mrs. Chesney?"
"I had a letter. She will come early to-morrow morning--I mean this
morning," Sophy corrected herself, looking at the bone-white dawn that
showed in streaks through the heavy somnolence of the wrapt trees.
Gerald had opened the shutters fully an hour ago, looking for the
daybreak.
"Good!" said Bellamy. He glanced at the worn faces about him. "Now I am
going to take a doctor's privilege and prescribe," he added, trying to
assume a lighter tone. "I advise your ladyship, and every one, to come
down to the dining-room and have coffee and something more solid. A
night like this is terribly exhausting. We shall need all our strength
to meet the next twenty-four hours."