"Tell me darling. _Do tell me_?"
Again her chest heaved and fell beneath her furs.
"Well, Claude. It's--it's a strange story--as strange as any woman has
ever lived to tell," she said at last, with great hesitation and
speaking very slowly. "On that morning when I left I received a letter
purporting to come from you, and urging me to meet you in secret on the
departure platform of the Great Northern station at King's Cross.
Naturally, much puzzled, I went there, wondering what had happened.
While waiting, a woman--the woman you have seen--came up to me and told
me that you had sent her--that you wished to see me in secret in
connexion with your invention, but that you were in hiding because you
feared that some spies intended to obtain knowledge of the truth. She
said that there were enemy spies on every hand, and that it would be
best to go over to the hotel, and there wait till night before we went
North to Grantham, whither you had gone."
"Grantham!" I echoed. "I've not been in Grantham for years."
"But I believed that you were there, so plausible was the woman's
story," she replied. "We left at night, travelling in a first-class
compartment together. On the way, I suddenly suspected her. Somehow I
did not like the look in those strange eyes of hers, and I accused her
of deceiving me. Indeed, while dozing, I had seen her carefully take my
chatelaine, put something into it, and drop it out of the window. We
were in a tunnel, I believe."
"Then it was that woman who put the cipher-message into your card-case!"
I exclaimed. "Yes, go on."
"Yes," she replied. "I sprang up, and tried to pull the
communication-cord as we came out of the tunnel, but she prevented me.
She pushed a sponge saturated with some pungent-smelling liquid into my
face, and then I knew nothing more until I found myself in a small room
in a cottage somewhere remote in the country."
"Then you were detained there--eh?"
"Yes. Forcibly. That awful woman tried, by every means in her power,
to force or induce me to reveal the details of the experiments which you
and Teddy were making at Gunnersbury. But I refused. Ah! how that
hell-fiend tortured me day after day!
"She nearly drove me mad by those fearful ordeals which, in a hundred
ways, she put upon me--always promising to release me if I would but
reveal details of what we had discovered. But I refused--refused
always, Claude--because I knew that she was an enemy, and victory must
be ours if I remained silent. Days--those terrible days--passed--so
many that I lost count of them--yet I knew that the woman with the cruel
eyes of a leopard had dosed me with some drug that sapped my senses, and
she held me irrevocably in her power, prompted no doubt by somebody who
meant to work evil also upon you. In the end I must have lost my
reason. I think she must have given me certain drugs in order to
confuse me as to the past. Then, one day, I found myself in the town of
Grantham, inquiring for the station. I was in a maid's clothes, and in
them I eventually returned to you. And you--Claude--you know all the
rest." And she burst into a torrent of tears.
"Yes," I said slowly. "And that blackguard Lionel Eastwell is the man
who has directed all this intricate and dastardly intrigue against us."
Then I took my love into my arms, and pressing her to me, soothed her
tears with my passionate kisses.
What she had revealed to me amazed me.
In the evening, just after the Sunday-night supper, Benton, the fat old
butler, entered the drawing-room and, approaching me, said:
"Mr Moncrieff is on the telephone, sir."
I sprang up with alacrity and, a few seconds later, spoke to my friend
at the listening-post.
"You there, Munro?" he asked. "We've just had a message to say that
three Zeppelins are crossing the North Sea in the direction of the
Norfolk coast."
"Right!" I said, and shut off at once. There was no time to lose.
In a moment I told them of the alarm. Without much delay Teddy and I
slipped into our air-kit, while Theed, with the machine wheeled out into
the park, reported that all was in readiness.
I met Roseye in the corridor above the central staircase of the great
old-world house, and there kissed her fondly.
"For your dear sake I go, and for the sake of my King and country!" I
whispered. "Good-bye, my darling. Keep a stout heart until you hear of
me again!"
"But--oh!--oh!--I fear, Claude!" she cried anxiously, clinging to me.
"No, my darling. We must, to-day, all make sacrifices. There must be
no fear. I shall be back with you to-morrow."
And then again I kissed her and disengaged those loving, clinging arms
about me.
Five minutes later Teddy and I were away in the air.
The night was dull and overcast with a promise of clearing--yet bitterly
cold.
Of course with our big engine roaring we could hear nothing of the
enemy's approach, but I deemed it wise to rise high and, at the same
time, to follow the railway line from Colchester towards London, because
that, no doubt, was the route which the airships would follow.
The alarm had been given, trains being darkened and brought to a
standstill, station and signal-lights extinguished and towns blotted
out, I quickly lost sight of the railway track and could only go very
slowly to save petrol in case of a chase, and guide myself by my
compass.
From a town somewhere on the coast I could see the long scintillating
beams of a searchlight striking across the dark night sky, first
directed in one quarter and then in another. I think it must have been
the searchlight on the coast at T--.
I saw Teddy was busy adjusting the Lewis machine-gun at his side as we
climbed rapidly in the pitch darkness. The engine raced and hummed and
the wind shrieked weirdly around us.
I switched on the bulb over the instruments, in order to look at my
altimeter, but so dark was it that the light got into my eyes and I was
compelled to shut it off again.
I flew in a wide circle at first, steadily climbing until the few faint
twinkling lights below had disappeared entirely. We were getting nearer
and nearer the Zeppelin altitude.
Ah! how the engine throbbed and roared.
Suddenly something black shot up close to me, rushing on as quickly as
an express train. So suddenly did it rise up against me, that it gave
me quite a start. It seemed a great, unholy thing, and quite shapeless.
It was another aeroplane, like ourselves, out to destroy the enemy
airship with bombs. And by Jove! we narrowly avoided a nasty collision.
A second later we heard the loud report of a gun. Our anti-aircraft
gunners had spotted their quarry somewhere in the vicinity. A moment
afterwards upon our left, straight before us, two long beams of
searchlight shot out, and then a sharp volley from the guns.
They were possibly five miles distant, and in the direction of London--
somewhere near Brentwood I thought.
Bang! bang!--bang! we could hear, even above the throb of our powerful
engine. Teddy turned on the second engine, and then opened up the
searchlight, sweeping it around before us. But we could see nothing
save some thin filmy clouds.
Suddenly the searchlights from below went out, and the guns ceased.
With one eye upon the altimeter I peered over, hoping to pick up some
landmark, but I could find absolutely none.
That a Zeppelin was in the vicinity was certain. I tried to keep as
cool as I possibly could, but I confess that at that moment it was
difficult.