“It was not many minutes after I had taken this decision that my companion paused in his rapid walk; and after looking about him doubtfully seemed to recognise some landmark in the darkness, and came to a sudden halt. ‘Can you get over these railings?’ he said. We had been following the line of an iron fence that bordered the path, and I could feel rather than see that it reached above the height of my waist and was ornamented with spikes. ‘I think it is hardly possible,’ I replied; ‘but why should I get over?’ He did not answer, but seemed to consider. ‘I think I can lift you over,’ he said at length, and before I could object he had his arms around me, and with a tremendous effort swung me up in the air and across the railings. ‘Now you must help me,’ he said, holding tightly to my arm as I landed safely on the other side. And partly by my help, partly by holding on to a tree that leant up against the fence near by, he managed to scramble over.
“Now, by the roughness of the ground under my feet, I knew we were on the grass, even before a flash of lightning showed me that we had wandered away from the fence and were standing on the top of an embankment, at the bottom of which I caught sight of a high wooden paling. With instinctive reluctance, I hung back as my companion began to descend the bank, tugging me in his wake. At the bottom of the hill we came to the high wall, which we followed for a little way, and presently stopped before an opening through which I saw the gleam of water. ‘We must get through here,’ said the man. ‘There’s plenty of room where these two boards have been torn off.’ There was, as he said, a gap where some planks were missing and only the cross pieces of wood remained. ‘Why should we go this way?’ I asked again, full of misgivings. ‘Where are you taking me?’ ‘Where you will be safe,’ said he. ‘Come on,’ and stepping before me through the gap he dragged me roughly after him.
“Then, for the first time, he suddenly removed the hand that all this while had clutched me by the arm; and as I stood there, bewildered, not knowing what to do with my freedom, the scene was lighted up by a tremendous flash, brighter than any that had gone before, and I saw that he was fumbling with a cord that was attached to the handle of the spade he carried. His arms were stretched towards me, and before the light had faded from the sky I realised that he was trying to throw the end of the rope round my neck, passing it from one hand to the other as he did so.
“Perhaps I leapt too suddenly to a conclusion, or perhaps—as I think more likely—my understanding was quickened by fear, but in that instant I became as certain of his intention as though he had explained it to me in every detail. He was going to drown me in the canal, first tying the heavy spade to me to make sure that I should sink, never to rise again. I screamed aloud and pushed him away with all my strength. On that steeply sloping bank he was at a disadvantage, the rain had made it slippery, and for a minute I frustrated his purpose. Then came another flash, and by it the man seemed to catch sight of something behind me, which at the same time horrified and infuriated him, for I saw his expression change, and with a snarl of frightened rage he lifted up the spade and hit at me with it. Somehow I managed to jump aside, but I saw him raise it for another blow, and after that—after that—I can remember no more.”
Barbara’s story was finished. It had been told slowly, and at intervals the girl lay back with closed eyes, too weak to continue. But on any proposal to defer her account to another day she had roused herself, and proceeded with it resolutely till she came to the end.
The shadows had time to grow long during the telling of it, so that when at length, after they had finally taken leave of the invalid and issued forth once more from the doors of the hospital, the two men found themselves again in the open air it was already dinnertime.
“Come back with me, Jennins, and have something to eat,” said Gimblet, as they walked away. “There is sure to be food of sorts ready for me at the flat.”
But Jennins was bound elsewhere.
“I’m going to have a try at hunting out that horse,” he said. “Miss Turner thinks she’d know it again and, as she says, the number of dun coloured beasts with a decided dish and a peculiar crooked blaze of white over the nose and one eye must be more or less limited. Then, you remember, she thinks the driver was no other than our friend West, and if, after he had set the ladies down in Scholefield Avenue, he was less than half an hour in making his reappearance, one may argue that the stables were not half a mile away from No. 13. Don’t you think I am right?”