"The dear child took to heart what I said yesterday about her living
with her husband. After you had gone she came to me and laid her head on
my breast, as she used to do as a little child, and began to cry; and
told me that I had been very good to her. The darling! And that her mind
was made up. She realised now her duty to her husband; and that as he
wished her to stay in the house, nothing in the world would induce her
to leave it till he came. That was the first act of her new duty! And,
oh my dear! that is why I was so concerned when I found that after all
she was not in the house. I don't understand it; there must be something
on foot that I don't know; and I am full of fear!" Here the old lady
quite broke down. I felt that any self control now was precious. It
would not do to leave Mrs. Jack in ignorance of the danger, so I told
her in as few words as I could of the blackmailing going on and of
the watch set by the United States Secret Service. At first she was
overwhelmed; but her early apprenticeship to dangers of all kinds stood
her in good stead. Very soon her agitation took practical shape. I told
her I was off to seek for help, and that she must keep the house till I
returned. I would have tried the secret tunnel, but from what Mrs. Jack
had said I was convinced that Marjory had never left the house of her
own accord. If she had been captured she was doubtless far away by this
time. It was possible that the blackmailers had found the secret passage
into the Castle by which Don Bernardino had come. Here the thought came
to me in full force; that was how they had discovered it. They had
seen and watched the Don!... I felt that another debt for our day of
reckoning had been piled up against him.
I got in the cart again and went to Cruden as hard as the mare could go.
As I went, I formed my plans, and had my telegrams made up in my mind
ready to write them out at once. For a while I doubted whether I should
go to another telegraph office, lest the Cruden people might come to
know too much. But there was no need of concealment now. I was not
afraid of any one knowing, though I determined to be discreet and
secret if possible. The circuit was occupied, so I found the use of the
priority telegraph forms Adams had sent me. There was not a moment lost;
one was being despatched whilst I was writing the next. To Adams I said:
"They have succeeded: Wire men see me at Crom right away. Come if you
can. Want all help can get. Time vital...."
To Cathcart I wired at his house in Invernesshire:
"Come to me without moment's delay. Vital. Want every kind of help." I
knew he would understand, and would come armed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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