There was a buzz of satisfaction amongst the servants as, half
hysterically, Jane Barker announced the tidings of a change for the
better; but when she added thereto an order from the Doctor that Sir
Murray should be made acquainted with the change, there was a look of
intelligence passed from one to the other--a scared, frightened look,
which she was not slow to perceive, and in eager tones demanded what was
the matter.
"Nothing that I know of," said one, "but--"
"You always were a fool, Thomas!" exclaimed Jane, angrily. "Here,
James, go and tell master at once."
But James seemed not to have heard the command, for he suddenly
disappeared through a door, against which he had happened to be
standing.
"You go, then, Thomas," said Jane; "and make haste, there's a good man.
He must be anxious to know."
"Shouldn't think he was," said Thomas, "when Missus Elstree knocked ever
so long at the libery and got no answer."
Jane's sharp eyes were again directed from one to the other, and then,
without further pause, she set her teeth, nipped her lips together, and
hurried across the hall to the library door.
She knocked at first softly, but there was no reply; then more loudly,
with the same result; and at last, thoroughly alarmed, she beat fiercely
upon the panels, calling loudly upon her masters name.
"Go and fetch Mr Elstree, and call up Dr Challen," said Jane, huskily,
for there was a horrible fear at her heart, though she resolutely kept
it to herself. "Perhaps master may be in a fit," she whispered.
The Rector was there in a few minutes, and after knocking and calling,
he, too, turned pale, as the doctor now appeared upon the scene.
"Locked on the inside," said the latter, after a momentary examination.
"The door must be broken open, and at once. Is there a carpenter upon
the premises?"
There was no carpenter, but one of the gardeners had some skill in doing
odd jobs about the place, and he was known to possess a basket of tools.
His name was therefore suggested.
"Fetch him at once!" exclaimed the Doctor, as excited now as any one
present; and amidst an awe-stricken silence, the gardener's advent was
awaited.
But it took a good quarter of an hour to seek Alexander McCray, and
during that period of breathless expectation, not a soul present thought
of the possibility of an entrance being effected by the window. Thomas
had peered twice through the key-hole, looking round afterwards with a
pale, blank face, when seeing that it would probably be a quicker way of
obtaining information than questioning, Dr Challen knelt down himself,
to peer for some time through the narrow aperture, when he, too, rose,
thoughtful and silent, the Rector refraining from questioning him, and
no one else daring to do so. What Thomas had seen he at length
communicated in whispers, but they did not reach the Rector, who, with a
shuddering sensation oppressing him, kept on, in spite of himself,
watching--as if his eyes were specially there attracted--the narrow slit
beneath the door, as if expecting that some trace might probably there
show itself of what had taken place within the room.
"Is this man coming?" exclaimed the Doctor at last; and another
messenger was sent, while the women huddled together, whispering, and
more than one thinking that that morning's occurrences might result in a
general discharge of servants, and a breaking up of the Castle
establishment.
At last, though, there was the sound of footsteps, and very slowly and
leisurely the Scotch gardener made his appearance, walking with the
cumbersome gait of the men of the scythe and spade--slow, as a rule, as
the growth of the plants they tend.
"Now, for Heaven's sake, be smart, my good fellow!" exclaimed the
Doctor.
"Ye'll be wanting the door open, will ye?" said Alexander, slowly.
"Yes--yes!" exclaimed the Doctor impatiently.
"And have ye got authoughreety of Sir Moorray to force it open?" said
Alexander.
"My good man, this is no time for authority. Make haste, and break open
the door."
"I'm no cheecan, gentlemen," said Alexander, with the most aggravating
coolness; "but I've got a verra good seetuation here, and I should be
sore fashed if I had to luse it throw being rash. Sir Moorray might be
verra angered with me for breaking the door."
"My good man, I'd take all responsibility," exclaimed the Rector.
"Pray, be quick!"
"Weel, then, eef that's the case, gentlemen," said Alexander, refreshing
his high-bridged nose with a pinch of snuff--"eef that's the case, I'll
just go and fetch my tools."
Alexander McCray nodded his head sagely, as he took his departure; and
again there was an anxious lapse of time, certainly only of some
minutes, but they seemed then to be hours, and, hurrying into the
drawing-room, and seizing a poker, the Doctor was himself about to
attack the door, when, chisel and mallet in hand, the gardener returned,
his rush tool-basket over his shoulder; and then, strenuously exerting
himself, he soon made an entrance, first for a chisel and then for a
crowbar, with which he strained and strained hard to force open the
strongly-made old oak carved door. For a long while the efforts were
vain; but at last, with a loud crash, the door gave way, and so suddenly
that the gardener fell back with great violence amongst the lookers-on,
when, with an unanimous shriek of dismay, the women-servants turned and
fled, to gaze from distant doorways for some scrap of interest connected
with the elucidation.
But before Sandy McCray had gathered himself together, the Rector,
followed by Dr Challen and Jane, had entered the room, when Mr
Elstree's first act was to catch Jane by the arm and press her back, as
with his other hand he drew to the door.
"My good woman, you will be better away," he said, earnestly.
"I'm not afraid, sir," said Jane, quietly; "and perhaps I may be of some
use."
"Keep that door closed, then," exclaimed the Doctor; and the next moment
he was kneeling upon the carpet, where, motionless, stretched upon his
face, and with his fingers tightly clutching the long nap of the Turkey
carpet, lay the tall, proud form of Sir Murray Gernon.
"No, not that--not that, thank Heaven!" exclaimed the Doctor, after a
brief examination, as, looking up, he answered the Rector's inquiring
gaze. "I was afraid so at first, but it is nothing of the kind. Not
his own act, sir, but a sudden seizure, and no wonder. Tall, portly
man--predisposition to apoplexy. Here, quick, Jane--basin and towels.
Mr Elstree, open that window, and let's have air; then send away those
open-mouthed, staring fools outside. Nothing serious, I hope."
As he spoke, he had loosened the baronet's neckband, and torn the sleeve
away from his arm, to lay bare and open a vein, his ministrations being
followed before very long by a heavy sigh from the patient, other
favourable symptoms soon supervening, and in a short time the baronet
was pronounced out of danger.
"I don't know what people would do if it were not for our profession,"
said Dr Challen, importantly, as he fussed about in the hall,
superintending the carrying of Sir Murray to his bed-chamber.
"And a wee bit help from a man as can handle twa or three tules," said
Sandy McCray, in a whisper to himself, for he was one of the porters;
and then Dr Challen had the further satisfaction of knowing that he had
two patients instead of one, both, though, progressing favourably.
Book 1, Chapter XXI.