Witness to the Deed Part 58

"Better let me go first, sir," said the sergeant, pressing before Stratton, who was about to enter, but he was too late. Stratton took a step forward, caught his foot against something, and nearly fell headlong into the room.

"Mind my tools, please," growled the workman, stooping to pick up his bag, which had lain in the darkness of the opening; and then all stepped cautiously into the well-furnished room, which was, in almost every respect, a repet.i.tion of Stratton's, only reversed, and a good deal enc.u.mbered with large, open cases full of bulky folios, containing series of pressed and dried plants. These hid a great deal of the panelling and carving, save on the right, where, on either side of the beautiful old fireplace, were two low doors, formerly the entrances to the pa.s.sages which connected the room with Stratton's when they were part of a suite.

Away to the left was another door, matching those by the fireplace--that leading into the botanist's bed-chamber; and wherever a s.p.a.ce was left on the panelling, there was a portrait, in an old tarnished gilt frame, of some ancestor, each--dimly seen though it was--as the sergeant made the light play round the walls--bearing a striking resemblance to that which faced them.

"Looks as if he was watching us," said the workman huskily; and he placed a piece of tobacco in his mouth, making Guest start as he closed the bra.s.s box from which he had extracted it with a loud snap.

"Yes," said the sergeant, in a whisper, as if to himself, and he made the light of his bull's-eye play from easy-chair to couch, and then all about the floor; "I always wondered how they managed them eyes."

Everything looked in order, with one exception. The thick Turkey carpet and heavy rug were exactly as they had been laid; the fireplace showed the coal, wood, and paper neatly laid; and the chairs were all duly ranged in their places; but the sergeant's light rested upon the table-- a heavy, oblong affair, with four ma.s.sive carven legs--a part of whose top was bare, for the thick green cloth cover, with bullion braiding at the border, had been half dragged off, and lay in folds from the top to floor, only kept from gliding right off by the heavy lamp, and looking as if it had been hastily dragged down to cover something by the table, or caught by someone's foot when pa.s.sing hastily to the door.

The sergeant made his light play on the dark folds for a few moments, and then jerked it away.

"Do you gentlemen mean to stop?" he said, speaking now a little more rapidly.

There was no reply and the man stepped forward to the table, raised one corner of the cloth quickly, and then swung it right up and steadily lowered it again, while Guest uttered a sigh of relief, for there was nothing visible but the heavy legs of the table.

"Enough to deceive any man," said the sergeant, who then stopped and listened, walked back, and softly closed both doors.

"May as well be private, gentleman," he said. "Eh?"

This last to the workman, who had muttered something in a low voice.

"I says I could ha' swore he was there."

"So could I, Jemmy," replied the sergeant, as he made the light play round the room again, and let it rest upon the chamber-door.

"There is nothing, you see," said Stratton, rather quickly.

"Haven't done yet, sir," replied the sergeant. Then, in a low voice to Guest--"I'm pretty well used to this sort o' thing, sir, but 'pon my soul I feel as if I should like to turn that picture round. It's just as if it was watching me. There, let's get it over."

The man had, in spite of his being accustomed to scenes of horror, seemed as if it were necessary to string himself up. He had gone to the table finally to lift the cover, and that had used up a certain amount of nerve force. He was forced to make a call on nature for a further supply.

He strode across to the chamber-door, threw it open, and walked in, the others following and standing just inside, as he made the light play round a well-furnished bedroom where everything was exactly in its place--the bed made, dressing table in perfect order, and a couple of cupboards displaying nothing within but sundry clothes hanging from pegs.

"Arn't in here," said the sergeant, after a final look round. "Been no struggle--no sign of anyone having been took ill. Don't like one thing, Jem," he added.

"Well," said the man, "if you mean, pardner, that everything looks too tidy, and as if things had been straightened up all but the table-kiver, that's just what I was a-thinking."

"Right," said the sergeant; "that was the one thing forgotten or left in the hurry."

"Oh, no," said Guest quickly. "I see we have raised a false alarm."

"Maybe, sir," said the sergeant firmly, "but I'm not satisfied yet.

Let's go back in the other room, please. I want to know what that table-cover means. Hallo! What's this?" he said sharply, as he stooped down and picked up a piece of composition candle, gnawed nearly all away. "Where's the candlestick?"

"Here," said Guest, pointing to where a little old-fashioned candlestick lay by a stand containing folios of dried plants.

"Well, sir, that was knocked down," said the sergeant.

"We are wasting time," said Stratton firmly. "See if that lock is uninjured, my man, so that the door will close."

"Stop a bit, sir, please," said the sergeant; "we haven't done yet."

He stepped at once to the panelled door on the left of the fireplace, turned the handle, threw it open, and made his light play in the long, deep, narrow closet, one side of which was filled from floor to ceiling by a rack laden with books of pressed plants.

"Looks as if it had once been a pa.s.sage," said the sergeant, "oak panels right over the ceiling. Well, n.o.body there," he continued, as he backed out and closed the door.

"That will do," said Stratton, speaking more firmly now.

"My friend and I made a mistake. We are much obliged for all you have done, and--"

"Not quite done, sir," said the sergeant grimly; and he crossed to the other side of the fireplace, took hold of the handle of the closed-up door, left to make both sides match, and tried to turn it, but it was fast.

Stratton turned ghastly, but he was in the shade.

"No cupboard there," said Guest sharply.

The sergeant turned quickly, and his light flashed across the faces of the two friends. He saw Stratton's wild look, and he tapped on the panel.

"No cupboard, sir? Sounds hollow, too."

Guest caught sight of his friend's face at the same moment, and his pulses leaped; a confused mist of memories flooded his brain, and something made him keep silence, though, had he been asked, he could not have explained why.

"I should say there is a cupboard here," continued the sergeant, turning back to examine it. "Fastened up, but been a cupboard like the other, of course."

Guest glanced at Stratton again in the gloom, but he could see nothing now, with the light averted, only hear his heavy breathing, which was faintly stertorous, as if from exertion.

"Let me see, gentlemen, you live in the next chambers?"

Stratton was silent, while Guest met the officer's eye, and involuntarily answered: "Yes."

"Do they back on to there?"

"Yes; part of the old suite," said Guest, answering, as it were, against his will.

"I'll trouble you to take me in there for a moment, please," said the man decisively.

Stratton drew a deep breath, and without a word led the way out into the pa.s.sage and round to his own door.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.

RUN TO EARTH.

"What the d.i.c.kens does it all mean?" thought Guest wonderingly, as he followed into Stratton's chambers, with a strange feeling of expectancy exciting him. Something was going to happen, he felt sure, and that something would be connected with his friend. And now he began to regret bitterly having urged on the quest. It had had the effect of rousing Stratton for the moment, but he looked horrible now, and Guest asked himself again, what did it mean?

The sergeant looked sharply round Stratton's room, and noted where the chamber lay; but his attention was at once riveted upon the fireplace with its two doors, and he walked to the one on the right, seized the handle, and found it fast.