The Haunting of Low Fennel Part 16

I stared at him surprisedly.

"And," he continued, "you and I are going to solve it if we sit up all night!"

"How do you propose to begin?"

"Well, as it appears to mean nothing in particular, as it stands, I thought of beginning by a.s.suming that the letters have other values altogether. Therefore, upon the basis that _e_ is the letter which most frequently occurs in English, with _a_, _o_, _i_, _d_, _h_, _n_, _r_, afterwards, I had thought of resolving it into its component letters."

"But would that rule apply to mediaeval English?"

"Ah," said Lorian thoughtfully, "most sage counsellor! A wise and timely thought! I'm afraid it wouldn't."

"What now?"

Lorian scratched his head in perplexity.

"Suppose," he suggested, "we write down the words plainly, and see if, treating each one separately, we can find other meanings to them."

Accordingly, upon a sheet of paper, I wrote:

Wherso eer thee doome bee Looke untoe ye strypped tree Offe ragged staffe. Upon itte ley Golde toe greene ande kay toe kay.

Our efforts in the proposed direction were rewarded with poor success.

Some gibberish even less intelligible than the original was the only result of our labour.

Lorian threw down his pencil and began to reload his pipe.

"Let us consider possible meanings to the original words," he said. "Do you know of anything in the neighbourhood which might answer to the description of a 'strypped tree'?"

I shook my head.

"What has occasioned your sudden interest in the thing?" I asked wearily.

"It is a long story," he replied; "and I have an idea that there's no time to be lost in solving the Riddle!"

However, even Lorian's enthusiasm flagged at last. We were forced to admit ourselves hopelessly beaten by the Riddle. I went to my own room feeling thoroughly tired. But I was not destined to sleep long. A few minutes after closing my eyes (or so it seemed), came a clamouring at the door.

I stumbled sleepily out of bed, and, slipping on my dressing-gown, admitted Lorian. Colonel Reynor stood immediately behind him.

"Most extraordinary business!" began the latter breathlessly. "Sybil had--_you_ tell him, Harry!"

"Well," said Lorian, "it is not unexpected! Listen: Sybil woke up a while ago, with the idea that she had forgotten something or lost something--you know the frame of mind! She went to her dressing-table and found the family ring missing!"

"_The_ ring!" burst in the Colonel excitedly. "Amazing!"

"She remembered having taken it off, during the evening, to--er--to put another one on! But she was unable to recall having replaced it. She determined to run down and see if she had left it upon the seat in the corner of the library. Well, she went downstairs in her dressing-gown, and, carrying a candle, very quietly, in order to wake no one, crossed to the library and searched unavailingly. She heard a faint noise outside in the hall."

Lorian paused. Felix Hulme had joined the party.

"What's the disturbance?" he asked.

"Oh," said Lorian, turning to him, "it's about Sybil. She was down in the library a while ago to look for something, and heard a sort of grating sound out in the hall. She came out, and almost fell over an iron-bound chest, about a foot and a half long, which stood near the bottom of the staircase!"

"Good heavens, Lorian!" I cried, "how had it come there?"

"Sybil says," he resumed, "that she could not believe her eyes. She stooped to examine the thing ... and with a thrill of horror saw it to be roughly marked _with a skull and cross-bones_!"

"My dear Lorian," said Hulme, "are you certain that Miss Reynor was awake?"

"She woke _us_ quickly enough!" interrupted the Colonel. "Poor girl, she was shaking dreadfully. Thought it was a supernatural appearance. She's with her mother now."

"But the box!" I cried. "Where is the box?"

"That's the mystery," answered Colonel Reynor. "I was downstairs two minutes later, and there was nothing of the kind to be seen! Has our Ragstaff ghost started walking again, I wonder? You ought to know, Hulme; you're in the Turret Room--that is the authentic haunted chamber!"

"I was aroused by the bell ringing," replied Hulme. "I am a very light sleeper. But I heard or saw nothing supernatural."

"By the way, Hulme," said my friend, "the Turret Room is directly above the hall. I have a theory. Might I come up with you for a moment?"

"Certainly," replied Hulme.

We all went up to the Turret Room. Having climbed the stairs to this apartment, you enter it by descending three steps. It is octagonal and panelled all around. My friend tapped the panels and sounded all the oaken floor-boards. Then, professing himself satisfied, he bade Hulme good night, and accompanied me to my room.

VI

Ragstaff Park slumbered once more. But Lorian sat upon the edge of my bed, smoking and thinking hard. He had been to his own room for the print of the Riddle, and it lay upon a chair before him.

"Listen to this," he said suddenly: "(_a_) Some one breaks into the governor's studio, and takes nothing. His drawings of the Ragstaff Riddle happen to be at my studio. (_b_) You hear a noise in the night, and see (1) a bright light; (2) a gleaming rod. (_c_) You and I see a bright light on the following night, and presumably proceeding from the same place; i.e., the hall. (_d_) Something I have not mentioned before--Hulme has a camera in his kit! And he doesn't want the fact known!"

"What do you mean?"

"I tested him the other night, by inquiring if anyone could lend me a camera. He did not volunteer! The morning following the mysterious business in the hall, observed by you, I saw a photographic printing frame in his window! He must have one of those portable developers with him."

"And to what does all this point?"

"To the fact that he has made at least three attempts to obtain a copy of the Riddle, and has at last succeeded!"

"Three!"

"I really think so. The evidence points to him as the person who broke into the studio. He made a bad slip. He referred to the matter, and cited Horace Baxter as his informant. Baxter is away!"

"But this is serious!"

"I should say so! He couldn't attempt to photograph the panel in daylight, so he employed magnesium ribbon at night! First time his tripod slipped. It is evidently one of the light, telescopic kind. His negative proved useless. It was one of the metal legs of the tripod which you saw shining! The second time he was more successful. That was the light of his magnesium ribbon you and I saw from the drive!"

"But, Lorian, I went down and searched the hall!"

"Now we come on to the, at present, conjectural part," explained Lorian.

"My theory is that Hulme, somewhere or other, has come across some old doc.u.ments which give the clue to those secret pa.s.sages said to exist in Ragstaff, but which the Colonel has never been able to locate. I feel a.s.sured that there is some means of secret communication between the Turret Room and the hall. I further believe that Hulme has in some way got upon the track of another secret--that of the Riddle."