From Diana's Grove she heard each day the luncheon-gong from Castra Regis
sound, and knew the hour when the servants would be in the back of the
house. She would enter the house at that hour, and, pretending that she
could not make anyone hear her, would seek him in his own rooms. The
tower was, she knew, away from all the usual sounds of the house, and
moreover she knew that the servants had strict orders not to interrupt
him when he was in the turret chamber. She had found out, partly by the
aid of an opera-glass and partly by judicious questioning, that several
times lately a heavy chest had been carried to and from his room, and
that it rested in the room each night. She was, therefore, confident
that he had some important work on hand which would keep him busy for
long spells.
Meanwhile, another member of the household at Castra Regis had schemes
which he thought were working to fruition. A man in the position of a
servant has plenty of opportunity of watching his betters and forming
opinions regarding them. Oolanga was in his way a clever, unscrupulous
rogue, and he felt that with things moving round him in this great
household there should be opportunities of self-advancement. Being
unscrupulous and stealthy--and a savage--he looked to dishonest means. He
saw plainly enough that Lady Arabella was making a dead set at his
master, and he was watchful of the slightest sign of anything which might
enhance this knowledge. Like the other men in the house, he knew of the
carrying to and fro of the great chest, and had got it into his head that
the care exercised in its porterage indicated that it was full of
treasure. He was for ever lurking around the turret-rooms on the chance
of making some useful discovery. But he was as cautious as he was
stealthy, and took care that no one else watched him.
It was thus that the negro became aware of Lady Arabella's venture into
the house, as she thought, unseen. He took more care than ever, since he
was watching another, that the positions were not reversed. More than
ever he kept his eyes and ears open and his mouth shut. Seeing Lady
Arabella gliding up the stairs towards his master's room, he took it for
granted that she was there for no good, and doubled his watching
intentness and caution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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