CHAPTER XV. THE SOUND OF A SHOT
He melted away into the darkness as he spoke, and through the night heslipped, one shadow more amongst many, from tree to bush, from bush totree. Across a patch of open grass he crawled on his hands and knees;and once lay flat on his face when against the skyline he saw a figurehe was sure was Deede Dawson's creep by a yard or two on his right hand.
On his left another shadow showed, distinguishable in the night onlybecause it moved.
In a moment both shadows were gone, secret and deadly in the dark,and Dunn was very sure that Clive's life and his own both hung upon aslender chance, for if either of them was discovered the leaping bulletwould do the rest.
It would be safe and easy--suspected burglars in a garden atmidnight--nothing could be said. He lay very still with his face to thedewy sod, and all the night seemed full to him of searching footstepsand of a swift and murderous going to and fro.
He heard distinctly from the road a sudden, muffled sound as Clive inthe darkness blunderingly missed his footing and fell upon one knee.
"That's finished him," Dunn thought grimly, his ears straining for thesharp pistol report that would tell Clive's tale was done, and then hewas aware of a cat, a favourite of Ella's and often petted by himself,that was crouching near by under a tree, most likely much puzzledand alarmed by this sudden irruption of hurrying men into its domain.Instantly Dunn saw his chance, and seizing the animal, lifted it andthrew it in the direction where he guessed Deede Dawson to be.
His guess was good and fortune served him well, for the tabby flyingcaterwauling through the air alighted almost exactly in front of DeedeDawson on top of a small bush. For a moment it hung there, quite unhurt,but very frightened, and emitted a yell, then fled.
In the quietness the tumult of its scrambling flight soundedastonishingly loud, so that it sounded as through a miniature avalanchehad been let loose in the garden.
"Only cats," Deede Dawson exclaimed disgustedly, and from behind, nearerthe house, Dunn called:
"Who's there? What is it? What's the matter? Is it Mr. Dawson? Isanything wrong?"
"I think there is," said Deede Dawson softly. "I think, perhaps, thereis. What are you doing out here at this time of night, Charley Wright?"
"I heard a noise and came down to see what it was," answered Dunn."There was a light in the breakfast-room, but I didn't see any one, andthe front door was open so I came out here. Is anything wrong?"
"That's what I want to know," said Deede Dawson. "Come back to the housewith me. If any one is about, he can just take himself off."
He spoke the last sentence loudly, and Dunn took it as a veiledinstruction to his companion to depart.
He realized that if he had saved Clive he had done so at the cost ofmissing the best opportunity that had yet come his way of obtaining veryimportant, and, perhaps, decisive information.
To have discovered the identity of this stranger who had come visitingDeede Dawson might have meant much, and he told himself angrily thatClive's safety had certainly not been worth purchasing at the cost ofsuch a lost chance, though he supposed that was a point on which Clivehimself might possibly entertain a different opinion.
But now there was nothing for it but to go quietly back to the house,for clearly Deede Dawson's suspicions were aroused and he had hisrevolver ready in his hand.
"I suppose it was only cats all the time," he observed, with apparentunconcern. "But at first I made sure there were no burglars in thehouse."
"And I suppose," suggested Deede Dawson. "You think one burglar's enoughin a household."
"I don't mean to have any one else mucking around," growled Dunn inanswer.
"Very admirable sentiments," said Deede Dawson and asked several morequestions that showed he still entertained some suspicion of Dunn, andwas not altogether satisfied that his appearance in the garden was quiteinnocent, or that the noise heard there was due solely to cats.
Dunn answered as best he could, and Deede Dawson listened and smiled,and smiled again, and watched him from eyes that did not smile at all.
"Oh, well," Deede Dawson said at last, with a yawn. "Anyhow, it's allright now. You had better get along back to bed, and I'll lock up." Heaccompanied Dunn into the hall and watched him ascend the stairs, andas Dunn went slowly up them he felt by no means sure that soon a bulletwould not come questing after him, searching for heart or brain.
For he was sure that Deede Dawson still suspected him, and he knew DeedeDawson to be very sudden and swift in action. But nothing happened, hereached the broad, first landing in safety, and he was about to go on upto his attic when he beard a door at the end of the passage open and sawElla appear in her dressing-gown.
"What is the matter?" she asked, in a low voice.
"It's all right," he answered. "There was a noise in the garden, and Icame down to see what it was, but it's only cats."
"Oh, is that all?" she said distrustfully.
"Yes," he answered, in a lower voice still, he said:
"Will you tell me something? Do you know any one who talks in a verypeculiar shrill high voice?"
She did not answer, and, after a moment's hesitation, went back into herroom and closed the door behind her.
He went on up to his attic with the feeling that she could have answeredif she had wished to, and lay down in a troubled and dispirited mood.
For he was sure now that Ella mistrusted him and would give himno assistance, and that weighed upon him greatly, as did also hisconviction that what it behoved him above all else to know--the identityof the man who, in this affair, stood behind Deede Dawson and made useof his fierce and fatal energies--he had had it in his power to discoverand had failed to make use of the opportunity.
"I would rather know that," he said to himself, "than save a dozenClives ten times over." Though again it occurred to him that on thispoint Clive might hold another opinion. "If he hadn't made such ablundering row I might have got to know who Deede Dawson's visitor was.I must try to get a word with Clive tomorrow by hook or crook, though Idaresay Deede Dawson will be very much on the lookout."
However, next morning Deede Dawson not only made no reference to theevents of the night, but had out the car and went off immediately afterbreakfast without saying when he would be back.
As soon after his departure as possible, Dunn also set out and tookhis way through the woods towards Ramsdon Place on the look-out for anopportunity to speak to Clive unobserved.
He thought it most likely that Clive would be drawn towards the vicinityof Bittermeads by the double fascination of curiosity and fear, and hesupposed that if he waited and watched in the woods he would be surepresently to see him.
But though he remained for long hidden at a spot whence he could commandthe road to Bittermeads from Ramsdon Place, he saw nothing at all ofClive, and the sunny lazy morning was well advanced when he was startledby the sound of a gun shot some distance away.
"A keeper shooting rabbits, I suppose," he thought, looking round justin time to see Ella running through the wood from the direction whencethe sound of the shot had seemed to come, and then vanish again with aquick look behind her into the heart of a close-growing spinney.