A STRANGE EXPERIMENT.
At an hour past midnight Fred Cornwall called for Aunt Leth in a closed carriage, drawn by a pair of smart horses. Aunt Leth, warmly enveloped in a cloak which entirely covered her dress, was waiting for him. Parting from her family with tears and kisses and blessings, she accompanied Fred to the carriage, and they drove slowly off in the direction of Parksides.
About a mile behind them, on the same road, trotted a horse attached to a dog-cart. Garden was driving, and Tom Barley sat by his side. On the back seat sat a groom.
"What I want you to do, Tom," said Garden, "is to go over the ground exactly as you did on the night of the murder. Where you stopped then, I want you to stop now; and it will be all the better if you can remember the exact turns you took on that occasion."
"There's no fear, sir, of my not being able to remember. Day and night I think of nothing else."
"And now tell me again what occurred on the night Miss Farebrother was turned from her father's house, and you rode with her to London on that scoundrel Pamflett's horse."
Engaged in conversation, they drove along until they heard the sound of carriage-wheels in front of them; and presently, through the darkness, they discerned the carriage.
"Hold the horse, Tom," said Garden. "That carriage seems to be going the same road as we are, and I want to be certain that we are going right."
"We are going quite right, sir. I could take you blindfold, I believe."
"I dare say, Tom," said Garden, jumping down from the dog-cart; "but I am a self-willed fellow, and I would not make a mistake to-night for all the gold in the world. We have plenty of time, have we not?"
"Plenty, sir."
"Stop here, then. I will rejoin you presently."
He ran and called after the carriage; and the coachman, obeying instructions from some one inside, pulled up. In a breathless state, Garden presented himself at the carriage door.
"Are you all right and comfortable?" he gasped.
"Yes, Dick," replied Fred. "And you?"
"Everything is going on splendidly," said Garden. "A bright night, Mrs. Lethbridge, isn't it?"
She pressed his hand in acquiescence, her voice failing her when she tried to answer him. It was a singular opinion to have of a night so dark that they could scarcely see a dozen yards before them.
"You must take care and not catch cold," said Garden. "Was Miss Lethbridge well when you left her?"
Fred replied for Aunt Leth. "Yes, Dick; and she sent you the kindest of messages."
"It was very good of her to think of me. But you don't mean to say you saw her, Fred? She ought to have been asleep hours before."
"She is not going to bed to-night. Bob will remain up with her. Uncle Leth will take a little rest on the sofa."
"Well, perhaps it is natural. I must get back to the dog-cart now, or Tom Barley may be impatient. Drive on, coachman."
As Garden retraced his steps to the dog-cart he saw with his mind's eye Fanny's pretty face looking up through her tears, and the smile upon his lips was a proof that the vision was an agreeable one.
It was a little past four o'clock when the dog-cart drew up at the gates of Parksides.
"Now, Tom," said Garden, as he and Tom Barley alighted, "take me over the ground, and don't make the slightest mistake."
The strange task upon which they were engaged occupied them till sunrise.
"Was the light when you saw the woman in the blue dress about the same as it is now?" asked Garden.
"Yes, sir; only it was a little earlier in the morning. And I was standing as near as possible on this very spot when I first saw her."
"I want to know the exact direction, Tom. We are facing those trees yonder. Was it there?"
"Yes, sir; among those very trees."
"Be sure, Tom," said Garden, stepping two or three paces behind, and taking a white handkerchief from his pocket. "Don't turn, Tom! You are sure?"
"I am sure, sir," said Tom, looking straight before him.
Garden waved the white handkerchief high in the air, and the next moment Tom uttered a loud cry, and darted forward. Garden ran swiftly after him, and caught his arm.
"Why, what is the matter with you, Tom?"
"There! there!" cried Tom, struggling to release himself; but Garden held him fast. Tom's voice trembled from excitement, and his face was white. "I saw her this very minute."
"Saw whom?"
"The woman in the blue dress," cried Tom. "Let me go, sir! let me go!"
"You must be dreaming, Tom," said Garden, his heart beating high with exultation. "Keep still, keep still! Remember you have promised to obey me implicitly."
"I saw her, I tell you!" cried Tom, shaking all over, but ceasing to struggle. "And now she has disappeared!"
"As she did on the night of the murder?"
"Yes, as she did then."
"But you saw her again?"
"Yes, I saw her again."
"But not in the same spot?"
"No," said Tom, turning in another direction. "This way."
He walked on fifty or sixty yards, and Garden, holding his arm more lightly, accompanied him.
"Why do you stop, Tom?"
"Because I saw her in that clump the second time."
Garden took his hand from Tom's arm and stepped behind him. Again he took his white handkerchief from his pocket.
"Are you quite sure you are not mistaken, Tom?"
"It isn't possible for me to be mistaken," said Tom. Garden once more waved his handkerchief in the air. "There! there! There she is again!"
"All right!" shouted Garden, as though he were addressing some person in the distance. Racing after Tom, he threw his arms around him.
"If you don't let me go," screamed Tom, "I shall do you a mischief! There she is coming towards us!"
Slowly approaching them was a woman in a pink dress, holding her head down.
"Now, Tom," whispered Garden. "It will be over in a moment or two. For God's sake keep still, or you will ruin everything! Do you say that dress is blue?"
"What trick are you playing me?" exclaimed Tom, in a hoarse, broken voice. "Do you want to drive me mad? It is blue, I tell you! I'll take my dying oath on it!"
The woman was now very near to them. She raised her head, and Tom started back in affright as he recognised the face of Aunt Leth.
"Tom," she said, holding out her hand.
But Tom, holding his hands out-stretched before him, shrank from her as she advanced.
"Tom," said Garden, "you know Mrs. Lethbridge?"
"Yes," replied Tom, in the voice of a man who was utterly dazed, "I know her."
"Would she knowingly deceive you? Would she, whose one great hope is that of saving Miss Farebrother's life, knowingly tell you a lie?"
"No; she could not, she could not!"
"Mrs. Lethbridge," said Garden, "what is the colour of the dress you are wearing?"
"Pink," said Aunt Leth, with wistful trembling.
"Pink!" muttered Tom. "Am I going mad?"
"And here is Mr. Cornwall," said Garden, as Fred joined them. "Fred, what is the colour of the dress Mrs. Lethbridge has on?"
"Pink," said Fred.
"Mrs. Pamflett's favourite colour," said Garden. "The colour of the dress she wore when you saw her here on the night of the murder."
"If you've got any pity in you, sir," implored Tom, "tell me what all this means!"
"It means, Tom," answered Garden, "that Miss Farebrother is saved, and her innocence proved. It means, Tom, that you are colour-blind. By the mercy of God this has been discovered in time. See to Mrs. Lethbridge, Fred; she is fainting!"