very good indeed. Yetstill, that weird, uncanny oppression--yes, that was the word for it,oppression--came upon her more and more as sure as the hours of darknessset in. And more and more her thoughts reverted to Helston Varne.
Why had he not been again to see them after all this time? It could bethrough no want of cordiality in repeating their invite either on heruncle's part or upon hers. He was a skilled clearer-up of mysteries.He had told her--with some earnestness--that if ever she were in adifficulty, and stood in need of a friend--she was to communicate withhim at once.
And more than once she had thought of doing so--had been on the point ofdoing so--when another consideration would obtrude. Would she not, in away, be working behind her uncle? For instance, the mystery of thatqueer, shining thing, with several points, the mere sight of which hadturned him ashy pale and evoked a peremptory command to her to drop it--at once, and where she stood. That had never been explained. What ifin some way it were bound up with the mystery which overhung this eerie,creepy old dwelling? What if in some way it affected him--were in someway, patient of evil results to him? And if Helston Varne were to givehis wonderful faculty towards discovery at Heath Hover, he must do sowholly. He would never stop halfway--and then, what about that incidentupon which her uncle seemed to set such store of secrecy? No, itwouldn't do, she decided. It was one thing to let loose that sort ofthing, it was another to know where it was going to end. Yet, apartfrom it, she owned to herself she would be glad, very glad, to seeHelston Varne again. And then, all unexpectedly, she obtained her wish.
She was standing in front of the house one morning. The black kittenwas on her left shoulder and she was playing with it with a bit ofstring, which it was striving to seize without falling from its perch.Clad in cool white, she stood erect against a background of Virginiacreeper and one of the window frames of the old house; and the gleamingwaves of her gold hair changed their lights with every movement of thehead. A perfect picture, a most exquisite picture, thought the onespectator, who had arrived on the scene unobserved, such a pictureindeed as he would carry in his mind, and which he was wholly loth todisturb all at once. Then a low, lighthearted laugh escaped her as thekitten, missing its stroke, overbalanced and dropped lightly to theground. Then looking up, she discovered she was not alone.
Helston Varne raised his hat and came down the path from the sluice.She made a step forward to meet him.
"How long were you standing there?" she said, in her bright, quick,animated way, when the first greetings had been exchanged.
"Well, not long--unfortunately. But I hope I have too much of anartistic eye to be in a hurry to break up that picture. Is your unclein?"
"No. He had to run up to London on business. He wanted to take me,although he always says London is the worst place in the world to take agirl to for the day, unless she's got a lot of things of her own toattend to--which I haven't. Says he doesn't know what to do with her.He more than half wanted me to go--and chance it, but I wouldn't. Ishould only have been in the way, of course."
"That's a pity. I didn't want to see him about anything in particular,only as I shall have to be away from England some time, I thought Ishould just like to see how you were all getting on first."
If Melian's face had fallen just a shade over the announcement, thechange, it is certain, did not escape the keen perception of the other,nor could he tell why the fact should have afforded him a modicum ofgratification.
"I suppose I mustn't ask, as a matter of innocent and femininecuriosity, what part of the world you are bound for next?" she ventured.
Even that smile as she looked up at him was not sufficient to let downhis guard. He shook a deprecating head.
"I'm afraid not. The element of secrecy in my movements is one of thevery first essentials."
"Why, of course. By the way, here am I keeping you standing. Do comeinside. But--where's your bicycle? You didn't walk?"
"I left my bike up there on the sluice, till I'd found out whetheranybody was at home. Save the bother of lugging it up again if nobodywas."
"Oh, do go and fetch it. Some one might bag it."
"They'd wish they hadn't--before they had ridden it a hundred yards," heanswered with a laugh. "They'd come about the most complete spillthey'd ever come in their lives."
"Why? How?" she asked, mystified.
"There's a dodge in it that would produce that result with any otherthan myself mounting it. Incidentally, there have been two attemptsmade at annexing it--with the effect described."
"That's a very wonderful machine of yours," she said. "The other day--only it was months ago--you told us it was unpuncturable--now it seemsit's unrideable, for any one but its owner."
"Yes--it is rather wonderful, isn't it--Hallo?" as he became alive tothe greetings of the kitten, which was rubbing against his legs andpurring. "Why, this little beauty is hardly any bigger than it was, andit ought to be nearly full grown by this time."
"Yes, and aren't I just glad too, that it's always going to stay small.I was afraid it wouldn't," she answered, picking it up and replacing itupon her shoulder. "But you're not pressed for time, are you? UncleSeward will be back by quite an early afternoon train, and he'd heawfully disgusted if he missed you--especially as you're going away."
To Helston Varne this invitation was wholly alluring--he wondered thatit should prove so much so. And what a strange turn the situation hadtaken. He had originally come to these parts with--professionally--hostile intent towards the occupier of Heath Hover; now, any discoveriesthat he might make--whatever their nature--and this he would repeat tohimself with emphasis, he would certainly use to the aid and advantageof that individual, if possible. He would have been only too glad toarrive at a solution, as a matter of purely professional interest only--but with no intention of using it by a hair's breadth against hisnew-found friend, as to which he had already begun to put Nashby off thescent by such modicum of suspicion as we heard him express to thatpainstaking officer. Now he answered:
"If you can do with me for all that time, Miss Seward, I shall be onlytoo delighted. What a lovely day it is. Won't you get on your bicycleand show me some of the country I haven't seen? We could pick up lunchat some wayside inn, and get back in time to meet your uncle."
"I'd be delighted, but my bike happens to be out of commission. Itwants a thorough overhauling in fact. Let's have a walk instead. It'sno end jolly just meandering on, winding in and out, now in a jollywood--now through a field, or by a pond--in fact, just anywhere you liketo go. We can get back here by lunch-time. Yes, that'll be the verything. I'll go up and get a hat--I won't be a sec."
She vanished upstairs, and Helston Varne, left momentarily alone, wasconscious of a mixed train of thought. First of all was the certaintyof a very delightful day before him: then, as he sat opposite thecreeper-shaded window, his glance fell upon the couch which stoodbeneath it. There, then, was where the stranger had been found dead.Instinctively he rose from his seat and went over to the couch. It wasthe first time he had been alone in the room, and now his professionalinstincts moved him in that direction. Yet there was nothing on earthto reward them in the aspect of this very plain and innocent lookingarticle of furniture. He looked at it long and earnestly--up and down,but no. It suggested nothing. Then the sound of Melian's footsteps,coming down the stairs recalled him to the ordinary ways of life, and hesimply stood where he was--looking out of the window.
"Which way shall we go?" she said. "I know. We'll go up throughBroceliande and out on to the heath, then we'll wander round the wood onthe other side, and down again by the head of Plane Pond."
"Anywhere you like," he said. "And your programme sounds delightful."
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
THE DISUSED ROOM.
If ever a country ramble was a success, a grand success, that one was.In the gnarled oak-wood dim in cool gloom, comparative, as regarded theflood of sunshine outside, the girl would let imagination run riot, andas she rattl
ed on--fitting this and that vista into the scenes of herfavourite romance--her companion listened, enjoying the extraordinarynaturalness of her. And he entered into it all, adding here and therean apposite suggestion, which thoroughly appealed. Then, too, when theygot out upon open heathland, though the time of its crimsoning had notyet come--and a wide sweep of rolling valley, and dark belts of firwoodscontrasting with the brighter, richer green of oak, she would point himout this or that old church tower in the distance, and expatiate uponthe archaeological treasures contained within the same, and her wideeyes would go bright with love of her subject, and her cheeks glow withthe soft sun-kiss and the bracing upland