The Spider and the Fly

But spurred on by his new motive – the thirst for revenge – he obeyed the signal from his master and lowered himself from the window without hesitation.

When Jem had reached the broad window ledge he loosened the rope from his waist, and the captain, feeling it slacken, prepared to descend by it in his turn.

It was a perilous attempt, no doubt. Every step had to be taken with the greatest nicety.

At last, after what seemed a terrible time and amount of exertion, he heard the short, spasmodic breathing of his accomplice, and stretching out one hand he felt about until he touched something.

It was Jem's leg, and so suddenly had the captain clutched it that Jem, whose nerves were strained to their utmost pitch, uttered a sharp cry of alarm.

"Hush," said the captain, sternly. "Quiet, you idiot. It is only I! One such another cry and we are lost. Utter a word and I'll drag you down!"

Then, exerting all his strength, he drew himself up to the ledge, and, panting for breath, seated himself beside his accomplice.

"Phew!" he said. "But that was tough work! Turn on the light."

"It is exactly as I imagined it," muttered the captain; "and made for my purpose." Then, after glancing through into the dusty window for a few minutes, he tried to push the lower sash up.

But the window was locked.

Without a moment's hesitation the captain tied his handkerchief round his hand, quickly broke the pane nearest the fastening, then he inserted his hand and pushed the catch back.

"Now, Jem," said the captain, "drop in carefully, and when you reach the floor remain motionless until I am by your side. Remember not to move a step until you get the word from me. It is of the greatest importance, as you will see."

Very sullenly, and with compressed lips as if he were keeping back his fear and horror with great difficulty, Jem dropped into the room, remaining on the spot which his feet had first touched.

The captain followed his example.

"Now," he said, in a low, firm whisper, "attend to me and pay particular attention. Walk to that bureau in as few steps as possible. You can stride it in three steps. When you reach the bureau stand with your face toward the lock without moving."

Jem nodded, and, lighted by the lantern which the captain held, he strode to the bureau.

The captain followed him, taking care to tread in the same footprints.

"Now," he said, "I will hold the lantern while you try the lock with this bunch of keys. If you can't manage it, it must be picked."

Jem took the bunch and, selecting a skeleton key of the size required, tried it. But the lock was a good one and defied all his efforts.

Then he went on his knees and in a workmanlike manner picked the lock.

Then the captain commenced searching within the bureau.

"I am looking for a secret drawer," he said.

"Why didn't you say so, then?" said Jem. "There it is," and he touched a spring concealed in a part of the beading. "I knows where they are, right enough. All these old-fashioned 'uns is much alike. Why, dang it!" he added, with deep disgust, "it's empty!"

But the captain's smile was anything but one of disappointment.

"So it is, Jem, and suppose we put something in it?"

And as he spoke he took the parchment from his pocket and laid it carefully in the drawer.

Jem stared.

"This is a rum go, capt'n," he said, "to go and take all this 'ere trouble, in risking our necks and a running the chance o' meeting all sorts o' nasty things for the sake of putting a piece of paper in this old concern."

"My good Jem, don't worry yourself about what you cannot understand," retorted the captain. "Now go back, step by step, in the same footprints. Mind, go as slowly as you like, but make no more marks."

Jem obeyed, grumbling and wondering, but he was a little easier when he saw the next step in the captain's movements.

Carefully guarding against stepping into fresh places, he stooped down and shook from his dredger a regular and equal quantity of dust on to the handmarks and footprints which they had made.

Then Jem understood the use of the flour dredger.

Spot by spot the captain pursued his task until he had reached the window, against which Jem leaned, stolidly watching him.

"There," whispered the captain, pointing to the polished floor, which presented an unbroken surface of dust. "If you were obliged to swear that the room had not been entered – that the floor had not been walked across for five years, would you have any objection to say so?"

"Not I, capt'n," retorted Jem, quickly. "Not that that signifies, because I'd swear to anything, but it's right enough. Anybody 'ud say this room hadn't been looked at for years. At least," he added, with a shudder, and in a lower voice, "not by human critturs. There's other sort I have heard don't make no footprints nor no noise, so they don't count."

The captain smiled.

"All right," he said, "I don't care for ghosts, Jem, they only frighten such fools as you. Get up on the sill and shake the dust down on these bare parts."

Jem laid his hand upon the sill and was about to draw himself on to it when he was conscious of a sudden stream of soft blue light in the room.

Without turning round he whispered, warningly:

"Don't turn the light on so full, captain. Somebody might be about and see it at the window."

"What light?" said the captain, who was bending down with his face to the window, powdering the spots from which their feet had removed the dust. "I have turned no light – hah!"

The exclamation which broke the sentence caused Jem to turn his head with a vague sense of alarm.

No sooner had he done so than he fell to the ground in a paroxysm of fear.

There, on his knees, motionless as a statue, and his dark face upturned, was the captain, staring at a misty blue light which seemed growing out of the side of the room.

Jem uttered a groan of dismay and horror as there slipped, or rather floated into the room the dreadful figure which he had seen at the oriel window.

It was the White Nun!

Slowly, and with a floating, gliding motion, the figure advanced.

Then it seemed to see them, for it moved its skull slightly in the direction of the men and stopped.

The captain, shaking off the horrible influence of dread, sprang to his feet.

He was about to advance to the horrid thing, but the blue light suddenly disappeared, the figure glided out of the stream of light flowing from the lantern, and all the captain saw was the fiery eyes and the dull gleam of the white, ghostly drapery.

"Ghost or no ghost," he hissed, "you shall not escape me!" and he sprang forward.

But before he could clutch the apparition it drew back with a gliding motion, and seemed to vanish through the wall.

With a bewildered and daunted air the captain glared around.

The two human beings were once more alone.

White and trembling, the guilty schemer turned to the window and grasped Jem's arm.

"Come," he said, hoarsely. "We've been dreaming."

Without a word, and trembling in every limb, the pair descended one after the other, the captain remaining last, and shudderingly expecting to feel the ghostly hand of bone upon his throat.

But the vision did not appear again, and, exhausted with exertion and horror, the two men stood in their own room staring at each other's white faces.

Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour at which he had retired to rest, the captain was up early in the morning and, with his cheroot in his mouth, strolling round the Park.

Whistling his favorite air, he leaped the old fence which divided the neatly kept rosary of the modern garden from the cold, waste little courtyard of the ruined chapel, and with cautious feet and watchful eyes, entered the broken and crumbling cloisters in the search for more evidence of the apparition which had so startled him on the preceding evening.

Next the cloisters was the chapel, or what remained of it.

The captain stumbled to the middle of it and looked up through its roofless height to the sky above.

In the center of the façade was the large oriel window.

A portion of the old organ-loft clung to it, and was lost on either side in a mass of ruined, moss-covered stone, which was the remains of a flight of stone steps.

"No one but a ghost," muttered the captain, "could walk along there."

With an emphatic exclamation he turned his attention to the wall next the house.

He fancied that he could distinguish the dark outline of a door, but, by the aid of a small opera-glass which he had brought with him, he made out that the ivy had grown over it to such an extent that egress or exit by it was impossible.

He did not believe in ghosts, and yet if the figure he had seen were a human and alive how did it reach the deserted room?

While he pondered a footstep sounded behind him – so suddenly that he turned face to face with Leicester Dodson.

The meeting was so unexpected that both men were, so to speak, off their guard.

For a moment only was the captain's face naked, the next he had resumed his mask, and held out his hand.

"Good-morning; you startled me! This is a place for ghostly meetings, and though the hour is inappropriate, a little surprise is allowable."

All this with a genial smile.

Leicester just touched the hand and nodded.

"I am glad I met you this morning, and so early, Captain Murpoint," he said, in his grave, clear voice, "for I have some unpleasant information for you."

"Indeed!" said the captain, glancing up at his face for a moment, then raising the opera-glass to his eyes. "Indeed, I am sorry for that. Of what nature?"

"It concerns your man," said Leicester. "I found him eavesdropping near the laurels by the terrace last night."

"No!" exclaimed the captain, with a look of shocked indignation. "The villain! I hope you thrashed him."

"Well," said Leicester, "I am sorry to say that I did strike him. I regret it, though I think it may prove a salutary chastisement."

"The villain," said the captain, with grave displeasure. "I will discharge him this morning! I'll pack him off! Drunk or not, he shall go. I could not have a fellow about me whom I could not implicitly trust."

"Well," said Leicester, "you must do as you think fit; yet I hope you will let the man plead his defence. There are two sides to everything."

The captain shook his head angrily.

"No; he shall go, the rogue," he said, and as he spoke he rose, with a light in his eyes which would have proclaimed to any one who knew him that he had scored a point in his game. "No; he shall go, rest assured. I would not keep him for the world after what you have told me. Are you going on to the Park?"

"No," said Leicester, "if you will make my excuses. Good-morning."

"Good-morning," said the captain, and he shook hands impressively, looking after Leicester's tall, stalwart figure as it passed under the ruined arches, with a pleasant smile.

"Oh, yes, he shall go, Mr. Dodson, and all the world shall know that Captain Murpoint discharged his man Jem at the instigation of Mr. Leicester Dodson!"

After breakfast he caught Jem as he was slowly mounting the stairs.

"Go into my room," he whispered.

Jem obeyed, and the captain, following, closed the door.

"Jem," he said, "don't be surprised at anything that happens and remember that I have promised not to throw you over. I am going to discharge you this morning."

Jem started and turned pale.

"Not really, you stupid fellow! only in pretense. Leicester Dodson" – at that name Jem scowled – "Leicester Dodson has made formal complaint and I cannot do anything else but get rid of you. I shall blackguard you well and pack you off before all the servants. Of course you won't leave the village and equally of course I will continue you your salary to enable you to keep there. What you must do is to take a room at the inn – say you are going to enjoy yourself on the savings of your salary."

Half an hour afterward every soul in the village knew that Leicester Dodson had got Mr. Starling discharged from his situation.

CHAPTER XVII

THE LOCKET

It was rather a large party at Coombe Lodge.

There were the Wilsons, the Gileses and several of the county families.

Lord Lackland had been expected, but business kept him in town, and Lord Fitz was at the head of the table.

Next him was an old dowager, but within speaking distance sat Violet, and Lord Fitz's frank face was turned toward her all dinner time.

Ethel and Bertie were separated, as they had expected to be, but Bertie could see the pale, low forehead just above an epergne, and was fain to be content.

Leicester sat with Ethel, and for a while was grave and taciturn; but suddenly he saw Violet look over toward Fitz with a smile and a nod of significant meaning, and in an instant Leicester's jealousy arose, and he brightened up. The nod was only one of affirmation that the day was fine, and Violet, with such a sweet face, could not help looking enticing, but jealousy casts a green shade over everything great and small, and Leicester grew sibilant and fascinating too, murmuring:

"Let her flirt with her boy-lord. I could show the proud, vain girl that there are other women worthy attention beside herself."

And so Ethel was overwhelmed with his attention, his conversation and his wit.

Violet, glancing down the table, saw the pair laughing and talking in that strain, she, misunderstanding, resolved to join in the battle.

When Lord Fitz came with the other gentlemen to the dining-room, it was to find a seat reserved for him beside Violet and her smile of welcome to greet him.

Fitz and she sang together and laughed and talked together the whole evening, and when Mrs. Mildmay's carriage was announced Leicester noticed bitterly that it was Lord Fitz who escorted Violet, while the captain had charge of Mrs. Mildmay.

As usual the captain was in the best of spirits; the homeward journey was as enjoyable for Mrs. Mildmay as the evening which had preceded it.

Violet was asleep, or feigning it, in the corner, so that the captain had Mrs. Mildmay to himself.

"That is an old-fashioned locket," he said, motioning to one, which was suspended by a chain to Mrs. Mildmay's neck.

"Yes," she said, with a sigh; "my brother gave me that when I was a little girl. A very long time ago that, Captain Murpoint!"

"Not very, indeed!" said the captain, with subdued gallantry. "It contains his portrait, I suppose?"

"No, I am sorry to say that it does not. I have no miniature of poor John," she replied, with a sigh. "I would give anything for one painted while he was alive."

"Would you?" said the captain, with a curious earnestness. "Then I think – I hope you are nearer obtaining your desire than you imagine."

"Indeed!" said Mrs. Mildmay; "how so? – Violet, we have awakened you?"

"No, auntie," said Violet, whose eyes had opened and whose face was pale with earnestness and painful interest.

"Some years ago," said the captain, leaning forward and addressing both ladies, but keeping his eyes upon Violet's face, "my dear friend promised that he would have his portrait painted in water-colors so that I might wear it. At that time we were staying at Calcutta. In the market-place there was a wonderful miniature painter – he may be there still, in all probability he is – and dear John commissioned him to paint his portrait. He sat for it two or three times, and the man finished it."

"Was it a good – a truthful portrait?" asked Mrs. Mildmay.

"A wonderful portrait," said the captain. "It was John Mildmay, living and breathing in a miniature, so to speak. He gave it to me on my birthday. I kept it, I wore it on my watch chain for years, until we started for our home voyage. Then he took it from me."

"Why did he do that?" asked Violet, in a faint voice.

"It was in a locket," said the captain, "in a double locket. The space opposite was empty, and my dear friend took the trinket from me, saying that there should be another portrait in it – one fitting to face his. Can you guess whose, my dear madam?"

Mrs. Mildmay glanced at Violet, who had sunk back into her seat.

"Yes," said the captain, expressing a deep tenderness with his voice, "it was hers – his dearly loved child's." And he drew out his pocket handkerchief and hid his eyes for a moment. "I gave him the locket reluctantly, I admit; for I was loth to part with it for so long a time as that required for his voyage home and back again. But I gave it to him, for I was anxious to possess the other portrait, that I might have the face my dear friend loved better than his life next his own."

He paused and sighed deeply.

"From the first moment of my parting with the locket I have regretted it."

"Regretted it – why?" asked Mrs. Mildmay, in a low voice.

"Because, my dear madam, I never saw it again."

Violet's hands clasped tightly, and he went on more quickly:

"No; I see what you dread, but I am not going to harrow your hearts by recalling that great sorrow. No; John returned to me at Madras, and before the first hour had passed I asked him for my treasure. With a look of dismay and a laugh of annoyance he told me that he had forgotten it."

"Forgotten it!" said Mrs. Mildmay, deeply interested.

"Yes, that he had left it at home, at Mildmay Park. I asked him to write for it; but he laughingly assured me that no one could find it."

"Did he not remember where he had put it?" asked Mrs. Mildmay. "For I do hope we shall find it."

"No, he had not forgotten where he had put it, but he assured me that he had placed it where no hand but his could find it."

"And where was that?" asked Mrs. Mildmay.

"In the secret drawer of his writing bureau," replied the captain, in a low voice.

There was a long pause of deep silence.

"He had placed it there," continued the captain, sinking back and looking at Violet with half-closed eyes, "he had placed it there on the day of his arrival in England, and was so taken up with one thing and the other that he had forgotten it. He promised me that he would, on his next visit to England, have the portrait of Violet painted, and bring the locket out to me. But man proposes and Providence disposes. Heaven willed it that he should never see England again."

Violet's hands clasped, and her face grew deadly white.

Oh! how she longed for that miniature.

Captain Murpoint had never hit upon a more brilliant device for gaining his end than that which he determined upon as the lever by which his plot should be raised.

"He never reached England, and I never saw him or the locket again," he resumed, in a low voice. "He, my best – ay, dearest friend, lies at the bottom of the sea, and his portrait is buried in the secret drawer of the old bureau."

"Hush!" said Mrs. Mildmay, as a low, suppressed cry of agony came from Violet's corner.

"You say it is – it is like my father?" she said, "and that he placed it there?"

The captain inclined his head.

"Then – then," she breathed, painfully, "the room must be opened. I – I said," she added, with a shudder, "that it never should be! But if the portrait – his portrait – is there, it must be, for I must have it! I must have it!"

"It is an old bureau," said the captain. "For he assured me that his own hands placed it there. But wait until you are stronger."

"No," said Violet, "I am strong enough. I must have it at once – to-morrow!"

Jem Starling had been commanded to refrain from strong drink and to remain sober, and he had kept sober up to the day upon which the captain, with a slight lapse from his usual foresight, discharged him.

On that day he had aired his grievance among the fishermen, who sympathized with him, and, of course, had aired it in the public house.

There were plenty to stand treat, and Jem had drunk heavily.

At ten o'clock he emerged from the "Blue Lion", leaning upon Willie Sanderson's arm – or rather, supported by it – in that state which might be described as desperately intoxicated.

A small crowd of fishermen were round him, and they were all more or less hilarious or excited.

"Hold up!" said Willie to Jem, who was staggering about upon the big young fisherman's arm. "Hold up!"

"Here," said one of the others, the carrier, old Nat, coming forward, "I'll give you a hand with him. We'll take him down to my cottage and let him sleep there to-night. He's had a rare skinful."

Then he turned to the others and said:

"Willie and me 'ull take care of this chap. You get home quickly. There's work to do to-morrow, you know," he added, significantly.

The boys returned a hearty "Ay, ay," and, after an exchange of mutual and noisy adieus, turned down to their cottages by the beach.

Nat and Willie went straight on down the village street, at the end of which, and a little retired from the road, Nat's cottage lay.

As they passed down the street, with Jem rolling and shouting and singing between them, he saw a gentleman in the starlight, coming along the slope toward them.

It was Leicester, who, disgusted and dissatisfied, had turned out for a walk. He saw the group of three, and was about to pass on without recognizing them, but Willie's figure, stalwart and huge, was too well known to pass unrecognized, and Leicester, with his usual kindness, said, gravely:

"Late to-night, Willie! Good-night."

This was just what the two men dreaded. At the sound of the voice which he hated above all, the drunken man started and threw up his head.

"Who's that?" he snarled, hoarsely, staring before him with thick and bloodshot eyes. "Who's that? That's his voice, I'll swear."

"Come on," said Nat, giving him an angry jerk, "come on, and don't make a fool of yourself, Starling."

"I shan't," said Jem, with an oath. "I will stop and look at him. I'm a dog, I am, but a dog can look at a king – ah, and bite, too. D'ye hear that?" he shouted out to Leicester, who had walked on with the greatest indifference. That same indifference seemed to madden the miserable Jem, and, by a sudden jerk, whose very unexpectedness gave it greater force, he wrenched himself away from his keepers and sprang down the path after Leicester.

Leicester heard him coming, and turned round ready to receive him.

With a snarl Jem sprang at him.

Leicester raised his hand and knocked him down.

The next instant Willie and Nat were down upon him and holding him down where he lay struggling and blaspheming, shouting out oaths and threats.

"You ain't hurt, Mr. Leicester?" asked Willie.

"No," said Leicester. "He has not touched me. There is no harm done, if he has received none."

"Not he," growled Willie, "the fool's drunk."

"So I see," said Leicester. "I am not likely to resent the conduct of a drunken man, but I must and I will defend myself against any attack he may make or any annoyances he may give when he is sober."

"Ay, ay," said Willie. "That is right enough."

"Perhaps you will give him to understand that when he is capable of understanding anything," said Leicester.

"Ay, ay, I will," said Willie.

"Good-night," said Leicester.

"Good-night, Maester Leicester," said the two men, or rather shouted it, for they had to make themselves heard above the mad ravings of their companion.

Leicester, calm and unconcerned, gravely walked on.

The two men exchanged glances as they looked at the dark mark of the last blow upon the drunken man's face and grinned appreciatingly.

Nat, the carrier's cottage was but a little distance from the spot, and they succeeded in getting Jem to bed without farther disturbance of her majesty's peace.

In the morning it was soon over the village that there had been another scene between Mr. Leicester and Jem Starling, and when the man appeared at the "Blue Lion" about noon they expected to hear a second edition of the dreadful threats which had broken the stillness of the preceding night.

But Jem came in silently, with the dark bruise upon his face, and sullenly kept that silence.

And so the day passed, and the little incident had before night sunk into insignificance.

But it was doomed to bear bitter fruit, and that before many weeks should pass.

"I have been thinking," said the captain, as he entered the breakfast-room on the same morning, "that this is the very day for a ride. It is not so hot and there is a delicious little breeze."