“When does the London train pass here?” he next inquired.
“In half an hour, sir.”
“That will do,” replied Mr. Montrose. Then, drawing the arm of Eudora within his own, he conducted her to the waiting-room.
It was empty.
“Remain here, dearest Eudora, until I return. I shall be back in twenty minutes. It is not likely that any one will come in here during my absence, as very few first-class lady passengers take the train at this station at this hour; nevertheless, keep your veil down,” said Malcolm, as he placed her in a chair in a dark corner of the room. He then pressed her hand, left her, and hurried out to the place where he had left the pony-chaise.
He unhitched the horse, mounted the driver’s seat, and drove madly off towards Allworth. So fiercely he drove that in ten minutes he reached the stables, and returned the horse bathed in sweat and covered with foam to his stall. He replaced the chaise in the carriage-house, and then set off in a run toward the railway station. He could not run quite so fast as a horse could gallop, and so the distance accomplished by the pony in ten minutes occupied him fifteen.
It wanted, therefore, but about five minutes to the passing of the train when he rejoined Eudora in the waiting-room.
Besides Eudora, he found two gentlemen and one lady in the same room. They seemed, also, to belong to the same party, for they walked and talked together; and the subject of their conversation was that which then formed the topic of the whole neighborhood, and which was destined soon to form the topic of the whole kingdom—the tragedy of Allworth Abbey!
“They say,” observed the lady, “that it is incontrovertibly proved that this Asiatic girl, Eudora Leaton, was the poisoner, and that her motive was the inheritance of the estate. One can scarcely believe in such depravity in one so young as this girl is represented to be.”
“Crime is of no age or sex, madam; and from all that we can hear, it seems abundantly proved that this young girl actually did poison the whole family,” replied the old gentleman addressed, whom Malcolm now, with extreme anxiety, recognized as a neighbor, Admiral Brunton, of the Anchorage, near Abbeytown.