Part 35 (2/2)

But the doctor made no answer to this question, nor did he seem to hear it. Rising, he walked to the window, looked down thoughtfully into the street for a moment, then, without turning, he said:

”Rumor says, that Miss Wardour will marry Lamotte.”

”Yes.”

”Lamotte just now made the same statement.”

”Ah!” contemptuously, ”it's like him to boast; but I'm afraid he tells the truth; Constance admitted as much to me to-day.”

A long time Clifford Heath stood motionless and silent at the window; then turning as if spurred by some sudden thought, he threw the crumpled note, which all the time had been clasped in his hand, upon the table between them, saying:

”Here's a mystery, sir; read that and pa.s.s your opinion on it; as you are to become my guest, you should know what society you will find yourself in.”

Ray eyed the letter with his head on one side.

”What is it?” he asked in a stage whisper.

”A note, a _billet doux_, a solemn warning; came under the door a little while ago, while I was off in a reverie; came by a spirit hand, maybe, for I never heard a sound, but there lay the letter waiting to be observed and perused.” And the doctor laughed contemptuously, and turned away to prepare for his drive. But Ray's face lengthened perceptibly, and he took up the note with sudden eagerness, and read:

DOCTOR HEATH:--Take the advice of a friend and leave W---- for a time; a plot is ripening against you, and your only safety lies in your absence, for your enemies are powerful and have woven a chain about you that will render you helpless, perhaps ruin you utterly.

TRUTH.

Lose no time, for the blow will soon fall.

The note was written in a cramped, reversed hand, and, after a hasty perusal, Ray bent his head and scanned the pen strokes closely, then he looked up with all the color gone from his face, and a strange gleam in his eyes.

”How--how do you say this came, Heath?”

”I didn't say, for I don't know, my lad. It made its first appearance lying just there,” and the doctor pointed with his wisp broom, which he had been vigorously applying to a brown overcoat, at the spot just inside the door where he had first perceived the letter, and then resumed his occupation without observing the trouble in Ray's face.

”Sensational, isn't it? but I can't think of quitting W---- just as it begins to grow interesting.”

”Then you take no stock in this warning?”

”Bah! why should I?”

”But if you should have secret foes?”

”Let them come on,” quoted the doctor, theatrically; ”bring along that precious doc.u.ment, Ray, and come along yourself.”

Ray Vandyck, still looking troubled and anxious, arose, and, with lagging steps, followed his friend; as he noted with a new curiosity the tall, lithe, well knit figure striding on before him, the handsome, haughtily poised head, and the careless indifference of mien, he asked himself:

”What can it be, this mystery and danger that surrounds him, that has caused Constance Wardour to take such unprecedented measures to insure his safety, and has wrung from Sybil Lamotte this strangely worded, oddly and ineffectually disguised warning,” for Ray, seeing not as the world sees, but with the eyes of love, had recognized in the strange scrawl the hand of the woman he had loved and lost.

”Heath _is_ in some peril,” thought he, and then, with a rueful sigh, ”Oh! I would risk dangers too to be watched over by two such women.”

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