AN INTRUDER
He looked from one to the other with a quickly appraising eye. The girl
was fingering the lace of her bodice. Rizzio had turned toward the
newcomer recovering his poise.
“Hope I’m not intrudin’,” said Hammersley, with a laugh.
“Well, hardly. You’ve come in a hurry.”
“Yes,” drawled Hammersley. “I missed your train, I think. Too bad.
Jolly slow work travelin’ alone. Stryker picked me up at Edinburgh and
we came on by motor.”
He took off his fur coat in leisurely fashion and crossing to the
fireplace took Doris’s proffered hand. “You had my note?” he asked
carelessly.
The girl nodded. “I was glad,” she said.
“Well, I’m here. Jolly happy, too. Had a narrow squeak of it, though.
Some bally idiot stretched rope across the road over by Saltham Rocks,
but we saw it in time, and went around. Fired a few shots at us, too.
Must have taken me for Rizzio. What?” he laughed.
Thus directly appealed to, Rizzio smiled grudgingly.
“You don’t ask me to believe that story, Hammersley,” he said dryly.
“You don’t have to, Rizzio.”
The girl’s look was fixed on Hammersley’s face. Suddenly she broke in
with a voice of alarm.
“Cyril--you’re hurt--and there’s blood on your coat----”
“Is there? By Jove, so there is--it doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t mind a
peg though--and a cigarette.”
Doris had started for the door in alarm.
“Wait!” Hammersley’s voice came sharply. And as she paused, “Ring,
Doris.”
She understood and touched the button beside the door.
“We might as well have an understanding before they come, Rizzio,” put
in Hammersley quickly. “Do you prefer to believe my story--or would you
like to invent one of your own?”
Rizzio shrugged. “As you please,” he said. “It seems that I am _de
trop_ here.” At the door he paused and finished distinctly. “I hope
that your explanations will prove satisfactory.”
Doris had helped Cyril off with his coat and by the time the maid
brought Betty Heathcote, had cut away the sleeve of his shirt with
Cyril’s pocket knife. It was merely a gash across the upper arm, which
a bandage and some old-fashioned remedies would set right.
Lady Heathcote heard the story (from which Hammersley eliminated
the rope) with amazement, and was for sending at once for the local
constabulary.
“Oh, it’s hardly worth while,” said the Honorable Cyril, sipping his
whiskey and water, comfortably. “Poor devils--out of work, I fancy.
Wanted my money. If they’d come to Ben-a-Chielt tomorrow I’d give it to
’em. But I wouldn’t mind, Betty, if you could put me up for the night.
I’m not keen to be dodgin’ bullets in the dark.”
“Of course,” said Lady Heathcote. “How extraordinary! I can’t
understand--Saltham Rocks--that’s on my place. Something must be done,
Cyril.”
Hammersley yawned. “Oh, tomorrow will do. Couldn’t catch the beggars
in the dark. Besides, it’s late. Do me a favor, Betty. Don’t let those
people come in here again. I want a word with Doris.”
He had stretched himself out comfortably on the Davenport, his eyes on
the girl, who still stood uncertainly beside him.
Lady Betty shrugged, and taking up her basin and lotion moved toward
the door.
“It’s most mysterious. Are you sure we’re quite safe?”
“Quite. But I think it might be better if I had the room between yours
and Doris’s.”
“I was putting John Rizzio there.”
“Well, change--there’s a dear. And say nothing about it. I--I might
need a new dressing on this thing in the night.”
She examined him curiously, but he was looking lazily into the fire,
having already taken her acquiescence for granted.
When she went out, Hammersley sat up and threw his cigarette into the
fire.
“You have it still?” he whispered anxiously, taking Doris by both hands.
She nodded.
“Thank God for that. I seemed to have arrived at the proper moment.”
“I was about to burn them.”
He drew a long breath of relief.
“You know what they are?”
“Yes. I read them.”
“I was afraid you would. You have spoken to no one.”
“No,” proudly. “Hardly. After what I went through.” And, with an air of
restraint, she told him everything.
He listened, a serious look in his eyes.
“It was my fault. I should have left them in the machine. I got away
scot free.”
“Yes, I know. I saw you.”
“You poor child,” he said softly. “I was desperate. I thought it
necessary. How can I ever thank you?”
“You can’t.” The tones of her voice were strange.
“I’d jolly well give my life for you, Doris. You know that,” he said
earnestly.
“It’s something less than that that I want, and something more--your
word of honor.”
“My word----?”
“Yes,” she went on quietly. “To forswear your German kinship and give
me an oath of loyalty to England. Difficult as it is, I’ll believe you.”
“Sh--!” He glanced toward the door. All the windows of the room were
closed. “He told you that I was a German spy?” he whispered anxiously.
“You forget that I had proof of that already.”
He sat up and looked into the fire. “I hoped you wouldn’t read ’em. It
has done no good.”
“I have no regrets. I will not betray England, Cyril, even for you.”
He rose and paced the rug in front of her for a moment. Then he spoke
incredulously in a whisper.
“You mean that you won’t give ’em to me?”
“I mean that--precisely.”
“But that is impossible,” he went on, with greater signs of excitement
than she had ever seen in him. “Don’t you realize now that every moment
the things are in your possession you’re in danger--great danger? Isn’t
what you’ve gone through--isn’t this”--and he indicated his arm--“the
proof of it?”
“Yes,” she said firmly. “But I would rather suffer injury myself than
see you share the fate of Captain Byfield.”
He started. “Oh, you heard that?”
“Yes. Jack Sandys is here.” She put her face in her hands in the throes
of her doubts of him and then suddenly thrust out her hands and laced
her fingers around his arm.
“Oh, give it up, Cyril, for my sake give it all up. Can’t you see
the terrible position you’ve placed me in? If I give these papers to
Jack Sandys they’ll come and take you as they took Captain Byfield.
I’ve kept them for you, because I promised. But I cannot let this
information get to Germany. I would die first. What shall I do?” she
wailed. “What on earth _can_ I do?”
His reply made her gasp.
“There’s a fire,” he said quietly. “Burn ’em.”
Her fingers went to her corsage and her eyes gleamed with a new hope.
She took the crumpled rice-papers out and looked at them. Then in a
flash the thought came to her.
“You know the information contained in these papers?” she asked in an
accent of deprecation.
“No,” he replied shortly. “I merely glanced at them.”
“You hadn’t the chance to study them?”
“No.”
Still she hesitated. “But what--what is Rizzio?”
He walked to the door of the room, opening it suddenly. Then he shut
it quietly and coming back to the fire took the poker and made a hole
between the glowing coals.
“Burn ’em!” he commanded.
She obeyed him wonderingly and together they watched the package
of rice-papers flame into a live coal and then turn to ashes. When
the last vestige of them had disappeared, they sat together on the
davenport, Cyril thoughtful, the girl bewildered.
“What is Rizzio?” she repeated. “He told me that he was an agent of the
English Government.”
“I can’t tell you,” he whispered hoarsely. “I can’t tell you
anything--even you. Don’t you understand?”
“No, I don’t. It’s your word against his. I would rather believe you
than him. I want to, Cyril. God knows I want to.”
“Didn’t I ask you to burn the papers? Didn’t he try to prevent it?”
“Yes.”
“Can’t you see? If he were acting for England, it wouldn’t matter what
became of ’em if they didn’t reach Germany.”
“Oh, I thought of that--but what you have told me bewilders me. Why
should you run away with secrets of England--given you by a traitor
who is about to pay the penalty with--with death? What does it mean?
Why didn’t you take those papers at once to the War Office? Why did
Captain Byfield give them to you? He--a traitor--to you--Cyril! It
is all so horrible. I am frightened. Your danger--Rizzio’s men,
here--tonight--all about us.”
“If they were English secret service men,” Cyril put in quietly,
“wouldn’t they come here to this house and arrest me in the name of the
law?”
“Yes. There must be other reasons why they can’t. What is the contest
between you and Rizzio? Tell me. Tell me everything! I will believe
you. Haven’t I kept your trust? If I could do that--for your sake--do
you not think that I could keep silent for England’s sake?”
Her arms were about his neck, and her lips very close to his, but he
turned his head away so that the temptation might not be too strong for
him.
“I can’t,” he muttered, “I cannot speak--even to you. I am sworn to
secrecy.”
She drooped upon his arms and then moved away despairingly. It was the
failure of the appeal of her femininity that condemned him.
“Oh, you won’t let me believe in you. You won’t let me. It’s too great
a test you’re asking of me. Everything is against you--but the worst
witness is your silence!”
He stood by the mantel, his head lowered.
“It is hard for you--hard for us both,” he said softly, “but I can’t
tell you anythin’--anythin’.” He raised his head and looked at her with
pity. She had sunk upon the divan, her head upon her arms in a despair
too deep for tears.
He crossed and laid his hand gently upon her shoulder.
“You must trust in me if you can. I will try to be worthy of it. That’s
all I can say.” He paused. “And now you must go to bed. You’re a bit
fagged. Perhaps in the mornin’ you’ll pull up a bit and see things
differently.”
She straightened slowly and their eyes met for a moment. His never
wavered, and she saw that they were very kind, but she rose silently
and without offering him her lips or even her hand, moved slowly
toward the door.
He reached it in a stride before her and put his hand upon the knob.
“There’s one thing more I’ve got to ask.”
Her look questioned.
“You must sleep in my room tonight, next to Betty’s. I shall sleep in
yours.”
Her weary eyes sought his with an effort.
“You mean you think Rizzio--would still----?”
She paused.
“Yes, he thinks you would not give them to me.” And then, with a laugh,
“You wouldn’t, you know.”
“And if I tell him I have burned them----”
“He will not believe you.”
“He would not believe me,” she repeated in a daze.
“You must do what I ask,” Cyril went on quietly. “I know what is best.
I’ll arrange it with Betty.” He glanced at his watch. “One o’clock. By
Jove! It’s time even for auction players.”
She promised him at last after a protest on his own account.
“Nothin’ to worry about,” he laughed. “They may not try anythin’, and
when they find I’m there they’ll bundle out in a hurry.”
Thus reassured she went out to the drawing-room where the card players
were just rising. Rizzio was nowhere to be seen. Cyril at once took
their hostess aside and told her that Doris was a little upset by the
shooting, asking if Betty would mind letting her take the room next to
her own, so that she could open the door between.
“Don’t say anything about it, Betty,” he urged. “Just ask her in, won’t
you, when you get upstairs.”
“And you?”
“I could do a turn on steel spikes,” he laughed.
“Your arm?”
“Right as rain. It’s nothing at all.”
Doris accepted the situation without a word. Indeed she was numbed
with the fatigue of strained nerves. The swift rush of incident since
Betty’s London dinner, with its rapid alternations of hope and fear,
had left her bewildered and helpless. But it was the interview with
Cyril tonight that had plunged her into the dark abyss of despair. She
had tried so hard to believe in him, but he would do nothing to take
away the weight that had been dragging her down further and further
from the light. A new kind of love had come to her, born of the new
Cyril who had won her over by the sheer force of a personality, the
existence of which she had not dreamed. A short time ago she had wanted
to see him awake--a firebrand--and she had had her wish, for she had
kindled to his touch like tinder. But tonight, in her utter weariness,
it seemed as though her spirit was charred, burnt to a cinder, like
the package of papers in the grate in the gun-room, destroyed, as the
secret message had been, in the great game that Cyril was playing.
She undressed slowly, listening for any sounds that might come from
the room next door, but the only sign she had of him was the familiar
smell of his pipe tobacco which came through the cracks and key-hole.
A little later Betty Heathcote came in prepared for what she called a
“back hair talk,” but found her guest so unresponsive that at last she
went into her own room and bed. Doris lay for a while watching the line
of light under Cyril’s door, wondering what he was doing and what the
night was to bring forth. One memory persisted in the chaos of the
night’s events. Cyril didn’t know the contents of the papers and yet he
had commanded her to burn them. The thought quieted her, and at last
she saw the light in his room go out, then, after a time, in spite of
her weariness, she slept.
* * * * *
She awakened, trembling with terror, listening for she knew not what.
And then as her wits slowly came to her, she was aware of the sounds
which had awakened her. They were suppressed, secret, and strange, but
none the less terrible, the shuffling of feet, hoarse whispers, and the
creaking of straining furniture. She sat upright, slipped to the floor
quickly, and, getting into the dressing-gown at the foot of the bed,
stood for a moment in the middle of the room, her heart beating wildly.
Then with quick resolution she moved swiftly to Betty Heathcote’s room
and, after assuring herself that her hostess still slept, closed the
door softly and passed the bolt.
Again she hesitated. The sounds from Cyril’s room continued, the hard
breathing of men who seemed with one accord to be trying to keep their
struggles silent. Aware of her danger, but considering it less than the
physical need for immediate action, with trembling fingers she turned
the key and quickly opened the door.
At first, silence, utter and profound, but full of a terror which a
breath might reveal.
“Cyril! What is it?” she managed to whisper.
“Sh--” she heard. And dimly, in the pale moonlight, she made out the
dark blur of figures upon the floor in the corner of the room.
“Cyril!” she repeated.
“It’s all right,” she heard in a breathless whisper. “Go back to your
room. It’s nothin’.”
But having ventured thus far she did not hesitate, and closing the door
behind her came forward. Upon the floor, half against the wall, was the
figure of a man. Cyril was sitting on his legs and holding him with one
hand by the neck cloth.
“You’re safe?” she whispered.
“Yes. Go back to bed. Don’t you understand--if anyone came----?”
“I don’t care.” Her curiosity had triumphed. She leaned forward and saw
that it was John Rizzio.
“Rizzio!” she whispered. “My room!”
“I ought to kill him, Doris,” said Cyril savagely, “but I’ve only
choked him a little. He’ll come around in a minute.” And then more
quietly: “Get me a glass of water, but don’t make a fuss, and don’t
make a light. There are men outside.”
She obeyed, and in a moment Rizzio revived and sat up, Cyril standing
over him, his fist clenched.
“Oh, let him go, Cyril, please,” Doris pleaded.
At the sound of the girl’s voice Rizzio started and with Cyril’s help
struggled to his feet.
“Yes, he’s going the way he came--by the window,” growled Hammersley.
“Head first, if I have my way.”
Rizzio succeeded in a smile, though he was still struggling for breath.
“I suppose--I--I must thank you for your generosity, Hammersley,” he
said with as fine a return of his composure as his throat permitted. “I
have been guilty of--of an error in judgment----”
“I’m sorry you think it’s only that,” said Cyril dryly. “Now go,” he
whispered threateningly, pointing to the window.
“In a moment--with your permission,” he said, recovering his suavity
with his breath. “In extenuation of this visit, terrible as it seems
to Miss Mather, I--I can only say that if I had succeeded I would
have saved her from remembering some day that she had given England’s
secrets into the hands of the enemy.”
“You’re mistaken,” said Doris quietly. “I have burned them.”
“You--you burned them?”
“Yes--tonight.”
Rizzio peered at her in silence for a long moment and then shrugged.
“Oh,” he said, “in that case, I have made two errors in judgment----”
“You’ll make a third, if you’re not out of that window in half a
second,” said Cyril.
But Rizzio laughed at him.
“I don’t think it would be wise to make a disturbance----” he said
coolly. “I think Miss Mather will admit my generosity to herself and to
you when I say that I’ve only to raise my voice and have half a dozen
men up here in a moment.”
Doris clutched him fearfully by the arm, thinking of Cyril.
“You’d not do that----?”
Hammersley laughed dryly.
“There’s no danger,” he said.
“No,” returned Rizzio with a touch of his old magnificence. “There is
no danger of that--the reasons are obvious.”
As he moved toward the window Hammersley touched him lightly on the arm.
“I warn you, Rizzio,” he said in a low concentrated tone, “that you’re
playing a dangerous hand. I should punish you--but other agencies----”
Rizzio halted. “Yes, other agencies----” he replied significantly. He
bowed in the girl’s direction and sitting on the window-sill he threw
his feet outside. “I bid you good night.” And carefully feeling for his
footing he slowly descended.
Cyril Hammersley followed him to the window, and Doris took a step in
his direction, when her thinly slippered foot touched something in the
wooden floor--something which slid upon the polished surface from the
shadow into the moonlight. Instinctively she glanced down and then
started--scarcely restraining a gasp. There, unmistakable in the shape
and color for so many hours graven on her mind, was a yellow packet of
Riz-la-Croix cigarette papers. She glanced at Cyril, who was closing
the casement window, then stooped and, picking up the packet, fled
noiselessly into her room and quickly locked the door.