CHAPTER XII
A JANGLE OF PEALING BELLS
The moon was high up over the tree-tops and the river, when they reachedit, was a shining silver ribbon lying between sloping banks.
Cleek, as they rushed along beside it, leaned forward with his elbow onthe window-ledge and his cheek in his palm, and studied its shiningsurface narrowly. Of a sudden, however, he called out sharply "Stop!"
The vehicle ran on for a yard or two and then came to a halt. Cleek,despite that fact, did not alight at once. Instead, he pulled down allthe leather curtains, switched on the light, and taking out hisnote-book, began to write. His stylo travelled rapidly, but even at thatit was a good six minutes before he tore out the leaves he had covered,switched off the light, and, opening the door, said "Come!" and steppedout with Mr. Narkom.
Carefully folding the written leaves, he walked round to the front ofthe limousine and put the little bundle into Lennard's hand.
"Take that to the vicarage of St. Saviour's, and deliver it to the Rev.Mr. Saintly," he said. "If he asks you any questions, answerthem--truthfully. After that you may return to Willowby Old Church andput up for the night. We shall not need you again until to-morrow. Movelively, lad, and the quicker you get that note into the vicar's handsand take yourself out of Valehampton, the better I shall be pleased."
"Do both inside of the next five minutes, sir; the river path hasbrought us round on the other side of the church--there's her spire justabove those trees to the left. Good-night! I'm off."
And so he was, so swiftly that it might almost be said that at the verymoment he spoke the moonlit landscape held no trace of any living thingbut a silk-hatted Narkom and dapper Cleek standing in the middle of theroad and looking very much out of keeping with their surroundings.
The Superintendent looked at his watch, saw that its hands pointed totwenty minutes to eleven, and then faced round on Cleek.
"And now what, old chap?" he inquired. The habit of blind obedience tothe lead of his famous ally had become a fixed one with theSuperintendent, who was nevertheless most alert when in charge ofaffairs himself. "I suppose you know what you're about, but I don't. Itseems to me that, having sent Lennard off for good, you've done us outof all hope of finding a bed anywhere to-night. And I'm blest if Ishall relish prowling about the neighbourhood in this sort of a get-upuntil morning."
"Oh, don't worry. You will get a bed, I promise you. Indeed, the matteris the one uppermost in my mind at this minute--the reason for ourpresence here--only it happens to be a bed of another colour from theone you're demanding. It is, in short, the bed of a river--this onebeside us."
"Now what the devil can the bed of a river have to do with the matter inhand?"
"That is precisely what I am anxious to settle to my own satisfaction.It is almost the last point in the case which we have to investigate;and it is an extremely interesting one. Brush up your memory a bit, Mr.Narkom. Part of that extraordinary prophecy was that the river shouldbecome choked, and, according to the duke, choked it has become."
"Oh, ah! Yes, I remember. Shoals formed, didn't they?"
"Exactly. And I am extremely anxious to discover why. Perhaps we may,presently. You observe that we are at the point where the stream beginsto narrow perceptibly. As yet, however, I perceive no sign of shoals.Still, if we follow this narrowing course for a time---- Come on."
They walked on, and for the next ten or fifteen minutes they scarcelyspoke a word, keeping their eyes fixed steadily on the ever-narrowingstream, but finding nothing to reward them for their diligence.
"It will be a fake, I'm afraid, Cleek."
"Possibly; but I doubt it. It is one of the essential points--a thing soabsolutely necessary that, if it doesn't exist, I'm on the wrong scent,that's all."
For another two or three minutes they walked on in silence; then Cleekgave a satisfied grunt and pointed to where the hitherto placid surfaceof the stream was broken into a little patch of eddies and ripples thatcircled round a clump of trembling river grass.
"We are coming to it, you see!" he said, and moved quickly to a spotwhere the eddies played closer to the shore, and the water, obstructed,encroached upon the land. By the time Mr. Narkom came up with him he hadlaid aside his coat and was hastily turning back the cuff of his shirtsleeve.
In another moment he had gone down the shelving bank and jumped out towhere a half-submerged rock offered a footing and his arm was elbow deepin the eddying water. For a time his hand remained invisible, gropingand tugging at something, then it came into view again, and Narkom couldsee that it held a heavy, sodden lump of something from which the watertrickled in yellowish streams.
"Have a look at that," said Cleek, with an exultant laugh as he threw itover onto the bank and, dipping in his hand again, fished up anotherlump and sent that flying across in the wake of the other. "And there'sa second to show that it isn't merely an isolated specimen."
He whirled his hand round in the water to wash it, then rose, andjumping back to the shore, began to pull down his sleeve while Mr.Narkom was inspecting the two slimy lumps.
"Don't trust the moonlight--get out your electric torch and have a goodlook at them. They are worth it, Mr. Narkom--the beauties. They are arich find all right."
"_Rich?_ Are you off your head, old man? They're nothing but lumps ofcommon clay."
"Certainly--that is what makes them so valuable."
"Valuable?"
"To be sure," replied Cleek, serenely. "There is a lot more where theycame from, and it's worth in the aggregate something like one hundredand fifty thousand pounds in gold! If you doubt that----"
Here he stopped, and, reaching round, made a grab for his hat and coat.Of a sudden the stillness of the night was broken into by a tuneless anddiscordant jangle of pealing bells.
The chimes of St. Saviour's had begun their nightly ringing.
"Come!" exclaimed Cleek, excitedly, and started off up the slope andacross the intervening fields and spinneys in the direction of thechurchyard, putting on his coat as he ran.
His pace was so swift that he was already a good twenty yards on his waybefore Mr. Narkom could grasp his intention and start after him.