I left the drawing-room, and crossing over to the library took down a volume of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and carefully copied the letter signs of the Morse Telegraphic Code. I then returned to my room.
During breakfast I watched Miss Haldane, and as I did so the simplicity of the wicked scheme, evidently evolved both by her brother and herself, was borne in upon me. She looked particularly handsome this morning, but also nervous and anxious.
The guests who were still staying in the house took their departure after breakfast, amongst those to leave being Karl Haldane. I saw him go up to his sister and kiss her. As he was leaving the room she turned very white, so white that I wondered if she were going to faint.
‘Are you ill?’ I said. ‘Does it trouble you so much to part from your brother?’
‘We are very much attached,’ she said, her lips quivering.
‘I have remarked that,’ I answered.
She flashed an excited glance at me.
‘Who would not be?’ she continued. ‘Has he not fascinated you? There is no woman who comes in contact with him who does not love him.’
At that instant Sir Penn came into the room. He went up to her, and laid his hand affectionately on her shoulder.
‘We are due on the Downs at eleven,’ he said. ‘Miss Marburg is coming with us.’
‘Are you?’ asked Miss Haldane.
The information certainly gave her no pleasure.
‘I should like to see the horses,’ was my answer.
Nothing more was said. Mrs Percival came into the room, the conversation became general, and at about a quarter to eleven we four started for our walk. It was a glorious morning, sunny and warm. Nevertheless, our conversation flagged, and we walked on for some time in silence.
At length we reached the racing ground, and Sir Penn showed us a good position to witness the trial, in which some dozen horses were to take part. Mr Martin, the trainer, and our four selves took up our position at the intended winning post on a little rise amongst some furze bushes. Sir Penn drew out his watch.
‘It is exactly midday,’ he said.
‘Here they come!’ cried Miss Haldane excitedly, and in a few moments, with a thunder of hoofs, the animals galloped past.
‘Just what I thought, Martin,’ said the baronet. ‘If Fritz doesn’t bring home the Blue Riband this year he is certain to be in the first three.’
‘And if he is, you will be richer than ever,’ said Miss Haldane, laying her hand on his arm. ‘Do go, Miss Marburg, to look at the probable winner of the Derby. Take Miss Marburg to see Fritz, won’t you, Penn?’
Sir Penn and the trainer moved up to where the horses were being pulled up. As Sir Penn did so he turned to me.
‘Will you come?’ he asked. ‘Won’t you come too, Esther?’
‘No,’ she replied. ‘I am feeling tired. I will stay with Mrs Percival.’
‘Do, my dear,’ said the elder lady. ‘We will both sit down on this knoll of grass and wait for you, Penn, and for Miss Marburg.’
I slowly followed Sir Penn, but when I had gone a few steps, I turned aside and pretended to be plucking some small flowers that grew on the edge of the common. My heart was beating almost to suffocation. I feared that Miss Haldane would observe me, and that I should lose a possible opportunity. But she had evidently forgotten my existence. Mrs Percival had opened a newspaper and was beginning to read. Sir Penn and the trainer were more than a hundred yards away. I stood on her left. She rose slowly to her feet and gazed out steadily across the Down in the direction of an old ruined barn some six hundred yards off. I quickly took out pencil and paper and, keeping my eyes fixed on hers, marked the movement of the long and short closure of her lids. That slip of paper I have still, and this is the copy as I took it down:
F R I T Z W O N T R I A L
Without a moment’s pause or giving myself time to think I rushed up to her side.
‘What are you doing?’ I cried.
My voice startled her. She flashed round, fury in her eyes.
‘Fritz won trial,’ I said, as I deciphered the dots and dashes from the code.
She stared wildly at me for one moment, then suddenly falling on her knees she burst into a passion of tears. At this instant Sir Penn came up.
‘Esther!’ he cried. ‘Miss Marburg, whatever is the matter?’
I turned to him.
‘This is the matter,’ I answered. ‘The plot is discovered. Send a couple of stable lads to prevent anyone from leaving that barn, and bring whoever is there here at once.’
In a moment the word was given, and Sir Penn turned to Miss Haldane. She still knelt on the grass, her face covered, the tears flowing between her fingers. Sir Penn’s face turned white as death. I saw that he guessed the worst. The girl to whom he was engaged, and whom he loved with all his heart, had betrayed him. Nothing else greatly mattered at that moment.
‘Look!’ I cried.
Two boys on their horses had just headed off the figure of a man who was running with all his might towards the railway station. It was, I could see
