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Page 44
"Would you like to tell me all about it," I continued; "or would this
merely renew your fears?"
"I should like to tell you," she replied in a low voice, glancing about
her as if to make sure that we were alone. "Except for odd people,
friends, I suppose, of the Colonel's, we have had so few visitors since
we have been at Cray's Folly. Apart from all sorts of queer happenings
which really"--she laughed nervously--"may have no significance
whatever, the crowning mystery to my mind is why Colonel Menendez
should have leased this huge house."
"He does not entertain very much, then?"
"Scarcely at all. The 'County'--do you know what I mean by the
'County?'--began by receiving him with open arms and ended by sending
him to Coventry. His lavish style of entertainment they labelled
'swank'--horrible word but very expressive! They concluded that they
did not understand him, and of everything they don't understand they
disapprove. So after the first month or so it became very lonely at
Cray's Folly. Our foreign servants--there are five of them altogether--
got us a dreadfully bad name. Then, little by little, a sort of cloud
seemed to settle on everything. The Colonel made two visits abroad, I
don't know exactly where he went, but on his return from the first
visit Madame de St�mer changed."
"Changed?--in what way?"
"I am afraid it would be hopeless to try to make you understand, Mr.
Knox, but in some subtle way she changed. Underneath all her vivacity
she is a tragic woman, and--oh, how can I explain?" Val Beverley made a
little gesture of despair.
"Perhaps you mean," I suggested, "that she seemed to become even less
happy than before?"
"Yes," she replied, looking at me eagerly. "Has Colonel Menendez told
you anything to account for it?"
"Nothing," I said, "He has left us strangely in the dark. But you say
he went abroad on a second and more recent occasion?"
"Yes, not much more than a month ago. And after that, somehow or other,
matters seemed to come to a head. I confess I became horribly
frightened, but to have left would have seemed like desertion, and
Madame de St�mer has been so good to me."
"Did you actually witness any of the episodes which took place about a
month ago?"
Val Beverley shook her head.
"I never saw anything really definite," she replied.
"Yet, evidently you either saw or heard something which alarmed you."
"Yes, that is true, but it is so difficult to explain."
"Could you try to explain?"
"I will try if you wish, for really I am longing to talk to someone
about it. For instance, on several occasions I have heard footsteps in
the corridor outside my room."
"At night?"
"Yes, at night."
"Strange footsteps?"
She nodded.
"That is the uncanny part of it. You know how familiar one grows with
the footsteps of persons living in the same house? Well, these
footsteps were quite unfamiliar to me."
"And you say they passed your door?"
"Yes. My rooms are almost directly overhead. And right at the end of
the corridor, that is on the southeast corner of the building, is
Colonel Menendez's bedroom, and facing it a sort of little smoke-room.
It was in this direction that the footsteps went."
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