CHAPTER X
She felt her knees shake under her and thought she was going to swoon.She put out her disengaged hand to steady herself, and if the face whichwas turned to him was pale, there was a steadfast resolution in her darkeyes.
"Let me relieve you of that, Miss Holland," said Kara, in his silkiesttones.
He wrenched rather than took the box from her hand, replaced itcarefully in the drawer, pushed the drawer to and locked it, examiningthe key as he withdrew it. Then he closed the safe and locked that.
"Obviously," he said presently, "I must get a new safe."
He had not released his hold of her wrist nor did he, until he hadled her from the room back to the library. Then he released the girl,standing between her and the door, with folded arms and that cynical,quiet, contemptuous smile of his upon his handsome face.
"There are many courses which I can adopt," he said slowly. "I cansend for the police--when my servants whom you have despatched sothoughtfully have returned, or I can take your punishment into my ownhands."
"So far as I am concerned," said the girl coolly, "you may send for thepolice."
She leant back against the edge of the desk, her hands holding the edge,and faced him without so much as a quaver.
"I do not like the police," mused Kara, when there came a knock at thedoor.
Kara turned and opened it and after a low strained conversation hereturned, closing the door and laid a paper of stamps on the girl'stable.
"As I was saying, I do not care for the police, and I prefer my ownmethod. In this particular instance the police obviously would not serveme, because you are not afraid of them and in all probability you arein their pay--am I right in supposing that you are one of Mr. T. X.Meredith's accomplices!"
"I do not know Mr. T. X. Meredith," she replied calmly, "and I am not inany way associated with the police."
"Nevertheless," he persisted, "you do not seem to be very scared of themand that removes any temptation I might have to place you in the handsof the law. Let me see," he pursed his lips as he applied his mind tothe problem.
She half sat, half stood, watching him without any evidence ofapprehension, but with a heart which began to quake a little. For threemonths she had played her part and the strain had been greater thanshe had confessed to herself. Now the great moment had come and she hadfailed. That was the sickening, maddening thing about it all. It wasnot the fear of arrest or of conviction, which brought a sinking toher heart; it was the despair of failure, added to a sense of herhelplessness against this man.
"If I had you arrested your name would appear in all the papers, ofcourse," he said, narrowly, "and your photograph would probably adornthe Sunday journals," he added expectantly.
She laughed.
"That doesn't appeal to me," she said.
"I am afraid it doesn't," he replied, and strolled towards her as thoughto pass her on his way to the window. He was abreast of her when hesuddenly swung round and catching her in his arms he caught her closeto him. Before she could realise what he planned, he had stooped swiftlyand kissed her full upon the mouth.
"If you scream, I shall kiss you again," he said, "for I have sent themaid to buy some more stamps--to the General Post Office."
"Let me go," she gasped.
Now for the first time he saw the terror in her eyes, and there surgedwithin him that mad sense of triumph, that intoxication of power whichhad been associated with the red letter days of his warped life.
"You're afraid!" he bantered her, half whispering the words, "you'reafraid now, aren't you? If you scream I shall kiss you again, do youhear?"
"For God's sake, let me go," she whispered.
He felt her shaking in his arms, and suddenly he released her with alittle laugh, and she sank trembling from head to foot upon the chair byher desk.
"Now you're going to tell me who sent you here," he went on harshly,"and why you came. I never suspected you. I thought you were one ofthose strange creatures one meets in England, a gentlewoman who prefersworking for her living to the more simple business of getting married.And all the time you were spying--clever--very clever!"
The girl was thinking rapidly. In five minutes Fisher would return.Somehow she had faith in Fisher's ability and willingness to save herfrom a situation which she realized was fraught with the greatest dangerto herself. She was horribly afraid. She knew this man far better thanhe suspected, realized the treachery and the unscrupulousness of him.She knew he would stop short of nothing, that he was without honour andwithout a single attribute of goodness.
He must have read her thoughts for he came nearer and stood over her.
"You needn't shrink, my young friend," he said with a little chuckle."You are going to do just what I want you to do, and your first act willbe to accompany me downstairs. Get up."
He half lifted, half dragged her to her feet and led her from the room.They descended to the hall together and the girl spoke no word. Perhapsshe hoped that she might wrench herself free and make her escape intothe street, but in this she was disappointed. The grip about her arm wasa grip of steel and she knew safety did not lie in that direction. Shepulled back at the head of the stairs that led down to the kitchen.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked.
"I am going to put you into safe custody," he said. "On the whole Ithink it is best that the police take this matter in hand and I shalllock you into my wine cellar and go out in search of a policeman."
The big wooden door opened, revealing a second door and this Karaunbolted. She noticed that both doors were sheeted with steel, the outeron the inside, and the inner door on the outside. She had no time tomake any further observations for Kara thrust her into the darkness. Heswitched on a light.
"I will not deny you that," he said, pushing her back as she made afrantic attempt to escape. He swung the outer door to as she raised hervoice in a piercing scream, and clapping his hand over her mouth heldher tightly for a moment.
"I have warned you," he hissed.
She saw his face distorted with rage. She saw Kara transfigured withdevilish anger, saw that handsome, almost godlike countenance thrustinto hers, flushed and seamed with malignity and a hatefulness beyondunderstanding and then her senses left her and she sank limp andswooning into his arms.
When she recovered consciousness she found herself lying on a plainstretcher bed. She sat up suddenly. Kara had gone and the door wasclosed. The cellar was dry and clean and its walls were enamelled white.Light was supplied by two electric lamps in the ceiling. There was atable and a chair and a small washstand, and air was evidently suppliedthrough unseen ventilators. It was indeed a prison and no less, and inher first moments of panic she found herself wondering whether Kara hadused this underground dungeon of his before for a similar purpose.
She examined the room carefully. At the farthermost end was anotherdoor and this she pushed gently at first and then vigorously withoutproducing the slightest impression. She still had her bag, a smallaffair of black moire, which hung from her belt, in which was nothingmore formidable than a penknife, a small bottle of smelling salts anda pair of scissors. The latter she had used for cutting out thoseparagraphs from the daily newspapers which referred to Kara's movements.
They would make a formidable weapon, and wrapping her handkerchief roundthe handle to give it a better grip she placed it on the table withinreach. She was dimly conscious all the time that she had heard somethingabout this wine cellar--something which, if she could recollect it,would be of service to her.
Then in a flash she remembered that there was a lower cellar, whichaccording to Mrs. Beale was never used and was bricked up. It wasapproached from the outside, down a circular flight of stairs. Theremight be a way out from that direction and would there not be someconnection between the upper cellar and the lower!
She set to work to make a closer examination of the apartment.
The floor was of concrete, covered with a light rush matting. This shecarefully rolled up, starting at
the door. One half of the floor wasuncovered without revealing the existence of any trap. She attempted topull the table into the centre of the room, better to roll the matting,but found it fixed to the wall, and going down on her knees, shediscovered that it had been fixed after the matting had been laid.
Obviously there was no need for the fixture and, she tapped the floorwith her little knuckle. Her heart started racing. The sound herknocking gave forth was a hollow one. She sprang up, took her bag fromthe table, opened the little penknife and cut carefully through the thinrushes. She might have to replace the matting and it was necessary sheshould do her work tidily.
Soon the whole of the trap was revealed. There was an iron ring, whichfitted flush with the top and which she pulled. The trap yielded andswung back as though there were a counterbalance at the other end, asindeed there was. She peered down. There was a dim light below--thereflection of a light in the distance. A flight of steps led down to thelower level and after a second's hesitation she swung her legs over thecavity and began her descent.
She was in a cellar slightly smaller than that above her. The lightshe had seen came from an inner apartment which would be underneath thekitchen of the house. She made her way cautiously along, stepping ontip-toe. The first of the rooms she came to was well-furnished. Therewas a thick carpet on the floor, comfortable easy-chairs, a littlebookcase well filled, and a reading lamp. This must be Kara'sunderground study, where he kept his precious papers.
A smaller room gave from this and again it was doorless. She looked inand after her eyes had become accustomed to the darkness she saw that itwas a bathroom handsomely fitted.
The room she was in was also without any light which came from thefarthermost chamber. As the girl strode softly across the well-carpetedroom she trod on something hard. She stooped and felt along thefloor and her fingers encountered a thin steel chain. The girl wasbewildered-almost panic-stricken. She shrunk back from the entranceof the inner room, fearful of what she would see. And then from theinterior came a sound that made her tingle with horror.
It was a sound of a sigh, long and trembling. She set her teeth andstrode through the doorway and stood for a moment staring with open eyesand mouth at what she saw.
"My God!" she breathed, "London. . . . in the twentieth century. . . !"