I laughed quietly and then went towards the door.
“I am seeing Mr. Thoyne at Ilbay to-morrow,” I said, pausing there to make quite sure Kitty heard me, “and I will ask him.”
I left them, probably wondering what might be the precise meaning of that last promise—or was it a threat?—and finding my way out strolled slowly down to the big gates.
Once in the public road, however, I indulged in a course of action that might possibly have seemed a little strange to an uninitiated spectator. First of all I stood glancing here and there around me as if looking for someone or something. Then I made my way to the side of the road and clambered to the top of a small pile of boulders on the summit of which I found a seat on a flat stone, so placed that I was invisible to anyone coming from Hapforth House or proceeding in either direction along the road. Having made myself as comfortable as the circumstances permitted, I took out my watch. “Now for the test,” I murmured. “Unless I am out in all my deductions Kitty Clevedon will emerge from Hapforth House in something like half an hour.”
In point of fact it was precisely twenty-three minutes, and curiously enough she did exactly as I had done—stood outside the big gates and looked carefully about her in all directions. But there the resemblance ended. She did not, like me, climb any of the neighbouring rocks, but set off at a smart pace in the direction of Cartordale village, whither also in a very few minutes I followed her. “Mistake number one, young lady,” I murmured. “You should have taken your car into Midlington. You wouldn’t have lost much time and you would have made it safe. Now, then, for the post office.”
I was right again. It was into the little village post office that Kitty Clevedon turned. I did not follow her, but instead stepped into the garden that ran alongside the house and sat myself down on a rustic seat that stood just below a small window, and was hidden from the roadway by a huge, black, soft-water butt. It had been a discovery of my own, made quite casually a few days previously, and merely noted as I noted everything. From that seat it was possible to hear quite plainly the tapping of the telegraph instrument within. Ah, there it was now, tap-tap-tap-tap, H, TAP-tap-TAP, K, TAP-tap, N—oh, yes, of course “H. knows—”
Poor Kitty! She did not dream that the man she dreaded was seated under that little window reading her message as easily as if she had shown him the form on which she had written it. “H. knows your address and is coming to-morrow to see you.” I sped out of the garden and through the village, and taking a short cut met Kitty on her way back to Hapforth House. I was strolling along dragging my stick behind me, and I stopped as I reached her.
“Have you sent your telegram to Mr. Thoyne?” I asked.
She was trying to bluff me and I did not mean to spare her. Why should I? It was she who had declared war.
“My—my—I do not understand you, Mr. Holt,” she stammered, for once taken off her guard.