Not waiting to help carry her in, he bade Baggs tell Mr. Allyne and Mr. Travers to join him in town at once, and seeing that servants were already gone to fetch Lady Poynter, he sped along the avenue to overtake Miss Mettleby, whose skirts he saw through the shrubbery at some distance from the terrace. In ten minutes they were aboard the train.
CHAPTER XI
At about eight o’clock that evening Fair, who had dined with Allyne and Travers at the club, reached his own door and, letting himself in, waited for their arrival in the small smoking-room on the first floor of the deserted and gloomy mansion. As he opened the street door he thought that he heard hasty footsteps on one of the upper stories, but soon he was able to rid himself of the unpleasant fancy, and sat quietly reading until his friends should come.
This they did in a very few minutes—considerably to his relief—and the three groped their way up the dark stairs and along the passage to the library, which room Fair told them was to be the scene of their conference. As they peered in at the door the black woodwork of the library made the gloom seem greater than in the passage, and as they hesitated Fair said: “Strike a match, will you, Travers?”
“Right you are—if I don’t break my neck first,” answered Travers, finally managing to get the match lighted and holding it high over his head.
“There we are,” said Fair. “Now I can find the electric light key.”
He found it and turned on the current, flooding the room with light. The sudden translation from total darkness to brilliant light, and the general feeling of mystery and stealth with which the house seemed to be filled, gave all of the men an uncomfortable sense of being engaged upon uncanny business.
“I feel like a cross between a burglar and a blooming ass,” said Allyne, to break the unbearable silence. “By Jove, Fair, my wealth is at your disposal, but I’ll be hanged if you can borrow much more of my nervous energy! What’s the beastly game, anyhow?”
“I do think,” added Travers, more seriously, “that we’ve followed you in the dark about as long as a decent regard for our feelings—as well as for your own interests—will permit. Seriously, old chap, I do not think we should allow you to go on in this way. Elucidate, like a good fellow.”
“On my honor, Dick,” replied Fair, speaking with great earnestness, “this is no fool’s errand that I have asked you and Allyne to undertake. It is the last favor that I shall ever ask you to do me. Sit down. I’ll go downstairs and see if I can’t scare up something to drink.”