Fire-Tongue Page 18

  CHAPTER XVIII. WHAT HAPPENED TO HARLEY--CONTINUED

  Not until Harley came within sight of the house, a low, ramblingJacobean building, did he attempt to take cover. He scrambled up a treeand got astride of a wall. A swift survey by his electric torch of theground on the other side revealed a jungle of weeds in either direction.

  He uttered an impatient exclamation. He calculated that the car was nowwithin a hundred yards of the end of the lane. Suddenly came an ideathat was born of emergency. Swarming up the tree to where its densefoliage began, he perched upon a stout bough and waited.

  Three minutes later came a blaze of light through the gatheringdarkness, and the car which he had last seen at the Savoy was turnedinto the drive, and presently glided smoothly past him below.

  The interior lights were extinguished, so that he was unable to discernthe occupants. The house itself was also unilluminated. And when thecar pulled up before the porch, less than ten yards from his observationpost, he could not have recognized the persons who descended and enteredHillside.

  Indeed, only by the sound of the closing door did he know that they hadgone in. But two figures were easily discernible; and he judged them tobe those of Ormuz Khan and his secretary. He waited patiently, and erelong the limousine was turned in the little courtyard before the porchand driven out into the lane again. He did not fail to note that, thelane regained, the chauffeur headed, not toward Lower Claybury, but awayfrom it.

  He retained his position until the hum of the motor grew dim in thedistance, and was about to descend when he detected the sound of asecond approaching car! Acutely conscious of danger, he remained wherehe was. Almost before the hum of the retiring limousine had becomeinaudible, a second car entered the lane and turned into the drive ofHillside.

  Harley peered eagerly downward, half closing his eyes in order that hemight not be dazzled by the blaze of the headlight. This was anotherlimousine, its most notable characteristic being that the blinds weredrawn in all the windows.

  On this occasion, when the chauffeur stepped around and opened the door,only one passenger alighted. There seemed to be some delay before he wasadmitted, but Harley found it impossible to detect any details of thescene being enacted in the shadowed porch.

  Presently the second car was driven away, pursuing the same direction asthe first. Hot upon its departure came the drone of a third. The windowsof the third car also exhibited drawn blinds. As it passed beneath himhe stifled an exclamation of triumph. Vaguely, nebulously, the secretof this dread thing Fire-Tongue, which had uplifted its head in England,appeared before his mind's eye. It was only necessary for him to assurehimself that the latest visitor had been admitted to the house beforethe next move became possible. Accordingly he changed his position,settling himself more comfortably upon the bough. And now he watched thethree cars perform each two journeys to some spot or spots unknown, and,returning, deposit their passengers before the porch of Hillside. Thelimousine used by Ormuz Khan, upon its second appearance had partaken ofthe same peculiarity as the others: there were blinds drawn inside thewindows.

  Paul Harley believed that he understood precisely what this signified,and when, after listening intently in the stillness of the night, hefailed to detect sounds of any other approach, he descended to the pathand stole toward the dark house.

  There were French windows upon the ground floor, all of them closelyshuttered. Although he recognized that he was taking desperate chances,he inspected each one of them closely.

  Passing gently from window to window, his quest ultimately earned itsreward. Through a crack in one of the shutters a dim light shone out.His heart was beating uncomfortably, although he had himself well inhand; and, crawling into the recess formed by the window, he pressedhis ear against a pane and listened intently. At first he could hearnothing, but, his investigation being aided by the stillness of thenight, he presently became aware that a voice was speaking within theroom--deliberately, musically. The beating of his heart seemed to makehis body throb to the very finger tips. He had recognized the voice tobe the voice of Ormuz Khan!

  Now, his sense of hearing becoming attuned to the muffled tones, hebegan to make out syllables, words, and, finally, sentences. Darknesswrapped him about, so that no one watching could have seen his face. Buthe himself knew that under the bronze which he never lost he had grownpale. His heartbeats grew suddenly fainter, an eerie chill more intensethan any which the note of danger had ever occasioned caused him to drawsharply back.

  "My God!" he whispered. He drew his automatic swiftly from his pocket,and, pressed against the wall beside the window, looked about him as aman looks who finds himself surrounded by enemies. Not a sound disturbedthe stillness of the garden except for sibilant rustlings of the leaves,occasioned by a slight breeze.

  Paul Harley retreated step by step to the bushes. He held the pistoltightly clenched in his right hand.

  He had heard his own death sentence pronounced and he knew that it waslikely to be executed.