WHAT THE CELLAR REVEALED
0n opening the door at the farther end of the tap-room they saw before them a trap-door standing wide with a shallow flight of wooden steps leading to the darkness below. Bates pointed with his foot to a square of linoleum which lay on one side.
"That was covering the trap," he said, "I wouldn't ha' noticed nothing out of the ordinary myself only I slipped, see, and kicked this bit o' ilecloth away and there was the ring of the trap staring me in the face, as you might say. Show us a light here, Gordon!"Gordon handed him an electric torch. He flashed it down the stair. It fell upon something like a heap of black clothes huddled up at the foot of the ladder.
"Is it Miss Mackwayte?" whispered Francis to his brother. "I've never seen her, you know!""I can't tell," Desmond whispered back, "until I see her face."He advanced to descend the ladder but Matthews was before him.
Producing an electric torch from his pocket, Matthews slipped down the stair with Gordon close behind. There was a pause, so tense that it seemed an eternity to Desmond, as he waited half-way down the ladder with the musty smell of the cellar in his nostrils. Then Matthews cried:
"It's not her!"
"Let me look!" Gordon broke in. Then Desmond heard him exclaim.
"It's Nur-el-Din's French maid! It's Marie... she's been stabbed in the back!"Desmond suddenly felt rather sick. This progress from one deed of violence to another revolted him. The others crowded into the cellar; but he did not follow them. He remained at the top of the trap, leaning against the wall, trying to collect his thoughts.
Barbara Mackwayte was now his sole preoccupation. If anything had happened to her,--it was through his fault alone; for he began to feel sure she must have come to the Mill House in his absence.
What then had become of her? The blood-stained toque pointed to foul play. But if they had murdered her, what had they done with the body?
His thoughts flew back to his interview with Nur-el-Din upstairs on the previous afternoon. He remembered the entrance of the maid and the dancer's hurried exit. Might not Marie have come to tell her that Barbara Mackwayte was below asking for her? It was very shortly after this interruption that, crouching on the roof of the shed, he had heard that muffled cry from the house and seen Rass enter the bar and speak with Strangwise. He had seen, too, the maid, Marie, in earnest conversation with Strangwise by the back gate on the fen. Had both Marie and Rass been in league with Strangwise against the dancer? And had Nur-el-Din discovered their treachery? His mind refused to follow these deductions to their logical sequence; for, black as things looked against Nur-el-Din, he could not bring himself to believe her a murderess.
But now there were footsteps on the ladder. They were all coming out of the cellar again. As soon as Francis saw Desmond's face, he caught his brother by the arm and said:
"The open air for you, my boy! You look as if you'd seen a ghost!
I should have remembered all you've gone through!"He walked him quickly through the tap-room and out through the inn door into the yard.
The rain had ceased and the sun was ****** a brave attempt to shine through the, clouds. The cold air did Desmond good and after a turn or two in the yard, arm in arm with Francis, he felt considerably better.
"Where is Miss Mackwayte?" he asked.
"Des," said his brother, " I don't know and I don't want to cross-examine Nur-el-Din in there until I have reasoned out some theory which will fit Miss Mackwayte in her place in this horrible affair. The men have gone to search the outhouses and precincts of the inn to see if they can find any traces of her body. but I don't think they will find anything. I believe that Miss Mackwayte is alive.""Alive?" said Desmond.
"The blood on that toque of hers might have been Rass's. There is a good deal of blood on the floor. You see, I still think Miss Mackwayte's safety depends on that jewel not being recovered by either Strangwise or Nur-el-Din. Strangwise, we know, has lost the jewel and there is no trace of it here: moreover, we know that, as late as yesterday afternoon, Nur-el-Din did not have it.
Therefore, she cannot have sent it away! I am inclined to believe, too, that Strangwise, before going over to the Mill House last night, carried off Miss Mackwayte somewhere with the aid of Rass and Marie, who were evidently his accomplices, in order to find out from her where the jewel is concealed...""But Miss Mackwayte cannot know what has become of it," objected Desmond.
"Maybe not," retorted his brother, "but both Strangwise and Nur-el-Din know that the jewel was originally entrusted to her charge. Nur-el-Din did not, it is true, tell Miss Mackwayte what the silver box contained but the latter may have found out, at least the dancer might suppose so; while Strangwise might think the same. Therefore, both Strangwise and Nur-el-Din had an interest in detaining Miss Mackwayte, and I think Strangwise forestalled the dancer. When Nur-el-Din discovered it, both Rass and her maid paid the penalty of their betrayal."They walked once up and down the yard before Desmond replied.
"Francis," he said, "you remember Nur-el-Din's story--I told it to you just as I had it from her.""Perfectly," answered his brother.