CHAPTER X. THE NEW GARDENER
"Go ahead, then," said Deede Dawson, and the great car with its terribleburden shot away into the night.
For a moment or two Deede Dawson stood looking after it, and thenhe turned and walked slowly towards the house, and mechanically Dunnfollowed, the sole thought in his mind, the one idea of which he wasconscious, that of Ella driving away into the darkness with the deadbody of his murdered friend in the car behind her.
Did she--know? he asked himself. Or was she ignorant of what it was shehad with her?
It seemed to him that that question, hammering itself so awfully uponhis mind and clamouring for an answer, must soon send him mad.
And still before him floated perpetually a picture of long, dark, lonelyroads, of a rushing motor-car driven by a lovely girl, of the awfulthing hidden in the car behind her.
Dully he recognized that the opportunity for which he had watched andwaited so patiently had come and gone a dozen times, for Deede Dawsonhad now quite relaxed his former wary care.
It was as though he supposed all danger over, as though in the reactionafter an enormous strain he could think of nothing but the immediaterelief. He hardly gave a single glance at Dunn, whose faintest movementbefore had never escaped him. He had even put his pistol back in hispocket, and at almost any moment Dunn, with his unusual strength andagility, could have seized and mastered him.
But for such an enterprise Dunn had no longer any spirit, for all hismind was taken up by that one picture so clear in his thoughts of Ellain her great car driving the dead man through the night. "She mustknow," he said to himself. "She must, or she would never have gone offlike that at that time--she can't know, it's impossible, or she wouldnever have dared."
And again it seemed to him that this doubt was driving him mad.
Deede Dawson entered the house and got a bottle of whisky and a syphonof soda-water and mixed himself a drink. For the first time since Ella'sdeparture he seemed to remember Dunn's presence.
"Oh, there you are," he said.
Dunn did not answer. He stood moodily on the threshold, wondering why hedid not rush upon the other, and with his knee upon his chest, hishands about his throat, force him to answer the question that was stillwhispering, shouting, screaming itself into his ears:
"Does she know what it is she drives with her on that big car throughthe black and lonely night?"
"Like a drink?" asked Deede Dawson.
Dunn shook his head, and it came to him that he did not attack DeedeDawson and force the truth from him because he dared not, because he wasafraid, because he feared what the answer might be.
"There's a tool-shed at the bottom of the garden," Deede Dawson said tohim. "You can sleep there, tonight. You'll find some sacks you can makea bed of."
Without a word in reply Dunn turned and stumbled away. He felt verytired--physically exhausted--and the idea of a bed, even of sacks in anouthouse, became all at once extraordinarily attractive.
He found the place without difficulty, and, making a pile of the sacks,flung himself down on them and was asleep almost at once. But almostas promptly he awoke again, for he had dreamed of Ella driving her carthrough the night towards some strange peril from which in his dream hewas trying frantically and ineffectively to save her when he awoke.
So it was all through the night.
His utter and complete exhaustion compelled him to sleep, and every timesome fresh, fantastic dream in which Ella and the huge motor-car and thedreadful burden she had with her always figured, awoke him with a freshstart.
But towards morning he fell into a heavy sleep from which presentlyhe awoke to find it broad daylight and Deede Dawson standing on thethreshold of the shed with his perpetually smiling lips and his cold,unsmiling eyes.
"Well, my man; had a good sleep?" he said.
"I was tired," Dunn answered.
"Yes, we had a busy night," agreed Deede Dawson. "I slept well, too.I've been wondering what to do with you. Of course, I ought to handyou over to the police, and it's rather a risk taking on a man of yourcharacter, but I've decided to give you a chance. Probably you'll misuseit. But I'll give you an opportunity as gardener and chauffeur here. Youcan drive a car, you say?"
Dunn nodded.
"That's all right," said Deede Dawson.
"You shall have your board and lodging, and I'll get you some decentclothes instead of those rags; and if you prove satisfactory and makeyourself useful you'll find I can pay well. There will be plenty ofchances for you to make a little money--if you know how to take them."
"When it's money," growled Dunn, "you give me the chance, and see."
"I think," added Deede Dawson, "I think it might improve your looks ifyou shaved."
Dunn passed his hand over the tangle of hair that hid his features soeffectually.
"What for?" he asked.
"Oh, well: please yourself," answered Deede Dawson; "I don't know thatit matters, and perhaps you have reasons of your own for preferring abeard. Come on up to the house now and I'll tell Mrs. Dawson to give yousome breakfast. And you might as well have a wash, too, perhaps--unlessyou object to that as well as to shaving."
Dunn rose without answering, made his toilet by shaking off some ofthe dust that clung to him, and followed his new employer out of thetool-house into the open air.
It was a fresh and lovely morning, and coming towards them down one ofthe garden paths was Ella, looking as fresh and lovely as the morning ina dainty cotton frock with lace at her throat and wrists.
That she could possibly have spent the night tearing across country in apowerful car conveying a dead man to an unknown destination, appeared toDunn a clean impossibility, and for a moment he almost supposed he hadbeen mistaken in thinking he recognized her voice.
But he knew he had not, that he had made no mistake, that it had indeedbeen Ella he had seen dash away into the darkness on her strange andterrible errand.
"Oh, my daughter," said Deede Dawson carelessly, noticing Dunn'ssurprise. "Oh, yes, she's back--you didn't expect to see her thismorning. Well, Ella, Dunn's surprised to see you back so soon, aren'tyou, Dunn?"
Dunn did not answer, for a kind of vertigo of horror had come upon him,and for a moment all things revolved about him in a whirling circlewherein the one fixed point was Ella's gentle lovely face thatsometimes, he thought, had a small round hole with blue edges in thevery centre of the forehead, above the nose.
It was her voice, clear and a little loud, that called him back tohimself.
"He's not well," she was saying. "He's going to faint."
"I'm all right," he muttered. "It was nothing, nothing, it's only thatI've had nothing to eat for so long."
"Oh, poor man!" exclaimed Ella.
"Come up to the house," Deede Dawson said.
"Breakfast's ready," Ella said. "Mother told me to find you."
"Has the woman come yet?" Deede Dawson asked. "If she has, you mighttell her to give Dunn some breakfast. I've just been telling him I'mwilling to give him another chance and to take him on as gardener andchauffeur, so you can keep an eye on him and see if he works well."
Ella was silent for a moment, but her expression was grave and a littlepuzzled as though she did not quite understand this and wondered what itmeant, and when she looked up at her stepfather, Dunn was certain therewas both distrust and suspicion in her manner.
"I suppose," she said then, "last night seemed to you a goodrecommendation?" As she spoke she glanced at her wrists where thebruises still showed, and Deede Dawson's smile broadened.
"One should always be ready to give another chance to a poor fellowwho's down," he said. "He may run straight now he's got an opportunity.I told him he had better shave, but he seems to think a beard suits himbest. What do you say?"
"Breakfast's waiting," Ella answered, turning away without taking anynotice of the question.
"I'll go in then," said Deede Dawson. "You might show Dunn the way tothe kitchen--his name's Robert Dunn, by the way--and
tell Mrs. Barker togive him something to eat."
"I should think he could find his way there himself," Ella remarked.
But though she made this protest, she obeyed at once, for though sheused a considerable liberty of speech to her stepfather, it was none theless evident that she was very much afraid of him and would not be verylikely to disobey him or oppose him directly.
"This way," she said to Dunn, and walked on along a path that led to theback of the house. Once she stopped and looked back. She smiled slightlyand disdainfully as she did so, and Dunn saw that she was looking at aclump of small bushes near where they had been standing.
He guessed at once that she believed Deede Dawson to be behind thosebushes watching them, and when she glanced at him he understood that shewished him to know it also.
He said nothing, though a faint movement visible in the bushes convincedhim that her suspicions, if, indeed, she had them, were well-founded,and they walked on in silence, Ella a little ahead, and Dunn a step ortwo behind.
The garden was a large one, and had at one time been well cultivated,but now it was neglected and overgrown. It struck Dunn that if he was tobe the gardener here he would certainly not find himself short of work,and Ella, without looking round, said to him over her shoulder:
"Do you know anything about gardening?"
"A little, miss," he answered.
"You needn't call me 'miss,'" she observed. "When a man has tied a girlto a chair I think he may regard himself as on terms of some familiaritywith her."
"What must I call you?" he asked, and his words bore to himself a doublemeaning, for, indeed, what name was it by which he ought to call her?
But she seemed to notice nothing as she answered "My name is Cayley--Ella Cayley. You can call me Miss Cayley. Do you know anything ofmotoring?"
"Yes," he answered. "Though I never cared much for motoring at night."
She gave him a quick glance, but said no more, and they came almostimmediately to the back door.
Ella opened it and entered, nodding to him to follow, and crossing anarrow, stone-floored passage, she entered the kitchen where a tallgaunt elderly woman in a black bonnet and a course apron was at work.
"This is Dunn, Mrs. Barker," she called, raising her voice. "He is thenew gardener. Will you give him some breakfast, please?" She added toDunn:
"When you've finished, you can go to the garage and wash the car, andwhen you speak to Mrs. Barker you must shout. She is quite deaf, that iswhy my stepfather engaged her, because he was sorry for her and wantedto give her a chance, you know..."