The Lady from Nowhere: A Detective StoryHume, Fergus
Philosophy
The Lady from Nowhere: A Detective Story
Hume, Fergus
Detective and mystery stories; England -- Fiction; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction
"That depends upon your information."
"Then I shan't tell ye," cried Mrs. Grix, backing towards the door.
"You can look for what she wrote. I shan't 'elp you. Keep me fro' the
work-'ouse, and maybe I'll tell ye summat to make you wink; but not
now, not now. Old Jane Grix ain't no fool, lovey. No, no!"
Gebb made a step forward to detain her, but Mrs. Grix hobbled through
the door and vanished in the darkness as mysteriously as any of the
ghosts she had been talking about. At all events, when the detective
slipped out of the Yellow Room and into the twilight of the passage,
his eyes were somewhat dazzled by the sunlight and glare of colour
within, and he saw nothing for the moment, Mrs. Grix was quicker on
her old feet than he supposed, and in some way hobbled out of sight
into one of the numerous passages, so that when Gebb's eyes became
accustomed to the gloom he did not know into which one she had gone.
Also he heard rapidly retreating footsteps--not the heavy hobble of
the old woman, but rather the light, dancing step of Martin. And as to
confirm this impression he heard the hoarse voice of the gardener
singing one of his wild songs:--
"Light shall come, but not from above,
Joy shall come, but not from love,
The glow of hell, the lust of hate,
Impatiently for these I wait."
"Ha!" said Gebb to himself, as he hurried down the passage. "Martin
has been listening. I wonder why? I don't believe he is mad, after
all, for neither that old woman nor Miss Wedderburn is afraid of him.
He must be feigning madness for some reason. Ha!" cried the detective
with a sudden start, "can Martin be the murderer of----"
Before he could finish the sentence he heard a series of piercing
shrieks from Mrs. Grix, and a hoarse growling from Martin. These
noises sounded far in the distance, and Gebb ran down the passage,
through the sitting-room into which he had been shown by Miss
Wedderburn on the occasion of his first visit, and on to the terrace.
Here he saw Mrs. Grix running from Martin, who was rushing after her
with a furious face. Gebb stared, not at the terrified old woman, who
was hurrying towards him with wonderful activity for one of her years,
but at Martin's face. It wore a savage scowl, and there between the
eyes was the deep mark spoken of by Parge.
"Dean!" cried Gebb, thunderstruck. "You are Dean!"
"Yes! yes!" screeched Mrs. Grix, getting behind Gebb, "he's Dean sure
enough. He was going to kill me 'cause I wanted to tell ye."
Martin--or rather Dean--stopped when he heard his name, then turned,
and leaping over the terrace ran like a hare down the avenue.
CHAPTER XXI
FOUND AT LAST
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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