Part 36 (2/2)

”Is his lords.h.i.+p hunting this morning?” I inquired.

”No, sir,” responded the aged retainer, surely a model servant. ”He's across with her ladys.h.i.+p at the stables looking at some new horses.”

”How long has her ladys.h.i.+p been back?”

”She returned from London yesterday, sir.”

”And Lady Lolita?”

”Her ladys.h.i.+p has gone in the motor to luncheon at Deene, sir. Lady Maud Dallas, and one of the other visitors, a lady, are with her.”

With that I dismissed the servant, and walking down the corridor went out into the wide courtyard, through the servants' quarters and round to the left wing of the house to the great stables where there were stalls for a hundred horses.

The stablemen and grooms in their jerseys of hunting red always gave a picturesque touch of colour to the huge grey old place, and I saw in a corner of the great paved yard, the Earl with a small group of his visitors watching a fine bay mare being paraded by a groom.

One of the traditions of the Stanchesters was to keep good horses, and George spared no expense to maintain the high standard of his forefathers. He had three motors, but Marigold used them more than he did because they were the fas.h.i.+on.

She had learnt to drive herself, and would often drive up to London, eighty-five miles, accompanied by Jacques, the French chauffeur. In town, too, she had an electric brougham in which she paid afternoon calls and did her shopping. Indeed her motor brougham with yellow wheels was a common object in Regent Street in the season.

”Hulloa, Willoughby!” cried the Earl as I approached. ”Didn't know you were back?”

”I'm a day or so earlier than I expected,” I laughed, at the same time saluting the woman whose adventure in Milan had undoubtedly been a strangely tragic one, as well as Keene and the other guests.

”Why, what's the matter with your head?” asked old Lord Cotterstock, noticing a bandage upon it as I raised my straw hat.

”Oh, nothing very much,” I answered then. ”I slipped on the kerb in the Strand, fell back, and struck it rather badly. But it's getting better.

The unsightliness of the plaster is its worst part.”

I dared not glance at Marigold as I uttered this excuse. I felt sure that she was aware of the attack made upon me--whether it had been by Logan or any one else.

The colour had left her cheeks when her startled eyes encountered me, and she glared at me as though I were a ghost. By that alone I knew that my re-appearance there was utterly unexpected--in truth, that she believed that I was dead!

She had turned away from the party at once, to speak with the stud-groom in order to conceal her dismay. Her face had, in an instant, a.s.sumed a death-like pallor, and I saw how anxious she was to escape me. Though she made a desperate effort to remain calm and to face me, she was unable, for her att.i.tude in itself betrayed her guilty knowledge.

I saw in her face sufficient to convince me of the truth. She managed to move away, still giving instructions to the man, while I remained with the party watching the cantering of the horse on show. Every man or woman present there was a judge of a horse, for all were hunting people and knew what, in stable parlance in the Midlands, is known as ”a good bit of stuff” when they saw it.

Presently when the decision was given, I moved away with Keene, and as soon as we were alone in the pleasure-garden I told him quickly of my startling adventure. He stood open-mouthed.

”Then the woman Lejeune is actually dead,” he gasped, his brows knit thoughtfully. ”The Italians must have murdered her!”

”Undoubtedly,” I said, recollecting that he was acquainted with them, for had not one of them, if not both, been in concealment at Hayes's Farm.

”Well,” he sighed. ”This means, I'm afraid, the worst to Lolita.”

”Ah! no!” I cried. ”Don't say that. We must save her! We must! If I could only know the truth I feel sure I could devise some means by which she could be extricated from this perilous position.”

”No,” he answered sadly. ”I think not. The a.s.sa.s.sination of that woman tells me that the conspiracy is a more daring and formidable one than I had even imagined.”

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