Part 25 (1/2)
”I thought so for a while, but she said she was only sick. She never lies to me.”
”She seemed very much disturbed.”
”Her nerve's not what it used to be--especially since Mr. McGuire's taken to seein' things----”
”You don't believe then that she could have seen John Bray--that he had come back again last night?”
”Why, no,” said Beth, turning in surprise. ”I never thought of it--and yet,” she paused, ”yes,--it might have been----”
She became more thoughtful but didn't go on. Peter was on the trail of a clew to the mystery, but she had already told him so much that further questions seemed like personal intrusion. And so,
”I'd like to tell you, Beth,” he said, ”that I'm your friend and Mrs.
Bergen's. If anything should turn up to make you unhappy or to make your aunt unhappy and I can help you, won't you let me know?”
”Why--do you think anything is goin' to happen?” she asked.
His reply was noncommittal.
”I just wanted you to know you could count on me----” he said soberly.
”I think you've had trouble enough.”
”But I'm not afraid of Jack Bray,” she said with a shrug, ”even if Aunt Tillie is. He can't do anything to me. He can't _make_ me go to New York if I don't want to.”
She had clenched her brown fists in her excitement and Peter laughed.
”I think I'd be a little sorry for anybody who tried to make you do anything you didn't want to do,” he said.
She frowned. ”Why, if I thought that bandy-legged, lantern-jawed, old buzzard was comin' around here frightenin' Aunt Tillie, I'd--I'd----”
”What would you do?”
”Never you mind what I'd do. But I'm not afraid of Jack Bray,” she finished confidently.
The terrors that had been built up around the house of McGuire, the mystery surrounding the awe-inspiring prowler, the night vigils, the secrecy--all seemed to fade into a piece of hobbledehoy buffoonery at Beth's contemptuous description of her recreant relative. And he smiled at her amusedly.
”But what would you say,” he asked seriously, ”if I told you that last night Mr. McGuire saw the same person your Aunt Tillie did, and that he was terrified--almost to the verge of collapse?”
Beth had risen, her eyes wide with incredulity.
”Merciful Father! McGuire! Did he have another spell last night? You don't mean----?”
”I went up to his room. He was done for. He had seen outside the drawing-room window the face of the very man he's been guarding himself against.”
”I can't believe----,” she gasped. ”And you think Aunt Tillie----?”
”Your Aunt Tillie talked to a man outside the door of the kitchen. You didn't hear her. I did. The same man who had been frightening Mr.
McGuire.”
”Aunt Tillie!” she said in astonishment.