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Page 21
Henry held Mary back and implored her to wait a moment, but she
shook off his hand and followed her father.
Sir Walter it was who approached Tom and grasped his arm. In so
doing he disturbed the balance of the body, which fell back and
was caught by the two men. Its weight bore Ernest Travers to the
ground, but Henry was in time to save both the quick and the dead.
For Tom May had expired many hours before. His face was of an
ivory whiteness, his mouth closed. No sign of fear, but rather a
profound astonishment sat upon his features. His eyes were opened
and dim. In them, too, was frozen a sort of speechless amazement.
How long he had been dead they knew not, but none were in doubt of
the fact. His wife, too, perceived it. She went to where he now
lay, put her arms around his neck, and fainted.
Others were moving outside, and the murmur of voices reached the
Grey Room. It was one of those tragic situations when everybody
desires to be of service, and when well-meaning and small-minded
people are often hurt unintentionally and never forget it, putting
fancied affronts before the incidents that caused them.
The man lay dead and his wife unconscious upon his body.
Sir Walter rose to the occasion as best he might, issued orders,
and begged all who heard him to obey without question. He and his
friend Travers lifted Mary and carried her to her room. It was her
nursery of old. Here they put her on her bed, and sent Caunter for
Mrs. Travers and Mary's old servant, Jane Bond. She had recovered
consciousness before the women reached her. Then they returned to
the dead, and the master of Chadlands urged those standing on the
stairs and in the corridor to go back to their breakfast and their
duties.
"You can do no good," he said. "I will only ask Vane to help us."
Fayre-Michell spoke, while the colonel came forward.
"Forgive me, Sir Walter, but if it is anything psychical, I ask,
as a member--"
"For Heaven's sake do as I wish," returned the other. "My
son-in-law is dead. What more there is to know, you'll hear later.
I want Vane, because he is a powerful man and can help Henry and
my butler. We have to carry--"
He broke off.
"Dead!" gasped the visitor.
Then he hastened downstairs. Presently they lifted the sailor
among them, and got him to his own room. They could not dispose
him in a comely position--a fact that specially troubled Sir
Walter--and Masters doubted not that the doctor would be able to
do it.
Henry Lennox started as swiftly as possible for the house of the
physician, four miles off. He took a small motor-car, did the
journey along empty roads in twelve minutes, and was back again
with Dr. Mannering in less than half an hour.
The people, whose visit of pleasure was thus painfully brought to
a close, moved about whispering on the terrace. They had as yet
heard no details, and were considering whether it would be possible
to get off at once, or necessary to wait until the morrow.
Their natural desire was to depart, since they could not be of any
service to the stricken household; but no facilities existed on
Sunday. They walked about in little groups. One or two, desiring
to smoke but feeling that to do so would appear callous, descended
into the seclusion of the garden. Then Ernest Travers joined them.
He was important, but could only tell them that May had disobeyed
his father-in-law, slept in the Grey Room, and died there. He gave
them details and declared that in his opinion it would be unseemly
to attempt to leave until the following day.
"Sir Walter would feel it," he said. "He is bearing up well. He
will lunch with us. My wife tells me that Mary, Mrs. May, is very
sadly. That is natural--an awful blow. I find myself incapable of
grasping it. To think of so much boyish good spirits and such
vitality extinguished in this way."
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