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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dark House, by Georg Manville Fenn
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Dark House
+       A Knot Unravelled
+
+Author: Georg Manville Fenn
+
+Release Date: May 29, 2008 [EBook #25637]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DARK HOUSE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+The Dark House, by George Manville Fenn.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+It would be hard to praise this book highly enough.  It is in essence a
+murder and detection mystery, the sort of thing that great mid-twentieth
+century writers like Agatha Christie wrote so well.  This is a quite
+masterly book, a short one at that, a book full of suspense and
+surprises.  Unusual to find such a book dating from the 19th century!
+
+An extremely wealthy but reclusive man has died, leaving an eccentric
+will which hints at great riches hidden somewhere in the house.  Most of
+the people at the reading of the will did not know the deceased in
+person, but had received kindnesses from him, for instance by the
+payment of school and university fees.  The principal beneficiary, a
+great-nephew, also did not know him.  The only two people who really
+knew him were the old lawyer who dealt with his affairs, and an old
+Indian servant.  Yet when the will had been read, and they all went to
+where the treasure--gold, jewels and bank-notes--were supposed to be
+hidden, nothing could be found.
+
+There are an unusual number of deaths, by murder and in self-defence, as
+the story unfolds, and we are left in total suspense until the very end
+of the very last chapter.  The person who works out where the treasure
+must be, and how it got there, does not come on the scene until almost
+the last chapter, and even then he has to go on business to America
+before he can come in and explain his theory, which proves to be right.
+
+This book makes an excellent audiobook, and you will certainly like it.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+THE DARK HOUSE, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+NUMBER 9A, ALBEMARLE SQUARE.
+
+"Don't drink our sherry, Charles?"
+
+Mr Preenham, the butler, stood by the table in the gloomy servants'
+hall, as if he had received a shock.
+
+"No, sir; I took 'em up the beer at first, and they shook their heads
+and asked for wine, and when I took 'em the sherry they shook their
+heads again, and the one who speaks English said they want key-aunty."
+
+"Well, all I have got to say," exclaimed the portly cook, "is, that if I
+had known what was going to take place, I wouldn't have stopped an hour
+after the old man died.  It's wicked!  And something awful will happen,
+as sure as my name's Thompson."
+
+"Don't say that, Mrs Thompson," said the mild-looking butler.  "It is
+very dreadful, though."
+
+"Dreadful isn't the word.  Are we ancient Egyptians?  I declare, ever
+since them Hightalians have been in the house, going about like three
+dark conspirators in a play, I've had the creeps.  I say, it didn't
+ought to be allowed."
+
+"What am I to say to them, sir?" said the footman, a strongly built man,
+with shifty eyes and quickly twitching lips.
+
+"Well, look here, Charles," said the butler, slowly wiping his mouth
+with his hand, "We have no Chianti wine.  You must take them a bottle of
+Chambertin."
+
+"My!" ejaculated cook.
+
+"Chambertin, sir?"
+
+"It's Mr Girtle's orders.  They've come here straight from Paris on
+purpose, and they are to have everything they want."
+
+The butler left the gloomy room, and Mrs Thompson, a stout lady, who
+moved only when she was obliged, turned to the thin, elderly housemaid.
+
+"Mark my words, Ann," she said.  "It's contr'y to nature, and it'll
+bring a curse."
+
+"Well," said the woman, "it can't make the house more dull than it has
+been."
+
+"I don't know," said the cook.
+
+"I never see a house before where there was no need to shut the shutters
+and pull down the blinds because some one's dead."
+
+"Well, it is a gloomy place, Ann, but we've done all these years most as
+we liked.  One meal a day and the rest at his club, and never any
+company.  There ain't many places like that."
+
+"No," sighed Ann.  "I suppose we shall all have to go."
+
+"Oh, I don't know, my dear.  Mr Ramo says he thinks master's left all
+his money to his great nephew, Mr Capel, and may be he'll have the
+house painted up and the rooms cleaned, and keep lots of company.  An'
+he may marry this Miss Dungeon--ain't her name?"
+
+"D'E-n-g-h-i-e-n," said the housemaid, spelling it slowly.  "I don't
+know what you call it.  She's very handsome, but so orty.  I like Miss
+Lawrence.  Only to think, master never seeing a soul, and living all
+these years in this great shut-up house, and then, as soon as the
+breath's out of his body, all these relatives turning up."
+
+"Where the carcase is, there the eagles are gathered together," said
+cook, solemnly.
+
+"Oh, don't talk like that, cook."
+
+"You're not obliged to listen, my dear," said cook, rubbing her knees
+gently.
+
+"I declare, it's been grievous to me," continued the housemaid, "all
+those beautiful rooms, full of splendid furniture, and one not allowed
+to do more than keep 'em just clean.  Not a blind drawn up, or a window
+opened.  It's always been as if there was a funeral in the house.  Think
+master was crossed in love?"
+
+"No.  Not he.  Mr Ramo said that master was twice over married to great
+Indian princesses, abroad.  I s'pose they left him all their money.  Oh,
+here is Mr Ramo!"
+
+The door had opened, and a tall, thin old Hindoo, with piercing dark
+eyes and wrinkled brown face, came softly in.  He was dressed in a long,
+dark, red silken cassock, that seemed as if woven in one piece, and
+fitted his spare form rather closely from neck to heel; a white cloth
+girdle was tied round his waist, and for sole ornament there were a
+couple of plain gold rings in his ears.
+
+As he entered he raised his thin, largely-veined brown hands to his
+closely-cropped head, half making the native salaam, and then, said in
+good English:
+
+"Mr Preenham not here?"
+
+"He'll be back directly, Mr Ramo," said the cook.  "There, there, do
+sit down, you look worn out."
+
+The Hindoo shook his head and walked to the window, which looked out
+into an inner area.
+
+At that moment the butler entered, and the Hindoo turned to him quickly,
+and laid his hand upon his arm.
+
+"There, there, don't fret about it, Mr Ramo," said the butler.  "It's
+what we must all come to--some day."
+
+"Yes, but this, this," said the Hindoo, in a low, excited voice.  "Is--
+is it right?"
+
+The butler was silent for a few moments.
+
+"Well," he said at last, "it's right, and its wrong, as you may say.
+It's master's own orders, for there it was in his own handwriting in his
+desk.  `Instructions for my solicitor.'  Mr Girtle showed it me, being
+an old family servant."
+
+"Yes, yes--he showed it to me."
+
+"Oh, it was all there," continued the butler.  "Well, as I was saying,
+it's right so far; but it's wrong, because it's not like a Christian
+burial."
+
+"No, no," cried the Hindoo, excitedly.  "Those men--they make me mad.  I
+cannot bear it.  Look!" he cried, "he should have died out in my
+country, where we would have laid him on sweet scented woods, and
+baskets of spices and gums, and there, where the sun shines and the palm
+trees wave, I, his old servant, would have fired the pile, and he would
+have risen up in the clouds of smoke, and among the pure clear flames of
+fire, till nothing but the ashes was left.  Yes, yes, that would have
+been his end," he cried, with flashing eyes, as he seemed to mentally
+picture the scene; "and then thy servant could have died with thee.  Oh,
+Sahib, Sahib, Sahib!"
+
+He clasped his hands together, the fire died from his eyes, which became
+suffused with tears, and as he uttered the last word thrice in a low
+moaning voice, he stood rocking himself to and fro.
+
+The two women looked horrified and shuddered, but the piteous grief was
+magnetic, and in the deep silence that fell they began to sob; while the
+butler blew his nose softly, coughed, and at last laid his hand upon the
+old servant's shoulder.
+
+"Shake hands, Mr Ramo," he said huskily.  "Fifteen years you and me's
+been together, and if we haven't hit it as we might, well, it was only
+natural, me being an Englishman and you almost a black; but it's this as
+brings us all together, natives and furreners, and all.  He was a good
+master, God bless him! and I'm sorry he's gone."
+
+The old Indian looked up at him half wonderingly for a few moments.
+Then, taking the extended hand in both of his, he held it for a time,
+and pressed it to his heart, dropped it, and turned to go.
+
+"Won't you take something, Mr Ramo?"
+
+"No--no!" said the Indian, shaking his head, and he glided softly out of
+the servants' hall, went silently, in his soft yellow leather slippers,
+down a long passage and up a flight of stone stairs, to pass through a
+glass door, and stand in the large gloomy hall, in the middle of one of
+the marble squares that turned the floor into a vast chess-board, round
+which the giant pieces seemed to be waiting to commence the game.
+
+For the faint light that came through the thick ground-glass fanlight
+over the great double doors was diffused among black bronze statues and
+white marble figures of Greek and Roman knights.  In one place, seated
+meditatively, with hands resting upon the knees, there was an Indian
+god, seeming to watch the floor.  In another, a great Japanese warrior,
+while towards the bottom of the great winding staircase, whose stone
+steps were covered with heavy dark carpet, was a marble, that
+imagination might easily have taken for a queen.
+
+Here and there the panelled walls were ornamented with stands of Indian
+arms and armour, conical helmets, once worn by Eastern chiefs, with
+pendent curtains, and suits of chain mail.  Bloodthirsty daggers, curved
+scimitars, spears, clumsy matchlocks, and long straight swords, whose
+hilt was an iron gauntlet, in which the warrior's fingers were laced as
+they grasped a handle placed at right angles to the blade, after the
+fashion of a spade.  There were shields, too, and bows and arrows, and
+tulwars and kukris, any number of warlike implements from the East,
+while beside the statues, the West had to show some curious chairs, and
+a full-length portrait of an Englishman in the prime of life--a
+handsome, bold-faced man, in the uniform of one of John Company's
+regiments, his helmet in his hand, and his breast adorned with orders
+and jewels of foreign make.
+
+The old Indian servant stood there like one of the statues, as the
+dining-room door opened and three dark, closely-shaven and moustached
+men, in black, came out softly, and went silently up the stairs.
+
+There was something singularly furtive and strange about them as they
+followed one another in silence, all three alike in their dress coats
+and turned-down white collars, beneath which was a narrow strip of
+ribbon, knotted in front.
+
+They passed on and on up the great winding stairs, past the
+drawing-room, from whence came the low buzz of voices, to a door at the
+back of the house, beside a great stained-glass window, whose weird
+lights shone down upon a lion-skin rug.
+
+Here the first man stopped for his companions, to reach his side.  Then,
+whispering a few words to them, he took a key from his pocket, opened
+the door, withdrew the key, and entered the darkened room, closing and
+locking the door, as the old Indian crept softly up, sank upon his knees
+upon the skin rug, his hands clasped, his head bent down, and resting
+against the panels of the door.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+THE DEAD MAN'S RELATIVES.
+
+"I can tell you very little, Mr Capel.  I have been your great uncle's
+confidential solicitor ever since he returned from India.  I was a mere
+boy when he went away.  He knew me then, and when he came back he sought
+me out."
+
+"And that is twenty-five years ago, Mr Girtle?"
+
+"Yes.  The year you were born."
+
+"And he made you his confidant?"
+
+"Yes; he gave me his confidence, as far as I think he gave it to any
+man."
+
+"And did he always live in this way?"
+
+"Always.  He filled up the house with the vast collection of curiosities
+and things that he had been sending home for years, and I expected that
+he would entertain, and lead the life of an English gentleman; but no,
+the house has been closed for twenty-five years."
+
+Mr Girtle, a clean-shaven old gentleman, with yellow face, dark,
+restless eyes and bright grey hair, took a pinch of snuff from a
+handsome gold box, flicked a few grains from his white shirt-front, and
+said "Hah."
+
+"Had my uncle met with any great disappointment?" said the first
+speaker, a frank-looking man with closely curling brown hair, and a
+high, white forehead.
+
+"What, to make him take to this strange life?  Oh, no.  He was peculiar,
+but not unhappy.  He liked to be alone, but he was always bright and
+cheerful at his club."
+
+"You met him there, then?" said a fresh voice, and a handsome, dark
+young fellow, who had been leaning back in an easy chair in the dim
+drawing-room, sat up quickly, playing with his little black moustache.
+
+"Oh, yes!  I used to dine with Colonel Capel when we had business to
+transact."
+
+"But, here you say he led the life of a miser!" continued the young man,
+crossing his legs, and examining the toe of his patent leather boot.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr Gerard Artis, I did not say that.  Your great
+uncle was no miser.  He spent money freely, sometimes, in charities.
+Yes," he continued, turning to where two ladies were seated.  "Colonel
+Capel was often very charitable."
+
+"I never saw his name in any charitable list," said the darker of the
+two ladies, speaking in a sweet, silvery voice; and her beautiful
+regular features seemed to attract both the previous speakers.
+
+"No, Miss D'Enghien, I suppose not," said the old man, nodding his head
+and rising to begin walking up and down, snuff-box in hand.  "Neither
+did I.  But he was very charitable in his own particular way, and he was
+very kind."
+
+"Yes," said the young man who had first spoken; "very kind.  I have him
+to thank for my school and college education."
+
+"Well--yes," said the old lawyer; "I suppose it is no breach of
+confidence to say that it is so."
+
+"And I have to thank him for mine, and the pleasant life I have led, Mr
+Girtle, have I not?" said the second of the ladies; and, but for the
+gloom, the flush that came into her sweet face would have been plainly
+visible.
+
+At that moment the footman entered with a letter upon a massive salver,
+and as he walked straight to the old lawyer, he cast quick, furtive
+glances at the other occupants of the room.
+
+"A note, eh?" said the old solicitor, balancing his gold-rimmed glasses
+upon his nose; "um--um--yes, exactly--very delicate of them to write.
+Tell them I will see them shortly, Charles."
+
+The footman bowed, and was retiring as silently as he came over the soft
+carpet, when he was checked by the old solicitor.
+
+"You will tell Mr Preenham to see that these gentlemen have every
+attention."
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+The footman left the room almost without a sound, for the door was
+opened and closed noiselessly.  The only thing that broke the terrible
+silence that seemed to reign was the faint clink of the silver tray
+against one of the metal buttons of the man's coat.  As for the
+magnificently furnished room, with its heavy curtains and drawn-down
+blinds, it seemed to have grown darker, so that the faint gleams of
+light that had hung in a dull way on the faces of the great mirrors and
+the gilded carving of console and cheffonier, had died out.  It required
+no great effort of the imagination to believe that the influence of the
+dead man who had passed so many solitary years in that shut-up house was
+still among them, making itself felt with a weight from which they could
+not free themselves.
+
+Paul Capel looked across at the beautiful face of Katrine D'Enghien,
+thinking of her creole extraction, and the half French, half American
+father who had married his relative.  He expected to see her looking
+agitated as her cousin, Lydia Lawrence, but she sat back with one arm
+gracefully hanging over the side of the chair, her lustrous eyes half
+closed; and a pang strongly akin to jealousy shot through him as it
+seemed that those eyes were resting on the young elegant at his side.
+
+"Yes," said the old solicitor, suddenly, and his voice made all start
+but Miss D'Enghien, who did not even move her eyelids; "as I was
+saying," he went on, tapping his snuff-box, "I can tell you very little,
+Mr Capel, until the will is read."
+
+"Then there is a will?" said Miss D'Enghien.
+
+The old lawyer's brows wrinkled, as he glanced at her in surprise.
+
+"Yes, my dear young lady, there is a will."
+
+"And it will be read, of course, directly after the funeral?" said the
+dark young man.
+
+The lawyer did not reply.
+
+"I suppose you think it's bad form of a man asking such questions now;
+but really, Mr Girtle, it would be worse form for a fellow to be
+pulling a long face about one he never saw."
+
+"But he was your father's friend."
+
+"Oh, yes, of course."
+
+"Hence you, sir, are here," continued the lawyer.  "My instructions were
+clear enough.  I was to invite you here at this painful time, and take
+my old friend's place as your host."
+
+"You have been most kind, Mr Girtle," said Miss D'Enghien.
+
+"I thank you, madam, and I grieve that you should have to be present at
+so painful a time.  My next instructions were to send for the Italian
+professor, who is here to carry out the wishes of the deceased."
+
+"Horrible idea for a man to wish to be embalmed," said Artis, brutally.
+
+Lydia Lawrence shuddered, and turned away her face.  Paul Capel glanced
+indignantly at the speaker, and then turned to gaze at Katrine
+D'Enghien, who sat perfectly unmoved, her hand still hanging from the
+side of the chair, as if to show the graceful contour of her arm.
+
+"Colonel Capel had been a great part of his life in the East, Mr
+Artis," said the old lawyer, coldly.  "He had had the matter in his mind
+for some time."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"By the date on my instructions, which also contained the Italian
+professor's card."
+
+"And I suppose we shall have a very eccentric will, sir."
+
+"Yes," said the lawyer quietly, "a very eccentric will."
+
+"Come, that's refreshing," said the young man with a fidgetty movement.
+"Well, you are not very communicative, Mr Girtle.  You family
+solicitors are as close as your deed boxes."
+
+"Yes," said the old lawyer, closing his gold snuff-box with a loud snap.
+
+"Well, come, it can be no breach of confidence to tell us when the
+funeral is to be?"
+
+The old lawyer took a turn or two up and down the room, snuff-box in
+hand, the bright metal glistening as he swung his hand to and fro.  Then
+he stopped short, and said slowly:
+
+"The successor to Colonel Capel's enormous property will inherit under
+extremely peculiar conditions, duly set forth in the will it will be my
+duty to read to you."
+
+"After the funeral?" said Gerard Artis.
+
+"No, sir; there will be no funeral."
+
+"No funeral!" exclaimed Artis and Paul Capel in a breath, and then they
+rose to their feet, startled more than they would have cared to own, for
+at that moment a strange wild cry seemed to come from the staircase,
+followed by a heavy crash.
+
+"Good Heavens!" cried the old lawyer, dropping his snuff-box.
+
+Katrine D'Enghien alone remained unmoved, with her head turned towards
+the door.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+ONE GUARDIAN OF THE TREASURE.
+
+Paul Capel was the first to recover from the surprise, and to hurry from
+the darkened room, followed by Artis and the late Colonel's solicitor,
+though it was into no blaze of light, for the staircase was equally
+gloomy.
+
+The source of the strange noise was not far to seek, for, as they
+reached the landing, they became aware that a fierce struggle was going
+on in the direction of the room occupied by the late Colonel, and
+hurrying there, it was to find two men locked together, one of whom was
+succeeding in holding the other down, and wresting his neck from the
+sinewy hands which had torn off his white cravat.
+
+"Why, Charles!  Ramo!" exclaimed Mr Girtle, in the midst of the hoarse,
+panting sounds uttered by the contending men.
+
+"He's mad!" cried the former, in a high-pitched tone, in which a man's
+rage was mingled with a schoolboy's whimpering fear.  "He's mad, sir.
+He tried to strangle me."
+
+"Thief! dog!" panted the old Hindoo, with his dark features convulsed
+with passion.  "Wanted--rob--his master!"
+
+The two young men had separated the combatants, who now stood up, the
+footman, his vest and shirt torn open, and his coat dragged half off--
+the old man with one sleeve of his dark silk robe gone, and the back
+rent to the waist, while there was a fierce, vindictive look in his
+working features, as he had to be held to keep him from closing with the
+footman again.
+
+"What does this mean, Charles?" cried Mr Girtle, as the butler and the
+other servants came hurrying up, while the three Italians also stood
+upon the landing, looking wonderingly on.
+
+"If you please, sir, I don't know," said the footman, in an ill-used
+tone.  "I was just going by the Colonel's door, and I thought, as was
+very natural, that I should like to see what these gentlemen had done,
+when Mr Ramo sprang at me like a wild cat."
+
+"No, no!" cried the old Indian, whose English in his rage and excitement
+was less distinct, "a thief--come to rob--my dear lord--a thief!"
+
+"I hope, sir," said the footman, growing calmer and looking in an
+injured way at Mr Girtle, "you know me better than that, sir.  Mr
+Preenham here will tell you I've cleaned the plate regular all the ten
+years I've been here."
+
+The old solicitor turned to the butler.
+
+"Yes, sir; Charles's duty has been to clean the plate, but it is in my
+charge, and I have kept the strictest account of it.  A little disposed
+to show temper, sometimes, sir, but strictly honest and very clean."
+
+"This is a very sad and unseemly business at such a time," said Mr
+Girtle.  "Ramo, you have made a mistake."
+
+"No, no!" cried the old Indian, wrathfully.
+
+"Come, come," said Mr Girtle; "be reasonable."
+
+"The police," panted the old Indian.  "Send for the police."
+
+"All right," cried Charles, defiantly; "send for the police and let 'em
+search me."
+
+"Silence!" cried Mr Girtle.  "Go down and arrange your dress, sir.  Mr
+Capel, young ladies, will you return to the drawing-room?  Signori, will
+you retire?  That will do, Preenham.  Leave Ramo to me."
+
+In another minute the old solicitor was left with Ramo, who stood
+beneath the dim stained-glass window, with his arms folded and his brow
+knit.
+
+"You do not trust and believe me, sir?"
+
+"Don't talk nonsense, Ramo.  You know I trust you as the most faithful
+fellow in the world."
+
+He held out his hand as he spoke, but the old Indian remained motionless
+for the moment; then, seizing the hand extended to him, he bent over it,
+holding it to his breast.
+
+"My dear lord's old friend," he said.
+
+"That's better, Ramo," said Mr Girtle.  "Now, go and change your
+dress."
+
+"No, no!" cried the old man.  "I must watch."
+
+"Nonsense, man.  Don't think that every one who comes means to rob."
+
+"But I do," cried the old Indian, in a whisper.  "They think of what we
+know--you and I only.  Those foreign men--the servants."
+
+"You must not be so suspicious, Ramo.  It will be all right."
+
+"It will not be all right, Sahib," cried the old Indian.  "Think of what
+there is in yonder."
+
+"But we have the secret, Ramo."
+
+"Yes--yes; but suppose there were others who knew the secret--who had
+heard of it.  Sahib, I will be faithful to the dead."
+
+The old Indian drew himself up with dignity, and took his place once
+more before the door.
+
+"It has been shocking," whispered the Indian.  "I have been driven away,
+while those foreign men did what they pleased in there.  It was
+maddening.  Ah!"
+
+He clapped his hands to his head.
+
+"What now, Ramo?"
+
+"Those three men!  Suppose--"
+
+He caught at his companion's arm, whispered a few words, and they
+entered the darkened room, from which, as the door opened and closed, a
+peculiar aromatic odour floated out.
+
+As the door was closed the sound of a bolt being shot inside was heard,
+and directly after the face of Charles, the footman, appeared from the
+gloom below.  He came up the stairs rapidly, glanced round and stepped
+softly to the closed door, where he bent down, listening.
+
+As he stood in the recess the gloom was so great that he was almost
+invisible, save his face, while just beyond him a large group in bronze,
+of a club-armed centaur, seemed to have the crouching man as part of the
+artist's design, the centaur being, apparently, about to strike him
+down, while, to give realism to the scene, a dull red glow from the
+stained-glass window fell across his forehead.
+
+As he listened there, his ear to the key-hole and his eyes watchfully
+wandering up and down the staircase, a dull and smothered clang was
+heard as if in the distance, like the closing of some heavy iron door.
+Then there was a louder sound, with a quick, short report, as if a
+powerful spring had been set in motion and shot home.  Then a door
+seemed to be closed and locked, and the man glided quickly over the
+soft, thick carpet--melting away, as it were, in the gloom.
+
+The door opened and, from the darkness within, Mr Girtle and the old
+Indian stepped slowly out, bringing with them a soft, warm puff of the
+aromatic odour, and, as they grew more distinct in the faint light of
+the stained-glass window, everything was so still in the great house
+that there was a strange unreality about them, fostered by the silence
+of their tread.
+
+"There, now you are satisfied," said the old lawyer, gently.  "Go and
+change your robe."
+
+The Indian shook his head.
+
+"I will stay till your return inside the room."
+
+"Inside?" said the Indian.
+
+"Yes--why not?  You and I have reached the time of life when death has
+ceased to have terrors.  He is only taking the sleep that comes to all."
+
+There was a gentle sadness in the lawyer's voice, and then, turning the
+handle of the door, he opened it and stood looking back.
+
+"You will not be long," he said.  "They are waiting for me in the
+drawing-room."
+
+The door closed just as the old Indian made a step forward to follow.
+Then he stood with his hands clenched and eyes starting listening
+intently, while the centaur's club seemed to be quivering in the gloom,
+ready to crush him down.
+
+The old man raised his hand to the door--let it fall--raised it again--
+let it fall--turned to go--started back--and then, as if fighting hard
+with himself, he turned once more, and with an activity not to be
+expected in one of his years, bounded up the staircase and disappeared.
+
+Ten minutes had not elapsed before he seemed to come silently out of the
+gloom again, and was half-way to the door, when there was a faint creak
+from below, as if from a rusty hinge.
+
+The old man stopped short, crouching down by the balustrade, listening,
+his eyes shining in the dim twilight; but no other sound was heard, and
+he rose quickly, ran softly down, and with trembling hands opened the
+door.
+
+Mr Girtle came slowly out, looking sad and depressed, and laid his hand
+upon the Indian's shoulder.
+
+"You mean to watch, then," he said.
+
+The Indian nodded quickly, his eyes gazing searchingly at the lawyer the
+while.
+
+"Are you going in, or here?"
+
+"My place was at the Sahib's door."
+
+"Good!" said the solicitor, bowing his head; and he returned to the
+drawing-room, Ramo watching him suspiciously till the door closed.
+
+As he stood there, the dusky tint of the robe he now wore seemed to lend
+itself to the surrounding gloom, being almost invisible against the
+portal, as he remained there with his fingers nervously quivering, and
+his face drawn by the agitation of his breast.
+
+He shook his head violently the next moment, clasped his hands together,
+and sank down once more upon the lion-skin mat, bent to the very floor,
+more like some rounded mass than a human being: while the great centaur
+was indistinctly seen, with his raised club, as if about to repeat the
+blow that had crushed the old Indian into a motionless heap.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+THE LAWYER'S TIN BOX.
+
+"This has been a terrible week, Katrine," said Lydia Lawrence, taking
+her cousin's hand.
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  I have not your _sang froid_.  I would give anything to go
+back to the country."
+
+"I have been curious to know all about the will.  That old man has been
+maddening.  He might have spoken."
+
+"But his instructions, clear.  The will was to be read after he had lain
+there a week."
+
+"Lain in state," said Katrine, with a curl of her lip.  "With a savage
+crouching on a lion-skin at his door like some dog.  Pah!  It is absurd.
+More like a scent in a French play than a bit of nineteenth century
+life."
+
+Lydia sighed.
+
+"I felt greatly relieved when those dreadful men had gone."
+
+"What, the Italian professors?  Pooh! what a child you are.  I did not
+mind."
+
+Lydia gazed at her with a feeling of shrinking wonder, and there was
+something almost fierce in the beautiful eyes, as Katrine sat there by
+one of the tables of the ill-lit drawing-room, the two pairs of wax
+candles in old-fashioned silver sticks seeming to emit but a feeble
+light, and but for the warm glow of the fire, the great room would have
+been sombre in the extreme.
+
+"What time is it, Lydia?  There, don't start like that.  What a kitten
+you are."
+
+"You spoke so suddenly, dear.  It is half-past ten."
+
+"Only half-past ten.  Nearly an hour and a half before the play begins.
+I wish we had kept the tea things."
+
+"Pray don't speak so lightly, Katrine."
+
+"I can't help it.  It is so absurd for the old man to have left
+instructions for all this meretricious romance to surround his end.  As
+for old Girtle, he seems to delight in it, and goes about the house
+rubbing his hands like an undertaker."
+
+"Katrine!"
+
+"Well, he does.  Will read at half-past eleven at night on the tenth day
+after the old man's death.  It is absurd.  Ah, well, I suppose a
+millionaire has a right to be eccentric, if he likes."
+
+"Dear Katrine, he was always so good."
+
+"Good!  Bah!  What did he ever do for me?  He hated my branch of the
+family, and our Creole blood.  As if the D'Enghiens were not a fine old
+French family before the Capels were heard of."
+
+"But Katrine--"
+
+"I will speak.  I was dragged here to be present at this mummery, to
+have for my share a hundred pounds to buy mourning, and I vow I'll spend
+it in Chinese mourning, and wear yellow instead of black.  Why don't
+those men come up instead of sitting smoking in that dining-room and
+leaving us alone in this mausoleum of a place?  Here, ring, and send for
+them; I'm getting nervous, too.  I'm catching it from you--weak little
+baby that you are."
+
+At that moment the door opened, and the two young men entered to go up
+to them, both speaking to Lydia, and then drawing their chairs nearer to
+Katrine.
+
+"Are you nearly ready for the play, Mr Capel?" she said, after a time.
+
+"The play!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes; the curtain will rise directly.  How do you feel, Gerard?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know.  I want to hear how many chips the old boy has left
+me.  Deuced glad to get out of this tomb.  I say, would you mind me
+lighting a cigar?"
+
+"I don't mind," said Katrine, lightly.
+
+"Would you mind, Miss Lawrence?"
+
+"Mind--your smoking--here?" said Lydia hastily.  "I--I don't think I
+should, but--"
+
+"No, no," said Capel; "it is impossible.  For heaven's sake, pay a
+little respect to the ladies, if you cannot to the dead."
+
+Artis started to his feet.
+
+"Look here, Paul Capel," he cried angrily; "you have taken upon yourself
+several times since I have been locked-up here with you to use
+confoundedly offensive language to me.  How dare you speak to me like
+that?"
+
+"Dare?" cried Capel, rising.  "Pooh!" he ejaculated, throwing himself
+back, and glancing at Katrine, whose eyes seemed to flash with eager
+pleasure, while Lydia half rose, with extended hands; "I am forgetting
+myself."
+
+Lydia sank back with a sigh, while Katrine's eyes flashed, and her lip
+curled.
+
+"Forgetting yourself!" cried Artis.  "By Jove, sir, you've done nothing
+else!  I suppose you expect to have all the old man's money, but we
+shall see."
+
+"Don't be alarmed, Miss Lawrence," said Capel, smiling.  "I am not going
+to quarrel.  Ah, here is Mr Girtle."
+
+The door opened, and Charles entered, with two more lighted candles, one
+in each hand, preceding Mr Girtle, who came in bearing a large tin deed
+box.  This he slowly proceeded to place upon the carpet beside a small
+table, on which Charles deposited the candlesticks.
+
+"I think I am punctual," said the lawyer, taking his old gold watch from
+his fob, and replacing it with a nod.  "Yes, nearly half-past eleven.
+Charles, will you summon all the servants.  I think everyone is
+mentioned in the will," he added, as Charles left the room.  "You will
+excuse all formalities.  I am strictly obeying instructions as to time
+and place."
+
+The old gentleman took a jingling bunch of keys from his pocket, bent
+down and opened the tin box, from which he took out a square folded
+parchment, crossed with broad green ribbons, and bearing a great seal.
+
+This he laid upon the table before him, and sinking back in his chair,
+proceeded to deliberately take snuff.  A dead silence reigned, and, in
+spite of himself, Paul Capel felt agitated, and sought from time to time
+to catch Katrine's eye; while Lydia looked from one to the other sadly,
+and Gerard Artis lay back in his chair.
+
+The door once more opened, and the servants filed in, led by Preenham,
+the butler, Ramo coming last, to stand with his arms folded and his head
+bent down upon his chest.
+
+"Be seated," said Mr Girtle; and his voice sounded solemn and strange.
+
+There was a rustling as the servants sat down in a row near the door,
+Ramo doubling his legs beneath him, and crouching on the floor.
+
+"The last will and testament of John Arthur Capel, late Colonel in the
+Honourable East India Company's Service, Special Commissioner with her
+Highness the Ranee of Illahad; Resident at the court of her Highness the
+Begum of Rahahbad!"
+
+So read the confidential solicitor and friend of the deceased, in a
+husky voice, his gold-rimmed glasses helping him to decipher the brown
+writing or endorsement of the yellow parchment.  Then he continued:--
+
+"I have followed out the instructions of the deceased to the letter, so
+far; and now, in continuance of these instructions, in your presence, I
+proceed to break this seal."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+THE READING OF THE WILL.
+
+There was a peculiar rustle in the gloomy room, a faint sound as of
+catching of the breath, and above all the sharp crackle of the broken
+wax as the seal was demolished, and the green ribbon thrown aside.
+
+Then after a prefatory _Hem_! the old lawyer proceeded to read the will,
+which was in the customary form, and began with a series of bequests to
+the old and faithful servants of the house, in respect of whose
+services, and so that there should be no jealous feeling as to amounts,
+he left each the sum of five hundred pounds free of duty, and ten pounds
+to each to buy mourning.
+
+"To my old and faithful servant, companion, and friend,"--read on the
+solicitor--"Ramo Ali Jee, two hundred and fifty pounds per annum for the
+rest of his natural life; the same to be secured in Three-per-cent
+Consols, reverting at his death as hereinafter stated."
+
+Ramo did not move or utter a word.
+
+"To my old friend and adviser, Joshua Girtle, of the Inner Temple, the
+plain gold signet ring on the fourth finger of my left hand."
+
+Then followed a few more minor bequests, and instructions of a very
+simple nature, ending one long paragraph in the will; and as Mr Girtle
+removed his glasses, and proceeded deliberately to wipe them, the
+servants took advantage of the gloom where they sat to give each other a
+congratulatory shake of the hand.
+
+"I now come to the important bequests," said Mr Girtle, rebalancing his
+glasses in his calm deliberate way.
+
+"To Katrine Leveillee D'Enghien, daughter of my niece, Harriet
+D'Enghien, formerly Capel, the gold bangle presented to me by the Ranee,
+and one hundred pounds, free of duty, to buy mourning."
+
+"There, what did I tell you?" said Katrine, in a low, sweet voice, as
+she smiled at her companions.
+
+"To Gerard Artis, son of my cousin, William Artis," read on Mr Girtle,
+in the same monotonous, unmoved way; and then he stopped to draw one of
+the candles forward in front of the parchment.
+
+The young man shifted his position uneasily, and drew in his breath
+quickly as he thought of the testator's immense wealth, and glanced at
+Katrine.
+
+"I shall not get all," he thought, "for he will leave something to Paul
+Capel."
+
+Then, after what seemed an age of suspense, the old solicitor went on:
+
+"The sum of one hundred pounds, free of duty, to buy mourning."
+
+There was a death-like stillness as the lawyer paused.
+
+"Go on, sir, go on," cried Artis, in a harsh voice.
+
+"To Lydia Alicia--"
+
+"No, no, finish the bequest to me."
+
+"I did, sir.  One hundred pounds to buy mourning."
+
+"What?  Treat me worse than his servants?"
+
+"I believe, Mr Artis, if you will excuse me, that a testator has a
+perfect right to do what he likes with his own."
+
+"Then you influenced him," cried Artis furiously.  "I shall dispute the
+will."
+
+The old gentleman smiled.
+
+"Influenced my old friend to leave me his signet ring, eh, Mr Artis?
+No, sir, the will was written by Colonel Capel himself, and afterwards
+transferred to parchment.  If you will allow me.  I will proceed."
+
+"I shall dispute the will.  I say so at once," cried Artis, "that there
+may be no mistake.  One hundred pounds each to Miss D'Enghien and
+myself!  It is absurd, paltry, pitiful."
+
+"You never saw the testator, Mr Artis?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Neither did you, Miss D'Enghien?"
+
+"I?  Oh no."
+
+"He told me himself," continued the old lawyer, "that he had never seen
+either Miss Lawrence or Mr Paul Capel."
+
+Lydia murmured an assent.
+
+"No," said Capel, who felt a curious oppression at the chest, "I never
+saw my great uncle.  I never even heard from or wrote to him."
+
+"May I ask why?"
+
+"I knew he was reported to be immensely rich, and--well, I felt that he
+might think I was trying to curry favour."
+
+"Let me see, Mr Artis, I think the deceased did pay your debts?"
+
+"Is this meant for an insult, sir?"
+
+"No, sir; it was a business-like defence of my old friend's memory.  To
+proceed:--
+
+"To Lydia Alicia Lawrence, my grand-niece, twenty-five thousand pounds,
+free of duty, the same to be invested in Consols, and if she marries, to
+be secured by marriage settlements to herself and children."
+
+There was a buzz of congratulation here, as the old solicitor once more
+wiped his glasses and arranged them and the candles, while, in spite of
+his endeavours to preserve his calmness, Paul Capel, the only one
+present yet unmentioned, felt the oppression increasing, and the air in
+the great gloomy room seemed to have become thick and hard to breathe.
+
+He was as if in a dream as the lawyer went on:
+
+"To Paul Capel, son of my nephew, Paul Capel, I leave my freehold house
+and furniture, library, plate, pictures, statues, bronzes, and curios,
+conditionally that the house be kept during his lifetime in the same
+state as it is in now.
+
+"Conditionally, also, that my body, after embalming, according to my
+instructions, be carried into the room leading out of my bedroom, and
+placed in the iron receptacle I had specially constructed, without
+religious rite or ceremony of any kind.  I have tried to make my peace
+with my Creator; to Him I leave the rest.  This done, the iron chamber
+to be locked in the presence of the said Paul Capel, who shall take the
+key.  The doorway shall then be built-up with blocks of stone similar to
+those of which I had the room built, a sufficiency of which are stored
+up in cellar Number 4, sealed with my seal.
+
+"And I here solemnly bind my heir and successor to observe exactly these
+my commands, that my body may rest undisturbed in my old home, under
+penalty of forfeiture of the said freehold as above named."
+
+"He must have been mad," said Artis, in an audible voice.
+
+"And as I, being now in full possession of my senses," continued Mr
+Girtle, slightly raising his voice, "know that this is a strange and
+arduous burden to lay upon my heir in chief, though I have taken such
+precautions that in a short time my presence in the house may entirely
+be forgotten, I give and bequeath to him for his sole use and
+enjoyment--and in the hope that with the help and advice of my old
+friend, Joshua Girtle, he will sensibly invest, and sell and invest--the
+Russian leather case containing Bank of England notes amounting to five
+hundred thousand pounds."
+
+Artis drew a long breath through his teeth; Katrine D'Enghien leaned
+forward, with her beautiful eyes fixed on Paul Capel; Lydia sank back in
+her seat with a feeling of misery she could not have explained seeming
+to crush her; while Paul Capel sat now unmoved.
+
+"And," continued the old lawyer, "the flat silver case containing the
+diamonds, pearls, rubies, and emeralds, bequeathed to me by my
+mistresses, the Ranee of Illahad and Begum of Rahahbad, valued at one
+million sterling, more or less.  These cases are in the steel chest in
+the iron chamber in which my coffin is to be placed when the cases are
+taken out, the keys of which, and the secret of the lock, being known
+only to my old friend, Joshua Girtle, whom I constitute my sole
+executor, and my old friend and servant, Ramo, whom I commend to the
+care of my grand-nephew, the said Paul Capel.
+
+"Furthermore, the remainder of the sum of fifty thousand pounds in
+Consols, after providing for the payments hereinbefore stated as
+legacies, I desire my executor to distribute in twenty equal sums to as
+many deserving charities as he may select."
+
+The reading of the rest of the document occupied scarcely a couple of
+minutes, and then the old solicitor rose.  The servants slowly left the
+room, making a detour so as to bow and courtesy to the Colonel's heir,
+Ramo last--furtively watching Charles--to go slowly to the young man's
+side, bow reverently, take his hand, and kiss it, saying softly the one
+word:
+
+"Sahib."
+
+"Don't go, Ramo," said Mr Girtle; and the old Indian slowly backed into
+the corner by the door, where he stood nearly invisible, waiting until
+such time as he should be called upon to give up his share of the secret
+of the chamber beyond the dead man's room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+A FIT OF GENEROSITY.
+
+"Mr Paul Capel," said the old solicitor, "allow me to add my
+congratulations, and my hope that your fortune may prove a blessing."
+
+"But it is like a dream--a romance," cried Paul Capel.  "All that wealth
+here--in this house!  I wonder that he was not robbed."
+
+"My old friend took great precautions against that," said Mr Girtle.
+"As you will see, it was impossible for any one to have stolen the
+valuables and notes."
+
+"But ought not this money to have been banked?"
+
+"Of course--or invested.  I have told him so, often; but he used to say
+he preferred to keep it as it was.  He had plenty for his wants and
+charities.  Your uncle was an eccentric man, Mr Capel; there is no
+denying that."
+
+"Eccentric!" cried Artis.  "Mad.  Well, I give you all warning.  I shall
+take action, and throw it into chancery."
+
+He walked to the end of the room, and Paul Capel looked after him
+uneasily as he saw Katrine follow.
+
+"You foolish boy!" she whispered; "am not I as badly used as you?  Be
+patient.  Wait."
+
+"What do you mean?" he whispered, hastily.
+
+She looked full in his eyes, and he tried to read the mystery in their
+depths, but without avail.
+
+"Why don't you speak?" he cried.
+
+"Some things are better left unspoken," she replied.  "Don't be rash."
+
+"I'll wait." he whispered, "if you wish it."
+
+"I do wish it.  Take no notice of what I say or do.  Promise me that."
+
+"Promise me you will not make me jealous, and I'll wait."
+
+"But maybe I shall make you jealous," she said.  "Still, you know me.
+Wait."
+
+"I'm sorry for one thing, Mr Girtle," said Paul Capel, while this was
+going on.
+
+"May I ask what that is?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  Your simple bequest of a ring.  Will you--you will not be
+offended, Mr Girtle--out of this immense wealth allow me to make you
+some suitable--"
+
+"Stop," said the old gentleman, laying his hand upon the speaker's arm.
+"My old friend wished to leave me a large sum, but I chose that ring in
+preference.  Thank you all the same, my dear young friend, and I beg you
+will count upon me for help."
+
+"Well, then, there is something I should like to do at once.  Look here,
+Mr Girtle--a million and a half--"
+
+"With its strange burden."
+
+"Oh, I don't mind that.  I want to do something over this money.  Miss
+Lawrence is well provided for, but Miss D'Enghien--"
+
+"Well, you had better marry her."
+
+"Do--do you mean that?"
+
+"No," said the old man, sternly; "I do not."
+
+"There is Mr Artis, too.  I should like--"
+
+"To find him in funds to carry on a legal war against you for what he
+would call his rights.  My dear Mr Capel, may I, as lawyer, give you a
+bit of advice?"
+
+"Certainly; I ask it of you."
+
+"Then wait."
+
+Capel drew back as the old gentleman proceeded to fold the will and lay
+it with other papers in the tin box, while Ramo, standing alone in the
+gloom, with folded arms and apparently seeing nothing, but observing
+every motion, hearing almost every word, noticed that Gerard Artis was
+watching the deposition of the will, his hungry looks seeming to devour
+it as he felt that he would like to destroy it on the spot.
+
+Ramo noted, too, that Paul Capel took a step or two towards where
+Katrine was talking eagerly to Artis.  Then he hesitated and turned off
+to where Lydia sat alone.
+
+She, too, had been watching Paul Capel's actions, and now that he turned
+to her she seemed to shrink back in her seat, as if his coming troubled
+her.
+
+"Let me congratulate you, Mr Capel," she said, rather coldly.
+
+"Thank you," he said with a sigh; and she saw him glance in the
+direction of Katrine.
+
+"I think," said Mr Girtle, loudly, "that we will now proceed to fulfil
+the next part of my instructions."
+
+There was a sharp click heard here, as he locked a little padlock on the
+tin box, and Gerard Artis watched him, thinking what a little there was
+between him and the obnoxious will.
+
+"Miss D'Enghien, Miss Lawrence, will you kindly follow me?  Ramo, lead
+the way."
+
+It was like going from one gloom into another far deeper, as the door
+was thrown open, and Ramo led the way along the short, wide passage,
+bearing a silver candlestick, whose light played softly on the great
+stained window when he stopped, and illuminated the bronze club of the
+centaur, still raised to strike.
+
+The eyes of Gerard Artis were fixed upon the tin box containing the
+will--the keen look of Katrine D'Enghien on the old Indian servant, as
+he took a key from his cummerbund--while Paul Capel gazed, with his soul
+in his glance, on Katrine, ignorant that, with spirit sinking lower and
+lower, Lydia was watching him.
+
+The solicitor gave a glance around full of solemnity and awe, as if to
+ask were all ready.  Then, as if satisfied, he made a sign to Ramo.
+
+The Indian raised the candlestick above his head, softly thrust in the
+key, turned it, and threw open the door, when once more, from the
+darkness within, the strange aromatic odour floated forth.
+
+"Mr Capel, you are master here," said the old lawyer softly.  "Enter
+first."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+LYING IN STATE.
+
+Paul Capel looked round at Katrine, who gave him a sympathetic glance,
+and entered the room, taking a step forward and pausing for the rest to
+follow.  Ramo closed the door, and drew a heavy curtain across, whose
+rings made a peculiar thrilling noise on the thick brass rod.
+
+Ramo then lit two wax candles upon the chimney-piece, and a couple more
+upon the dressing-table, whose united light was only sufficient to show
+in a dim way the extent of the room, with its old-fashioned bed and
+hangings of dark cloth, similar curtains being over the window, and
+across what seemed to be a second door opposite the couch.
+
+There was an intense desire to look towards the bed, but it was mastered
+by a strange shrinking, and the visitors to the death-chamber occupied
+themselves first in looking round at the objects that met their eye.
+
+It was richly furnished, and on every hand it seemed that its occupant
+had taken precautions to guard himself from the cold of England, after a
+long sojourn in a hotter land.  A thick Turkey carpet was on the floor,
+large skin rugs were by the fire-place and bedside, dressing-table, and
+wash-stand.  Similar rugs were thrown over the easy-chairs, and on the
+comfortable couch by the ample fire-place, while here and there were
+trophies of foreign arms; peculiarly-shaped weapons lay on the
+dressing-table, and formed the ornamentation of the chimney-piece.
+
+In one corner of the room, carefully arranged and hung upon a stand, was
+a strangely grotesque object, that, in the semi-darkness, somewhat
+resembled a human figure, but proved to be the tarnished uniform worn by
+the old officer--coatee, helmet, sword and belts gorgeous with
+ornamentation, a pair of pistols with silver butts, and a small flag of
+faded silk and gilt stuff were grouped over a gold embroidered saddle
+and tarnished shabrack of Indian work.
+
+Here, too, was one of the Indian figures of Buddha crouched upon an
+enormous bracket at this side of the room, looking in the obscurity like
+a living watcher of the dead, in an attitude of contemplation or prayer.
+
+Ramo stood in the silent room, holding the silver candlestick above his
+head, motionless as another statue, so much in keeping was he in his
+garb and colour with the surroundings.
+
+But he was keenly watching every one the while, and, taking his cue from
+a mute question addressed by Mr Girtle's eyes to Paul Capel, he walked
+solemnly to the head of the heavily hung bed, softly drew back one
+curtain, and held the candle over his dead master's mortal remains.
+
+Paul Capel felt a natural instinctive shrinking from approaching the
+bed, but he did not hesitate, stepping forward with reverence, and even
+then his heart gave a throb of satisfaction that one of his female
+companions should have stepped calmly to his side.
+
+Lying there as in a darkened tent, with a couple of Indian tulwars
+crossed upon the bed's head, was a perfectly plain oaken coffin of
+unusual size, and without the slightest ornamentation save that on the
+lid, resting against the side, was a brass breastplate bearing the dead
+man's name, age, and the date of death.
+
+Within--wrapped in a rich robe of Indian fabric, glittering with flowers
+wrought in gold thread--lay the Colonel, his face visible, and
+presenting to those who gazed upon it for the first time, the fine
+features of the old soldier, with his closely cut grey hair, ample
+beard, and the scars of two sword cuts across brow and cheek.
+
+There was no distortion.  The old man, full of days, lay calmly asleep,
+and Paul Capel bent down and kissed the icy brow.
+
+When he rose his companion pressed forward, and, as he gave way,
+imitated his action, when, to his surprise, he saw that it was not
+Katrine D'Enghien, but Lydia.
+
+A low sigh fell upon their ears as they were leaving the bed's head, and
+Paul raised his eyes to see that the old Indian was watching, and in the
+semi-darkness he saw him quickly raise a portion of Lydia's dress and
+hold it to his lips.
+
+Drawing back, they gave place to Katrine and Gerard Artis, who walked to
+the bed's head, stood for a moment or two, and then, as if moved by the
+same impulse, both drew away.  The old Indian stepped back with his
+candlestick, the polished silver of which seemed to glimmer and flash in
+the gloom, the heavy curtain fell in its funereal folds, and the group
+turned to Mr Girtle.
+
+The old man said a few words to Ramo, who crossed the room to the
+dressing-table, taking one by one the candlesticks, and placing them in
+Paul and Lydia's hands, after which he took those from the chimney-piece
+to give to Katrine and Gerard Artis, the old lawyer taking the one the
+Indian had carried.
+
+This done, Ramo walked softly to the curtain that covered what seemed to
+be the second door, and again there was the thrilling sound as the rings
+swept with a low rattle over the rod, laying bare a strong iron door
+deep down in a narrow arched portal.
+
+Opening his silken robe, he drew out three keys of curious shape,
+attached to a stout steel chain which seemed to be round his waist, and
+softly placing one of them in the lock he turned it easily, when a
+series of bolts shot back with a loud clang.  Then taking out the key,
+he pressed the door with his shoulder, and it swung slowly and heavily
+open, apparently requiring all the old man's strength to throw it back.
+
+"Iron, and of great thickness," said Mr Girtle, in a low voice.  "Mr
+Capel, shall I lead the way?"
+
+The Colonel's heir bowed, and, candle in hand, the old lawyer passed
+through the doorway, Ramo holding back the curtain, and standing like
+the guardian of the place.
+
+They saw Mr Girtle take a couple of steps forward, turn sharply, and
+descend, and as Paul Capel followed, he found that to his left were half
+a dozen broad stone stairs, flanked by a heavy balustrade, and that the
+old lawyer was standing below, holding up his light.
+
+The next minute, as they reached the floor of what seemed to be a
+good-sized chamber, there was the sound of the curtain being drawn as if
+to shut them in, and Ramo came softly down the little flight of steps,
+to stand at a distance, with reverent mien.
+
+By the light of the five candles they now saw that they were in a
+perfectly bare-walled chamber, apparently floor, walls, and groined roof
+of stone, while in the centre stood a large massive cube of solid iron,
+painted thickly to resemble stone.
+
+So large was it that it seemed as if the remainder of the chamber, left
+uncovered, merely formed a passage to walk about the four sides.
+
+"This place the Colonel had constructed where a dressing room used to
+be," said Mr Girtle; and his voice sounded peculiar, being repeated in
+whispers from the wall in a hollow, metallic ring that was oppressive as
+it was strange.
+
+"Why the place is like a vault with a tomb in it," said Artis, with an
+impatient tone in his voice.
+
+"It is a vault, Mr Artis," said the old lawyer--"a vault in which is a
+tomb.  This," he continued, "is all of enormous strength, blocks of
+stone and concrete being beneath us, and the walls and roof are of
+immense thickness.  The space to be blocked up is six feet through."
+
+"Humph, highly interesting, Mr Showman," muttered Artis; and then, at a
+look from Katrine, he became attentive.
+
+"Colonel Capel," continued the old lawyer, "had his own peculiar ideas,
+and being an enormously wealthy man, accustomed to command, he
+considered he had a right to follow out his views.  I more than once
+pointed out to him, when he made me his confidant, that the proceedings
+he proposed might meet with opposition from the authorities, but he
+replied calmly that the place was his own freehold, and that everything
+was to be carried out privately, but at the same time he would give as
+little excuse as possible for interference with his plans.  Besides, he
+said, once get the matter over, and it would be forgotten in a week."
+
+"But, in the name of common sense," broke out Artis, "why--"
+
+"Will you kindly retain your observations, Mr Artis, until we have
+returned to the drawing-room," said the lawyer.
+
+Artis was about to reply, but Paul Capel saw that a look from Katrine
+restrained him, and a jealous pang shot through his heart.
+
+Balm came for the wound directly, as Katrine raised her eyes to his, let
+them rest there for a few moments, and then veiled them as she gazed
+upon the floor.
+
+"Colonel Capel," continued the old lawyer, with his words whispering
+about the stone walls, "had a double intention in having the place
+constructed.  It was for his mausoleum after death, for his strong room
+during life.  Within this iron room or chamber, which would defy any
+burglar's tools, is a chest of steel, constructed from the Colonel's own
+designs, to contain his enormous fortune, and when that has been taken
+out at twelve o'clock to-morrow, it is to be replaced by the coffin that
+lies in the next room, by us who are present now; to be closed up and
+locked; the iron chamber is to be also closed; then the iron door; and
+lastly, we are to see that portal completely walled up, as I have
+already told you, and--forgotten."
+
+"But," said Artis, quickly, "is the large sum in notes here--in this
+place?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And the diamonds--the pearls?" said Katrine.
+
+"Yes, my dear young lady, all are here."
+
+"And you have the keys?"
+
+"I and Ramo, the deceased's trusted servant."
+
+"But is--"
+
+Artis was about to continue, "it safe to trust that man?" but, as he
+spoke, he glanced at Ramo, who was watching him.
+
+"My guide is the series of rules written by Colonel Capel, sir," said
+Mr Girtle, coldly.
+
+"Can we see the jewels?" said Katrine.
+
+"Yes; you can show us the treasure," cried Artis, with a half-laugh.
+"As we two are to have nothing, we might be indulged with a peep."
+
+"The treasure is Mr Paul Capel's, sir," said the old lawyer; "but, even
+if he expressed a wish, I could not depart from my instructions.
+To-morrow, at noon, I bid you all to meet me at the door of Colonel
+Capel's room."
+
+"To-morrow?" said Artis.  "To-day."
+
+The old lawyer glanced at his watch.
+
+"Yes," he said, "to-day.  I had forgotten that it was so late.  Will you
+kindly accompany me to the drawing-room?"
+
+The Indian went first and drew back the curtain, and they passed up into
+the bedroom, where the old officer lay in state.
+
+There they paused, as Ramo drew back the iron door and turned the key,
+when the bolts shot into their sockets, and the curtain was drawn.
+
+Then, glancing at the bed, they passed out of the room, Ramo locking the
+door, listening sharply, with his ears twitching, as he caught a faint
+creaking noise made by a lock in the lower part of the house.
+
+"How strange that bronze figure looks," said Mr Girtle, glancing up at
+the great centaur looming indistinctly against the stained-glass window,
+in whose recess it stood.
+
+"Yes," said Paul.  "It is a fine work, but it looks as if it were going
+to dash out some one's brains."
+
+"That is what I have always thought whenever I have entered or left that
+room."
+
+"I wish to Heaven it had--both of you," muttered Artis.  "A hundred
+pounds.  Good God!  A hundred pounds!"
+
+The same thought may have entered Katrine D'Enghien's head, for, as they
+moved towards the drawing-room, she laid her arm affectionately round
+Lydia's slight waist, and said softly to herself:
+
+"A bangle and a hundred pounds!  _Mon Dieu_!"
+
+Then the drawing-room door closed, and Ramo stood in the dark, leaning
+over the balustrade of the great well staircase, listening intently till
+he saw a door open, and a flash of light came out, shining on the round,
+full face of the old butler, and the keen features of Charles, the
+footman, the latter bearing a tray of silver chamber candlesticks.
+
+Ramo glided away, and the two servants bore the tray to the
+drawing-room, asked if they would be wanted again, and retired.
+
+"Good-night, dearest," cried Katrine, kissing Lydia affectionately.  "I
+congratulate you.  I am not jealous.  Good-night, Mr Girtle--how tired
+you must be," she said, shaking hands.  "Good-night, Mr Artis.
+Good-night, Mr Capel.  I congratulate you heartily.  Good-night!"
+
+Five minutes later the great drawing-room was as still as the chamber of
+the dead, and in the dark house--on staircase and in hall--statue and
+picture looked on, and the kneeling idols crouched with their eyes
+closed to what was passing, while the great bronze centaur stood with
+uplifted club, ready to strike there, where he seemed to be on guard, at
+his dead master's door.
+
+But he struck no blow, and the night passed, and the morning came--a
+dull, drizzling morning--when the fog hung low, and it was still like
+night when Preenham, the butler, knocked heavily at Mr Girtle's door.
+
+The old lawyer drew the wire, and the night latch allowed the butler to
+rush in.
+
+"Hot water, Preenham?" said the old man.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, get up, sir, and I'll call Mr Capel, sir!" panted
+the butler.
+
+"What!  Something wrong?"
+
+"Yes, sir--quick!  I'm afraid there's murder done."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+THE HORRORS OF A MORN.
+
+By the time Mr Girtle was partly dressed and had hurried out on the
+landing, Paul Capel and Gerard Artis had left their rooms, ready to
+question him upon the cause of the alarm.
+
+"I don't know," he said, trembling.  "Preenham came and roused me--
+speaking of murder--and, bless my soul!  I did not know you were there.
+Miss Lawrence, too!"
+
+Katrine and Lydia had joined them there on the landing of the second
+floor, where a chamber candlestick on a table was almost the only light,
+for that which came through the ground-glass at the top of the staircase
+was so much yellow gloom.
+
+"One of the maids--Anne--came and woke me," said Katrine, speaking very
+calmly, as she looked from one to the other, the most collected of any
+one present.  "She said there was something wrong."
+
+"She woke me, too," cried Lydia, who was trembling visibly, and looked
+of a sallow grey.
+
+"Mr Girtle, will you come down?"
+
+It was the butler's voice, and Paul Capel ran quickly down the stairs to
+the drawing-room floor, where the old butler, ghastly pale, with his
+hair sticking to his forehead, had lit half-a-dozen candles and stood
+them, some on a table, some on the pedestal of the great bronze group
+outside Colonel Capel's door.
+
+"What is it?  Speak, man!" cried Capel.
+
+"The ladies!  Don't let the ladies come!"
+
+It was too late; they were already there; and the women-servants were
+dimly seen in the gloom at the foot of the stairs.
+
+"But what is wrong?" cried Capel.
+
+"I--I--"
+
+The butler passed his hand over his humid face, and looked piteously
+from one to the other.
+
+"Preenham!  Speak, man!  At once!" said Mr Girtle, sternly.
+
+"I woke at half-past seven, sir," he said, in a trembling voice, "and
+wondered that I had not been called at seven.  Mr Ramo, sir, always
+rose very early, and called me and Charles; but I was not surprised, for
+since master's death, he has slept outside his door, I think--I'm almost
+sure, though I never said anything to--"
+
+"Man, you are torturing us!" cried Capel.
+
+"Give him time," said Artis, who looked nervous and strange.
+
+"Yes, let him speak," said Katrine.  "Go on, Mr Preenham, and tell us."
+
+"Thank you ma'am, I will," said the butler; "but--but would you ladies
+go back to your room or the drawing-room, I've something--something--"
+
+"I'm not a child," said Katrine.  "Lydia, dear, you had better go."
+
+"I will stay with you," said Lydia, laying her hand upon Katrine's arm;
+and after a helpless look round, and a motion of his hands, as if he
+washed them of any trouble that might come, the old butler went on.
+
+"I didn't take much notice, as we were late last night, but as soon as I
+was dressed, I knocked at Charles' door--he sleeps in a turn-up bedstead
+in the servants' hall."
+
+The old man directed this piece of information to those around him, and
+then went on.
+
+"There was no answer, so I went in, and Charles was not there."
+
+"Not there?" said Mr Girtle, quickly.
+
+"No, sir.  The bed had not been slept in.  His livery was on the chair
+by it, and his cupboard was open where he keeps his private clothes."
+
+"This is strange," said Mr Girtle.  "Go on."
+
+"Yes, sir.  I thought perhaps he had let himself out through the area
+gate, sir.  He has done such things before, and at a time like this I
+must speak plain."
+
+"Yes.  Let me have the truth.  Go on."
+
+"I was very angry, sir, and I meant to tell you, for it seemed
+disgraceful at such a time."
+
+"Go on."
+
+"I will, sir," faltered the butler, "but you must not flurry me.  I have
+had a shock."
+
+"Let him go on his own way, Mr Capel," said the old lawyer.
+
+Preenham gave him a grateful look and continued:
+
+"I thought I'd go and speak to Mr Ramo, and then I met Cook and Anne."
+
+"We were on the mat, Mr Preenham," said a husky voice from below.
+
+"Yes, Mrs Thompson, quite right, and they went on to the kitchen while
+I went up into the hall, and undid the bolts of the front hall door, and
+let down the chain."
+
+"Yes--exactly."
+
+"Then I went up, sir, to see if Mr Ramo was at master's door."
+
+"Yes; go on," said Capel, excitedly.
+
+"And when I came to the door, sir, I found it was ajar, and though I
+listened, I could not hear a sound.  So I pushed the door against the
+big curtain, and called softly, `Ramo!  Mr Ramo!' but there was no
+answer, and then I felt a bit alarmed, and, after waiting a moment, I
+went down and got a light."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I called again, sir, twice; and then, pushing open the door, a puff of
+wind nearly blew out the light."
+
+"Wind?" cried Mr Girtle; and he took a step towards the door.
+
+"Stop a minute, sir, please," said the butler appealingly.  "I went in
+quickly, and the first thing I saw was the curtain dragged aside and the
+window open."
+
+"Yes--go on," cried Mr Girtle, for the butler was trembling so that he
+could hardly speak.
+
+"And the next, sir--I nearly fell over him--there was poor Mr Ramo--
+lying--in--a pool of blood."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+The cry came from Lydia as she tottered and clung to Katrine, calm
+amidst the horrors of the recital.
+
+"I put the candle on the floor, sir, and went down on my knee beside
+him," cried the butler, growing more and more agitated.  "Look," he
+said, piteously, pointing to his trousers and his hands.  "I touched
+him, sir, but he was dead, sir, dead, and I came up then and alarmed the
+house."
+
+Artis looked at the butler narrowly, as his eyes wandered from one to
+the other.
+
+"Have you been in since, Preenham?"
+
+"No, sir.  I went and got the candles, and lit all I could."
+
+Capel was about to rush into the room, but he stopped on the threshold.
+
+"Miss D'Enghien--Miss Lawrence--this is no place for you.  Pray go back
+to your rooms."
+
+"Yes," said Katrine, slowly, "Mr Capel is right.  Come, dear, with me."
+
+She passed her arm round Lydia, and the two seemed to fade away into the
+darkness, as Capel, Mr Girtle, Artis, and, lastly, the butler went into
+the room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+ANOTHER DISCOVERY.
+
+It was precisely as the butler had said.  There was the window open--a
+window looking out on to some leads.  And beyond them the low houses of
+a mews which ran at the back.  There, at a short distance from the bed,
+was the Colonel's faithful servant, in a pool of blood, with a kukri--
+one of those ugly curved Indian knives--clasped tightly in his hand.
+
+"Dead!" said Mr Girtle; and then, rising quickly, he ran to the further
+portal, drew back the curtain, and found the iron door closed.
+
+"There has been a terrible struggle here," said Capel.  "Look."
+
+He pointed to where, plainly seen on the white counterpane that half
+covered the heavy valance, there was the mark of a bloody hand that had
+caught the quilt and dragged it a little down.
+
+"Yes," said Mr Girtle, looking about at overturned chairs, a small
+table driven out of its place, and a carriage clock swept off and lying
+on the floor.  "Yes, there has been a terrible struggle."
+
+He looked at the dead man, and then in the direction of the strong
+chamber.
+
+Artis saw, and said maliciously:
+
+"Murder must mean robbery."
+
+"Impossible!" said the lawyer.  "The door is shut.  Stop.  Let me see,"
+and stooping, he thrust his hand inside the silken robe the old Indian
+wore.
+
+There was a dead silence as he searched hastily, and then drew out the
+keys and chain.
+
+"All safe," he cried; "see, here are the keys.  They slip off and on
+this spring swivel; the old man always wore them there.  The key of that
+door; the key of the iron chamber; the key of the steel chest.
+Gentlemen, I shall remove the keys.  Mr Capel, they are yours, now.
+Take them."
+
+"No," said Capel quietly.  "Keep them, sir.  Now, what do you make of
+this?  It seems to me that the murderer must have come in by this door,
+and encountered Ramo, and, after the terrible struggle, have escaped by
+the window."
+
+"Exactly," said Mr Girtle.
+
+"Unless," said Artis, "some one killed this black fellow when trying to
+rob his master."
+
+"Absurd!" cried Capel angrily, as he bent down over the dead man.  "Look
+here," he cried, "whoever it was must have been wounded.  This knife is
+covered with blood."
+
+"His own, perhaps," said Artis.
+
+"May be so, but I think not.  Now, Mr Girtle, what next?"
+
+"The police," said the old lawyer huskily.  "Preenham, fetch me a little
+brandy; this terrible scene has made me faint."
+
+"Go, sir?  Leave you here?"
+
+"Yes, go at once," said Mr Girtle, and there seemed to be an
+unwillingness to leave, as the butler went out and closed the door.
+
+"You did not want that brandy," said Artis quickly.  "You wanted to get
+rid of him for a few minutes.  I know what you are thinking--that it was
+that scoundrelly-faced footman."
+
+"Yes, you have guessed my thoughts."
+
+"And you suspect the butler?"
+
+"I do not say that, sir," said the lawyer coldly.  "We do not know that
+there has been any robbery until the plate is examined, but we ought to
+have sent for a doctor at once."
+
+"I'll go," said Capel, and hurrying out of the room, he ran down the
+stairs, caught his hat from the stand, and hurried from street to street
+till he saw the familiar red-eyed lamp.
+
+Five minutes after he was on his way back in a cab, with a keen-looking,
+youngish man, to whom he gave an account of the morning's discovery.
+
+"Have you given notice to the police?"
+
+"No."
+
+"If I were you, I should send a messenger straight to Scotland Yard.  It
+will save you from the blundering of some young constable.  Humph--too
+late."
+
+For, as they reached the room, there was the familiar helmet of one of
+the force, the man having found the door left open by Capel and rung.
+
+He was a heavy, dull-looking man, who seemed, as he stood in the
+darkened room, to consider it his duty to thrust his hand in his belt,
+and stare at the ghastly figure on the floor.
+
+Meanwhile the doctor was busily examining the body of the Indian
+servant.
+
+"Quite dead!" said Mr Girtle.
+
+"Yes.  _Rigor mortis_ has set in."
+
+"Suicide?"
+
+"Suicide, sir?  Oh, bless my soul, no."
+
+"But that weapon?"
+
+"Yes, some one had an awful cut with that, I should say," continued the
+doctor, and the constable mentally drew a line from the kukri to the
+open window, out on to the leads, and down into the mews.
+
+"What has caused his death?"
+
+"I cannot tell you yet," said the doctor.  "Hold the light here, closer,
+please.  Hah, that is the mark of a blow on the arm.  There is this
+wound on the chin, and on the neck.  Hah!  Yes, this seems more likely.
+There has been a tremendous blow dealt here on the head--but no
+fracture, I think--sort of blow a life-preserver would give; but,
+really, I cannot account so far for his death.  Unless--What is this
+peculiar odour?"
+
+"I told you," said Capel, pointing to the bed.
+
+"No, I don't mean that," said the doctor quickly.  "I mean this about
+here.  Can you see any bottle?"
+
+He ran his hand down the side of the silk robe, and then looked round
+where he knelt.
+
+"What do you mean, doctor?" said Mr Girtle.
+
+"There is the same odour that I should expect to notice in a case of
+suicide with poison."
+
+"Doesn't look much like that," said Artis.  "Why, doctor, look at the
+traces of the struggle."
+
+"I have looked at them, sir," replied the doctor; "but, so far, I detect
+no cause for death.  A proper examination may give different results,
+but I must have the assistance of a colleague."
+
+"Done, sir?  Finished?" said the constable, who had remained for the
+time unnoticed.
+
+"Yes, my man.  You will give notice of this at once, and lock up the
+room."
+
+"All in good time, sir.  I should like a look round.  Door open, you
+say?"
+
+"Yes," said Mr Girtle.
+
+"Window open?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, then, the fellow who did it seems to have come in here and
+escaped there, after getting a cut with that crooked knife."
+
+He turned on his bull's-eye lantern, and made the light play from where
+the body lay, over the Turkey carpet, to the window, where he turned off
+the light, for there was sufficient for him to see and examine the seat
+and sill.
+
+No stains--no marks of hands on the window, no footmarks outside on the
+leads--not a spot.
+
+He shook his head, and came back.
+
+"Well, my man?" said Mr Girtle.
+
+"Don't be in a hurry, sir.  Law moves slow and sure.  I was in the
+country before I got out of the rural into the metropolitan."
+
+"What has that to do with this?" cried Artis.
+
+"Everything, sir," said the constable, turning sharply on the young man,
+and watching him narrowly.  "I've known cases where windows have been
+set open to make it seem that some one's gone through."
+
+"But the murderer is not in the house," said Mr Girtle, uneasily; "and
+we suspect--"
+
+"Who's that?" said the constable, sharply.  "Oh, you, Mr Butler."
+
+"Yes; I've brought the brandy for Mr Girtle, sir."
+
+"Never mind, now," said the policeman.  "Set it down.  Gentlemen, I've
+got a theory about this here."
+
+He turned on his bull's-eye again, as he spoke.
+
+"A theory?" cried Capel, impatiently.
+
+"Yes, sir.  You see that crooked knife thing?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And the mark of the bloody hand on the counterpane, where it is
+dragged?"
+
+"Yes, we saw that."
+
+"Well, has any one looked under the bed?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then we shall find him there."
+
+He stepped forward and raised the heavy valance, directing the light
+beneath.
+
+"There!" he exclaimed.  "What did I say?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+"WHY, DOCTOR, HE'S DEAD!"
+
+In one moment the slow, heavy-looking constable changed, from a rustic,
+loutish fellow, to a man full of intelligent observation, for, as he
+raised the valance of the bed, there, indistinctly seen, was the body of
+a man, either through fear or to escape observation.
+
+With a quick motion of the hand, the constable opened the leather case
+at his side, and drew his truncheon.
+
+"Stand at the window, sir," he said to Capel.  "You, sir, keep the door.
+Now, then," he cried, as soon as he had been obeyed, and in a sharp,
+authoritative voice.  "The game's up.  Out you came."
+
+Capel set his teeth hard, for all this was horrible in that chamber of
+death.
+
+"Do you hear?" cried the constable, sharply, for there was neither word
+nor movement from beneath the bed.  "Oh, very well," he continued, "only
+I warn you I stand no nonsense."  And the occupants of the room prepared
+for a struggle, with beating hearts.
+
+The constable stepped back to them, and from behind his hand, said,
+softly:
+
+"Be ready, perhaps there's two."
+
+He stepped back and stooped with his staff ready for a blow.
+
+"Now, then," he cried; "is it surrender?"
+
+There was no answer, and, he thrust his hand beneath the bed, seized the
+man's leg, and dragged him out into the room, but only to loose his hold
+and start away.
+
+"Why, doctor!" he cried, "he's dead."
+
+The doctor caught up a candlestick and dropped on one knee beside the
+fresh horror, while the light from the bull's-eye was again brought to
+bear, and mingled with the wan, yellow rays that struggled in through
+the panes.
+
+"Good God, gentlemen!" gasped the butler, "it's Charles."
+
+The horribly distorted features were, indeed, those of the footman, and
+the mystery of the death-chamber began to grow lighter, for it was
+evident that for some reason he had entered the room in the night.  For
+no good mission, certainly, a short whalebone-handled life-preserver
+hanging by a twisted thong from his wrist.
+
+The hideous stains upon the kukri were clearly enough explained by the
+sight of a terrible gash in the man's throat, and one of his hands was
+crimsoned and smeared--the one that had left its print upon the quilt,
+as, in his death struggle, he had rolled beneath the bed.
+
+"No one else there, gentleman," said the constable, looking beneath the
+bed and making his lantern play there and about the curtains, whilst as
+it shed its keen light across the calm, sleeping face of the Colonel,
+the man involuntarily took off his helmet and stepped back on tiptoe.
+
+"Dead some hours," said the doctor, rising.
+
+"It is clear enough," said Mr Girtle, in the midst of the painful
+silence.  "This poor Hindoo was the faithful old servant of my deceased
+friend, and he died in defence of his master's property."
+
+"Yes, yes," cried the old butler, excitedly.  "Charles used to talk
+about master's money and diamonds in the servants' hall.  I used to
+reprove him, and say that talking about such things was tempting
+yourself."
+
+"Never asked you to be in it, of course?" said the constable, going
+close up to him.
+
+"Oh, no; never, sir; but are you quite sure both him and Mr Ramo are
+dead?"
+
+"Quite," said the constable.  "There, you can say what you like, but
+it's my duty to tell you that I shall take down anything you say, and it
+may be used in evidence against you."
+
+"Against me!" cried the butler.
+
+"Yes, against you."
+
+But there was no occasion for the note-book, for Preenham closed his
+lips and did not speak again.
+
+"I think I will satisfy myself, constable, that all is safe here," said
+Mr Girtle.  "Gentlemen, will you come with me?"
+
+He crossed the room, drew back the curtain over the portal and, taking
+out his keys, unlocked and pushed back the door, descending with the
+others into the vault-like chamber and examining the massive iron
+structure in the middle.
+
+"It is quite safe," he said, as the constable made the light of his
+lantern play here and there.
+
+"But you have not looked in the safe," said Artis, quickly.
+
+"There is no need, sir.  No one could have opened it, even with the
+keys, but Ramo or myself.  Nothing has been touched."
+
+The policeman drew a long breath and they returned to the death-chamber,
+Mr Girtle carefully locking the iron door.
+
+"I don't think we shall want any detectives here, gentlemen," said the
+constable; "I shall stay on the premises, but perhaps you will let the
+butler--no, I think one of you, perhaps--will be good enough to send in
+the first constable you see."
+
+"I am going back," said the doctor.  "I can do no more now, policeman.
+I will send a man to you."
+
+"Thankye, sir, if you will."
+
+"Of course you will give notice to the coroner, and there will be a
+post-mortem?"
+
+"You leave that to me, sir; only send me one of our men."
+
+They were stealing out on tiptoe, when Capel went back and drew the
+heavy curtains right across the bed, to shut from the old warrior the
+horrors that lay in the middle of the room.  The constable, too, stepped
+softly across to fasten the window.  Then, following the others out, he
+closed and locked the door, turning round directly, ducking down, and
+involuntarily attempting to draw his truncheon, as he raised his left
+arm to ward off a blow.
+
+"Bah!" he ejaculated.  "Why, it's a stature.  Looked just as if it was
+going to knock one down."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+THE TREASURE.
+
+A week of horror and anxiety, during which the customary legal processes
+had been gone through.
+
+A jury had visited the Dark House and been conducted through the two
+rooms, to go away disappointed at not seeing the inside of the great
+iron safe.  Then, after the evidence had been given, by the various
+witnesses at the inquest, including that of the two doctors who had
+performed the post-mortem examination, a verdict was returned which
+charged Charles Pillar with wilful murder, and stated that the Indian
+had committed justifiable homicide.
+
+The doctors had differed, as it is proverbially said that they will, Dr
+Heston, the young medical man, who had been called in first, telling the
+jury that he was not satisfied that the blows given had caused the
+death, and drawing attention to the peculiar odour he had noticed.  But
+the Coroner, an old medical man, sided with the colleague, who
+pooh-poohed the idea, and the verdict was given.
+
+The coroner was a good deal exercised in his mind whether some
+proceedings ought not to have been taken in respect to the remains of
+the late Colonel, but he obtained no legal support, and the terrible
+murder and attempted robbery at Number 9A, Albemarle Square, with the
+history of the embalming, and the mysterious inner chamber, were public
+property for the usual nine days, when something fresh occurred, and the
+interest died away.
+
+Then, once more, there was the old peace in the Dark House, where the
+remains of Colonel Capel lay in state in the mystery-haunted room.
+
+The servants were very reticent, and consequently but little was heard
+of the proceedings in Albemarle Square.  A good many loiterers had
+stopped to stare at the darkened windows of the great mansion; but as
+two coffins had been borne from the place, it was forgotten outside that
+another still remained.  What might have been some busy-body's business,
+became no one's, and the horrible tragedy tended towards the
+simplification, of the dead man's instructions.
+
+"It is nine days now since the Colonel's commands should have been
+fulfilled," said Mr Girtle, as they were seated at lunch in the
+darkened dining-room--the same party, for Katrine had expressed her
+determination to stay in the house through all the trouble, and Lydia
+had offered to remain with her.
+
+Katrine and Lydia had kept a great deal to their rooms; Mr Girtle spent
+most of his time in the library, busy over papers, only appearing at
+meal times, and, consequently, Paul Capel was thrown a great deal into
+the society of Gerard Artis, treating him always in the most friendly
+way, and declining to notice the barbs of the verbal arrows the other
+was fond of launching.
+
+One of Artis's favourite allusions was to the house his companion
+inherited.
+
+"I felt horribly jealous of you at first," he said.  "Seemed such a pot
+of money; but with special commands to live here with a haunted room,
+and a mausoleum beyond it--no, thank you."
+
+"What shall you do with the chamber of horrors?" said Artis, on another
+occasion.
+
+"You heard--it is to be built-up."
+
+"No, no; I mean the bedroom.  Ugh!"
+
+"I shall take that as my own."
+
+"What?  A room haunted with the spirits of three dead men!  Bah!
+Impossible."
+
+Then came the ninth day, and Mr Girtle announced that on the next his
+instructions should be carried out precisely at twelve.
+
+"That will give you ample time, Mr Capel, to visit a banker afterwards;
+for, after the late experience, I should not lose an hour in depositing
+your great uncle's bequest in the hands of your banker."
+
+"You will go with me, I hope."
+
+The old man looked pleased, and nodded.
+
+"But I had reckoned upon seeing the jewels," said Katrine, with a smile
+at the young heir, which made his heart throb, and Lydia shrink.
+
+"That pleasure must be deferred, Miss D'Enghien," said the old lawyer,
+crustily; and no more was said.
+
+At twelve o'clock punctually, the next day, Mr Girtle unlocked the door
+of the Colonel's room, and fulfilling Ramo's duty, held it back while
+the young men bore in lights; Katrine and Lydia followed, and the old
+butler, looking shrunken and depressed, came last, to close the door and
+draw the curtain.
+
+It was mid-day, but it might have been midnight.  Candles were lit again
+on chimney-piece and dressing-table, and after the old solicitor had
+seen that the door was fastened within, he took out his key, drew the
+portal curtain at the end, and then unlocked and slowly pushed open the
+iron door.
+
+At a given order the butler solemnly carried a couple of candles down
+into the vault, and stood there in the gloomy stone chamber, where, to
+those who stood waiting his return, they seemed to cast a peculiarly
+weird light.
+
+Then, in utter silence, the lid was placed over the calm, sleeping
+features, and the four men, taking each a handle, lifted and bore the
+coffin down.  There was some little difficulty in the sharp turn of the
+steps, but in a few minutes all was done, and the coffin lay upon the
+flagstones, while the two girls stood hand clasping hand.
+
+Mr Girtle walked round to the back of the iron safe and stooped down,
+when a peculiar clang was heard, as if a spring had been set free, and a
+large panel at the end where Capel was standing, dropped down.
+
+As the old lawyer came back, candle in hand, it was now seen that the
+panel that had fallen laid bare a key-hole.
+
+Upon the key being inserted in this, and turned, the panel flew back,
+and glided over the key-hole as soon as the key was drawn out,
+displaying a second key-hole, crossed by a row of lettered brass slides.
+
+These the old lawyer manipulated till the letters formed in a row a
+particular word, when the second key-hole was laid bare, the key
+inserted and turned, and one end of the iron safe revolved on a pair of
+huge pivots, shewing the interior--plain, rectangular and dark, with an
+oblong mass of black metal in the centre.
+
+"The steel chest," said the old lawyer, in a whisper, as he stepped
+inside the great safe, in which he could nearly stand upright.
+
+Candle in hand he went to the other end, put down the light for a moment
+to set his hands free to get a second key--a curiously long, thin key,
+with the end of which he pushed something at the back of the chest.
+Then, going to one side, he repeated the act, went back round to the
+other side, and again repeated it, after which he came to the front, and
+as he held down the light, those who were intently watching his actions
+saw that there was a small circle of Roman figures, with a hand like
+that of a small clock, which he pushed round with the end of the key,
+till it was at the letter V.  This done, he bent over the chest, and
+repeated the action twice upon the top.
+
+Then, as he stepped out, a sharp sound was heard, and a key-hole was
+laid bare once more.  In this he placed the key, turned it, and the
+steel chest seemed to split open from end to end, dividing in equal
+parts, which slowly turned over on massive hinges, leaving the centre--a
+space large enough to hold the coffin--wide open.
+
+"Mr Capel," said the old lawyer, stepping aside, "the next duty is
+yours.  There lie the bank notes and the case of precious stones.  I
+give them over to your care."
+
+Paul Capel hesitated for a moment, glanced at his companions, then back
+at the opening leading to the Colonel's room, where Katrine and Lydia
+were watching.
+
+The young man's heart beat heavily as he took the candle, and, stooping
+down, entered the iron chamber to take from its hiding place his
+enormous fortune.
+
+It was but a step, and he had only to stretch out his hand to pick up
+the two cases, but--
+
+The steel chest held nothing.
+
+_The treasure was not there_.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+THE END OF THE INSTRUCTIONS.
+
+Paul Capel did not realise his position.  "Is there some mistake, Mr
+Girtle?"
+
+"Mistake?"
+
+"There is nothing here!"
+
+"Nothing there?"
+
+"Nothing!  See for yourself."
+
+The old man stepped in, searched, and came out with drops of sweat upon
+his yellow forehead.
+
+"Well?" exclaimed Capel, excitedly, as the old man stared in a dazed
+way.
+
+"It is gone!" said the old lawyer, in a hoarse voice, and his hands
+trembling violently.
+
+"Well, Mr Girtle," said Capel, at last, in a voice that he vainly
+strove to make firm; "what have you to say?"
+
+"To say?" said the old lawyer, hastily.
+
+"Oh, it is all a cock and bull story," cried Artis.  "There never was
+any treasure."
+
+"Silence, sir," cried the old lawyer recovering himself.  "How can you
+speak like that in the presence of the dead?"
+
+"Bah!" cried Artis.  "Presence of the dead, indeed!  Presence of a
+mummy.  Would you have me pull a long face as I went through the British
+Museum?"
+
+"I would have you behave--"
+
+"You look here," cried Artis, sharply.  "You are executor, and this
+treasure, if there was one, lay in your charge.  It's nothing to me.  If
+it were, I should call in the police."
+
+"Mr Capel," cried the old lawyer excitedly, "I swear to you, sir, that
+the money and jewels were there a fortnight ago.  I came down here with
+Ramo, and there lay the two cases with their contents."
+
+"Well?" said Capel, "what then?"
+
+"We carefully closed up the place."
+
+"Then somebody must have been down since, and taken the treasure away."
+
+"Only two men could have done this, sir, Ramo and myself."
+
+"That throws it on to you," said Artis.
+
+"And my reputation, sir, will bear me out when I proclaim my innocence."
+
+"I don't know," said Artis.  "Sudden temptation; kleptomania and that
+sort of thing."
+
+The old lawyer turned his back.
+
+"Mr Gerard Artis, this is no time for such remarks as these," said
+Capel.  "Mr Girtle, what have you to say?"
+
+"At present, nothing, sir.  I am astounded.  You know we came down on
+that dreadful morning, and found the chamber intact; besides it could
+not have been forced."
+
+"There were the keys," said Artis.
+
+"But they have never left my person.  There were but the two sets of
+keys--the Colonel's and mine.  Those were the Colonel's set that we
+found upon Ramo."
+
+"Rather strange that the Colonel should have given you a set," said
+Artis.
+
+"No more strange than that a gentleman should trust a banker," said
+Capel.
+
+"What, going to side with the lawyer?"
+
+Capel made no reply, only gazed searchingly at the old executor.
+
+"There may have been other keys, Mr Girtle."
+
+"Oh, no.  The place was made some years ago, for a sarcophagus, and the
+makers never imagined that it would be used for a safe."
+
+There was a dead silence.
+
+"Let us search again.  The cases may have slipped aside."
+
+"It is impossible," said the old lawyer; and as they two passed into the
+iron chamber, Artis exchanged a glance with Katrine, while the old
+butler stood looking dazed.
+
+"You see," said Mr Girtle, holding down the light, "there is nowhere
+for the cases to have slipped; all is of plain, solid steel, without a
+corner or crack."
+
+"But underneath," said Capel.
+
+"Underneath?  Look for yourself," said Mr Girtle; "where there is not
+solid steel there is solid iron, and beneath that, massive stone.  The
+treasure seems to have been spirited away."
+
+"That's it," said Artis.  "The old man was not satisfied, and he got up
+out of his coffin and hid it somewhere else."
+
+Capel caught Artis by the collar.
+
+"I will not--" he began; but mastering his indignant anger he let fall
+his arm.
+
+"There is nothing here," he said; "let us look about the outside."
+
+That was the work of a minute, for on every hand there was the blank
+stone--wall, floor and roof, and the exterior of the iron safe or tomb
+was perfectly rectangular and smooth.
+
+"What was the size of the cases?"
+
+"One was about twelve inches by eight, and three or four deep, and the
+other rather smaller," replied the old lawyer; "both too large for me to
+have juggled them into my pockets when I opened the steel chest, Mr
+Artis."
+
+"You held the keys, and if you meant to take the treasure, you had it
+before."
+
+"Enough of this," cried Capel.  "It is plain that the bequest has been
+taken away.  Mr Girtle, we will finish at once--fulfil my uncle's
+commands.  Come."
+
+He went to the head of the oaken coffin, and took one handle, when,
+influenced by his example, the others helped to raise it a little from
+the floor, and it was thrust in and onward, till it rested upon the
+bottom of the steel chest, nearly filling the space.
+
+Capel stood on the right of the entrance, and for fully five minutes
+there was perfect silence in the solemn chamber.
+
+"Go on, Mr Girtle," Capel said, at last, and the old man bent down,
+thrust the key in the end, gave a half turn, and the two ponderous sides
+slowly curved over till they were nearly together leaving only a few
+inches of the shining brass breastplate visible.  Then there was a faint
+click, and the left side fell heavily, setting free the right, which
+descended with a loud clang, and closed tightly over a rebate in the
+lower side, so closely, that it was only by holding a candle near that
+the junction could be seen.
+
+"Go on;" and the old lawyer again inserted a key.
+
+There was no show of effort on his part, as the old lawyer turned the
+key, when the end of the iron chamber closed in tightly, and after once
+more examining the blank stone chamber, they slowly ascended the steps.
+Then the iron door was closed and locked, and Mr Girtle handed Capel
+the keys.
+
+An hour later, a couple of masons were at work with the stones that were
+below in the locked-up cellar, and the next day they had filled in a
+wall of six feet thick, cemented over the face, so that only a dark
+patch showed where the entrance to the colonel's tomb had been.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+THE YOUNG DOCTOR.
+
+"Look here," said Artis; "you mustn't be offended with me.  I speak very
+plainly, and if I can be of any use to you, I will."
+
+They were in the drawing-room, Preenham, having announced that the
+masons had left.
+
+"I am not going to think of your remarks."
+
+"I was thinking of going to-day," continued Artis; "but I feel now that
+I ought not to go and leave you in a regular hole like this."
+
+"There is no need for you to stay."
+
+"Well, no need, of course; but I suppose you will not kick me out."
+
+"Of course not.  You are welcome."
+
+"That's right," said Artis.  "You see," he continued, looking round to
+where Katrine and Lydia sat together, "I feel it due to myself to stop
+and show that I had no hand in that."
+
+"No one accused you, Mr Artis."
+
+"Oh, no, of course not; that would be too good a joke.  Then I shall
+stay."
+
+"Our case is different," said Lydia, turning red, and then pale.  "Mr
+Capel, Miss D'Enghien and I, if we can be of no more use, would like to
+say good-bye this afternoon."
+
+"But why?" cried Capel, as he glanced at the speaker, and then fixed his
+eyes on Katrine.  "There is no occasion for you to leave."
+
+"I think Miss Lawrence is right," said Katrine.
+
+"But I want help and counsel from both of you.  You must not leave me
+yet."
+
+"It is impossible for us to stay."
+
+"Impossible!  Why?  Etiquette?  Is not Mr Girtle here?  Are not things
+as they have been since we met?"
+
+"I did not know that Mr Girtle was going to stop?" said Katrine,
+softly.  "If I felt that we could be of any service--"
+
+"Then you will stay?" cried Capel, warmly.
+
+Katrine hesitated, looked up, then down, raised, her eyes once more, and
+left her chair to take Lydia's hand.
+
+"Let us go up-stairs," she said softly.
+
+Lydia rose at once.
+
+"You do not speak," said Capel.
+
+Katrine did not answer till they reached the door, and then she raised
+her eyes to his with a long, timid look.
+
+"If Lydia consents, so will I."
+
+"And you will stay, Miss Lawrence, to help me?" cried Capel, warmly.
+
+"I will," said Lydia, gravely.
+
+"That's right," cried Capel, opening the door for them to pass out, and
+catching Katrine's eye for a moment as she passed.
+
+"Curse her!  She's playing a dangerous game," said Artis to himself, as
+he watched the ladies leave the room.
+
+Glancing aside, he saw that the old lawyer was watching him narrowly.
+
+"I suppose you are not glad that I am going to stay, Mr Girtle," he
+said.
+
+"For some things I am," said the old man, coolly.  "For others I am
+not."
+
+Just then Capel returned.
+
+The two girls separated as they reached their rooms, Katrine kissing
+Lydia's cheek, and then, as soon as she was alone, her countenance
+changed, and she sat gazing with glowing eyes, that seemed full of some
+purpose upon which she was bent.
+
+At the same time Lydia Lawrence sat with her face buried in her hands,
+weeping silently and wishing that she were back in her country home.
+
+Very little more was said below, for Mr Girtle had an engagement in the
+City, and left the young men together.
+
+"You won't have a detective set to work?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, do as you like.  I'm off for a run, to get rid of this gloom.
+Back to dinner."
+
+"Thank goodness!" said Artis, breathing more freely, and five minutes
+after he was slowly crossing the square, wondering who the man was who
+had just gone up to the door he had left.
+
+"I've seen his face before," he muttered.  "Why, of course, the young
+doctor.  What does he want?"
+
+Capel was thinking of the fortune that had slipped through his fingers.
+Depressed, and yet at times overjoyed, for Katrine's glance had been
+full of hope.  But he must trace the money that had been taken, and the
+gems--how lovely they would look on Katrine's neck!
+
+He sighed as he pictured her thus adorned, and he was sinking into a day
+dream, when the door opened softly, and Preenham entered with the
+doctor's card.
+
+"Doctor Heston?  Show him up."
+
+Capel motioned his visitor to a chair, when the keen-looking young
+doctor, who was watching him narrowly, said:
+
+"I dare say you are surprised to see me here."
+
+"Oh, no.  A call?"
+
+"I only make professional calls, Mr Capel, I have come to you on an
+important matter."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Capel.
+
+"Yes.  Respecting the death of one of those two men--the Indian, sir.
+I'm afraid there was some foul play there."
+
+"Foul play?  Why, he was killed with a life-preserver."
+
+The doctor tapped with his fingers on his hat, as if he was beating a
+funeral march.  Then, quickly:
+
+"No, sir; the more I study this case, the more I feel convinced that he
+was not."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+A CLEVER DIPLOMATIST.
+
+"Doctor Heston, you surprise me.  There was the inquest."
+
+"Yes, where my opinion, sir, was overruled by the coroner and my
+colleague, both elderly medical men, sir, while I am young and
+comparatively inexperienced.  You are disposed to think that this is a
+case of professional jealousy."
+
+"I will be frank with you.  I did think so."
+
+"Exactly, but pray disabuse your mind.  I am not jealous.  I am angry
+with myself for giving way in that case.  It seemed all very
+straightforward, but it was not."
+
+"May I ask what you mean?"
+
+"I mean, sir, that I am certain that our poor old Indian friend did not
+die from the blow that he received from that life-preserver."
+
+"How then?" said Capel, huskily.
+
+"It seems to me that he must have been poisoned in some way or another,
+and I could not rest without coming to you."
+
+"Oh, impossible."
+
+"Perhaps so, sir, but I am telling you what I believe.  Do you think he
+had any enemies here?"
+
+"Oh, no; the servants seemed to have been on friendly terms."
+
+"Well, it hardly seems like it."
+
+"That wretch must have yielded to a terrible temptation," said Capel,
+"and the other was defending his master's goods."
+
+"What goods?" said the doctor.
+
+Capel was silent.
+
+"I see, sir, there is more mystery about this than you care to explain.
+Was there some heavy sum of money in the late Colonel's room, and were
+these two men in league?"
+
+"I don't think they were in league."
+
+"Was any one else interested in the matter?"
+
+"Oh, no; impossible," said Capel, half aloud.  "Dr Heston, I am afraid
+there is a good deal of imagination in what you say.  Let me try and
+disabuse your mind."
+
+"I should be glad if you could."
+
+Capel paced the room for a few minutes.
+
+"This has taken me quite by surprise, Doctor Heston," he said.  "Give me
+a little time to think it over.  Will you keep perfectly private all
+that you have said to me?"
+
+"I don't like to suspect men unjustly, and yet I'm afraid I've done
+wrong, in giving him time," said the doctor, as he went down.  "Well, a
+week is not an age."
+
+As soon as he had left, Paul Capel let his head go down upon his hands,
+for his brain seemed to be in a whirl--the death of Ramo--the
+disappearance of the fortune--the visit of the doctor.
+
+It only wanted this latter, with the hints he had thrown out, to fire a
+train of latent suspicion in the young man's mind.
+
+There was that open window that the policeman had declared had not been
+used.  Was he wrong?  Had others been in the conspiracy and turned
+afterwards on Ramo and Charles?  They might have been in the plot.  Or,
+again, they might have been defending their master's wealth against the
+wretch who had escaped with the treasure by the open window.
+
+Those three Italians!
+
+Had they anything to do with the matter?
+
+The old butler!  He seemed so quiet and innocent!  But often beneath an
+air of innocency, crime found a resting place.
+
+Then he found himself suspecting Mr Girtle, and on the face of the
+evidence Capel laid before himself, the case looked very black.  He knew
+everything; he held the keys--he, the old friend and companion, had been
+left merely a signet ring.
+
+"Impossible!" cried Capel, half aloud; "I might as well suspect Artis,
+or Miss Lawrence, or Katrine herself."
+
+"May I come in," said a voice that sent a thrill through the thinker,
+and Katrine D'Enghien stood in the doorway.
+
+"Come in?  Yes," cried Capel, advancing to meet her with open hands, and
+moved by an impulse that he could not withstand.
+
+"Is anything the matter," she said simply.
+
+"Yes--no--yes, a great deal is the matter," cried Capel.  "There, I must
+speak to you."
+
+"Mr Capel!" she said, half in alarm.
+
+"Forgive me if I seem impetuous," he cried, "but I am greatly troubled
+in mind, and I feel as if I would give anything for the sympathy of one
+who would listen to my troubles, and help me with her counsel."
+
+"Surely you have all our sympathy, Mr Capel," said Katrine, innocently.
+
+"Yes, I hope so," he cried earnestly, "but I want more than that,
+Katrine.  You must know that I love you."
+
+"Mr Capel!"
+
+"Pray do not be angry with me."
+
+"Is this a time or season to make such a declaration to me, Mr Capel?"
+said Katrine, softly.
+
+"For some things--no, for other things--yes.  I am in such sore need of
+help and counsel, such as could be given me by the woman who returned my
+love.  No, no; don't leave me.  Hear me out.  As soon as I heard that
+will read, it filled my heart with joy, for it told me that I was rich,
+and that these were riches which I could share with you.  Then, when the
+discovery was made that the treasure had been stolen, it was not the
+wealth that I regretted, but I despaired because it seemed that you were
+farther from me.  But listen to me.  I am trying hard to discover how
+this large fortune has been swept away."
+
+Katrine's eyes glittered.
+
+"Help me in my endeavours, and tell me this--some day if I make the
+discovery, and am once more in a position to ask you to be my wife--you
+will listen to me?"
+
+She raised her beautiful eyes to his, and he caught her hand.
+
+It was withdrawn, and she said softly:
+
+"I am sorry you should think me so sordid."
+
+"Then you love me," he cried.
+
+"I made no such confession.  The man to whom I give my hand will not be
+chosen for the sake of his money."
+
+"Then I may hope?" he cried.
+
+"Mr Capel, is it not your duty to find your fortune?"
+
+"Yes, but let me say, our fortune," he cried.
+
+"Mr Capel, do not speak to me again like this.  I should feel that I
+was standing in your light if I listened now."
+
+"But at some future time?"
+
+She looked at him softly, and his breath went and came fast, as her
+speaking eyes rested on his, and he saw the damask-red deepen in her
+cheeks.
+
+"Wait till that future time comes," she whispered.
+
+"And you will help me?" he cried.
+
+"Yes," she said, at last, "I will help you--all I can."
+
+He would have caught her in his arms, but she raised her hand.
+
+"I thought we were to be friends."
+
+"Friends," he whispered.  "I love you."
+
+"It must be then as a friend," she said, in her low voice; but there was
+that in her look which made Capel's heart throb, while, when she
+extended her hand, he kissed it, without being aware that Lydia had
+entered the room, and drawn back, with a weary look of misery in her
+face that she vainly sought to hide.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+IN THE DARK.
+
+"Look here, Kate, I'm not going back till I've had a good try here to
+see if something can't be made out of this affair."
+
+Katrine D'Enghien sat in the drawing-room of the Dark House, with her
+eyes half closed, as if listening to the ballad Lydia was singing in a
+low tone in the corner of the back room, while Capel stood by turning
+over the leaves.
+
+The old lawyer was in another corner at a card-table, on whose green
+surface lay a heap of papers and parchments, one of which he took up
+from time to time, and laid down, after examining it by the light of the
+shaded lamp.
+
+"You said only yesterday that you were sick of this domestic cemetery,"
+said Katrine.
+
+"So I am, for it's doleful enough for anything here, only it makes me
+mad to see such a wealth of art treasures and plate belonging to this
+fellow Capel."
+
+"Then it is very evident that you did not filch the old man's treasure,"
+said Katrine.
+
+"Yes, my dear, very evident.  If I had, I should not be here."
+
+"Unless you thought it better for the sake of throwing people off the
+scent," said Katrine, with a peculiar look in his face.
+
+"I say," he cried, returning the gaze, "what do you mean?  You don't
+think I killed those two fellows, and got the plunder, do you?"
+
+"I don't know," she replied.
+
+"Well, then, I didn't.  I never had the chance."
+
+"Or the brains to conceive such a _coup_."
+
+"Look here," cried Artis.
+
+"Don't speak so loud, Gerard."
+
+"Oh, very well.  But look here, Madam Clever, did you manage that bit of
+business?"
+
+Katrine raised her soft, white hands.
+
+"Don't do that," said the young man.  "You make me want to kiss them."
+
+"You would not be so foolish, now."
+
+"I don't know.  And look here, I don't like you being so thick with
+Capel."
+
+"Don't you?  He wants to marry me."
+
+"I'll break his neck first."
+
+"You will act sensibly and well, _mon cher_," said Katrine, "that is, if
+you mean that we are to be married by-and-by."
+
+"Mean it?  Of course."
+
+"But not on a fortune of one hundred pounds each, _mon cher_."
+
+"Good Heavens!  No."
+
+"Then hold your tongue, and say nothing."
+
+"But I shall say something, if I see you working up a flirtation with
+that cad."
+
+"You will say nothing, do nothing, see nothing.  We cannot marry and
+starve."
+
+"But tell me, Kate--honour bright--you don't care for this Capel?"
+
+"I care for him!"
+
+"Tell me, then, what do you mean to do?"
+
+"Have my share of that money," said Katrine, with a peculiar hardening
+of her face.
+
+"Bah!  I don't believe the treasure ever existed.  It was a craze on the
+old man's part."
+
+"You must be careful.  Don't say or do anything to annoy Paul Capel or
+Mr Girtle.  We must stay here.  It was no craze on the old man's part;
+maybe I can tell where the fortune is."
+
+"What?  You mean that?"
+
+"Hush!  I am working for us both."
+
+"But tell me--"
+
+"Hush!  She has finished the song," said Katrine, leaning back and
+clapping her hands softly.  "Thank you, thank you," she said.  "Oh, what
+a while it is since I heard that dear old ballad."
+
+The evening wore away till bed-time, when the butler brought in and lit
+the candles, according to his custom, Katrine and Lydia taking theirs,
+and going at once, and Gerard Artis following after partaking of a glass
+of soda-water, leaving the old lawyer and Capel together.
+
+They sat in silence for some minutes, when the old lawyer said:
+
+"I do not seem to get any nearer to the unravelling of this knot, Mr
+Capel."
+
+"Do you still adhere to the opinion that the treasure was there?"
+
+"Yes; and we shall find it soon."
+
+"By a masterly inactivity?"
+
+"Oh, no," replied the old man, "for I am taking steps of my own to
+redeem myself.  I don't think those jewels can be sold, or one of those
+notes changed, without word being brought to me."
+
+Capel felt won by the old man's manner.  He shook hands with him warmly,
+and said "Good-night."
+
+He went to the door with him, and saw the light shine on the thin,
+silvery hair as he went slowly up the staircase, while his candle cast a
+grotesque shadow on the wall.  Then, as Capel listened, he heard the old
+man shut his chamber door, open it softly, and shut it again more
+loudly; while, with the great house seeming to be doubly steeped in
+darkness and silence, Paul Capel went back to the lounge in which he had
+been seated, leaving his chamber candle burning like a tiny star in the
+great sea of gloom, and sat back, thinking.
+
+The candle burned lower as he thought on, ransacking his memory for some
+slight clue that would help him to find his lost fortune.
+
+The candle went out.
+
+Had he been asleep?
+
+He could not say.  He believed that he had been only thinking deeply.
+At all events, he was widely awake now, as he sat back listening to the
+heavy beating of his own heart, as he stared through the intense
+darkness towards the door, upon whose panel he had felt sure he had
+heard a soft pat, as if something had touched it.
+
+A minute--it might have been half-an-hour, it seemed so long--and there
+was a faint rustling, and Paul Capel knew, as he stared through that
+intense darkness, that some one, or something, was coming silently
+towards where he sat.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+"YOU HERE!"
+
+Paul Capel was not superstitious, but a curious thrill ran through his
+nerves, and his first impulse was to leap up and shout, "Who's there?"
+
+Then a thought flashed through his brain that whoever this was might
+have something to do with the disappearance of the treasure, and he told
+himself that he would wait, though the next moment he found himself
+frankly owning that a chill of dread had frozen his powers, and that he
+could not have moved to save his life.
+
+A minute's reflection told him that it could not be a burglar.  No one
+would come singly upon such a mission, and the marauder would have been
+provided with a dark lantern or matches.  It must be some one in the
+house.  The superstitious fancies were cleared away, as his heart gave a
+throb, with the hope that he might now find the clue to the mystery that
+was hanging over the place.
+
+Thought after thought flashed through his brain, and, as they dazed him
+with the wild conjectures, the person, whoever it was, glided nearer and
+nearer, and all doubt fled, for, whoever it was, had stretched out a
+hand and touched the silver candlestick upon the table where he had set
+it down.
+
+There was again silence, and then it seemed to Capel, as he sat there,
+that the nocturnal visitor had made the table a starting-point for a
+fresh departure in the dark, and was going from him toward the back
+drawing-room, in the left hand corner of which the old lawyer had sat
+that night.
+
+Doubtless there are people who can weigh every act before they commit
+themselves to it, but the majority of us, even the most thoughtful, go
+on weighing a great many, and then in the most important moments of our
+lives forget all about the balance or the mental weights and scales, and
+so it was that, all in an instant, Paul Capel, unable longer to bear the
+mental strain, rose quickly from his seat, took two strides forward, and
+grasped at the intruder, exclaiming:
+
+"Who's there?"
+
+He touched nothing, he heard nothing, and the old chill came back for a
+moment or two with its superstitious suggestions; but he drew out a
+little silver match-box, which rattled as he opened it, shook a match
+into his moist hand, struck it, and the faint little star of light
+flashed out.
+
+"Katrine, you here?" he exclaimed.
+
+There were candles on an occasional table, and he lit one before the
+little wax match burned down, and then he remained speechless for the
+moment, gazing at Katrine D'Enghien, who stood within the back
+drawing-room, her long hair loosely knotted on her neck, her white arms
+outstretched before her, and half away from him.  She stood motionless,
+as if turned to stone.
+
+"Katrine!" he cried again.
+
+He took a step or two towards her, his first impulse being to clasp her
+in his arms; but, as she stood motionless before him, draped in a long
+grey peignoir that swept the ground, there was something about her that
+repelled him, so that he stood staring at her unable to speak.
+
+Suddenly she turned from him, and stood gazing at the corner where the
+piano stood, walked slowly towards it, and rested her hand upon it,
+remaining there motionless for a few moments till, catching up the
+candle, Capel went towards her, his pulses throbbing, and his temples
+seeming to flush as if a hot breath from a furnace had passed over them.
+
+But before he reached her she turned slowly, and walked straight towards
+him, her eyes wide open, and gazing intently before her.
+
+She would have walked right upon him, had he not given way, and then
+stood holding the candle, while she went deliberately to the fire-place,
+rested her hands upon the mantel-piece, and stood there holding one bare
+white foot towards the extinct fire as if to warm it.
+
+Capel set down the candle and advanced towards her, when once more she
+turned and came straight towards him, and this time he took her in his
+arms and kissed her quickly and passionately upon her cheek and lips.
+
+His arms dropped to his sides, though, for he felt that she was icily
+cold, and as involuntarily he gave place, and she walked slowly past him
+to the open door, out on to the broad landing, and as he caught up the
+candle and followed, he saw the tall grey figure go slowly on up and up
+the stairs, and when he followed it to the first landing it was on the
+one above, going slowly on to the bedroom at the end, through whose door
+it passed, and the lock gave a low, soft click.
+
+Paul Capel went back into the drawing-room, feeling half stunned, and
+when he reached the middle of the room he paused, candle in hand,
+thinking.
+
+"Asleep!" he said at last.  "Asleep, and I dared to take her in my arms
+like that!"
+
+Then, with an involuntary shiver, the young man turned quickly round,
+and went hastily up to his room, to lie till morning, tossing
+sleeplessly from side to side.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+THE TENTH NIGHT.
+
+"It might be," thought Capel, as he dwelt upon the adventure of that
+night.
+
+Katrine had descended to breakfast the next morning, and he fancied she
+blushed slightly as he pressed her hand; but she looked so frankly in
+his face that he could not but think that she was ignorant of what had
+taken place.
+
+The days slipped by, and in company, by a private understanding, Capel
+and the old lawyer searched every article of furniture that could
+possibly have been made the receptacle of the lost treasure.
+
+"I'll help you, of course, my dear sir," said the old man, "if you wish
+it; but I really think we shall do no good."
+
+There had been several talks about breaking up the party, but Capel, as
+host, had always begged that his companions would stay, urging Mr
+Girtle to back him up by proposing that there should be no change until
+the whole of the business of the will was completed so far as the others
+were concerned.
+
+"I shall find my share at last," Capel said, laughingly.  "And besides,
+I have the house."
+
+One afternoon, when Artis had accompanied the ladies for a drive, and
+the search was about to be recommenced, Mr Girtle sat down by his
+little table in the drawing-room and said:
+
+"I have a little news for you, Mr Capel."
+
+"What, have you found the clue?"
+
+"Not yet," said the old man, quietly; "but I have found an angel."
+
+"A what?"
+
+"An angel.  You did not know we had one in this house."
+
+"Indeed, but I did," cried Capel.
+
+"Ah, yes," said the old man, looking at him thoughtfully; "but I'm
+afraid we are not thinking of the same."
+
+"Indeed, but we are," said Capel, warmly.  "No one who has seen Miss
+D'Enghien--"
+
+"Could hesitate to say that she is a very handsome woman," said the old
+lawyer, "but I was referring to Miss Lawrence."
+
+"A lady for whom I entertain the most profound esteem," said Capel.
+
+"Which will be strengthened, sir, when I tell you that she came to me
+and made a proposition that--"
+
+The old lawyer's communication was checked by the announcement of a
+visitor for Mr Capel, and the doctor, Mr Heston, was ushered in.
+
+His visit was not productive of much, for he had only to announce that
+he was more and more sure in his own mind that he was right, the result
+being that Capel asked him to wait before taking any further steps, and
+Dr Heston went away rather dissatisfied in his own mind.
+
+"If he does not follow up my proposals," he said to himself, "I shall
+begin to think that he has some reason of his own for keeping the matter
+quiet."
+
+The ladies returned directly the doctor had gone, and Artis, in
+pursuance of his instructions, made himself so agreeable to Capel that
+he did not leave him alone with the old lawyer, while at dinner and
+during the evening no opportunity was likely to occur for a private
+conversation.
+
+"I'll see you directly after breakfast to-morrow morning, Mr Capel,"
+the old man said.  "I should prefer a quiet business chat with you, for
+the matter is important."
+
+"I should like to have heard it at once," replied Capel, "but as you
+will."
+
+Suspicion was very busy in the Dark House in those days, for the butler
+had found that for several nights past chamber candles had been burned
+down in the sockets in one of the candlesticks, which candlestick was
+left in the drawing-room, while a tall candlestick was afterwards taken
+up to the bedroom.
+
+Preenham wanted to know why Mr Capel, "or the young master," as he
+termed him, should want to sit up so late, so he watched, and saw that,
+night after night, he stayed down in the drawing-room for hours.  But he
+found out nothing, only that the cold struck, even through the mat, from
+the stone floor, and that he was chilly enough, when he went to bed in
+his pantry, to require a liqueur of brandy to keep off rheumatism and
+similar attacks.
+
+For Capel had remained up after the others had gone, night after night;
+blaming himself for behaving in an unfair, unmanly spirit, but unable to
+control the impulse which led him to long for such another adventure as
+on that special night.
+
+But after a long day, night watches grow wearisome to the most ardent
+lovers, and when, after nine nights spent in expectancy, there was no
+result--no soft, gliding step heard upon stair or floor, both Capel and
+Preenham grew weary, and retired to their couches like the rest.
+
+It was on the tenth night that Capel, instead of going to bed at once,
+sat musing over the old lawyer's words.
+
+Then he began thinking of the doctor's visit, and at last, taking out
+his watch, he saw it was close upon two.
+
+The hour made him think of the night when he had encountered Katrine
+just at that time, and moved by some impulse, he knew not what, he went
+to his door, softly opened it, and gazed out on to the gloomy staircase,
+where all was silent as the grave.
+
+No!  There was the faint creak of a hinge that had been opened, and,
+with his heart seeming to stand still, Capel stood in the darkness
+listening, till, utterly wearied, he was about to close his door, when,
+so softly that he could hardly distinguish the sweep of the dress,
+something passed him, going straight to the stairs, and then he could
+just hear whoever it was descend.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+NOCTURNAL PROCEEDINGS.
+
+There was not a sound to be heard as Paul Capel stole softly down in his
+dressing-gown, and, as he expected, the drawing-room door was closed,
+but not latched.
+
+Pushing it softly, feeling certain that Katrine, if it was she, had
+entered there, he followed, and went on and on, till he was about in the
+middle of the room, and listening attentively.
+
+He began to think that he must have been mistaken, when there was a
+faint rustle, and a heavy breath was drawn, the sounds coming from the
+lesser drawing-room.
+
+He listened more intently, his heart beating heavily, and a strange
+singing in his ears.
+
+Another sound as of something being touched.
+
+The pen-tray on the little card-table where Mr Girtle sat and worked;
+and what was that?
+
+Undoubtedly one of the keys that lay there.  Another and another was
+touched, and as they were moved on the thin mahogany that formed the
+bottom of the receptacle for cards the sound seemed quite loud.
+
+Then came a faint scraping sound, and he knew as well as if he had seen
+it, that a key was taken up.
+
+Keys?  Yes, there were several there which the old lawyer used.  Capel
+recalled that the key of the plate closet had been placed there when
+Preenham had handed it over.
+
+He listened, but there was no further sound.  Yes; the low breathing
+could be heard, and it suddenly dawned upon Capel that Katrine had been
+approaching him--there she was close at hand.  He had only to stretch
+forth his arms and the next instant she would have been folded to his
+breast.
+
+It was a hard fight, but he had read of a sudden awakening under such
+conditions proving dangerous.
+
+As he listened there was a faint rustling as the soft grey peignoir he
+knew so well passed over the thick carpet towards the door; and if the
+listener had any doubt, it was set aside by the light pat that he
+heard--it was a hand touching the panel.
+
+Capel waited a minute, during which he heard the dress sweep against the
+edge of the door, and then the sound was quite hushed.
+
+He knew what that meant, too; the door had been drawn to, and so he
+found it as he stepped lightly there, opened it, and passed out on to
+the great landing, where he strained his eyes upward to try and make out
+the graceful draped figure as it went up the winding staircase to the
+bedroom.
+
+It was not so dark there, for a faint gloom--it could not be called
+light--fell from the great ground-glass sky-light, at the top of the
+winding staircase, like so much diluted darkness being poured down into
+a well.
+
+That great winding staircase suddenly seemed to him full of horror, as
+he stood there.  It had never struck him before, but now, how terrible
+it seemed.  That balustrade was so low.  Suppose, poor girl, in her
+sleep, she should lean over it, and fall down onto the white stones,
+where the black fretwork of the glistening stove could be seen like a
+square patch against the white slabs.
+
+There was no reason for such fancies, but Paul Capel's hands grew wet
+with a cold perspiration.
+
+"I ought to have stopped her, and awakened her at any risk," he said, as
+he still gazed up the great staircase; and then his heart seemed to
+stand still, for there was a faint click, as of a lock shot back, and it
+came either from on a level with where he stood, or from down below.
+
+In an instant he realised what had happened: Katrine had been to fetch
+the key of the late Colonel's chamber, and had gone in there.
+
+He hesitated a moment, and then, going close, he softly touched the
+door, and felt it yield.
+
+Just then there came a faint scratching noise, and there was a gleam of
+light, showing him that the heavy curtain was drawn.
+
+Then the light shone more clearly, and pressing the door a little more
+open, he glided through.
+
+He was about to peer out softly, when the light was set down, he heard
+the soft rustle of the dress, an arm was thrust round from the far side
+of the curtain, and the door was carefully closed.
+
+"The work of a spy," he said.  But a slight sound attracted his
+attention, and his curiosity mastered all other feelings.
+
+Gently sliding his hand into his pocket, he drew out a penknife, and cut
+gently downwards, making a slit a few inches in length.
+
+This he drew slightly apart and gazed through, to see that Katrine was
+standing with her back to him, in the act of opening one of the large
+cabinets at the side of the bed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+BIRDS OF PREY.
+
+Travellers in Mayfair will have noticed that every here and there
+old-fashioned, snug looking hostelries exist in out-of-the-way places--
+at the corner of a mews, in a private street, where they do not seem to
+belong; and they are generally kept by ex-butlers, who have taken wives,
+joined their savings, and gone into business with the brewers' help.
+
+In the parlour of the "Four-in-Hand," Lower Maybush street, a party of
+gentlemen's servants were playing bagatelle upon a bad board in a very
+smoky atmosphere, while a knot of three men sat at one of the old,
+narrow, battered mahogany tables in a corner, drinking cold gin and
+water, and smoking bad cigars.
+
+One was a little sharp-eyed, round-headed man, smartly dressed, and
+evidently rather proud of a large gilt pin in his figured silk tie.
+Another was tall and not ill-looking; he might have been a valet, for
+there was a certain imitation gentility about his cut--a valet whose
+master had been rather addicted to the turf, and this had been reflected
+on his man to the extent of trousers rather too tight, short hair, and a
+horseshoe pin with pearl nails.  The third was rather a shabby-looking
+man of forty, undoubtedly a gentleman's servant out of place, carrying
+the sign in the front of the reason why, in the shape of a nose unduly
+ripened by being bathed in glasses of alcoholic drink.
+
+"Knew him how long, did you say?" said the tall man, tapping his chin
+with an ivory-handled rattan-cane.
+
+"Ten years, poor chap," said the ex-servant.  "It was very horrid."
+
+"Here, never mind that," said the brisk little man.  "We don't want
+horrors.  Touch the bell, Dick.  Come, old fellow, sip up your lotion,
+and we'll have them filled again.  That cigar don't draw.  Try one of
+these.  Here! three fours of gin cold," he cried to the landlord, and as
+soon as the glasses were refilled, and cigars lighted, the conversation
+went on, to the accompaniment of rattling balls and laughter from the
+bagatelle players.
+
+"Well," said the tall man, in a low voice, "you can do as you like, my
+lad, but I should have thought that, hard up as you are, and I should
+say without much chance of getting another crib--say at present--you'd
+have been glad to earn a honest quid or two."
+
+The shabby-looking man shook his head.
+
+"Here, you're always putting on the pace too much, Dick," said the
+little man.  "A fellow wants a little time.  He's on, you see if he
+isn't.  My respects to you, Mr Barnes.  Hah! nice flavoured drop of gin
+that."
+
+"You see, you know the house well," continued the tall man.  "Often
+been, of course?"
+
+"Oh, yes; had many a glass of wine there, when poor Charles was alive."
+
+"Rather a bit of mystery, that," said the little man.  "I put that and
+that together, and I set it down that he was trying the job on his own
+account, and muffed it."
+
+The shabby man shuddered, and took a hearty draught of his gin and
+water.
+
+"There would be only us three in the game," said the tall man softly,
+"and it would be share and share alike.  Why, if we worked it right, it
+would set you up.  Might take a pub on it."
+
+"Eh?" said the shabby man.
+
+"I say you might take a pub--and drink yourself to death," was added
+aside.
+
+The little man winked at his tall companion, unobserved by the other,
+who looked dreamy.
+
+"Bars at all the lower windows, eh?"
+
+"Yes, yes.  You couldn't get in there," was the quick reply.
+
+"More ways of killing a cat than by hanging it.  Look here, my lads,
+there's a stable to let in the mews at the back."
+
+The shabby man looked up quickly.
+
+"I had a look at it to-day.  Any one could easily get to that window
+looking on the leads."
+
+"But that's the window where--"
+
+"Well, dead men tell no tales, and they don't get in the way.  That's
+the place."
+
+"Oh, no," said the shabby man.
+
+"Bah! you're not afraid.  I tell you it would be as easy as easy.  You
+can give me a plan of the place, and all about it, and--why, it's
+child's play, my lad, and won't hurt anybody.  Take everything out of
+that stable, and have a cart in the coach-house.  I say--touch that bell
+again, old man--you are not going to let a fortune slip through your
+fingers, I know."
+
+The three occupants of the corner soon after rose to go, halting
+half-way down the street, where the tall man said:--
+
+"There's half a sovereign to keep the cold out till then.  Twelve
+o'clock, mind, punctual."
+
+The shabby man slouched away, while the little fellow rubbed his hands.
+
+"There's half a ton of it there," he whispered.
+
+"Think he'll stand to it?"
+
+"No fear, now we've got him over his fright.  By jingo, I'm only afraid
+of one thing."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"That some one else will be on the job."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+ASLEEP OR AWAKE?
+
+It was a painful, and, Paul Capel thought, a degrading position; but he
+blamed his passion, telling himself that it was his duty to watch her,
+in this sleep-walking state, lest ill should befall.
+
+How thoroughly awake she seemed to be.  Her every act was that of a
+person perfectly herself, and eager to find something that was hidden.
+
+Softly and quickly she examined the cabinet, opening drawer after
+drawer, and taking out one after the other, to see whether there was a
+concealed cavity behind.
+
+Next she knelt down before a large carved oak chest, and Capel saw how
+carefully she searched that, and examined top and bottom to see whether
+either was false.
+
+This done, she walked to the bed, and stood pondering there.  Crossing
+to the built-up portal, she drew the curtain aside, revealing the
+half-dry cement.
+
+She shook her head, and walked to the window, where she carefully
+rearranged the heavy folds there, to keep the rays of light from passing
+out and betraying her task to any one who might be at the upper windows
+of some house.  The act displayed the working of a brain that, if
+slumbering, still held a peculiar activity of an abnormal kind.
+
+Once or twice he caught sight of Katrine's eyes, that were not as he had
+seen them on that other night, wide open, and staring straight before
+her, but bright, eager, and full of animation.
+
+"She must be awake," he thought; and the idea was strengthened as he saw
+her throw herself down upon a chair, and with a peculiar action of her
+hands indicative of disappointment, rest her elbows on her knee, her
+chin upon her clenched fists, and there she bent down, her face intent,
+her brows knit, and looking ten years older, as the candle cast a
+curious shadow on her countenance.
+
+Then the lover intervened on her behalf.
+
+No; she could not be.  To suppose that she was awake was to credit her
+with being deceitful--with cheating him into the belief that night that
+she was asleep.
+
+He was about to spring out, throw himself at her feet, and waken her
+with his caresses, but a chilling feeling of repulsion stayed him.  It
+might work mischief in the terrible fright it would give her at being
+awakened in that gloomy room.  And besides, what a place to select for
+his passionate avowals.  It was secret and silent, the very home for
+such a love as his; but there was the terrible past.
+
+Where she was seated, but a short time back, there lay the ghastly body
+of the murdered man.  Behind her was the bed where so recently a strange
+occupant was stretched, and beneath it lay that other lately discovered
+horror.  Beyond that built-up wall was the Colonel's tomb.
+
+Love was impossible in such a place as that; and did he want
+confirmation of the fact that Katrine was a somnambulist, he felt that
+he had it here before him.  For no girl of her years would dare to come
+down in the dead of the night, and enter that room, haunted as it was
+with such terrible memories.
+
+He stood watching her as she crouched there, looking straight before
+her, and as she suddenly sprang up, and went to a picture painted upon a
+panel in the wall, he found himself growing excited by the fancy that,
+perhaps, in the clairvoyant state of sleep, she might be able to
+discover the mystery that had baffled them all.
+
+He stood there wrapt in his thoughts, till he saw her turn from the
+frame, that she had tried to move in a dozen different ways, her fingers
+playing here and there with marvellous quickness about the corners and
+prominent bits of carving, as if she expected that any one might prove
+to be a secret spring.
+
+Again she tried another picture; darted to the group of statuary in the
+corner, and tried to lift it back, as if expecting that which she sought
+might be hidden beneath it; and again there was the movement, full of
+dejection and despair, as she stood facing him with the light full upon
+her eyes.
+
+She turned away, despondently; and then started upright, with her eyes
+flashing, and one hand raised in the involuntary movement of one who
+listens intently to some sound.
+
+Had she heard something, or was it fancy--a part of her dream?
+
+Paul Capel thought the latter, for, light as a fawn, he saw Katrine dart
+across the room to where the candle stood.
+
+The next moment they were in total darkness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+WHAT THE SOUND WAS.
+
+A faint rustle was plainly heard, as Capel drew aside the curtain.  Then
+the sound ceased, but he felt that as he had taken a step to the left,
+Katrine must be exactly opposite to him.  In another moment she would
+come forward and touch him, for he could not move from his position.  If
+he stood aside she would pass him and fasten him in the room.
+
+He listened in the intense darkness, and could just detect the short,
+hurried breathing of one who was excited by dread.
+
+But as he listened in the darkness, clear now of the heavy curtain, he
+heard another sound--a peculiar scraping sound, that seemed to come from
+outside the window.
+
+It was that which had alarmed Katrine, and made her extinguish the
+light.
+
+The noise ceased.  Then it was repeated, and directly after, sounding
+muffled by the heavy curtain, the window rattled a little in its frame,
+as if shaken or pressed upon by some one outside.
+
+The panting grew louder, there was a warm breath upon Capel's cheek, and
+the next moment he held Katrine in his arms.
+
+She uttered a low cry of fear, and struggled to escape.
+
+"Hush!" he whispered.  "You have nothing to fear.  Are you awake?"
+
+There was no answer; only a vigorous thrust from the hands placed upon
+his chest, and he felt that she was trying to open the door, trembling
+violently the while.
+
+"Katrine," he whispered, "why do you not trust me?  Wake up.  There is
+nothing to fear."
+
+He tried to clasp her in his arms again, but with a quick movement she
+eluded him, and as he caught at her again, it seemed as if the great
+curtain had been thrust into his arms, for he grasped that, and as he
+flung it away, the door struck him in the face, and then closed, he
+heard it locked, and the key withdrawn.
+
+Then he stood listening, for the window rattled again, and he wondered
+that the noise he had made in his slight struggle with Katrine had not
+been heard by whoever was on the sill.
+
+There was a bell somewhere in the room; but if he rang, and roused up
+the butler, the man would be horrified at hearing his old master's
+bedroom bell ringing in the dead of the night.
+
+Even if that had not been the case, what excuse could he make?  And
+could he explain his position to Mr Girtle without making him the
+confidant of all that had passed?  And how could he relate to any one
+that Katrine had been wandering about the house in the middle of the
+night?  What would Mr Girtle say?  Would he think it was somnambulism?
+
+No; he could not ring.  It was impossible; and all the while there was
+that strange noise outside, muffled by the curtain.
+
+He walked cautiously through the intense darkness towards the window,
+till he could touch the curtain, and then, passing to the left, he
+softly drew it a little inward, and looked out.
+
+It was almost as dark out there as in; but there was a faint glow from
+the lamps beyond the tall houses that closed in the back, and against
+this he could dimly see the figure of a man, standing on the sill,
+while, more indistinctly and quite low down, there were the heads and
+shoulders of two more.
+
+It seemed to him that the man standing on the sill was trying to pass
+some instrument through between the two sashes, so as to force back the
+window-catch.
+
+What should he do?
+
+Give the alarm down-stairs he could not, without compromising Katrine.
+
+Alarm the nocturnal visitors?
+
+That would be to give up a chance of getting hold of the clue.
+
+What should he do?
+
+Be a coward, or, now that the opportunity had come, make a bold effort
+to capture these intruders?
+
+Three to one.  Yes; but he was in the fort, and they had to attack, and
+could he secure one, bribery or punishment would make him tell all.
+
+There was the sound going on at the window, which was resisting the
+efforts, and, with palpitating heart and heavy breathing, Capel asked
+himself the questions again.  Should he be cowardly, or brave, and make
+a daring effort to gain that which was his, from the information these
+people could give?
+
+There was a grating and clicking still going on as he stepped cautiously
+across the room, the sound guiding him to the stand where his uncle's
+old East India uniform and accoutrements were grouped, and the next
+minute his hands rested upon a pistol.
+
+Useless, for it was old-fashioned and uncharged.
+
+That was better!  His hand touched the ivory hilt of the curved sabre.
+
+For a time the blade refused to leave its sheath; then it gave way a
+little, and he drew it forth, laid the scabbard on the floor, passed his
+hand through the wrist-knot, and thought that he would have to strike
+hard, for a cavalry sabre is generally round-edged and blunt.
+
+As he thought of this, he touched the edge of the sword with his thumb,
+to find that this was no regulation blade, but a keen-edged tulwar, set
+in an English hilt, and, armed with this, Paul Capel felt himself fully
+a match for those who were working away at the window, which did not
+yield.
+
+_Creak_--_Crack_--_Crack_!
+
+The catch flew back, and there was a pause, during which Capel drew near
+with the blade thrown over his left shoulder, ready for delivering the
+first cut at the man who entered.
+
+Then the window glided up, the great curtain was drawn by an arm in his
+direction, partly covering him, and a light flashed across the room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+A BLANK ADVENTURE.
+
+The light played on the blade of the keen-edged sword, as if it were
+phosphorescent, but the lambent quivering was not seen by the holder of
+the lantern, who hid Capel with his own hand as the light was flashed
+upon the bed and into the corners of the room, and then turned off.
+
+"All right, boys," was whispered, and a man swung himself into the room.
+"Be quick, and shut the window."
+
+A second man crept softly in, and the third was half in, when he
+slipped, threw out his hand to save himself, struck against one of his
+companions and drove him back against the curtain and upon Capel.
+
+"Light!  Barkers!  Some one here."
+
+Capel heard the words, saw the flash, and struck at the hand that held
+it.
+
+The blade fell heavily upon the lantern and dashed it to the floor,
+where it went out.
+
+Raising the sword he struck again, but as he did so, one of the men
+sprang at him, and the blow that fell was upon the fellow's shoulder,
+and with the hilt of the sword.
+
+Capel was borne back by the man's fierce spring, his feet became
+entangled in the curtain and he fell heavily, with his adversary upon
+him.
+
+"Quick, Morris," whispered a voice.
+
+"No, no.  Curse you.  Shut the window.  There's only one.  Where's your
+matches?  Quick, light the glim!  Ah, would you?  Lie still and bite
+that.  You just move again and I'll pull the trigger."
+
+The barrel of a revolver had been thrust between Capel's teeth, and as
+he lay back with the man on his chest, half stunned, helpless and
+despairing, he saw indistinctly the figure against the window, heard the
+sash slide down, and the darkness was complete as the curtain was drawn
+over the panes.  Then there was the faint streak of light as a match was
+struck, the bull's-eye lantern was picked up and re-lit, and the bright
+rays once more played all about the room.
+
+The man who held it then went to the door and listened.
+
+"It's all right," he whispered.  "You said nobody can't hear what goes
+on in this room.  These curtains would suffocate a trumpet.  Here, you,"
+he cried to the third man, "don't stand shivering like that.  Take that
+carving-knife out of his hand.  Pull the trigger, Dick, if he stirs."
+
+This to the man kneeling on Capel's chest.
+
+Capel lay absolutely powerless at that moment; but, as the third fellow
+caught him by the wrist, the young man wrenched his head on one side,
+and heaved himself up, so that he partially dislodged the ruffian who
+held him down.  At the same time he swung the sabre round, driving the
+third back, and striking the principal adversary so sharp a blow that he
+slipped aside, and Capel leaped to his feet.
+
+At that moment the light was turned off, and there was a rush made to
+get beyond his reach.
+
+Capel also took advantage of the total darkness to step back, but he
+held the weapon ready for a cut, should an attack be made.
+
+As he stood there, panting, a low whisper rose from the direction of the
+door, and he just caught its import, "Give me the light."
+
+There was a click directly after, and then from about the middle of the
+room the dazzling light of the bull's-eye shone out full upon Capel as
+he stood with upraised sword, while his assailants were in the dark.
+
+"Now, then," said the voice which he recognised as that of the man who
+had held the pistol to his mouth, "throw down that tool."
+
+"Give up, you scoundrel!" cried Capel.  "You can't escape."
+
+"Can't we?" said the man, between his teeth, "More can't you.  Now,
+then, will you throw down that sword?"
+
+"No," said Capel, furiously.  "You've walked into a trap, so give up."
+
+"Go on," said the voice of the lesser man.
+
+At that moment there was a bright flash of light, a sharp report, and
+Capel felt a sensation as if he had been struck a violent blow on the
+left shoulder, which half spun him round, while the round, glistening
+disc of light seemed to have darted back to the side of the bed.
+
+Half stunned, but full of fight, Capel turned and made for the light
+once more, when there was another flash, a quick shot, and this time the
+blow seemed to have fallen on the top of his head, and, stunned and
+helpless, the sword dropped from his hand, and he fell on a chair, and
+from that on to the floor.
+
+"You've killed him!  You've killed him!"
+
+"Good job, too.  Think I wanted my skin turned into pork crackling with
+that sword?  Hold yer row, will yer, or--"
+
+"We shall be taken and hung.  Oh, my arm!"
+
+"Look here, my dear pal," said the little man; "if you want to preach,
+just wait till this job's done.  Throw the light on the door, Dick."
+
+"I dunno which is doors and which is windows, with all these curtains.
+Oh, that's it, is it?  Quiet, will you?"
+
+He stood listening attentively.  "It's all right.  There isn't a sound."
+
+"Let's go then, at once."
+
+"What, empty?  Not me, eh, Dick?"
+
+"'Taint likely.  Wait till I've got two more cartridges in.  That's it--
+Now then, business."
+
+"But this poor fellow?"
+
+"He's not killed, only quieted.  Now, then, what is there here?"
+
+They made a hurried search of the room, but with the exception of the
+silver tops of the bottles of the Colonel's dressing-case, there was
+nothing to excite their cupidity.  Then Capel's pockets were searched,
+but watch and purse were in his chamber, while, though the Colonel's
+room was full of costly objects, they were not of the portable nature
+that would have made them valuable to the men.
+
+"Now then," said the tall man, quickly, "it's of no use; we must go
+down.  Where are the keys?"
+
+The little man took a bunch from the bag.
+
+"But, suppose the old man's awake?" whispered the shivering ex-servant,
+faint from his wound.
+
+"Well, if he is, we must persuade him to go to sleep, somehow, till
+we've done.  Here, you come and hold the light while I hand him the
+keys."
+
+The trembling man took the lantern, while his leader went down on one
+knee; and as his little companion handed him false keys and picklocks,
+he busied himself trying to open the door.
+
+"Keep that light still, will you?" he cried menacingly.  "Why, you're
+making it dance all over the door.  I want it on the key-hole, don't I?"
+
+Then the light shone full on the lock for a minute or two, not more, for
+he who held it kept turning his head to see if Capel was moving.
+
+This brought forth a torrent of whispered oaths from both men.
+
+"Here, let me have a try," whispered the little man.  "I can open it if
+you'll hold this blessed glim still.  I never see such a cur."
+
+Then, in the coolest manner possible, he took the other's place, and
+tried key after key, picklock after picklock, and ended by throwing all
+into the bag with a growl of disgust.
+
+"It's one of them stoopid patents," he cried.  "Here, give us a james."
+
+A strong steel crowbar in two pieces was screwed together, and its sharp
+edge inserted between the door and the post, but the great, solid
+mahogany door stood firm, only emitting now and then a loud crack, sharp
+as that given by a cart whip, as the men strained at it in turn.
+
+"Here, let's try a saw.  Centre-bit!"
+
+A centre-bit was fitted into a stock, and a hole cut right through.
+Into this, after much greasing, a key-hole saw was thrust, and, not
+without emitting a loud noise, the work of cutting began, the sawdust
+falling lightly on the lion's skin; but at the end of a few seconds a
+dull, harsh sound told that the saw was meeting metal, and a fresh start
+had to be made.
+
+For fully two hours did the men work to get through, boring and sawing
+in place after place, but always to find that the door was strengthened
+in all directions with metal plates; and at last the task was given up.
+"Look here," growled the leader of the party, "that bed isn't used.  I
+want to know how that chap got in.  He hasn't any key."
+
+"Can't you get the door open, then?" said the third man, after the other
+had shaken his head.
+
+"Why, don't you see we can't?"
+
+"But we shall get nothing for our trouble."
+
+"Nothing at all," said the tall man, quietly.
+
+"But--"
+
+"There, that'll do.  First of all, you were so precious anxious to go.
+Now you know we can't get down, you're all for the job.  I say, is this
+the room where the murder was?"
+
+"Yes; don't talk about it."
+
+"Why not?  We haven't done another.  He'll come round."
+
+"What next, Dick?"
+
+"Cut," was the laconic reply.
+
+"When there's all that plate asking of us to make up a small parcel and
+carry it away?"
+
+"Don't patter.  Got all the tools?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then come along."
+
+The light was played upon Capel's insensible face for a few moments, and
+then, to the intense relief of the ex-servant, the lantern was placed in
+the bag with the burglars' tools, and the window being thrown open, one
+by one stole out, the last closing the window behind him, leaving Capel
+lying helpless and insensible in the locked-up room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+WAITING FOR BREAKFAST.
+
+"Such a bright cheery morning, Lydia," said Katrine, knocking at the
+bedroom door.  "Oh, you are up.  Breakfast must be ready."
+
+The two girls descended, to find that they were first.
+
+"Nobody down," cried Katrine, "and I am so hungry.  Oh, how wicked it
+seems on a morning like this to keep out all the light and sunshine."
+
+Just then, old Mr Girtle came in, looking, as usual, very quiet and
+thoughtful; and after a while Artis came down, looking dull and sleepy.
+
+"Where's the boss?" he said, suddenly.
+
+"The what?--I do not understand you," said the old lawyer.
+
+"The master--the guardian of this tomb.  Where's Capel?"
+
+"Oh," said the old lawyer.  "Possibly the fine morning may have tempted
+him to take a walk."
+
+"Are we going to wait for Capel?" said Artis.
+
+"I'm so hungry, I feel quite ashamed," said Katrine; "but I think we
+ought to wait."
+
+"There is nothing to be ashamed of in a healthy young appetite, my dear
+young lady," said the old lawyer.  "I have been reading in my room since
+six, and I should like to begin.  I don't suppose he will be long.  Mr
+Capel out, Preenham?"
+
+"I think not, sir," said the butler, who was bringing in a covered dish.
+
+"Perhaps you had better tell him that we are all assembled.  He may have
+overslept himself."
+
+At the end of five minutes the old butler was back to say that Mr Capel
+had not answered when he knocked.
+
+"He may be ill," said Lydia anxiously, and then, catching Katrine's eye,
+she coloured warmly.
+
+Preenham gave Artis a meaning look, and that gentleman followed him out.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Mr Capel hasn't been to bed all night, sir."
+
+"Not been to bed all night, Preenham?" said the old lawyer, who had
+followed.  "Did you let him out last night?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Then how can he have gone out?  I saw that the door was fastened after
+you had gone to bed, and it was still fastened when I came down at six."
+
+"And at seven too, sir," said the butler.
+
+"He must be in the house," said Artis.  "Go and look round."
+
+"Is Mr Capel ill?" said Katrine.
+
+"No, no, my dear, I think not," said the old lawyer.  "I'll go, too, and
+see."
+
+"It is very strange," said Katrine, turning to Lydia, who looked ashy
+pale.  "I hope nothing is the matter, dear."
+
+She seemed so calm that Lydia took courage and returned to the
+breakfast-table, while, followed by the old lawyer and Preenham, Artis
+examined the dining-room and study, then ascended to the first floor,
+tried the Colonel's door, found it fast, and went on into the
+drawing-room.
+
+"I tried that door," he said grimly, "because that is the chamber of
+horrors."
+
+"It is locked, and the key is in my table," said the old lawyer, and
+then they searched the other rooms, finding Capel's watch, purse and
+pocketbook, and looked at each other blankly.
+
+"He must be out," said Artis.
+
+"No, sir; here's his hat and stick."
+
+Artis stopped, thinking, and then bounded up the stairs again to the
+Colonel's door.
+
+"I thought so," he said.  "There's something wrong here.  Look."  He
+pointed to several holes through the mahogany door, the mark of a saw
+scoring the panels, and the reddish dust on the lion-skin mat.  "Is any
+one here?" he cried, knocking.  "I say!  Is any one here?  Pah!  Look at
+that!"
+
+He uttered a cry, almost like a woman, as he pointed to a place where
+the lion-skin rug did not reach, and there, dimly seen by the gloomy
+light thrown by the stained-glass window, was a little thread of blood
+that had run beneath the door.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+DOCTOR AND NURSE.
+
+The old lawyer ran from the door with an alacrity not to be expected in
+one of his years, and returned directly with the key that he had found
+in his table.
+
+"Give it to me," said Artis huskily, and snatching the key he tried to
+insert it, but his hand trembled so that he did not succeed, and the
+next moment he shrank away.
+
+"Here, open that door, Preenham," he said.
+
+"I daren't, sir, I daren't indeed.  Ah, poor young man!"
+
+"Give me the key," said the old lawyer firmly, and taking it, he tried
+the door, to find that the lock had been tampered with, so that it was
+some minutes before he could get it to move.
+
+"Hadn't I better fetch the police, sir?" faltered the butler.
+
+"No; stop," said the old lawyer, turning the handle.  "There is some one
+against the door."
+
+He pushed hard, and with some effort got it open so that he could have
+squeezed in.
+
+"It is all dark," he said.  "No it is the curtain," and forcing his way
+through, he drew back the hangings from the window.
+
+"It's poor Capel--dead!" whispered Artis, who had followed.  "Here,
+Preenham, come in," he cried angrily.  "Oh, how horrible--poor lad!"
+
+The lawyer saw the naked sword lying on the carpet; that the drawers and
+cabinet had been ransacked; and that the window was not quite shut down.
+
+He took this in at a glance as he ran to where Capel lay close to the
+door, where he had dragged himself sometime during the early hours of
+the morn, to lie exhausted after vainly trying to raise the alarm.
+
+"He's dead, sir, dead!" groaned the butler.
+
+"Hush!" cried the old lawyer harshly.  "He's not dead.  Mr Artis, you
+are young and active.  Quick.  That doctor, Mr Heston.  You know where
+he lives.  You, Preenham, brandy.  Stop.  Tell the ladies Mr Capel is
+ill.  Nothing more.  Don't spread the alarm."
+
+"Is anything very serious the matter?" said a voice at the door.
+
+"Yes--no, my dear.  Go away now," cried the old lawyer, "Mr Capel is
+ill."
+
+"There is something terribly wrong again," said a deeper voice, and,
+white as ashes and closely followed by Katrine, Lydia came in.
+
+She uttered a faint cry, and then wrested herself from Artis, who tried
+to stop her.
+
+"No," she cried, imperiously, changed as it were in an instant from a
+shivering girl into a thoughtful woman.  "Quick: go for help.  Mr
+Girtle, what can I do?"
+
+"Yes, let me help too," said Katrine.  "What is it; has he tried to kill
+himself?"
+
+"No," cried Lydia, turning upon her fiercely.  "He was too true a man."
+
+"I'm afraid there has been an attempt made by burglars," said the old
+lawyer, "and that our young friend has been trying to defend the place;
+but--but he was locked in here--the key was in my table--and--and--I'm
+afraid I'm growing very old--things seem so much confused now."
+
+He put his hand to his head for a few moments and looked helplessly from
+one to the other.  Then his customary _sang froid_ seemed to have
+returned.
+
+"This is not a sight for you, ladies," he said.  "Pray go back."
+
+"I am not afraid, Mr Girtle," said Katrine, with a slight shudder as
+she looked eagerly about the room.
+
+For her answer, Lydia took water from the wash-stand, and began to bathe
+the blood-smeared face, kneeling down by Capel's side.
+
+Just then Preenham entered with decanter and glass, the former
+clattering against the latter, as he poured out some of the contents.
+
+Holding a little of the brandy to Capel's clenched teeth, Mr Girtle
+managed to trickle through a few drops at a time, while Lydia continued
+the bathing, and Katrine stood, like some beautiful statue, gazing down
+at them with wrinkled brow and clasped hands.
+
+By this time, the knowledge that something was wrong had reached the
+women-servants, and they had both come to the door.
+
+"No, no; keep them away, Preenham," said Mr Girtle, in answer to offers
+of assistance.  "You go down, too, and be at the door, ready to let the
+doctor in."
+
+"Yes, sir, I will," said the old butler, piteously; "but my young
+master--will he live?"
+
+"Please God!" said the lawyer simply.
+
+"But he is not dead, sir?"
+
+"There is your answer, man," said Mr Girtle, for just then Capel
+uttered a low moan.
+
+The old butler bent down on one knee, and Lydia darted at him a grateful
+look, as she saw him lift and press one cold hand, and then, laying it
+down, he rose, and went out of the room on tiptoe, raising his hands and
+his face towards Heaven.
+
+"Was he stabbed--with that sword?" said Lydia, in a hoarse whisper.
+
+"No, I think not.  The doctor must soon be here," was the reply.
+
+In fact, five minutes later there was a quick knock at the door, and Dr
+Heston hurried in, followed by Artis.
+
+"Give me the room," he said quickly.  "Ladies, please go."
+
+Katrine turned slowly, and glanced at Lydia.
+
+"I may stay, Doctor Heston," she said.  "I may be of use."
+
+"No words now," he said, sharply.  "By-and-by you will be invaluable.
+Well there, stay."
+
+He had thrown off his coat and rolled up his sleeves as he spoke, and as
+Lydia bent her head and stood waiting, Katrine left the room.  Then the
+deft-handed medico was busy with his examination.
+
+"Head literally scored with a bullet," he said.
+
+"Not a cut?" whispered Mr Girtle, pointing to the sword.
+
+"Bless me, no.  Scored by a bullet.  An inch lower--hallo!  What have we
+here?"
+
+He took out a knife and cut through the clothes, where he could not draw
+them away from where the blood had oozed out just below the left
+shoulder.
+
+"Hah!  Yes!  Bullet.  Entered here; passed out.  No!  Here it is.  Just
+below the skin."
+
+He had raised the sufferer, and found that the bullet had passed nearly
+through, and was visible so near the surface that a slight cut would
+have given it exit.
+
+"Nothing vital touched, I think," said the doctor, busying himself about
+the wound in the shoulder.
+
+"Ah!  That's right, madam.  Nothing like a woman's hand, after all,
+about a sick man.  Why, this must have happened hours ago."
+
+The doctor chatted away, quickly, but his hands kept time with his
+voice.  He had laid down a small case of instruments with a roll of
+linen, and turning from the arm once more, he rapidly clipped away the
+hair, and dressed the wound in the head, a wound so horrible that Artis
+shuddered, turned to the brandy decanter that the old butler stood
+holding with a helpless, dazed look, and poured out a good dram, while
+Lydia knelt there, very pale, but calmly holding scissors, lint or
+strapping, to hand as they were required.
+
+"Now for the bullet," said the doctor in a cheerful, airy way.  "Mr
+Artis, just lend a hand here.  Or, no; you look upset.  Put down that
+decanter, butler!  This isn't a dinner-party.  That's right.  Now kneel
+down here."
+
+He softly raised Capel, and placed him in a convenient position before
+turning to Lydia.
+
+"Really, I think you would prefer to go now?"
+
+The girl's lips seemed to tighten and she shook her head.
+
+"As you please;" said the doctor testily.  "I have no time to waste.  A
+little back, Mr Girtle; I want all the light I can have.  Yes, that's
+plain enough," he muttered, as with one hand resting on the injured
+man's shoulder where the bullet made quite a little lump, he stretched
+out the other, and from where it nestled in the case, fitted amongst so
+much purple velvet, he took out a small knife.
+
+There was a pleasant look of satisfaction in the doctor's face, as he
+took out the knife, but the next moment he turned with an angry flash
+upon Lydia.
+
+It was the natural instinctive act of one who loves seeking to protect
+the object loved.  For as Dr Heston took the knife in his hand, Lydia's
+eyes dilated, and she leaned forward, caught the doctor's arm, and gazed
+at the keen little blade with dilated eyes.
+
+"My dear young lady, are you mad?" cried the doctor, testily.
+
+She raised her eyes to his in a look so full of appeal, that he could
+read it as easily as if she had given it with the interpretation of
+words.
+
+He was not accustomed to argue in a case like this, but the girl's
+loving attempt to protect the insensible man, touched him to the heart;
+and dropping his sharp, imperious manner, he said gently:
+
+"But, don't you see?  It is to do him good."
+
+Lydia's hand trembled, but she still grasped the doctor's arm.
+
+"Come, come," he said, smiling.  "You must not be alarmed.  Do you want
+the bullet to stay in and irritate the whole length of the wound?"
+
+She gave her head a sharp shake.
+
+"Well, then, be sensible, my dear girl.  There, get me a bit of lint,"
+he continued, "and you shall see how easily and well I will do this.
+That's better.  Why, taking a tooth out is ten times worse.  This is a
+mere trifle.  There, that's a brave little woman.  He will not even feel
+it."
+
+Lydia's hand had dropped from the doctor's arm, and she drew a long
+breath, watching him as if her eyes were drawn to his knife, while he
+bent over Capel.
+
+In a few minutes more the patient was lifted upon the bed, and Lydia
+stood there with her hands clasped in dread, for it seemed ominous to
+her that Capel should be compelled to lie there.
+
+"Can he not be taken up to his room?"
+
+"No, my brave little nurse, no.  It would have been extremely nice for
+him, but what he requires now is absolute rest and quiet.  Come, come.
+You are too strong-minded a little woman to be superstitious.  Go where
+you will, in old houses, there has generally been a death in some of the
+bedrooms; but believe me, that does not affect the living.  Why, if that
+were the case, what should we do at the hospitals?  You are going to
+install yourself here, then, as nurse?  That's right.  Let my
+instructions be carried out, and I'll come in again at noon."
+
+Whispered conversation went on all through the house that day, but
+though there had been the attempt at burglary, Mr Girtle hesitated
+about calling in the police again, and on consulting the doctor, he
+quite agreed that it would be better not to have them there.
+
+"It will only disturb my patient," he said, "and, depend upon it, with a
+light and people sitting up, the scoundrels will not come again."
+
+"Well," said Mr Girtle, "we will not communicate with the police at
+present."
+
+The doctor came in at one, and again at five; and, on leaving, looked
+rather serious.
+
+"If he is not different to this at about nine, when I come in again,
+I'll get Sir Ronald Mackenzie to see him.  I'll warn him at once that he
+may be wanted."
+
+"Then you think his case serious?"
+
+"Brain injuries always are."
+
+At nine o'clock, when the doctor came, his manner startled Lydia, who
+had patiently watched the sufferer all day.
+
+"Yes," he said; "I will have Sir Ronald's opinion.  I shall be back in
+half-an-hour."
+
+He left the room and hurried down-stairs, while Lydia bent down and laid
+her cheek against the patient's burning hand.  He was delirious now, and
+talking loudly and rapidly.
+
+"Yes, it is there," he kept on saying.  "Count four stones from the
+left, press on the fifth, and it will swing around.  I have it safely--
+do you hear?--safely."
+
+This went on over and over again, and as Lydia listened, something, she
+knew not what, made her turn her head, when it seemed to her that one of
+the bed curtains trembled, and that, in the gloom, a hand was softly
+drawing one back, that the sick man's words might be more plainly heard.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+HIGH WORDS.
+
+Looking again in the direction of the hand, but telling herself that it
+was fancy, Lydia sat down to wait anxiously for the doctor's return,
+while Capel went on, talking more or less incoherently.
+
+"You know I love you," he said softly.  "Katrine--darling--you will be
+my wife.  Let the world go its own way, what is it to us?"
+
+Lydia's head sank lower, as the tears of misery began to fall fast.
+
+"The treasure," he cried, suddenly.  "Ha--ha--ha!  Let them search for
+it--months--years.  They will never find it.  I have it safely.  Here.
+I'll tell you."
+
+He beckoned with his finger as he talked on, rapidly; and as Lydia
+raised her saddened countenance, she saw that he was gazing at vacancy
+and gesticulating with his free hand.
+
+"Yes; I'll tell you," he said.  "Let the fools hunt.  They'll never find
+it.  Well?  Why not?  It is mine.  Look.  You count along here--do you
+see--one, eight, six, now press in the key.  There is a spring.  Press
+it home and turn.  The door opens and there it is.  For you, dearest--
+the jewels are all your own."
+
+As he went on talking rapidly, the curtain moved softly again, and this
+time Lydia felt that it was no trick of the light or wind, and, rising
+from her seat, she went softly round to the other side of the bed, took
+hold of the curtain and swept it aside, to leave Katrine standing there
+in the faint light shed by the shaded lamp.
+
+"What are you doing here?"
+
+"I came to see if I could help you."
+
+"And glided in like a thief, to hide there, listening to his words.
+What is it you want to know?  Was it to hear him say he loved you?"
+whispered Lydia, with her face full of scorn.
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"You do understand.  And it was not for that.  You have heard him
+whisper to you--no--waste upon you loving words enough."
+
+"Really," said Katrine, who had recovered from her temporary confusion,
+consequent upon the abrupt discovery of her presence.  "Surely, my
+darling little Lydia is not jealous?"
+
+"Jealous?  Of you?" said Lydia, scornfully.
+
+"No; I am only sorry that he should have been so blind."
+
+"To your incomparable charms?"
+
+"No; to the character of the beautiful woman--"
+
+"Beautiful?"
+
+"Yes; beautiful woman, whose character--"
+
+"How dare you!" cried Katrine, and she struck the brave girl a sharp
+blow across the face with her open hand.
+
+"Beautiful as you are corrupt and cruel," said Lydia, without wincing.
+"I have not been blind.  I have seen your efforts to lead him on--to
+tempt him into the belief that you loved him, when your sole thought has
+been of the money that was to be his."
+
+"It is false," cried Katrine.
+
+"It is true.  I would not stoop to watch you, but I have seen enough to
+know you.  Go back to your companion--the man who plots and plans with
+you to gain what you will never find, and do not--"
+
+"Do not what?" cried Katrine, with a malignant look.
+
+Lydia did not reply, but hurried back to where Capel was trying to raise
+himself up, trembling the while, as he gazed towards the window.
+
+"Look," he said harshly.  "There.  Don't stop, Katrine, love.  There is
+danger.  Don't stop now."
+
+Katrine's face wore a strange waxen hue, as she caught the sick man's
+hand.
+
+The painful position was brought to an end by the coming of the doctors.
+Katrine's quick ear was the first to give her warning of their
+approach, and without another word she softly left the room, stealing
+away so quietly that when Dr Heston entered, ushering in the great
+physician, Lydia hardly realised that she was alone.
+
+"Still the same," said Dr Heston.  "Humph, yes.  My dear madam, will
+you permit me?"
+
+Lydia looked piteously in his face, losing her self-command the while,
+as Heston led her from the room, and closed the door, while as she heard
+it locked on the inside and the sound of the rings passing over the rod,
+she sank down sobbing on the lion-skin rug, burying her face in her
+hands, and ignorant of the fact that she was being watched.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+CAPEL'S NURSES.
+
+"This is your doing, Dr Heston," said Mr Girtle, returning to the
+dining-room, indignantly, with a card in his hand.
+
+He had been seated at lunch with the doctor, Katrine, and Artis, when
+Preenham had entered the room, to say that a gentleman wished to see him
+on important business.
+
+"I dare say it is," said the doctor, "but what have I done?"
+
+"We--the family--had decided to refrain from communication with the
+police, so as not to draw attention to the peculiar circumstances that
+have taken place in this house, and I agreed somewhat unwillingly,
+knowing Mr Capel's feelings as to what has gone before."
+
+"Well," said the doctor, coolly, for the old man seemed to have lost his
+self-control.
+
+"No, sir, it is not well.  Someone has communicated with the police."
+
+He held out the card in his hand, and Katrine winced, while Artis gave
+her an uneasy look.
+
+"No work of mine, my dear sir; my hands are too full of my patient.
+Surely he does not say--"
+
+"No, no," said Mr Girtle, hurriedly.  "I have not seen him yet.  I was
+so angry that I returned at once.  I really beg your pardon, but all
+this trouble has rather taken me off my balance."
+
+He nodded, and left the room, and Katrine glanced at the doctor.
+
+"Over-work and anxiety, my dear madam," he said.  "I shall have to give
+him a little advice.  Now, if you will excuse me, I'll go up-stairs."
+
+"But doctor," cried Katrine; "is Mr Capel really better?"
+
+"It is hardly just to call him better while this delirium continues; but
+you know what Sir Ronald said."
+
+He went out of the dining-room, and ascended the stairs, leaving Katrine
+with Artis.
+
+"Where are you going?" said the latter.
+
+"Up to Capel's room."
+
+"What, again?"
+
+"Yes," she said, "again."
+
+"But what have you found out?"
+
+"Wait and see."
+
+"Wait and see?  I'm sick of it all," he cried, angrily.  "I feel as if I
+were buried alive, and to make matters worse, you're always away.  Look
+here, I don't like your going and nursing that fellow."
+
+"You stupid boy!" she said softly; and she turned upon him a look that
+made him catch her in his arms and press his lips to hers.
+
+For a few moments she made no resistance, but seemed to be returning his
+caress.  Then, with an angry wrench, she extricated herself from his
+grasp.
+
+"How dare you!" she cried.
+
+"How dare?  Oh, come, that's good."
+
+"You are acting like a fool!"
+
+She sailed out of the room just as Preenham opened the door, and as he
+drew back for her to pass, Artis threw himself into a chair, while
+Katrine slowly ascended the stairs, listening intently to the low murmur
+of voices in the library.
+
+A few minutes before, the quiet, grave-looking professional nurse had
+ascended to the sick room from the housekeeper's room, where she had
+just partaken of her dinner, and found, as she entered, silently, Lydia
+on her knees by the bedside, with a straight bar of light from the
+window throwing her into bold relief against the dark curtains.
+
+The nurse advanced softly, and glanced at Capel, who seemed to be
+sleeping easily, and then lightly touched Lydia on the shoulder.
+
+"Asleep, miss?" she said.
+
+Lydia raised her white face, haggard and livid with sleeplessness and
+anxiety.
+
+"No," she said softly, as she let herself sink into the low chair at the
+bed's head.  "No, not asleep."
+
+"But you are quite done up, miss," said the nurse.  "Now, pray do go and
+lie down for a few hours.  He is better, I'm sure of it.  I do know,
+indeed.  I've seen so much of this sort of thing.  I was in the French
+hospitals all through the war."
+
+"But, are you sure?"
+
+"I'm quite certain, miss.  Now, you can't go on like this.  You must
+have rest.  Take my advice, and go and have a good sleep, and then you
+can come and watch again."
+
+"But if--"
+
+"If anything happens, miss, I'll call you."
+
+"You promise me?"
+
+"Faithfully, miss.  There, trust to me."
+
+Lydia had risen, and she tottered as she took a step or two, when the
+nurse caught her in her arms, and the poor girl's strength gave way
+entirely now.
+
+The nurse's confident words that Capel was getting better, robbed her of
+the last bond of self-control, and, as the woman tenderly supported her,
+and whispered a few soothing words, Lydia's head went down on the
+nurse's breast, and she burst into a low, passionate fit of hysterical
+tears.
+
+"There, you'll be better now," whispered the nurse, as Lydia raised her
+piteous white face.  "Now go and have a few hours' sleep."
+
+Lydia nodded, recovered her self-command, and went to the bed, bent over
+and gazed earnestly in the patient's face, and then left the room.
+
+"Poor dear!" said the nurse, after a glance at the patient, "how she
+does love him!  Ah, miss, how you made me jump!"
+
+"Did I, nurse?" said Katrine.  "I was obliged to come in gently.  How is
+he?"
+
+"Better, miss, I think."
+
+"That's well.  You look very tired, nurse."
+
+"Me, miss?  Oh, dear, no."
+
+"But your strength ought to be saved for nights.  I can't watch at
+night--I get too sleepy; but I can now, and I'll take your place."
+
+"Do you really wish it, miss?"
+
+"Yes.  Please," said Katrine, firmly; and the woman quietly left the
+room, to take no walk, but to go up to the chamber set apart for her
+use, and, from long habit in catching rest when it could be found, she
+threw herself upon her bed, and was soon breathing heavily--fast asleep.
+
+In the adjoining room lay Lydia, with her eyes closed, hour after hour,
+but painfully awake.  No sleep would come to her weary brain, which
+seemed to grow more terribly active as the time rolled on.  She told
+herself that her love for Capel was madness.  Then hope tortured her
+with the idea that he might turn to her, while her indignant maiden
+nature bade her forget him and show more pride.  "But he is poor," Hope
+seemed to say; "his fortune is gone, and you are comparatively wealthy.
+Wait, and he will love you yet."
+
+There was a hopeful smile dawning upon her lips, as she softly left her
+room, and went down the stairs, with a feeling of restful content in her
+breast, and then her heart seemed to stand still, and a horrible feeling
+of self-reproach attacked her as she felt that she had left her post
+just as some terrible crisis had been about to happen.
+
+For there, at the door where she had crouched in agony, waiting to know
+the great physician's verdict, now stood Gerard Artis, gazing in as he
+held it partly open.
+
+Lydia was as if turned to stone for the moment.  Then the reaction came,
+and she quickly ran to the door, to lay her hand upon Artis's shoulder.
+
+He turned upon her a face distorted with jealous rage, and then his
+countenance changed, and, indulging in a malicious laugh, he drew on one
+side, holding the curtain back, and pointed mockingly to the scene
+within.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+AN ENCOUNTER.
+
+One swift glance, and then, without noticing Artis, Lydia glided into
+the room.
+
+She had seen her hope crushed, and that she must never dream again of
+that happy future.  She had not slept, but she had left her post, and
+while she had been absent another had stolen that last hope.
+
+For, after lying sleeping calmly and peacefully for an hour, Capel
+heaved a long sigh, and at last he opened his eyes, in a quiet, dreamy
+way, gazing at, but apparently not seeing, Katrine, as she knelt there
+in the light cast by the window.
+
+Then she saw a look of intelligence come into his face, and he spoke in
+a quiet and eager, though feeble tone.
+
+"What is it?  Why--why am I here?  Don't--don't speak.  Yes, I know.
+Oh, Katrine, my love, my love!"
+
+He raised his feeble arms, till they clasped the beautiful neck as she
+bent down over him, and her head rested upon his pillow, side by side
+with his; her soft dark hair half hid his pale cheek, and he was
+whispering feebly his words of gratitude, as Lydia slowly advanced into
+the room, and, unnoticed by either, she laid her soft, white hand upon
+Katrine's shoulder, gripping it with a nervous force of which she
+herself was ignorant.
+
+Katrine started up, flushed, her eyes sparkling with light, and a look
+of triumph coming into her face, as she saw who was there.
+
+"Mr Capel's condition will not permit of this excitement," said Lydia,
+in a cold, harsh voice.  "Doctor Heston's orders were that he should be
+kept quiet."
+
+That afternoon, when Mr Girtle entered the library, he found a
+plainly-dressed man awaiting him--a man who, save that he gave the idea
+of having once been a soldier, might have passed for anything, from a
+publican to an idler whose wife let lodgings, and made it unnecessary
+for him to toil or spin.
+
+"Morning, sir.  You had my card, I see.  I've called about the attempt
+made here the other night."
+
+"Attempt?"
+
+"Yes, sir; the burglary."
+
+"How did you know there was an attempt?"
+
+"Oh, we get to know a little, sir.  We're a body of incompetent men that
+every one abuses, but we find out a few things a year."
+
+"You heard of this, then?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and we were a bit surprised that you didn't communicate with
+us.  Seems strange, sir."
+
+"Strange, yes, my man, but have we not had horrors enough?"
+
+"Yes, sir, but--"
+
+"Well," said Mr Girtle impatiently, "you have heard of it, then?  What
+do you wish to do?"
+
+"See the place, sir.  Who is it that nearly killed that poor fellow?"
+
+"How did you know that some one did?"
+
+Mr Girtle's visitor laughed a quiet little laugh.
+
+"Oh, we know, sir.  He's horribly bad."
+
+"No; decidedly better."
+
+"No, sir.  I was at the hospital this morning, and they don't think
+he'll live the day.  He has let it all out."
+
+"Look here, my man, we are confusing matters," said Mr Girtle.
+
+"Why, you've got a wounded man here?"
+
+"Yes.  There, my good fellow, I suppose you must know all, now."
+
+"I suppose we must, sir," said the officer, with a grim smile.  "Strange
+that you should so soon have another trouble here."
+
+"But you have not told me your informant."
+
+"Oh, there's no secret about it, sir.  Servant chap went to the bad, and
+lost his character.  Old friend of your footman here who was killed.  He
+picks up with a couple of regular cracksmen, and tells all he knows
+about the house, and they put up the job."
+
+"Yes, yes.  I see.  Well?"
+
+"They get in, and catch a Tartar, for this chap was cut down by some one
+here, and his mates got him away to a wretched hole, where the people
+were so frightened that they gave information to the police that a man
+was dying on their premises.  Police took him to the hospital, and when
+he found out how bad he was, he made a clean breast of it all.  That's
+it, sir.  Plain as A, B, C."
+
+Mr Girtle sat looking at the officer, curiously.
+
+"Do you think," he said at last, "that these men committed the other
+robbery?"
+
+The detective's eyes twinkled, but not a muscle moved.
+
+"I should think it about certain, sir."
+
+"Have you got the man's companions?"
+
+"Yes, sir, both of them, safe enough."
+
+"Then as this man confessed one thing, I dare say he will the other.  He
+is dying, you say?"
+
+"Yes, sir, no doubt about it; not so much from the sword cut, as from
+bad health--drink, and the like."
+
+"Then he must be seen to-day--at once, man.  We may get to know from him
+where they have disposed of the treasure.--Such a large sum."
+
+"Yes, sir," the officer, quietly, taking out a note-book.  "Now, don't
+you think, sir, you being a solicitor, it would have been better to let
+us do our work, and you do yours?"
+
+"What do you mean, sir?"
+
+"Only this, sir, that here's another thing.  You've had a tremendous
+robbery here before, and we've known nothing about it till this minute,
+when you let it all out."
+
+Mr Girtle gave his knee an impatient blow.
+
+"Yes, sir, you let it out.  When did it happen?"
+
+"At the time of that terrible affair in the house.  You remember?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I took a good deal of notice of it at the time, sir; but I
+had nothing to do with the case.  So a lot of money was taken, then?"
+
+Mr Girtle nodded.
+
+"I am not at liberty to say more.  Mr Capel would not have the search
+made."
+
+"If you'll excuse me, sir, I'll give you another look in.  Perhaps,
+to-morrow, you'll let me go over the place."
+
+He went away hurriedly, and straight off to the hospital, where he had a
+long interview with the sick man, obtaining all the information from him
+that he could, before compelled by the poor wretch's weakness to cease
+the inquisition.
+
+"A tremendous big sum, eh?" said the officer, to himself.  "I should
+like to have the finding of that.  They might be a bit generous to a
+man."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+MR PREENHAM'S VISITOR.
+
+There was a kind of civil war carried on at the old house over the
+nursing back of Paul Capel to health.  He suffered much, but a strong
+constitution and youth were fine odds in his favour, and he recovered,
+after passing the crisis, rapidly and well.
+
+And during these days Lydia suffered a martyrdom, seeing, as she did,
+how Katrine took advantage of Capel's weakness to tighten his bonds.
+
+The detective came, as he had promised, and saw the room and the window,
+making notes and a drawing thereof, and then going to the mews at the
+back, where he satisfied himself as to the means by which access had
+been obtained.
+
+The evidence of Paul Capel was taken by a magistrate at his bedside, as
+he was certified as unfit to be moved; and in due time the law meted out
+its punishment upon the two criminals left; but the detective was not at
+peace.
+
+The officer, who boasted of the name of Linnett, was a very sleuth-hound
+in his ways, and he came upon Mr Girtle at all manner of unexpected
+times while he was waiting for Paul Capel's return to health, and tried
+to get information from him, without avail.
+
+"Must have been a bit of imagination on the old man's part," said Mr
+Linnett.  "Some of these old fellows--half-cracked, as a rule--believe
+that they are extremely rich.  I don't know, though.  Old boy was very
+rich.  Wonderful!  What a house!  That young chap might very well be
+satisfied with what he has got."
+
+In this spirit the detective turned his attention to the doctor,
+approaching him with a bad feeling of weakness, and not being satisfied
+with the dictum of the divisional surgeon.
+
+"He laughs at it, you see, sir," said Linnett, in the doctor's
+consulting room; "but I'm bad."
+
+"Yes, yes.  I see what is the matter with you, my man," said Heston.
+"I'll soon set you all right."
+
+"Lor', what humbugs doctors are," said the detective, looking at his
+prescription, as he went away.  "I suppose I must take this stuff,
+though, before I go and see him again."
+
+"Curious thing, nature," said Heston, as soon as the detective had gone;
+"that man thinks he's ill, and there's nothing whatever the matter with
+him.  Fancy, brought on from hard thought and work."
+
+The doctor was wiser than the detective thought; but in future visits
+the latter obtained a good deal of information, among which was the
+doctor's theory that Ramo, the old Indian servant, had not died entirely
+from the struggle with Charles Pillar.
+
+It was just about that time that Gerard Artis swore an oath.
+
+That old Mr Girtle took Lydia's hand gently between his, and said
+tenderly:--
+
+"No, no, my child.  You must not go.  I am very old, and if you were to
+go now, it would be like taking the light out of my life.  I know all; I
+am not blind.  But wait."
+
+Lydia shook her head.
+
+"If you love him, my child, wait.  It may be to save him, and you would
+sacrifice yourself to do that."
+
+And that Mr Linnett went out of the area of the great gloomy house,
+laughing to himself, and casting up his total, as he termed it.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" he exclaimed; "only to think of them knocking their heads
+about here and there, and never so much as getting warm.  Detectives are
+all fools, so the public say.  Blind as bats.  They want a better class
+of men."
+
+He treated himself to a thoroughly good cigar, and rolled out the blue
+clouds of smoke as he strode along, wagging his umbrella behind him.
+
+"Always through all these years running down rogues!  What a temptation
+to a man, to make a change and go the other way.  Million and a half o'
+money, in a shape as could be carried in a small black bag.  Why, I
+could put my hand on it, and go and set up somewhere as a king, and
+never be found out.  Shall I?"
+
+It was quite dark, and Mr Linnett took a pair of handcuffs from his
+pocket, and tucking his umbrella under his arm, playfully fitted them on
+his own wrists.
+
+"No," he said; "they wouldn't look well there."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+THE PARTY BREAKS UP.
+
+"Dinner over, of course, Preenham?"
+
+"Oh, dear, yes, sir," said that worthy, taking Artis's hat and cane.
+"Carriage was ordered for half-past seven, and they've gone to the
+theatre, sir."
+
+"Gone where?"
+
+"Theatre, sir--Haymarket, sir."
+
+"Why, Preenham--"
+
+"It was Mr Girtle, sir, proposed it.  Said it would be a pleasant
+change for everybody.  The carriage was ordered, and dinner an hour
+sooner."
+
+"The sky will fall next," said Artis, with a sneering laugh.  "Bring me
+some coffee in the library, and--no, some brandy and soda and the
+cigars."
+
+"Yes, sir.  Miss D'Enghien's in the drawing-room, sir.  Had a bad
+headache, and didn't go."
+
+"Why didn't you say that at first?" cried Artis; and he went up two
+stairs at a time, to find Katrine in the act of throwing herself into a
+chair, and looking flushed and hot.
+
+"You here?" she said, wearily.
+
+"My darling!" he cried.  "If I had only known.  At last!"
+
+He threw himself at her feet, clasped her waist, and drew her half
+resisting towards him, while before a minute had elapsed, her arms were
+resting upon his shoulders, and her eyes were half closed in a dreamy
+ecstasy, as she yielded to the kisses that covered her face.
+
+Suddenly, with a quick motion, she threw him off.
+
+"Quick--some one," she whispered.
+
+Her ears were sharper than his, and she had heard the dull rattle of the
+door handle.
+
+"I don't know what to take," she said, in a weary voice; "I suppose it
+will not be better before morning."
+
+"I have taken the brandy and soda into the library, sir," said Preenham.
+"Would you like it brought up here?"
+
+"To be sure," he cried.  "The very thing for your headache.  Bring it
+up, Preenham."
+
+"You madman!" cried Katrine, angrily.  "You take advantage of my
+weakness for you.  Another moment, and we should have been discovered.
+No, no; keep away."
+
+"Miss is as good as a mile."
+
+"You grow more reckless, every day.  We must be careful."
+
+"Careful!  I'm sick of being careful."
+
+"Hush!"
+
+The butler entered with a tray and the brandy and soda.
+
+"Open it, sir?"
+
+"Yes.  Two.  Now try that.  Best thing in the world for a bad head."
+
+The old butler withdrew as softly as he had come in, and Katrine took
+two or three sips from her glass, while Artis tossed his off, and then,
+setting it down, walked quickly to the door.
+
+Katrine's eyes dilated, and, bending forward, she listened, and then
+sprang up and glided quickly across from the inner room to meet Artis
+half-way, and be clasped in his arms.
+
+"What have you done?" she cried.
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"You have fastened the door."
+
+"Nonsense."
+
+"I say you have!"
+
+"Well, suppose I have.  What then?"
+
+"You madman!  Unfasten the door."
+
+"Not I."
+
+"I tell you that you are mad," she cried, trying to free herself.
+"Gerard, dear Gerard, be reasonable."
+
+She writhed herself free and ran and turned the bolt back.  He followed
+to refasten it, but she held him.
+
+"Think of the consequences of our being found locked in here."
+
+"Bah! no one will come now till after eleven, and if they did I don't
+care.  Look here," he cried, clasping her to his breast again, "suppose
+this Arabian Night sort of fortune were found, do you think I am blind?
+You would marry this Capel."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I won't have it," he cried.
+
+"Why not?" she whispered, and her creamy arms clasped about his neck.
+"We are so poor, Gerard, and we must have money to live."
+
+"Yes, but at that cost," he cried, passionately.
+
+"Well, what then?  Think!  Over a million, which you should share.
+Gerard--dearest--you will not be so foolish, when I am so near this
+gigantic prize.  He is my complete slave.  I can do with him just what I
+will."
+
+"But--Kate--I believe you would--"
+
+He did not achieve his sentence, but responded passionately to her
+caresses till he felt her suddenly grow rigid in his arms, and then one
+arm was snatched from his neck, and, with her hand, she struck him
+sharply across the face.
+
+"How dare you!" she cried.
+
+Gerard Artis let his hands fall to his side, and Katrine darted to a
+tall figure in evening dress standing just inside the door, and flung
+herself at his knees.
+
+"Save me!" she half shrieked, "from the insults of this man."
+
+Paul Capel drew himself aside, and Katrine fell prostrate on the thick
+carpet, as he gravely opened the door.
+
+The girl sprang to her feet and darted out of the room, while Capel,
+after watching her for a moment or two, closed the door, turned the
+bolt, and then threw his crush hat upon a table, his black wrapper over
+a chair, and tore off his white gloves, changing the ivory-handled
+malacca cane from hand to hand as he did so.
+
+"Home soon," said Artis, with a sneer, as he slowly walked to the little
+table, poured out some more brandy, and gulped it down.
+
+"Yes," replied Capel, gravely.  "Thank Heaven I did come home soon.  I
+came to spend an hour alone with the woman I loved."
+
+"And you were forestalled," cried Artis.  "Here, what are you going to
+do?"
+
+"Thrash a contemptible scoundrel within an inch of his life," cried
+Capel; and he made a grasp at Artis's arm.
+
+But the latter eluded him, bounded to the fire-place, and picked up the
+bright poker.
+
+"Keep off," he cried, "or I'll murder you."
+
+_Cling!  Jingle_!
+
+He had struck the glass lustres of the great chandelier, and the
+fragments fell tinkling down.
+
+_Crack_!  A yell of pain!  A dull thud!
+
+With a dexterous blow, Capel caught Artis's right hand with the stout
+cane, numbing his nerves, so that the poker fell.  With a second blow,
+he seemed to hamstring his adversary, who staggered, and would have
+fallen, but for Capel's hand grasping him by the collar; and then, for
+two or three minutes, there was a hail of blows falling, and a terrible
+struggle going on.  The light chairs were kicked aside, a table
+overturned, a vase and several ornaments swept from a cheffonier, and
+suppressed cries, panting noises and blows, filled the gloomy room,
+till, after one final stroke with the cane, Capel dashed the helpless,
+quivering man to the floor, and placed his foot upon his breast.
+
+An hour later, when Preenham went up from a confidential talk with his
+fellow-servants to admit Mr Girtle and Lydia--back from the theatre--he
+found the front door open.  Had he been half an hour sooner, he would
+have seen Katrine, fully dressed, supporting Artis down the dark stairs,
+and out into the darkness of the great square, where they were seen by
+the light of one of the street lamps to enter a cab, and then they
+passed out of sight.
+
+Preenham saw nothing, and Mr Girtle and Lydia ascended to the
+drawing-room, the latter feeling light-hearted and happy, in spite of
+the evening's disappointment.
+
+The old lawyer uttered a cry of dismay, as he saw the wreck, and that
+Capel was seated in a low chair, bent down, with his face buried in his
+hands.
+
+"My dear boy!  What is it?" he cried, as Lydia ran to his side, and her
+soft hand was laid or his.
+
+"Don't touch me, woman," he almost yelled, as he sprang from his chair.
+"Oh," he said, softly, "it is you?"
+
+He took and kissed her hand, and then left the room.
+
+"Preenham, what does this mean?" cried Mr Girtle, as the butler brought
+in lights; and they learned the truth.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+WHERE THE TREASURE LAY.
+
+Six months elapsed before Mr Linnett put into execution the project he
+had had in his mind that night when he playfully tried the handcuffs on
+his wrists.
+
+He had meant business, as he termed it, the next morning, but on
+presenting himself at the chief office, one of his superiors sent for
+him, and announced an important task.
+
+"Extradition, eh, sir?  America?"
+
+"Yes.  Cross at once; put yourself in communication with the New York
+police, and then spare no expense.  He must be found."
+
+"When shall I start, sir?"
+
+"Now."
+
+Mr Linnett did start _now_, saying to himself as he entered a carriage
+for Liverpool:
+
+"Well, they didn't set me the job.  It was my own doing, and the news
+will keep."
+
+So it came about that one morning, when he presented himself at the Dark
+House, he was saluted by Mr Preenham with:
+
+"Why, how _do_ you do?  We thought we'd quite lost you, Mr Linnett,
+sir.  You look quite brown."
+
+"I've been pretty well all over America since I saw you, Mr Preenham,
+and now, sir, just go and give them my card and say I want to see them
+on very particular business."
+
+"Have you found out anything, Mr Linnett?"
+
+"You wait a bit, my dear sir.  Just take up the card."
+
+Mr Girtle was in the library with Paul Capel at the time, for the old
+man had settled down there, treating the younger as if he were a son.
+He had talked several times of going, but Capel begged him not to leave,
+and he always stayed.
+
+"Well, Preenham, for me?"
+
+"He said you and master, sir--the gentleman."
+
+"Ah!  Linnett.  The detective.  Will you see him?"
+
+"No," said Capel, sternly.  "I don't want that affair opened again."
+
+"But my dear boy--"
+
+"There; very well.  Show him up."
+
+The detective came in, smiling, but only to encounter a stern look in
+return.
+
+"I've called, gentlemen, about that little matter of the notes and
+jewels that were lost."
+
+"My good fellow," said Capel, angrily, "I will not have that matter
+taken up again.  It is dead."
+
+"Well, sir, the fact is, you wouldn't let me take it up; but I did it on
+my own account."
+
+"You did?" said Mr Girtle.
+
+"Yes, sir; it took me months piecing together, as I had to do it all
+from the outside, without seeing the place.  I was sent abroad, and have
+only just come back.  Last night, however, I took out my notes and went
+into it again, and I think I can say I've found the treasure."
+
+"Found it, man?" cried Capel, interested in spite of himself.  "Where?
+The place was thoroughly well searched."
+
+"Oh! yes, sir, of course."
+
+"Then you know who took it?"
+
+"Yes, sir; that's it."
+
+"Who was it, then?"
+
+"Ah! come, sir, that's better."
+
+"Yes, yes, go on," cried Capel excitedly, and at that moment it was not
+the treasure that filled his eyes, but the figure of a sweet, gentle
+girl, who had watched beside his sick bed.
+
+"Well, the fact is, gentlemen, I very soon came to the conclusion that
+the great treasure had not been stolen."
+
+"Why?" said Mr Girtle.
+
+"No notes were put in circulation that I could find--old notes--and no
+valuable jewels sold."
+
+"To be sure, yes," said Mr Girtle.  "My idea."
+
+"That wasn't worth much, gentlemen; but I felt sure from the beginning
+that the treasure was taken by someone on the premises."
+
+"Not that couple, I'll swear," said Mr Girtle.
+
+"Nor the servants," said Capel.
+
+"There, sir, it's all in a nutshell," said Linnett, hesitating.
+
+"Stop!" said Mr Girtle.  "What terms do you propose for this
+information?"
+
+"Oh, sir, I wasn't hesitating about that, but because I don't like
+letting it go now I've found it.  It was so much trouble to find the
+clue, I hardly like parting with it.  But here you are, sir, and if I
+may make terms, I may say I'm only a few pounds out of pocket--ten will
+cover it--but I should like it if Mr Capel here would give me that
+Indian knife, that kukri.  I've a fancy for saving up that sort of
+article."
+
+"Take the horrible thing and welcome," said Capel impatiently.
+
+"Well, gentlemen, I pieced together all that was published, with Doctor
+Heston's notions, the servants' knowledge, and my own ideas."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, gentlemen, it was that old Indian servant who took the treasure."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"Not a bit.  He had the keys--he knew how to use them."
+
+"He was as honest as the day," cried Mr Girtle.
+
+"Exactly, sir, that's just it.  Honesty made him take it."
+
+"Absurd?" said Capel.
+
+"Not a bit, sir, excuse me.  He knew that fellow Pillar, the footman,
+meant it.  You know he had a fight with him at the door."
+
+"Well, granted," said Capel.
+
+"He watched, sir, night and day, and wouldn't leave the place, and at
+last, when--"
+
+"I know," said Capel, "those Italians."
+
+"Now, you shouldn't take away people's character, sir," said the
+detective reproachfully.  "It was that Indian.  He wasn't satisfied that
+the secret place was safe.  He was sure it would be broken open, and so
+that night, or the one before, he took the treasure out, and put it
+where he felt certain that no one would look for it."
+
+"And where was that?" cried Capel.
+
+The detective smiled.
+
+"As I said, gentlemen, where no one would look for it."
+
+"And that was?"
+
+"In the dead man's own charge, sirs.  _In the coffin_."
+
+Capel and Mr Girtle sank back in their chairs.
+
+"And if you open that vault, gentlemen, and the iron tomb, and the steel
+chest, you'll find it safe and sound."
+
+"There's one more thing, sir, I should like to say, and that is about
+that old Indian servant.  He was struck down, no doubt, or fainted after
+he had killed the footman, defending the treasure.  I can't quite say
+what happened then, but it looks to me as if some one came upon the old
+fellow when he was lying helpless--some one who also meant to steal that
+treasure--and that he, or she, or whoever it was, chloroformed the old
+man to death.  I had it on the doctor's authority that he did not die of
+his wounds; but this is only theory.  I can't say."
+
+It was a theory that sent a chill through Paul Capel, and he dared not
+put his thoughts about the fair Creole into shape.
+
+All proved about the treasure precisely as Mr Linnett had said, for
+when, with much compunction, the various caskets were opened once again,
+there lay the two cases beneath the cloth-of-gold robe, safely in the
+keeping of the dead man, whereat, and for other reasons, Mr Linnett
+much rejoiced.
+
+Later on, old Mr Girtle had his wish, that of giving Lydia away to the
+man she loved--one who often afterwards told her he wondered how he
+could have been so blind--blind, he said, as the old place, which was
+kept, in accordance with the Colonel's last commands, closed in front,
+but bright and gay behind, while Paul Capel used to say, "It is
+astonishing how much human sunshine can be got into a Dark House."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dark House, by Georg Manville Fenn
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