Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction, English; Quatermain, Allan (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
Half an hour or so later by the light of the setting moon which
struggled through a window, I saw the door open and Miss Holmes emerge
in a kind of dressing-gown and still wearing the necklace which Harût
and Marût had given her. Of this I was sure for the light gleamed upon
the red stones.
Also it shone upon her face and showed me without doubt that she was
walking in her sleep.
Gliding as silently as a ghost she crossed the corridor and vanished. I
followed and saw that she had descended an ancient, twisting stairway
which I had noted in the castle wall. I went after her, my stockinged
feet making no noise, feeling my way carefully in the darkness of the
stair, for I did not dare to strike a match. Beneath me I heard a noise
as of someone fumbling with bolts. Then a door creaked on its hinges
and there was some light. When I reached the doorway I caught sight of
the figure of Miss Holmes flitting across a hollow garden that was laid
out in the bottom of the castle moat which had been drained. The
garden, as I had observed when we walked through it on the previous day
on our way to the first covert that we shot, was bordered by a
shrubbery through which ran paths that led to the back drive of the
castle.
Across the garden glided the figure of Miss Holmes and after it went I,
crouching and taking cover behind every bush as though I were stalking
big game, which indeed I was. She entered the shrubbery, moving much
more swiftly now, for as she went she seemed to gather speed, like a
stone which is rolled down a hill. It was as though whatever might be
attracting her, for I felt sure that she was being drawn by something,
acted more strongly upon her sleeping will as she drew nearer to it.
For a while I lost sight of her in the shadow of the tall trees. Then
suddenly I saw her again, standing quite still in an opening caused by
the blowing down in the gale of one of the avenue of elms that bordered
the back drive. But now she was no longer alone, for advancing towards
her were two cloaked figures in whom I recognized Harût and Marût.
There she stood with outstretched arms, and towards her, stealthily as
lions stalking a buck, came Harût and Marût. Moreover, between the
naked boughs of the fallen elm I caught sight of what looked like the
outline of a closed carriage standing upon the drive. Also I heard a
horse stamp upon the frosty ground. Round the edge of the little glade
I ran, keeping in the dark shadow, as I went cocking the pistol that
was in my pocket. Then suddenly I darted out and stood between Harût
and Marût and Miss Holmes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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