‘Come on, Claude,’ he said cheerily, pushing back his chair, ‘I’ve finished breakfast now, and we will go out and see Monarch. We will take these bits of sausage, and perhaps Mrs Mason will allow us to give them to him to-day. I shouldn’t wonder if his breakfast had been forgotten when every one has been so busy.’
‘Oh, Master Ronald, haven’t you heard?’ began Mary, ‘poor Monarch’—— and then she stopped, for Claude ceased crying for a minute to listen to what she had to say about his pet. It had suddenly occurred to her that the news she had to tell would not help to comfort the little boy.
‘I think you had better not go into the courtyard,’ she went on hurriedly, with a warning look at Ronald, ‘not just now, at least, for the hole they cut in the conservatory is just above Monarch’s kennel. You know how the conservatory comes quite close to the courtyard near there, and the inspector didn’t seem to want any one about. He says that if there are any footsteps they will be all trodden away if any one goes to look.’
‘All right,’ said sensible Ronald, who saw clearly that there was some other reason which Mary did not wish to give. ‘We’ll go into the greenhouse instead, and see if we can catch any little green frogs among the ferns by the tank.’
This was a favourite occupation of Isobel’s and Claude’s, though it was not very often allowed; but to-day Ronald thought that he could take the responsibility upon himself, and Mary heartily seconded his proposal. So Claude went off quietly with his big cousin to get his boots and gaiters, while the two other boys only waited till the door was shut behind them to fall on Mary with eager questions.
‘Why did I not want him to go into the courtyard, Master Ralph? Because the poor beast that he is so fond of is stone dead, murdered by those scoundrels so that he couldn’t bark and they might begin their work in peace. If Monarch had been alive I warrant they wouldn’t have cut their hole so easily; he would have roused the whole of Hampstead first.’
‘Monarch dead!’ said both the boys at once. Ralph felt a lump rise in his throat at the news, for the gentle animal had been a favourite with all the children, while Vivian sat and gazed vaguely out of the window, a great fear rising in his heart.
‘How did they kill him?’ asked Ralph at last, and his voice was rather husky.
‘They poisoned him,’ said Mary, beginning to put the plates together with great energy. ‘Mason found half of a bit of nasty yellow pastry lying in his kennel; he had eaten the rest. It had been made with some poisonous stuff, the policeman said, and the poor brute was stone dead, and quite stiff when they found him. But, anyway, he did not suffer, for a mercy, for he was curled up quite peaceful like, just as if he had gone to sleep.—But, bless me, Master Vivian, whats the matter with you next?’ she exclaimed in alarm, for Vivian, who had risen suddenly to his feet, turned perfectly white, and, after one or two feeble attempts to steady himself by holding on to the back of a chair, fell forward on the floor in a dead faint.