Blind Policy Part 46

She saw that he was watching her, and met his eyes firmly.

"Do you think Rob will escape?" she asked.

"I feel sure that he will. The police did not know him by sight. But he was only just in time. A few seconds more, and he--we--must have been taken."

She was silent for a time, and then she said bitterly, "I ought not to have left him, poor fellow! It was cowardly at such a time."

"You did quite right," said Chester, firmly. "Your presence would have been a hindrance to him in his endeavours to escape, and for your sake, horrible as all this is, I hope he will get right away."

"But I ought not to have left him," sighed Marion, and further conversation ceased, for the cab stopped and they entered the station.

Here Chester took tickets for Kensington. Then he crossed to the other side of the line, and took tickets back right to the City, and leaving the station there, plunged with his companion amongst the busy throng which filled the streets, and finally, feeling pretty confident that they were not followed, he ended by taking a cab to Raybeck Square.

Marion started as she heard the address given, and there was a look of reproach in her eyes as she said once more--

"Where are you taking me?"

"Where I believe you will be safe," he said gravely; "to my aunt and sister, who will welcome you as the lady who will be my wife."

"Your wife! Oh no, no, no!" she said sadly. "That is impossible now."

"Why?" he whispered tenderly.

"Why?" she cried. "Did you hear? Can you not see how I am linked with those who are flying from justice? Heaven help me! I ought to be with them still."

"Hush!" he said gently; "you are wildly excited now. Your brain is not in a condition to think calmly and dispa.s.sionately of your position. It may be days before it recovers its balance. Till then, Marion, try and think this one thing--that you are watched over by one to whom your honour and safety are more than his own life. Marion, my own--my very own--let the past be dead; the future shall be my care."

She sighed piteously and shivered, as she lay back in the corner of the cab, and, startled by her manner, he hurriedly took her hand.

She shrank back, looking wildly at him, till she fully realised his object, and then with a weary smile upon her lip she resigned her hand.

"You are utterly prostrated by the shock of what you have gone through,"

he said gravely. "We shall not be long now. Try--try hard to be calm.

The distance is very short, and then you will feel safe and soon grow composed."

She gave him a grateful look, and then closed her eyes, lying back with her face ghastly pale, and the nerves at the sides of her temples and the corners of her lips twitching sharply at times, as if she were in pain.

But she sat up when the cab stopped, and gave Chester her hand as she alighted, and walked with him up the steps and into the house.

As the door closed she turned to him wildly and tottered slightly, but when he made a movement to catch her in his arms, she shrank away, and he drew back and offered his hand.

She laid hers within it, and his first thought was to take her into his consulting-room, but he led her upstairs towards the drawing-room, and she walked firmly enough till they were nearly at the landing, when he felt her swerve, and but for his quick action she would have fallen back.

"My poor darling!" he whispered, as he lifted her in his arms. "You have done most bravely. It has been too much for any woman to go through."

It was but a few steps, and then he paused upon the landing while he threw open the drawing-room door and bore her in, quite insensible now to all that pa.s.sed.

For as he entered the room Chester found himself face to face with his sister; but she was not, as he had antic.i.p.ated, alone. Isabel was with her, and they stood gazing at him as if stunned by the sudden intrusion.

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

SOMETHING IN THE SAWDUST.

Highcombe Street gradually became blocked by the eager crowd always ready to gather, discuss and microscopically magnify the event that has been the attraction, and in a very short time it was current that a dreadful deed had been perpetrated in open daylight at the window of the ground floor room on the left of the front door. The victim was said to have been seen shrieking wildly for help, till a man had dragged her away, closing the window afterward and shutting the shutters, so that, with the blinds of the upstairs windows drawn down, the whole of the mansion had a strangely-mysterious aspect which, to the over-heated brains of many of the lookers-on, exactly suggested the place where, a murder might have been committed.

It did not occur to the wonder-gulpers that there were several houses in the same street presenting precisely the same aspect consequent upon their owners being out of town, and that the mansion next door, with its gloomy, unkempt aspect and soot-coated windows, was much more forbidding; but then it had no policeman stationed at the area gate and two more at the front door, who objected vigorously to boys climbing over the railings and others trying to peer through the long, slit-like windows on either side of the entrance.

An Englishman's house is said to be his castle, and serious steps generally have to be taken by the police before they break in, the great exception to the rule being in the case of firemen, who as soon as they are convinced that their enemy is in the place, make no scruple about using their axes against door or window, setting up a ladder, and climbing in.

In this case, in despite of the excitement, matters moved slowly, the princ.i.p.al steps taken being upon the arrival of more police, the stationing of these at the back where there was the mews, and an attempt to get in through the garden; but here a difficulty presented itself at once; there was no garden, the s.p.a.ce existing between the houses and stables at the bottom being built entirely over, and the stables swept away. There was no back exit, but constables were stationed in the mews all the same so as to keep an eye upon the stabling to right and left.

Soon after, while the superintendent and sergeant were discussing proceedings, an occupant of the opposite house pointed out the fact that one of the drawing-room window blinds was flapping to and fro, suggesting that a French window in the balcony was a little way open.

The suggestion was acted upon at once. A ladder from the nearest fire station was brought, and the police were watched with breathless interest and cheered as they mounted and reached the balcony, another cheer following as half a dozen entered the great mansion and disappeared to commence searching the house, the excitement increasing as they were seen to throw open the shutters of the library windows, in which room not so much as an overturned chair caught their attention.

It due course the magnificently-furnished place was searched, the only thing peculiar there being that the bed in a quiet-looking chamber on the third floor had been evidently made that morning, but lain upon since, while the key of the door was outside.

No way out at the back was discovered from the ground floor, and after a careful search for the missing occupants in every room, the police descended to the bas.e.m.e.nt, everything above being in so quiet and orderly a state that the whole affair began to a.s.sume the aspect of imagination on the part of the constable who had given the alarm.

"Didn't dream you'd got a case on, d.i.c.k, did you?" said the superintendent, banteringly, as the pantry was entered.

"Don't look like it, do it, sir?" replied the man, triumphantly pointing to the table, on which lay the freshly-cut rope which had bound the housekeeper.

"Humph! Don't see much in that," said the superintendent. "There's the plate-closet. Well, that's all right. Someone's been having wine.

Nothing to wonder at in that when there's plenty. Splendid place; but the case begins to look to me like a flam."

"Why, there's plenty outside saw the lady, too, sir," grumbled the constable.

"Then where is she?"

There was no answer, and the various domestic offices were examined, everything being in perfect order, and the only exit apparent being through the area door, which was locked, bolted and barred, as were all the windows.

"Where does this lead?" said the superintendent, as he entered the pa.s.sage farther back. "Another cellar, perhaps." They followed to the end, one of the men striking a match or two, for the extreme part was dark. "Humph! locked. Well, that can't be a way out, for there is no mat." Sniff, sniff! "What's that--powder? and what's that empty Gladstone doing there?"

Just then the constable who had given the alarm suddenly stepped forward and stooped down.

"What is it, d.i.c.k? One of the straws out of the mare's nest?" said the superintendent.

For answer, the man drew at something quite low down by the floor, and it came away in his hand, to prove, on being held to the light of a wax match, a mere sc.r.a.p of a handsomely-braided silk dress.

"Ah!" cried the superintendent, showing the first signs of excitement, "smell of powder--that bit of silk!"

He thumped with his knuckles on the panel of the door, and exclaimed--

"There's an iron inside; dress caught as they pa.s.sed through, and as the door was shut the edge cut that off like a pair of shears. There's a way out here, my lads, and we've got hold of the clue."

It seemed easier to point out the clue than to follow it, for the door was strong, and it was not until suitable implements had been fetched, to further excite the crowd, and a st.u.r.dy attack made at the end of the pa.s.sage, that the outer door gave way, the bolts of the strongly-made lock being broken right off.