Part 63 (1/2)

”He was tied to a chair in the kitchen. We let him loose. He's outside somewhere.”

”And Mrs. Bergen and Sarah?”

”I don't know, sir.”

Peter went to the door and called Stryker and that bewildered person appeared at the foot of the steps with Mrs. Bergen and Sarah who had been locked in the cellar. Peter called them up and they all began screaming their tale at once. But at last Peter got at the facts. Hawk Kennedy had come suddenly into the kitchen where the two women were and, brandis.h.i.+ng a revolver, commanding silence, threatening death if they made a sound. He had surprised the valet in the lower hall and had marched him back into the kitchen, where he had bound him to a chair with a clothes-line and then gagged him.

McGuire waved the trio out of the room when their story was told, and signaled to Peter to close the door again, when he took up his interrupted tale.

”I was at the window, looking out, Nichols. I didn't expect him for a couple of weeks anyway. I'd just about gotten my nerve back. But he got the drop on me, Nichols. How he ever got into the room without my hearin' him! I must have been in a trance. His shoes were off. The first thing I know is a voice close at my ear and a gun in my ribs. I turned quick--but my gun was in the table drawer. His face was close to mine and I knew he meant business. If I'd 'a' moved he'd 'a' killed me. So I put my hands up. There wasn't anything else to do. I thought I'd play for time but he caught my glance toward the door and only laughed.

”'There ain't anybody comin', Mike,' he says. 'It's just you an' me.' I asked him what he wanted and he grinned. 'You know,' he says. And with his left hand he brought out a rope he had stuffed in his pocket. 'I'll fix _you_ first. Then we'll talk,' he says. He was cool like he always was. He caught a slip noose around my wrists before I knew it, twisted the rope around me and threw me over on the floor. I tell you that man is the devil himself.”

”What then?”

”He made me give up the keys to the drawers in the safe--it was open just like it is now. I wouldn't speak at first but he kicked me and then put the gun at my head. I still hoped some one would come. I gave in at last. He found it. My G.o.d!” The old man aroused himself with an effort and rose to his feet. ”But we've got to catch him--just you and I. He can't have gone far. We've got the right to shoot him now--to shoot on sight----”

”Yes--yes. I'm getting the Sheriff at May's Landing now----”

”The Sheriff!” The Irishman's small eyes stared and then became alive in sudden comprehension. ”Not the Sheriff, Nichols. I won't have him.”

”You've got to--at once.” And then rapidly Peter gave an account of what had happened at the logging camp. But it seemed to have no effect upon McGuire, who listened with gla.s.sy eyes. He was obsessed with the other--the graver danger.

”We'll keep this thing quiet if you like--the real meaning of this visit, and we've got to pick up his trail. But we can't let those men at the camp have the run of the place. They'll be looting this house next.”

And then, as McGuire seemed to agree, Peter went to the door and found Brierly still on the 'phone. He was talking to the Sheriff and had told the whole story. The Sheriff had already heard something about the Black Rock camp trouble and would be ready to move in an hour.

”Tell him to move fast and to come to McGuire's first,” said Peter. ”And you'll be here to show him the way.”

Brierly nodded and finished the message, while Peter returned to McGuire.

”What else did Kennedy say?” Peter asked him.

”He asked a lot of questions--about you and Beth Cameron--about the money--about what I'd promised you. He's the very devil, I tell you. He knows everything. He said he'd 'get' you and that he'd 'get' Beth Cameron.”

Peter caught McGuire fiercely by the shoulder. ”What did you say? Are you sure?”

With all of his other troubles Peter had forgotten Beth and now thought guiltily of the possible danger to which she might have been subjected.

How could Hawk have found out about Beth Cameron?

”What I told you,” muttered McGuire wearily, ”he said he'd 'get'

her----”

Sick with anxiety, Peter flung away from his protesting employer and made for the door, rus.h.i.+ng past the astonished Brierly in the hall, down the stairs and out at a run over the bridge and through the village to the Bergen house. The door was open and he rushed in, calling Beth's name. There was no response. Now desperate and fearing the worst, he ran from room to room, downstairs and up. There were signs of her--a towel on a chair, a broom leaning against a door upstairs, the neatly made beds, the orderly kitchen, giving evidence of the morning cleaning, but no supper cooking on the stove, the fire of which had burned to cinders.

She had not been here for a long while--since early morning possibly.

But where had she gone--where? Hawk Kennedy would hardly have dared to come here--to the village--hardly have succeeded in enticing her away from this house, surrounded by neighbors--still less have succeeded in carrying her off without their knowledge. He rushed out into the road and questioned. No one seemed to have seen her. The eagerness and suppressed anxiety of Peter's manner quickly drew a crowd which felt the contagion of his excitement. A man joined the group. Yes. He had seen Beth in the morning early. She was hurrying down the path which led into the pines. He had not seen her since.

Peter glanced at him just once more to be sure that he was speaking the truth and then, without a thought as to the impression he had created in the minds of the villagers, set off running through the path toward his cabin.

Fool that he had been! To leave Beth unguarded--unwarned even--with Hawk within a quarter of a mile of her. Why had he not seen the hand of fate in Beth's presence here at Black Rock near McGuire, the man who had wronged her father--the hand of fate, which with unerring definiteness was guiding the princ.i.p.als in this sordid tragedy together from the ends of the earth for a reckoning? And what was this reckoning to be? McGuire had already fallen a victim to the man's devilish skill and audacity.