The Riddle of the Spinning Wheel Read online

  CHAPTER XVI

  "TENS!"

  "Did you see that, Mr. Narkom? Did you see that?" rapped out Cleekexcitedly, when--a few minutes later--he stepped free from the detainingbushes and beckoned the Superintendent from his hiding-place. "Recognizethe cut of _that_ lady--eh? And notice anything else about her?"

  "Only that she looked like that Lady Paula Duggan who was here a fewminutes ago," rejoined Mr. Narkom breathlessly. "But what had she gotthat black thing over her head for?--sort of veil, wasn't it? Couldn'tsee her face through--and gad! but how lightly she stepped!"

  "Rubber shoes, my dear fellow! Where were your eyes?" snapped Cleek witha hasty exclamation. "Off somewhere where she doesn't want to be seen.I'll swear. And as this courtyard leads out into the backwoods of theplace, to that forest ridge which girts it about, and thence on to theGreat Free Road as it's called, she's meeting someone whom she doesn'twant any one to see--and doesn't want to be discovered in the act,either.... Hello! here's Dollops at last! Just the very chap I waswanting. Here, lad, there's work for you. Run along and track down thatlady in black who is disappearing so rapidly up there by the right-handside of the hedge--and keeping pretty close to it, too, for shelter fromthe watching eye in the household. Gad! lucky thing we came out thisway, Mr. Narkom, and caught her napping. She never thought of _that_, Isuppose. Seems a woman of one idea all through, doesn't she? Thebeautiful, sleepy-eyed cat-creature! I've met her kind before. All purrand softness when she's a friend--and a perfect she-devil when an enemy.Now, then, Dollops, your legs are nimble, so slip up after her, butdon't on any account let her know you're doing it. And I'll follow in amoment or two. But don't let her get away without discovering whereshe's going to. Mr. Narkom, you wait here, will you, and keep watch incase she returns, or any one else in the know follows after, while I nipup to the lady's boudoir, and enquire where she has gone to. I'll dareswear she's 'lying down with a headache and has given orders not to bedisturbed.'"

  And his imaginings proved to be correct, for that was exactly the case.For Miss McCall, encountered in the outer passage from her lady's room,with coat and hat on, and pulling on a pair of neatly darned cottongloves, met him, blushed like the timid little thing she was, andanswered him in all faith that what she spoke was true.

  "Lady Paula? I believe she's lying down, Mr. Deland. She told me on noaccount to disturb her and to let everyone else know that she wished acouple of hours' quiet," she said in her soft, gentle voice, lifting hertimid eyes to his face. "It's been a shock, I suppose"--her face andvoice hardened--"but she'll get over it--as she gets over everythingelse that happens to worry her. She said she'd be down for tea, however;and Master Cyril has gone off with Mr. Duggan and his fiancee for a walkround the laboratory. It's--it's all very sad, Mr. Deland, isn't it?"

  "Very," rejoined Cleek. "Very sad, indeed. For a house divided againstitself, Miss McCall--you know the rest of the biblical quotation. AndI'm afraid that is exactly what will happen in this case.... Oh, well,lying down, is she? Then I won't disturb her. Going out?"

  "Yes. Just along to Mr. Tavish's cottage, at the bottom of the drive,"she responded a trifle drearily. "Mr. Tavish and I, you know,are--engaged. I have tea with him sometimes, and try to do some of hismending. It's hard for a man to live alone, as he does."

  "Indeed it is. Engaged? Then may I offer you my congratulations, MissMcCall? I won't detain you any longer, as I know you must be anxious toget along. A little freedom in the fresh air will do you good. We shallmeet again later, I've no doubt. Good-bye."

  She nodded to him brightly and disappeared down the hill, and Cleekcould hear her soft feet beating upon the carpet as she passed down thestairs.

  Once out of sight of her, he darted into the room which he knew was LadyPaula's, and closed the door softly behind him, turning the key in thelock. It was just the sort of boudoir he would have imagined herchoosing--a place all soft pillows and low divans, and hung in silks ofEastern colourings, so that it resembled nothing so much as the home ofa sultan's favourite, from the low Turkish stool standing by thecouch-side, with the little filigree box of cigarettes upon it,accompanied by a match-case _en suite_, to a tiny jewelled inlaid holderbearing a half-smoked cigarette in it. Cleek picked it up, smelt it,smelt it again, and then pursed his lips up into a low whistle ofastonishment.

  "My lady indulges in a delicate drug now and again, does she?" he toldhimself, examining the thing with some distaste. "And for that reasonone may find excuse for the hysteria of this morning. That lends freshcolour to the case, certainly. For a drug-fiend in plain parlance islittle more than a fool, and a half-balanced fool at that.... I'll takea peep at those drawers in that secretaire, my lady, and see if you haveanything to reveal to me. For an _ambitious_ drug-fiend would stop atnothing to gain her own ends, and if those same ends should happen to besuch a heritage as _this_ for her son and herself.... Hello! what'sthis? Tablets, eh? But the bottle unmarked."

  He drew one out of the little phial and laid it in the palm of his hand,and with the other thumb as piston, ground it down to fine powder andthen, sniffed it, recollecting that story which Maud Duggan had told himof her suspicions with regard to the poisoning of her father. But afterhe had touched the tip of his tongue to it, he smiled a little.

  "H'm. Nothing but aspirin. I thought as much, certainly, when she toldme the story. So that explodes _that_ little theory once and for all--ifthere was anything in it from the beginning.... Nicely appointedchamber, I must say." He walked leisurely about it, lifting a pillowthere, and dropping it back into its place, and straightening the set ofa chair, pushed out of its usual position by a very obvious hurry of theroom's occupant.

  And he was just in the act of doing this trivial thing when he came upona little screw of paper lying in a twisted ball beneath a chair whichstood close up to the Turkish stool, and evidently dropped by accident(which undoubtedly was the fact). Cleek stooped to pick it up, smoothedit out in his fingers, and then of a sudden sucked in his breath, andevery muscle in that well-organized frame of his went taut as iron. Forthe paper--innocent as it looked--contained news which certainly wasenough to startle the most unsuspicious police-constable in existence.For, written across its surface, having neither name nor address nordate, and in a calligraphy which was undoubtedly foreign, were thewords:

  Meet me at three o'clock by the G. F. Road. Everything successfully carried out. Muffled clapper. Must see you. Utmost importance.

  A. M.

  "Hello! Hello!" rapped out Cleek in the sharp staccato of excitement."Then she _did_ have something to do with it, after all, did she? Gad! adollar to a ducat that there's someone else in this affair whom we'venever even hit upon yet! What a bit of luck Dollops turned up at thatmoment--when _she_ was just on the way! Let's see--what's the time?Three o'clock. Gad! I'll nip along myself, and come in at the finish,and hear what I can hear from the good lady's lips herself, and see whothe dickens it is who's meeting her. There's more in this than meets theeye, Cleek my boy, and don't you forget it!"

  Following the direction shown him by Mr. Narkom (who was still standinglike a monument of Patience in the little shrubbery where they had firstcaught sight of her wandering ladyship), Cleek pelted off in thedirection of the woods, every faculty alert, and in the hastily donnedrubber-soled shoes proving himself a silent if a fleet-footed pursuer.

  But he was doomed to disappointment upon his quest. For halfway towardthe Great Free Road as that portion of the country was called, through abelt of thick trees which entirely hid the landscape from view, he metDollops, looking disconsolately upon the ground, hands in pockets andface dejected, and cannoned into him as they came abreast of each other.

  Dollops's face went crimson at sight of Cleek, and then paled offsuddenly. His voice was tragic in the extreme.

  "Missed 'er, Guv'nor!" he declared laconically. "Missed 'er for thefirst time in all my existence upon this 'ere plannit! Give me the slip,strite she did, but _'ow_, is a question as 'as fair diddled me. Ifollered 'er
up to 'ere as good as you please, and then of a suddint'eard voices to the left of me, did a bunk after 'em, as I knowed you'dwish me to, sir, and--that there she-devil 'ad disappeared as smooth asyou please! A fair ghost she were, Guv'nor, strite--an' if she ain't thePeasant Girl wot 'aunts these parts, then I'm a Dutchman!"

  But Cleek had not the heart to smile at the boy's excited preamble. Hewas too disappointed at losing his quarry so easily when this new thinghad been thrust right into his hands in this fashion, and the chance ofelucidating the mystery so incredibly easy--judging by the crumplednote in his breast-pocket. Another such opportunity would never occuragain--one could not hope for things to happen in duplicate.

  "Dollops! Dollops!" he exclaimed, with a shake of the head. "Where isyour training in Apache quarters gone to, I'd like to know? Letting amere woman elude you, as though she had been Margot, Queen of theApaches, herself. And doing the ventriloquial trick so successfully uponyou, too! And at the very crux of the case, just when I'd found the clueof all others which was likely to establish the truth of the wholeappalling affair! I'm disappointed. But it can't be helped, so put awayyour crestfallen countenance, and come back to the house with me. We'llhave to wait until evening now, and see what comes to pass to-night. Didthe lady actually see you by any chance?"

  "Don't know, sir." Dollops's voice was dejected. "Suppose she must 'erdone, by the way she slipped the leash on me, so ter speak. Why, sir?"

  "Because, my young jackanapes, if that is the case, the scarcer you makeyourself the better," returned Cleek rapidly. "For it's no use yourallying yourself to me in her ladyship's presence, for the fat would bein the fire with a vengeance. And now, about that other affair.... Youdid what I told you? And what did your bit of private 'detecting' bringforth, may I ask?"

  For a second Dollops's glum face lit up, and his eyes shone. Here atleast he had found something with which actually to help. There was ahint of triumph in his tones.

  "Got 'em 'id in the shrubs, sir," he returned enthusiastically. "Done upin brahn paper, they are, and ready for examination on sight. 'Untin'boots, Mr. Cleek, sir--gent's 'untin'-boots, and that thick wiv mud aster look like blessed gardings too. Fit fer growin' a crop of taties in,I swear, sir. An' fahnd 'em 'idden in a bush er laurels as large aslife."

  "Whew! Is that all, then? Nothing under-ground?"

  "No, sir. Not a blinkin' thing."

  "Um. Pity. You must show me the hunting-boots, Dollops; they may prove aclue--though just how they would be connected with this particular caseremains to be seen. Very muddy, eh? Any name inside?"

  Dollops nodded.

  He looked hastily from side to side to see that no one was listening.Then he bent toward Cleek with a mysterious manner and spoke in a batedvoice.

  "Yessir. Belongs to a gen'leman as is sweet on the young leddy we comealong wiv yesterday from Lunnon," he replied weightily. "Or so they tellme up at the Three Fishers. Name of Macdonald--Captain Angus Macdonald.Writ inside 'em as large as life and twice as nat'ril. Eh?--wot's thematter, sir?"

  For Cleek had whirled about suddenly and struck his hands together, andwas laughing, laughing like a man gone suddenly daft. He stoppedabruptly and put one hand upon Dollops's shoulder.

  "Matter?" he said rapidly. "Why, simply this: Get a line on this youngCaptain's handwriting, Dollops, and report to me this afternoon. And ifit tallies with this note, as I somehow fancy it does--well, we'll seethe fur fly so quickly that you won't be able to say Jack Robinson.Happen to notice the size of the boots, by any chance?"

  "Yessir. Tens."

  "Good lad. And the footprints outside of the window in that littlecourtyard are tens, too! The net's closing in upon you, my gallantfriend, and you won't get a chance to do much more spluttering andexclaiming before I've found out what your little move in thisInheritance Game is, and--nipped it in the bud!... Gad!--Captain AngusMacdonald! And--tens!... Now, who the dickens would have thought it?"