Though the man had closed his eyes in the knowledge that it was entirely
safe for him to sleep in Graham’s presence, his slumber was not an easy
one. He started often and groaned more than once; while his hand
nervously made the movement of striking with a weapon at some unseen
foe. The artist watched him for some minutes.
"I should like to have another day’s work on that rascal’s torso," he
said at last; "I suppose if I paid him enough he would come to the
tower."
As he spoke he tore a leaf from his notebook, and writing a few lines
upon it placed it in the fellow’s nerveless hands, lest he should steal
away before morning. Then he threw himself back and slept again long
and heavily. When he awoke it was broad daylight in the cabin of which
he found himself the sole occupant. At first he wondered if he had
dreamed that his lodging had been shared by a rough companion; but no,
there was the sketch upon the wall of the sleeping figure crouching by
the fireplace. Besides, his visitor had left a trace of his presence.
Near the spot where he had sat lay a handkerchief. The artist
carelessly picked up the square of white linen, somewhat surprised to
find that it was of the finest quality. A red stain on one corner
induced him to examine it more carefully. It was neatly stitched with
an odd pattern which was not unfamiliar to him, and in one corner was an
embroidered monogram of an intricate form. The letters were cunningly
twisted together, and it took him several minutes to distinguish them.
Two L’s, an I, a T, an E, an N, and a C, all enclosed in a large M.
Nobody in the world could have so many initials, not even a Spanish
grandee. It must be a name, probably one beginning with M, as that was
the most prominent letter in the _chiffre_. He studied it for an
instant, and suddenly cried aloud that name which had become so dear to
him,--"Millicent!"
What could it mean? Millicent’s handkerchief in the possession of that
ruffianly fellow, the dark crimson stain of blood marring its whiteness?
What could have befallen her? He dared not even think of what this
portended; and thrusting it into his breast, he ran to the door and
looked all about him. Silence everywhere; no movement in the copse
before the door; no trace of his late visitor save the broken branch of
a buckeye near which his horse had been tethered.
Graham was a brave man, with nerves at once sensitive and strong; but
the picture which rose before his eyes unmanned him for the moment
completely. He leaned against the door-post quaking with terror, too
much confused to know what next to do. He could not think; he only saw
that villanous face before him in its heavy sleep, that clinching of the
hand, that motion as of stabbing with a knife. In the breast of what
victim had that weapon been buried? At the recollection of what crime
had he groaned aloud?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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