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CHAPTER LXI
IN WANT OF HELP
"Drowned? No! Dead before she ever went under the water. Murdered, beyond the shadow of a doubt."
It is Captain Ryecroft who thus emphatically affirms. And to himself, being alone, within his room in the Wyeside Hotel; for he is still in Herefordshire.
More in conjecture, he proceeds, —
"They first smothered, I suppose, or in some way rendered her insensible; then carried her to the place and dropped her in, leaving the water to complete their diabolical work? A double death, as it were; though she may not have suffered its agonies twice. Poor girl! I hope not."
In prosecuting the inquiry to which he has devoted himself, beyond certain unavoidable communications with Jack Wingate, he has not taken any one into his confidence. This partly from having no intimate acquaintances in the neighbourhood, but more because he fears the betrayal of his purpose. It is not ripe for public exposure, far less bringing before a court of justice. Indeed, he could not yet shape an accusation against any one, all that he has learnt now serving only to satisfy him that his original suspicions were correct; which it has done, as shown by his soliloquy.
He has since made a second boat excursion down the bye-channel – made it in the daytime, to assure himself there was no mistake in his observations under the light of the lamp. It was for this he had bespoken Wingate's skiff for the following day; for certain reasons reaching Llangorren at the earliest hour of dawn. There and then to see what surprised him quite as much as the unexpected discovery of the night before – a grand breakage from the brow of the cliff; but not any more misleading him. If the first "sign" observed there failed to blind him, so does that which has obliterated it. No natural rock-slide, was the conclusion he came to, soon as setting eyes upon it; but the work of human hands! And within the hour, as he could see by the clods of loosened earth still dropping down and making muddy the water underneath; while bubbles were ascending from the detached boulder lying invisible below!
Had he been there only a few minutes earlier, himself invisible, he would have seen a man upon the cliff's crest, busy with a crowbar, levering the rock from its bed, and tilting it over – then carefully removing the marks of the iron implement, as also his own footprints!
The man saw him through the blue-grey dawn, in his skiff, coming down the river; just as on the preceding night under the light of the moon. For he thus early astir and occupied in a task as that of Sysiphus, was no other than Father Rogier.
The priest had barely time to retreat and conceal himself, as the boat drew down to the eyot – not this time crouching among the ferns, but behind some evergreens, at a farther and safer distance. Still, near enough for him to observe the other's look of blank astonishment on beholding the debâcle, and note the expression change to one of significant intelligence as he continued gazing at it.
"Un limier veritable!" A hound that has scented blood, and's determined to follow it up, till he find the body whence it flowed. Aha! The game must be got out of his way. Llangorren will have to change owners once again, and the sooner, the better.
At the very moment these thoughts were passing through the mind of Gregoire Rogier, the "veritable bloodhound" was mentally repeating the same words he had used on the night before: "No accident – no suicide – murdered!" adding, as his eyes ranged over the surface of red sandstone, so altered in appearance, "This makes me all the more sure of it. Miserable trick! Not much Mr. Lewin Murdock will gain by it."
So thought he then. But now, days after, though still believing Murdock to be the murderer, he thinks differently about the "trick." For the evidence afforded by the former traces, though slight, and pointing to no one in particular, was, nevertheless, a substantial indication of guilt against somebody; and these being blotted out, there is but his own testimony of their having ever existed. Though himself convinced that Gwendoline Wynn has been assassinated, he cannot see his way to convince others – much less a legal tribunal. He is still far from being in a position openly to accuse, or even name the criminals who ought to be arraigned.
He now knows there are more than one, or so supposes, still believing that Murdock has been the principal actor in the tragedy; though others besides have borne part in it.
"The man's wife must know all about it," he says, going on in conjectural chain; "and that French priest – he probably the instigator of it. Ay! possibly had a hand in the deed itself. There have been such cases recorded – many of them. Exercising great authority at Llangorren – as Jack has learned from his friend Joe – there commanding everybody and everything! And the fellow Dempsey – poacher, and what not – he, too, become an important personage about the place! Why all this? Only intelligible on the supposition that they have had to do with a death by which they have been all benefited. Yes; all four, acting conjointly, have brought it about!
"And how am I to bring it home to them? 'Twill be difficult indeed, if at all possible. Even that slight sign destroyed has increased the difficulty.
"No use taking the 'great unpaid' into my confidence, nor yet the sharper stipendiaries. To submit my plans to either magistrate or policeman might be but to defeat them. 'Twould only raise a hue and cry, putting the guilty ones on their guard. That isn't the way – will not do!
"And yet I must have some one to assist me; for there is truth in the old saw, 'Two heads better than one,' Wingate is good enough in his way, and willing, but he can't help me in mine. I want a man of my own class; one who – Stay! George Shenstone? No! The young fellow is true as steel and brave as a lion, but – well, lacking brains. I could trust his heart, not his head. Where is he who has both to be relied upon? Ha! Mahon! The man – the very man! Experienced in the world's wickedness, courageous, cool – except when he gets his Irish blood up against the Sassenachs – above all, devoted to me, as I know; he has never forgotten that little service I did him at Delhi. And he has nothing to do – plenty of time at his disposal. Yes; the Major's my man!
"Shall I write and ask him to come over here. On second thoughts, no! Better for me to go thither; see him first, and explain all the circumstances. To Boulogne and back's but a matter of forty-eight hours, and a day or two can't make much difference in an affair like this. The scent's cold as it can be, and may be taken up weeks hence 's well as now. If we ever succeed in finding evidence of their guilt, it will, no doubt, be mainly of the circumstantial sort; and much will depend on the character of the individuals accused. Now I think of it, something may be learnt about it in Boulogne itself; or, at all events, of the priest. Since I've had a good look at his forbidding face, I feel certain it's the same I saw inside the doorway of that convent. If not, there are two of the sacerdotal tribe so like, it would be a toss up which is one and which t'other.
"In any case, there can be no harm in my making a scout across to Boulogne, and instituting inquiries about him. Mahon's sister being at school in the establishment will enable us to ascertain whether a priest named Rogier holds relations with it, and we may learn something of the repute he bears. Perchance, also, a trifle concerning Mr. and Mrs. Lewin Murdock. It appears that both husband and wife are well known at Homburg, Baden, and other like resorts. Gaming, if not game, birds, in some of their migratory flights they have made short sojourn at the French seaport, to get their hands in for those grander hells beyond. I'll go over to Boulogne!"
A knock at the door. On the permission to enter, called out, a hotel porter presents himself.
"Well?"
"Your waterman, sir, Wingate, says he'd like to see you, if convenient?"
"Tell him to step up!"
"What can Jack be coming after? Anyhow, I'm glad he has come. 'Twill save me the trouble of sending for him, as I'd better settle his account before starting off." [Jack has a new score against the Captain for boat hire, his services having been retained, exclusively, for some length of time past.] "Besides, there's something I wish to say – a long chapter of instructions to leave with him. Come in, Jack!"
This, as a shuffling in the corridor outside tells that the waterman is wiping his feet on the door-mat.
The door opening, displays him; but with an expression on his countenance very different from that of a man coming to dun for wages due. More like one entering to announce a death, or some event which greatly agitates him.
"What is it?" asks the Captain, observing his distraught manner.
"Somethin' queer, sir; very queer indeed."
"Ah! Let me hear it!" demands Ryecroft, with an air of eagerness, thinking it relates to himself and the matter engrossing his mind.
"I will, Captain. But it'll take time in the tellin'."
"Take as much as you like. I'm at your service. Be seated."
Jack clutches hold of a chair, and draws it up close to where the Captain is sitting – by a table. Then glancing over his shoulder, and all round the room, to assure himself there is no one within earshot, he says, in a grave, solemn voice, —
"I do believe, Captain, she be still alive!"
CHAPTER LXII
STILL ALIVE
Impossible to depict the expression on Vivian Ryecroft's face, as the words of the waterman fall upon his ear. It is more than surprise – more than astonishment – intensely interrogative, as though some secret hope once entertained, but long gone out of his heart, had suddenly returned to it.
"Still alive!" he exclaims, springing to his feet, and almost upsetting the table. "Alive!" he mechanically repeats. "What do you mean, Wingate? And who?"
"My poor girl, Captain. You know."
"His girl – not mine! Mary Morgan – not Gwendoline Wynn!" reflects Ryecroft within himself, dropping back upon his chair as one stunned by a blow.
"I'm almost sure she be still livin'," continues the waterman, in wonder at the emotion his words have called up, though little suspecting why.
Controlling it, the other asks, with diminished interest, still earnestly, —
"What leads you to think that way, Wingate? Have you a reason?"
"Yes, have I; more'n one. It's about that I ha' come to consult ye."
"You've come to astonish me! But proceed!"
"Well, sir, as I ha' sayed, it'll take a good bit o' tellin', and a lot o' explanation beside. But since ye've signified I'm free to your time, I'll try and make the story short's I can."
"Don't curtail it in any way. I wish to hear all!"
The waterman thus allowed latitude, launches forth into a full account of his own life – those chapters of it relating to his courtship of, and betrothal to, Mary Morgan. He tells of the opposition made by her mother, the rivalry of Coracle Dick, and the sinister interference of Father Rogier. In addition, the details of that meeting of the lovers under the elm – their last – and the sad episode soon after succeeding.
Something of all this Ryecroft has heard before, and part of it suspected. What he now hears new to him is the account of a scene in the farmhouse of Abergann, while Mary Morgan lay in the chamber of death, with a series of incidents that came under the observation of her sorrowing lover. The first, his seeing a shroud being made by the girl's mother, white, with a red cross, and the initial letters of her name braided over the breast: the same soon afterwards appearing upon the corpse. Then the strange behaviour of Father Rogier on the day of the funeral; the look with which he stood regarding the girl's face as she lay in her coffin; his abrupt exit out of the room; as afterwards his hurried departure from the side of the grave before it was finally closed up – a haste noticed by others as well as Jack Wingate.
"But what do you make of all that?" asks Ryecroft, the narrator having paused to gather himself for other and still stranger revelations. "How can it give you a belief in the girl being still alive? Quite its contrary, I should say."
"Stay, Captain! There be more to come."
The Captain does stay, listening on. To hear the story of the planted and plucked up flower; of another and later visit made by Wingate to the cemetery in daylight, then seeing what led him to suspect, that not only had the plant been destroyed, but all the turf on the grave disturbed! He speaks of his astonishment at this, with his perplexity. Then goes on to give account of the evening spent with Joseph Preece in his new home; of the waifs and strays there shown him; the counterfeit coins, burglars' tools, and finally the shroud – that grim remembrancer, which he recognised at sight!
His narrative concludes with his action taken after, assisted by the old boatman.
"Last night," he says, proceeding with the relation, "or I ought to say the same mornin' – for 'twar after midnight hour – Joe an' myself took the skiff, an' stole up to the chapel graveyard, where we opened her grave, an' foun' the coffin empty! Now, Captain, what do ye think o' the whole thing?"
"On my word, I hardly know what to think of it. Mystery seems the measure of the time! This you tell me of is strange – if not stranger than any! What are your own thoughts about it, Jack?"
"Well, as I've already sayed, my thoughts be, an' my hopes, that Mary's still in the land o' the livin'."
"I hope she is."
The tone of Ryecroft's rejoinder tells of his incredulity, further manifested by his questions following.
"But you saw her in her coffin? Waked for two days, as I understood you; then laid in her grave? How could she have lived throughout all that? Surely she was dead!"
"So I thought at the time, but don't now."
"My good fellow, I fear you are deceiving yourself. I'm sorry having to think so. Why the body has been taken up again is of itself a sufficient puzzle; but alive – that seems physically impossible!"
"Well, Captain, it's just about the possibility of the thing I come to ask your opinion; thinkin' ye'd be acquainted wi' the article itself."
"What article?"
"The new medicine; it as go by the name o' chloryform."
"Ha! you have a suspicion – "
"That she ha' been chloryformed, an' so kep' asleep – to be waked up when they wanted her. I've heerd say they can do such things."
"But then she was drowned also? Fell from a foot plank, you told me? And was in the water some time?"
"I don't believe it, a bit. It be true enough she got somehow into the water, an' wor took out insensible, or rather drifted out o' herself, on the bank just below, at the mouth o' the brook. But that wor short after, an' she might still ha' ben alive notwithstandin'. My notion be, that the priest had first put the chloryform into her, or did it then, an' knew all along she warn't dead, nohow."
"My dear Jack, the thing cannot be possible. Even if it were, you seem to forget that her mother, father – all of them – must have been cognizant of these facts – if facts?"
"I don't forget it, Captain. 'Stead, I believe they all wor cognizant o' them – leastways, the mother."
"But why should she assist in such a dangerous deception – at risk of her daughter's life?"
"That's easy answered. She did it partly o' herself; but more at the biddin' o' the priest, whom she daren't disobey – the weak-minded creature, most o' her time given up to sayin' prayers and paternosters. They all knowed the girl loved me, and wor sure to be my wife, whatever they might say or do against it. Wi' her willin', I could a' defied the whole lot o' them. Bein' aware o' that, their only chance wor to get her out o' my way by some trick – as they ha' indeed got her. Ye may think it strange their takin' all that trouble; but if ye'd seen her, ye wouldn't. There worn't on all Wyeside so good-lookin' a girl!"
Ryecroft again looks incredulous; not smilingly, but with a sad cast of countenance.
Despite its improbability, however, he begins to think there may be some truth in what the waterman says – Jack's earnest convictions sympathetically impressing him.
"And supposing her to be alive," he asks, "where do you think she is now? Have you any idea?"
"I have – leastways, a notion."
"Where?"
"Over the water – in France – the town o' Bolone."
"Boulogne!" exclaims the Captain, with a start. "What makes you suppose she is there?"
"Something, sir, I han't yet spoke to ye about. I'd a'most forgot the thing, an' might never ha' thought o't again, but for what ha' happened since. Ye'll remember the night we come up from the ball, my tellin' ye I had an engagement the next day to take the young Powells down the river?"
"I remember it perfectly."
"Well, I took them, as agreed; an' that day we went down's fur's Chepstow. But they wor bound for the Severn side a duck-shootin'; and next mornin' we started early, afore daybreak. As we were passin' the wharf below Chepstow Bridge, where there wor several craft lyin' in, I noticed one sloop-rigged ridin' at anchor a bit out from the rest, as if about clearin' to put to sea. By the light o' a lamp as hung over the taffrail, I read the name on her starn, showin' she wor French, an' belonged to Bolone. I shouldn't ha' thought than anythin' odd, as there be many foreign craft o' the smaller kind puts in at Chepstow. But what did appear odd, an' gied me a start too, wor my seein' a boat by the sloop's side wi' a man in it, who I could a'most sweared wor the Rogue's Ferry priest. There wor others in the boat besides, an' they appeared to be gettin' some sort o' bundle out o' it, an' takin' it up the man-ropes, aboard o' the sloop. But I didn't see anymore, as we soon passed out o' sight, goin' on down. Now, Captain, it's my firm belief that man must ha' been the priest, and that thing I supposed to be a bundle o' marchandise, neyther more nor less than the body o' Mary Morgan – not dead, but livin'!"
"You astound me, Wingate! Certainly a most singular circumstance! Coincidence too! Boulogne – Boulogne!"
"Yes, Captain; by the letterin' on her starn the sloop must ha' belonged there; an' I'm goin' there myself."
"I too, Jack! We shall go together!"
CHAPTER LXIII
A STRANGE FATHER CONFESSOR
"He's gone away – given it up! Be glad, madame!"
Father Rogier so speaks on entering the drawing-room of Llangorren Court, where Mrs. Murdock is seated.
"What, Gregoire?" (Were her husband present, it would be "Père"; but she is alone.) "Who's gone away? And why am I to rejoice?"
"Le Capitaine."
"Ha!" she ejaculates, with a pleased look, showing that the two words have answered all her questions in one.
"Are you sure of it? The news seems too good for truth."
"It's true, nevertheless; so far as his having gone away. Whether to stay away is another matter. We must hope he will."
"I hope it with all my heart."
"And well you may, madame; as I myself. We had more to fear from that chien de chasse than all the rest of the pack – ay, have still, unless he's found the scent too cold, and in despair abandoned the pursuit; which I fancy he has, thrown off by that little rock slide. A lucky chance my having caught him at his reconnaisance; and rather a clever bit of strategy so to baffle him! Wasn't it, chèrie?"
"Superb! The whole thing from beginning to end! You've proved yourself a wonderful man, Gregoire Rogier."
"And I hope worthy of Olympe Renault?"
"You have."
"Merci! So far that's satisfactory; and your slave feels he has not been toiling in vain. But there's a good deal more to be done before we can take our ship safe into port. And it must be done quickly, too. I pine to cast off this priestly garb – in which I've been so long miserably masquerading – and enter into the real enjoyments of life. But there's another, and more potent reason, for using despatch; breakers around us, on which we may be wrecked, ruined any day, any hour. Le Capitaine Ryecroft was not, or is not, the only one."
"Richard —le braconnier– you're thinking of?"
"No, no, no! Of him we needn't have the slightest fear. I hold his lips sealed, by a rope around his neck; whose noose I can draw tight at the shortest notice. I am far more apprehensive of Monsieur, votre mari!"
"In what way?"
"More than one; but for one, his tongue. There's no knowing what a drunken man may do or say in his cups; and Monsieur Murdock is hardly ever out of them. Suppose he gets to babbling, and lets drop something about – well, I needn't say what. There's still suspicion abroad – plenty of it, – and, like a spark applied to tinder, a word would set it ablaze."
"C'est vrai!"
"Fortunately, Mademoiselle had no very near relatives of the male sex, nor any one much interested in her fate, save the fiancé and the other lover – the rustic and rejected one – Shenstone fils. Of him we need take no account. Even if suspicious, he hasn't the craft to unravel a clue so cunningly rolled as ours; and for the ancien hussard, let us hope he has yielded to despair, and gone back whence he came. Luck, too, in his having no intimacies here, or, I believe, anywhere in the shire of Hereford. Had it been otherwise, we might not so easily have got disembarrassed of him."
"And you do think he has gone for good?"
"I do; at least, it would seem so. On his second return to the hotel – in haste as it was – he had little luggage; and that he has all taken away with him. So I learnt from one of the hotel people, who professes our faith. Further, at the railway station, that he took ticket for London. Of course that means nothing. He may be en route for anywhere beyond – round the globe, if he feel inclined for circumnavigation. And I shall be delighted if he do."
He would not be much delighted had he heard at the railway station of what actually occurred – that in getting his ticket Captain Ryecroft had inquired whether he could not be booked through for Boulogne. Still less might Father Rogier have felt gratification to know, that there were two tickets taken for London; a first-class for the Captain himself, and a second for the waterman Wingate – travelling together, though in separate carriages, as befitted their different rank in life.
Having heard nothing of this, the sham priest – as he has now acknowledged himself – is jubilant at the thought that another hostile pawn in the game he has been so skilfully playing has disappeared from the chess-board. In short, all have been knocked over, queen, bishops, knights, and castles. Alone the king stands, he tottering; for Lewin Murdock is fast drinking himself to death. It is of him the priest speaks as king, —
"Has he signed the will?"
"Oui."
"When?"
"This morning, before he went out. The lawyer who drew it up came, with his clerk to witness – "
"I know all that," interrupts the priest, "as I should, having sent them. Let me have a look at the document. You have it in the house, I hope?"
"In my hand," she answers, diving into a drawer of the table by which she sits, and drawing forth a folded sheet of parchment: "Le voilà!"
She spreads it out, not to read what is written upon it – only to look at the signatures, and see they are right. Well knows he every word of that will, he himself having dictated it. A testament made by Lewin Murdock, which, at his death, leaves the Llangorren estate – as sole owner and last in tail he having the right so to dispose of it – to his wife Olympe —née Renault – for her life; then to his children, should there be any surviving; failing such, to Gregoire Rogier, Priest of the Roman Catholic Church; and in the event of his demise preceding that of the other heirs hereinbefore mentioned, the estate, or what remains of it, to become the property of the Convent of – , Boulogne-sur-mer, France.
"For that last clause, which is yours, Gregoire, the nuns of Boulogne should be grateful to you; or at all events, the abbess, Lady Superior, or whatever she's called."
"So she will," he rejoins, with a dry laugh, "when she gets the property so conveyed. Unfortunately for her, the reversion is rather distant, and having to pass through so many hands, there may be no great deal left of it, on coming into hers. Nay!" he adds, in exclamation, his jocular tone suddenly changing to the serious, "if some step be not taken to put a stop to what's going on, there won't be much of the Llangorren estate left for any one – not even for yourself, madame. Under the fingers of Monsieur, with the cards in them, it's being melted down as snow on the sunny side of a hill. Even at this self-same moment it may be going off in large slices – avalanches!"
"Mon Dieu!" she exclaims, with an alarmed air, quite comprehending the danger thus figuratively portrayed.
"I wouldn't be surprised," he continues, "if to-day he were made a thousand pounds the poorer. When I left the ferry, he was in the Welsh Harp, as I was told, tossing sovereigns upon its bar counter, 'Heads and tails, who wins?' Not he, you may be sure. No doubt he's now at a gaming-table inside, engaged with that gang of sharpers who have lately got around him, staking large sums on every turn of the cards – Jews' eyes, ponies, and monkeys, as these chevaliers d'industrie facetiously term their money. If we don't bring all this to a termination, that you will have in your hand won't be worth the price of the parchment it's written upon. Comprenez-vous, chèrie?"
"Parfaitement! But how is it to be brought to a termination. For myself, I haven't an idea. Has any occurred to you, Gregoire?"
As the ex-courtesan asks the question, she leans across the little table, and looks the false priest straight in the face. He knows the bent of her inquiry, told it by the tone and manner in which it has been put – both significant of something more than the words might otherwise convey. Still, he does not answer it directly. Even between these two fiends in human form, despite their mutual understanding of each other's wickedness, and the little reason either has for concealing it, there is a sort of intuitive reticence upon the matter which is in the minds of both. For it is murder – the murder of Lewin Murdock!
"Le pauvre homme!" ejaculates the man, with a pretence at compassionating, under the circumstances ludicrous. "The cognac is killin' him, not by inches, but ells; and I don't believe he can last much longer. It seems but a question of weeks; may be only days. Thanks to the school in which I was trained, I have sufficient medical knowledge to prognosticate that."
A gleam as of delight passes over the face of the woman – an expression almost demoniacal; for it is a wife hearing this about her husband!
"You think only days?" she asks, with an eagerness as if apprehensive about that husband's health. But the tone tells different, as the hungry look in her eye while awaiting the answer. Both proclaim she wishes it in the affirmative; as it is.
"Only days!" he says, as if his voice were an echo. "Still, days count in a thing of this kind – ay, even hours. Who knows but that in a fit of drunken bravado he may stake the whole estate on a single turn of cards or cast of dice? Others have done the like before now – gentlemen grander than he, with titles to their names-rich in one hour, beggars in the next. I can remember more than one."
"Ah! so can I."
"Englishmen, too, who usually wind up such matters by putting a pistol to their heads, and blowing out their brains. True, Monsieur hasn't very much to blow out; but that isn't a question which affects us – myself as well as you. I've risked everything – reputation, which I care least about, if the affair can be brought to a proper conclusion; but should it fail, then – I need not tell you. What we've done, if known, would soon make us acquainted with the inside of an English gaol. Monsieur, throwing away his money in this reckless fashion, must be restrained, or he'll bring ruin to all of us. Therefore some steps must be taken to restrain him, and promptly."
"Vraiment! I ask you again – have you thought of anything, Gregoire?"
He does not make immediate answer, but seems to ponder over, or hang back upon it. When at length given, it is itself an interrogation, apparently unconnected with what they have been speaking about.
"Would it greatly surprise you if to-night your husband didn't come home to you?"
"Certainly not – in the least. Why should it? It wouldn't be the first time by scores – hundreds – for him to stay all night away from me. Ay, and at that same Welsh Harp, too – many's the night."
"To your great annoyance, no doubt, if it did not make you dreadfully jealous?"
She breaks out into a laugh, hollow and heartless as was ever heard in an allée of the Jardin Mabille. When it is ended, she adds gravely, —
"The time was when he might have made me so; I may as well admit that; not now, as you know, Gregoire. Now, instead of feeling annoyed by it, I'd only be too glad to think I should never see his face again. Le brute ivrogne!"
To this monstrous declaration, Rogier laconically rejoins, —
"You may not." Then, placing his lips close to her ear, he adds in a whisper, "If all prosper, as planned, you will not!"
She neither starts, nor seeks to inquire further. She knows he has conceived some scheme to disembarrass her of a husband she no longer cares for – to both become inconvenient. And from what has gone before, she can rely on Rogier with its execution.
