CHAPTER XXIV
HARE AND HOUNDS
To say that Cleek was startled was to underestimate the matteraltogether. Here was a pretty kettle of fish indeed! It took exactlythree seconds for him to act, and to act in such an extraordinaryfashion as to call forth a gasp from Dollops, whose head was still halfducked, with one arm upthrown to hide it from the woman's eyes, and toregister in his loyal heart the fact that this master whom he served wasa miracle-worker indeed.
For Cleek's hand had flashed up in the darkness and taken the moustachefrom his lip, and as the woman still continued to plead with him in hersoft voice Dollops, peering through the upthrown arm, saw the featuresof the man he loved writhe suddenly as though they had been made ofrubber, saw him twitch up his hand and muffle his coat-collar about hisneck, and then realized with a gasp that here at his side lay such afair representative of Ross Duggan as might even be mistaken for thatgentleman in this dark hour of the night.
And from the lips of this astonishing person proceeded Ross Duggan'svoice, with its curious clipped Scotch inflection and the little habitof clearing the throat which was so indicative of the man, and whichDollops--trained as he was by Cleek's quick observation--had alreadynoticed for himself in the couple of times he had seen and listenedunseen to the gentleman.
He saw Cleek get to his feet, and twitch his shoulders up and his capdown, as he faced the lady in her thin dark wrap through which theglimmer of some light satiny material showed like a line of fire.
"My dear girl," said Ross Duggan's voice a trifle testily, "what a foolyou are to come out here at this time--if you'll excuse my saying so!Sit down, for heaven's sake, if you must be here, and don't let thosemen down there see you. I'm--I'm making some observations on my own, butat any minute someone may come up here--and I wouldn't answer for theconsequences. You've fallen into a hornet's nest, Catherine, and only awoman with some desperate plan of action would do that. Don't you knowwhat's being carried on down there?"
She shook her dark head, and dropped instantly into a little heap ofsatin and dark-coloured velvet beside him in the darkness.
"No," she whispered softly. "I wondered what you were doing, and whoyour companion might be. Send him away, Ross. I _must_ speak with youalone!"
"All right." The inflection of voice was so identical with that of thenew lord of the manor as to make Dollops fairly jump at sound of it. Hewould hardly have been able to believe the evidence of his own ears ifhe had not seen this thing done before in those old Apache days, in theInn of The Twisted Arm, when the notorious Margot and her crew had runthem to earth and this was the only way out: "Get along there, Parsons.There's nothing more to be seen now. You can meet me some time nextweek--if things go all right with me and I'm not already swinging at theend of a long rope! And we'll have another confab together. But you'dbetter make yourself scarce now. There'll be a dickens of a kybosh ifthey find we've broken parole, and I don't want you hauled into thebeastly thing. So long. And _listen--listen_: be careful--do!"
Dollops nodded his head forthwith, and by dint of wriggling andscrambling made his exit from this astonishing pair, and, free of thebare moorside at last, broke cover and started off at a good run,wondering what the dickens they had stumbled into _now_.
Meanwhile the erstwhile Ross and his lady friend sat on behind thefurze-bush in their somewhat ridiculous predicament, and talked inwhispers.
"What is it you want to say to me?" said "Ross," a hint of sharpness inhis low-pitched voice. "That you should run this risk--it is madness,Catherine--madness!"
"Nothing is madness that I could do for _your_ sake," she respondedpassionately, putting a hand over his as it rested upon the brown earth,and bending toward him. "Don't you know, Ross, haven't you guessed mysecret yet? Surely you must have seen it? I have tried to tell you withmy eyes, time and time again, and when I have caught that odd look inyours when you looked at Cynthia. I felt my heart bound with gladnessthat you did not care for her. And that has made me brave. Oh, mydear--my dear! Listen to me, and do what I ask of you. If you _did_ killyour father, Ross, that man down there at the Castle will make you swingfor it. I know it--I feel it here--here! Those penetrating eyes of hiscan see beyond the veil of deception right down into your heart. If youhave done this dreadful thing, tell me, and I have made all arrangementsthat you can escape at once. I've a car waiting in the lane. I 'phonedfor it at the garage by the station only a bare two hours ago--and I hada difficulty, too, as you can imagine, with the whole house full ofpolicemen and our every action watched. But I was desperate--desperate!I couldn't see you arrested for _that_! And so, while there is yettime.... Oh, don't you see? It's your liberty I'm offering you! And wecould start away together and make our lives afresh in a new country.Ross, Ross, don't you hear, don't you _see_? Every minute is preciouswhile that man is in command at the Castle. He looks a fool--but he is aclever fool at that. I don't trust him. I'm not a weak woman, Ross, tobe afraid of a murderer--pshaw! what is that? If a man has need to doit, and the courage, I can even _admire_! And I love you! Don't speaknow, Ross--just come, and let us slip away together. In this wildcountry we can soon be lost--slip down the coast and get away on thefirst steamer to--anywhere! I've money on me--see here. Plenty of it! Isent Hilda down to draw it all out of the bank this morning. (Thank Godfor the comfort of your telephone!) She'd do anything for me--thatgirl--since I caught her stealing Cynthia's pearl necklace, andthreatened her if she didn't return it to tell the whole sordid story tothe family. And she swore to help me any time I needed her. So come,Ross--come now--come quickly! but come--come!"
Her whispered words trailed off into silence at last, and Cleek,catching his breath for a moment at the whole audacious plot which shehad laid so successfully, could not help but admire, even as he felt therush of contempt that a man must feel for every woman who can cheapenherself thus in his eyes. But here was a pretty kettle of fish indeed!What to say to her? what to do? It took time to think, so he merelycaught her hand and squeezed it, and felt all sorts of a beast formaking such use of her confession as to lead her on to even deeperthings.
She reached a hand out at the pressure of his fingers, and wound itabout his neck.
"You'll come?" she whispered close against his ear.
He shrugged his shoulders. The issue must be faced, and faced now.
"Let's get out of this danger-zone, where we can talk in a little morecomfort and less fear of our lives," he responded quickly, casting hiseyes about him to see if the coast was clear. "Quick! draw your darkwrap over your head and make for cover. That furze-bush over there! Getbehind it, and drop down, and I'll follow. From there, there is a chainof bushes behind which we can make for the high-road at last. Quick! themen are coming this way, some of them. And if we're caught...!"
Her face was fearless. She acted instantly upon his suggestion,gathering her dark velvet cloak about her and pulling it up over herface and head, and then sped out suddenly across the open space like afleet shadow, until a shaft of moonlight, penetrating through theclouded sky, fell full upon her hurrying figure, etching it almost asclearly as though it had been day.
Cleek sucked in his breath and, half-crouching, half-running, sped afterher. God! what if the men had seen! He glanced back quickly over hisshoulder, and then redoubled his pace. For, of a sudden, with the speedof a lightning-flash every flare in that valley had gone out--zip!--likethat. Every voice had dropped to stillness, and the night was a hideousthing of running footsteps, pelting, he knew only too well, up thehillside after them--those watchers who had seen the secret of thenight, and to-morrow might give it forth to an unsuspecting world. Theirlives wouldn't be worth much if _this_ crew caught them, that wascertain.
Panting, he reached her side, caught hold of her elbow, and pinning itclose in his fingers hurried her forward, every faculty alert, everynerve a-tremble. Her panting breath was like the breath of a spentrunner; she wouldn't last far in those high heels, he knew; the goingwas too hard. It was only a matter of time now. The hurry
ing footstepsseemed to be coming nearer and nearer.
He bent his face down to hers.
"The motor-car? Where?" he said in a quick, panting voice.
She managed to stammer out a reply, stumbling feet falling over therough ground, tripping in clumps of heather, bruising themselves againstharsh stones.
"In the lane--beyond--over there! I've been a fool--leave me and goyourself!" she panted out in disjointed sentences that were ringingwith despair.
"Never! We'll get there yet. Gather up your skirts.... Gad! you'redone!" It was his own voice that spoke to her, and for a sudden momenthe had forgotten the part he played in the exigencies of thisdistressing situation. He heard her gasp suddenly, send startled eyes upinto his face, and then sway against him, and realized his folly--toolate. The shock of the thing had unnerved her. In the darkness she couldnot see his face clearly but the voice had been--different. He'd broughtthe whole structure about his ears by one foolish momentary mistake.Then quite suddenly she fainted against him.
"Fool!" he apostrophized himself. "Blind fool!" and, stopping instantly,caught her up in his arms just as the lane hove in sight, and throwingher across his shoulder, took the added burden in his best athleticfashion, and ran.