It was nearing dawn when Vera came to herself out of an uneasy slumber.The darkest hour that precedes the faint flush in the eastern sky wasmoving away. There was a light in the room.
Vera rubbed her eyes wondering. It was one of her fancies to have nolight in her room. Better to lie with horrors she could not see thanhave the glimmer from a nightlight filling every corner with threateningshadows.
Vera sat up in bed, forgetting for the moment that she had a rackingheadache. Something had happened while she slept. Something was alwayshappening in that house of fears, so that Vera was conscious of no newalarm. In a big easy chair at the foot of the bed Marion reclined, fastasleep.
Vera checked an impulse to wake her. In that miserable household sleepwas the most blessed of all luxuries. Why, then, should Marion bedisturbed? Doubtless she had come there to protect and, doubtless thegirl would know all about it in the morning.
"I will not wake her," Vera murmured.
But she could not sleep herself. The splitting, blinding headache wasvery much in evidence just now. Vera felt that she would give anythingfor a glass of cold spring water. She poured out that in her own bottle,but it was flat and tepid.
She would go down into the stone-flagged outer kitchen, where the pumpwas, and get some fresh. In any case, she had not the least idea ofgoing to bed again. Vera partly dressed herself, doing up her hair in abig shining knot, and then, in slippered feet, crept down to thekitchen. She had no need of a light--there was already enough to showthe way.
How cool and refreshing the water was! She drank a glass and then lavedher face in the crystal fluid. All headache was gone by this time,though Vera had a curious trembling of her lower limbs that she couldnot account for.
She opened a side door leading into a green quadrangle, and from theremade her way to the terrace. For a few minutes she stood in a dark anglefacing the house, just picked out, as it was, from the gloom. Along thedim corridor some one was advancing with a light.
What could it mean? What was going on? Vera crouched close into the darkcorner. She had an idea that she was going to witness something.
The light in the corridor stopped and grew brighter. From the blackshadow of the house a human figure crept out and slid along the terraceto a spot where it was just possible for a man of strong courage andcool head to make his way down to the beach at low tide. At high waterthe sea swept the foot of the cliff.
Vera strained her eyes to make out the figure. It passed so close to herthat she might have touched the hem of the white diaphanous garmentabout it; a faint, sour kind of perfume was in the air. These swiftlyflying feet made not the slightest noise. Vera guessed at once that thiswas one of the Orientals whom she and Geoffrey had seen along the cliffson a memorable occasion.
She was not far wrong. If not the same, they belonged to the samenoisome band. Almost before Vera could recover from her surprise anotherfigure followed.
Vera watched with intense eagerness. Slight and frail though she was,she was not in the least afraid. She came from the wrong race for that.She had made up her mind to know what was going on even if she ran somedanger in obtaining the knowledge. And what did that light mean?
She was soon to know. Presently another figure came along, a tallfigure which in the gloom bore a strong resemblance to Tchigorsky. Thefigure wore boots and a European dress and did not seek concealment. Byits side was yet another figure also clad in European dress.
"You say this is the place?" the latter man whispered in indifferentEnglish.
"Yes, yes," was the reply, in still more indifferent English. "It is tothis place that my master, Dr. Tchigorsky, bade me bring you. And thereis the signal."
The light in the corridor waved again.
"I am not satisfied," the stranger muttered. "I am in great danger."
"But not here," the other said eagerly. "Nobody knows you are here. Theprincess has not the least idea of your presence. And Dr. Tchigorsky, mymaster, bade me hunt for you until I found you. And I have done it."
"Oh, yes, you have done it right enough. And Dr. Tchigorsky would nothave sent for me unless there had been danger. But why not meet him indaylight in a proper and natural manner?"
The other spat gravely on the pavement.
"The doctor is a great man," he said. "He knows. Would you have yourenemies to guess that you have seen my master? That is why I bring youhere at night. That is why there is the great secret."
The tall man muttered something that sounded like an acknowledgment ofthe force and cogency of this reasoning.
"I dare say it is all right," he said. "Fetch your master."
The servant salaamed and departed in the direction of the house. Hereturned presently with the information that Tchigorsky had gone alongthe terrace. There was a summer house a little way off, where Tchigorskywaited.
Vera felt her heart beating faster. There was no summer house along theterrace--nothing but a broken balustrade that Rupert Ravenspur wasalways going to have mended. Over this there was a sheer drop to thesea below.
As the pair moved on, Vera followed. Then what followed seemed to happenin the twinkling of an eye. A white-robed figure emerged and flunghimself upon the stranger. At the same time the other miscreant, who hadacted as Tchigorsky's servant, attacked him from behind.
"You rascals," the stranger cried, speaking this time in French. "So Ihave been deceived. You are going to throw me over the cliff. There isno escape for me. Well, I don't much mind. The agony of suspense hastaken all the sweetness out of life for me. I knew that sooner or laterthis was bound to come. But I am going to take a toll."
The stranger's breath was coming rapidly between his teeth. Vera triedto scream, but no sound emerged from her lips. She stood rooted to thespot, watching what seemed to her a long one-sided struggle. As a matterof fact, it had not lasted more than ten seconds. Gradually the strangerwas forced back.
Back and back they forced him to the very edge of the cliff. There wasno escape for him now. He reached out two long and swinging hands; hegrasped two arms, one for each of his would-be assassins, and then hejumped backwards. Two fearful wailing yells rent the air; there was amocking laugh, and silence.
Had she really seen this thing or had she dreamed it? Vera was not sure.Just for a brief moment her senses left her. When she came to herselfagain she crept along to the house and thence to her bedroom. She lockedthe door and flung herself upon the bed, pressing her hands to her eyes.
"How long will it last?" she murmured. "How long can one endure this andlive? Oh, Heaven! is there no mercy for us?"