Part 24 (1/2)

replied Susan in a flurried manner. The quiet, respectable, lady's-maid had never before been examined by a superintendent of police, and her usual self-possession had forsaken her on that eventful morning.

”Bruce must have heard something of this warrant against Standish,”

thought Emmie; ”perhaps he has gone off early to S----, to help in the search after this daring impostor. I am glad that he felt well enough to do so; but how he could have received such early information of what has occurred, I know not.”

Emmie now went down-stairs to the breakfast room; there was no family-prayer in the confusion of that strange day. Susan brought in a tray with her young lady's breakfast, in the absence of Joe. Emmie was not disposed to touch it. She lingered near the window, half hoping that Bruce might appear, or that her father, having missed the early train, might return to Myst Court. The policemen were very quiet; only the sound of a heavy tread, now and then, showed that they were in the house; but Emmie saw nothing of the officers of the law.

There were signs, however, that the unusual occurrences which had taken place at Myst Court had excited curiosity and interest in the surrounding neighbourhood. Knots of persons, not only from the hamlet, but apparently even from the town, came up the carriage-drive, as it seemed for no purpose but to stare up, open-mouthed, at the house. There was much shaking of heads and whispering amongst these spectators; but they had caught sight of the lady looking forth from the window, and nothing was uttered by them loud enough for its import to be distinguished by Emmie through the closed window.

Presently the wind rose in wild gusts, whirling the snow into blinding drifts; dark clouds were sweeping over the sky; all portended a violent storm; and the a.s.sembled crowd hastily retreated from the grounds of Myst Court, to seek refuge from the fury of the tempest.

”I would give anything to know whether Harper and his wife are under suspicion!” said Emmie to herself. ”Susan is so strangely unwilling to give full information, she stammers as she answers my questions. I think that my father must have charged her to say nothing that could possibly agitate my nerves. He has desired that his weak daughter should be kept from excitement; and thus I, who have the deepest interest in all that is happening here, am more ignorant of what is going on than any servant in the household. I must question Susan again.”

Emmie was about to ring the bell for her maid; but before she did so, there was a quick tap at the door, and, without waiting for the lady's ”Come in,” Hannah entered the room. The cook looked more excited than Susan had done; but while, in the case of the latter, there had been an appearance of perplexity, if not of pain, with a desire to speak as little as she could, Hannah's face, on the contrary, showed that she was not only br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with news, but that she had a vulgar pleasure in being the first to impart it. ”Now I shall know all,” thought Emmie.

”La, miss!” exclaimed Hannah, ”to think of you taking your breakfast so quietly here, as if nothing had happened, when there be such goings on in the place!”

”Any one arrested?” asked Emmie eagerly. She dared not mention the names of Harper or Jessel, lest, by turning suspicion on them, she should indirectly violate her oath.

”No one took up yet, that I know of, but he in London,” said Hannah.

”Didn't master go off like a shot, as soon as he heard the news!”

”What news? who was taken up?” asked Emmie.

”La, miss! you don't mean to say that you've not heard of the sc.r.a.pe of poor Master Vibert, how he's been catched and put into jail!”

Emmie staggered backwards as though she had been struck. ”Put into jail!

my brother! and on what pretext?” she exclaimed, grasping the table for support.

”I'll tell you all about it--you ought to know, seeing you're his own sister,” said Hannah, enjoying the excitement of the scene, and yet not without a touch of natural pity, on seeing the anguish which she inflicted. ”Master Vibert went yesterday to London, you know; and when he got there, he went off straight to a jeweller (Golding, I think, is the name), and bought from him lots of jewels, diamonds, pearls, and all kinds of gim-cracks, worth more than a thousand pounds.”

”Impossible!” exclaimed Emmie.

”But he did buy the jewels, and paid for them too with a lot of nice, fresh, clean ten-pound notes,” said Hannah. ”The shopman didn't suspect nothing at first, 'cause he knew the young gentleman's face so well, as he'd often dealt at the shop. But when the head of the firm, as they call him, came in the afternoon to look after the business (there's nothing like a master's eye, we know), he said the notes weren't real and honest bank-notes; and off he went at once to the biggest police-station in London.”

”My brother has been the unconscious tool of a villain!” murmured Emmie, who felt certain that Vibert's vanity and careless security must have made him the victim of the impostor who had called himself Colonel Standish.

”The p'lice and Mr. Golding drove off to Grosvenor Square,” continued Hannah, ”for the jeweller knew the address; and a mighty bustle and fuss was caused by their coming, for there was an afternoon party, and the gentlefolk were amazed when they found that he who had been the merriest of them all was to be haled up afore a magistrate, on a charge of pa.s.sing forged notes.”

”Did not my brother at once clear himself from suspicion?” cried Emmie, the paleness of whose face was now exchanged for the crimson flush of indignation and shame.

”Master Vibert said that the notes had been given to him by a Colonel Standish; and that he had bought the jewels for Colonel Standish; and that he would have sent them off at once to some address in Liverpool, only he had waited to have out his dance.”

”Then are the jewels safe in the hands of the police?” asked Emmie.

”Ay; I wish that this cheat of a colonel were so too,” replied Hannah.

”Hanging is too good for him, say I; for sure and certain it was his wheedling which made poor Master Vibert do so wicked a thing. Some of the police were sent off to Liverpool, and some hurried down to S----.

And first they searched the colonel's lodgings, and then they came ferreting here.”

”Did they easily find their way into the bricked-up room?” asked Emmie, who knew of no way of access into it but by the secret staircase.