"I took Miss Torrance's letter, and wrote the rest of it. I didn't know
they meant to do him any harm, but they made me write. I had to--he said
he would marry me."
The maid writhed in an agony of fear, but she stood still shivering when
Hetty turned towards her with a blanched face that emphasized the ominous
glow in her dark eyes.
"You wicked woman!" she said. "How dare you tell me that?"
"I mean Mr. Clavering. Oh----!"
The maid stopped abruptly, for Flora Schuyler drove her towards the door.
"Go and undo your work," she said. "Slip down at the back of the bluff."
"I daren't--I tried," and the girl quivered in Miss Schuyler's grasp. "If
I could have warned him I would not have told you; but Joe saw me, and I
was afraid. I told him to come at nine."
It was evident that she was capable of doing very little just then, and
Flora Schuyler drew her out into the corridor.
"Go straight to your room and stay there," she said, and closing the door,
glanced at Hetty. "It is quite simple. This woman has taken your
note-paper and written Larry. He is in the bluff now, and I think she is
right. Your friends mean to make him prisoner or shoot him."
"Stop, and go away," said Hetty hoarsely. "I am going to him."
Flora Schuyler placed her back to the door, and raised her hand. "No," she
said, very quietly. "It would be better if I went in place of you. Sit
down, and don't lose your head, Hetty!"
Hetty seized her arm. "You can't--how could I let you? Larry belongs to
me. Let me go. Every minute is worth ever so much."
"There are twenty of them yet. He has come too early," said Flora
Schuyler, with a glance at the clock. "Any way, you must understand what
you are going to do. It was Clavering arranged this, but your father knew
what he was doing and I think he knows everything. If you leave this house
to-night, Hetty, everybody will know you warned Larry, and it will make a
great difference to you. It will gain you the dislike of all your friends
and place a barrier between you and your father which, I think, will never
be taken away again!"
Hetty laughed a very bitter laugh, and then grew suddenly quiet.
"Stand aside, Flo," she said. "Nobody but Larry wants me now."
Miss Schuyler saw that she was determined, and drew aside. "Then," she
said, with a little quiver in her voice, "because I think he is in peril
you must go, my dear. But we must be very careful, and I am coming with
you as far as I dare."
She closed the door, and then her composure seemed to fail her as they
went out into the corridor; and it was Hetty who, treading very softly,
took the lead. Flitting like shadows, they reached the head of the
stairway, and stopped a moment there, Hetty's heart beating furiously. The
passage beneath them was shadowy, but a blaze of light and a jingle of
glasses came out of the half-opened door of the hall, where Torrance sat
with his guests; and while they waited, they heard his voice and
recognized the vindictive ring in it. Hetty trembled as she grasped the
bannister.
"Flo," she said, "they may come out in a minute. We have got to slip by
somehow."
They went down the stairway with skirts drawn close about them, in swift
silence, and Hetty held her breath as she flitted past the door. There was
a faint swish of draperies as Flora Schuyler followed her, but the murmur
of voices drowned it; and in another minute Hetty had opened a door at the
back of the building. Then, she gasped with relief as she felt the cold
wind on her face, and, with Miss Schuyler close behind her, crept through
the shadow of the house towards the bluff. When the gloom of the trees
closed about them, she clutched her companion's shoulder.
"No," she said hoarsely, "not that way. Joe is watching there. We must go
right through the bluff and down the opposite side of it."
They floundered forward, sinking ankle-deep in withered leaves and clammy
mould, tripping over rotting branches that ripped their dresses, and
stumbling into dripping undergrowth. There was no moon now, and it was
very dark, and more than once Flora Schuyler valiantly suppressed the
scream that would have been a vast relief to her, and struggled on as
silently as she could behind her companion; but it seemed to her that
anybody a mile away could have heard them. Then, a little trail led them
out of the bluff on the opposite side to the house, and the roar of the
river grew louder as they hastened on, still in the gloom of the trees,
until something a little blacker than the shadows behind it grew into
visibility; and when it moved a little, Flora Schuyler touched Hetty's
arm.
"Yes," she said. "It is Larry. If I didn't know the kind of man he is, I
would not let you go. Kiss me, Hetty."
Hetty stood still a second, for she understood, and then very quietly put
both hands on Flora Schuyler's shoulders and kissed her.
"It can't be very wrong; and you have been a good friend, Flo," she said.
She turned, and Flora Schuyler, standing still, saw her slim figure flit
across a strip of frost-bleached sod as the moon shone through.