SHORT STORIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3329, 2 January 1918, Page 57

SHORT STORIES.

[All Rights Reserved.]

LADY LANGTGN'S JEWELS.

By Percv James Bkebnkr

"Am I not to see you again this evening, Clarice?" " No. I ought not to be here now. If your grandmother knew "

" I'm going to tell her some day soon." "Not yet, Dick; it would spoil everything. And you must let me go now." He held her for a moment longer, then kissed her and released her. She went quickly through the shrubbery towards the house, while he lit a cigarette, very well satisfied with himself.

To tell the truth, Richard Langton had been very well satisfied with himself ever since he could remember. Never having known hie father and mother, the fact that he was an orphan had not troubled him. He had been brought up, and rather spoilt, by his grandmother, Lady Langton. She had lived some years in India, where her husband had acquired wealth. The only son, who was in the army, had been killed in a skirmish on the frontier, and his -wife had died in giving birth to a son three months afterwards. Before Dick was two years old his grandfather had died, and then Lady Langton had come to England. She bought a small estate called The Grange, a few miles from Horsham, and found her whole life and happiness wrapped up in her grandson. So if Dick was a little spoilt, if he was inclined to be an idler, it was not altogether his fault.

Now a crisis had come into his life; the smooth surface of his existence was ruffled. He was in love, and, since he was certain that his grandmother would not approve of his choice, there was a secrecy in his romance which gave it a decidedly piquant flavour.

Lady Langton Avas ill, not dangerously, so the doctor said; but she was confined to her room, and was obliged to have a nurse. Clarice Danvers had come from a nursing institution in town. She was a lady, very pretty and graceful, and had not only won the goodwill of her patient, which she had taken some trouble to do, but aleo had speedily captured the heart of her patient's grandson. Dick Langton's declaration had not been long delayed: Clarice was convinced that, however much Lady Langton might like her as a nurse, she would not approve of her as a wife for Dick. To win her consent must be a question of time, and she had urged her lover to be careful. Every day. tea! and dinner time she met Dick in a secluded walk in the grounds, and'was intensely happy. ' This afternoon she entered the -Jbsu.se by a garden door and ran lightly upstairs. Her patient occupied a large room*overlooking gardens, and Clarice had the dressing room which communicated -with itLady Langton w r as dozing when the. nurse went in. She just roused sufficiently to say that she didn't want the lights yet, and then went to sleep again. The nurse moved quietly about the room, turned the key in the door, fearful, perchance, that Dick might come. She listened a moment to the quiet breathing which came from the bed, then sat down by the fire and let her thoughts wander. After a while the patient showed signs of-rousing'again. Immediately' the-nurse was b es ide her.

"In;the dark!" exclaimed-Lady Langton in a low . woice. "Why, surely vou "

" Yes," the nurse whispered a£ she bent over her; " you did not .want the lights.", •■ •_' ". ,v; v!T'i>-V' '' The patient sighed-a little -hekyily*and then dozed again. For some time the nurse watched her, apparently not quite certain whether her charge was as well as usual to-night. When she left the bedside "she moved on tiptoe, and the firelight was still the only light in the room. There was another period of silence, and then footsteps in the corridor and a slight clatter of plates. The servant came to the dressing room door. " Quietly," whispered the nurse as she opened it a little way and put. out her hand. "I'll take it. She is asleep."

They w T ould not be disturbed any more to-night, for -both the patient's and the nurse's supper were on the tray. Even to one whose work is nursing, the long hours in a sick room must pass terribly slow at times, especially when there is little to be done, and not much anxiety about the patient. At intervals the nurse went quietly to the bedside; but Lady Langton did not move. The nurse had returned to her chair after one of these visits to the bed, when a slight noise startled her. A rrouse in the skirting only. But it came again, and she lose quickly. She crossed the room and saw a piece of paper had been thrust under the door.

"Do come down foi five minutes, Clarice," she read, " only for five minutes, just to say 'good-night.' Write ' yes ' across this and push it back under the door. I'll wait in the library until you come."

She smiled as ehe read this message by the light of the fire, and for a moment or two seemed to hesitate; then, with a pencil, she scribbled across the paper, " Not to-night, dear. Good-night." She slipped it'under the door, saw it drawn away from her fingers, and heard footsteps go quietly along the corridor. She had not heard them approach the room.

She moved" cautiously about her room for some time. She went back to }*«■? chair by the fire. Perhaps the njte had made her restless, for restless she certainly was. She crossed to the bed several times to look at her patient, who was sleeping heavily. She seemed a little anxious about

her, and presently lit the candle, and, shading it with her hand, looked into Lady Langton's face. The inspection appeared to satisfy her, for she blew out the candle, and, having gently arranged the bedclothes, went to the window, and, drawing back the curtain, looked across the gardens, which were lit with the light of. a pale moon.

She went back to her chair and deliberately forced herself to remain quiet and motionless. In this mood it was only natural, perhaps, that her hearing should be keen. The servants had gone to bed—she heard them upon tfi'e stairs and had heard doors close in their quarters. She had heard Dick pass along the corridor to his room, and heard him pause outside the door, perhaps in the hope that she would relent and come out to him for a moment. She did not move, and he passed on and closed his door. For some time longer she waited, and then rose quickly. She to the bed and looked at her patient, then she passed into the dressing-room and felt her way from the dressing-table to the drawers, and to the long chintz-covered dress ottoman which stood at the foot of the bed. She went to the door, opened it, and listened, bending forward that she might catch the faintest sound. Was the house quite silent, or was there a sound from the other end' of the corridor —a sound which she seemed rather to feel than hear? At the far end of the corridor, down half a dozen steps, was a room Lady Langton used as a business room, For a few moments the nurse remained in her attentive attitude, then she stepped into the corridor, went quickly and lightly towards that room at tlie bottom ot the six steps. She entered it noiselessly. The moonlight shone into it from the uncurtained window, touching the writing table which stood in a corner. The side of the room where the door was was in darkness, and the nurse stood in a corner which the high bookcase formed with the wall. Had the sound come from this room?

Yes, that was a sound, a dul 1 tap on the wall near the window. ' She did not move. Across the moonlight in_ the room fell a shadow. A man was at the "window, his deft fingers worked at the fastening. In a; few seconds the window opened and lie' stepped in, quickly, followed by a.Second man, who must have stood upon -the! ladder behind him. The door was locked in a moment, the man passing v sb close to the nurse that she could have touched him. "Now, thehj flash that torch over here. It's a five minutes' job." . An electric ray pierced the corner, and the man who had first entered the rooni was kneeling down pulling back the cor-. pet. "Press that, bit of skirting—gently; a little more" to your right. That's it, Clever contrivance,. eh ? No fool old woman. Kept..'enj, safe for a good many years, she has. • r They're here right enough," he added quickly and excitedly, The nurse :'saw ? that a board in the flooring, set lose by the pressure of the skirting, .was. raised. It was a secret hfcU ing-place, and from it the man took a leather case: . ,' • • * " Look!" he said as he opened it. Then he turned round sharply at a sound behind. \ • " Move and I fire!" said a voice out of the darkness. •',

The nurse had glided noiselessly from her corner to the door. Now she covered them with a revolver. So suddenly were they disturbed that the two men were taken at a complete disadvantage, and before they had recovered from their surprise she spoke again. \-,', _ " There is someone coming. Go ! You have time if you are quick. No; leave those cases.", , :■ '

With her other hand she unlocked tho door sharply 1 . Her keen ears had caught another sound. ; .•" '/

- In a "moment the men had rushed for the window and.the ladder. The second man was still; clinging to the window-sill when Langton ran down the six steps and entered. >••-.• " Dick !" '.she. murmured. " Clarice!" . He could hardly see hor in the darkness. * .

"I heardi someone," she whispered. "They. have, gone—only just gone.; I saw them. You -will catch them. I'll go back to your grandmother." ■ Langton ran back along the corridor, calling to the butler, who soon camo hurrying from his room, and they went clown into the hall together. The nurse heard the front: door opened, and then footsteps running on the gravel. She slipped the revolver into her pocket, and in a moment was on ber knees. Hastily, she took the jewejs from their leather cases, put them in her pockets, and then she, too, went quickly along the but not to Lady Langton's room. Tho servants were awake and moving about, but she did not call to them. She ran down the stairs, went out by a garden door, and turned towards the front of the house. The burglars had -entered from the garden side, and she had no desire to meet either them or Dick Langton, She reached the road way, but only, crossed to the fields beyond, and she made at once for the shelter of a hedge. She wenti quickly, never hesitating which direction she should take. The path across three or four.fields was familiar to her. She climbed a railing into another road and whistled—a low whistle, but clear. It was immediately answered, and the next moment there was the soft purring of a motor.

"Eight!" she exclaimed as she got in. "Get away as fast as you can. I'll double up behind hero and gel rid of these clothes." " Heard another motor yonder not two minutes ago/' said the man. The nurse laughed, and the motor began to move rapidly. Langton and the butler searched tha gardens in vain. There was no doubt how the thieves had effected an entrance; the ladder was'still, against the window of

the room, but the burglars had made good their escape. As he entered the house presently Langton -vvas far from dissatisfied with the night's adventure. Clarice had disturbed the thieves at their work, so the booty they had secured was probably small. She had not said so. but he had gathered that she had come upon the scene before they had had time to do much. Possibly they had • gone away altogether emptyhanded. The nurse's bravery would appeal to his grandmother. His task would be lightened when he came to tell her that Clarice was*to be his wife. All the servants were up now, and no one of them seemed inclined to be left alone.

"It's all right, they have gone," Langton said reassuringly as he went up to his grandmother's business room. Then he saw the leather cases scattered about the floor, and pulled back the carpet and the raised floor-board. A secret hiding-place, and the burglars knew it. Something of greater value must have been hidden there than in the safe; that was why the safe had not been tampered with. He picked up the leather cases and opened them one after another. They were all empty. The thieves had been successful after all. How disappointed Clarice would be! What jewels could his grandmother have hidden here"? He did not know that she possessed any of special value. She had never mentioned them to him; he had never heard her talk of them. Perhaps only empty cases .had been in the hole in the floor. "I • wonder if Clarice can Hhrow any light upon this mystery," he murmured. " I must see her at once." 'He went to the dressing room door and knocked lightly. >

There was no answer. He turned the handle. The door was locked. . He went to the door of his grandmother's room. ( "Nurse! Nutsjb!" he called quietly but clearly. There was no answer, and this door, too, was locked. He stood listening for a few moments. What had happened? Was Clarice hurt? He went back to the dressing room door and-called her again, louder this time; but still there was no answer. He became llarmed, and hastened downstairs. Clarice must be hurt. She might be dying. He tent the butler for tools with which to force the lock, and then a housemaid came to him. . . "I don't think Nurse Danvers is back vet, sir." "-Back! Back from where? < . "I caught sight of her going quietly down the stairs just after you went down, sir. I think she went out by the garden !door near the library." " Nonsense! You must have been dreaming. That's right, Phillips," he said, as the butler came back with > the tools. You had better come with me." _ ' "The noise is likely to frighten the mistress, isn't it, sir?" Phillips said as they went upstairs, f) " We must be as quiet as we can, Langton answered; "but we must have that door open." - • Although the door was solid, the lock proved to be rather weak. No great noise was made in forcing it. Langton went in and lit a candle, Phillips remaining in the doorway. Clarice was not there, and Langton went to the door between the rooms, which was pulled to, but was not latched. "Grannie,, are you asleep?" he said, pausing before he entered. There was no answer, and Claricewas not there either. He put down the candle and went to the bed His grandmother was asleep; but was it only' his fancy which made her look unnatural? There, was a peculiar smell in the room, too. Ifseemed strongest near the bed. "Phillips! Phillips!" he called. The butler came in on tiptoe. "Does that look like a natural sleep to you, Phillips?" The butler looked at his mistress. "I don't think it does, sir. Shall I fetch Mrs Marks? She would know." " Yes, go and fetch her." Mrs Marks was the cook. Directly she entered the room and looked at Lady Langton she pronounced the sleep unnatural. . . . ~ " It's chloroform ; that's what it is, sir. " Good heavens! What does it all mean?" said Langton. "Stay with her, Mrs Marks". I'll send someone for the doctor and the police at once." The" stables were at a distance from the house, and no one there had been aroused by the excitement. It was Eome time before Langton could wake the chauffeur and send him off in the car to Horsham. "Bring the doctor back with you, and tho nolice, too, if you can." He' went back to the house slowly. Now that he had time to think for a moment the terrible truth seemed to catch him by the throat. Clarice was gone. The Jewel-cases were empty. Had he come upon her at the verv moment when she was helping the thieves to secure the booty? It could not be. Yet she had gone". Was her manner when he had rushed into his: grandmother's business "room? Yes, perhaps it was. She was excited—that was natural: ■ but she had been vei*y eager to get rid of him. He had thought her very brave ; now another reason for her attitude was forced upon him. What was it that had startled him to-night? Some slight but unfamiliar sound had made him open his bedroom door, and then as he listened he had heard a door unlocked sharply, the floor of that room at the end of the corridor. Then everything seemed to happen in a moment. Yes, it was very strange that she should be in that room, and c the housemaid declared that a few moments later she had run down the stairs and had left the house by a earden dcoJ". Slowly Langton went back to hi? mother's room. Mrs Marks was tfivre Hlone. "Te she still the same?" he asked. " Yes. sir: but I don't think any harm vill come of it. The mistress has just

been put to sleep so that she shouldn't wake up and give the alarm. Of course, the nurse would know exactly how much to "

"I suppose she would," Langton answered as he went into the dressing room. He could not bear to hear anyone accuse the woman he had loved, even though circumstances forced him to accuse her himself. What a fool he had been! And his folly was not over yet. This was her room. It held something of her personality still. She was a dainty woman, and a "few of her tr/rigs were on the toilet table—the brushes a silver-topped bottle or two, and a handkerchief. He took up the handkerchief. It smelt of chloroform. On a chair were her cloak and bonnet. She had worn them when she came to him in the garden, and she had gone without them. Her anxiety to get away must have been great. For him all the 'ioy had gone out of life, and presently, when the doctor and police came, he would have to answer horrible questions about the woman whom he loved. He got up quickly, angry with} fate. "I am a fool!" he muttered; "shall be a fool until allN/hese things are taken away. I suppose this ottoman has some of her clothes in it. Everything must be cleared away quickly, or I shall go mad." He lifted the lid, and then gave a cry which brought Mrs Marks from the adjoining room, and she echoed that cry the moment she was beside him. In the ottoman lying at full length, bound hand and foot, gagged and nearly fainting, was Clarice Hanvers.

They lifted her out and placed her on the bed, took away the gag, undid the bonds that held her, and then there was a purring of a motor in the drive. The doctor and the police had come. * Clarice Danvers was able to give little information. When she had come back to her room after seeing Dick in the garden she had opened the ottoman to get something out, and was immediately seized from behind, whether by a man or a w»man she could not tell. Strong hands held her. She knew that she was being chloroformed, but her throat was held in such a way that she. could not struggle, could hot utter" a sound. Quickly she had slipped into unconsciousness, and really remembered nothing more until she had heard the lid being lifted and had seen Langton with the candle looking down at her.

They dared not question Lady Langton too closely; but she declared that a strange nurse had come into her room. She had roused up to find the room in darkness, with the nurse bending over her. The nurse must have .seen that she recognised that she was a" stranger, for she put something over her mouth to prevent her saying anything. " A Queer dream, Lady Langton," said the doctor.

The invalid looked surprised. " It has made me feel quite ill again, and I was really getting better," Lady Langton said irritably, and the. doctor smiled at the success of his ruse., It was not deemed advisable to tell Lady Langton the truth at present. To inform her that the jewels which she had guarded so carefully, which no one appeared to know she possessed, had gone, might have a very serious effect upon her, the doctor said. So the,police, not knowing of what the jewels consisted, were heavily handicapped—indeed, none of the spoil was recovered nor the thieves caught. Richard Langton found considerable satisfaction, however, in a letter he received a few days later. It bore the London postmark, and was as follows:

Your little friend the nurse is quite innocent. For my own purposes, and to get the hang of the ways of the house, it was necessary to watch you when you met in the garden, and you are evidently in love. Men in love are deaf as well as blind, I imagine, or you might have noticed something unfamiliar in the voice of the woman who was so anxious that you should make an effort to catch the thieves. You will also understand why it was impossible for me to come down for five minutes and say good-night. I am glad to see by the' papers that the nurse woke up all right, and that your grandmother is not much the worse'for having slept more soundly than usual. I treated them as carefully as I could, and I have had experience of this kind of thing before. The letter was signed " The Other Nurse."

And about the same time that Langton got this letter three men were cursing furiously, in a room in Islington, over a communication one of them had received in the same handwriting: So long as yoji treated me fairly (it ran) I was content to be a comrade, sharing the danger and the plunder. But because I was a woman you thought I could be cheated. You undervalued your partner. No doubt you remember discussing this venture one night in the bar of the Red Lion. I overheard the conversation. I knew the place, the night fixed, the time; I understood everything except the exact spot where the iewels were hidden. You had got the information from a discharged servant ; but that channed of information -was not open to me. I had to work along another line, and have done so rather successfully. I fancy. My actual methods I need not explain—l may want to use them another time. My woman's wit enabled me to make use of you and your companions for my own benefit, and it may be some satisfaction to you to know that your estimate of the value of the find was about correct. I have suddenly developed into a capitalist.

There was no signature to this letter; but the men knew the writer well enough, and, now that it was too late, realised what a valuable confederate they had lost. When Lady Langton was told of the robbery she took to her bed again, but remained there only two days, and refused to' have a nurse. Then she got up and faced the world like a Stoic. She would

not speak of the jewels beyond saying that her husband had valued them. For a long time she hated all nurses, and could not be persuaded that Clarice Danvers was- innocent. It was Dick's determined threat to go and shoot big game in Africa, which finally subdued her, and then Clarice came to The Grange again, this time as a visitor.