Bat Wing by Sax Rohmer (ebook reader for surface pro txt) đ
- Author: Sax Rohmer
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âChanged?âin what way?â
âI am afraid it would be hopeless to try to make you understand, Mr. Knox, but in some subtle way she changed. Underneath all her vivacity she is a tragic woman, andâoh, how can I explain?â Val Beverley made a little gesture of despair.
âPerhaps you mean,â I suggested, âthat she seemed to become even less happy than before?â
âYes,â she replied, looking at me eagerly. âHas Colonel Menendez told you anything to account for it?â
âNothing,â I said, âHe has left us strangely in the dark. But you say he went abroad on a second and more recent occasion?â
âYes, not much more than a month ago. And after that, somehow or other, matters seemed to come to a head. I confess I became horribly frightened, but to have left would have seemed like desertion, and Madame de StĂ€mer has been so good to me.â
âDid you actually witness any of the episodes which took place about a month ago?â
Val Beverley shook her head.
âI never saw anything really definite,â she replied.
âYet, evidently you either saw or heard something which alarmed you.â
âYes, that is true, but it is so difficult to explain.â
âCould you try to explain?â
âI will try if you wish, for really I am longing to talk to someone about it. For instance, on several occasions I have heard footsteps in the corridor outside my room.â
âAt night?â
âYes, at night.â
âStrange footsteps?â
She nodded.
âThat is the uncanny part of it. You know how familiar one grows with the footsteps of persons living in the same house? Well, these footsteps were quite unfamiliar to me.â
âAnd you say they passed your door?â
âYes. My rooms are almost directly overhead. And right at the end of the corridor, that is on the southeast corner of the building, is Colonel Menendezâs bedroom, and facing it a sort of little smoke-room. It was in this direction that the footsteps went.â
âTo Colonel Menendezâs room?â
âYes. They were light, furtive footsteps.â
âThis took place late at night?â
âQuite late, long after everyone had retired.â
She paused, staring at me with a sort of embarrassment, and presently:
âWere the footsteps those of a man or a woman?â I asked.
âOf a woman. Someone, Mr. Knox,â she bent forward, and that look of fear began to creep into her eyes again, âwith whose footsteps I was quite unfamiliar.â
âYou mean a stranger to the house?â
âYes. Oh, it was uncanny.â She shuddered. âThe first time I heard it I had been lying awake listening. I was nervous. Madame de StĂ€mer had told me that morning that the Colonel had seen someone lurking about the lawns on the previous night. Then, as I lay awake listening for the slightest sound, I suddenly detected these footsteps; and they pausedâright outside my door.â
âGood heavens!â I exclaimed. âWhat did you do?â
âFrankly, I was too frightened to do anything. I just lay still with my heart beating horribly, and presently they passed on, and I heard them no more.â
âWas your door locked?â
âNo.â She laughed nervously. âBut it has been locked every night since then!â
âAnd these sounds were repeated on other nights?â
âYes, I have often heard them, Mr. Knox. What makes it so strange is that all the servants sleep out in the west wing, as you know, and Pedro locks the communicating door every night before retiring.â
âIt is certainly strange,â I muttered.
âIt is horrible,â declared the girl, almost in a whisper. âFor what can it mean except that there is someone in Crayâs Folly who is never seen during the daytime?â
âBut that is incredible.â
âIt is not so incredible in a big house like this. Besides, what other explanation can there be?â
âThere must be one,â I said, reassuringly. âHave you spoken of this to Madame de StĂ€mer?â
âYes.â
Val Beverleyâs expression grew troubled.
âHad she any explanation to offer?â
âNone. Her attitude mystified me very much. Indeed, instead of reassuring me, she frightened me more than ever by her very silence. I grew to dread the coming of each night. Thenââ she hesitated again, looking at me patheticallyââtwice I have been awakened by a loud cry.â
âWhat kind of cry?â
âI could not tell you, Mr. Knox. You see I have always been asleep when it has come, but I have sat up trembling and dimly aware that what had awakened me was a cry of some kind.â
âYou have no idea from whence it proceeded?â
âNone whatever. Of course, all these things may seem trivial to you, and possibly they can be explained in quite a simple way. But this feeling of something pending has grown almost unendurable. Then, I donât understand Madame and the Colonel at all.â
She suddenly stopped speaking and flushed with embarrassment.
âIf you mean that Madame de StĂ€mer is in love with her cousin, I agree with you,â I said, quietly.
âOh, is it so evident as that?â murmured Val Beverley. She laughed to cover her confusion. âI wish I could understand what it all means.â
At this point our tĂȘte-Ă -tĂȘte was interrupted by the return of Madame de StĂ€mer.
âOh, la la!â she cried, âthe Colonel must have allowed himself to become too animated this evening. He
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