Indeed, high up, above our solitary light, something rubbed and scraped near the portrait of Sir Pharamond. From somewhere else in the room came a soft murmur, as of a smooth-running reel. Belvoir caught hold of the bulb by its brass top and raised it overhead. Within the brightness now, the colours of the portrait were sharper and more brilliant than they had appeared in the austere dimness of the Hall.
But Sir Pharamond was not still; he writhed and rocked, and a loud outcry was evidence we saw the blood oozing from the wound upon his cheek.
A moment later down fell Sir Pharamond with a sound of splintering wood and ripping canvas. The wall where the portrait had been was quite smooth and blank.
The quiet chime of the old clock had not ceased to ring.
¹ The original has been supplied. (V. Markham.) [↩︎]
XXVII.
The Purr of the Cat!
Blood on the pallid cheek of Sir Pharamond, and his downfall, as had been prophesied in the olden time! I saw no one else, heard no one else, only gaped at the ruined portrait and was conscious of the clock’s melodious voice. An epoch seemed to pass before my senses ceased to dance, and I found myself one of the faltering semicircle which closed about the shattered portrait.
But beyond the area of brightness I made out indistinctly the most amazing thing of all. The sisters Delambre sat by the fireplace precisely as they had been since we entered the Hall. The short, stodgy one seemed quite absorbed in the flickering embers; the taller of the two had merely turned her head in our direction. Even the Constable seemed bereft of reflexes. This lack of surprise, this apathy, this uncanny silence impressed me just then as a thing more incredible than the disaster close at hand.
I still stared at the strange pair, while conscious that Aire had slipped before us, standing over the wreck of the portrait. He turned and faced us, and the small voice of the man seemed charged with a booming importance.
I heard him vaguely. “I told Salt,” came in somewhere, and then, “Crofts put me up to it, really.”