"I don't know much, save what he"--she nodded towards the room wherein
lay her sleeping grandson--"what he said when he was mad with the drink.
Get him to speak, master, and you'll learn everything."
"In good time I'll make him speak," said Durgo with impressive
quietness. "Now I ask your questions. Answer! Do you hear?"
"Yes, master; yes, I hear. I answer," said the trembling old creature.
"Did you tell the truth in your trance last night?"
Mrs. Tunks looked up with awe. "He knows everything, does the master,"
she breathed softly, then replied with haste, "Yes. I spoke of what I
saw."
"Did you see all you spoke of, or did you make up some?"
"I spoke of what I saw," said Mrs. Tunks decidedly, "and you know,
master, how I saw it. I loosened the spirit, and it went to look. But I
don't say but what I didn't know much from what Luke raved about."
"So you knew before Vand took you to the Manor-house for this trance,
that he had murdered Huxham?"
"Yes, master, I did know, but I wasn't sure till I saw with the Sight."
"Luke"--Durgo nodded towards the inner room in his turn--"Luke knows
that Vand murdered Huxham?"
"Yes, master. I believe," said Granny, sinking her voice, "that he saw
the doings through the window of the study. He never said naught to me,
though I wondered where he got so much money to get drunk every day. But
when he was mad with the drink, he talked and talked all the night. Then
I knew that he had got money from Mr. Vand for holding his tongue."
"Tell me what he said?" commanded Durgo.
"He raved disjointed like," said Mrs. Tunks with great humility; "but he
talked of Mr. Vand coming in when Captain Huxham was looking at a box of
jewels. There was a knife on the floor, and Mr. Vand stabbed Captain
Huxham with that knife, and then dropped it behind the desk."
"Was his wife with him?"
"No. She was in the kitchen."
"Was there another man with Huxham before Vand came?"
"Luke said nothing of that. But he did say," added Mrs. Tunks quickly,
"that he was going to America with Mr. and Mrs. Vand, and raved of the
good time he would have with them."
"When are they going?"
"I don't know, master. Luke didn't say."
Cyril would have interrupted to ask a question about his missing father,
as he could not understand why Durgo had not threshed out that important
point. But at the first sound of his voice the negro frowned him unto
immediate silence. When all was quiet, Durgo looked directly at Granny,
and made passes. "Sleep, sleep, sleep!" he said, and Cyril could see by
the working of his face that he was putting out his will to induce a
hypnotic condition. "Sleep, I say."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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