The Mysterious Mr. Miller Part 23

He could not see me, I knew, for the roadway was rendered very dark at that point by the trees that almost met overhead. Therefore I watched his thin clean-shaven face, and saw upon its evil features an expression of intense anxiety which was certainly not there when we had met earlier that day in Dorsetshire.

Ella was the first to descend. She had exchanged her dark dress for a gown of pale blue Liberty silk, high at the throat, and, though simply made, it suited her admirably. The fellow turned at the sound of her footstep, and hurrying towards her, took her hand, and led her outside upon the gravelled drive.

"The others, of course, have no idea that I've been to Studland!" I heard him whisper to her anxiously as they stood there together in the shadow, away from the stream of light that shone from the open door.

"I told them nothing," was her calm answer, in a voice that seemed inert and mechanical.

"I only arrived here an hour ago. I feared that you might be here before me. You, of course, delayed them by excuses, as I suggested."

"Yes. We had tea on the way, and we came the longer way round, by Plymouth, as you told me."

"It was lucky for you that you left the Millers as early as you did," he said.

"Why?"

"Because they had a visitor. He came an hour or so after you'd gone. I found him talking to Lucie, and she introduced me. His name was Leaf."

I saw that she started at mention of my name. But with admirable self-control she asked:--

"Well, and what did he want?"

"Wanted to see you. And what's more, Lucie told me after he'd gone that he had once been engaged to you. Is that true?"

"I've known him a good many years," was my loved one's evasive answer, as though she feared to arouse his anger or jealousy by an acknowledgment of the truth.

"I ask you, Ella, a simple question--is what Lucie Miller has said true?

Were you ever engaged to that man?" he asked very seriously.

"There was not an actual engagement," was her answer, and I saw that she feared to tell him the truth.

What right had the fellow to question her? I had difficulty in restraining myself from rushing forward and boldly exposing him as the thief and adventurer he was.

"Lucie, in answer to my question, told me that you had lost sight of each other for several years, and that you believed him dead."

"That is so."

"And that he has been travelling on the Continent the whole time?"

"I believe he has," was her reply, whereupon he remained in silence for some moments, as though reflecting deeply. Was it possible that, after all, he had recognised me as the man who he had intended should be his cat's-paw in the Blenkap affair?

I felt certain that he was endeavouring to recall my face.

"Your father knows nothing of my friendship with Miller?" he asked suddenly, with some apprehension.

"I have told him nothing, as you forbade me."

"Good. He must not know. It's better not."

"Why?"

"Well, because your father has a long-standing quarrel with Miller, has he not? If he knew we were friends he might not like it. Some men have curious prejudices," he added.

His explanation apparently satisfied her, but he, on his part, returned to his previous questions regarding myself.

"Tell me," he urged, "who is this fellow Leaf? If you were fond of him I surely have a right to know who and what he is?"

"He's a gentleman whom I first knew years ago, soon after I came home from school."

"And you fell in love with him, like every school-girl does, eh?"

She nodded in the affirmative, but vouchsafed no further information.

"Well," he said, in a tone of authority, "you will not meet him again under any consideration. I forbid it. Remember that."

She was silent, her head downcast, for in that man's hands she was as wax. He held her in some thraldom that I saw was as complete as it was terrible. His very presence seemed to cause her to hold her breath, and to tremble.

"Last night," he continued, "you crept downstairs after you had gone to your room, and you listened at the door of the smoking-room, where I was talking with Miller," and he laughed as he saw how she started at his accusation. "Yes, you see I know all about it. The faithful Minton, who saw you, told me," he went on in a hard voice. "You overheard something--something that has very much surprised you. Now there's an old adage that says listeners never hear any good of themselves.

Therefore we must come to a thorough understanding as soon as we can get a quiet half-hour alone together."

"I think it is perfectly unnecessary," she said, with some attempt at defiance.

"There, I beg to differ," he answered. "You have learnt a secret, and I must have some adequate guarantee that that secret is kept--that no single word of it is breathed to a living soul. You understand, Ella,"

he added, in a low, fierce half-whisper, lowering his dark clean-shaven face to hers. "You understand! _My life depends upon it_!"

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

AT DAWN.

The dark-haired woman who had accompanied Ella in the motor-car came forth and joined the pair, preventing any further confidences, and a few minutes later the dinner-gong sounded, and all three went in to join Mr Murray and his companion.

The windows of the dining-room were closed almost immediately, therefore I neither saw nor heard anything more of that strange household.

My one desire was to see Ella alone, but how could I give her news of my presence?

I turned on my heel and strolled slowly back down the dark road in the direction of the village. The first suggestion that crossed my mind was to send her a telegram making an appointment for the following morning, but on reflection I saw that if they had fled in secret, as they seemed to have done, then the arrival of a telegram would arouse Mr Gordon-Wright's suspicions. Indeed he might actually open it.

I was dealing with a queer fish, a man who was a past-master in alertness and ingenious conspiracy. As Minton, at the Manor, was in the confidence of Miller, so that round-shouldered old fellow was, no doubt, Gordon-Wright's trustworthy sentinel.

A dozen different modes of conveying a note to her suggested themselves, but the one I adopted was, perhaps, the simplest of them all. I returned to the inn, scribbled upon a small piece of paper a few lines to my well-beloved asking her to meet me at a spot I indicated at six o'clock next morning, and then I called Gibbs, took him into my confidence, and gave him instructions to take the pair of lady's gloves with fur gauntlets that I had found in one of the pockets of the car, go boldly to the house, ask to see "the young lady who had just arrived by motor-car," and tell her a fict.i.tious story how he had found the gloves where they had stopped at Plymouth, and as he was pa.s.sing through Upper Wooton on the way to Launceston he thought he would like to restore them to her.

"She'll, of course, at once deny that they are hers," I said. "But in handing them to her you must contrive to slip this little bit of folded paper into her hand--so," and I gave him a lesson in pressing the small note, folded until it was only the size of a sixpence, into her palm.

He quickly entered into the spirit of the adventure, and three-quarters of an hour later re-entered the low-ceilinged little sitting-room announcing triumphantly that he had been successful.

"At first, sir, their man said I could not see the lady, as she was at dinner, but on pressing him that I wished to see her particularly, he went an' told her," he explained. "My request seemed to create quite a hubbub among 'em, for as I stood in the 'all, I heard the conversation suddenly break off, and a chap with a clean-shaven face come to the door an' had a good straight look at me. Seein', however, that I was only a chauffeur, he went back, and a minute later the young lady herself appeared alone. I told 'er the story, slipped the bit o' paper into her hand, and gave her the gloves. The instant she felt the paper in her palm she started and looked at me, surprised like. Then, carryin' the gloves into the drawing-room, as if to examine them, she glanced at what you'd written, and when she returned a few seconds afterwards, she whispered: `Tell the gentleman all right'. Then, sayin' aloud that the gloves wasn't hers, she thanked me, an' dismissed me."

I congratulated him on his success. So far, so good. I had to wait in patience until six o'clock on the following morning.

That night I slept but little, but when daylight came a certain hope and gladness came with it. At half-past five I went out, and strolled along to the cross-roads I had noticed between the "Glen" and the village.