Good Old Anna Part 38

"They were found this morning within half an hour, I understand, of your wedding. And it was only owing to the quickness of a lady named Miss Forsyth--a.s.sisted, I am bound to say, by Mr. Hayley of the Foreign Office, who is, I believe, a relation of Mrs. Guthrie--that they were found at all. The man who came to fetch them away did get off scot free--luckily leaving them, and his motor, behind him."

"The man who came to fetch them away?" The woman sitting opposite to the speaker repeated the words in a wondering tone--then, very decidedly, "There has been some extraordinary mistake!" she exclaimed. "I know every inch of my house, and so I can a.s.sure you"--she bent forward a little in her earnestness and excitement--"I can a.s.sure you that it's quite _impossible_ that there was anything of the sort in the Trellis House without my knowing it!"

"Did you ever go into your servant's bedroom?" asked Mr. Reynolds quietly.

Major Guthrie felt the hand he was holding in his suddenly tremble, and his wife made a nervous movement, as if she wanted to draw it away from his protecting grasp.

A feeling of terror--of sheer, unreasoning terror--had swept over her.

_Anna?_

"No," she faltered, but her voice was woefully changed. "No, I never had occasion to go into my old servant's bedroom. But oh, I cannot believe----" and then she stopped. She had remembered Anna's curious unwillingness to leave the Trellis House this morning, even to attend her beloved mistress's wedding. She, and Rose too, had been hurt, and had shown that they were hurt, at old Anna's obstinacy.

"We have reason to suppose," said Mr. Reynolds slowly, "that the explosives in question have been stored for some considerable time in a large roomy cupboard which is situated behind your servant's bed. As a matter of fact, the man who had come to fetch them away was already under observation by the police. He has spent all the winter in a village not far from Southampton, and he is registered as a Spaniard, though he came to England from America just before the War broke out. Of course, these facts have only just come to my knowledge. But both this Miss Forsyth and your cousin, Mr. Hayley, declare that they have long suspected your servant of being a spy."

"Suspected my servant? Suspected Anna Bauer?" repeated Mrs. Guthrie, in a bewildered tone.

"Then you," went on Mr. Reynolds, "have never suspected her at all, Mrs.

Guthrie? I understand that but for the accidental fact that Witanbury is just, so to speak, over the border of the prohibited area for aliens, she would have _had_ to leave you?"

"Yes, I know that. But she has been with me nearly twenty years, and I regarded her as being to all intents and purposes an Englishwoman."

"Did you really?" he observed drily.

"Her daughter is married to an Englishman."

Mr. Reynolds, in answer to that statement, remained silent, but a very peculiar expression came over his face. It was an expression which would perchance have given a clue to Major Guthrie had Major Guthrie been able to see.

Mrs. Guthrie's face had gone grey with pain and fear; her eyes had filled with tears, which were now rolling down her cheeks. She looked indeed different from the still pretty, happy, charming-looking woman who had stepped into the car a few minutes ago.

"I should not have ventured to disturb you to-day--to-morrow would have been quite time enough----" said Mr. Reynolds, speaking this time really kindly, "were it not that we attach the very greatest importance to discovering whether this woman, your ex-servant, forms part of a widespread conspiracy. We suspect that she does. But she is in such a state of pretended or real agitation--in fact, she seems almost distraught--that none of us can get anything out of her. I myself have questioned her both in English and in German. All she keeps repeating is that she is innocent, quite innocent, and that she was unaware of the nature of the goods--she describes them always as goods, when she speaks in English--that she was harbouring in your house. She declares she knows nothing about the man who came for them, though that is false on the face of it, for she was evidently expecting him. We think that he has terrorised her. She even refuses to say where she obtained these 'goods' of hers, or how long she has had them. You see, we have reason to believe"--he slightly lowered his voice in the rushing wind--"we have reason to believe," he repeated, "that the Germans may be going to try their famous plan of invasion within the next few days. If so, it is clear that these bombs were meant to play a certain part in the business, and thus it is extremely important that we should know if there are any further stores of them in or about Witanbury."

CHAPTER x.x.xI

They were now in the streets of the cathedral city, and Mrs. Guthrie, agitated though she was, could see that there was a curious air of animation and bustle. A great many people were out of doors on this late March afternoon.

As a matter of fact something of the facts, greatly exaggerated as is always the way, had leaked out, and the whole city was in a ferment.

Slowly the motor made its way round the Market Place to the Council House, and as it drew up at the bottom of the steps, a crowd of idlers surged forward.

There was a minute or two of waiting, then a man whom Mrs. Guthrie knew to be the head inspector of the local police came forward, with a very grave face, and helped her out of the car. He wished to hurry her up the steps out of the way of the people there, but she heard her husband's voice, "Mary, where are you?" and obediently she turned with an eager, "Here I am, waiting for you!" She took his arm, and he pressed it rea.s.suringly. She was glad he could not see the inquisitive faces of the now swelling crowd which were being but ill kept back by the few local police.

But her ordeal did not last long; in a very few moments they were safe in the Council House, and Mr. Reynolds, who already knew his way about there, had shown them into a stately room where hung the portraits of certain long dead Witanbury worthies.

"Am I going to see Anna now?" asked Mrs. Guthrie nervously.

"Yes, I must ask you to do that as soon as possible. And, Mrs. Guthrie?

Please remember that all we want to know now are two definite facts. The first of these is how long she has had these bombs in her possession, and how she procured them? She may possibly be willing to tell you how long she has had them, even if she still remains obstinately silent as to where she got them. The second question, and of course much the more important from our point of view, is whether she knows of any other similar stores in Witanbury or elsewhere? That, I need hardly tell you, is of very vital moment to us, and I appeal to you as an Englishwoman to help us in the matter."

"I will do as you wish," said Mrs. Guthrie in a low voice. "But, Mr.

Reynolds? Please forgive me for asking you one thing. What will be done to my poor old Anna? Will the fact that she is a German make it better for her--or worse? Of course I realise that she has been wicked--very, very wicked if what you say is true----"

"And most treacherous to you!" interposed the young man quickly. "You don't seem to realise, Mrs. Guthrie, the danger in which she put you;"

and as she looked at him uncomprehendingly, he went on, "Putting everything else aside, she ran the most appalling danger of killing you--you and every member of your household. Of course I don't know what you mean to say to her----" he hesitated. "I understand that your relations with her have been much closer and more kindly than are often those between a servant and her employer," and as she nodded, he went on: "The Dean was afraid that it would give you a terrible shock--in fact, he himself seems extremely surprised and distressed; he had evidently quite a personal feeling of affection and respect for this old German woman, Anna Bauer!"

"And I am sure that if you had known her you would have had it too, Mr.

Reynolds," she answered navely. Somehow the fact that the Dean had taken this strange and dreadful thing as he had done, made her feel less miserable.

"Ah! One thing more before I take you to her. Anything incriminating she may say to you will _not_ be brought as evidence against her. The point you have to remember is that it is vitally important to us to obtain information as to this local spy conspiracy or system, to which we believe we already hold certain clues."

The police cell into which Mrs. Guthrie was introduced was in the half-bas.e.m.e.nt of the ancient Council House. The walls of the cell were whitewashed with a peculiar, dusty whitewash that came off upon the occupant's clothes at the slightest touch. There was a bench fixed to the wall, and in a corner a bed, also fixed to the ground. A little light came in from the window high out of reach, and in the middle of the ceiling hung a disused gas bracket.

Those of Anna Bauer's personal possessions she had been allowed to bring with her were lying on the bed.

The old woman was sitting on the bench, her head bowed in an abandonment of stupor, and of misery. She did not even move as the door opened. But when she heard the kind, familiar voice exclaim, "Anna? My poor old Anna!--it is terrible to find you here, like this!" she drew a convulsive breath of relief, and lifted her tear-stained, swollen face.

"I am innocent!" she cried wildly, in German. "Oh, gracious lady, I am innocent! I have done no wrong. I can accuse myself of no sin."

Mr. Reynolds brought in a chair. Then he went out, and quietly closed the door.

Anna's mistress came and sat on the bench close to her servant. It was almost as if an unconscious woman, spent with the extremity of physical suffering, crouched beside her.

"Anna, listen to me!" she said at last, and there was a touch of salutary command in her voice--a touch of command that poor Anna knew, and always responded to, though it was very seldom used towards her. "I have left Major Guthrie on our marriage day in order to try and help you in this awful disgrace and trouble you have brought, not only on yourself, but on me. All I ask you to do is to tell me the truth.

Anna?"--she touched the fat arm close to her--"look up, and talk to me like a reasonable woman. If you are innocent, if you can accuse yourself of no sin--then why are you in such a state?"

Anna looked up eagerly. She was feeling much better now.

"Every reason have I in a state to be! A respectable woman to such a place brought! Roughly by two policemen treated. I nothing did that ashamed of I am!"

"What is it you _did_ do?" said Mrs. Guthrie patiently. "Try and collect your thoughts, Anna. Explain to me where you got"--she hesitated painfully--"where you got the bombs."

"No bombs there were," exclaimed Anna confidently. "Chemicals, yes--bombs, no."

"You are mistaken, Anna," said Mrs. Guthrie quietly. She rose from the bench on which she had been sitting, and drew up the chair opposite to Anna. "There were certainly bombs found in your room. It is a mercy they did not explode; if they had done, we should all have been killed!"

Anna stared at her in dumb astonishment. "Herr Gott!" she exclaimed. "No one has told me that, gracious lady. Again and again they have asked me questions they should not--questions I to answer promised not. To you, speak I will----"

Anna looked round, as if to satisfy herself that they were indeed alone, and Mrs. Guthrie suddenly grew afraid. Was poor old Anna going to reveal something of a very serious self-incriminating kind?

"It was Willi!" exclaimed the old woman at last. She now spoke in a whisper, and in German. "It was to Willi that I gave my promise to say nothing. You see, gracious lady, it was a friend of Willi's who was making a chemical invention. It was he who left these goods with me. I will now confess"--she began to sob bitterly--"I will now confess that I did keep it a secret from the gracious lady that these parcels had been confided to me. But the bedroom was mine. You know, gracious lady, how often you said to me, 'I should have liked you to have a nicer bedroom, Anna--but still, it is your room, so I hope you make it as comfortable as you can.' As it was my room, gracious lady, it concerned no one what I kept there."

"A friend of Willi's?" repeated Mrs. Guthrie incredulously. "But I don't understand--Willi is in Berlin. Surely you have not seen Willi since you went to Germany three years ago?"