Читать книгу The Strange Countess - Edgar Wallace - Страница 9

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For a second she remained, paralysed, and then, as the sound of his feet crossing the floor came to her, she screamed.

"What is it?"

She heard the creak and rumble of Lizzy's bed, the scratch of a match, and saw the white gleam of the gas as it was lit. In another second Lizzy was in her room.

Lois was out of bed now and with trembling fingers was lighting her own lamp. Otherwise the room was empty.

"Somebody was here—a man," she said shakily.

"You've been dreaming."

"I was not dreaming. Listen!"

There was the thud of a closing door. Running to the window, Lois threw up the sash and leant out. She had time to see a man's figure walking swiftly down Charlotte Street.

"There he is! Don't you recognise him? It is Dorn!"

Lizzy craned farther out of the window and after a time came in with a scared face.

"I shouldn't like to say it wasn't," she said cautiously. "Do you mean to say Dorn's been here?"

Lois nodded. This shock, coming on top of the other, had almost unnerved her.

"But was he here—in this room?" Still Lizzy was not convinced, but one glance at the girl's face told her that Lois had not been mistaken.

She hurried out into the kitchen, drew a glass of water. Lois drank the refreshingly cold liquid eagerly.

"Well, he's got a nerve!" said Lizzy, sitting down on a chair and staring blankly at her companion. "What was he doing?"

"I don't know. He was standing in front of the dressing-table. I only saw him for a second, and then this wretched light went out."

"He's got a nerve," said Lizzy again. "There's a limit to everything. Going into a young lady's bedroom in the middle of the night to get an introduction seems to me to be ungentlemanly."

Lois laughed weakly.

"He didn't speak to you?"

She shook her head.

"Jack scuttled off like a rabbit, I suppose."

Lizzy walked to the door and opened it, gazing reflectively at the stairs, as though she wished to visualise the undignified character of the visitor's exit.

"He sends you chocolates overnight——"

Lois' eyes strayed to the dressing-table, and she sprang to her feet with a cry.

"They're gone!" she said, and the stenographer's jaw dropped.

"Gone? Were they there?" She pointed.

"I put them on the dressing-table to remind me in the morning—at least, I think I did."

A hurried search of the kitchen discovered no trace of the missing package.

"Perhaps he knew you wouldn't like them and came to get them back?" was the inane suggestion that Lizzy offered.

"I don't know—I don't understand."

At that moment a voice hailed them and Lizzy opened the door.

"Is anything wrong?"

It was old Mackenzie.

"That man never sleeps," groaned Lizzy under her breath. "He ought to be a night watchman. No, everything's all right, Mr. Mackenzie."

"I heard somebody come down the stairs and go out a little time ago," said the old man, "I thought maybe one of you was ill."

"This is where our characters go west," said Lizzy, and, in a louder voice. "No, Mr. Mackenzie, it was only me! I went down to make sure that Miss Reddle had closed the front door. Good-night."

She came back, looking very thoughtful.

"'Three o'clock in the morning' is a pretty nifty fox-trot, but it is a bad time for young men to come sneaking round other people's rooms. What are you going to do, Lois? Anyway, he's saved you the postage on the chocolates. It seems to me to be the moment for tea."

Any occasion was the moment for tea so far as Lizzy was concerned. She bustled off into the kitchen and came back in ten minutes with a hot decoction which was very gratifying to Lois, and, in spite of Lizzy's making, unusually palatable.

"There are two things to do; one is to inform the police, and the other is to see Mr. Dorn, and I think I will take the latter course. Will you give me his address again?"

"You're not going now?" said Lizzy, in a tone of horror.

"No, I'll go before working hours."

"He'll be in bed. Maybe you'll be able to get the chocolates back while he is sleeping," suggested Lizzy. "As I remarked before, he's got a nerve."

Hiles Mansions was a magnificent block of flats near Albert Hall, but Mr. Dorn's apartment was the least magnificent of any, for it was situated on the upper floor and consisted of two rooms and a bath and a tiny hall. The elevator man was in his shirt-sleeves, polishing brasses at the early hour at which Lois made her call. But he showed no surprise at her enquiry.

"Top floor, miss. If you'll step into the lift and excuse my shirt-sleeves, I'll take you up."

The elevator stopped at the sixth floor and the liftman pointed to a plain rosewood door, one of three on the landing. She hesitated, her finger on the bell-push, and then, mastering her courage, she pressed, expecting to be kept waiting for a long time, for if Mr. Dorn was really the night visitor, he would still be in bed. To her surprise, however, her finger was hardly off the bell-push before the door opened and Michael Dorn confronted her. He seemed to have been up for some time, for he was dressed and shaved, and there was no evidence in his eyes that he had spent a sleepless night.

"This is an unexpected pleasure, Miss Reddle," he said. "Will you come in?"

The study into which she was ushered was larger than she had expected and the sloping roof gave it an odd but pleasant character. She saw at a glance that the furniture was old, and probably valuable. The writing-table, from which he had evidently just risen, for the morning newspaper lay open at the top, was undoubtedly Buhl, and the deep arm-chair before the fire was the only modern article in the room. Etchings covered the soberly painted walls, and in one alcove was a well-filled bookcase.

"Mr. Dorn, I have called on a very serious errand," she said.

"I am sorry to hear that," was his reply as he pushed a chair forward.

"I won't sit down, thank you. Last night you sent me a box of chocolates. I can understand that your intentions were well meant, though I thought I had made it very clear that I do not wish to know you, or to improve an acquaintance which began only yesterday. I am very grateful to you for all you did," she went on a little incoherently, "but——" she paused.

"But——?" he suggested.

"Your conduct is abominable!" she flamed. "The gift of chocolates was an impertinence, but to follow that up by breaking into my lodgings was criminal! I've come to tell you that, unless you cease your persecution, I shall complain to the police."

He did not answer. Standing by the table, he fiddled with a long poignard which was evidently used as a letter-opener.

"You say I broke into your house—what makes you think that?"

"Because I recognised you," she said emphatically. "You came and took away the box—though I could have saved you the trouble. I intended returning it in the morning."

To her amazement, he did not deny his presence, but, on the contrary, gave confirmation of his action.

"If I had known you were going to return it this morning I should certainly not have called in the night," he said with a calmness which took her breath away. "I have been guilty of conduct which may seem to you to be unpardonable, but for which there is a very simple explanation. Until a quarter to two this morning I had no idea that you had received the chocolates."

He walked across the room to a cabinet, pulled open one drawer and took out the painted box.

"These are the chocolates, are they not?"

She was so taken back by his audacity that she could not speak. He put back the box carefully in the cabinet and closed the door.

"I underrated your intelligence, Miss Reddle," he said. "I have done that all too frequently in my life—taken too light a view of woman's genius." "I'm afraid I don't understand you," she said helplessly. "Only I want to tell you——"

"You want to tell me that if this act of mine is repeated, you will notify the police." He took the words from her mouth. "And I think you would be wise. When do you take up your new position?"

"On Monday," she was startled into telling him, but, recollecting that the object of her visit was not to furnish him with information about her movements, she walked to the door. "You don't deny that you came into my room?"

He shook his head.

"No, why should I? You saw me. It was the flash of my lamp which woke you. I am very sorry. But for that stupid blunder you would not have known."

She stared at him.

"You admit you were there?" she said, with growing wonder, as the nature of his offence began to take shape in her mind. "How could you, Mr. Dorn!"

"It is much easier for me to admit my fault than to lie about it," he said coolly. "Even you must give me some credit for my frankness."

He followed her out on to the landing and rang for the elevator.

"You must keep your door locked, Miss Reddle," he said. "No matter where you are—even in the palatial establishment of the Countess of Moron—you must keep your door locked."

He looked down the lift shaft and saw that the cage at the bottom was not moving. The elevator man was outside the building and had not heard the signal.

"I don't think, if I were you, that I should write to your mother," he said. "You may raise false hopes. At present she is well balanced. The knowledge that you are alive—and know—may cut the thread that has held her up all these years."

"What do you know?" she gasped, gazing at him in terrified amazement.

Then came the whine of the ascending lift.

"I don't think I should write if I were you," he said, and with a smile handed the dazed girl into the elevator and waited until the clash of the lift-gate told him that she had reached the ground floor. Then he walked slowly back into his flat, closed the door behind him, and resumed his place at the table, but this time he did not read.

For half an hour he sat, his chin on his hand, and then, rising, he opened the door that led to the second room. A spare little man, with a dark and melancholy face, sat patiently on the edge of a chair, as he had sat ever since the ring at the door had announced the girl's arrival. A beckoning jerk of Dorn's chin brought the man to the study.

"Go along and pick up Chesney Praye. Find out what he was doing last night, and where he went. I think he was playing baccarat at the Limbo Club, and, if so, find out what he lost. That is all."

Without a word the little man made for the door. His hand was on the latch when Dorn called him back.

"Call in at Scotland Yard and discover the owner of a blue Buick, No. XC2997. I pretty well know, but I should like a little moral support."

When the door had closed behind his servitor Michael Dorn took several sheets of paper from the stationery rack and for half an hour was writing rapidly. When he had finished, he addressed an envelope, stamped the letter, and, going out to the landing, rang for the liftman and handed him the letter to post. Then he returned to his flat, and, taking off his collar and his tie, lay down on the bed for the sleep he so badly needed; for Michael Dorn had not closed his eyes for thirty-six hours.