help had arrived from another quarter. a knot of labourers on the estate, going home from work, happened to choose the road through the wood, and mr. edwin barley heard them.
one of them, a young man they called duff, was at the house almost as soon as i. he came into the hall, and saw me clinging to jemima. nothing could have stopped my threatened fit of hysterics so effectually as an interruption. duff told his tale. the young heir had been shot in the wood, he said. "shot dead!"
"the young heir!" cried jemima, with a cry. she was at no loss to understand who was meant: it was what philip king had been mostly styled since his brother's death. charlotte delves came forward as duff was speaking. duff took off his felt hat in deference to her, and explained.
she turned as white as a sheet--white as george heneage had looked--and sat down on a chair. duff had not mentioned george heneage's name, only mr. edwin barley's: perhaps she thought it was the latter who had fired the shot.
"it must have been an accident, duff. they are so careless with their guns!"
"no, ma'am, it was murder! leastways, that's what they are saying."
"he cannot be dead."
"he's as dead as a door-nail!" affirmed duff, with decision. "i can't be mistaken in a dead man. i've seen enough of 'em, father being the grave-digger. they are bringing him on, ma'am, now."
even as duff spoke, sounds of the approach stole on the air from the distance--the measured tread of feet that bear a burden. it came nearer and nearer; and philip king, or what was left of him, was laid on the large table in the hall. as is the case in some country houses, the hall was furnished like a plain room. duff, making ready, had pushed the table close to the window, between the wall and the entrance-door, shutting me into a corner. i sank down on the matting, not daring to move.
"light the lamp," said mr. edwin barley.
the news had spread; the servants crowded in; some of the women began to shriek. it became one indescribable scene of confusion, exclamations, and alarm. mr. edwin barley turned round, in anger.
"clear out, all of you!" he said, roughly. "what do you mean by making this uproar? you men can stay in the barn, you may be wanted," he added, to the out-door labourers.
they crowded out at the hall-door; the servants disappeared through the opposite one. mr. edwin barley was one who brooked no delay in being obeyed. miss delves remained, and she drew near.
"how did it happen?" she asked, in a low voice, that did not sound much like hers.
"get me some brandy, and a teaspoon!" was mr. edwin barley's rejoinder. "he is certainly dead, as i believe; but we must try restoratives, for all that. make haste; bring it in a wine-glass."
she ran into the dining-room, and in the same moment mrs. edwin barley came lightly down the stairs. she had on her dinner-dress, black silk trimmed with crape, no ornaments yet, and her lovely light hair was hanging down on her bare neck. the noise, as it appeared, had disturbed her in the midst of dressing.
"what is all this disturbance?" she began, as she tripped across the hall, and it was the first intimation mr. edwin barley had of her presence. he might have arrested her, had there been time; but she was bending over the table too soon. believing, as she said afterwards, that it was a load of game lying there, it must have been a great shock; the grey-and-brown woollen plaid they had flung over him, from the neck downwards, looking not unlike the colour of partridge feathers in the dim light. there was no gas in the house; oil was burnt in the hall and passages--wax-candles in the sitting-rooms.
"it is philip king!" she cried, with a sort of shriek. "what is the matter? what is amiss with him?"
"don't you see what it is?" returned mr. edwin barley, who was all this while chafing the poor cold hands. "he has been shot in the chest; marked out in the wood, and shot down like a dog."
a cry of dread--of fear--broke from her. she began to tremble violently. "how was it done, edwin? who did it?"
"you."
"i!" came from her ashy lips. "are you going mad, edwin barley?"
"selina, this is as surely the result of your work as though you had actually drawn the trigger. i hope you are satisfied with it!"
"how can you be so cruel?" she asked, her bosom heaving, her breath bursting from her in gasps.
he had spoken to her in a low, calm tone--not an angry one. it changed to sorrow now.
"i thought harm would come of it; i have thought so these two days; not, however, such harm as this. you have been urging that fellow a little too much against this defenceless ward and relative of mine; but i could not have supposed he would carry it on to murder. philip king would have died quite soon enough without that, selina; he was following reginald with galloping strides."
charlotte delves returned with a teaspoon and the brandy in a wine-glass. as is sure to be the case in an emergency, there had been an unavoidable delay. the spirit-stand was not in its place, and for a minute or two she had been unable to find it. mr. edwin barley took up a teaspoonful. his wife drew away.
"was it an accident, or--or--done deliberately?" inquired charlotte delves, as she stood there, holding the glass.
"it was deliberate murder!"
"duff said so. but who did it?"
"it is of no use, charlotte," was all the reply mr. barley made, as he gave her back the teaspoon. "he is quite dead."
hasty footsteps were heard running along the avenue, and up the steps to the door. they proved to be those of mr. lowe, the surgeon from hallam.
"i was walking over to smith's to dinner, mr. edwin barley, and met one of your labourers coming for me," he exclaimed, in a loud tone, as he entered. "he said some accident had happened to young king."
"accident enough," said mr. edwin barley. "here he lies."
for a few moments nothing more was said. mr. lowe was stooping over the table.
"i was trying to give him some brandy when you came in."
"he'll never take brandy or anything else again," was the reply of mr. lowe. "he is dead."
"as i feared. was as sure of it, in fact, as a non-professional man can well be. i believe that he died in the wood, a minute after the shot struck him."
"how did it happen?" asked the surgeon. "these young fellows are so careless!"
"i'll tell you all i know," said mr. barley. "we had been out shooting--he, i, and heneage, with the two keepers. he and heneage were not upon good terms; they were sour with each other as could be; had been cross and crabbed all day. coming home, heneage dropped us; whether to go forward, or to lag behind, i am unable to say. after that, we met smith--as he can tell you, if you are going to his house. he stopped me about that right-of-common business, and began discussing what would be our better mode of proceeding against the fellows. philip king, whom it did not interest, said he should go on, and smith and i sat down on the bench outside the beer-shop, and called for a pint of cider. half-an-hour we may have sat there, and then, i started for home through the wood, which cuts off the corner----"
"philip king having gone forward, did you say?" interrupted the surgeon.
"yes. i was nearly through the wood, when i heard a slight movement near me, and then a gun was fired. a terrible scream--the scream of a man, lowe--succeeded in an opposite direction. i pushed through the trees, and saw philip king. he had leaped up with the shot, and was then falling to the ground. i went to his succour, and asked who had done it. 'george heneage,' was his answer. he had seen him raise his gun, take aim, and fire upon him."
crouching down there on the matting, trembling though i was, an impulse prompted me to interrupt: to say that mr. edwin barley's words went beyond the truth. all that philip king had said was, that he saw george heneage, saw him stand there. but fear was more powerful than impulse, and i remained silent. how could i dare contradict mr. edwin barley?
"it must have been an accident," said mr. lowe. "heneage must have aimed at a bird."
"there's no doubt that it was deliberate murder!" replied mr. edwin barley. "my ward affirmed it to me with his dying lips. they were his own words. i expressed a doubt, as you are doing. 'it was heneage,' he said; 'i tell it you with my dying lips.' a bad man!--a villain!" mr. barley emphatically added. "another day or two, and i should have kicked him out of my house; i waited but a decent pretext."
"if he is that, why did you have him in it?" asked the surgeon.
"because it is but recently that my eyes have been opened to him and his ways. this poor fellow," pointing to the dead, "lifted their scales for me in the first instance. pity the other is not the one to be lying here!"
sounds of hysterical emotion were heard on the stairs: they came from mrs. edwin barley. it appeared that she had been sitting on the lowest step all this while, her face bent on her knees, and must have heard what passed. mr. barley, as if wishing to offer an apology for her, said she had just looked on philip king's face, and it had frightened her much.
mr. lowe tried to persuade her to retire from the scene, but she would not, and there she sat on, growing calm by degrees. the surgeon measured something in a teaspoon into a wine-glass, filled it up with cold water, and made her drink it. he then took his leave, saying that he would call again in the course of the evening. not a minute had he been gone, when mr. martin burst into the hall.
"what is this report?" he cried, in agitation. "people are saying that philip king is killed."
"they might have said murdered," said mr. edwin barley. "heneage shot him in the wood."
"heneage!"
"heneage. took aim, and fired at him, and killed him. there never was a case of more deliberate murder."
that mr. edwin barley was actuated by intense animus as he said this, the tone proved.
"poor fellow!" said the clergyman, gently, as he leaned over him and touched his face. "i have seen for some days they were not cordial. what ill-blood could have been between them?"
"heneage had better explain that when he makes his defence," said mr. edwin barley, grimly.
"it is but a night or two ago that we were speculating on his health, upon his taking a profession; we might have spared ourselves the pains, poor lad. i asked you, who was his heir-at-law, little thinking another would so soon inherit."
mr. edwin barley made no reply.
"why--good heavens!--is that mrs. barley sitting there?" he inquired, in a low tone, as his eyes fell on the distant stairs.
"she won't move away. these things do terrify women. don't notice her, martin: she will be better left to herself."
"upon my word, this is a startling and sudden blow," resumed the clergyman, again recurring to the death. "but you must surely be mistaken in calling it murder."
"there's no mistake about it: it was wilful murder. i am as sure of it as though i had seen the aim taken," persisted mr. barley. "and i will pursue heneage to the death."
"have you secured him? if it really is murder, he must answer for it. where is he?"
mr. barley spoke a passionate word. it was a positive fact--account for it, any one that can--that until that moment he had never given a thought to the securing of george heneage. "what a fool i have been!" he exclaimed, "what an idiot! he has had time to escape."
"he cannot have escaped far."
"stay here, will you, martin. i'll send the labourers after him; he may be hiding in the wood until the night's darker."
mr. edwin barley hastened from the hall, and the clergyman bent over the table again. i had my face turned to him, and was scarcely conscious, until it had passed, of something dark that glided from the back of the hall, and followed mr. barley out. with him gone, to whom i had taken so unaccountable a dislike and dread, it was my favourable moment for escape; i seemed to fear him more than poor philip king on the table. but nervous terror held possession of me still, and in moving i cried out in spite of myself. the clergyman looked round.
"i declare it is little miss hereford!" he said, very kindly, as he took my hand. "what brought you there, my dear?"
i sobbed out the explanation. that i had been pushed into the corner by the table, and was afraid to move. "don't tell, sir, please! mr. edwin barley might be angry with me. don't tell him i was there."
"he would not be angry at a little girl's very natural fears," answered mr. martin, stroking my hair. "but i will not tell him. will you stay by your aunt, mrs. edwin barley?"
"yes, please, sir."
"but where is mrs. barley?" he resumed, as he led me towards the stairs.
"i was wondering, too," interposed charlotte delves, who stood at the dining-room door. "a minute ago she was still sitting there. i turned into the room for a moment, and when i came back she was gone."
"she must have gone upstairs, miss delves."
"i suppose she has, mr. martin," was miss delves's reply. but a thought came over me that it must have been mrs. edwin barley who had glided out at the hall-door.
and, in point of fact, it was. she was sought for upstairs, and could not be found; she was sought for downstairs, all in vain. whither had she gone? on what errand was she bent? one of those raw, damp fogs, prevalent in the autumn months, had come on, making the air wet, as if with rain, and she had no out-door things on, no bonnet, and her black silk dress had a low body end short sleeves. was she with her husband, searching the wood for george heneage?
the dark oak-door that shut out the passage leading to the domains of the servants was pushed open, and jemima's head appeared at it. i ran and laid hold of her.
"oh, jemima, let me stay by you!"
"hark!" she whispered, putting her arm round me. "there are horses galloping up to the house."
two police-officers, mounted. they gave their horses in charge to one of the men-servants, and came into the hall, the scabbards of their swords clanking against the steps.
"i don't like the look of them," whispered jemima. "let us go away."
she took me to the kitchen. sarah, mary, and the cook were in it; the latter a tall, stout woman, with a rosy colour and black eyes. her chief concern seemed to be for the dinner.
"look here," she exclaimed to jemima, as she stood over her saucepans, "everything's a-spiling. who's to know whether they'll have it served in one hour or in two?"
"i should think they wouldn't have it served at all," returned jemima: "that sight in the hall's enough dinner for them to-day, one would suppose. the police are come now."
"ah, it is bad, i know," said the cook. "and the going to look at it took everything else out of my head, worse luck to me! i forgot my soles were on the fire, and when i got back they were burnt to the pan. i've had to skin 'em now, and put 'em into wine sauce. who's this coming in?"
it was miss delves. the cook appealed to her about the dinner.
"it won't be eatable, ma'am, if it's kept much longer. some of the dishes is half cold, and some's dried up to a scratchin'."
"there's no help for it, cook; you must manage it in the best way you can," was miss delves's reply. "it is a dreadful thing to have happened, but i suppose dinner must be served all the same for the master and mrs. edwin barley."
"miss delves, is it true what they are saying--that it was mr. heneage who did it?" inquired sarah.
"suppose you trouble yourself with your own affairs, and let alone what does not concern you," was miss delves's reprimand.
she left the kitchen. jemima made a motion of contempt after her, and gave the door a bang.
"she'll put in her word against mr. heneage, i know; for she didn't like him. but i am confident it was never he that did it--unless his gun went off accidental."
for full an hour by the clock we stayed in the kitchen, uninterrupted, the cook reducing herself to a state of despair over the uncalled-for dinner. the men-servants had been sent out, some to one place, some to another. the cook served us some coffee and bread-and-butter, but i don't think any one of us touched the latter. i thought by that time my aunt must surely have come in, and asked jemima to take me upstairs to her. a policeman was in the hall as we passed across the back of it, and charlotte delves and mr. martin were sitting in the dining-room, the door open. mrs. edwin barley was nowhere to be found, and we went back to the kitchen. i began to cry; a dreadful fear came upon me that she might have gone away for ever, and left me to the companionship of mr. edwin barley.
"come and sit down here, child," said the cook, in a motherly way, as she placed a low stool near the fire. "it's enough to frighten her, poor little stranger, to have this happen, just as she comes into the house."
"i say, though, where can the mistress be!" jemima said to her, in a low tone, as i drew the stool into the shade and sat down, leaning my head against the wall.
presently miss delves's bell rang. the servants said they always knew her ring--it came with a jerk. jemima went to answer it. it was for some hot water, which she took up. somebody was going to have brandy-and-water, she said; perhaps mr. martin--she did not know. her master was in the hall then, and mr. barley, of the oaks, was with him.
"who's mr. barley of the oaks, jemima?" i asked.
"he is master's elder brother, miss. he lives at the oaks, about three miles from here. such a nice place it is--ten times better than this. when the old gentleman died, mr. barley came into the oaks, and mr. edwin into this."
then there was silence again for another half-hour. i sat with my eyes closed, and heard them say i was asleep. the young farm labourer, duff, came in at last.
"well," said he, "it have been a useless chase. i wonder whether i am wanted for anything else."
"where have you been?" asked jemima.
"scouring the wood, seven of us, in search of mr. heneage: and them two mounted police is a-dashing about the roads. we haven't found him."
"duff, mr. heneage no more did it than you did."
"that's all you know about it," was duff's answer. "master says he did."
"have a cup of coffee, duff?" asked the cook.
"thank ye," said duff. "i'd be glad on't."
she was placing the cup before him, when he suddenly leaned forward from the chair he had taken, speaking in a covert whisper.
"i say, who do you think was in the wood, a-scouring it, up one path and down another, as much as ever we was?"
"who?" asked the servants in a breath.
"the young missis. she hadn't got an earthly thing on her but just what she sits in, indoors. her hair was down, and her neck and arms was bare; and there she was, a-racing up and down like one demented."
"tush!" said the cook. "you must have seen double. what should bring young madam dancing about the wood, duff, at this time o' night?"
"i tell ye i see her. i see her three times over. maybe she was looking for mr. heneage, too. at any rate, there she was, and with nothing on, as if she'd started out in a hurry, and had forget to dress herself. and if she, don't catch a cold, it's odd to me," added duff. "the fog's as thick as pea-soup, and wets you worse than rain. 'twas enough to give her her death."
duff's report was true. as he spoke, a bell called jemima up again. she came back, laid hold of me without speaking, and took me to the drawing-room. mrs. edwin barley stood there, just come in: she was shaking like a leaf, with the damp and cold, her hair dripping wet. when she had seen her husband leave the hall in search of george heneage, an impulse came over her to follow and interpose between the anger of the two, should they meet. at least, partly this, partly to look after george heneage herself, and warn him to escape. she gave me this explanation openly.
"i could not find him," she said, kneeling down before the fire, and holding out her shivering arms to the blaze. "i hope and trust he has escaped. one man's life is enough for me to have upon my hands, without having two."
"oh, aunt selina! you did not take philip king's life!"
"no, i did not take it. and i have been guilty of no intentional wrong. but i did set the one against the other, anne--in my vanity and wilfulness."
looking back to the child's eyes with which i saw things then, and judging of these same things with my woman's experience now, i can but hold selina barley entirely to blame. an indulged daughter, born when her sister ursula was nearly grown, she had been suffered to have her own way at keppe-carew, and grew up to think the world was made for her. dangerously attractive, fond to excess of admiration, she had probably encouraged philip king's boyish fancy, and then turned round upon him for it. at the previous easter, on his former visit, she had been all smiles and sweetness; this time she had done nothing but turn him into ridicule. "what is sport to you may be death to me," says the fly to the spider. it might not have mattered so much from her, this ridicule; but she pressed george heneage into the service: and philip king was not of a disposition to bear it tamely. his weak health made him appear somewhat of a coward; he was not strong enough to take the law into his own hands, and repay mr. heneage with personal chastisement. selina's liking for george heneage was no doubt great; but it was not an improper liking, although the world--the little world at mr. edwin barley's--might have wished to deem it so. before she married mr. edwin barley, she refused george heneage, and laughed at him for proposing to her. she should wed a rich man, she told him, or none at all. it was mr. edwin barley himself who invited heneage to his house, and also philip king, as it most unfortunately happened. his wife, in her wilful folly--i had almost written her wilful wickedness--played them off, one upon another. the first day they met, philip king took umbrage at some remark of mr. heneage's, and selina, liking the one, and disliking the other, forthwith began. a few days on, and young king so far forgot his good manners as to tell her she "liked that coxcomb heneage too much." the reproach made her laugh; but she, nevertheless, out of pure mischief, did what she could to confirm philip king in the impression. he, philip king, took to talk of this to miss delves; he took to watch selina and george heneage; there could be little doubt that he carried tales of his observation to mr. edwin barley, which only incited selina to persevere; the whole thing amused her immensely. what passed between mr. and mrs. edwin barley, in private about it, whether anything or nothing, was never known. at the moment of the accident he was exceedingly vexed with her; incensed may be the proper word.
and poor philip king! perhaps, after all, his death may have been a mistake--if it was in truth george heneage that it proceeded from. circumstances, as they came out, seemed to say that he had not been "spying," but only taking the short cut through the summer-house on his way home from shooting; an unusual route, it's true, but not an impossible one. seeing them on the other side when he entered it, he waited until they should proceed onwards; but mrs. barley's sudden run up the steps sent him away. not that he would avoid them; only make his escape, without their seeing him, lest he should be accused of the very thing they did accuse him of--spying. but he was too late; the creaking of the outer door betrayed him. at least this was the opinion taken up by mr. martin, later, when selina told the whole truth to him, under the seal of secrecy.
but mrs. edwin barley was kneeling before the fire in the drawing-room, with her dripping hair; and i standing by her looking on; and that first terrible night was not over.
"selina, why did you stay out in the wet fog?"
"i was looking for him, i tell you, anne."
"but you had nothing on. you might have caught your death, duff said."
"and what if i had?" she sharply interrupted. "i'd as soon die as live."
it was one of her customary random retorts, meaning nothing. before more was said, strange footsteps and voices were heard on the stairs. selina started up, and looked at herself in the glass.
"i can't let them see me like this," she muttered, clutching her drooping hair. "you wait here, anne."
darting to the side-door she had spoken of as leading to her bedroom, she pulled it open with a wrench, as if a bolt had given way, and disappeared, leaving me standing on the hearth-rug.
