Show STORM MUSIC ML ZT T sic by bomford yates copyright Copy richt by MInton batch Dalch co cc service CHAPTER IX continued 16 I 1 was now flow well armeil lut but rock rack my drains brains as I 1 would I 1 could think of no iway way in which I 1 could give barley the filp up the position was this I 1 wished to light as close as I 1 could to yet not inot at the castle gate some spot in the entrance drive would have suited moy liny purpose well it had been arranged bobev however r that the last tarde miles should be co covered ns as fast ns its ever ever they could unless therefore I 1 left the car before we approached the mouth of the en drive dalr I 1 should have to wait until we had crossed the drawbridge and nd that would be bi the end of iny my effort for I 1 should be eteen en retreating and geoffrey and barlien would follow find spoil poll my game it looked as though I 1 should mould have bare to enter the castle and leave ave by some window orether or other as phil naoh had done cut but then lien there was always ways the flooded with light happening to glence at the mirror the car was closed I 1 noticed the treat alsatian couched on the hinder binder teat seat it occurred mccurr occur reo 1 to roe me that the log dog was there to watch me ly iv decision to neat tais IMS surveillance hardened into a tony stony and vicious resole one thin thing was in my iny favor dask dash had bad come in anti and since helena was not dot hastening night would have fallen by the time we came to the drive so my by cousin had find ordered for though I 1 think we all knew that the file risk of encountering was very slight it was helenar He lenas presence that hoisted the flag of peril and made it essential that we should omit no endeavor to keep her person safe again it would have bare been worse to have bare been in the lending leading car the net blight have been drawn rather tighter but that was all sly chances seemed desperately thin in this state of mind I 1 spent the next fifty minutes smarting and then nt last a mile from the entrance drive the tall light bore to the right and the coupe slowed down and stopped by the tilde tide of the way at once we did the same and somehow or other I 1 felt that my chance had bad come ill see what they want I 1 said and slipped lipped out ot of the car As f I 1 came to the door of the coupe look here my son said geoffrey lady helena wants you to lead I 1 dont think it really matters and so I 1 lave have given way from now on put down your foot and dont take it up gain again till youre over the bridge 11 whatever happens said Il helena elena my blood was boiling Is that an order I 1 said you gave it that name said gech froy frey but were going to do the same game all right I 1 said 1 I dont care I 1 made my way back bach to barley and opened my door ive got to leave you I 1 said they want me to ride with them the youre to go first now cow and dont lift your foot till you get to the castle gate be keeping them back as it Is for the coupes coapes the faster car very good sir said barley I 1 slammed the he door and stood back and he let in his clutch As the car leapt forward I 1 fell on my face in the road I 1 watched him pass the coupe and a moment later the coupe draw into his big wake in a savage garage triumph I 1 watched ats taillight tail tall light diminish then the road bent round to the left and it flicked out of tight sight CHAPTER X 7 1 pharaohs Phara way ily ili alf mlle mie walk to starlight did me a world of good it seemed to ii limber my muscles and steady my wits the darkness secured we me the cool night air refreshed me the silence rested my mind A furlong before I 1 reached the places place I 1 was careful to leave the he road and to make my way through the woods for the next half mile 1 I believe it was that that saved me tor for as I 1 shall presently show halt half an hour later geoffrey and barley and sabre saat e came down to that sinister three way spot I 1 beard the alsatian coming a minute before he arrived for a moment my heart stood still and then I 1 saw that it if helena was not with him I 1 ought to be able to charm him from his geoffrey into a service he be knew he found me seated a little way up the track in it a flash I 1 had bad him by the collar and had flung an arm around his big neck sabre I 1 breathed sabre dont let me down stay with me ine sabre ill be so glad to have you im on a 1 I good thing thin sabre and you can help me old fellow to pull it off so we ne minutes then with my hand on his collar I 1 got to my feet 1 I am sure the dog knew that the business on which I 1 was bent was perilous stuff from that time on no mian man could have hare been more sao sagacious clous more swift to make report more scrupulous to obey and well as I 1 saw his life sight ii t was better than mine for he saw the rolls before I 1 hl did and checked me by standing still the car had been backed up the track and to BO stood ready to leave no i I 1 one at all was with her her radiator was cold for a moment I 1 besita hesitated ted wondering hether or no to make some disconnection and so disable the car and then I 1 decided against tills this the outlook wits was too uncertain before now noir I 1 had wanted a car and wanted it quick I 1 took my knife from its sheath find and turned to the delicate business of running my quarry down and here for the first time I 1 saw that sabre alone was going to save gave my venture front from becoming ns as abject a failure as eier eer was seen As though I 1 had bad told liim him my plight I 1 felt sabre lower his lien head then he moed inked past the rolls led me up a bank and presently out of the coppice and into the rolling park when the ll 11 lighth ath go out said dewdrop what lie he right salt said bugle low ow we done that villa down in the dolif couf of france that was a show that was nag you never see such precautions against a poor thief ouse louse like a prison turned inside out an alf a packet of candles between two undred rooms ally was wag in that with pharaoh 1 I can hear bear him laugh laughin ln now as he opened the garden door dear brothers he says im afraid theres some bandits inside so dont you go for to cross them by a light just as we makes the ballroom ball room a flunkey flankey comes busti bustion ln in with a candle in each of his hands all lights out says pharaoh and shoots him dead talk about panic we well helped ourselves 1 but the stuff was there said rush what gets me panics all right but we dont know the way to the gold pharaohs Phara fly said bugle it aint only the keys you can make wot COD can open doors there was a little silence the three were sitting in the meadows just cle clearoe arof the woods not between the castle and starlight but close to lb 9 entrance drave arl ve the lights of yorick were showing a furlong away I 1 was crouching directly behind them against the trunk of a tree sabre beside me die was standing still as a rock gai lyo 5 I 1 ir I 1 0 A sabre and I 1 ran behind them I 1 could I 1 believe have killed two perhaps all three but ft was pharaoh I 1 wanted and pharaoh was not there I 1 could not follow their reasoning why should the lights go out in the ordinary kiy vay the lights weri put out at inid midnight night perhaps before but now cow the case was altered altere d the drawbridge had to be watched and then tills this talk of panic had pharaoh suborned sub orned some servant to do his big will rush lifted his cuff auit from his wrist In twenty venty past eleven he said bawd wot wol a day when the lighth go out said dewdrop hunleth Un leth of courthen cour the lie he happen to talk before I 1 felt more confounded than ever dewdrops final sentence did not dot make sense rush led me back on to ground on which I 1 could stand id like to know where those two was that dog dogs iball Is all right said bugle you bet said rush warmly but that aint the point id like to know wot up to they come back weve were left no trail said bugle we never got out of the car were out of it now said rush an F I dont want no more surprises not after his night dewdrop shifted uneasily iab adry very awkward he said bald your youg lothin that car pharaoh wont like that lie he wont well hell have to lump it said rush 1 I wish hed been there I 1 tell you I 1 never saw nothing there were n t no scrap we dont evea know who took it some per performing perform formin ln gor gorl ller liler it if yoli you ask me an wot arm ad I 1 done pharaoh wont like it wont he be ow would N h he e like to be wiped off one of them benches on to them flags backwards too I 1 dunno why im not dead an you talk about losing loging the car it your fault said bugle but dewdrop had no comfort to offer that the thi three ve were walting waiting for pharaoh seemed pretty clear but whore where was pharaoh now and what had plia illin roah been doing since seven lie he had not been rush or bugle nor had he be learned bearded their news more ilore while his men had find the use of the rolls pra aroh was using his bis feet and that was not like pharaoh somewhere in the pile of the castle a new light leaped into life a definite rye of radiance and ancon tined lined for a moment it stabbed blabbed the darkness a steady pinprick of light then it broke into a series of fifles a silent Jurn inous stutter that no one could ever ml mistake stale and so ray my eyes were opened before his fellows could tell me I 1 knew the truth rh pharaoh arnolt was on the ramparts and pharaoh was going to talk pharaoh had been in the castle the livelong day ue ile hannever had never left with dewdrop and now lie was was going to quench the lights of the castle and when lie had put them out lie he would let his accomplices I 1 in a dewdrop deciphered the message word by word clothe to bridge theand iy ay to enter by lacht DI letb poth tern directly lath fall the lamp flashed once more and went out before I 1 had gathered my wits the three nare vre afoot to this day I 1 cannot decide what I 1 should have done had I 1 left them and dashed for the castle to give the alarm before I 1 had found the warden the lights would have hare failed had I 1 attacked whatever the result of my effort I 1 think it Is clear that I 1 must myself have baie gone down but pharaoh j would still have bare been rampant the brain the will nod and the drive promoting this reign of terror belong to aba pharaoh alone and only the destruction of pharaoh could end this sinister rule first Ph pharaoh arnob bild then his fellows but pharaoh first I 1 say that Is how hov I 1 saw it but that Is more than the truth for I 1 saw it very darkly find and as I 1 stole after my quarry towards the bridge I 1 was wag myself the prey of a horrid uncertainty for which I 1 was not to blame I 1 had staked and won and now I 1 was taking my winnings as gamblers do but this was no gaming table tills this was the instant business of life and death wild to exploit the advantage I 1 clearly held in fear of wasting this by striking too soon in fear of losing it by holding my hand I 1 moved 10 paces in rear of the shambling thieves with one hand on sabres fabres collar and the other on geoffreym Geoff reys knife so far as I 1 had gathered they knew no more than I 1 did what pharaoh was going to do lie ile was going to cut off the light disarm the main switchboard without a doubt then they were to use the postern the vision brought me up with a jerk how could they use the postern T the postern was fast pharaoh must have hare opened it somehow unknown to the warden he must have obtained the key A sudden apprehension lifted its ugly head bead in pharaohs Phara presence pelena delena had handed the warden a master key that was the key with which pharaoh had opened the postern though no alarm had been raised because nothing was known pharaoh had killed the warden and had taken the master key that this was so I 1 instantly made up my mind talk about panic blindness havoc and panic would rule the night the sheep would have hare no shep shepherd berd and geoffrey and barley were gone how pharaoh would find the treasure I 1 could not think but that was pharaohs Phara affair my way at least was clear the thieves would bring me to pharaoh and everything was to be gained by my holding my hand and here as though by magic the lights of yorick went out there was was now less need of silence and more of speed for the three rogues ran for the drawbridge as hard bard as they could sabre and I 1 ran behind them as though we belonged to the crew ahead I 1 saw something white by the castle wall the three turned aside to avoid it and I 1 did the same As 1 I went by I 1 saw that it was a sheet at that moment sabre left me he seemed to stop but I 1 had no time to wrangle the postern door i was open the three stumbled in and stood waiting and I 1 stood waiting without with a foot on the step and my head bead close against the wall then came pharaohs Phara voice bugle ere said bugle at once dont talk whisper here take these goods have you forgotten them ive got a shoe breathed bugle wats this A wipe said pharaoh to which side of the drive are the cars to the right from here drop the wipe on the drawbridge and sling the shoe into the fields to the left of the drive it if you want to live make it snappy going to open those gates before you get back As bugle went by me I 1 saw that here was a chance which would never return pharaoh had used no torch it if bugles reminiscence was true the probability was that he would not use one tonight I 1 was tall and thickset thick set very much about bugles build a suit I 1 had left at plumage was fitting him very well and bugle had been told to whisper in a lash flash I 1 was running for the drawbridge in bugles wake the castle was alive with murmurs sounds of disorder and distress someone was out on the ramparts raving to mel menbere men were trampling and shouting I 1 could hear bear blows falling failing upon woodwork and the of breaking glass but I 1 heard these things thing gs as in a dream for now I 1 knew whose key had opened the postern whose handkerchief would lie on the drai drawbridge bridge whose slipper fall in th lr fields TO BE CONTINUED |