What Stelfox knew his late master was not quite sure; but the man’s respectful reticence during long years, during which his suspicions of foul play had grown into certainties, had so strongly impressed the master, that Mr. Bradfield had never felt safe since Stelfox had left his service.
So that Mr. Bradfield, for whom Wyngham House and its treasures had lost the charm of novelty, had thought it safest, as well as pleasantest, to decamp, leaving only the bare bones of his stolen property to be wrangled over in litigation.
What had woke him he did not know. He seemed to have jumped from the deepest, sweetest slumber into broad wakefulness. He looked out at the sky, which he could just see between the white dimity curtains of the window, and he saw a bright little line of light which showed him that the summer sun was already high in the heavens. He looked at the foot of the bed, and saw, instead of the brass and beaten iron-work of his own magnificent bedstead, the polished mahogany of the old-fashioned four-poster. Then he remembered where he was, heaved a sigh of satisfaction at having left the anxieties of Wyngham behind him, and turned over in bed for another doze.
Then he saw what it was that had woke him. Standing beside his bedside, as respectfully as ever, was Stelfox. Then Mr. Bradfield felt that the way of the transgressor is indeed hard. He sat up in bed, and tried to look merely surprised.
“Hallo, Stelfox, is that you?” he said, boisterously.
“Yes, sir, it is I,” answered Stelfox, who was always correct.
“Well, and what are you doing here? Nothing happened, I hope?”
He was not yet quite warmed to the world and its doings, so, although he was undoubtedly annoyed and alarmed by the appearance of his late servant, he did not quite appreciate the full significance of this singular intrusion.
“Well, sir, I can’t exactly say that nothing has happened,” said Stelfox, still looking down. “I came down from London to Wyngham yesterday afternoon, sir, to see you. But I saw Mr. Marrable instead, sir.”
All this was said quite simply. But when his speech was finished, Stelfox came to a sudden stop—a nasty, significant stop.