Part 10 (2/2)

”You must be a dreadful woman,” I cried out. ”First, you make yourself at home in my house; then you succeed in stopping my workmen, steal my cook and men-servants, keep us all awake with a barking dog, defying me to my very face--”

”How awfully stern you are!”

”I don't believe a word you say about a sick baby,--or a doctor! It's all poppy-c.o.c.k. To-morrow you will find yourself, bag and baggage, sitting at the bottom of this hill, waiting for--”

”Wait!” she cried. ”Are you really, truly in earnest?”

”Most emphatically!”

”Then I--I shall surrender,” she said, very slowly,--and seriously, I was glad to observe.

”That's more like it,” I cried, enthusiastically.

”On one condition,” she said. ”You must agree in advance to let me stay on here for a month or two. It--it is most imperative, Mr. Smart.”

”I shall be the sole judge of that, madam,” I retorted, with some dignity. ”By the way,” I went on, knitting my brows, ”how am I to get into your side of the castle? Schmick says he's lost the keys.”

A good deal depended on her answer.

”They shall be delivered to you to-morrow morning, Mr. Smart,” she said, soberly. ”Good night.”

The little window closed with a snap and I was left alone in the smiling moonlight. I was vastly excited, even thrilled by the prospect of a sleepless night. Something told me I wouldn't sleep a wink, and yet I, who bitterly resent having my sleep curtailed in the slightest degree, held no brief against circ.u.mstances. In fact, I rather revelled in the promise of nocturnal distraction. Fearing, however, that I might drop off to sleep at three or four o'clock and thereby run the risk of over sleeping, I dashed off to the head of the stairs and shouted for Britton.

”Britton,” I said. ”I want to be called at seven o'clock sharp in the morning.” Noting his polite struggle to conceal his astonishment, I told him of my second encounter with the lady across the way.

”She won't be expecting you at seven, sir,” he remarked. ”And, as for that, she may be expecting to call on you, instead of the other way round.”

”Right!” said I, considerably dashed.

”Besides, sir, would it not be safer to wait till the tourist party has come and gone?”

”No tourists enter this place to-morrow or any other day,” I declared, firmly.

”Well, I'd suggest waiting just the same, sir,” said he, evidently inspired.

”Confound them,” I growled, somehow absorbing his presentiment.

He hesitated for a moment near the door.

”Will you put in the telephone, sir?” he asked, respectfully.

Very curiously, I was thinking of it at that instant.

”It really wouldn't be a bad idea, Britton,” I said, startled into committing myself. ”Save us a great deal of legging it over town and all that sort of thing, eh?”

”Yes, sir. What I was about to suggest, sir, is that while we're about it we might as well have a system of electric bells put in. That is to say, sir, in both wings of the castle. Very convenient, sir, you see, for all parties concerned.”

”I see,” said I, impressed. And then repeated it, a little more impressed after reflection. ”I see. You are a very resourceful fellow, Britton. I am inclined to bounce all of the Schmicks. They have known about this from the start and have lied like thieves. By Jove, she must have an extraordinary power over them,--or claim,--or something equally potent. Now I think of it, she mentioned a grandfather. That would go to prove she's related in some way to some one, wouldn't it?”

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