The Solitary Farm Part 35

"How did she lose them?" asked Vand almost in a whisper, as though fearful of breaking the charm. Apparently--as Mrs. Vand guessed--this was not the first time he had a.s.sisted at so weird a ceremony.

"Fierce warriors in green turbans took them--warriors of Arabia. The jewels travel south, still with the warriors. There are many fights. The jewels pa.s.s from one hand to another, still in the ivory box. Now a savage has them--a savage, in a wild forest. They are buried in the earth at the place where victims are sacrificed to the G.o.ds. Long years pa.s.s: centuries glide by. The box of jewels is found: it is in the hands of another savage, who wears European clothes. He gives the jewels to a white man for services rendered."

Mrs. Vand interrupted with a strangled cry of terror. "Jabez--is he Jabez?"

"He is not Jabez Huxham, but a man called Maxwell Faith. But see"--the dull voice of the gipsy suddenly became emotional and loud--"they pa.s.s into the hands of Jabez Huxham, and the hands that bear away the jewels are stained with blood. The jewels pa.s.s with him across the sea to this land. In London first; then in this house. They are placed in a carved chest; it is in the attic. Now they are in the safe in the study, and now----"

Vand interrupted. "How did they pa.s.s out of Huxham's possession?"

Granny Tunks did not reply for a few minutes, during which Mrs. Vand clutched her husband's hand still tighter, and pa.s.sed her tongue over her dry lips. "They pa.s.s from Jabez Huxham, as they came to him--by murder," went on the clairvoyant. "I see the study. Huxham is at the desk, and the ivory box of jewels is before him. There is a knife on the floor by the door, and the knife is b.l.o.o.d.y."

"But Huxham is not dead," said Vand, quickly and softly.

"There is blood on the knife," said Mrs. Tunks, without taking any notice of the question. "Huxham is so engaged in looking at the jewels that he does not see the door softly open. A man enters. He sees the knife and picks it up. He glided behind Huxham, who suddenly turns.

Now--now the blow has fallen, and the jewels, the jewels----" She paused.

"What more?" gasped Mrs. Vand. "What more, in G.o.d's name?"

"There is no G.o.d here, but only evil," came the reply. "I can see no more. I see, however, that the man who struck the blow is a cripple, and----"

There came a cry, apparently from behind the wall. Vand and his wife turned astonished and terror-struck. On the left of the fire-place a sliding panel was pushed back, and they beheld Bella, pale but triumphant.

"So you murdered Captain Huxham!" she cried, "you and your wife. O G.o.d----"

"There is no G.o.d here," breathed Mrs. Tunks again, "only evil."

CHAPTER XIX

AN AWKWARD POSITION

The appearance and accusation of Bella were so unexpected that Mrs. Vand and her husband became perfectly white, and obvious fear robbed them of all powers of movement. Granny Tunks sat up, rubbed her eyes, and stared at Bella with the open panel behind her in great surprise.

"Where have you come from, deary?" she asked, rising unsteadily.

"Never mind," said Bella, with her eyes on the guilty faces of the married couple. "It is enough that I am here to accuse these two of murder."

Mrs. Tunks uttered a screech. "What are you talking about, lovey? This good gentleman and kind lady have murdered no one."

Bella glanced at her in a puzzled way. "You declared that Henry Vand murdered my father," she remarked quietly, and keeping up the fiction of her being Huxham's daughter; "you said that a cripple----"

"Me!" screeched Granny again. "I never said such a thing."

"Of course not," chimed in Vand, who was the first to recover his powers of speech. "It's all nonsense."

"Your face showed that it was the truth just now," said Bella sharply, "when Mrs. Tunks talked in her sleep."

"Sleep? No lovey, no sleep. I sent my spirit away to learn things. What did I say? Tell me, my good gentleman, what did I say?"

"I don't remember. I forgot," said Vand striving to appear cool.

"I don't forget," cried Bella indignantly, "she spoke of the jewels and of my father's murder. How did you find out?" she asked Granny Tunks, who dropped into her chair and seemed to shrink. "How did you learn about the jewels and Maxwell Faith?"

"I never heard the name. I never knew there were any jewels," murmured the witch-wife. "I never said anything about murder. When I came back to my body I never remember anything. No, no, no! The spirit is stronger than the flesh and jealous of its secrets," and she went on murmuring and maundering like one in her dotage. Yet Bella knew well, that in spite of her age, Granny Tunks was very far from being intellectually weak.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Vand, who had sunk into a chair, had gradually recovered her colour and wits. "You are the ghost!" she said suddenly to Bella.

In spite of the strained situation, the girl laughed, though not very mirthfully. "Yes, I am the ghost!" she acknowledged. "It was I who sighed and rapped and rustled my skirts so as to drive you and Sarah out of the room."

"How dare you! how dare you!" shouted Mrs. Vand, rising wrathfully.

"What do you mean by entering my house, and how did you get in."

"I got in by a way of which you know nothing," said Bella coolly, "and I am not going to reveal my secret. But I know this house better than you, Aunt Rosamund"--she gave her the old familiar name--"and I know of many secret pa.s.sages. This,"--she touched the panel at her back--"is the entrance to one of them. In the old days many a conspirator concealed himself here. I have used the hiding-place to learn your secret."

"How dare you! how dare you!" bl.u.s.tered Mrs. Vand, and would have gone on abusing Bella wrathfully but that her crafty husband interposed.

"Miss Huxham, you have behaved wrongly in entering the house in this secret manner, seeing that I told you how welcome you were to come openly. Both Rosamund and myself would have been glad to see you."

"Not me! not me!" vociferated Mrs. Vand, with a bright spot of angry red on each cheek. "I always hated her, and I hate her more than ever."

"Hold your tongue," muttered her husband, and gave her plump arm such a pinch that she leaped aside with a cry of pain. Taking no notice of her distress he turned to Bella. "You should have come openly," he repeated.

"May I ask why you made use of the secret pa.s.sages?"

"You may, and I am quite willing to answer. I came to find the whereabouts of the jewels which belonged to my father."

"I know of no jewels," said Vand steadily; "do you, Rosamund?"

"No, I don't," returned Mrs. Vand aggressively. "There was the property and the income, both of which Jabez left to me by arrangement. But jewels? I never saw any; if I had I should have got hold of them, since they are mine--if they exist, that is."

"Granny here said when she spoke that they existed," insisted Bella quietly.

Mrs. Vand shrugged her fat shoulders. "I don't believe in hocus-pocus and hanky-panky. Henry thought that the house was haunted, as I did myself, and he brought Granny here to lay the ghost. She has done so, since she brought you out to talk in a silly manner. You are the ghost, Bella, so I don't believe that there are any such things as spirits."

"I don't believe in spirits either," said Bella promptly, "and so I wish to know, Mrs. Tunks, how you learned all you said."

"All what?" mumbled the witch-wife vacantly.

"All about the jewels and the murder and the----"

"I don't remember saying a word," interrupted Granny, rising slowly and with a lack-l.u.s.tre look in her beady eyes. "When I go into a trance I don't recall what I say. But let me go into a trance again and I'll tell you where the jewels are if you will give me a share," and her eyes began to glitter in an avaricious manner.

"No," said Vand, in his most peremptory tones, "we have had enough of this rubbish."

"Oh," sneered his wife, "you admit then that it is rubbish?"