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DarqueDante
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was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his brow was all crinkled with
anger, and the veins stood out at his temples with passion. He locked
the door and hurried past me without a word or a look.
"This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the
grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I
could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four of
them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the fourth was
shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I strolled up and
down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle came out to me,
looking as merry and jovial as ever.
"'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you without a
word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with business matters.'
"I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, 'you
seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one of them
has the shutters up.'
"He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled at my
remark.
"'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my dark
room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we have
come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever believed
it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest in his eyes as
he looked at me. I read suspicion there and annoyance, but no jest.
"Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there was
something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, I was
all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, though I have
my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a feeling that some
good might come from my penetrating to this place. They talk of
woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's instinct which gave me that
feeling. At any rate, it was there, and I was keenly on the lookout
for any chance to pass the forbidden door.
"It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that,
besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to do
in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large black
linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been drinking
hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when I came
upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at all that
he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both downstairs, and
the child was with them, so that I had an admirable opportunity. I
turned the key gently in the lock, opened the door, and slipped
through.
"There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and uncarpeted,
which turned at a right angle at the farther end. Round this corner
were three doors in a line, the first and third of which were open.
They each led into an empty room, dusty and cheerless, with two
windows in the one and one in the other, so thick with dirt that the
evening light glimmered dimly through them. The centre door was
closed, and across the outside of it had been fastened one of the
broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked at one end to a ring in the
wall, and fastened at the other with stout cord. The door itself was
locked as well, and the key was not there. This barricaded door
corresponded clearly with the shuttered window outside, and yet I
could see by the glimmer from beneath it that the room was not in
darkness. Evidently there was a skylight which let in light from
above. As I stood in the passage gazing at the sinister door and
wondering what secret it might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of
steps within the room and saw a shadow pass backward and forward
against the little slit of dim light which shone out from under the
door. A mad, unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr.
Holmes. My overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and
ran--ran as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the
skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, and
straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting outside.
"'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it must be
when I saw the door open.'
"'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted.
"'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how
caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened you,
my dear young lady?'
"But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I was
keenly on my guard against him.
"'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. 'But
it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was frightened and
ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in there!'
"'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly.
"'Why, what did you think?' I asked.
"'Why do you think that I lock this door?'
"'I am sure that I do not know.'
"'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you see?'
He was still smiling in the most amiable manner.
"'I am sure if I had known--'