The Mystery of Cloomber Page 10

  CHAPTER X. OF THE LETTER WHICH CAME FROM THE HALL

  Having thrown this side-light upon my narrative, I can now resume thestatement of my own personal experiences. These I had brought down, asthe reader will doubtless remember, to the date of the arrival of thesavage-looking wanderer who called himself Corporal Rufus Smith. Thisincident occurred about the beginning of the month of October, and Ifind upon a comparison of dates that Dr. Easterling's visit to Cloomberpreceded it by three weeks or more.

  During all this time I was in sore distress of mind, for I had neverseen anything either of Gabriel or of her brother since the interviewin which the general had discovered the communication which was kept upbetween us. I had no doubt that some sort of restraint had been placedupon them; and the thought that we had brought trouble on their headswas a bitter one both to my sister and myself.

  Our anxiety, however, was considerably mitigated by the receipt, acouple of days after my last talk with the general, of a note fromMordaunt Heatherstone. This was brought us by a little, ragged urchin,the son of one of the fishermen, who informed us that it had been handedto him at the avenue gate by an old woman--who, I expect, must have beenthe Cloomber cook.

  "MY DEAREST FRIENDS," it ran, "Gabriel and I have grieved to think howconcerned you must be at having neither heard from nor seen us. The factis that we are compelled to remain in the house. And this compulsion isnot physical but moral.

  "Our poor father, who gets more and more nervous every day, hasentreated us to promise him that we will not go out until after thefifth of October, and to allay his fears we have given him the desiredpledge. On the other hand, he has promised us that after the fifth--thatis, in less than a week--we shall be as free as air to come or go as weplease, so we have something to look forward to.

  "Gabriel says that she has explained to you that the governor is alwaysa changed man after this particular date, on which his fears reach acrisis. He apparently has more reason than usual this year to anticipatethat trouble is brewing for this unfortunate family, for I have neverknown him to take so many elaborate precautions or appear so thoroughlyunnerved. Who would ever think, to see his bent form and his shakinghands, that he is the same man who used some few short years ago toshoot tigers on foot among the jungles of the Terai, and would laugh atthe more timid sportsmen who sought the protection of their elephant'showdah?

  "You know that he has the Victoria Cross, which he won in the streetsof Delhi, and yet here he is shivering with terror and starting at everynoise, in the most peaceful corner of the world. Oh, the pity of it.West! Remember what I have already told you--that it is no fanciful orimaginary peril, but one which we have every reason to suppose to bemost real. It is, however, of such a nature that it can neither beaverted nor can it profitably be expressed in words. If all goes well,you will see us at Branksome on the sixth.

  "With our fondest love to both of you, I am ever, my dear friends, yourattached

  "MORDAUNT."

  This letter was a great relief to us as letting us know that the brotherand sister were under no physical restraint, but our powerlessness andinability even to comprehend what the danger was which threatened thosewhom we had come to love better than ourselves was little short ofmaddening.

  Fifty times a day we asked ourselves and asked each other from whatpossible quarter this peril was to be expected, but the more we thoughtof it the more hopeless did any solution appear.

  In vain we combined our experiences and pieced together every wordwhich had fallen from the lips of any inmate of Cloomber which might besupposed to bear directly or indirectly upon the subject.

  At last, weary with fruitless speculation, we were fain to try to drivethe matter from our thoughts, consoling ourselves with the reflectionthat in a few more days all restrictions would be removed, and we shouldbe able to learn from our friends' own lips.

  Those few intervening days, however, would, we feared, be dreary, longones. And so they would have been, had it not been for a new and mostunexpected incident, which diverted our minds from our own troubles andgave them something fresh with which to occupy themselves.