Classic Audiobook Collection - The House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson ~ Full Audiobook [mystery]

Starting point is 00:00:00 the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson chapter i the lady in the stage-box hello old chap who would ever have thought of seeing you here to-night what's brought you back to civilization again i turned suddenly surprised by the sound of a familiar voice in my ear it was the night of christmas eve and i was just entering the lot of the light of christmas eve and i was just entering the lock of the st james's the first time as it happened i had seen the inside of a theatre for two years for the fraction of a moment i could not remember where i had known the man who addressed me so jovially my way of knocking about the world brought me into contact with so many people that it was difficult to sort my gallery of faces and keep each one mentally ticketed but after a second or two of staring through that convenient medium my monocle i was able to place the man who had accosted me he was a rich mining king from colorado by the name of harvey farnham whom i had met in denver when i had been dawdling through america three or four years ago i pronounced his name with a certain self-satisfaction in having so readily recalled it and we shook each other by the hand what's brought me back to civilization i echoed lazily i really don't know unless it was because i'd got tired of the other thing adventure change that's what i am in search of my dear farnham and you came back here from service as war correspondent in egypt where i last read of you in the papers as having been carried down a cataract for twenty-six miles before a launch ran out and saved you

Starting point is 00:01:59 in the hope of finding adventure in this work-a-day close of the nineteenth century that's too good i laughed and shrugged my shoulders yes why not why should there not be as great a possibility of obtaining new sensations or at least old ones in different form in london as anywhere else it did not occur to me as i idly spoke the words that i was uttering a prophecy how is it i went on rather curiously that you remembered me honoring my draught on sight so to speak it must be four years since that very jolly supper you gave me in denver one night and i fancy i have changed considerably since then farnham smiled in his comical american way which was a humorous sentence in itself well i guess it's not so easy to forget a face like yours you are a little browner your eyes rather keener perhaps your head held a bit higher your shoulders broader and drawn back more like a soldier's than ever but so far as i can see those are the only changes you might easily have forgotten me and i'm immensely flattered that you haven't but the fact is my dear boy you are simply the most interesting man i ever came across in my own country or any other you've always seemed like a sort of hero of a tale of adventure to me and you see one don't let a chap like that drop out of one's recollection i've always eagerly followed your doings so far as one could follow them in a man's recollection i've always eagerly followed your doings so far as one could follow them in a man's the newspapers and i read your african book with the greatest interest but somehow i never got to hear much personal gossip about you say are you married or anything

Starting point is 00:04:00 many things but not married i returned i haven't had time to think of women besides if i had who would take me no money no prospects a man who can't be happy for a fortnight in one place what a life i should lead a woman ah that's one side of the picture of course but here's the other as the world sees it you're a sort of popular hero african traveler war correspondent writer of books polar explorer and i don't know what besides though you can't yet be anywhere near thirty-five you've got the figure of a soldier and just the sort of dark unreadable face that women women have been yet yet anywhere near thirty-five you've got the figure of a soldier and just the sort of dark unreadable face that women and rave about what does money matter with a chap like that nothing i wonder you've managed to escape the match-making mammas so long they're quite as keen on a celebrity in my country at least as they are on a millionaire nevertheless they have not given me much trouble i said smiling a little however at the remembrance of one or two amusing episodes which i had not the slightest intention of relating there the way to the box office is clear at last once that fat old man is out of the way it'll be my turn shall i get your stall for you and so save time yes by all means thank you are you alone stanton quite alone i'd almost forgotten what the theatre was like and determined to come and refresh my memory i'm by myself too say old man would it be a liberty if i asked you to try and get stalls for us together delighted i'm sure i answered though as a matter of fact i was not quite certain whether i was telling the truth or not

Starting point is 00:06:06 farnham had been well enough in denver but i did not know whether i should care to pass in his society a whole evening which i had meant to be one of solitary enjoyment however he had left me nothing else to say and i responded with what alacrity i could little dreaming that my whole future was hanging on my words and the result of my confab with the man in the box office the play was a popular one and perhaps on no night of the year save christmas eve or some lenten fast could we have obtained two stalls side by side a few minutes before the ringing up of the curtain as it was we were successful and i walked into the theatre by the side of the tall thin smooth-faced american we sat down in the third or fourth row of the stalls and as the or fourth row of the stalls and as the or fourth row of the stalls and as the or the or fourth row of the stalls and as the orchestra had not yet come in began to talk farnham explained to me that he had run over to england on business intending to sell a certain mine of his which though vastly profitable was the one thing in which he had lost interest the other mines in which he was part owner were situated in his own state colorado while this particular one the miss cunningham was in california and he was tired of his own state colorado while this particular one the miss cunningham was in california and he was tired of journeying to and fro i've had a good offer he said indeed i'm visiting in the house of the man who has made it a wonderful fellow only one degree less interesting perhaps than you his name is carson wildred did you ever hear of him no i answered though possibly not to know mr carson wildred was to argue myself unknown

Starting point is 00:08:02 he seems to have plenty of money explained farnham and though he's a newcomer in london has got in with a number of good people he has two houses one in sloane street and one up to thames a queer lonely old place near pearly locke if you know where that is i'm staying out there with him now as it happens though i can't say i'm as fond of the river as he is at this season but when a few papers and a good round sum of money have changed hands a couple of days or so from now i shall bid wildred and england au revoir i expect a sale for america at the end of the week and jolly lucky i think myself to have run up against you to-night somehow as he rattled on about his own affairs my heart began to warm towards farnham he was not a particularly brilliant fellow though a good business man but he had such a whimsical face with its bright eyes its good-natured mouth and its laughable upturned nose he was so frankly interested in life so enthusiastic so outspoken so boyish in many of his ways despite his forty years i found myself almost inclined to be sorry that he was leaving england so soon i should like you to meet wildred he went on i don't know whether you'd fancy him but you couldn't help thinking his a remarkable personality it would be interesting to see you two chaps together he's at the theatre to-night by the way with some friends of his rather swells it was an old engagement made before i went out to his house but he had to keep it of course

Starting point is 00:09:58 they'll be in that stage-box over there and as wildred has been industriously raising my curiosity about the beauty of one of the ladies for the past few days i concluded to drop in and take the only chance i was likely to get of a look at her and mighty glad i am that i did so make up my mind or i should have left england without clapping eyes on someone i'd rather see than all the professional beauties in london as he finished speaking the overture which had now been on for some time ceased and the curtain went up on a very pretty bit of stage setting there was no curtain razor and the first act was well constructed and interesting from the commencement it was delightful to me to feel as i did that i was no longer blaze of town life or the mimic life of the theatre and i was inclined to resent the interruption when farnham nudged me whispering there's wildred and his friends just coming into the stage box by jove what a pretty girl i looked up because i was sure the volatile american would give me no peace until i had done so and then having looked up i promptly forgot the play and its dramatis persona two years i had spent in africa and egypt and i had not seen many fair faces during that time of travel and campaigning i was in a mood therefore to appreciate the delicate loveliness of english women but even had i been surfeited with beauty my eyes would have lingered in a species of wonder on the girl just seating herself in a corner of the stage box it is possible that i have seen other women as beautiful many more classically perfect of feature but never have i looked upon a face so radiant so bewildering

Starting point is 00:12:03 for the moment i scarcely glanced at the girl's companions though i was vaguely conscious that there was an older woman and that the two men were taking chairs in the darker background of the box all the other figures on the stage and in the auditorium became meaningless for me there was the dazzling girl in white and so far as i was concerned no one else in the theatre the simple snowy frock without jewels or ornamentation of any kind was the most becoming frame which could have been chosen for the picture the oval face with its pearly skin its curved red lips its starry long-lashed eyes which might have been brown or violet so far as i could tell and the oriole of waving reddy gold hair were all so vivid in their marvellous effect of color that the dead white gown set them off far more artistically than the most carefully chosen tints could have done the girl could not i thought have been more than twenty and every turn of the beautifully poised little head every dimpling smile told that she was full of the joy of life what do you think of wildred whispered farnham his lazy american drawl waking me out of a dream i did not wish him to see how completely i had been absorbed how foolishly i had lost my head and therefore i turned my attention to the two men in the back of the box end of chapter one recording by roger maline chapter two of the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson this librovoc's recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline

Starting point is 00:14:08 chapter two the man with the pale eyes en passant my eyes dwelt for an instant upon a stout woman of a certain age whose figure was encased in a sort of armor of steel-gray satin and beads and whose carefully arranged head was adorned by a small tiara of diamonds but they found no temptation to linger one of the men was old gray-haired and large of girth with a huge expanse of snowy shirt and a head guiltless of hair. The other was comparatively young, not many years past my own age, perhaps, and, a curious thrill, which I could not myself have explained, passed through me as I looked, through half-shut eyes, at his face. Where had I seen it before? Or did it bear but a haunting resemblance to some other, painted on my memory's retina in

Starting point is 00:15:06 lurid, yet partially obliterated colors? i had no doubt which of the two was carson wildred farnham's friend and host what he had said of the man's personality assured me of his identity it was passing strange to me that i should be so strongly impressed by the feeling that i had seen the face before under startling and disagreeable circumstances and yet be unable to identify it something seemed to be lacking or changed which broke the chain of evidence in my mind surely i should have been able to remember that peculiar nose with the flattened bridge now presented to me in profile it would be a sign of a lacking bump of observation to have forgotten the angle of that protruding lower jaw and the strong contrast between the almost copper-coloured skin jet-black hair and large brilliant blue eyes so light as to appear almost white it was impossible i told myself that i had met the man before his remarkable and uncommon cast of features had no niche in my recollection and yet i knew that in some crucial moment i had looked into those pale and scintillating eyes a wave of repulsion swept over me i could not remember when i had experienced two such keen emotions as my surprised admiration for the girl-i could not remember when i had experienced two such keen emotions as my surprised admiration for the girl and the dislike, almost amounting to disgust, which I felt for Farnham's friend,

Starting point is 00:16:45 Carson Wildred, something deeper than mere annoyance surged in my breast, that that dark personality should lurk so near to the spotless whiteness of the gauzy drapery, which vaguely seemed to me a part of the girl's self. Hey, what did you say? How do you like his looks? Peculiar face, isn't it? queried farnham close to my ear yes it is peculiar i answered mechanically snatching at the phrase and the girl isn't she something rather choice very lovely who is she

Starting point is 00:17:25 a miss karen cunningham same name as the mind that wildred is going to take off my hands merely a coincidence but i fancy it influenced him in his wished to buy the property, perhaps. He is very much in love with the girl, and rich as he apparently is, she can more than match him, I should say. She's an orphan, whose father, though he came of what you English call a good family, made his pile in trade. And Sir Walter Tressidy, who is in the box with his wife, was her guardian until she came of age, about a year ago. She still lives with her. She still lives with them and lady tressidy takes her about all these things wildred who is never so happy as when he is talking of miss cunningham has told me so you see i'm pretty well primed as to her antecedents means and so on the girl has thirty thousand pounds a year if she has a penny whew only think what that means in american money she could buy and sell me i might have truthfully replied that the young lady could have had me without either buying or selling since for the first time since my callow days these few moments had taught me what it was to experience a wild quickening of the pulses under the casual glance of a woman's eyes

Starting point is 00:18:57 she had seen me so much satisfaction at least was mine wildred had doubtless pointed out his friend and her gaze had passed on to me drawn perhaps by the compelling magnetism of the strange new feeling which dominated me wishing to avoid the appearance of rudeness i would have looked away but i found myself for an instant unable to do so it was ridiculous to fancy of fancy of and yet I could not help imagining that the girl's exquisite face lighted up with an expression akin to interest, as her eyes rested upon mine. It was for me a moment of intoxication, as I felt that those twin violet lakes received, full in their depths, the involuntary outpouring of my soul. A sensation as of being wrenched away from some safe mooring passed through me,

Starting point is 00:19:55 as she withdrew her gaze and turning her head whispered to lady tressidy who sat beside her the latter then looked at me and unhesitatingly put up her sparkling lorgnettes farnham had not failed to observe this little pantomime and was vastly amused thereby this is what comes of being a celebrity he chuckled they've recognized you from the pictures that were in all the papers a couple of months ago, or perhaps by the photos that were published when your book came out. Nonsense, I said rather irritably. They're only annoyed, perhaps, at our staring. Let's turn our attention to the stage. I set the example which I recommended, but before doing so, I gave myself the indulgence of one more lingering glance, and saw that Carlson Wildred was eyeing me with undisguised interest.

Starting point is 00:20:55 was i mistaken was it only the faint emotion awakened by the mention of a name not quite unknown to the public or did the man share in my half-recognition of him whatever the feeling excited by the sound of my name or the sight of my face it was certainly not a pleasant one the one look i ventured showed me the pale eyes shadowed by a frown and the gleam of white teeth as they gnawed as they gnawed the lower lip under the slight dark line of the mustache. He had glanced from me to Farnham, and something in his look told me that, for a reason to me unfathomable, he was displeased at seeing us together. At the end of the act we went out for a smoke and a breath of fresh air, and as we were returning we met Wildred near the stairway, which, at the St. James's, leads to the boxes on one side of the house i was looking for you he said to farnham and the tones of the voice roused the same vague unpleasant memories that the eyes had stirred and we were just talking of you farnham annoyed me by retorting i should like to be the means of making you two known to each other of course wildred you have heard all about noel stanton

Starting point is 00:22:20 this is actually he in the flesh and he has been telling me that he believes he must have seen you somewhere before mr wildred tossed away a cigarette and followed it with his brilliant eyes he was smiling but his his lips were tense as his gaze came back to me it is my misfortune he said to be obliged to assure you that mr stanton is mistaken i know him as well as one can do without having met him through his book and a world-wide reputation but beyond that i have not till now had the pleasure we looked into each other's eyes and i knew the man lied and that he hated me but the mystery of his personality and my share in his past was as profound a mystery as before lady tressidy sent me out particularly he continued in quest of you both having recognized mr stanton from his numerous counterfeit presentments and she hopes that you will come and be introduced to her and to miss cunningham in their box farnham looked at me doubtfully fearing perhaps that i would refuse but grudgingly as the message was evidently delivered by wildred i grasped at the opportunity it gave i should speak to miss cunningham i should know her i might dare to look at her and i might touch her hand i have gone through some queer experiences in rather an eventful life and have generally managed to keep a cool head in emergencies.

Starting point is 00:24:06 But my head was not cool tonight. Everything was dark to me, except the one lovely face raised smilingly towards me, as some murmured words of introduction were spoken in the box, a little later, giving me the right henceforth to claim Miss Cunningham as an acquaintance. I suppose I answered coherently, when Lady Tressidy addressed me,

Starting point is 00:24:31 and talked without openly. making an idiot of myself to Sir Walter. But I remember nothing of the conversation between the second and third acts, save the few words spoken by Miss Cunningham, and an invitation from Lady Tressidy to call on one of her at-home days. After I had gratefully accepted, I turned to the girl. Lady Tressity has said I may come and see her, I ventured. Will you—

Starting point is 00:25:02 May I hope her? hope to find you with her when I do? She looked up with a sudden, illumining smile that answered me. "'Come soon,' she returned. They were her last words for me that night, and they rang in my head as I left her, dizzy with the memory of her loveliness. End of Chapter 2.

Starting point is 00:25:28 Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 3 of The House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williams. this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline chapter three a dead man's hand i had taken rooms temporarily at the savoy hotel not knowing how long it might be ere i should be moved in spirit to desert london and that night instead of looking in at the club as i had meant i went from the theatre straight to the hotel there was a fire burning in my room and i drew up a chair before it to smoke an unlimited number of cigarettes and to think of karen cunningham i had parted from farnham outside the theatre and had made an appointment to meet him next day at dinner which he was to eat with me at my hotel i felt no inclination for bed nor was i in the least sleepy and yet before an hour had passed i must have fallen into a doze suddenly i was awakened by the impression of having heard a sound i looked round me half dazed still from my dreams the fire had died down and i had left myself with no other light only a ruddy glow lingered on the hearth and a small clock on the mantelpiece just above lightly chimed out the hour of two i must have dreamed the sound i told myself for always

Starting point is 00:27:10 silent in the sleeping hotel and even the rattle of cabs outside was dulled still the impression lingered and i could hardly persuade myself that i had not heard harvey farnham's voice calling my name and finishing with a gurgling despairing cry for help the horror of which had chilled the blood in my veins even in my sleep though the fire was dead the room was still warm and i hardly knew why i should be so cold nevertheless i felt chilled to the bone and i was glad enough to get into bed as quickly as i could several times i was on the point of falling asleep again but at just the critical point between reflectiveness and sinking into the soft depths of slumber i waked with an almost convulsive start and a remembrance of the cry i had heard dreamed. I was sure it must have been the latter, although I told myself there might actually have been some fracas in the street which, in my sleep, I had confused with the dream of Harvey Farnham. Resigning myself to wakefulness at last, I began to plan out the program of the next week and wonder how soon I might avail myself of Lady Tressidy's invitation to call. She was at home on Sundays informally, she had said, whenever she happened to be in town during the winter, though Thursday was her day during the season.

Starting point is 00:28:42 Now, the Thursday following would be Christmas Day, this most eventful night being Christmas Eve of last year, but I did not see why I might not look in for a few moments on the ensuing Sunday. It had only been because Sir Walter's affairs rendered a short stay in town necessary that they were spending Christmas in Park Lane. They would probably go away in a few days, and I could not afford to lose my chance. For, though I had admired many women in my time, I had never yet seen one whom I wished to make my wife, until Karen Cunningham's lovely face had risen, fair and sweet as a new moon that mingled its silver, with the rose of sunset over my horizon. I had laughed at men who gravely discussed the possibility of love at first sight, but now I began to realize, half-shamefacedly,

Starting point is 00:29:39 that it was not a thing to be convinced of through argument, but by thrilling, magical experience. I would have staked my life that Karen Cunningham's heart and mind were all that her face presaged of them, and I resolved that if she were to be won, I would put my very life into the attempt to win her. So thinking and so resolving, I fell at last from waking dreams to sleeping ones,

Starting point is 00:30:08 hoping dimly, as I slipped over the edge of realities, that they might be of Karen Cunningham. But they were not of her. Hardly had slumber got its hold upon me when I saw myself by the river, river looking down into a swiftly rushing tide it seemed to be somewhere in the country though i had little thought for my surroundings and i was conscious that i was watching anxiously for the appearance of some object whose nature i did not accurately know it had been daylight in my vision at first a cold gray wintry daylight but suddenly night fell with the rapidity that all changes come and go in the dreamland, and the only light was a spot of phosphorescent radiance that lay just under the surface of the water,

Starting point is 00:31:01 floating gradually down towards me. I knew, in my sleep, that my eyes were destined to behold some sight of horror, yet I was bound, in a species of frozen fascination, to the spot where I stood, forced to wait for the oncoming of the light and its revelation of mystery. Slowly it was borne along with the tide until, having reached a bend in the river opposite the spot where I was standing, it ceased to move. I stooped down and saw that the pale light shone forth from a great white diamond on the finger of a dead man's hand. The body was faintly and darkly outlined. Even the floating arm might also have been a floating mass of blackened river weed, but the hand was white as alabaster and as i bent over it staring down one of the fingers moved and beckoned then i woke with a loud cry harvey farnham

Starting point is 00:32:05 i had gone through a good many dangers in my roving life and had passed through many a queer adventure believing that i could still boast unshaken nerves neither was i used to dreaming and the hours of sleep or usually for me a long and peaceful interval of complete unconsciousness. Now, however, my forehead was damp with a cold sweat, and I could hardly shake off the horror of the vision. It was ridiculous, I said to myself, and yet, even with my eyes open, I could see the white awfulness of that dead finger as it beckoned me, shining palely in the light of the diamond ring. exactly why I had shouted the name of Harvey Farnham as I waked.

Starting point is 00:32:53 I could not understand, unless, with the odd hang-togetheriveness of dreams, it was because I happened to notice during the evening at the theater that he still wore on the last finger of his left hand a very remarkable ring, which he had also worn, and of which he had told me the history when we had met four years previously in America. I had thought it perhaps the very finest diamond I had ever seen in the possession of a private person, and he had mentioned that it had been taken from the first mine

Starting point is 00:33:28 of which he had ever been the owner. He had had it for some years, and, having grown stouter, meanwhile, the gold setting had cut rather deeply into the flesh of his finger. He had laughingly alluded to this indebted, Denver, saying that he had promised a pretty girl that she should have the stone, when he should be obliged to have the ring cut off, and he meant to stick to it as long as he could. Except for the fact of having remarked that he still wore the ring, and that his finger looked

Starting point is 00:34:01 as pinched as a woman's waist beneath its clasp, I could not in any way of describe Harvey Farnham's hand. I had doubtless a general impression of its shape and contour in my mind, but i did not now recall that there had been any recognizable likeness between it and the dead hand my dream had shown me still though i was able to give myself a perfectly rational explanation of the dream and even of the impression of farnham's voice earlier in the night i could not shake off a curious and unpleasant sensation of there being some duty connected with the vision which i had left unperformed or which was yet to be exacted of me in the future end of chapter three recording by roger maline chapter four of the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline chapter four the house by the lock i arose on christmas morning with the same feeling there was absolutely nothing arranged for me to do that day as i had informed no one i knew of my presence in london meaning to be for the present somewhat of a free lance i had wished not to be obliged to account to any one as to my goings and comings i had not wanted any invitations to family festivities on christmas day to keep me from being lonely my desire had been to go exactly where the whim of the moment might lead me and without a moment

Starting point is 00:35:51 hesitation i had declined the invitation to christmas dinner which poor farnham had dragged for me from his friend carson wildred it might amuse me farnham had thought as wildred's house up the river was a queer old place interesting to anyone who cared for that sort of thing and they too were dining quite alone wildred and he had had some final arrangements to settle up and as christmas was such an off day so far as amusements were concerned it had been wildred's idea that they should utilize it in this manner the other man took farnham's hint and civilly gave the required invitation of course but even had it been offered with enthusiasm i should not have been tempted to accept now however i felt a curious inclination to call at the house by the lock, as it was named. I would not dine there, I told myself, but there must be an inn in the neighborhood where I could obtain some slight Christmas cheer, if I chose to embark upon the rather mild adventure

Starting point is 00:36:57 of going up the river on this wintry holiday. It was years since I had been in England, and the thought of a solitary stroll by the Thames along a country towing path was not so dismal as it might have been to those who had not tramped with the, equanimity of custom through African jungles. Once the idea had taken root in my mind,

Starting point is 00:37:19 I was impatient to carry it out. I would go, I decided, almost immediately, lunching at the nearest decent inn to Pearly Lock, and turning up at Wildred's house at four or five in the afternoon. I would spend an hour there, perhaps, and return to town in time for dinner. I had not got up particularly early, early, had breakfasted late, and by the time I was inclined to start, it was past one o'clock.

Starting point is 00:37:50 I had over an hour's journey to Great Marlowe, the nearest railway station, with a drive of some four miles to follow, before I could reach the chimes in, which I was told was the only one within some distance of pearly lock. It was a quaint old hostelry I found, and an agreeable landlord, who had hardly expected to be. guests at so out of the way a place on Christmas Day, and having finished his own midday repast, was very ready for a gossip with me. "'Oh, yes,' he said, he knew the house by the lock quite well. It was in reality situated at some little distance from the lock itself, quite a quarter of a mile,

Starting point is 00:38:34 but then it was the nearest house, and perhaps that was the reason it had got its name. It was a very old place, but Mr. Wildred, since taking it about two years before, had had a great many alterations and improvements made both outside and in. He was something of an architect himself, it seemed, this rich Mr. Wildred. At all events it was believed that he had made the designs for the alterations, and having a great fad that way had even helped the chaps he had down from London to do the indoor work and decorating. There had only been two or three men so that progress had been slow, and everyone had wondered that such a rich man as Mr. Wildred was reported to be should have had things done in so niggling a manner. But since then they had concluded that he must have known what he was about, for everyone who went there came away with great reports of the

Starting point is 00:39:33 decorations. I was not particularly interested in these details that my lindon. I was not particularly interested in these details that my landlord had to tell me, though, after all, there was an indefinable curiosity in my mind regarding everything that concerned Carson Wildred. I got away from the man's animated gossip in the course of half an hour or so. I had a walk of a mile to take, having dismissed my fly, and, meaning, after I had paid my rather aimless visit, to tramp all the way back to Marlowe again. as I started a clock on the in-table struck four. There was a long streak of gold along the horizon of the otherwise dull gray sky,

Starting point is 00:40:18 and a rising wind moaned drearily among the bare lower branches of the trees. The scene looked indescribably desolate, and yet there was a certain beauty in it, too. I had been told exactly how to reach the house by the lock, and when, after passing the somewhat weedy-looking lock, I began skirting along a species of backwater, and came in sight of a long, low-browed house close to the river, I knew I had reached my journey's end. The place had the appearance of being only a restored remnant of an ancient abbey

Starting point is 00:40:55 fallen into decay. Indeed, at one end of the house, a ruined wall jutted out, with a row of stone window frames half filled in with sombre trails of ivy then in the middle came the habitable part of the old house with an imposing front door which might have belonged to some big gothic church magnificent windows that reminded me of a certain dear old college at oxford well known in younger days and beyond to the left was the wing evidently added by wildred it was in wretched taste i thought with its pretentiousness and its huge round tower at the end utterly out of keeping with the rest then as i criticised my eye was caught by a puff of fiery smoke that suddenly rose above the battlements of the hideous tall tower i could not quite understand this phenomenon for the tower so far as i could see had been merely built with the mistaken idea of being ornamentalimental though new it was intended to present the effect of being ruinous having little dark chinks in lieu of windows still the smoke was there belching out sparks not only from the apex of the tower but stealing in a belated puff or two from the chinks in the wall nearest the top i thought of fire and quickened my steps meaning to mention to the servant who should open the door what i had seen the lawn stretched down to the river which was here as i said a mere backwater

Starting point is 00:42:37 and having entered through a gate sat in the side of a big brick wall i walked briskly up the short graveled path that led to the house at least wildred had had the sense to let this door alone with its carvings of oak and its big ornamental hinges and knocker the only modern innovation was an electric bell which i touched and then grasping the huge knocker i wrapped out an additional summons which echoed drearily as though through an empty house so near was i to the river while i stood waiting on the doorstone to be admitted that i could hear the soft lapping of the water against the shore darkness had fallen now and an ugly recollection of my dream something something suddenly sprang up in my brain. Just so, I remembered, had I heard the water whispering, as in that hateful vision I had bent over to see the dead man's beckoning hand. It was long before my ring and knock were answered, so long that I had my finger on the bell again.

Starting point is 00:43:47 But at that moment I heard footsteps walking somewhat uncertainly along an uncarpeted floor within. Still, the door remained closed. closed. But at a long narrow window, which was the duplicate of another on the opposite side of the door, I saw for an instant that a face was pressed against the latticework of the glass. What ill-trained servants this man keeps, was my thought, and then, somewhat impatiently, I rang again. The door opened almost immediately into a dimly lighted hall, when a respectable middle-aged man out of livery, evidently a butler, stood revealed.

Starting point is 00:44:31 Yet I could have sworn that the face at the window, seen but a second ago, had been that of a woman, young, pallid, and darkly bright of eye. End of Chapter 4. Recording by Roger Malene Chapter 5 of The House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline chapter five was it a mystery i should like to see mr wildred and mr farnham i said not feeling it necessary to ask if they were at home i knew that they had definitely arranged to be so i glanced round me carelessly as i spoke the hall was a huge one dim in the corners with a fine stairway that ran down in the centre and was lighted by a great branching candelabrum held up by a bronze figure on either side doors hung with portieres of tapestry opened here and there along the hall and in a fireplace at one side slow flip

Starting point is 00:45:53 claims crept along a freshly heaped pile of logs. I am sorry, sir, said the servant, respectfully, but both the gentlemen have gone out for the day. He did not look at me in the face as he delivered this piece of information, but allowed his narrow eyes to drop away shiftily. Oh, I am surprised at that, I returned, for I have come by invitation. I hardly know but I have been by invitation. I hardly know, by what impulse I mentioned this, and as a matter of fact the invitation could hardly be supposed

Starting point is 00:46:29 to stand, as I had last night refused it. Still, it seemed to me extremely improbable that the two men would have changed their minds about the day after midnight when I had parted from them. They had mentioned refusing one or two invitations, and there was really so little to do by way of amusement out of one's own house, or somebody else's, on Christmas Day. Somehow, too, I felt impressed that the man was lying. He had perhaps been told to say that his master and guest were away in case of an intrusion, which they might have had reason to fear, but this could hardly stand with me. The fellow's smug face changed instantly.

Starting point is 00:47:15 Oh, I see, sir. You are the gentleman. and Mr. Wildred was expecting. He, they, it is possible they will be in quite shortly. Perhaps he will walk into the room. The room, and with such a queer little emphasis on the former word, sounded rather odd. It was but a trifling peculiarity of expression, however, and I did not much think of it as I followed the butler along the hall, passing through a door, before which he swept the curtain aside with a flourish, and so into a passage which evidently led towards the new wing. We went on for some distance, and presently arrived at a closed door, which the butler threw open for me. It is here that my master requested you should wait, sir,

Starting point is 00:48:08 he said. I walked in, and he left me, shutting the door. It then struck me that I had neither given him my name nor mentioned the mass of smoke and sparks which i had seen vomited from the tower i sprang to the door again meaning to call after the man a word of warning in regard to the fire but he was already out of sight he could not have gone back the way that he had come or i should certainly have seen him walking down the dimly lighted passage there being no door save that at the extreme end which he would not yet have had time to reach I did not see how he could have disappeared so suddenly, but returning whence I had come, I looked about in vain for a bell. I was sure now that this room must be situated in that part of the new wing which adjoined the tower. In glancing at the house from outside, I had fancied that the square, squat wall must be that of a studio, as there were no windows but a high domed skylight on top. Now I saw that, though the outer building was square,

Starting point is 00:49:21 the room within was octagon in shape. It was perhaps a studio, as I had fancied, but there was something of the free and easy negligence of an oriental smoking room about it. The walls were hung with embroidered Indian materials, and a low die van ran down part of it. way. Between the hangings were panels of sandalwood, ornamented with bits of mirror in the Burmese fashion, and half-hidden with curious foreign weapons, daggers, swords, and spears, and even a

Starting point is 00:49:55 Zulu Assegai or two. On the floor stood a hookah, and on a small inlaid table were a couple of curious little objects, which I knew to be opium pipes. In one corner, as though it had been pushed aside, stood an easel with a canvas upon it, which was half covered with a piece of drapery. The skylight was partly concealed with red silk blinds drawn across the staring glass, and from the center of the dome was suspended a large, jeweled lamp. It was from this that all the light in the studio proceeded at present, and though there was no fireplace, the room was warm, indeed insufferably hot. This fact, taken together with the studio's proximity to the tower, made me feel more certain than before that some flu in this modern portion of the house

Starting point is 00:50:52 had caught fire. I searched the panels for a bell, but found none, and at last lifted several of the curtains that draped the larger part of the octagonal walls. Under the first two that I raised, only a blank space of dark wood was visible, but under the third I was surprised to find a small, secretive-looking door. There was no knob or ring by way of handle, but close to the edge and about halfway between top and bottom, I distinguished a diminutive keyhole, outlined with shining metal.

Starting point is 00:51:32 I let the curtain drop again, though lingeringly. It could be only a cupboard, or a particularly secure wine-cellar, perhaps, behind this dwarfish door. Yet had I discovered it in a house not English, but of a country less conventionally civilized than our own, I should have told myself that I had chanced upon the clue to a secret. There was still a fourth curtained space, the remaining half of the octagon's being of the sandalwood, and this, as it happened, was directly behind the draped easel. i moved towards it not intending to pry into mr wildred's domestic economies but still bent on unearthing an electric bell if i could do so when my eyes fell upon the partially covered picture

Starting point is 00:52:22 it was but a pinky-white uncovered shoulder that i could see with a glimpse of red-gold hair at such a distance above as to suggest a massive knot at the back of a woman's head seen in profile there was a fraction of fluffy tall sleeves as well revealing the outline of a rounded girlish arm and though the face was hidden by the drapery i was as sure as if i had seen it that should i push aside the curtain my eyes would fall upon the counterfeit presentment of karen cunningham with half-extended hand i paused the painting was so far covered and it was in another man's house had i a right to assure myself whether my supposition were correct as i hesitated my ears were startled by what i can only describe as the beginning of a sound it was low and inarticulate yet it seemed to me that it was uttered by human lips it commenced with a tremulous vibrating noise such as might have been made by a man groaning with closed mouth and between set teeth i started and looked over my shoulder so close did it seem that i could almost fancy it had proceeded from a corner of the room behind me still it went on monotonously and then suddenly rose with ever-increasing volume to a yell of utmost agony never had i heard such a shriek not even in battle when men were stabbed or shot or blown to pieces so horrible so low so low long-drawn was it that I found myself strangely awestruck and appalled.

Starting point is 00:54:12 Great heaven! I exclaimed aloud. Sure now that close at hand fire must be raging, and have claimed some inmate of the house as its victim. Though I knew not where to find the servant who had admitted me, or any other person, I flung open the door through which I had come, and ran down the passage leading towards the main part of the house. in through the second and wider one i went opening a door here and there but finding only darkness and emptiness beyond i reached the large entrance hall at last and shouted loudly here you john james not knowing in the absence of the master and his guest whom to call upon no one answered and after the horror of the unearthly cry that i had heard and now the sound of my own lusty voice the silence that fell seemed curiously brooding and ominous i shouted a second time and was then rewarded by the sight of the respectable-looking butler his face appeared or i imagined it even more smug than before in its expression and there was something suggestive of injured dignity as well did you call sir he inquired with an irritating meekness

Starting point is 00:55:37 i did indeed i returned rather sharply i've been looking everywhere for a bell but couldn't find one i have every reason to believe that this house is on fire somewhere in the left wing near the room into which you took me and it is certain that some one has got caught in the flames for heaven's sake show me the entrance to the tower and come with me to do what can be done the smug look was gone chased away by one of blank amazement which did not however seem the sort of horrified surprise that might have been expected to follow on my startling announcement i'm sure you must be entirely mistaken sir he said there is no fire i'm quite certain of that there-there may have been a cry for as it happens there's just been an accident in the kitchen an accident in the kitchen i echoed incredulously yes sir you see it was this way sir the fellow stammered and breathed hard between his words as though he were anxious to gain time for himself i thought the cook an awkward woman set some methylated spirit on fire and upset the stuff over her foot she-i'm afraid she'd did give a scream, sir. You know what women are at such times. But it's all right now. The flames were put out on the instant, sir, and one of the other servants is helping cook bind up her foot.

Starting point is 00:57:21 Very kind of you to take this trouble and be anxious, sir, I'm sure. He was glib enough now, but his shifty eyes were moving about, as though looking with a certain apprehension for someone to arrive. I saw smoke and sparks coming out of the tower as I came up to the door, I said, doubtful about accepting this halting explanation. The fellow flushed to the roots of his black, oiled hair as I watched him. Did you see that, sir? he exclaimed ingenuously. It's master's laboratory up there, though you'd never think it from the outside, would you? Something something's gone wrong with one of the the apparatus's sir i don't know the name for it and the fact is i did suppose you were the gentleman who had come to examine into the trouble he was to have arrived to-day and so i thought but i see sir as you refer to the sparks and seem not to understand what makes them i must have been mistaken yes you were mistaken i returned

Starting point is 00:58:35 only half satisfied yet not caring to allow myself morbidly to scent a mystery where mystery there was none would you step in here sir and wait for my master he went on hastily drawing aside the portiere from a door close by i shouldn't have given you the bother of going so far before only i thought you'd come on business which would take you to that part of the house this is the drawing of the drawing of the house this is the drawing-room sir if you'll be pleased to walk in and i'll fetch you your hat and stick from the studio i had no objections to make this suggested course though i was conscious of a vague desire to return to the octagon room the butler noiselessly preceded me turning up the lights which had been dim and touching a match to four or five candles on the mantelpiece i saw a match to four or five candles on the mantelpiece i saw then that i was in a large old-fashioned drawing-room with plenty of ancient blue and white china sheridan furniture and a fireplace suggesting a design of atoms i sat down beside it to finish my time of waiting not quite sure whether to be crestfallen over having made an unnecessary sensation or to be distrustful of the butler with his shifty face i scarcely heard his decorous footsteps as he moved away over the polished oak floor of the great hall but he had not been gone more than a moment or two when the sound of voices whispering together reached my ears i had always particularly sensitive ones and no doubt my somewhat precarious wandering life had done much to sharpen them

Starting point is 01:00:24 at all events i was able to hear that which did not reach the ears of other men less favored in this regard and now i caught a word or two spoken outside in the hall in the drawing-room isn't he after all confound your stupidity fool you are well that can't be helped now story will have to do an instant later mr carson wildred had appeared at the door i got up as he showed himself and advanced toward him keenly watching his face it had been alert at first as though he were anxious to ascertain who the visitor could be then as he identified as he identified me for the fraction of a second a fire of fierce anger blazed in his pale eyes before i could more than convince myself that it had actually been there however it was gone he came towards me smiling cordially and holding out his hand how do you do mr stanton he said this is an unexpected pleasure after your refusal of our invitation last night but none the less delightful i suppose i'm rather late in wishing you are merry christmas but better late than never you know thank you i returned grudging the necessity for taking the man's hand it was cold as ice and he remarked upon it laughing rather a chilly welcome that he exclaimed but i've just come in from a walk and we've very seasonable weather as they call it to-day my butler the best and most methodical of chaps by the way is in a frightful state because you have very very seasonable weather as they call it to-day my butler the best and most methodical of chaps by the way is in a frightful state because you have

Starting point is 01:02:23 been annoyed, it seems, while you have been waiting for me. So sorry to have kept you. Accident in the kitchen, it seems. Hope it won't interfere with our getting a decent dinner tonight. For, of course, you'll stay. I fabricated an engagement for the evening on the spot and explained how I had felt like spending an afternoon in the country and seeing what the river looked like at Christmas time.

Starting point is 01:02:51 I've only a few minutes to see. stay, really, I said, for I've set my heart on walking back to Marlowe. Farnham knows I'm here, I suppose. Oh, that's the pity of it, he ejaculated. Farnham's away, after all. You know what an erratic fellow he is. Well, he got tired of business, and not dreaming you would come, ran into town to dine with some people who had asked him the other day. the fact is i fancy there's a fair lady in the case but he did say something about looking you up at the savoy if he had time and as trains are bad to-day he meant to spend the night in town

Starting point is 01:03:37 as wildred went volubly on with his apologies and explanations i did not take my eyes from his face it was as open and candid in expression as a face of his peculiar type be. And yet, though there was no earthly reason why I should disbelieve anything he had said, there was a vague doubt in my mind, as uncomfortable to bear as a haunting sense of guilt. End of Chapter 5. Recording by Roger Maline Chapter 6 of The House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 6. An Adventure in the Park.

Starting point is 01:04:37 Farnham promised, I said, to dine with me tomorrow night, you know. It is very much to be regretted that you have an engagement, but I hope that you will remind him of his to me. I will do so, certainly, Wildred returned. Not that any reminder could be needed, for Farnham is one of your most enthusiastic admirers, I should say. we were vastly polite to each other during what remained of the conversation far more ceremoniously so than we should have been likely to be had there been any solid liking on either side under the thin veneer of friendliness in a few moments i had got away despite wildred's repeated request that i should remain and share his lonely christmas dinner with him somehow a mouthful of food taken in that house would have choked

Starting point is 01:05:30 me, and I left, with the echo of the awful cry I had heard, still seemingly ringing in my ears. I half expected that Farnham might look in upon me, as Wildred had suggested, and therefore spent what remained of the evening after my return to town at the hotel. But he did not come, and shortly after midnight I threw down the book in which I had been able to retain no great interest and went to bed. It was ridiculously early when I woke, and my first conscious thought was a joyous one, that now only one day intervened between me and the call I promised myself to make it Lady Trescadies. I had endeavored to explain to my own satisfaction the presence of a portrait, which I believed to represent Miss Cunningham at the house by the lock. There were many ways

Starting point is 01:06:24 in which it might have found a place there, without betokening any great intimacy between the original of the picture and Carson Wildred. It might have been an academy success, which he had purchased. It might be even that the resemblance was merely one of chance. Still, try as I might to settle the doubts,

Starting point is 01:06:45 which, no matter how often discarded, invariably came crowding back to my brain, I was already far too deeply plunged into love to remember with calmness my glimpse of the canvas under the drapery. Of course, it would be impossible for me to refer to it in talking with Lady Tressidy or Miss Cunningham, if I were lucky enough to see them on Sunday, but in some indirect way I might be able to induce one of them to mention it.

Starting point is 01:07:16 I could refer to my visit to the house by the lock, perhaps, touching lightly upon my impression of the striking decorations in the studio, or smoking-room, and then, if there were nothing to conceal, and Miss Cunningham were aware that Mr. Wildred possessed her portrait, it would be very natural that a word or two in regard to it might pass her lips. As I was on my way down to breakfast, a little after ten, I met one of the bell-boys with a telegram, which he had been on the way to bring to my door. it was a long and elaborate message and glancing down to the end of the seven or eight lines i read farnham's name i then went back to the beginning again so sorry not to have seen you yesterday the words ran wildred has come to town bringing my luggage on receipt of a wire from me saying i have just heard of important financial business calling me to america at once

Starting point is 01:08:17 has told me of your visit very vexed can't keep engagement with you to-night and that this must after all be farewell as am leaving immediately for southampton by boat train good-bye and good luck to you we'll write you soon from other side addressing savoy hotel yours harvey farnham i cannot say i felt any very deep disappointment at the thought that i should not see my first-i friend from the states again i liked him and had found him a pleasant companion but had it not been for the strange and unpleasant dream which had somehow gifted him with an artificial importance in my mind i should have cherished few regrets at his sudden flitting as it was i had a curious sense of uneasiness and an inexplicable impression that in some undefined way i had done him an injustice or been careless of his interests though in reality i was very sure i had done nothing of the kind still i could not shake off the feeling and with an odd restlessness upon me i started almost immediately after breakfast for a long walk for some time i went on without paying very much attention to the direction i had taken but mechanically i had passed along the embankment so on through crowded piccadilly and thus to the park the dreary stretch of sodden grass with stripped trees and here and there a patch of dingy london snow did not look particularly inviting but i went in wondering a little at my own aimlessness of mood i had intended to do a good deal of riding during the morning and early afternoon but i knew that even had i stayed at home it would have been impossible for me to put pen to paper

Starting point is 01:10:14 the ubiquitous cyclist was to be seen in great numbers and to the best advantage at this time of the year the smart set was for the most part conspicuous by its absence but there were some pretty and neatly costumed young women and as i pursued my way slowly idly looking at those who passed there was a flash of red-gold hair as a slender figure in dark gray cloth shot by and i knew with a quickening of my heart-throb throbbed and i knew with a quickening of my heart-throbbed that I had seen Miss Cunningham. She was going very well, and I was admiring the pretty back, with its girlish shoulders and slim tapering waist, when suddenly a woman, riding in the opposite direction, swerved across the road on her wheel,

Starting point is 01:11:02 before Miss Cunningham had been given either time to slacken her speed or to turn out of the way. A collision was inevitable, and without waiting for it to happen, as I knew it must, in another instant I ran forward with great springing strides. It was all over before I could reach the place. Both had fallen, and several passers-by on wheels had stopped and collected in so close a group that I could not see whether one or both had been seriously injured. In less time than as taken in the telling, however, I had elbowed my way

Starting point is 01:11:39 through the well-meaning crowd to find Miss Cunningham sitting on the edge of the grass, nursing a twisted ankle, her lovely face looking white and troubled. The cause of the accident was already on her feet, and in the midst of such voluble apologies and explanations that I could only conclude she, at least, had suffered slightly. Miss Cunningham, I said, warning the girl of my presence, and she looked up with a tremulous little cry of surprise and perhaps relief. Oh, I am so thankful, she exclaimed.

Starting point is 01:12:18 I was just wondering what I should do. But you will help me, I know. If you will let me, I responded, rather too eagerly. I saw the accident from a distance. I hope you are not much hurt. I don't quite know, she said, ruefully. By this time we had been practically left alone. Seeing that an acquaintance of the young ladies had opportunely appeared upon the scene, the others, whose proffered assistance could now be

Starting point is 01:12:51 dispensed with, had one by one moved away. "'Is it your ankle?' I asked, stooping down over the dainty foot which showed beneath the short bicycling dress. "'Yes, it seemed to turn under me as I fell somehow.' somehow. And my poor machine! I know it must have had a terrible smash. I feel far worse about it than I do about myself. But the whole thing is a punishment, I suppose. I oughtn't to have come out alone. Lady Tressidy never allows it, and will be very cross with me when she hears what has happened, I'm afraid. I shan't have a bit more sympathy than I deserve when it comes out. I hadn't meant her to know it all, you see. I could not imagine how even a woman could find it

Starting point is 01:13:43 in her heart to reproach the owner of those beautiful appealing eyes and exquisite lips, quivering now, between smiles and tears, like those of a mutinous child. If I had dared tell her how deep was the sympathy I felt. But I was only afraid lest she might read it, and more, in my eyes. sympathetic though I was, however, I could not control my joy that, since the accident had happened, I, and no other, had been on the spot to offer aid which he might deign to accept. "'Don't mind about your bicycle,' I said. I'm sure it's all right, or can easily be made so again. And if you'll let me enter into the plot, perhaps between us we can think of a road out of the difficulty

Starting point is 01:14:34 with Lady Tressidy. But the first thing to do is to get you safely away from this. I am afraid I can't walk, she warned me, laughing nervously. Of course not. A cab's the thing, with the invalided bike on top. But may I be with you? I don't see how it is possible to let you go by yourself. It will be very unconventional, won't it? she smiled. but there are times when conventionalities must be thrown aside and i shall be grateful if you'll take care of me and do all the planning please then womanlike contradicting her own last sentence she went on but i don't see how we can manage about a cab of course there won't be any here and i don't very much want to be left sitting here all alone and you shall not be for a moment i see for a moment i see you shall not be for a moment i see

Starting point is 01:15:36 said, joyful even at this small sign that my presence was not actually disagreeable to her. There are plenty of people who will call a cab for us. And I proceeded to put my statement to the proof. Within five minutes, an unusually presentable four-wheeler had appeared upon the scene, the unfortunate bicycle had been handed up on top, and the young lady had been tenderly helped inside. "'Tell him just to go on slowly for a few minutes while we talk things over,' she commanded, more cheerfully. "'Do you know, Mr. Stanton? After all, I begin to hope my ankle is not so badly hurt, and though, as I told you, I shall be in a sad scrape when I get home, and have to confess,

Starting point is 01:16:24 still—' There's a spice of adventure in all this that appeals to me, rather. It's a very long time since I have had an adventure, of any kind. Poor child, she little guessed how many awaited her behind the lowered curtain of the future. Never have I had one which would be so wholly delightful, I boldly said, if I had not to think that you were in pain. Oh, it is really not so dreadful. She blushed brightly, but when the lovely rose tint faded,

Starting point is 01:16:59 it left her pale even to the lips. "'Suppose we talk,' she went on more sedately, "'about the way in which you are to get me out of my difficulty. "'For I think you've promised to do that.' "'I adopted her tone at once. "'Let us begin with judicial questioning, then. "'Was Lady Tressidy at home when you came out?' "'No,' laughing.

Starting point is 01:17:29 "'Or I couldn't have come, on my bicycle. "'She had gone on to an... anti-something meeting. Lady Tressidy is very fond of anti-something meetings, as you'll discover for yourself when you know her. She won't be at home to lunch either, and she need never find me out in my iniquity, except that, even though my foot is not so very bad, I shall be sure to limp. She will inquire what has happened, and, of course, though my conscience would not reproach me much for silence, if that were possible, I couldn't tell a fib. I would have been ready to swear that she was not one of the young women who could

Starting point is 01:18:12 rattle off what they might call harmless evasions with a candidly smiling face. Suppose then, I suggested, that you allow me to take you at once to a doctor who will examine your ankle, and perhaps be able to anoint it with some healing lotion, which may prevent the limping you so dread. There used to be a man in this neighborhood whom I knew by reputation when I was in England last. I remember street and number, and it's not very likely that he's moved away.

Starting point is 01:18:46 A grand idea, she exclaimed. But though she tried to speak brightly, even merrily, it was plain to see that she was suffering a good deal, whether more physically or mentally I could not tell. i put out my head and gave directions to the cabman and when i drew it in again to glance anxiously at the face which already i so passionately loved i saw that it was even whiter than before the eyes were drooping and the dark curling lashes almost swept the colorless cheeks as though she felt my gaze upon her she looked up instantly and made an effort to smile but the mischievous light which had danced in her eyes when she first sank restfully back upon the shabby cushions of the cab had been suddenly and utterly quenched miss cunningham i exclaimed you have made nothing of your pain but i know that you are ill that you are suffering i am very foolish she answered in a low unsteady voice

Starting point is 01:19:54 it isn't my ankle though of course that hurts a little but i think it must be the shock which i didn't realize at first i felt quite bright until a moment ago but suddenly i am all weak and trembling the truth is mr stanton i wasn't fit to be out this morning especially alone and i didn't come simply from sheer bravado as you might think and for the sake of doing what i'd been told not to do i-i felt as though i must be out in the air and in motion i didn't sleep last night and i didn't eat any breakfast this morning which may partly account for this silliness of mine perhaps i thought i should feel better out of doors but it seems that nothing in the world can do me any good everything i attempt must always end in disaster and oh mr stanton i am so very very unhappy and miserable to my amazement and distress she covered her face with her little gloved hands and broke into a storm of sobbing end of chapter six recording by roger maline chapter seven of the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson this librovoc's recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline chapter seven friends it was all i could do to resist the impulse to take the small trembling hands in my own to touch the bowed head with its glory of shimmering ripples to break into passionate words which must have alarmed her and put an end to my chance of winning her perhaps forever but to a certain extent i was able to control myself

Starting point is 01:22:02 what can i say what can i do i stammered if there was only some way in which it might be possible for me to help you ah if if she echoed desolately don't you think it strange that though we scarcely know each other though this is only our second meeting and quite by chance i turn to you with such a confession i am ashamed now and she impetuously dashed her tears away with a toy of a handkerchief. But the words spoke themselves before I could stop them. You see, I have no one to talk to, no one to advise me. I think I must be the loneliest girl in all this big, preoccupied world. I should have thought you would have had more friends than you could keep within bounds, I said, hotly.

Starting point is 01:22:58 Friends? Has anyone many friends? I have plenty of acquaintances, but I think no friends. Let us not talk of this anymore, though, Mr. Stanton. I have forgotten myself. Forgive me, I can't obey you, I protested. Just one word. As you said, this is only our second meeting, and I have no right to ask a favor of you, yet I am going to do it.

Starting point is 01:23:27 I beg of you, as I never begged anything before, that you will forget how shorter time we have known each other and that you will take me for a friend a friend in the truest and best sense of that good much abused word i swear to you that you would find me loyal she looked up at me in the sweetest way with eyes that glistened through a sheen of tears i believe that i should find you so she answered falteringly and oh how i do need a friend though you may think me disloyal to say that when i have a home and those who have meant to be kind to me her eyes had dropped but now she raised them again and met mine earnestly yes she exclaimed yes i will have you for a friend then won't you begin by making use of me at once i pleaded with an eagerness i could no longer disguise i am i not making use of you now ah i know what you mean you mean i am to tell you the things which i have let you see are troubling me but much as i need help and advice could i do that now so soon you must already think me a very strange girl half mad perhaps well i have had almost enough of late to drive me mad some time in a few days maybe when we know each other a little better i-but the man is stopping we have come to the doctors you spoke of i suppose i neither blessed the cabman nor the doctor at that moment

Starting point is 01:25:16 still less did i do so afterwards knowing that if we had not been interrupted then it might well have happened that the whole course of our two lives had been changed however there was nothing to be done but ascertain if the eminent man was at home and able to give his attention to a somewhat urgent case the poor girl too was evidently suffering and in a highly nervous state and it would have been cruel now that the opportunity had presented itself to keep her for a single instant from the restoratives doubtless at hand dr burns was to be seen i introduced miss cunningham to him described the accident and left him to do what he could for the injured ankle afterwards i had still the joy of driving to park lane with her in anticipation i was only called when dr burns was ready to send his patient away do you know what was the first thing that this young lady did before i had time to begin my ministrations he jocularly inquired and though the girl looked up at him with imploring eyes he persisted why she fainted away and if she had to do it she couldn't have chosen a more proper occasion there i was with all the known remedies at hand and i proceeded to use them with the most satisfactory results as you may see i don't think you will have any further trouble in going home and now that she has been well dosed and well bandaged the best thing she can do is to eat a hearty luncheon once again settled in the cab we were but a few moments drive from sir walter tressidy's house in park lane as i knew to my intense regret

Starting point is 01:27:08 with wily forethought however i suggested going somewhat out of our way to the establishment of a certain bicycle manufacturer and mender who would send for miss cunningham's machine and repair it before the accident it had met with could be conjectured by those not supposed to know try as i would i could not induce her to continue the conversation which had been broken short the brief interval that had passed since then had severed the threads of intense emotion which had for the moment united us and she evidently repenting her frankness was visibly ill at ease it was only at the door that her manner warmed a little towards me again yes i believe i am quite all right she said in answer to a question i shall not even have a suspicion of a limp she held out her hand to me and did not try to draw it away though i grasped it rather longer and more tightly than conventionality might have approved you will come soon to see lady tressidy and me she asked softly i thought of calling to-morrow afternoon may i i shall be glad very glad never shall i forget your kindness to me to-day don't think me any more odd than you can help good-bye before i could begin to tell her how impossible it would be to think any save the most reverent thoughts of her she was gone and a cloud seemed suddenly to darken my sky End of Chapter 7.

Starting point is 01:28:54 Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 8 of The House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 8. An announcement. I would have given a year of my life to know what was the trouble and anxiety which so rot upon Karen Cunningham. She was young, and it was young. might be that her youth and her sex caused her mentally to exaggerate what was in reality a trifle.

Starting point is 01:29:36 Yet, even with my slight knowledge of her, I could not believe this to be the case. Many conjectures passed in review before me, but that which seemed to carry with it most weight of reason was the idea that her guardian and his wife were attempting to coerce her into some course which was distasteful to her. naturally the thought of an objectionable lover occurred to me and made my blood run the faster through my veins i could not forgive the unknown and possible for being a lover even though he were to her an objectionable one i longed for the next day to come that i might see the beautiful girl again but scarcely in the same way that i had longed for it before there could be no repetition of the half-confidence of to-day the suggestions of friendship friendship what a mockery the adorable glances which meant trust and a gratitude which i had not deserved lady tressidy would unfortunately be present my visit would ostensibly be paid to her already i began to dislike her and fancy that her conduct towards the young girl entrusted to her care must have been mysteriously atrocious

Starting point is 01:30:56 no i could not expect much from the call having been blessed with an unexpected glimpse of heaven which it could not give back to me again still i thought of little else until the coming of the very earliest hour at which i could show myself in park lane on the following day yes lady tressidy was at home vouchsafed a solemn footman my name was announced and i scarcely ventured to lift my eyes on entering the drawing-room room, lest they should tell me that Karen was not there. Perhaps she was ill. Indeed, it seemed only too likely that she should be so. I wondered I had not mentally confronted that probability before. There were a number of guests assembled in the room, it seemed to me, despite the fact that everybody who was anybody was supposed to be spending the Christmas season

Starting point is 01:31:51 far away in other people's country houses. At length, when I had had a few words with my hostess, the crowd resolved itself into a dozen persons at most, and seeing Karen at a far end of the room, surrounded by three or four vacuous-looking young men, I desperately resolved to outstay everybody. I had scarcely more than a glance and a smile from Miss Cunningham, and then I found myself obliged to talk with simulated amiability

Starting point is 01:32:21 to a semi-young woman who was anxious I should know how often she had heard of me and my travels, and that she had read the two or three books I had been idiot enough to write. Half an hour went by. I had been passed on to other ladies, who seemed to my prejudiced eyes to bear an astonishing family likeness, both in mind and face, to the first of the series. Three or four people had gone. one or two new ones had come in, but at last I had had the good fortune to escape from the latest on my list of acquaintances.

Starting point is 01:32:58 I could still see Karen. She had got rid of one of her adorers, but had a couple yet in hand, and it appeared to me that she would not be sorry to bid them adieu. At all events, her face was pale as a lily-petal held against the light, her sweet lips drooped wistfully at the corners, and I thought she spoke but seldom. The smile with which she had greeted me had been fleeting, and even as it lingered there had been an expression in her large soft eyes, which had galled me that I should be too dull to read. It had seemed to say,

Starting point is 01:33:36 "'Something has happened since I saw you last. Why did you offer me your friendship, when it was too late to give me any help?' "'No doubt,' I told myself, this was but a morbid fancy of mine if i could have known the true motive of the glance i should have interpreted what appeared like unutterable sadness as mere boredom instead of the earnest approach or reproach i imagined at most the eyes intended to say i have talked long enough with these stupid men none of whom have minds above cricket or football relieve me of them please but i had not even been able to do that though i had tried for as i attempted to oust the boldest of the group in my own favor lady tressidy had swept across the room with sharp rustling of silken linings and satin skirts to claim me for an introduction to an old friend who had longed for years to know me at length however as i said i had contrived an escape and was finding my way towards karen when before i had reached her i saw her start staring past me

Starting point is 01:34:52 with a white frozen look on her face that for the moment blotted out much of its innocent youthfulness and beauty she was gazing in the direction of the door with dark dilated eyes and lips tightly closed in a line of scarlet that faded to palest pink it was as though into the midst of the gossip and laughter and brilliant light had crept a spectre which she alone could see some such look i had seen in the eyes of a dove which had been offered up as food for a constrictor involuntarily i turned and glanced behind me no name had been announced though i had heard the opening and closing of the door and now as i faced round in that direction i saw that sir walter trecody and carson wildred had come in together evidently this was not wildred's first entrance for like sir walter he had neither hat nor stick he moved forward by his companion's side with the unmistakably assured air of the friend of the house and i instinctively understood that he had lunched with the tressides and since that time had been closeted on some business of importance with his host unreasoningly i hated him for his privileges with more of reason i hated him because i believed the look i had seen for a single instant on karen cunningham's face was connected with his presence that look was gone now when i removed my eyes from wildred and turned again to her her delicate spiritual profile only was visible her head was graciously inclined towards the monocle youth who stood nearest her she appeared no longer to see wildred or sir walter trecity i was determined that the former should not approach her as he seemed inclined to do if i could prevent it

Starting point is 01:36:56 i hurried to her accordingly and shut her away from the room with a pair of broad shoulders and with an air of monopolizing her which i should not have dared at any other time to assume but was i not her friend had i not the right to protect her if i could from all that i believed to be distasteful to her presently the callow youths whose claims i had hardly considered seemed to melt away and i was left alone with her people were going and it was getting late no doubt but i did not yet mean to follow their example after all despite my dismal presages it did appear that i was to have her for at least a little a moment and two to myself. I had kept my word. I had outstayed them all, all but Carson Wildred. Have you quite recovered from yesterday's accident? I asked, glad to share even so insignificant a secret with her. Yes, oh yes, she spoke hurriedly, and her eyes had moved to the distant group near the fireside, Lady Tressidy, Carson, and Sir Walter. You haven't reconsidered your promise that I should be your friend?

Starting point is 01:38:17 She turned to me quickly, and her eyes brimmed with unshed tears. So many things in my life, though it is not so very long as yet, have come to me too late. Even my friends sometimes. Before I could beg her to tell me what she meant, Lady Tressidy had called her name, and she sprang up obediently. followed suit, of course. "'Come here, my dear girl. Mr. Stanton, this is quite a momentous day for us,

Starting point is 01:38:51 and I can't resist the temptation to take you into our circle and our confidence,' said the elder woman graciously. "'It is just settled that this sweet adopted child of ours is to leave us, and at short notice, too. She and Mr. Wildred are going to be married.' End of Chapter 8. recording by roger maline chapter nine of the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson this libervox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline chapter nine too late too late the words that karen had just spoken echoed in my ears like a knell of doom

Starting point is 01:39:49 for a few tremendous seconds that seemed endless i stood paralyzed by lady tressidy's announcement unable to speak then i turned and looked at karen her eyes seemed to have been waiting for mine and for an instant i held them with my gaze until they fell and veiled the answer mine had asked with long shadowy lashes never i thought as my thirsty eyes drank in the beauty that was not for me could there have been another woman so wholly lovely so altogether desirable i could have fallen on my knees before her to touch the hem of her dainty gown with my lips and cry out my love and longing for her but instead i was called upon to say something civil and therefore hypocritical to the newly engaged pair and then as soon as decency would permit my escape to go out from her presence forever and face the black loneliness of my darkened life only a few days had passed since first i had seen the beauty of her face but already she dominated my every thought and i knew that there was no hope of surcease from the aching pain of having lost her had i been obliged to stand by and see her give herself to any other man than carson wildred it seemed to me that the blow would have been more bearable but with my almost unreasoning aversion for and distrust of him the thought of a marriage between these two was like the sacrifice of fair virgins to the false foul, blood-dripping jaws of the mythical Minotaur.

Starting point is 01:41:34 Slight as was our actual acquaintance, when measured by mere time, it appeared the maddest conceit on my part to believe for a moment that had I come earlier into her life, I might have made a difference. But, mad as it was, I did so believe. Some voice within me, which would not be stilled or burke contradiction, cried aloud that I might have won her love, that she might have been mine that only some devilish tangle of circumstances had circumvented the fate which originally had meant that we too should be all in all to one another it was perhaps the hardest task i had ever been forced to perform when after that ominous pause which doubtless seemed far more prolonged to me than to the others i held out my hand as i was expected to do taking miss cunningham's ice-cold fingers in mine

Starting point is 01:42:29 and wishing her happiness then i was obliged to turn to wildred in whose eyes i saw or fancied i saw a malicious light of comprehension and triumphant defiance but his hand i would not take it is hardly necessary to congratulate you i said haltingly you are one of the most fortunate men in the world and the most undeserving it was he who added the words as though he had read them in my own mind and there was a slight sarcastic rising inflection of the voice at the end of the sentence as if he put it to me as a question of course i vouchsafed him no answer unless he found it in my eyes which have never been tell-tales but in that moment i would have laid down my life could i have wrenched from my memory that episode of his history the secret of which it mercilessly withheld from me i have a dim recollection of saying something more or less conventional to sir walter and lady trecity and then at last i got away i had fancied that not to have her face before my eyes that not to endure the pang of seeing them together and to escape into the open air would relieve the tension of my feelings but it was not so the moment the door had closed behind me the agony of the thought that i had seen her perhaps for the last time and the poignancy of my regret that i had not been able to put to her one question which rang in my brain became well-nigh unendurable i walked rapidly away from the house telling myself that the best thing for me would be to leave england again at once

Starting point is 01:44:24 i had been a fool to fancy myself homesick and to come back to this so far my life had been lived contentedly enough apart from the influence or love of women what strange weakness of the soul had seized me that i should have been lived contentedly enough apart from the influence or love of women what strange weakness of the soul had seized me that i should thus have yielded without a struggle to a single glance from a pair of violet eyes yes assuredly the sooner i got away the better there had been nothing save a restless desire for home to bring me to my native land there was less than nothing to keep me there never to see her again never again i believed that my mind was less than nothing to keep me there never again i believed that my mind was a little thing made up, and yet I think I would have cut off my hand for the chance of one more moment with her, one more glimpse of her face to take away across the sea, even though she neither saw nor spoke to me. I walked aimlessly in the darkness, knowing not and caring not where I went. I heard a clock strike eight, realizing suddenly that I was far from my hotel and that I had wearied myself uselessly.

Starting point is 01:45:38 I must write some letters that night, crying off two or three engagements that I had been foolish enough to make, and explaining that I had been suddenly and unexpectedly called away. As I had walked I had made up my mind whither I would go. India would be rather good at this time of year, I thought, and I had always promised myself when I should find the leisure to make certain explorations. there had also been an idea smoldering in my mind for a year or two that with my knowledge of the language and a proper disguise it might be possible for me to push my way into the jealously guarded tibet now was the very moment for some such experiments as these i hailed a cab and drove back to the savoy from a distant and more or less to me unknown region of london try as i might to keep my thoughts from the one absorbing topic by dwelling upon the plans for the future the effort was useless karen's face was before me and again and again i heard her words which might have meant so much or so little

Starting point is 01:46:53 many things in my life even my friends sometimes have come to me too late as i entered the hotel my eyes dazzled by the sudden brilliant light i could hardly for an instant believe that it was not an optical illusion when i saw in the flesh the face which had been haunting me but it was indeed she there was no doubting that people were coming in to the savoy for dinner now so fashionable a way of passing the deadly dull london sunday evening and in a moment i had guessed that she and her party were of the number i had even an impression of a sentence begun by lady tressidy that afternoon which would doubtless have ended with the information that she and the others were dining at my hotel in the evening had she not been interrupted and so forgotten as i had done there had been a dreary drizzle of rain outside and i was conscious that my long wanderings through muddy streets had rendered me unpresentable still my wish had been granted me there stood karen cunningham in white from head to foot a long soft evening cloak with shining silver thread straying over its snowy surface hung loosely about her for she had fastened it at the throat and i could see a gleam of bare neck hung with a rope of pearls and the delicate folds of chiffon belted in with jewels at her girlish waist her head was turned aside and slightly bent a light from above streaming down on her uncovered hair and transforming the copper into gold sir walter and lady tressidy were close by not six feet away

Starting point is 01:48:46 and all were evidently waiting for some one carson wildred no doubt i bitterly told myself none of the party had as yet seen me sir walter and his wife were talking very earnestly together and had perhaps moved a few steps from the young girl that their words might not be overheard by her i knew that if i were wise i would at once take myself off without announcing my presence but a sudden impulse seized and overmastered me it was a desperate one doubtless but none the less alluring and powerful because of that end of chapter nine recording by roger maline chapter ten of the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson this lippervox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline if he had committed a crime. Karen stood, as I said, perhaps a couple of yards distant from her friends, and their backs, at the present moment, were more than half turned to her. It would be just possible for me to speak to her without being observed by them,

Starting point is 01:50:14 if I were both extraordinarily cautious and lucky. At any moment, Wildred, who had perhaps gone to rectify some vexatious mistake about a table, might return. If I meant to take the step at all, there was no time to be lost in doing so. Without giving myself a second for further reflection, and with the blood surging to my temples, I found myself with a few strides beside her. Mud-stained boots and trousers were forgotten. I would waste no time in apologizing for my appearance. What she must have thought of my pale and eager face suddenly bent over. her i do not know i felt that a great crisis in my life perhaps in hers as well had arrived and my eyes must have shown something of that which stirred so passionately in mind and heart for she started with a look almost of fear as she saw and recognized me

Starting point is 01:51:13 she uttered no exclamation however if she had sir walter and lady tressidy would have heard and looked round and my one chance so desperately snatched from fate, would have been gone like a bubble that bursts ere it is fairly expanded. Without one spoken word I made her see that she must come with me, and the quick realization of my power over her, as she laid her hand upon my arm unhesitatingly, thrilled me to the very core of my being. Most women would have refused to come, or at least questioned my sudden appearance and intention, but not so with her. She knew that I had something to say to her which must be said, and it was her will to hear it. She had been pale as a statue of marble, as she stood leaning listlessly against the wall in her white dress, but as she moved away with me, life and color

Starting point is 01:52:11 came back to her face. I led her down the hall to a small public drawing-room, and not once did she hesitate or look back, unconventional as was the adventure in which she was engaged. Luckily, the place was empty, save for two elderly French women, who gossiped and gabbled with their heads close together on a sofa in a corner. What is it? Oh, what is it? questioned Karen. Quick, there will only be a moment, I know, for they will see that I have gone and will soon find me here. Without any preface I came straight to the asking of the bald, crude question which was in my mind to ask,

Starting point is 01:52:55 "'For the sake of our friendship, Miss Cunningham, forgive me, and tell me whether you love Carson Wildred?' She started and quivered almost as though I had struck her a blow, and her large, frightened eyes studied mine for a long second without answering. Then she said simply, No, my friend, I do not love him. Yet you have promised to marry him? Yes. And you mean to carry out that promise? Yes, unless...

Starting point is 01:53:32 Unless what? Something happens to prevent me. If you do not love him, something shall prevent. let me help you for heaven's sake let me only give me an idea how it can best be done i ask no more i will teach you what such a friendship as mine can have the power to do i hoped to give her courage by the passion and force of my words but strangely enough the bright eagerness died out of her face as i spoke in some way i had missed saying the thing which might have comforted her if i had only known if i had only known you are very kind she said gently and sadly i am not looking forward to any great degree of happiness in my life but i dare say after all i shall get on as well as most women i don't think anything will happen to prevent what we were speaking of why is it to come so soon then i questioned impetuously in six weeks it was all arranged to-day with a soft little sigh at the end of her sentence

Starting point is 01:54:53 tell me this are you in any way being forced into the marriage not by people exactly only by circumstances i-i can't tell you any more though believe me i am grateful for all you mean and all you would do for friendship's sake there seemed a faint ring of stifled bitterness in the last three words though wherefore it should come i knew not if she had resented the warmth of my friendship after our brief acquaintance what would she feel i dimly wondered should i forget myself and be coward and fool enough to tell her of my mad love on the very day of her betrothal to another man with all my strength i held my tongue under control and heaven knows it was no easy victory with those sweet eyes looking into mine tell me what could prevent it i persisted imploringly if you found that he was unworthy would that she half smiled though without any mirthfulness there are so many degrees of unworthiness aren't there and i am not clear enough to perfection to believe myself a judge. If he had committed a crime, I went desperately on, and the words on my own lips made me start

Starting point is 01:56:21 as though with a sudden revelation. I seemed to have assured myself of a fact which had actually taken place, rather than uttered a mere suggestion. The conviction grew within me that if Carson Wildred had not successfully altered his face and each characteristic of his personality, I should at once be able not only to remember, but to prove that my haunting half-recollection

Starting point is 01:56:47 was intimately connected with some criminal deed done by him. Ah, then! But it is wrong to wish that he should have been guilty of any wickedness. I think, Mr. Stanton, that as I have promised to be his wife, we must talk no more of this, you and I. I have always had a horror of disloyalty. i know i said that i have done an unheard-of thing in thus stealing you away from your friends to ask you questions which only the most intimate friends could claim the right to ask but oh she cried impulsively somehow you and i have bridged over years you are good to me don't think i will misunderstand i shall always remember you and what you would have done for me

Starting point is 01:57:40 what i shall try yet to do in spite of all i amended i meant to leave england soon but now i shall stay yes stay she faintly echoed though you must leave me now i-i would rather anything than that you were with me when they come to me i will make them some excuse for having separated myself from them only go now please go As she spoke, outside in the hall, we heard voices and footsteps coming nearer. End of Chapter 10. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 11 of The House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline.

Starting point is 01:58:43 Chapter 11 Wildred Scores Karen's face grew paler than before. Throwing up her head with a proud, spirited little gesture, she walked quickly to the door and passed into the hall. I knew that this was to prevent her friends from entering and finding us together, as they must otherwise have done, and there was nothing for me to do, cowardly as this seemed,

Starting point is 01:59:10 but obey her and passively submit to the carrying out of her scheme. It had indeed been Sir Walter and Lady Tressidy and Carson Wildred, whose voices we had heard. Why did you run away? We have been looking for you everywhere, and wasting so much time, I heard Lady Tressidy say fretfully. I was very tired of standing, the girl promptly returned, and of waiting, too, with a certain imperiousness in her tone. I wandered away to fill up the time till Mr. Wildred should have straightened matters in the dining-room. She had contrived to satisfy their curiosity without telling an actual falsehood,

Starting point is 01:59:56 of which I knew instinctively she would greatly dislike making herself guilty. It did not seem to occur to them to enter the drawing-room, or she had left me, and when I was sure that they had passed out of sight and hearing, I came forth from the ignominious hiding place to which her command had condemned me. In the exalted mood which had possession of me, the thought of dinner would have been abhorrent. For the rest of the evening I kept my room, meditating many things, and becoming more and more desirous of learning Carson Wildred's secret, if secret indeed he had. At all events I still had six weeks in which to work, with the hope ever before me of

Starting point is 02:00:39 saving Karen Cunningham from the man whom, by her own confession, she did not love. Strange and desperate expedients passed in review before me. How was I to accomplish my object? The man had denied ever having met me in old days, when it had been mentioned to him that I fancied a previous acquaintance had somewhere existed, and if I were to learn anything satisfactory in regard to his antecedents, I felt that it must be from others. He had made himself a name in a certain set in London.

Starting point is 02:01:14 There was no doubt of that. And I set myself to find out, step by step, how he had contrived to do it. What was the actual foundation for the reports of his wealth, his smartness, his influence on many sides? On the following day, Monday, I went to my old club, the wayfarers, which i had not yet troubled with my presence and picked out a man named driscoll who made a business of knowing everybody and everything beginning with some conventional talk about the changes in england in general and london in particular since i had seen it last

Starting point is 02:01:54 i managed to mention carson wildred without appearing to have dragged his name into the conversation for any special purpose of my own it sprang from some talk about a british christmas and i made as humorous a story as i could about my having gone down to the house by the lock only to miss my friend and my dinner after all wildred can entertain royally if he chooses said driscoll i've been to dinners he gave at the savoy and princes and Willis's rooms, don't you know, something really quite original, with flowers alone which must have cost a fortune. People come to his entertainments, too. He can get anybody he wants, from the duchesses down to the music hall favorites, even if he likes to get up a conventional river party with a spread down at that queer old place of his you speak of, the house by the lock. It is a queer place indeed, I echoed.

Starting point is 02:02:55 I wonder how he came by it. Oh, if the stories are true, in a way as peculiar as the place itself, therefore appropriate. It was owned, I know, for a matter of fact, by an Italian whose father was exiled and came over here to live after 48, a chap by the name of de Tauterali, belonging to a good family in all. that had the entree everywhere the son a nice fellow except that he was weak loved nothing so well as baccarat somehow he and wildred got acquainted when wildred was little known if at all in society and the two played cards on rather a big scale at the house of a mutual friend de totorelli had bad luck one night lost a pot of money and finally having nothing else left for that was worth having, staked the house by the lock, very dilapidated, and in a shocking state of repair. Well, that's the way Wildred got it, and there are those who do say that after having

Starting point is 02:04:04 won almost everything Tortorelli had, Wildred financed him till his marriage with a rich American on the proviso that Totorelli should get him into the smart set. Those are only Wildred's enemies, of course. For like most men of strong character he has a few though on the whole his generosity has made him extremely popular then he knew no one when he first appeared over the social horizon i went on questioning driscoll laughed i never heard of any one who knew him before the day when he first blazed forth as a social luminary about three or four years ago he took a house in town for the season i remember it was the duke of torquay's one of the finest in town and let for a fabulous sum then he and torterelli gave an entertainment together somehow securing several royalties to say nothing of paderuski and la bellatero and one or two other celebrities who must each have cost him anywhere from a thousand to two thousand pounds for the one night after that wildred was made of course for the affair was a brilliant success by the way that was the first time he ever met the beautiful miss cunningham who had just made a triumphant debut as the beauty of the season in fact most people think the most beautiful girl who has been seen since the day when mrs langtree created her first sensation in london

Starting point is 02:05:40 miss cunningham was at the party with the tressides and blazee chap as he was even then wildred went down at the first shot from a pair of dark eyes vile it, brown, no one ever yet was sure of their color. Of course, she's a great heiress, but the man must be blind and paralyzed who couldn't fall in love with Karen Cunningham for herself. And however he gets it, Carson Wildred has no lack of money of his own. How does gossip say he gets it? I went on to inquire with eagerness, which I concealed as best I could. Oh, gossip doesn't trouble itself much in that way, Driscoll laughed. It only concerns itself to eat his dinners, for as a matter of fact, though I can't exactly vouch for it myself, there isn't much secret about the way the money pours in.

Starting point is 02:06:38 It's the man's extraordinary luck. He seems to have a lot of relations who are always good-naturedly going off the hooks and leaving wildred fortunes just when he needs them most. Old fellows in the Antipodes, don't you know, who might really quite as well be dead as not. It's all straight enough, of course, but the funny thing is that if one hears one day that Wildred has come rather a cropper at Newmarket or the Derby or somewhere else, the news within the month is pretty sure to be that another Johnny in Australia, or elsewhere, has conveniently slipped his cable and left Wildred a cool fifty thousand or so at the very least. Hardly had the laughter prompted by his own

Starting point is 02:07:25 words died, on Driscoll's lips, when to my astonishment, the man of whom we spoke sauntered into the room. He was looking at peace with all the world, and as nearly handsome as it was possible for him to look. The contrast between him. him and the podgy elderly gentleman by whom he was accompanied being much to his advantage talking of angels ejaculated driscoll beneath his breath what do you think of that for a coincidence is he a member here i asked in an equally low voice for i did not wish wildred to have the satisfaction of guessing that he had formed the subject of conversation between me and my companion no driscoll said but he often comes in with old wigram who's been a great traveler you know and who now goes in no end for dabbling in chemistry that's wildred's great fad and makes the two who are as different as possible rather chummy as we spoke on still in somewhat cautious tones the two newcomers drew nearer to us greeting several men whom they knew and finally sat down. The room felt the colder to me for Carson Wildred's presence.

Starting point is 02:08:46 Half an hour dragged along, and I was thinking of moving on, when, as I passed Wildred with a slight inclination in return for his, somewhat to my surprise, he followed me. How do you do, he said, with an attempt at an ingratiating smile. Now, if you won't think me rude for the suggestion, I'd be willing to bet you a hundred pounds to a fiver, that you and Driscoll were doing me the honor of discussing some of my affairs, if not myself, when I happened to look in just now. Here was a good opening for a conversation,

Starting point is 02:09:25 unwaited by polite fictions, and I unhesitatingly accepted it. Yes, I replied, quietly, turning more fully towards him. We were talking of you and your affairs. i readily divined that from the look on driscoll's innocent old mug as i entered i am remarkably quick at reading other people's faces i have flattered myself that i am the same when the faces have not been altered almost if not quite beyond recognition i looked full into his curious pale eyes as i gave him this hint but they did not fall before mine and his dark sallow skin could scarcely be paler than its want he returned my stare and was not afraid to show me that my meaning had made itself clearly understood why speak in riddles my dear mr stanton he asked shrugging his shoulders a little but as we have got upon this subject suppose we follow it up to the end bitter or otherwise and as you may not care to talk all your felt

Starting point is 02:10:36 wayfarers into your inmost confidence, I suggest that we move out of earshot of the mob. Here are a couple of chairs and a table, far from the madding crowd. Shall we sit for five minutes or so? Thanks. And won't you let me offer you a cigar? These are not bad ones. A present from the Shazada last year. I courteously refused the offer, watching him with some interest as,

Starting point is 02:11:05 pretending to be unconscious of or indifferent to my scrutiny he struck a match and lighted his cigar i have already frankly assured you mr stanton he went on that i am not aware of having met you before the other night christmas eve i think it was at the theatre with my very good friend farnham but you evidently wish me to see that you still firmly believe i am-mastaken am i not stating the case correctly but it is certainly far from flattering to me that you should have almost completely forgotten me to say the least i shall remember you again sooner or later i murmured i sincerely hope so if in any way we have come across each other in the past unknown to me but i have been so well acquainted with you by reputation for some years mr stanton that i would be ready to swear my memory could not have played me false. I did not reply, save by a slight upward movement of the eyebrows, but I was conscious that he was gazing at me intently. You do not like me, he remarked presently, in the same low, monotonous tone of voice

Starting point is 02:12:26 which we had employed so far throughout our disjointed conversation. It was my turn to shrug my shoulders. I should not be apt to select you as a friend. I wonder, very slowly and lazily, whether it be possible that I can in any way quite inadvertently have interfered with your plans? Rather say, I broke out imprudently, that it is possible I may interfere with yours.

Starting point is 02:13:00 He laughed. I wonder how. in no definite way unless i should happen suddenly to remember exactly where and how i have met you before that little accident might slightly hamper your career in general for the future perhaps you are pleased to be insulting and yet somehow i don't want to take offence from you i would much prefer to argue you out of your somewhat unreasonable prejudice and mistake do you suggest for instance that i am now concealing my identity under a disguise so speaking he raised his hand with a pretence at carelessness pushing his dark hair from his forehead in such a way as to assure me without doubt that he did not wear a wig the moustache allow me to give you an ocular demonstration is equally genuine he sneered i don't sport a fault nose, or I should have procured myself a more desirable one, and my teeth, with a disagreeable grin, are my own. Have I convinced you that I have not tampered with nature's handiwork,

Starting point is 02:14:17 such as it is? You might have waited, Mr. Wildred, I returned, until I had accused you of doing so before trying to prove the contrary. You know the saying, he who excuses, accuses himself, I suppose? I have heard it, though fortunately it does not concern the case. Look here, Mr. Stanton, you and I are sitting here among mutual friends, apparently holding, so far as they can see or hear, an amicable discussion. But the truth is, I have wit enough to understand that what you would like and what you mean is war to the knife. fortunately for me i am one of her majesty's most peaceable law-abiding subjects and always have been so i have as little to hide in my past as any man can possibly have less than yourself even it may be

Starting point is 02:15:18 and therefore i do not fear your prying and can afford to laugh at your impertinence i will even have my family tree brought out for your benefit if you choose and will engage to show you the diary which i have kept for years and where you can see exactly how and where my time has been spent for the last decade or so anything to please a famous and therefore privileged man like yourself is it a bargain mr stanton will you accept my data if i provide it for you so great an anxiety to disarm the suspicions of a stranger might tend to confirm and strengthen them i said slowly as you will i see you don't intend to take my overtures of peace in the spirit in which they were offered well you seem fond of proverbs so here is a roland for your oliver forewarned is forearmed you will not have me for a friend you are indiscreet enough to advise me that you intend to make mischief for me if you can if you can mind my conscience is clear as to my past and here and now i dare you to do your worst leaning his elbow on the table his head upon his hand he faced me looking up sideways with a mocking brilliance in his pale eyes it is my turn to give you warning and it is this i make a bad enemy even had i some black secret jealously guarded for years which i haven't you would never drag it from me i believe myself to be a cleverer man than you and if i had chosen the role of villain i should have been a successful one there is no doubt you would not mr stanton

Starting point is 02:17:21 had i something which it was vital to my interests to conceal i should have gone about it in such a way that not the devil himself pitted against me should worm my secret from me had i elected to commit a crime it would not have been until after i was ready with an absolutely infallible alibi now if you are sensible the very fact that i have made these admissions will prove my innocence to you it will be a waste of your valuable time if you attempt to stand in my way in any quarter whatever he rose lazily good evening mr stanton he said in a louder tone which he made both cordial and impressive for the benefit of any listening ears this has been a most interesting chat with you one i am not likely soon to forget i hope it may not be long before i have the pleasure of meeting you again he had certainly scored i was obliged hot with indignation and self-scorn mentally to confess as much he had kept his temper and he had got the better of me if my time would only come end of chapter eleven recording by roger maline chapter twelve of the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline chapter twelve karen's engagement ring in the first hour of my anguish after hearing that karen was lost to me i had come very near to registering a vow that voluntarily i would not see her again

Starting point is 02:19:23 now however since our memorable chance meeting in the hotel my resolve was different i determined on the contrary that i would see her as often as possible even if i had to follow the tressities into the country on a pretence of hunting or some other flimsy pretext of the sort i would be near her i had luckily kept my head sufficiently to breathe no word of love to karen i had even dwelt with some emphasis upon my friendship as though to assure her that she need fear no more need dread no persecution at my hands i believed that she did not suspect my real feeling for her and certainly sir walter and lady tressidy had no reason to fancy anything of the kind wildred had suspicions i was sure but they could only have been born of quick and jealous intuitions he could make no charge against me and it was not likely i thought that he would choose deliberately to put such an idea into his fiance's head unless i were far less cautious in my behavior than i meant to be i could not conceal from myself that the talk i had had with the fellow at the wayfarers had somewhat discouraged me as to the ultimate excess of my efforts to expose him and as days went on i found it impossible entirely to shake off the impression made by his words his personality was disagreeably magnetic to me i had to acknowledge its power and in spite of myself there were moments when i felt daunted by his defiance had he not been very sure of himself he would not have dared to say what he had said i believed as firmly as ever

Starting point is 02:21:13 that there was a black spot in his past upon which i could put my finger if only i could place him in my mental gallery of photographs in which his portrait had been so mysteriously blurred or changed but he and karen cunningham would in all probability be man and wife at the end of six weeks and six weeks was after all but a short space in which to tear the mask from so preternaturally clever a scoundrel i thought then and even yet i trust that my resolution to save karen from this man if i were able to do so was not all selfishness knowing nothing yet suspecting much with haunting vagueness it seemed a horrible desecration to me that the beautiful gentle girl should be given up to wildred i had little enough hope for myself with her whatever might be tied for even had it been possible under happier circumstance that she could have learned to care for me she and her friends would be sure to misunderstand and condemn my motives in working against the man she had promised to marry should i have the good fortune to show him to her and those in authority over her as the villain i believed him to be i could not imagine myself ever attempting to take selfish advantage of his downfall what i might do or try to do i told myself must be without any hope of future reward i had persuaded myself that the oftener i could see karen and impress upon her the strength and disinterestedness of my friendship silently assuring her of my unforgotten resolve to help the better it would be for her she had said once that she had many acquaintances but no friends

Starting point is 02:23:09 and she had seemed glad to welcome my friendship so that now i wanted her to see i did not mean to fail her that after all it might not be as she had thought too late at least i succeeded in convincing myself that these were my only motives in calling again within the week on lady trussity it was thursday and the family was to flit away to the country on the following afternoon i was informed of this by the footman whose duty it was to tell me that his mistress was superintending her packing at the moment but would be down almost immediately meanwhile miss cunningham was in lady tressidy's boudoir and would see me i could scarcely believe in my good luck and in her courage or good nature she had been writing at a little davenport by the window but rose to receive me and extended her hand. To the other, the left, she had transferred the pen, with the ink still wet, and so it was that as she greeted me, my eyes fell upon a ring which had not before adorned her finger. It was the third of the left hand, and to my amazement I recognized the magnificent diamond, still in the old setting, worn for so many years by Harvey Farnham.

Starting point is 02:24:38 End of Chapter 12 recording by Roger Maline Chapter 13 of The House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 13

Starting point is 02:25:03 Kismet and Miss Cunningham Had I paused for an instant's reflection, I must have felt it would be impossible for me to take any open notice of the ring, but so great was my surprise at seeing harvey farnham's treasured possession on miss cunningham's finger that involuntarily i uttered a slight exclamation biting her lip she hastily withdrew the hand dashing the pen she had been holding with a petulant little gesture on to the desk where she had been writing why do you look so astonished she cried a certain bitterness in her voice at seeing me wear the sign of my bond she tried to laugh as she spoke giving an effect of lightness to the words but the effort was a failure i would not let her continue to think that she was right in the guess she had made as to my emotion it was not wholly that miss cunningham i returned say rather i was surprised at seeing you wear this particular ring it is a remarkable one isn't it far too gorgeous and conspicuous

Starting point is 02:26:14 was to please me for myself but mr wildred was anxious for me to have it i believe it has been in his family a long time and has been handed down from generation to generation of betrothed brides happier than myself the last three words were spoken almost in a whisper but i heard and understood them as i would have understood the faintest murmur from those lips so dearly loved some dim awakening thought scarcely clear to my own consciousness stirred in my mind at her strange announcement i could not resist further questioning did mr wildred tell you that the ring was an heirlum in his family yes there is a romance attached to it she sighed faintly as though at the death of romance in her own young life then more quickly why mr stanton why do you ask me that i could not tell her why but my heart was bounding with a new excitement forgive my curiosity i said evasively i am interested in all that concerns you she turned from me ostensibly to arrange her scattered papers on the little davenport and relieved of the thraldom of those lovely eyes i endeavored to collect my scattered thoughts somehow i felt that i was on the eve of a discovery which might be of vast importance in both our lives how had wildred obtained that ring from harvey farnham why had he lied about it to karen that he was a villain and a schemer i was sure though i had had no possible means of proving it what if this seemingly small matter should put a clue into my hands

Starting point is 02:28:10 so clever a scoundrel should not have committed himself to a lie thus easily disproved i thought only necessary lies were worth the risk for a man of acumen such as his but even the most crafty of mortals is fallible i reflected and liable to make some insignificant mistake which like one stone wrongly placed in the foundation of a vast building renders the whole structure unstable possibly wildred had found a stealthy pleasure in weaving a pretty romance round the ring which he had chosen as the sign of his betrothal and in weaving it he had forgotten that i as an acquaintance of farnham's might have been conversant with its real history or perhaps he had not counted upon the fact that karen might retell the version he had given her to me i know how greatly farnham had valued the marvellous diamond in its quaint setting and i remembered how only on the night of our last meeting he had reiterated to me his determination to keep it it was too small to be removed save by cutting he had said and i had satisfied myself by observation that he had not exaggerated he must then have gone so far as to have the ring cut from his finger before sailing for america that he might leave it as a parting pledge of friendship with carson wildred the rich red gold circlet hung loosely enough however on karen's slim little finger and a sudden strong desire that she should allow me to look at it caught hold of me would it be asking too much i said to have the wonderful heirloom in my hand to examine for a moment without a word she slipped the ring off and gave it to me almost as though it was a relief to feel its absence in a flash a certain recollection had leaped into my mind

Starting point is 02:30:11 there was an inscription inside harvey farnham had told me if the ring had been cut doubtless the words written within would show some trace of the violent treatment to which the band of gold had been subjected and i wished for a reason i hardly dared admit to myself to ascertain if this were the case i moved towards the window and ostensibly catching the light upon the facets of the matchless stone peeped into the circlet to my surprise the words inscribed on the gold were kismet and miss cunningham they were absolutely unbroken not a letter blurred and the surface of the ring gave the appearance of having been untouched since first it was fashioned i was certain that it had not been cut this being so how had the ring been removed from the finger of its owner you are wondering at the words written inside aren't you karen asked coming a little nearer to me it does seem extraordinary that they should be there doesn't it when you think that the ring was made many years ago and was not intended for me at all but mr wildred has explained the mystery which is a part of the history of the heirloom and accounts for his being particularly anxious for me to wear it i too could have explained the mystery i had been told by farnham that the stone had come from the first diamond mine in which he had been interested it had been fancifully dubbed kismet and the gold mine which he had lately sold to carson wildred had as he had informed me that night of our meeting at the theatre rejoiced in the name of the miss cunningham

Starting point is 02:32:03 doubtless the inscription was intended to commemorate the fact that the gold forming the ring had been taken from the one mine the diamond from the other but knowing all this i was none the less anxious to hear what karen might have to say it does sound an odd coincidence i remarked will you tell me the story i had a very specific object in carrying on this conversation but as for karen i could feel that her part of it was sustained merely for the sake of keeping me from treading upon more dangerous ground yet despite this nervous anxiety of hers i could see or i flattered myself that she was vaguely surprised and piqued that i should be willing to discuss so trifling a subject during the fleeting moments before lady tressidy might be expected to appear you may hear the little romance if you like the girl said a faint wistfulness in her sweet voice sixty or seventy years ago mr wildred tells me a very dashing ancestor of his fell in love with a miss cunningham that is not a very uncommon name you know he was penniless and she an heiress her father would have nothing to do with him and told him he need not hope to win his daughter unless within a year he could afford to buy her the finest diamond betrothal ring ever seen in the country the lover vowed it was kismet that he should marry miss cunningham and swore to return and claim her by slipping such a ring on her finger exactly twelve months from the day he was sent away

Starting point is 02:33:51 he had the most extraordinary adventures in search of a fortune always ending in failure until the last month of the appointed time he was in india working in the diamond mines when one day he found this very stone he sailed at once for england had the ring made and the words you see engraved inside as he had said he arrived on the very day appointed but only to find the ring made and the words you see engraved inside as he had said he arrived on the very day appointed but only to find the very day the girl coming out from church after her marriage with another man. He threw the ring at her feet and flung himself away. But at her death it was sent back to him again, and though he never married he gave it to his brother's bride on her wedding day. Since then it has remained in the Wildred family. I could have laughed aloud at this sentimental tale invented by the man, whom I now believed had somehow contrived to steal the jewel, to account for the commonplace words it would have been difficult to erase. Had I laughed, however, my laughter would have been bitter indeed,

Starting point is 02:35:03 ending in an even increased desire to save from him and his trickery, the girl I loved. It is needless to say that I did not laugh, but something of what was in my mind must have been visible on my face, for Karen, as she finished her story, looked up at me, searchingly. "'What are you hiding from me, Mr. Stanton?' she anxiously questioned. "'It is about the ring, and if you are my friend, as you say, you will not keep it a secret from me.' "'It is about the ring, Miss Cunningham,' I replied impulsively. "'I can't tell you all, for the facts have hardly yet grouped themselves in my own. my own brain. But if they have such bearing upon your happiness, as I have some reason to think,

Starting point is 02:35:52 you shall know them as soon as I can make them clear to you. Will you trust me, meanwhile? Will you try to remember that I am striving to collect facts which may help to release you from the necessity for an unworthy marriage? Never for one moment since I saw you last have I let slip the hope of saving you from what you confessed must be a blighted future. Now, I may be mistaken, but I believe that I begin to see my way. She looked at the ring, which I had returned to her, with startled, dilating eyes. Something connected with this, she murmured. Yes, it is as if I had placed my eye to that little circlet,

Starting point is 02:36:38 looking through it as through a spyglass towards my goal. I shall work after this, Miss Cunningham, as i could not work before because i have now a fixed starting-point it may be an intricate tangle that i shall have to unravel it may be a tedious task yet there are only six weeks less than six weeks to do it in she murmured but a faint color had sprung to her cheeks a light of hope to her eyes is it not possible i begged if i find myself near success yet stopped temporarily midway by some unforeseeable obstacle that you can delay your marriage let me have that to hope for it will help me to win she shook her head sadly and the rose flush died it is useless to think of it she said you may imagine since i have confessed so much to you that it was not my plan to name such an early date it was mr wildred who suggested it indeed he insisted and unfortunately he is in a position to insist has nothing changed since we met at the savoy i hurriedly asked can't you explain to me the power which you admitted then that this man holds over you?

Starting point is 02:38:05 No, nothing has changed, Mr. Stanton. The reason that I cannot explain is a part of his power, if you like to call it that. Heaven knows I do not like it, I exclaimed, almost savagely. And as the words fell from my lips, Lady Tressidy entered the room. She had finished superintending her packing, and the sight of her was a sudden sharp reminder,

Starting point is 02:38:32 her that next day she would take Karen away. End of Chapter 13. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 14 of The House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 14. An extra special.

Starting point is 02:39:08 Lady Tresody was so full of plans for the future. Karen's future. with Carson Wildred, that my soul sickened of her chatter, and I took myself off as soon as it was decently possible to do so. With no further chance of private talk with Karen, much of my incentive for remaining was gone, at all events, and I was anxious to think out the puzzle regarding the transfer of the ring. To recapitulate, Farnham had announced his intention of keeping it until the necessity arose for having it cut from his furrow. finger. Still, it seemed he had not kept it, and it had not been cut off. The conviction was strong

Starting point is 02:39:51 within me that Wildred had obtained the jewel by foul play. Yet how could he have done this, short of severing from the hand of the finger that had worn it? Strange fancies flitted luridly through my brain. In a few days more, Harvey Farnham would have landed in New York, and I could reach him there at the hotel he had mentioned as his favorite, or in Denver, Colorado, if he had chosen to pursue his homeward journey without a night's delay. I counted the hours which must pass before I could attempt any such communication, and they seemed to rise like a high wall between me and my hopes and my suspicions. As I walked homeward, involuntarily hastening my footsteps i heard the newsboys crying out some item of intelligence for the evening papers extra special extra special mysterious discovery in the thames

Starting point is 02:40:49 so preoccupied was i that the words passed into my ears without making any definite impression on my mind or if they did it was the mere rhythm of the different shouting voices that impressed itself upon me so often were they repeated from all sides as i walked on that at length the short sentences began to form a species of intoned accompaniment to my thoughts without assuming a separate importance in my consciousness suddenly however a grimy infant of tender years and appalling precocity flourished a pink sheet smelling of the printer's ink directly under my eyes buy a paper governor he cajoled me all about the horrid murder and the headless man i seldom read evening papers and to-night of all nights i had little inclination for such irrelevant mental diet but i flung the child a copper and found the half-penny journal thrust into my hand i would have tossed it from me carelessly but the headlines relating to the latest sensation caught my eye then forgetful of the crowds who stared at me in my agitation i strode nearer to the white ball of electric light which had shone down upon the page end of chapter fourteen recording by roger maline chapter fifteen of the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson this libervox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline chapter fifteen a mystery of the thames it was the name pearly lock which had fastened my attention horrible discovery near pearly lock the headline announced i read on rapidly but thoughtfully

Starting point is 02:42:53 two boys from great marlowe had it seemed been wandering beside the river bank between that village and pearly locke straying along a small backwater leading out from a larger one they had noticed a peculiar object caught among a number of reeds one of the boys had curiously poked at it with his stick bringing it nearer to the shore when it appeared to be a heavy almost formless mass soon up in a rough sack the boys being frightened had run home with their story and a member of the local police force going to the spot had found the children's suspicions confirmed the unclothed body of a man partially consumed by fire and lacking the head as well as otherwise mutilated in a seemingly aimless way had been doubled up and sown in the sack weights had evidently been attached to the horrible bundle but had in some manner become detached so far no clue whatever either as to the identity of the murdered man or that of the murderer had been brought to light the body had been in the water for some days but might still have been recognizable had the head not been removed the horror of my dream on christmas eve came back to me as i read no doubt there had been many river mysteries and shocking discoveries in the thames and perhaps i had read of them dismissing them from my mind with the alacrity with which one does rid one's thoughts of such sordid tragedies when they do not appear to concern oneself or one's acquaintances but this tragedy i could not so dismiss i could even picture the very spot where the boys must have seen the sack caught among the dry and rattling reeds

Starting point is 02:44:48 a small backwater leading out of a larger one between great marlowe and pearly locke the larger one was doubtless that on which carson wildred's house was situated the smaller one a mere alley of water leading away under a drooping tangle of water leading away under a drooping tangle of willow and chestnut branches. One had to pass in walking from pearly to the house by the lock. I was sure, as I recalled the place in memory, that the scene of the discovered mystery could have been no other than this. Having read to the end, I folded up the paper and put it away in a pocket of my greatcoat for future reference. Then I began walking slowly on towards the Savoy Hotel. Had it not been for the odd chance which had induced two boys to stroll in the middle of winter along the bank of an insignificant outlet of a Thames backwater, what a fine place, I told myself, this would have been for the concealment of a crime.

Starting point is 02:45:52 Even without the weights, which had probably become detached from the sack by tangling among the roots under the surface of the water, the body might have been expected to remain hidden for months, at least till the coming of the spring. Then, as I so reflected, my mind turned to darker thoughts. Had a crime been committed by the inhabitants of the house by the lock, what a convenient hiding place would that adjacent waterway have been? I had no reason to fancy that such a crime had been done, and yet my thoughts went back to the day on which I paid to,

Starting point is 02:46:30 my somewhat memorable visit to Wildred and Farnham. Suddenly came the recollection of the awful cry I had heard as I waited in the curious octagonal room, looking at the covered portrait of Karen. The sound had been explained, but there had been a certain flurry and clumsiness in the explanation I had thought even then. I remembered the smoke and sparks

Starting point is 02:46:55 which had so mysteriously risen from the tower, and the heat of the octagonal. room adjoining it. All this, too, had been accounted for. I had not cared at the time to invent romances to fit into the strange appearances, which I had assured myself were doubtless strange only in appearance, but now I could not help dwelling upon them with an almost morbid persistency that would not be set aside. I thought of the woman's face, which had for an instant gazed at me through the narrow window beside the door. I reminded myself of the surprise and the features

Starting point is 02:47:33 of the decorous male factotum when he had learned that I was not the man expected by his master, and I went over, word for word, as nearly as I could, each sentence whispered by Wildred and a servant in the hall. What if there were some ghastly connection between the apparent mystery in the house by the lock and the half-chared headless body found today in the Thames. I was ready to accuse my own enmity towards Wildred

Starting point is 02:48:04 and my vague suspicions of him, also my merciless desire to fasten some stigma upon the man, of being potent factors in these mental suggestions of mine. But I could not banish them, even if I would. Continually throughout the remainder of the evening and night, I pieced together various theories, all more or less defective, and next morning the desire was strong within me to go and see the headless corpse. There were at least twenty chances to one against my being able to identify it, or finding in the pitiful remains of a tragedy, any clue such

Starting point is 02:48:44 as I sought. But strange fancies steeped my brain with their potent fumes, and I knew that I should not be able to rest until at least I had absolutely proved myself mistaken. Permission to view the body at the mortuary was easily obtained at the local police station when I had given my name and mentioned that I had come for purposes of identification. Fortunately, for my self-control, I had looked upon many a gruesome sight during my somewhat checkered career, though scarcely one more hideous than this which I had deliberately sought. It would be worse than useless to enter into a detailed description

Starting point is 02:49:28 of what my eyes turned from with loathing. There was only one possible way of identification, however, that of finding some mark upon the partially charred body, or something lacking, which might be suggestive of a theory. I had a theory, which as yet I had scarcely dared dwell upon in my own mind, so wild so improbable did it appear at any other time than dead of night when all strange things seem possible but now as i judged what the height and size of the body must have been and let my glance travel almost fearfully to the left hand i saw that which tended in a ghastly manner to confirm it all the four fingers were missing having been cut off between the second joint and knuckles harvey farnham had worn the ring given to karen cunningham by wildred on the little finger of the left hand and in the light of this discovery my dream of christmas eve came back to me as a prophetic vision

Starting point is 02:50:37 end of chapter fifteen recording by roger maline chapter sixteen of the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson this libervox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline chapter sixteen information laid by carson wildred the case being one of great local importance having thrown the countryside into a whirl of excitement the inspector himself had thought it worth while to accompany me on my journey to the mortuary my name was familiar to him he said with a look of interest and curiosity in his eyes and this being so doubtless he had not been averse to the chance of keeping watch upon me when i went to gaze upon the body of the mysteriously murdered man if he were interested in me i was at least equally interested in him or rather in the opinions which he and brother members of the police force might have formed reticence was of course supposed to be observed by so important a functionary as the inspector but i saw that in his round good-natured face which caused me to hope he might be amenable to a little judiciously applied flattery i therefore extolled the arrangements of the local authorities and ended by saying that as the sight i had just witness had considerably upset me i should be glad if he would do me the favor of having something with me at the private bar of the adjacent inn.

Starting point is 02:52:27 "'Well, sir, it's against the rules, you know,' he said, smiling sapiently. "'But I certainly consider it an honor to be invited by so celebrated a gentleman as you, Mr. Stanton. And, if you'll go first, sir, I'll just look in a little later and find you at the private bar.' I followed the prudent suggestion, and was presently joined by the inspector, who appeared relieved at finding himself shut in. and alone with me. We had whiskey and soda,

Starting point is 02:52:59 odd libidum, and then I cautiously began, The fact is, Inspector, I said, I was particularly anxious for this chance of a little friendly chat with you. I have certain suspicions, which may be, of course, without a grain of foundation. What I mean to say is,

Starting point is 02:53:18 I have grave fears that the murdered man is the friend I thought it possible I might identify. who the murderer may be in any case remains to be seen but if the body is that of the person i have in my mind i might be able to put a clue into the hands of the police a word to the wise you know inspector but first i am hoping for a little help from you before i run the risk of incriminating one who may be innocent quite between ourselves allow me to ask what your police surgeon has had to say regarding his examination the inspector looked dubious then brightened visibly you being the man you are mr stanton he said sociably over his third glass of old scotch i can't see that there'd be anything amiss in my answering you so far our surgeon mr potter reported that the corpse was that of a well-nourished man of somewhere between forty and forty-five years of age all the organ's health healthy, though there were traces of opium in the system, not, however, enough to have caused

Starting point is 02:54:31 death. The head had been severed from the neck by a skilled anatomist, who knew exactly where to strike, but it had been separated after death, not before. Also, the mutilation of the left hand had been done in the same way. I suppose that is roughly the sort of thing you wanted to know. exactly i returned and every detail you have mentioned goes to strengthen my suspicions being an amateur i was obliged to judge principally by size and height the surgeon's report fits in with my theory precisely still it does not comprise everything it would be a great assistance if i might know whether the police have yet had any reliable information to work upon we had grown very friendly indeed almost fraternal now and the inspector kindly allowed me to refill his glass do you know who mr carson wildred of the house by the lock is mr stanton he inquired confidentially the question surprised and excited me was it possible i hastily asked myself that already the police were on the same track that i was following if so wildred must have shown himself a less impenetrable villain than i had had reason to suppose him yes i not only know who he is but have a slight personal acquaintance with him i said conservatively well sir slowly and with some unction mr wildred has been the only one so far not counting what you yourself may have to say presently

Starting point is 02:56:22 who has given any information of value indeed he has given information i could not eliminate the astonishment and perhaps something of the disappointment from my voice yes sir as you know mr wildred you're probably aware that his country house is close by our town and close too to the spot where the body was found he was in yesterday evening as soon as the matter had got noised about and asked to see the body incredible the word sprang to my lips but i forced it back and refrained from uttering it he was unable to identify it but he spoke to having seen something in the neighborhood of the small backwater not far from his house just before christmas which seemed likely to throw light on the matter the surgeon's idea is as i think i forgot to mention sir that the body had been in the water since christmas time or thereabouts which made mr wildred's supposition the more feasible it seems that the gentleman had a friend staying with him at the house by the lock until a week or so ago a mr farnham an american who has since sailed for home they were in the habit of taking a daily walk together when whenever they were not in town, and a week before Christmas noticed that close to the little backwater, two men were living in a tent. It was a quiet place enough in wintertime,

Starting point is 02:58:00 and the fellows might have expected to escape observation, perhaps, but it was the smell of their smoke which first attracted Mr. Wildred and his friend to the spot, and as it was his land, Mr. Wildred at first was inclined to order the chaps away. he thought better of it though as he seems a good nature gentleman and said it didn't really matter to him whether they stayed or went a strict watch was kept on all the locks up at the house however as it occurred to mr wildred the men might have some queer design a day or two went by and the tent was still there but on christmas when mr wildred and mr farnham were walking out they heard the sound of the sound of the tent was still there but on christmas when mr wildred and mr farnham were walking out they heard the sound of the sound of loud voices and went near enough to see that the two men were quarrelling outside he says he wishes now he had interfered but it didn't seem worth while at the time that night there was an unpleasant smell of burning which came up to the house by the lock with the wind from that quarter and was noticed by all the servants as well as mr wildred who asked the butler about it at dinner next day when mr wildred sent down to find out the tent and the men were both gone i suppose i said that you have already taken means to ascertain whether there are any remaining traces of such an encampment by the back water

Starting point is 02:59:33 certainly we have that was done immediately sir and the ashes left by a big wood fire were found close to the water also four rough stakes for the tent ropes and a coal-sack, much of the sort in which the body up there at the mortuary was sown. There was something else, too, sir. I wouldn't mention it thus early in the proceedings to anybody for whom I hadn't the respect I have for you, but, even as it is, I must have your promise it can't go any further till it comes out in the proper course of events. I gave him my promise, hiding my impatience as best I could well mr stanton the inspector went on lowering his voice though there was nobody within earshot in the wood ashes was found what looks like a most important clue nothing less sir than the calcined bones of four human fingers cut from the left hand by jove i ejaculated involuntarily springing to my feet and

Starting point is 03:00:46 beginning to walk nervously up and down. I hardly knew whether to feel that I had been brought to a dead stop in my operations and suspicions, or to tell myself that Carson Wildred was the most cold-blooded and, at the same time, the cleverest scoundrel who had ever walked the earth. End of Chapter 16. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 17 of The House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson. this libervox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline chapter seventeen a disappointment you seem surprised mr stanton exclaimed the inspector

Starting point is 03:01:40 i am surprised i echoed and i intend to explain why presently meanwhile i suppose you are trying to get on the track of the second man who lived in that tent that's what we are doing sir hard at it You will never find him, I said. No, sir? May I ask what makes you so sure of that? Simply because my opinion is that he does not exist. Never did exist. The inspector's jaw dropped. But, but Mr. Carson Wildred, he began when I turned on him and cut him short. Did your experience never show you a case where a man, himself a criminal,

Starting point is 03:02:24 invented proofs and clues for the purpose of putting the police upon the wrong track. He too started from his chair, forgetting to set down his glass of whiskey. Good heavens, sir! You don't mean to accuse... I don't accuse. I am not yet in a position to do that. I only suggest, and should be myself a criminal, if I did not try to throw such light upon the matter as I can. Sit down again, Inspector, and let me be. tell you what I know and what I suspect. He sat, or rather dropped into his lately deserted chair, and his horrified expression, his drooping attitude, went far toward showing me what an exalted

Starting point is 03:03:09 position Carson Wildred occupied in the esteem of the neighborhood. I can't seem to realize it, Mr. Stanton, ejaculated the inspector. Such a man is Mr. Wildred. So respected, so charitable, has given so much to the church? Why, you must be making a mistake. You shall judge for yourself whether I have any evidence to offer worth building upon, I returned.

Starting point is 03:03:37 And then I told him everything, beginning with my chance meeting with Harvey Farnham at the theater on Christmas Eve. His face grew graver and graver as I went on, and when at last, having dwelt with due insistence upon the mysterious proceedings attending my call at the house by the lock, I mentioned the reappearance of the ring on a young lady's finger. He shook his head regretfully.

Starting point is 03:04:03 "'You've made out a fairly good case against Mr. Wildred, sir,' he observed. "'Would it be indiscreet to ask whether you've any personal enmity against the gentleman?' "'I don't like him,' I admitted. And then I went on to describe, in a few words, my haunting impression of having been disagreeably associated with him in the past i would wish i added hurriedly to keep the name of the lady now in possession of the ring entirely out of the question if possible it must only be brought in inspector at the last extremity should no other means remain of detecting a murderer as for the ring itself to save trouble in that direction i think i could if necessary engaged to get hold of it and i am quite ready at any time to swear to its identity with the one warned by my old friend Farnham. The inspector thoughtfully scratched his head.

Starting point is 03:05:02 It'll be a nasty business to examine Mr. Wildred's house, in case your friend Mr. Farnham should prove to be all right over in the States. We can't lose any time. What you've told me today is very serious, sir, and must be attended to it once. A couple of detectives will call at the house by the lock with a search warrant before nightfall. I can assure you of that.

Starting point is 03:05:28 Until some definite conclusion is arrived at, Mr. Stanton, I suppose you would prefer that your name didn't appear in the matter? I don't care a hang whether it appears or not, I retorted recklessly. Perhaps if I had been a little less reckless, but it is never profitable to dwell on and brood over the mistakes of one's past. The inspector assured me that a detective should call that night at the hotel in Great Marlowe, where I had volunteered to remain, and give me all particulars concerning the examination of the house by the lock. The appointment was made for eight o'clock, by which time, allowing for obstacles and unforeseen delays,

Starting point is 03:06:11 all was sure to be well over. Though the inspector had promised that the New York police should be communicated with, a great restlessness was upon me and i resolved myself to cable to america it was possible that the st paul the ship in which farnum had been supposed to sail was arriving at new york that day though the chances were as the weather had been rough that she would not have made one of her record trips however there could be no harm in wiring and if the ship had got in all waste of time would be avoided i wrote out a dispatch to the office of the american line in new york to be answered reply prepaid the moment the st paul got in in this i inquired whether mr harvey farnham of denver colorado had been among the passengers and not contenting myself with this i cabled farnham both to denver and new york and to the manager of the fifth avenue hotel in the latter place where i had been told that he usually put up the answers to these messages i requested to have sent me at the hotel i had chosen for my headquarters in great marlowe the hours which must intervene before i could possibly hope for a return i spent at the wayfarers and there i heard of wildred who had lunched at the club with his friend wigram and later had been interrupted during a game of billiards by a telegram he had used some strong language and hurriedly excusing himself had left in the midst of the game

Starting point is 03:07:47 things had evidently been put into train early i told myself with satisfaction and i concluded that the dispatch had either gone out from the police headquarters or been sent by that stealthy-faced invaluable major-domo of wildred's by half-past five i was in the train again carrying with me all that i could want for the stay of a day or two in a strange hotel and before eight o'clock i had dined and was anxiously awaiting the appearance of the detective. I had hardly dared to hope as yet for my answer to my cablegrams. Still, I was disappointed to find upon my advent in great Marlowe that nothing had arrived. Every step along the corridor outside the private sitting-room I had taken made me start like a nervous woman, fancying each time that a knock in my door might follow, and the wished-for message be handed in to me. i did not believe that i should hear from farnham because my conviction was steadily growing that his murdered body lay unidentified in the mortuary not far away but i did expect to hear from the ship's company to the effect that no such passenger had been on board the st paul

Starting point is 03:09:04 should this intelligence arrive there would be so great an increase of the circumstantial evidence against wildred that i believed the police would be justified in making an arrest Wildred once arrested and obliged to stand his trial for the crime of murder, Karen Cunningham would be saved. Eight o'clock struck, however, and I was reluctantly obliged to give up, all idea of receiving any news from America for the night. Five minutes later, as I restlessly paced the room, the wished-for knock sounded, but there was no cablegram to be presented on a tray. A young, fresh-faced man in plain clothing stood there,

Starting point is 03:09:47 who I knew before he spoke, must be the expected detective. His information might prove of equal importance with the tidings from America, and I received him cordially. With his first words, however, my heart went down like lead. It was not that I was eager to see a presumably innocent man proved a murderer for the sake of my own selfish ends, but thoroughly believing Wildred to be a consummate scoundrel, I was anxious that he should be found out in time to prevent disaster.

Starting point is 03:10:20 "'I think, sir,' said the young man of the cheerful countenance, "'that we've been on a false scent to-day.' I got him to sit down and launched him upon the full tide of narrative. "'Mr. Wildred was away when we first arrived at the house by the lock, sir,' he went on, but we should have made use of our search warrant without waiting for his return had not the passage and the octagonal room you described as well as the tower been shut off from all communication with the older part of the house by a heavy iron door of which mr wildred invariably carries the key this his butler explained by saying that the door had been placed on account of his master's chemical experiments which were sometimes of a slightly dangerous character unless great precautions were used and in case of an explosion or other accident the safety of the living rooms might be assured by means of the iron door the only way of opening it would have been to employ dynamite the lock being impregnable and as the grounds for suspicion against mr wildred were not yet strong enough to resort to such violent means there was nothing to do but wait he was wired for to london at once

Starting point is 03:11:38 naturally he would prefer being on the spot i said with something like a sneer all the same i am very sure that there is another means of communicating with the octagonal room and the tower besides the main door through the passage and i mentioned the mysterious disappearance of the servant, which had on Christmas Day led me to believe in the existence of a secret way of exit. "'We did look about for something of the sort, and even went down a cellar,' said the detective, but saw not the slightest sign to suggest a hidden door. "'Well, go on, then, to Mr. Wildridge's return,' I exclaimed impatiently. "'I am anxious to learn why it has been decided that I put you on the wrong track.' when he came home he admitted very frankly that he had been annoyed at the bother occasioned by our telegram but appeared by that time to have recovered from his vexation and to be inclined to laugh the matter off

Starting point is 03:12:39 he let us know in a moment that he suggested how the information had come but we said nothing of course to confirm his suppositions in the first place he opened the iron door explained its workings as though he took some tried in its mechanism which he said he had invented himself then he showed us into the octagonal room which he had fitted up as a studio and smoking-room combined the little door you had seen behind the drapery merely led into a cupboard containing boots an artist's model a jointed figure of wood and other odds and ends it was concealed only because it was not an object of beauty mr wildred said we then proceeded to the tower where the chemical experiments are made there is a small room reached by mounting a winding skeleton stairway of iron and there we were shown mr wildred's apparatus i know something of chemistry myself having had a fad that way when i was a boy and i could see that everything he had was straight and above board a big fireplace in the room accounts for the sparks you saw when you approached the house that day and mr wildred voluntarily mentioned that there had been something wrong with the flus so that his experiments could not be conducted properly and he had sent for an expert to come down from london to look at everything the man had been expected on christmas eve then on christmas as mr wildred considered the matter urgent and finally arrived the day after mr wildred gave us his address without waiting to be asked to do so that accounted for one more point in your story sir the man who was so anxiously looked for the man the butler seemed at first to take you to be

Starting point is 03:14:36 we then said we had been informed that screams or groans had been heard issuing from his house on christmas day mr wildred laughed remarking that judging from what he knew of our informant he had been waiting for us to come to that point and he repeated the explanation which had been given you asking us also if we would care to see the scar which was not yet quite healed made by the burning methylated spirit on the cook's foot or ankle we thought it best to do as suggested indeed if he had not we should have proposed the same course ourselves for the sake of making assurance doubly sure the cook was sent for a very handsome young woman sir bright and ready with her answers she described the accident and whipping off the shoe and stocking from the right foot showed us a red mark which spread from the ankle down over the whole instep so the cook was a handsome young woman was she i asked suspiciously remembering the face which had peered at me through the narrow window by the door had she great black eyes a very white face and a quantity of dark hair she had sir that would describe her very well a woman not more than twenty-five or six and evidently of a superior class i turned this bit of information over in my mind to be sure i could not at the moment make anything of it apropos of the case in hand but afterwards i was to remember it under somewhat startling circumstances so you see sir the detective continued every point you made was met and in our opinion frankly and sufficiently met nothing was found which could possibly justify an arrest

Starting point is 03:16:34 and unless unfavorable reports are received from the new york police the case against mr wildred will have to be dropped the inspector is having an interview with him to-night and doubtless some details which we in enforcing our search warrant had no concern will be satisfactorily cleared up i mean to say details relating to the american gentleman his ring and his departure for the states should we hear from new york that he has not returned why of course in spite of appearances at the house by the lock and failure of circumstantial evidence suspicion will be renewed again there was absolutely nothing more to be said deep as was my chagrin i held my tongue as to my opinion of the way affairs had been managed and parted with the young detective with apparent nonchalance naturally i slept little during the night and was awake even before the early knock which sounded at my door two cablegrams for you sir said the waiter when i had bidden him come in end of chapter seventeen recording by roger maline chapter eighteen of the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson this librovoc's recording is in the public domain recording by by Roger Maline. Chapter 18. A Desperate Remedy

Starting point is 03:18:14 I took the envelopes from the man and told him he might go. Now for it, I thought. Now to see whether the edifice I had built had but a foundation of sand, or whether Wildred had merely been clever enough to pull wool over the eyes of the police. My heart was thumping with excitement as I opened the first envelope. St. Paul in tonight, first-class passenger on board named Harvey Farnham. I laid the bit of paper down dazedly and took up the other.

Starting point is 03:18:50 It was from the manager of the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York. Mr. Farnham telegraphed to keep room for him, is spending day or two with friends. I did not know what to think. It all sounded straightforward enough, and it was not credible that either the official in the office of the american liners or the manager of a hotel could be in collusion with carson wildred still i was far from being satisfied for the moment i had done all that i could do if farnham was stopping with a friend whose address was unknown to me i could not at present expect to receive an answer either to my new york or denver cable in a day or two the police would hear something from the other side and meanwhile i must possess my soul in patience this was a thing easier said than done especially as when aimlessly glancing at a weekly paper in the club next day

Starting point is 03:19:51 i came across a paragraph which gushed in the conventionally nauseous manner over the forthcoming marriage of the beautiful young heiress miss karen cunningham and mr carson wildred the well-known millionaire and popular man of society days never dragged as they did with me until i received the promised intimation from my friend the inspector that tidings had arrived from the police in new york it was all right so far as my friend was concerned and i need have no further fears regarding his safety the body found in the thames was certainly not that of mr harvey farnham as he was in new york and had actually been interviewed there. He had been very ill in crossing, and had had the misfortune to fall down the companionway on shipboard in a heavy gale, spraining his ankle. He would not be able to resume his journey

Starting point is 03:20:48 and proceed to Denver for some time to come, but had laughed at the idea of any foul play. When questioned on the subject of the ring, he said that he had given it to his friend, Mr. Wildred, at parting, and jokingly added that he had experienced great difficulty in getting it off. In these circumstances, as there could be no further doubt of Mr. Farnham's living presence in New York, no possible shadow of suspicion need any longer rest upon Mr. Carson Wildred, who had throughout done all in his power to further the investigations.

Starting point is 03:21:25 The search for the man from the camp near the backwater would therefore be carried on upon the same lines as before, a hot sense of injustice burned within me i had been thwarted on every side not i believed by the revelation of truth but by carson wildred's superior cunning he had boasted to me that in the role of villain he would have been more successful than i and i was quite ready to agree with this statement all things seemed against me and yet something which i took to be instinct cried aloud that my dream had not deceived. I could not understand how it was that the New York police had been made to believe in the identity of a man falsely representing himself to be Harvey Farnham, yet I was convinced that in some devilish way even they had been cousined. No other man living, perhaps, could have undertaken so huge a scheme, with so many different strings to pull at one and the same time, and successfully carry it through, save Carson Wildred.

Starting point is 03:22:34 But Carson Wildred had attempted it, I concluded, and having gone so far, there was every reason to suppose he would triumph if I, who alone of all men, seemed personally interested, did not set myself to the finding of a new method for blocking his game. I could, I thought, understand what his motive for so foul a murder might have been, he had just purchased a valuable gold mine from farnham should farnum be made to vanish without fear of suspicion falling upon wildred the latter might not only be the owner of the mine but repossess himself of the purchase money which must have comprised a very large sum there was no further hope from the police they had done their duty had satisfied themselves on every point and it would have been unjust to expect that they should continue to exert themselves in favoring my apparently wild view of the situation in the midst of the cogitations which followed upon the receipt of the inspector's letter another cablegram was handed in to me this time it purported to be from farnham himself merely saying many thanks for kind inquiries have turned up here smiling but too seedy to write at present glad to hear from you fifth avenue hotel

Starting point is 03:23:59 one more blow aimed at my theory but i refused to be knocked down by it for karen's sake for my own sake i would follow my convictions across the sea and never rest until i had settled all doubts for myself it was then friday in five minutes after reading this third and apparently conclusive cablegram i had resolved that on the following day saturday i would sail for new york it was only by a severe mental wrench that i arrived at this almost desperate decision for i stood between two fires either one of which might reduce my hopes to ashes going to america meant leaving karen cunningham at this critical juncture to the mercy of the enemy i had offered her friendship and such protection as i could give against those who were bent on forcing her inclinations and with a look in her sweet eyes and a soft quiver in her voice which i could never forget she had asked me not to go away if i went and any harm should come to her during my absence i could never forgive myself never again know a moment's peace of mind and yet if i stayed what was there to hope for either of us i had shot all my arrows and they had glanced off blunted from wildred's apparently invulnerable armor i had lost the chance of gaining assistance from the police so far as i could see and unless some miracles should suddenly come to pass i should be obliged to stand by while karen cunningham gave her unwilling self to wildred whatever her secret reason for consenting to do so might be she had plainly let me understand that she meant to marry the man unless fate especially intervened in her behalf

Starting point is 03:25:59 there was no hope that she would let me save her by carrying her away i had not even the slightest reason to suppose that she cared for me save as a friend in the midst of what otherwise she had said would be friendlessness my hands were bound therefore so long as carson wildred was able to hold up his guilty head before the world and pass himself off as a blameless member of society between the horns of this dilemma and heaven knows they were both sharp enough i could only choose the one on which karen and i seemed less likely to be torn and therefore it was that i elected to go to america i did not feel that i could bear to leave without a word to her how could i tell in what light my absence might be made to appear from the vague hints she had dropped as to her relations with sir walter and lady tressidy i hardly considered that it would be safe to write to her such a letter as i must send should i write at all if read by eyes for which it was not intended might bring karen into serious trouble it was true that lady tressidy had appeared to be inclined towards friendliness with me but she had then no suspicions of my attitude to karen i would go down into the country and call upon lady tressidy and miss cunningham i resolved and if i had no opportunity of speaking with my beautiful girl in private i would contrive to slip into her own hand a note previously prepared my decisions when made are usually soon acted upon Within a couple of hours after receiving the inspector's letter and the message from New York,

Starting point is 03:27:45 my passage was engaged for the following day. A curious mood was upon me as I began my preparations. Hardly more than a fortnight ago I had been congratulating myself on the prospect of a considerable stay in London. My ideal existence had for the moment been an utterly aimless one. I was sated with excitement, and what is popular, called adventure, and had only wanted to rest and amuse myself. I had meant to be a man about town until I should again tire of the life, drifting agreeably here and there, taking pleasure as it came, troubling myself little, either about other people's affairs or my own. And this was the

Starting point is 03:28:29 result of my plan. There seemed a certain unreality about it all. I felt like the puppet of circumstances, or one who moved through strange mazes, half conscious that he merely dreams. By two o'clock everything was arranged for my departure on Saturday, and I was at Waterloo taking my ticket for Hazelmere, which was the station nearest to Sir Walter Tressidy's country place. End of Chapter 18. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 19 of The House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson.

Starting point is 03:29:16 Libervox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline Chapter 19 Not at Home I had a long, dreary drive after leaving the train, though in other circumstances I might have been charmed with the loveliness of one of England's fairest counties. As it was, I merely chafed at the endless hill,

Starting point is 03:29:41 up which the horse slowly plodded, half inclined to think that after all I should have done better to trust my own feet or come on a bicycle from town. The curtain of twilight was falling by the time my fly entered the long avenue that led to the house. Here and there lights shone out from the windows, and as the vehicle drew up before the door, I caught a glimpse of something which set my heart throbbing. It was only a ruddy gleam of firelight on a golden head,

Starting point is 03:30:11 which shone for an instant in the warm light like burnished copper. only a rosy glow on a girl's white dress, a shimmer seen between the parted folds of dark, rich window drapings. For a second, no more, the vision was granted me. A tall, slender form rose from its kneeling position before the fire, and in so moving, passed beyond my line of sight. But my pulses leaped, and I rejoiced in the good fortune which had brought me at an hour when Karen was not absent. i stepped quickly from the cab and would have given much for the right of a greater intimacy a right to go to the window and knock begging the girl i loved to let me in to grant me the heaven of ten minutes alone with her before the necessities of convention called upon me to ask for lady i imagined what it would be to have this right i pictured myself tapping at the panes of the long french window i saw the dainty girlish form coming toward me, the start of surprise, the flush, which I might read as I would, the raising of the latch,

Starting point is 03:31:22 and the two warm little hands held out to me and welcome. But it was all a dream, vanishing as quickly as the rainbow colors in a bubble, and leaving only the darkness of the dull winter twilight behind. Such privileges were for a happier man than I. I was at best only her friend. never could I hope, whether success or failure crowned the effort I was impatient to begin, for more than that. Instead, I walked soberly up to the door and knocked, telling the cabman that he might wait, and wishing that he might have to wait for long.

Starting point is 03:32:01 Presently in answer to my summons, a footman appeared, a fellow I remembered to have seen at the townhouse when I had called, and it struck me that, as I inquired if Lady Tressidy was at home, he eyed me more piercingly than a well-trained servant usually eyes a guest i am sorry sir he answered with a slight hesitation that her ladyship is out at present what name shall i say when she returns mr stanton i unsuspectingly replied though it did dimly occur to me that the man might have left me to give him my card it seemed almost too good to be true that lady tressidy should be away from home for now i felt practically certain that i should have the unexpected joy of seeing karen alone speaking to her far more unrestrainedly than i could do in the presence of her hostess and explaining in a way satisfactory to us both my intended absence i am sorry i hypocritically remarked not to see lady trussidy but i have come some distance and perhaps miss cunningham would spare me a few minutes i-i am afraid sir still stammering uncomfortably that miss cunningham is away with her ladyship i was astonished at this piece of information for i was absolutely sure that it was carron whose shining halo of hair and white gown i had seen in that rosy space between the window curtains

Starting point is 03:33:33 of course the footman might honestly believe that she was not at home but i did not mean lightly to abandon the chance of a few words with her i think you are mistaken about that i boldly said please be good enough at any rate to inquire the fellow's face reddened contrasting unpleasantly with his powder but he persisted in his story i am quite sure i am right sir he went on more firmly miss cunningham is with my lady my impulse was to slip a couple of sovereigns into his palm and insist that he should ascertain if miss cunningham were not after all at home for i was beginning to be suspicious of a plot to thwart me if such a one existed i could not think that caron had been a party to it for though of course she could not care to see me in at all the same way in which i yearned for a sight of her sweet face i believed that she would not wish me to be sent away from the house humiliated my hand was moving toward my pocket when suddenly i reconsidered if i took such strong measures to secure a tte-a-tete with caran it might appear that we were in collusion and troubled thus be made for her with Lady Tressity and Sir Walter. I could not risk causing her uneasiness, especially as I was going far away, and with a pang I saw that I was in a trap. There might be one way out, however, and I took it. I will wait, I announced, until the

Starting point is 03:35:10 ladies return, or possibly Sir Walter. Sir Walter won't be here for a day or two, promptly responded the man so thoroughly miserable did he look though his manner gained confidence that i thought he must still be new to a service which must foster a certain amount of conventional deceit as for the ladies sir unfortunately they are not expected back this evening until until the last train too late as you can understand sir to receive any visitors as at all events they can't reach the house until after eleven i bit my lip with futile indignation against lady trecody and against fate never against karen it was evident that the footman had received the most stringent orders as to what he must do in case of so undesirable an emergency as a visit from mr noel stanton he had probably been asked if he was certain of being able to recognize me again had answered that he believed he would be so but on suddenly being called upon to face the responsibility had made his little bid for ascertaining my name as early as possible in the game by way of rendering assurance doubly sure of course the dutiful servant was not really to blame for following out his instructions to the letter yet i felt that i hated his smug face and plastered head, and would have liked to frighten him with menaces and strange foreign oaths. I dared not give him the note which I had written, meaning, if necessary to slip it into

Starting point is 03:36:49 Karen's own hand unseen, for it might easily be that, despite any bribe I offered, it would never reach the dear eyes for which it was intended. I will write a line on my card, then, to be handed to the ladies, whom I regret not having seen, I said with what dignity I had at my command. And stepping past him into the hall, despite a visible gleam of consternation in his eye, I deliberately took out a pencil and card-case, slowly scribbling a few words.

Starting point is 03:37:22 My hope was that if Karen was really in the drawing-room, she would come forth, and the Gordian knot of the dilemma would be cut. But having mentioned my imminent departure from England on private and urgent business, added that though i had been anxious to see lady trestody and miss cunningham for the sake of bidding good-bye it would be more strictly speaking only au revoir as i intended returning within the next four weeks i could think of nothing more to say and still the drawing-room door near which i was standing was not opened i should have been glad to underscore the last six words but did not venture to do so for obvious reasons and could only hope that Karen might see them or hear them read and partly understand.

Starting point is 03:38:12 I conspicuously placed a sovereign on the card as I gave it to the footman, remarking quietly that I would wish the latter to be delivered in the presence of both ladies, if possible. Then I seemed to have come to the end of my resources until a desperate idea seized me. Had I not been virtually certain that Karen was to be kept from seeing me, without her own consent to such an arrangement naturally i would have accepted my conge with a good grace and gone away a wiser as well as a sadder man but as it was and considering the importance of her future as well as my own of a hasty explanation between us i was ready to snatch at almost any expedient not prejudicial to her of obtaining a word with karen cunningham i turned from the door and got into the cab which the footman politely opened for me as if only too glad to speed the parting guest the direction to the station was given the gravel crunched under the wheels and horses hoofs the door at which i had been received so inhospitably shut me out of paradise and no doubt the servant triumphantly watched me drive off

Starting point is 03:39:28 half way down the avenue however i thrust my stick from the window of the rattledrap vehicle and stopped the coachman i have forgotten something i curtly said you needn't go back wait here and i'll return again in a few moments the fly was standing just out of sight from the house and rapidly leaving it behind me i strode over the frozen grass of the lawn taking a shorter cut than the avenue would have been in considerably less than five minutes i had once more arrived in front of the window through which i was as positive as ever i had seen karen only a short time ago i had dreamed of doing such a thing as this as a delicious impossibility only belonging to a world of romance which i could never enter but here i was actually bent on the accomplishment of the deed the falling darkness had protected me i felt confident from being seen by anybody in the house as i crossed the lawn and i approached with boldness which only left me as i reached the window the curtain hung apart as before and i could see the fireplace with the lights and shadows travelling fantastically along the polished floor and wall the white irradiated figure was no longer visible but undiscouraged by this fact i gently tapped trusting that karen might be in another part of the room to which my eyes could not reach if she were there my knock would startle her perhaps and she would draw near in curiosity to see what had made the slight suspicious noise then i could make my presence known leaving apologies till later and afterward well afterward the rest must depend upon her but i knocked once twice thrice each time a little louder a little more insistently than before and there was no response no sound no movement

Starting point is 03:41:33 after all i was thwarted and had but one comfort in the midst of gloom i had not been easily repulsed i had done what i could and need not feel when i was far away that I had let myself be outwitted, out-generaled, without an effort to resist. Fate had decided that I must go to America without a word, without a look into Karen Cunningham's eyes, and drearily returning to my waiting cab, I commenced once more the tedious drive to the station. Never had I felt more utterly disheartened, for after all I could not be quite sure that Karen had not acquiesced in the order to exclude me for. from the house. It seemed that she must have heard my voice in the hall, that if she had chosen, she might easily have contrived some means of seeing me, while I was briskly taxing my ingenuity

Starting point is 03:42:27 to reach her. I guessed at Wildred's powerful influence in the affair, and was ready to fancy others, but, as I was to learn long afterward, I brought forward every reason for Karen's mysterious inertness, save the right one. End of Chapter 19 Recording by Roger Maline Chapter 20 of The House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline

Starting point is 03:43:10 Chapter 20 The Quest It was a piercingly cold day when I landed in New York, such cold as I had not felt since I had finished my last American visit four years ago. every one else among the many first-class passengers seemed to have some welcoming friend to greet him on shore save only myself i would not let myself acknowledge that i felt discouragement but a certain gloomy sense of the hopelessness of my undertaking would obtrude itself as i rattled over the badly paved streets of new york in the chill seclusion of my cab i had myself driven straight to the fifth avenue hotel which was becoming almost an old fashioned hostelry now among its many tall new rivals of incredibly many stories and height and walking up to the office prepared my most affable manner to win the confidence of the smart clerk or bookkeeper good day i began agreeably wishing that in former visits to new york i had stopped at the fifth avenue hotel so that now for my quest's sake i should be accorded the welcome of an old friend good day was the brisk reply you want a room i should like first to inquire if mr harvey farnham of denver colorado was stopping here i said my principal object in choosing this hotel was to meet him but if

Starting point is 03:44:39 gone three days ago broke in the gentleman with the waxed moustache who evidently did not wish to waste time on a traveler more inclined to parley than to patronize the house this was the first setback i had experienced on american shores but so many had been my portion on the other side of the atlantic that i had had had time to grow accustomed to them i had prepared my mind for as numerous rebuffs here yet in spite of that i felt the bitterness of disappointment settling bleakly down upon me already i had been given a sign that wildred's cleverness had projected itself across the width of ocean ah indeed i'm sorry to hear that he is left is he with friends in town or has he gone to denver i questioned with as bland an air as i could well command can't tell you whether he's gone to denver i'm sure sir but i think it's almost certain he's not in town and somehow or other i've got the impression that he mentioned he was going west i suppose his health improved more rapidly than he expected then I went on. I understood before crossing that his accident on shipboard had laid him up for a while, and that it would be some time before he felt fit to undertake the journey home.

Starting point is 03:46:02 He did seem rather seedy, vouchsafed the clerk, but he was pretty well able to take care of himself. Shall I put you down for a room? Yes, I answered indifferently. I suppose you may as well, for one night. It was already late in the afternoon, and I had certain investigations to make before I renewed my interrupted journey in the direction Harvey Farnham was believed to have taken, going toward the setting sun.

Starting point is 03:46:32 I knew well enough that I was seriously handicapped as a detective by my complete amateurishness, and possibly a little by my own keen personal anxiety, which did not tend to cool my head or my pulses when coolness was needed, but though i would fain have had advice from some clever professional expert the reports of the new york police had certainly not been such as would encourage me to seek assistance from the force it appeared to me that i must dream i weered alone in the handsome typically american room that was allotted to me i sat down to map out my future course as well as i could see it either the brisk-mannered young clerk had shown a slight reserve in answering my time to my future course as well as i could see it either the brisk-mannered young clerk had shown a slight reserve in answering my eager questions regarding Harvey Farnham, or I had been morbidly sensitive enough to fancy it in his face and way of speaking. Doubtless, when the police had been acting in the affair under advices from London, he had been subjected to a previous catechism concerning the

Starting point is 03:47:35 Western Millionaire's movements, and if that were the case, it was only natural he should be cautiously inclined. But once I could win his confidence and thoroughly convince him that I had no connection whatever with the police, I ventured to hope there might yet be a chance of learning at least a little more from him than I had been able to glean. Perhaps it was something in the nature of a sop to Cerberus that I should have asked for one of the best rooms in the house. And then, beside, my name written in the visitor's book,

Starting point is 03:48:07 or Hotel Register, as it is the fashion to call it in the States, evidently had some meaning for the young man round whom my hope centered. for his manner had decidedly changed for the better when i visited him again after dinner he was not particularly busy at the moment and appeared in the humor for conversation asking me of his own free will if it were possible that i was noel stanton the traveller i did not deny this impeachment and moreover showed myself willing to be drawn on the subject of my explorations i even went so far as to relate an adventure at some length a thing i am thankful to say i have never been guilty of before or since told an anecdote which made the young man laugh and flattered him to the best of my ability by asking his opinion about an american political crisis of the day then by gradual steps i led the talk toward the great west in general colorado silver mines in particular and so at last reached the subject of harvey farnham one of the most prominent of the financiers of that state. I was much disappointed, I confess, at not finding him here, I remarked, and Shell, on his account, cut short my visit to New York. Farnham and I have known each other for some years, and, by the way,

Starting point is 03:49:32 I remember his saying that, in his opinion, this was the best-managed hotel in New York. I believe he usually stops here when in town, doesn't he? So it seems, sir, answered the clerk, very civilly. now, having decided to be patient with my humor. However, I have never seen him until he turned up the other day. I haven't been in my present position very long. I suppose you did see him, though, I persevered. How is he looking after his accident, C.D. at all?

Starting point is 03:50:07 He was very thin, if you mean that, laughed my informant. He limped about with a crutch, too, and as he had bumped his foreman. in the same fall which sprained his ankle he wore a green shade that covered his temples and his eyes i grew attentive at this it appeared to me that here was a point in my favor i should like to have a talk with one of his old friends in the hotel i said the manager for instance no doubt he knows mr farnham very well he does but he's out of town on business for a day or two i think you'll find though that our bartender and mr farnham were about as chummy together as any one in the house apparently at my leisure really with great impatience i repaired to the extremely handsome bar-room of the room of of the fifth avenue hotel and here the oracle was very communicative having mixed me a peculiarly american drink called a gin-fiz the bartender was willing to chat of mr farnham i guess he must have been pretty bad this last time he said in response to my first question for he didn't trouble the bar-room much he did come in however did he not i asked anxiously oh yes he came in once or twice but i thought he acted rather grumpy and queer did you have a good look at him either time i pressed on with eagerness pretty good almost as close as you are now i guess

Starting point is 03:51:46 and did he appear the same as usual with the exception of the green shade over his eyes well i reckon he did i was kind of busy both times and i don't know as i took much notice. Still, and I called up a laugh, you'd have known whether it really was Mr. Farnham or a stranger passing himself off in his place. The bartender stared at me for an instant, and had he spoken his inmost thoughts, probably they might have been appropriately expressed in the slang phrase, ah, what are you given me? Well, it might have been his grandfather's ghost, I dare say, he facetiously remarked at length. but anyhow there seemed to be a strong resemblance between harvey farnham and him i sat down my glass untouched a cold conviction was growing within me that i had been mistaken that villain as carson wildred was he had not after all been guilty of the one great crime which i had attributed to him it seemed almost impossible that this keen-eyed man accustomed to farnham's comings and going

Starting point is 03:52:59 for several years could have mistaken another for him next morning when i had put together the few things that i had occasion to unpack and was tipping the pretty chambermaid who chanced to come to my door as i was departing a sudden inspiration seized me and i called the young woman back again as she was disappearing by the way i said did you happen to attend a mr harvey farnham who was here a few days ago and who has often stopped in the hotel oh yes sir she answered i know him quite well and a very pleasant generous gentleman he is or rather and her face changed at some recollection or rather was I caught her up eagerly. Was, I echoed, wasn't he the same as usual this last time? No, that he wasn't, sir. I thought to myself, thinks I,

Starting point is 03:54:00 Mr. Farnah must have been disappointed in love or something. He was so grumpy and dull. Always before when he came, he had a good word for me. How do you do, Ginny? Or a smile and a nod. But now he went by me with a. a sign for all the world as if he'd never seen me before though i've been here since i was seventeen that's six years ago when i spoke to him first why he looked up and answered in a mumbling way never even saying my name but then poor gentleman i suppose he was too sick to think of anybody except himself did he look strangely i went on to question oh i don't know about that sort of

Starting point is 03:54:46 sir, except for the green shade he had to wear over his eyes. I suppose his face was much the same. Only I didn't get many chances to see it, and all his jolly ways and smiles were gone, so that made a difference. I was so glad when I saw his baggage coming up, for there's never been a gentleman so popular with us girls as Mr. Farnham. But except for his giving me something when he went away, he might almost as well not have been in the hotel. Would you have recognized his voice, I asked, if you had not seen him? I would when he was well, and like himself, sir, in a minute, but not this time, because of the

Starting point is 03:55:32 bad cold he'd got on the voyage, which he said was the worst he'd ever had. He did nothing but cough and wheeze, and could only speak in a hoarse sort of whisper. these details were all i could extract from jinny the chambermaid but before i left the hotel it occurred to me to examine the visitor's book for farnham's name wishing to look at the handwriting which if his i felt sure i could not fail to recognize as i searched the pages vainly i thought with some compunction of farnham himself remembering how i had hardly known on the evening of our unexpected meeting in london whether or not to be genuinely pleased to see him i had feared to have too much of his society during the few hours at the st james's theatre yet ever since by a strange irony of fate i had been doomed to pursue him to think of little that was not in some way or other connected with harvey farnham and his affairs evidently he had not considered it worth his while to write in the visitor's book on this occasion though i found that he had scrawled his name when staying in the hotel some months before this counted for nothing definite of course and as for the taciturnity of which the chambermaid complained the ailments from which my poor friend was reported to have been suffering were quite enough to account for that still through her words and those of the man in the bar i had gained my only real evidence if evidence it might be called and as such i treasured the scanty information

Starting point is 03:57:13 having by dint of some exertion found the cabman who had driven farnum from the hotel to the railway depot i made sure that his luggage had been checked to denver and so set forth again with the feeling that i had something to go upon never had a journey seemed to me so endless after chicago the interminable planes got upon my nerves and i looked out eagerly for the first range of the snow-clad rockies the trip had taken the best part of three days and it was early morning when i arrived in busy denver where the dry cold wind and the whirring shrieks of electric trams made me feel that i had left the place but yesterday much was changed and many more tall handsome blocks of pink stone had been erected during my four years absence still i easily found my way to the building where harvey farnham had offices it was just past breakfast time but the business world of denver colorado and the great west is a stir at an hour which would appear unusual in england i asked for mr farnham and was told by a young clerk that he had returned to denver three or four days previously he had not been at the offices as he was somewhat unwell as yet but if i chose i could see mr bennet who would tell me when he might be expected i remembered bennett now that i was reminded of his existence as an energetic young fellow high in farnham's confidence who probably knew as much about the mining and other financial interests as did his employer i said therefore that i would see mr bennett by all means he came in to me briskly in a few moments surprised and he said delighted to meet me again

Starting point is 03:59:10 yes it was quite true that mr farnham had returned but was as yet unable to be troubled by business affairs this settled the matter then i assured myself there was nothing left for me to do but rejoice in farnham's safety curse my own idiocy for harboring fantastic suspicions despite all evidence which should long ago have overthrown them and proceed to retrace my six thousand mile journey across the continent and the atlantic I should at all events have the satisfaction, I bitterly reflected, that I had done my best to serve Karen's interests and my own, and I should arrive in England in plenty of time to see her married to the man I had vainly attempted to prove a murderer. I became for the first moment conscious that I was desperately weary, that I had eaten little during the past few days, and slept less. I had not troubled myself to breakfast that morning. Devouring food had seemed so utterly irrelevant, and now, for an instant, as Mr. Bennett's words rang in my ears, a curious, sudden dizziness overpowered me.

Starting point is 04:00:22 I felt sick and faint, and realized that life was a failure, with nothing worth living for and future, since Karen Cunningham would soon be Karen Wildred. you look ill mr stanton remarked bennett i guess you've had a tiresome journey i know what a bad run that is between chicago and denver a nasty run indeed but it would be much worse going back again leaving the house of cards which i had come so far to see lying in ruins behind me still i continued to beat into my brains the fact that i rejoiced in poor old farness safety. I believe I am a bit knocked out, I said, though I ought to be able to stand a trifle like that and think nothing of it. I should be glad to see Mr. Farnham. I suppose such an old friend as I might venture to call in on him, even though he isn't feeling as fit as I should like

Starting point is 04:01:24 to think him. If he's not likely to turn up here presently, I might drive to the house, and he'd give me breakfast, I dare say. i saw before i had finished my second sentence that bennett was slightly disturbed he flushed to the roots of his flaxen hair and his face wore an expression which betrayed a suppressed desire to whistle you can bet he would give you breakfast or anything else he had mr stanton the trusted man of business said heartily yet with a certain irresolution but the fact is he ain't at the house this morning he's gone away again i thought he was unwell i interpolated in surprise that's so he's a sick man not hardly fit to be about but for all that he's off he ought to be back again in-well in a few days however a few days i echoed more or less by george he will be mad when he knows he's kept you waiting for of course you will wait won't you mr stanton i should certainly like to see him before i go back to the east i said and i spoke no more than the truth for putting my cordial feeling for far out of the question it might be that valuable information concerning wildred's past could be rested from him with due diplomacy still i hardly feel like hanging about denver for an indefinite length of time doing nothing i shouldn't mind a little journey as i've come so far

Starting point is 04:03:07 if he's at any of the colorado mines perhaps i might run out and join him i've been there with him before you may remember you might indeed sir returned bennett still embarrassed if he was in any such place which he isn't to tell you the plain truth mr stanton as i'm sure mr farnham would wish if he could dream it was you i was talking to why this little journey of his is strictly on the q t i guess from what he said there's a lady mixed up in it exactly what wildred had said when explaining his friend's absence on christmas day from the house by the lock i remembered the coincidence though i could hardly see that it bore with any importance on the present case farnham might hold several feminine trump cards to play at the end of a trick for all i knew or had a right to know i tell you what to do mr stanton bennett continued recovering his wonted self-possession you just go up to the house and make yourself at home there till mr farnham gets back you know what a big place it is and how glad the chief is to fill it with his friends especially such friends as you then by the end of next week anyhow i interrupted him impatiently what will he be away till then i should think it was probable from what he said before he left sir i wish i exclaimed desperately that you could see your way to making things a little clearer for me i don't want to pry into farnham's affairs of course that goes without saying

Starting point is 04:04:56 but perhaps without any betrayal of confidence you might let me know exactly what he did tell you in regard to his return well said bennett with a short laugh seeing it's you-the the fact is mr stanton it'll be a considerable relief to my mind to talk over the matter and ask your opinion as to one or two points that have been rather troubling me he glanced up into my face almost for the first time since we had begun the discussion and i saw that i was to hear something which he considered of importance of how great importance it was to prove for me i did not dare to dream end of chapter twenty recording by roger maline chapter twenty one of the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline chapter twenty one a picture from the past the fact is said bennett i haven't quite known what to make of mr farnham since he's been back in this side of the herring pond of course he hasn't been well but that would hardly be enough to account for the change in him did you see him may i ask mr stanton when he was in england i informed him that i had done so not thinking it best to volunteer the statement that i had only met him once and did he seem like himself this was rather turning the tables upon me i was not prepared to answer many questions but without hesitation i replied to this one saying that, in my opinion, Farnham had seemed uncommonly jolly and well.

Starting point is 04:06:58 Bennett looked thoughtful. "'He got home here in Denver at night,' he said. After telegraphing from New York he was coming. I went to call at his request, another wire, not a letter, and he saw me in bed. Mr. Farnham is fond of plenty of light and noise as a rule, but in his bedroom he had refused to have the electricity turned on and there was only a lamp on the table as far as possible from the bed i called out how do you do in my usual tones but he answered me almost in a whisper there were some important papers which had been waiting for him to sign and i had taken them with me thinking he'd be anxious to attend to them he was always so keen and prompt in business but he seemed quite angry when i suggested it and said he wasn't to be bothered about anything of the sort for a week next evening i saw him again for a few moments and there was the same dim light the same whispering

Starting point is 04:08:02 he was going away again immediately he informed me and when i objected that he didn't seem to be up to travelling he answered that when there was a lady in the case there was no question of a man being up to things i might send his letters to the santa anna hotel san francisco he went on until further notice which i should receive by telegraph in about ten days if his plans went well just as i was going he said kind of laughing and yet partly in earnest too well bennett if you don't hear from me at the end of that time you'd better begin to look me up the game that i mean to try and win is a dangerous one there are others who want the lady beside myself now if there was a town on the face of the earth that mr farnham used to hate that town was san francisco it was because he hated the journey and never wanted to take it again that he sold his mine out in california to the english gentleman mr wildred i wouldn't have supposed that there was a woman alive would have got him to go to san francisco and i used to think too that mr Farnham didn't care much for women. But no doubt, the longer one lives, the more one learns, and the more surprises one gets in such matters. I needn't say much about his being away from Denver for a few days, even at the office, he hinted to me, and with that we parted. Next morning,

Starting point is 04:09:36 early, he left, and not a line have I had except a wire, merely announcing his safe arrival at the Santa Ana Hotel. I listened in silence. Before Bennett had finished speaking, my thoughts were far away, as far as San Francisco. By Jove! I exclaimed aloud, with a rushing of blood to my brain

Starting point is 04:10:00 that pulsed to bursting in the little veins at my temples. The Santa Ana Hotel! Do you know it, Mr. Stanton? inquired Bennett, evidently surprised at my subject. vehemence. I was there once many years ago, I said. The name has brought back an old association to my mind, which I had thought was lost.

Starting point is 04:10:25 I knew now where I had seen those strange light eyes of Carson Wildred's, and what was the deed with which they had connected themselves in my mind. After all, perhaps, I had not come to America for nothing. My memory traveled back over a space of... of ten years. I had then come back to San Francisco after an expedition into distant wilds with the party of friends shooting grizzlies in the Rockies. I had stopped at the Santa Ana Hotel, a small hostelry lately built, having an English landlord, and therefore greatly frequented by Englishmen. On the night of my arrival there had been a serious disturbance in the house.

Starting point is 04:11:10 Three men who had been stopping at the place got quarry. over a game of cards which they were playing in a private parlor two who were the hosts and were entertaining the third had set upon him with intent to kill being accused of cheating i and several of my friends had run out from the billiard-room hearing a yell for help just in time to see a man in evening dress stagger bleeding from the opposite door i'm killed that devil has murdered me he exclaimed and fell forward on his face at bennett's mention of the santa anna hotel the whole scene had come up before me as vividly as though it had been enacted but yesterday the open door showing a brilliantly lighted interior cards scattered on the carpet a young man almost a boy standing as if frozen with horror by an overset table a large bowie knife common to the country apparently fallen from his right hand to the floor at the door itself an older man who had followed the victim no doubt with the intention of keeping him from making an outcry or escaping into the hall but he had been too late and the expression of his face as he met our eyes was hideous though the knife had to all appearance been used by his companion it was at him that the murdered man had pointed before he fell and died. He was the one apostrophized as that devil by the death-stricken

Starting point is 04:12:45 wretch, and though he had had a high aquiline nose, red hair, and bristling auburn brows that met across his forehead, the eyes had been those of Carson Wildred. They were eyes not easy to forget, especially as they blazed defiance into those of the men who sprang forward to lay hands upon him. there stands the murderer gentlemen as you see he had said making a gesture towards his young companion a boy of eighteen or nineteen who seemed too astonished and horrified to move despite the evidence of the fallen knife however not one among the men who witnessed the end of the scene believed that the youth was guilty murder was in the eyes of the other and must have betrayed him even if the last words of the dead man had not accused him california was somewhat wilder in those days than it is at present and men were more ready to act upon impulse so it was that as two of us gripped the fierce red-haired fellow another of the party flung some whispered word to the boy who had only spoken to murmur brokenly god knows i'm innocent what that whispered word was no one knew save he who spoke it and he to whom it was addressed but whatever it might have been it seemed to rouse the young man to life and a realization of his position

Starting point is 04:14:18 with a leap he was at the long window and had sprung out on to a verandah which ran round three sides and three stories of the house the room was on the first floor and it was easy enough for an active young fellow to let himself down by one of the twisted pillars which supported the veranda of the lower story it could not have been so easy to escape those who half-heartedly followed but the boy must have found some safe sanctuary near by for not only did he evade his pursuers but was never found or brought to trial the other an australian calling himself willis collins known as a gambler suspected as a card sharper was less fortunate but for the cry of the dying man he might have cleared himself but his reputation was against him to begin with it was proved that the other was a young englishman who had lost his money through collins and been duped by him and altogether matters went hardly with the elder of the two confederates he was tried and condemned not for murder as it happened but manslaughter and sentenced to imprisonment for twenty years the incident had passed out my mind until on a visit to america six years later four years previous to my present one a man who had been of our bear shooting party in the rocky mountains had chanced to mention that the fellow had very cleverly succeeded in making his escape from the prison where he had been confined i had had no personal interest in the affair and though it had made considerable impression upon me at that time through being called up at the trial as a witness i do not suppose i had summed it to my recollection for many a long day until now at the mention of the santa anna hotel

Starting point is 04:16:13 It was no wonder, I told myself, that I had not been able to decide where and how I had seen Carson Wildred, previous to the night when Farnham had introduced us to each other at the theater. Unless I could collect proofs not at present in my possession, it would even now be useless to instill my conviction into the mind of anyone else. Carson Wildred had a peculiarly flat nose. Willis Collins had had a peculiarly high-wise. one. Carson Wildred's hair was inky black. Willis Collins's had been a bright Auburn. Wildred's face was smooth. Collins's mouth and chin had been concealed by a heavy,

Starting point is 04:16:58 though close-cropped, red beard. So far as I knew, there was but one man living who could have affected so radical a change, not only in the appearance, but in the actual confirmation of features, in the countenance of any human being and that was an old fellow in paris who had gained a reputation and a fortune among men who had reason to cut loose from the moorings of their past i had met this famous or infamous person in a curious way and had heard some strange stories from his lips if i had made his acquaintance why should not collins or wildred have done so and profited by the friendship as fortunately i had neither the desire nor need to do i determined that unless my present researches were more successful than i now dared expect them to be i would on my return to the other side run across to france and endeavor to piece together the bits of this old but newly discovered puzzle meanwhile however i had other work and work closer at hand while you've been talking mr bennett said i i have been coming to a conclusion he smiled i'm glad of that sir he returned i have risked betraying mr farnham's confidence that i may ask you what you think of that last hint of his which to tell the truth has troubled me very much coming as it did on top of so many queer actions

Starting point is 04:18:36 although he was or pretended to be half in joke odd i to let him stay away without taking any measures to find out whether his life really was threatened in california and trying to help him out of a scrape if necessary of course if it was all straight he'd be furious to have a watch sat on his actions and would never forgive me the indiscretion still i haven't heard from him as i said since the day of his arrival and neither my mind nor my conscience is very easy mr stanton the question is what would you do if you were in my place i was delighted at this and turned half away that he might not see my change of countenance it's rather a difficult position i said slowly for you but there's a simple way out of it without the necessity for you to run any risk of losing Mr. Farnham's favor. I've been to the Santa Ana Hotel before. There's no reason why I shouldn't go again if I choose, and no reason why I should mention having spoken with you at all if I meet my old friend. I'm something of a nomad, you know, and if I'm in England one month and turn up in Kamchatka the next, nobody is ever in the least surprised. But have you been thinking of going to

Starting point is 04:20:04 california asked bennett half relieved and half dubious as to the course proposed oh yes i've been thinking of it i promptly answered but i neglected to add that it had only been during the past five minutes end of chapter twenty one recording by roger maline chapter twenty two of the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson this librovoc's recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 22. Face to Face It was very nearly dinner time two days later when I drove up to the Santa Ana Hotel in San Francisco. Far away the bay could be seen and the seal rock, with the light of a great yellow moon touching its dark outlines and mingling with the blue wintry twilight. The neighborhood was greatly changed since my last visit, but the hotel remained much the same.

Starting point is 04:21:18 My first thought, after greeting the bluff old compatriot, who kept the house, was to look at the visitor's book. My heart gave a quick thump as I came on the name of Harvey Farnham. It was not in his handwriting, which, though I had not seen it for some time, I remembered quite distinctly. Ah, gentlemen's ill. said the proprietor, when I cautiously questioned him. Had his arm in a sling. Got my clerk to put his name down for him, I recollect,

Starting point is 04:21:51 as I was standing by. Mr. Farnham has been out a good deal, however, since he arrived, and indeed is out at present. He usually comes in about dinner-time, though. This was an incentive to me not to miss that meal. I got into my evening-togs in a hurry and was in the dining-room before anyone else, save a hungry-looking old man. It was not a good season for the Santa Ana, so the proprietor had confidentially informed me,

Starting point is 04:22:24 but two or three dozen people strolled into the room before I had been there for half an hour. Still, I saw no familiar face, and was beginning to think in angry desperation that I had been eluded again, when the door opened to admit a tall and slender figure. I looked up, my pulses quickening, my breath coming fast. The man had a green shade over his eyes, was limping slightly, had his right arm in a sling, and altogether presented a somewhat battered appearance. But I said to myself, if it was not Harvey Farnham, it was his twin brother. With all my eyes, I stared at it.

Starting point is 04:23:08 at him. Almost as though there had been some magnetic influence in them to draw him, he came towards me, and finally approaching my table, motioned to the attentive waiter to draw out a certain chair. He sat down, leaned back with an audible sigh, shook out his serviette with his left hand, slightly pushed up the green shade that shadowed his eyes, and began looking carelessly about the room. as he did so his glance passed over my face there was not the slightest hint of recognition in it hello farnham i said carefully controlling the agitation in my voice he started violently and nearly dropped the soup spoon which he had picked up with his left hand then pulling himself together by a violent effort he smiled without any of the old cordiality almost mechanically he had reached up for the green shade and given it a hasty pull downward hullo he responded in a hoarse voice following the word with a cough this is a surprise eh yes i replied slowly people do run against each other in unexpected places don't they now i will wager something that you've forgotten my name

Starting point is 04:24:37 he smiled again with a relieved expression well still hoarsely i'm afraid i have for a moment it'll come back no doubt but would you mind enlightening me meanwhile my name is noel stanton i very quietly said but i could have shouted aloud notwithstanding the extraordinary resemblance this man was noel stanton i very quietly said but i could have shouted aloud notwithstanding the extraordinary resemblance this man was no more Harvey Farnham than I was. End of Chapter 22. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 23 of The House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline.

Starting point is 04:25:35 Chapter 23. A counterfeit presentment. We had not much talked together. The few questions which I could cautiously put, evidently rendered him uncomfortable, and I, on my part, having made sure of one all-potent fact, was anxious to get away and think the puzzle over. I was at the last course of my dinner when the man entered, and having finished, I rose. Are you stopping long in San Francisco? I asked, with my best air of carelessness.

Starting point is 04:26:12 A couple of days or so, he said. see you again to-morrow i dare say it was plain that he was glad to get rid of me naturally he was afraid of all men strangers to him who claimed knowledge of him as harvey farnham he was playing a bold and dangerous game and no doubt he was aware that unless he kept himself in hand and never for an instant lost his presence of mind any moment might find him beaten so dizzy was i with the fumes of my discovery that my brain would not answer to my command i could not think i could only say over and over again not harvey farnham the fellow is a mere decoy out in the open i knew that i should have a better chance of mastering myself on the way to the door i stepped into the office again and glanced at the visitor's book harvey farnham's harvey farnham's name was written down opposite the number two forty nine and i knew therefore that his room must be near and in the same wing in the back as mine the glorious salt wind soon restored me to myself and i wandered through some of the streets i had known and forgotten thinking busily i could understand much now that had been dark to me though even yet far too much from my peace of mind remained hidden it was no wonder that this counterfeit presentment of a dead man for i was certain enough now that poor farnum was dead had cumbered himself with bandages and simulated sprains and thickened his voice with an alleged bronchitis

Starting point is 04:27:57 there was a wonderful family likeness between voices when they only spoke in a rough whisper and the green shade over the eyes had doubtless proved very advantageous in keeping up the optical illusion on which the man had courageously dared to count even among farnham's denver friends to be sure he had hurried away as soon as possible from every place where he had stayed since arriving at new york on the st paul in each one he had accomplished an object vital to the interest of the plot. He had been able to refute the story of Harvey Farnham's murder in person, and having evidently been well grounded in all prominent facts connected with Farnham's life, habits, and trip to England, had made a coup in his interview with the New York police. Having done all that was necessary in the East, he had then taken the final and most hazardous step of going to Farnham's home. It was hardly remarkable, therefore, that he had seized the opportunity of escaping,

Starting point is 04:29:01 so trying an ordeal at once. It seemed to me impossible that he should intend returning to Denver, where, in the light of day, and among old business and domestic associates, he could not long hope to escape detection, perfect as the likeness seemed to be. What then would he do, I eagerly asked myself? he had so far been successful in establishing the fact all along his route that Harvey Farnham had not only returned in safety to America, but had shown himself at home.

Starting point is 04:29:34 So much having been gained, Wildred must perforce be relieved of all suspicion of the crime which I had tried to fasten upon him. And this being the case, I assured myself that it was Wildred's hand only, which had contrived this intricate and ingenious plot, this man disguised as farnham was in wildred's pay there could be no doubt of that and had in all probability been engaged for the purpose he was now carrying out before the murder had taken place i tried as i walked to put myself in the place of the schemers and thus hew out through an intimate mental process some idea as to how the loose ends of the mystery were to be disposed of

Starting point is 04:30:21 if i were that fellow i said to myself at last i should think it was about time to disappear i should feel sure i'd come to the end of my tether and that somehow or other harvey farnham as represented by me had got to be unostentatiously wiped out farnham however was too rich and important a man in the western states of his own country to disappear conveniently and with impunity there would be a hue and cry and suspicious facts might somehow be brought to light the only safe way i decided would be for the alleged harvey farnham to kill himself but this it did not appear very likely that the most dazzling bribe could induce him to do he meant to find some more comfortable way out of the hole into which he had so deliberately crept than the way of suicide and it began to seem that the only method by which i could prove my case would be by finding out what that way was to be at present unless i could have the fellow arrested and such disguise as he might wear dragged off i should have great difficulty in obtaining credence of my story the incidents were so remarkable that they were so remarkable that they were so remarkable that they were so remarkable that they were so must be certified with the best of evidence, and such evidence as I wanted could only be forthcoming from Bennett, or someone else in Denver who knew Farnham equally well. What I must do, I thought, would be to keep on the man's track, and never for an hour lose sight of

Starting point is 04:31:58 him. I must do this without arousing any suspicion on his part, as to my motives, until the last moment when I should be prepared to accuse him. This conclusion naturally reminded me, at the very moment it was reached, I had virtually lost sight of my quarry, and that already I might have missed my chance. Accordingly, I hurried back to the Santa Ana Hotel, and though it was then too late to wire Bennett, I determined to do so early the next morning. I would request him to come on to San Francisco at once on a matter of extreme importance, and, his mind being already disturbed concerning his employer, he would lose no time in obeying.

Starting point is 04:32:43 In Bennett, if I could fairly corner the bogus Farnham, I should have the most valuable witness in the world. My first question was as to whether Mr. Farnham were in the hotel. He had not yet returned from a call which he had gone to make after dinner, and I sat down, therefore, in the corridor inside the front doors, through which he would have to pass on entering. I pretended to be absorbed in a local paper, but in reality my thoughts were a maelstrom. Suppose he had already escaped me. At half-past eleven, however, he came in.

Starting point is 04:33:22 I did not seem to lift my eyes from the pages before them. He would have to go directly by me on his way upstairs, time enough to appear to observe him then. cablegram for you mr farnham said the clerk of the hotel ah the exclamation was one of surprise he had not then been expecting the message i could not resist looking up after all to watch him in the act of reading it and as i did so my eyes caught a gleam from his under the green shade as they turned to my face with an expression that was like a hunted animals in the instant i was as positive as though he had told me in so many words that the cablegram he had received was from carson wildred and intimately concerned me probably it said if a man named noel stanton turns up he is an enemy beware of him i regretted immediately that i had given him my real name when we met at dinner for warned now by wildred he would be ever on his guard he was seized with a creditable fit of coughing as he passed me and having growled out something about being deuced tired and sleeping like a log he went upstairs

Starting point is 04:34:45 i followed him in time to see him enter his own room which was only half a dozen doors from mine and to hear him noisily lock the door it occurred to me that he was desirous to have me know that he had locked it and i wondered if already he had begun to suspect that he had locked it and i wondered if already he had begun to suspect my motive. End of Chapter 23. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 24 of the House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 24.

Starting point is 04:35:32 Fire! I went to bed, determined not to sleep, but to keep my ears open for any sound in the passage outside. luckily there was a creaky board on which he had stepped a few minutes ago if he attempted to go away during the night he would very possibly step on it again but i was exceedingly tired after my long journey before i had been in bed an hour i was dreaming so vividly a pursuit of my quarry through the streets of san francisco that i fully believed i had waked got up and gone out after him in the end the dream seemed to change the pretender had boarded a railway train and i was with the engine driver of another following at a dare-devil speed the place was reeking hot in my dream i choked in the smoke which flew into my face and was dazzled with the red glare of the fire on which the engine driver was piling great pieces of fat bacon as we flew along the rails the locomotive swayed from side to side and i could hear a loud rattling of wheels and of window glass suddenly a puff of smoke seemed on the very point of stifling me and i awoke to find myself sitting up in bed and gasping for breath

Starting point is 04:36:56 i had not dreamed the rattling of glass nor the jarring sensation nor yet the smoke and heat and lurid light the walls shrews shone the walls shrews Walls shook with the dull vibration, and the window panes were like castanets. Through the glass transom over the door I could see a shimmering, ruddy glow that rose and fell, and was brightened by bursting sparks and little darting tongues of yellow flame. Apart from this one lurid spot, all was thickly curtained into darkness by a heavy pall of smoke. Had I lain for a few minutes longer, I must have suffocated. in my sleep. Even as it was, my brain felt dull and stupid, and I could scarcely collect my senses. Choking and coughing, tears running from my eyes that smarted with the pungent wood smoke,

Starting point is 04:37:51 I sprang out of bed, and then sat down again with a slight exclamation, drawing up my feet. The floor was so hot that the touch of it, even for an instant, had almost scorched my skin. close at hand were my boots. I drew them on and then fumbled about for one or two articles of clothing. The wild light that rushed past the transom told me that escaped by way of the passage was already cut off, and even as I looked a small curling tress of flame blew in through the crack between the door and the worn sill. The window was less easy to find. As I felt for it through the veil of smoke, strange constable.

Starting point is 04:38:33 conjecture stole into my brain. What if this were the plan of Carson Wildred's wily accomplice for getting safely rid of me? I had no intention of being got rid of thus easily, however. I found the window and opened the lower sash. With the rush of air from outside, my oppressed lungs got relief for a second or two, but the draft drew in the flames that rioted through the hall. The glass in the transom, already cracked, burst with a loud explosive sound, and a torrent of fire and smoke poured in through the aperture. Had I not leaped onto the window-sill, and without an instant's hesitation let myself swing over, I could not have kept my senses in that raging furnace.

Starting point is 04:39:23 If I had had a room in the main building of the hotel, I should only have had to step onto a veranda outside my window. but in this wing which i had chosen as my place of residence because i had inhabited it before there was nothing of the sort and i had now the space of about ten seconds to decide whether to jump or have my hands burnt off my wrists in any case the decision could not have been a difficult one but as it happened the need was rendered the more imperative by the fact that smoke had already begun to pour from the window below very shortly escape would be cut off in all directions my room was on the second floor high enough to give me a severe fall perhaps a fatal one and i felt that my life was of value now cautiously but hurriedly i reached out with one hand to the side of the window hanging with all my weight from the other which clutched the sill my groping fingers came in contact with a twisted rope of creepers bare of leaves for winter and serviceable for the use i wished to put it to i grasped the thick stems for dear life and went down hand over hand dimly hearing voices from below cheering me in my descent i had been unconscious of the noise until that moment but as my feet touched the ground i was received with acclamations and saw that a crowd was rapidly collecting on the spot the firemen were arriving and as i reached terra firma a great spout of water went up over the burning water wing. The main portion of the house, which was built of stone, save for the surrounding verandas,

Starting point is 04:41:11 was still uninjured, but the wing at the back, which had been a later addition, run hastily up to meet the needs of business, was of frame, and it was burning like tinder. Though it seemed that the alarm had only been given five minutes before my appearance on the scene, already it was beyond saving. My reason for preferring the wing, I have already stated, but what the pretended Harvey Farnams had been I had yet to learn, for so far was the main portion of the hotel from being crowded on this occasion that we too had been the only ones who slept in the annex. Otherwise, the alarm must have been given from inside, instead of by a policeman, who had seen a sudden light leap up while passing

Starting point is 04:41:58 on his beat. Where was Mr. Farnham? That was the question asked by the excited landlord, who, half-dressed, had come out to give what help he could. By this time a sheet of flame was pouring from his windows, so much more violent than in any other portion of the faded wing, that I could but fancy, as I looked up, that the fire must have started thereabouts.

Starting point is 04:42:24 The only hope was to save the main building, the frame edition had been doomed from the first every one had come out guests and servants alike in varying stages of deshabil which might under ordinary circumstances have struck one as comic enough but the supposed farnum was nowhere to be seen when it became known that there was another occupant of the burning annex the firemen made heroic efforts to reach the windows on their ladders but each time they were beaten back by the burning the blinding flame and smoke. A salamander could not have existed there for an instant. Murmurs of horror and dismay came from the lips of the crowd, as they stared with a species of fearful fascination at the flames, which must long ago have destroyed not only life, but all vestiges of humanity, if indeed a human being had been there when they began their revel. But I said nothing. I thought now that I understand.

Starting point is 04:43:28 understood the reason why my friend had taken the room in the frame addition to the santa anna hotel the plan commenced to take form in my mind and i believed that the cablegram had only precipitated its execution end of chapter twenty four recording by roger maline chapter twenty five of the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson this librovoc's recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline chapter twenty five it's dogged as does it fortunately to prevent delay and temporary embarrassment there was plenty of gold for present needs in the pockets of the one garment which i had put on before escaping everything else which i had brought to the santa anna hotel was lost but never perhaps was a man more completely indifferent to such loss than i the only thing on the american side of the atlantic which now interested me was to find out whether the false harvey farnham had actually by an irony of fate perished in the flames or whether as i more than suspected he himself was responsible for the fire it would be impossible to ascertain the truth until such time as the ruins of the burnt wing of the hotel should have sufficiently cooled to render a search practicable even then if no other measures were taken the fact might never be absolutely substantiated if nothing more was ever heard of harvey farnham it would probably be taken for granted that he had met his death in the fire at the santa anna hotel even though no actual traces of his body were forthcoming coming. His heirs, whoever they might be, would doubtless claim their inheritance, and even

Starting point is 04:45:30 assurance money, if such there were to be had, before many months had passed. Carson Wildred would be forever safe, and my quest would have ended in nothing but bitterness and disappointment. This being the case, I could not afford to wait until the burnt building should be ransacked, for Harvey Farnham's remains, I must take it for granted that no such reason. I must take it for granted that no such remains were there and go in search of the living, breathing body. I tried to put myself mentally in place of the man who had stolen his identity from the dead. Were I he, I thought, and had I done that of which I believed he had been guilty, I would lose no time in putting myself beyond the reach of possible pursuit. I would have laid my plans with some exactitude, and would have been

Starting point is 04:46:21 prepared for the necessity of flight. I would have thrown aside as many details of my likeness to Harvey Farnham, as nature had not provided me with, and having set fire to the room I had occupied, I would have got out of the hotel as quietly and quickly as practicable. If it had been comparatively easy for me to escape by means of the creepers down the side of the house, the same means might well have been employed by the man whose movements I was mentally trying to follow. Success having attended my movement so far, I should have gone straight to a railway station, and would never have breathed freely until I had left San Francisco well behind me. So wise, under the given circumstances, did this course of action seem to me, that I promptly

Starting point is 04:47:11 decided no other would have been feasible. The thing for me to do, therefore, was to find out what trains left san francisco during the night-time i thought i might calculate upon the fellows having boarded a passenger train in an open and ordinary manner as if his plans had been properly laid no suspicion could attach to him and there would be no necessity for more desperate precautions he could have had a good start before the fire spread and was discovered and still taking it for granted that i was correct in my deductions the sooner i was on his track the better my hands were burned i was practically without clothes and had suffered a considerable nervous shock which at another time i might have had leisure to feel and analyze but i did neither at the present juncture i simply procured a stiff portion of brandy neat drank it at a gulp purchased a few articles of clothing from an accommodating waiter dressed myself with all speed and set off to the principal railway station or depot of san francisco it's dogged as does it i quoted to myself with a certain grimness of resolution when my spirits began to flag as i got inside the station there was a certain bustle and stir of departure or arrival in the air train going out or coming in i asked shortly of a sleepy porter going out salt lake city grumbled the man in reply i don't know why i instantly felt the conviction that the bogus farnum was in that train

Starting point is 04:48:58 but i did feel it and so intensely that when i saw the long line of cars beginning to move it seemed to me that not to reach it and jump on board would mean the ruin of my life i have a dim recollection of persons shouting at me of feeling a detaining hand trying to drag me back. I remember, too, thrashing out with considerable force, ridding myself of my would-be preserver. I caught on by the rear platform, and after flying helplessly for an instant like a ribbon in the wind as the train increased at speed, I got a foothold and climbed up the steps.

Starting point is 04:49:39 At the top was a negro night porter, ash-colored with fright. He helped to pull me on, board and i tipped him generously when i began to regain my breath and scattered wits for agreeing not to make an excitement by reporting the affair to the conductor i panted out that i wanted a berth found that there would be a vacant one on board the sleeper at my disposal and sat down in the smoking-room ostensibly to wait while the bed was made up for me i must have been a curious object to look upon in my dishelled and hybrid costume not an article of which save the boots and trousers had been made for me but i had no thoughts to waste upon my own appearance i sat wondering at the unhesitating way in which i had rushed ahead and staked my all on this one throw of the dice so to say if my man had not left san francisco or if he had left and in another direction in great probability i had lost all trace of him forever yet i had flung myself on board this train as though i had had my quarry in my eye and had but to put out my hand to lay hold upon him i was now beginning to be very much astonished at myself having come on board however i would at once begin a tour of exploration i resolved going from one end of the train to the other and not forgetting a visit with or without leave to the cab of the engine

Starting point is 04:51:15 i rose pulling myself together and saying again between my teeth yes it's dog as does it when a man came into the smoking-room i had been alone before we looked at each other he was a tall slim young fellow with a smooth face at sight of me he stopped short flushed to the roots of his close-cropped hair and would precipitably have retired had i not taken one quick step forward and grasped him by the shoulder. Gone was the curly wig, the beard, and the lump on the nose, which had been modeled after Farnham's. Gone was the green shade, the sling, and the limp, but much of the odd resemblance, which had been heightened in so artistic a manner, still remained. At last, after crossing an ocean and a continent to do it, I had got my hands on the man I had come to find, and I didn't mean to let him go. Yes, it certainly had been dogged that had done it.

Starting point is 04:52:25 End of Chapter 25. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 26 of The House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 26. a tell-tale ornament no you don't i remarked cheerfully and with the force of superior muscles i pulled him towards me come sit down here by me i said i want to talk to you and somehow it came about that we subsided on the cushioned seat together he had recognized me of course as the man he had seen in the hotel the man noel stanton against whom i did not doubt his cable

Starting point is 04:53:21 had warned him he was pale as death and i could see that this meeting added like the piling of osse upon pelion on top of all that he had already gone through had robbed him of the shattered remnant of his nerve still he was ready to bluff and brave it out while he could confound you he exclaimed what are you about you must be mad to attack a stranger without the slightest provocation let me alone sir or i'll rouse the car i wouldn't you know if i were you i said coolly for the more excited he grew the more did my own calmness come back to me you've been playing a dangerous game ever since you took your passage in the american liner st paul or rather since carson wildred took it for you but you've never perhaps steered so close to the wind as to-night when you resorted to to incendiarism as a finishing stroke. The fellow stared at me in simulated nonchalance and defiance, but my hand was on his shoulder still, and I could feel the shudder that ran through his body. I say, you must be mad, he reiterated. So you observed before, but I could very easily prove to you that I'm not, if you were not already sure of it. You can call for assistance, if you like,

Starting point is 04:54:51 but if you do the story i've got to tell will go flashing over the wires back to frisco and on to denver and you will find yourself in almost as hot a place as if you had stayed at the santa anna hotel where you wanted the world to think that poor harvey farnham had been roasted once more the fit of shivering seized him he glanced wildly about as though to find some means of escape but there was none i am a bigger man and a stronger man than you i remarked in a significant and reflective manner better hear the alternative i've got to offer i know everything you see that is everything that concerns you and the curious game you've been playing i've been just three days behind you everywhere since you left new york i've got every link in the evidence now and what with bennett of denver and the proprietor of the Santa Ana Hotel and a few others, I can burst your wretched little soap bubble plot in four and twenty hours. There's just one way in which you can stay my hand.

Starting point is 04:56:02 What's that? He had spoken out impulsively before he had stopped to think. The instant the words were uttered, he saw all that they admitted and bit his lip. But it was too late. He was completely trapped. I'll tell you, I said, keeping my hand on his shoulder, almost caressingly.

Starting point is 04:56:24 I'd listen attentively if I were in your place. What you can do is to make a clean breast of your story from beginning to end. I'm willing to pay you more for confessing than Wildred did for plotting. Then you must go back to England with me and stand by while the thing is made public. As I spoke, he did not once take his eyes for. from me it was remarkable even yet now that he was out of his disguise how strong his likeness was to farnham he might have been a younger brother when i had finished he sighed and drooped his head his own hair which was very closely cut was of a beautiful reddish golden color much the shade of karen cunninghams as the light fell on it from above i thought of her with a great wave of passionate love and more of hope than i had dared to feel for many a long day perhaps it was the recollection of her lovely face and the wonderful halo of her hair which caused me for an instant to relax my grasp

Starting point is 04:57:31 i only became conscious of having done so when the fellow twisted himself from under my hand and springing lithely to his feet would have darted through the swing door had i not leaped after him like a tiger we fought together as the car swayed and bounded along its tracks once he dived under my arm and was almost out of my clutches but i caught him by the collar with so fierce a grip that the linen of his shirt tore and the garment ripped open to the waistcoat. Something which he wore beneath snapped, as he still struggled to escape me, and a bright object flashed under my eyes as it fell, and dropped with a slight metallic noise to the floor. Evidently it was to him an article of value. Impulsively he stooped, forgetful for a second of the object which had animated him, and thus the advantage became all mine again. I had him pinioned fast. At our feet, I now had time to observe,

Starting point is 04:58:35 lay a broken gold chain and a locket. Twisting my hand firmly in his collar, I bent over and picked up the ornaments. Allow me, I said, smiling. And as I was about to put the locket in his hand, I could not avoid seeing the portrait that it framed. It was an open-faced, old-fashioned thing. set round with a rim of pearls.

Starting point is 04:59:02 The crystal had been cracked across in the fall, but the delicately painted ivory miniature within was intact, and I gave a slight exclamation, as I saw that it represented Karen Cunningham. If I had been surprised to see her picture in the studio at the house by the lock, I was doubly surprised to see it in a locket worn by a young desperado on the other side of the world. impulsively i withdrew my hand which held the ornament with the feeling that the man had no right to it that i could not return it to him again give it back to me he ejaculated forgetting his evident fear of me for the first time

Starting point is 04:59:44 and speaking with a certain manly fierceness that thawed the chill of my contempt for him if i've got a right to nothing else on earth i've got a right to that it's a portrait of my sister your sister you swear that of course i swear it i don't see why you shouldn't know it though i haven't done much credit to the name of cunningham i could not doubt him not that i had not every reason to believe that he would be willing to lie as fast as he could speak if it happened to suit his purpose but the ring of sincerity in his voice was unmistakable i let go my hold upon him such was his astonishment at the manoeuvre that he made no attempt to take advantage of his freedom but simply stood still and stared at me here is the locket i said i came from england to california to serve miss cunningham's interests and i will not lay my hand upon her brother i don't know what you mean he said sullenly i'll tell you i returned if you'll sit down there and listen to me for a few minutes longer after that as far as i am concerned you are free to do as you choose you look surprised but whatever may have been your faults and your offences i would stake my life you love your sister she is the only being on earth i do love he replied still half dazedly then he sat down his eyes furtively on me and i seated myself beside him she is sacrificing herself for some one i remarked i think i begin dimly to understand now who that some one may be

Starting point is 05:01:39 i think too that circumstances have given me the right to be inquisitive as i can still further explain to you later on is miss cunningham going to marry carson wildred to save you from any unpleasant consequences of the past for instance he started as though he had been struck she is not going to marry carson wildred he exclaimed oh yes she is unless it can be prevented i see i have even more to tell you than i thought is it long may i ask since you have seen your sister last november he said drooping his head and bringing under my eyes again the hands hair that was like hers. Ah, that explains your ignorance. The man had not shown his hand at that time. Now, I am going to trust to your affection for Miss Cunningham, to your presumable wish to save her from unhappiness, and talk to you as though we had been allies instead of enemies. Perhaps I may be a fool for my pains, but something seems to say to me, something says right go on he ejaculated gruffly no doubt the very most dunderheaded of lawyers or detectives would have told me that i was mad thus deliberately to give all my good trumps away to the treacherous hired scoundrel whom i had been hunting down with the dogged ferocity of a bloodhound

Starting point is 05:03:11 on principle of course i was all wrong and i knew it but still i went on i told him the strange story of the past few weeks from beginning to end i commenced with the part which concerned farnham and carson wildred alone i did not pass over that which had to do with karen my hopeless and unrequited love for her my passionate anxiety to serve her at all costs and i ended by declaring my certainty that carson wildred and willis collins were one and the same man he is doubly a murderer i said and yet unless you and i together can keep him from it he will be your sister's husband i'll kill him first exclaimed my companion i think the trick can be done without resorting to such extreme measures as that i returned especially if you were willing to come over from his camp to mine he looked at me sharply for a moment without answering then he said you seem pretty quick i've noticed in what you've just been telling me at putting two-and-two together well you say you were at the santa anna hotel the night the murder was committed ten years ago you knew there were two men mixed up in it you remembered one of them would you remember the other he was a mere boy i said and it's a long time ago he must have changed almost beyond recognition he's just twenty-nine at present i've good reason to know as i'm he it was my turn to be astonished but it was not policy to show it therefore i merely said oh indeed you see he went on dully

Starting point is 05:05:07 that's where wildred has had his pull over me since he ran across me by a piece of devil's own luck in canada five years ago as you say i have changed but his eyes are like gimlets they'd pierce a stone wall it's quite true as you suspected that he and collins are one i knew him by a queer scar on his hand shaped like a star perhaps you've observed it but he didn't mind he seemed even to find a sort of pleasure in telling me how he had been to a clever fellow in paris and got himself made over into another man so that he might the more easily turn his back upon various little episodes of the past i couldn't have proved it if i'd wanted to he was so different and had worked up such a new record for himself to travel on he knew that and he knew too that i was in his power i don't exactly see how that came about i objected don't you you're not so quick as usual then i'd been accused of the murder at the santa anna hotel i hooked it and got over to mexico so to spain and france i'd always been a black sheep you know but that was the first really serious trouble i'd got into however as i said five years later when wildred and i met i was in canada i'd turned actor i'd always a little talent that way and was doing pretty well he pointed out to me and i wasn't very long in scene his point, that I was not so much changed but what I should easily be recognized by those

Starting point is 05:06:57 who had known me during those wild days when I'd been under his thumb in San Francisco, and the authorities there would still be very glad to hear of me. He didn't happen to want anything of me just then, but he allowed me to understand that it was to my interest to keep sweet with him, and from that day to this he's had his eye on me. But it was he who was accused of that murder not you I said what the man seemed either not to believe or understand me I repeated the statement and then when he stammered his astonishment his ignorance of all that had taken place in San Francisco after his escape at which we had all tacitly connived at the time I went on to explain the true circumstances

Starting point is 05:07:48 of the case Carson Wildred had deceived him into the belief that he alone had been suspected that if he were caught he would be promptly hanged he has told the same story to your sister i would swear i exclaimed hotly it is for this reason that she has been persuaded into promising to marry him believing that he knows your whereabouts and holds it in his power at any moment to have you punished as a murderer believing too no doubt that you did commit the murderers and he did commit the murderers and he did commit the murderers and he had you committed the murderers and he was to-helled the murderers and he did commit the murder. She has been ready to save your life by the sacrifice of all that has made hers dear. Curse him! I'd take my oath, you're right, he asseverated. He's sly enough and vile enough for anything. Did you ever see Harvey Farnham? I questioned. Yes, years ago I knew him well, and liked him immensely, as he did me, I think. It was in Tuolumni, county, California, where he had a gold mine, the Miss Cunningham. It was I who named that,

Starting point is 05:08:59 oddly enough, it may seem to you, after my sister, of course. He wasn't aware of that, but thought it was just a whim of mine, that probably I'd admired some girl called Miss Cunningham and wanted to pay her a compliment. You see, no one knew me by my right name even then. it was before that hateful time when i got in with collins or wildred whichever you like to call him and not long after i'd run away from home and england under the assumed name of hartley it was my mother's maiden name i was only seventeen or eighteen but i was pretty sharp for my years i'm afraid for i'd been among a queer lot already and one night i would have got into a row with some older man over car a row that might have ended badly if it hadn't been for mr farnham who had dropped into the place to look on and who stood by me for all he was worth it seemed he noticed me the moment he entered the room thinking that i looked enough like him to be his own son afterward he took me up making a lot of me wanting to find out where i'd come from and all that he thought my resemblance to him which every one who saw us together invariably remarked a wonderful joke and used to call me his boy and sunny getting it into his head that i was a sort of mascot who brought luck

Starting point is 05:10:30 to him and whatever he undertook. That was the principal reason, of course, that he was so keen on having me name his mind for him. I think if I had sold all my wild oats, and been willing to settle down a bit into a respectable member of society, there was a time when he wouldn't have minded adopting me, for some old unhappy love affair or other had kept him out of the marriage market, eligible as he was, and he swore that he never meant to marry, even for the hope of having an heir to all his money. Yes, I might have been that heir, if I hadn't been a fool, for Farnham certainly thought the world and all of me in those days. As it was, he did me many a kindness. And now, by way of repaying that affection and those kindnesses, I could not help

Starting point is 05:11:24 exclaiming, with a returning touch of the old bitter contempt, you've undertaken to help his murderer to get off Scott free. You've been masquerading in the very clothes the poor fellow war. You've been using his luggage, trading on the likeness to him which once won for you his regard, heightening it in every way by artificial means, so that not only shall Carson Wildred, or Willis Collins, escape suspicion, but that he may enrich himself. on the dead man's millions. You even set an hotel on fire to finish the whole fiendish plot, with a fine dramatic effect. The poor wretch, who had made such a wreck of his young life,

Starting point is 05:12:08 was white as death, and shaking like an aspen. I could see the beads of sweat oozing out on his pale forehead. "'For God's sake,' he implored, "'don't say that to me. I can't bear it. until you told me just now i swear to you by all i hold sacred by my sister's love which i so little deserve that i never dreamed of harvey farnham's being dead you may believe me or not as you like but you're her friend so i should be glad that you should believe and at least you owe it to me in common justice to hear what i've got to say collins always managed to keep his eye on me and knew my whereabouts and my doings making me feel that at any moment he could come down on me if he chose i dare say he had other men in his power like that men whom he thought he might wish to make his tools at one time or other i didn't often hear from him though i knew myself shadowed and knew also only too well whom i had to thank for it you can't guess the horror of the feeling or how it got on my nerves i fancied it would drive me to madness or suicide one day always knowing i was watched that i could never try as i would escape that eye which was really willis collins's spying me out across the ocean well a cablegram came from him commanding rather than asking me to go to england

Starting point is 05:13:50 saying that it would be much to my advantage to do so and that my fare and all expenses would at once be sent me in advance there was just a hint that i had better not refuse which i understood as well as if it had been a definite threat and anyhow there was a certain attractiveness in the idea of going home i hadn't seen karen or england for so long i didn't mean to let my sister know of my friend's my sister know of my presence, I would have spared her that. But I fancied myself standing among the crowd in the park, watching her drive by or something of that sort. Even a glimpse of her face would have been sweet. But when I arrived, one of the first things Wildred did was to tell me that he knew the Tresides, with whom Karen was living, that he had heard my sister often speak of me, and that he would secretly arrange a meeting between us. i couldn't resist the temptation of having a few words with her when it was offered for the asking and i saw her at the house by the lock an excuse was made to bring her and lady trecity there

Starting point is 05:15:03 something about a portrait of karen that was in a queer room called the studio and while wildred was showing lady tressity over the house i saw my sister and had a talk with her she felt grateful to wildred for bringing it about and fool that i'd fool that i was showing lady tressity over the house i saw my sister and had a talk with her she felt grateful to wildred for bringing it about and fool that I was, I didn't suspect the deep game he meant to play with her, using me as the decoy. I thought he had merely been willing to take the trouble that he might get the more work out of me when he wanted it, though what the work was for which he had brought me to England, I didn't yet know. After that first meeting with Karen, I had given Wildred my word never to try and see her again. Now I understand why. he wished to revive all the old love she had felt by the sight of me awaken her sympathy for my troubles when she should learn his version of them from his lips and then keep me from her lest i should hear that she had asked her to be his wife threatening to betray me if she did not accept and so in spite of my cowardice for i am a moral coward setting me against him to be his slave and tool no more

Starting point is 05:16:19 when i had been in england about three or four weeks keeping out of the way of any one who might possibly remember me wildred suggested the scheme of my travelling back to america impersonating farnham and finally finishing the plot as i did finish it to-night he admitted that it was for this he had sent for me but swore farnham himself was in the thing as deep as he that it meant a fortune to them both which they were to share and which could be had in no other way he explained that farnham had had bad luck in speculations was bankrupt hadn't the pluck to begin over again on the lowest rounds of the ladder nor to undertake carrying out this plan himself he would funk the fire business wildred said and might instead of escaping actually be burned to death the object to be gained of course i was made to believe was getting the life assurance farnham was supposed to have several policies each one for an enormous sum he had left everything of which he should die possessed life assurance and all the rest to wildred who would actually go halves with farnham when the money should be secured i have nothing of my own you know except what i can make by my wits for my father disinherited me and i've had just a little too much pride ever to take anything from karen wildred offered me ten thousand pounds to work this business for him half to be paid down half when the thing had been successfully carried through to the clothes of course i had sense enough to know it was a villainous fraud but i've never been very scrupulous and it was easy to persuade myself that i owed harvey

Starting point is 05:18:16 farnham a good turn for what he did for me in the past besides i wanted the money and there was five thousand in notes wildred was too sly to give a check on the table for me to take or leave i didn't see that i was going to do much harm to anybody except the insurance companies who are rich enough to lose as farnham hadn't a relative in the world but before heaven if i dreamed of the truth i'd have let wildred do his worst before i'd have gone in with him as for the santa anna i knew that every board of the hotel was assured the landlord would lose nothing and after i'd kindled the fire i knocked like mad on your door i fancy though you didn't know it it must have been that which first began to rouse you i didn't give myself much time to get out after taking off the disguise which i flatter myself i did pretty well but i just managed it i can tell you i was desperate when i walked in here and found you but now i was never so thankful for anything in the course of my life the present question is then i said whether you will go straight to england with me and tell all you know about carson wildred if we stopped on this side to prove things step by step as we went we should labor under two disadvantages it would mean indefinite delay and you would get into trouble about that business at the hotel to-night to sail at once for england and let matters here take care of themselves for the present is our only plan i think what do you say you are sure that wildred can't swear my life away as sure as i am that we are both alive at this moment

Starting point is 05:20:15 then i'm in your hands i'll save my sister and i'll get even with wildred for making a tool and a dupe of me by the time we have landed on the other side i answered there'll still be a clear fortnight to do the first and i think we may accomplish the latter transaction simultaneously end of chapter twenty six recording by roger Chapter 27 of the House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 27. Too late! We had a stormy passage and arrived at Southampton four and twenty hours later than we should have done. It was Cunningham who bought a paper as we got into the train.

Starting point is 05:21:22 I was too completely preoccupied to have absorbed a line of news, even had my eyes mechanically perused the printed matter. Cunningham, who was always restless, and could not bear to be left at the mercy of his own thoughts, read incessantly, however, and at the end of half an hour or so handed over his paper to me. "'Look at this,' he said with some eagerness, pointing out a paragraph. I glanced at it carelessly at first,

Starting point is 05:21:52 but in an instant I was as keen as Cunningham had been. "'Another fortune for a millionaire,' the paragraph was headed, and beneath was set forth the interesting fact that Mr. Carson Wildred, who was shortly to marry Miss Cunningham, the celebrated beauty and heiress, had just heard of a legacy of half a million pounds, left him by an American friend, Mr. Harvey Farnham, lately burned to death in a San Francisco hotel.

Starting point is 05:22:20 So, you see, it wasn't only the mine and the money he should have paid for the mine he wanted, said Cunningham. Oh, he's a marvelous chap, this Wildred. I acquiesced in this opinion, and recalled a remark made in the club by a mutual acquaintance. Carson Wildred is always inheriting fortunes from chaps that die at the four corners of the globe, he had curiously announced. i wondered grimly as i remembered the speech whether all these benefactors had met their death after the manner of poor harvey farnham time was pressing now and our idea was to go straight to karen i to appear only as the supporter of her brother a desire for the punishment of wildred might have held a prominent place both in cunningham's mind and mine but our first thought was to save karen from becoming the murderer's wife she must be disabused of the belief that her brother was in any way in wildred's power she must know that as cunningham expressed it the shoe was on the other foot

Starting point is 05:23:31 she must be shown the black depths of carson wildred's villainy and be dragged back from the brink of the precipice in which she had stood hours was a quick train and went straight through to london without stopping after arriving at waterloo station therefore we were obliged to wait for nearly an hour before we could get another which would take us to hazelmere a curious feeling that i had passed through all this before came over me and as we stepped out of our carriage on the platform of the hazelmere station it seemed but yesterday that i had arrived at the same place intent on bidding karen that farewell which never had been spoken the time of day gave me the only sense of difference we had left the ship early in the morning had made our first journey in two hours and now it was only very little past noon i had wished considering the reception i had met at sir walter tressides on my first and last visit at his country house to remain at a hotel in hazelmere there to wait such news as cunningham might have to bring for karen's sake i thought it would be better for me not to appear openly in the matter unless it proved that the influence of her brother and his narrative were not as potent in their effect as i anticipated should he require any attestations from me i was only too glad to be on the spot and to be called upon to give them cunningham however had overruled this programme of mine no one could tell he said how he might be received he might be sorely in need of me to back him up perhaps even to prove the truth of his otherwise unsupported assertions

Starting point is 05:25:25 the tressities he alleged were peculiar though his sister had not confided in him he knew that she was unhappy with them they had very little money of their own on which to keep up the appearance they wished to make in the eyes of their world and cunningham did not believe that lady tressidy would be above accepting a heavy bribe from wildred for furthering his suit by almost any means with poor karen half against my will therefore yet not wholly with reluctance i must confess i entered the carriage which was to drive us both to the house where a few weeks ago i had been so ruthlessly repulsed thank heaven i said as we rattled up the hill perhaps in the same vehicle which had driven me before that the storm wasn't just a degree more severe in crossing it was touch and go with us one day at all events i believe but a fraction worse and we shouldn't have been here now to stand between miss cunningham and that villain a week or ten days more perhaps and even if we'd reached her we might have been too late there was a certain tumultuous joy in my heart far removed from happiness yet intoxicating as new wine karen might never be mine but she was saved and it would be i who had saved her i could never be regarded by her quite with indifference after this day as we drove we made various hurried plans as to what we should do if we were refused admittance we were we were determined at least to see Karen,

Starting point is 05:27:07 even if we were obliged to force our way into her presence. As we got out of the carriage and ran up the four or five broad stone steps that led to the front door, something crackled under our feet like exaggerated grains of sand. We were far enough, however, from guessing the nature of the foreign substance that was thus crushed beneath our disregarding boot soles. The door was opened by a sense, smiling footman. He was not the man I had previously seen, and, evidently, judging from the

Starting point is 05:27:42 genial flush on his face and the twinkle in his eye, something agreeable or amusing had recently taken place. He tried to draw his countenance into the conventional lines of footman-like solemnity, but his eyes lighting upon Cunningham, the expression changed to one of surprise. Very possibly, he noted the similarity of coloring between the brother and sister, and a certain vague, haunting likeness that would show itself at times. "'If Miss Cunningham is at home, tell her that her brother has come, and wishes to see her immediately on a matter of importance,' said my companion, valiantly taking the bull by the horns. "'Miss Cunningham is not at home, sir,' replied the servant.

Starting point is 05:28:31 "'She—that is, in fact, sir—' sir, she has just left us for good and all. She, she was married, sir, at half-past ten o'clock this morning, and the wedding breakfast's only been over since an hour ago. The gritty substance under our feet had been the rice thrown, as though in mockery, after Karen as she passed to her carriage on her husband's arm. End of Chapter 27. Recording by Roger Maline.

Starting point is 05:29:06 chapter twenty eight of the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson this livervox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline chapter twenty eight a wild goose chase do you know where the-the bride and groom have gone questioned cunningham grudgingly no sir i heard lady tressidy say only this morning that even she hadn't been told Mr. Wildred had some idea of a surprise, I believe, sir. The fact that not only had my companion claimed to be the brother of the bride, but that his facial expression and coloring answered for his truth caused the fellow to feel apparently that we had a right to explanations. There was no use in endeavoring to make further inquiries. Even if Lady Tressidy or Sir Walter did know the destination of the newly wedded pair,

Starting point is 05:30:14 it was more than improbable that they would be ready to share their knowledge with us and it was like carson wildred to be prepared even for the very emergency which had now arisen by taking just such precautions as he had had we not been impatient and chosen the steep road less often travelled than the other we should no doubt have met the carriage which drove the bridal couple to the hazelmere station another exemplification of the old proverb that that the more haste, the less speed. We could now only repair our mistake, if it still admitted of reparation, by giving chase with such speed as was practicable. I gave the order to the coachman, drive to the station as quick as you can,

Starting point is 05:31:01 and in another moment we were off. Fate seemed to have ordained that I should meet nothing save disappointment at this door, but today's experience had brought me something far deeper and more cruel than mere disappointment. I had not counted upon the chance that Wildred would be permitted to hurry on the wedding during my absence,

Starting point is 05:31:22 and now I felt as though a chasm had suddenly yawned under my feet. Karen was Carson Wildred's wife. What are we to do? questioned her brother, Dully. We can't leave her with him, you know. Leave her with him? The very fact that I was obliged to answer him

Starting point is 05:31:44 gave me back the power of concentrating thought. A moment before, my mind had been a blank, a chaos. But now I returned, unhesitatingly, We'll find out where they've gone, and have him arrested, and your sister taken from him before nightfall. But supposing they've gone abroad, which is what they very likely mean,

Starting point is 05:32:09 before we can catch them. We must catch them. there won't be a train till later in the afternoon by which they can get away now they'd have to go by the night-boat if it was france somehow or other though everything seems against us and we are only two where there ought to be a dozen going in as many ways at once we'll circumvent that devil yet you have plenty of confidence in yourself said cunningham perhaps you don't know carson wildred as well as i do i did not answer though the words rang ominously in my ears i was very busy with my own thoughts as soon as we could find out where wildred had taken karen even within my own mind i would not call her his wife we must lodge such information with the police that he could be arrested at once, either on English or foreign soil, as the case might be. A man accused of murder, as he would be, could, fortunately, be apprehended anywhere. At Hazelmere Station, they could only inform us that the party of which we were in search had had tickets for London, and had left

Starting point is 05:33:24 about three-quarters of an hour before our arrival. Even if we could have told our story with sufficient succinctness to have Wildred met at Waterloo by the police, there would have been no time to do so. We must simply follow as we could. Luckily, there was a slow train due in a few moments. Otherwise, I think we, I at least, must have gone mad with the strain of waiting. At Waterloo we heard of them. A porter had taken their luggage and put it on a cab. The gentleman and lady had driven away in a private carriage. What direction had been given to the coachman or the cabman he had not happened to hear? I now proposed that Cunningham should proceed immediately to Scotland Yard, while I busied myself elsewhere. He was the one who could tell of the

Starting point is 05:34:20 plot by which he had personated Farnham in America, by Wildred's desire, and in the hope of obtaining a substantial bribe. The authorities were always, already in possession of such separate information as i could give and now that they would learn from cunningham how farnham had never gone to america at all a very different and more lurid light would be shed upon the past meanwhile i would drive to charing cross and might yet be in time to intercept the couple if they were intending to depart for france at charing cross they had not appeared and hastening to a telegraph office i had yet been in time to intercept the couple if they were intending to depart for france at charing cross they had not appeared and hastening to a telegraph office i i sent messages containing wildred's description and carons to every one of the principal railway stations in london replies were paid and were to be received for me at the charing cross hotel having done so much i drove to the piers from which the holland boat sailed then having discovered nothing back to charing cross again the train which would catch the night boat at dover was just about going out but Wildred and Karen were not visible. When the last moment had come and gone,

Starting point is 05:35:37 I betook myself to the hotel, where my telegrams were to await me. I also looked for Cunningham, who is to have met me there, after Scotland Yard, and decided upon forthcoming arrangements. Dispatches were awaiting me from the headquarters of various stations,

Starting point is 05:35:55 Victoria, Houston, Paddington, and so on, but no Cunningham had a third as yet appeared. I opened the message from Paddington last. The others had no news for me, but it seemed that at Paddington, a lady and gentleman, apparently answering the description given, had taken tickets for maidenhead. All the blood in my body seemed to mount to my head. Unless there had been a mistake in the identity, Wildred must have carried Karen off to the house by the lock. It was horrible to me that she should be there. The thought of the house, and what I believed had happened to Harvey Farnham under its roof,

Starting point is 05:36:39 was abhorrent. Why had he chosen to take his young bride, on the day of their marriage, to that gloomy and accursed spot? A strange thrill of apprehension, vague, yet nonetheless dreadful, shook my nerves. I consulted the latest eight-a-freyhensual. a. B.C. time-table, which lay in the reading-room of the hotel. In exactly an hour, another train would leave Paddington for Maidenhead and Marlowe, the nearest stations to Purley Lock, and after that there would not be another until ten o'clock. I should not have much more time to catch the former, if I intended to go by it, and I did intend to go.

Starting point is 05:37:24 Exactly what I was to do, how I was to get Karen away from her husband, husband, I did not dare stop to think, but somehow I would do it. So great was my dread of Wildred as a criminal, and my respect for him as a schemer, that I even feared dimly for Karen's safety with him. It was madness to entertain such a doubt, I assured myself, for great heiress as she was, Karen was lovely enough and sweet enough to inspire genuine love, even in so cold-hearted a villain, as Wildred. He might tire of her in the end, but for the present her life at least would be safe with him. So I repeated mentally over and over again, but still I was pricked with aboding fear

Starting point is 05:38:14 for more than her peace of mind. Why had he taken her to that grim, hateful house by the river? End of Chapter 28. Recording by Roger Maline. the house by the lock by mrs c n williamson this librovoc's recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline chapter twenty nine at the house by the lock i would have wished to wait for cunningham both because i wanted him with me and because i was anxious to hear what he had done at scotland yard however he did not come so i wired him to the latter place left a short note for him also at the hotel to be kept till called for and started off in a cab when i dared delay no longer at breakneck pace for paddington station i just caught the train i wanted changed at maidenhead and arrived at marlow by half-past eight o'clock this time i had neither leisure nor inclination to walk as upon my first visit to the place on christmas day but took a fly and offered the man an extra fare if he would make haste a little short of the house by the lock i stopped him a certain instinct seemed to bid me not to be too ostentatious in the manner of announcing my arrival i got out and by the light of a round red moon rising over black trees in the east i glanced at my watch it was five-and-twenty past nine the whole day since my arrival at southampton in the morning had gone in searching for karen and it might be that i was as far from

Starting point is 05:40:08 success now as i had been in the beginning a hundred yards away a small yellow light shone steadily through the moon tinged to darkness i thought it came from the house by the lock though the one poor ray made but scant cheer of illumination for a bride's home-coming wait here for me i said to the driver i may come within half an hour i may be much longer but at all events wait here is a sovereign for you you and you shall have as much again when i return the tone of his voice told me that he was suspicious as well as curious regarding the mysterious intentions of his fare but i was sure that he would not fail me two pounds were not to be so easily picked up every evening i walked on rapidly as i approached the house by the lock i lost sight of the yellow gleam which for some time had guided me but the moon glinted bleakly on the steeply on the steeper the stone glinted bleakly on the steeply staring panes of dark upper windows desolate as the place had appeared at the hour of sunset it had had an air of hospitable welcome at that time compared to that which it wore now never it seemed to me had i seen a habitation so grim so silently suggestive of haunting evil things the face of the moon as it rose lost the ruddy hue which had colored it nearer the horizon and its paling disk was swept by black and ragged storm clouds the wind moaned through the trees like the wail of a lost soul and there was a stealthy monotonous lapping of the dark water so close at hand other sound there was none and though i had seen the small ray from a distance now so far as i could ascertain not a window in the whole gloomy pile was lighted

Starting point is 05:42:03 i went up the path knocked and rang the bell which sent back jangling echoes such as belong in one's fancy to an uninhabited house from a distant kennel a dog began to bay otherwise i was not answered and as i rang and thundered on the knocker again the animal's voice at length subsided into a protesting wine i ought by this time to have been sure that wildred and karen were not in the house but on the contrary i was by no means certain of that fact mentally i argued that if the master was absent a caretaker or servant would certainly have been left and unless a stone deaf person had been selected for the post my violent alarms would have brought him to me if any reason existed however why the door should not be opened it would be easy to understand how and why the caretaker might be suddenly afflicted with an inability to hear instead of being plunged into discouragement an ever kindling fire of rage mounted within me rather than go away ignorant as to whether karen was hidden in this hateful house or not i would force an entrance i sprang down the steps and went to one of the bow windows nearest the door not an instant's hesitation had i in kicking in one of the panes of glass but as it happened i had only my trouble for my pains there were solidly barred shutters inside so heavy that even i strong man as i was could not break them open furious now i ran up to the door again and drove my gloved fist through the glass in one of the curious six-inch wide window-panes that ran the length of the door on either side the shivered glass jingled sharply on the polished wood of the floor inside and i thrust in my arm up to the elbow hoping to get at the lock on the door within

Starting point is 05:44:06 as i did so footsteps came running in the distance here here what's the matter with you cried an imperative voice i had heard it before i remembered it was that of the eminently respectable-looking servant who had so cleverly defended his master's reputation on the occasion of my former visit to the house by the lock. If you're a burglar, remarked the voice, you'd better go away while you can. I have a revolver, and my hand is on the trigger now. I am no burglar, I returned. This is not exactly the time of night to expect such gentry, is it? But you've kept me waiting long enough.

Starting point is 05:44:50 I wish to see your master and mistress, whom I happen to know are here this evening, and I don't mean to go away without doing it.' The man inside chuckled. "'Nice way of announcing yourself, ain't it, sir? But as it happens, you'll have to go elsewhere to see my master and the new mistress.' "'I don't know where they are. It ain't likely I should. But I do know they aren't in this house, where there isn't a solitary soul but me. as for the time of night that's neither here nor there so long as i'd chosen to go to bed and i can't dress all of a minute to please anybody that likes to come banging at the door you deserve to be had up for damaging the house that you do whoever you may be

Starting point is 05:45:39 there was a ring of virtuous indignation in the voice and for a few seconds length i hesitated perhaps after all the fellow was telling the truth i was very certain of his capacity for lying but it might well be that wildred and karen had not really come here still far away a door slammed sharply and just in time to decide me the man had lied he had just told me that he was alone in the house and this one sound had unmistakably proved the falsehood it was not the sort of noise with which the wind shuts a door even had the wind been violent enough to do so and windows open to admit it the latch had been lifted by a human hand the servant who was entirely out of my sight began talking hurriedly jabbering any nonsense as though to cover what had happened i listened intently and through his chattering i fancied that i could hear subdued with distance and intervening walls the sound of a woman's crying my heart seemed to leap into my throat i could feel the blood throbbing almost to bursting at my temples you liar i roughly exclaimed they are here and i will see them if i have to break the door down try it then the man cried tauntingly just try it and you may try all night ta ta-ta good-bye and good luck to you i heard his feet tap Swapping swiftly along the uncovered floor as he ran away.

Starting point is 05:47:24 Another door was opened and closed, and he was out of earshot. Desperately I again endeavored to find the lock. It was no use. Thrust in my arm as far as I might, I could not touch it. And though I broke the narrow pane on the other side as well, the fastenings of the door were beyond my reach. With all my strength, I flung myself against the door, but the heavy wood stood firm as though it had been a sheet of iron.

Starting point is 05:47:54 There was evidently no hope in that direction, and dizzy with my own rage and desperation, I began attempting some of the windows. But all were secured with the impregnable shutters and bars inside, and it would have seemed that the inmates of the house by the lock were prepared to stand a siege. Whether it was Karen whom I believed I had heard weeping or not, i could not be sure i could not even have taken my oath that there had been such a sound at all but i was morally certain of it i ran round the house trying in vain to batter in another door and was met everywhere by silence and darkness

Starting point is 05:48:36 at the side however i came at last upon the extension with the tower whence i had seen the suspicious smoke and flame pouring on that memorable christmas afternoon over the roof of the low studio which possessed no windows i could see a faint yellow glow like a luminous halo or crown and suddenly as i stood regarding it in some bewilderment i recollected the skylight which i had observed from within if i could in some way climb to the top break through the glass and let myself down the problem as to how i should get into the house would be effectually solved it now struck me that the studio as seen from outside was disproportionately large compared with the room inside as i remembered it there had been only the one which apparently constituted the sole purpose of the building and yet it appeared to me that there might have been space for two of the same small size low as the erection was it was too high for me to climb and i began hastily looking about for some means of assistance in carrying out my plan in the coach-house i thought there might be a ladder and thither i repaired without delay but the doors were padlocked and try them as i might i could not open them what was i to do the more difficulties which encumbered my path the more did i determine to surmount them returning towards the house i noticed a large rustic seat placed under an ancient apple-tree and it occurred to me that if i could balance the article against the projection of the building i might by standing it on end use it as an improvised ladder if i could only mount for a certain distance i could pull myself up by the ledge of stonework which ran along the edge of the flat roof

Starting point is 05:50:36 the light which apparently filtered through the skylight had warned me to be cautious in my movements whoever was in the house must have known long ago that some one was determined upon forcing an entrance but judging by the laughing taunts of the servant it would be believed that the boast had been a vain one if any one was in the studio it might be as well if for a few moments at least i could see without being seen or heard i therefore went about my preparations as quietly as possible i dragged the rustic seat across the grass and set it at an angle between the tower and the low building of the studio giving it a certain slanting inclination that it might not fall when burdened with my weight then i scrambled up not venturing to pause for an instant at the top for i could feel that the thing was slowly beginning to slide from under me with a leap i caught the ledge of stone that ran round the roof and setting my knee against the wall helped myself up it may read simply enough when written down in black and white but it was rather a difficult task in the accomplishment and i felt that i had reason to congratulate myself on my own success when it was done framed in a margin of dark roof eight to ten feet in width was the skylight through which penetrated a subdued radiance cautiously noiselessly i crawled to the the round bubble of glass and looked down a curtain of embroidered indian silk was drawn half across but through the open space that was left i could see something of the interior the jeweled lamp which i had previously observed hanging from the center alone illumined the octagonal room now that i was on the roof i was able to appreciate more than ever the smallness of the studio there was space for a wide passage running all the way right

Starting point is 05:52:37 between the inner walls and the outer walls i suspected method in this design a secret which wildred had cleverly contrived to hide and which in conjunction with the mystery of the tower might account for much that had been dark before as i looked a figure passed into my line of vision it was wildred walking restlessly up and down with his hands behind him i could hear the murmur of his voice though through the glass of the skylight the words were not distinguishable suddenly there came a sharp exclamation in a woman's voice and my heart gave a responsive bound wildred was talking to karen and it was she who had answered him with a cry i had not expected when i decided upon trying to enter like a burglar through the skylight that karen would be in the studio it would doubtless frighten her very much if i should suddenly make my appearance beside her amid a shower of broken glass and i hesitated so to alarm her unless the man down there was already commencing to use his power to torment her but if she would only go out and leave me to give wildred a surprise i would have been thankful but as i could not hope for her to do that i determined to know what her companion was saying to her which had caused her to exclaim an astonishment or perhaps in fear. I took out my pocket-knife,

Starting point is 05:54:07 and with great care to avoid all noise, I began to loosen one of the small diamond-shaped panes from its leaden setting. As soon as it was released at one end, I slipped the point of the knife underneath, and so raised it that there might be no danger of its falling downward and startling those within the room. End of Chapter 29.

Starting point is 05:54:34 Chapter 30 of the House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 30. Conclusion. I bent my ear over the tiny aperture. It made all the difference in the world. I could now hear every word that Wildred was saying. I have always, and with some reason, I think, was the first. sentence that I caught, considered myself a man of more than average mental ability. I am usually prepared for any traps which can possibly be sprung for me, but in this instance I find I have made my one mistake. I believed in a woman's devotion. Probably it serves me right

Starting point is 05:55:33 to have been deceived. Since you have found it all out through her, I may as well admit to you that it is true. She did live here. nobody suspected her presence or even her existence she was very useful to me in many ways if she had proved troublesome i could have rid myself of her at any time and she knew it instead of doing what i ought to have done i believed that she was willing to go away without betraying me and i let her go free with a present of a thousand pounds she could even have asked for more when that was gone and i would not have refused her i was a fool ever to marry her but she was the handsomest woman i had seen at that time and as you know i was some years younger some degrees more impulsive than i am now i was still more of a fool not to have put her out of the way knowing what she did but as i remarked that was the mistake of a lifetime she has told you such of my secrets as she knew she has shown you certain things in this house which have very naturally displeased and shocked you she timed her return very well jealous idiot but she will pay for what she has done how will she pay i could not see karen but i could hear her voice vibrant with the fear and horror that she felt better not ask the question doesn't concern you

Starting point is 05:57:06 she will simply become familiarized with the secrets of the house by the lock in a manner upon which she didn't count that's all i had never pictured satan himself so cruel so horrible as you cried karen i thank heaven now that i know through this wretched woman what you really are that not i but she is your wife yet you must remain with me as though you knew nothing but what i would have had you know for your own sake and your brothers had it not been for that foolish creature who has ruined herself in trying to ruin you and me we might have been happy together karen i admire you more than any woman on earth for you are certainly the most beautiful and your coldness to a man of my temperament has only added to your attractions as a girl as a married woman it would have been different i meant to make you love me and even now karen what has happened that need change anything between us you are not a conventional little fool as are some women i could name and the love of a man like me must create some impression on your nature the obstacle which you think stands between us shall be removed the marriage ceremony can again be performed over us secretly if you choose no one will be the wiser and as in any event you must stay here in my house i will not somehow god will help me to escape and then when i am free from you i shall let such friends as i may have left deal with you as you deserve it's difficult to see how you will get away it's true i did not dream that marion would be here to greet us or i would not have brought you to this house but now that you are in it you will stay

Starting point is 05:59:05 no one knows that we are here no one in your world at least and i intend that we shall have a protracted honeymoon you heard how some vagabond some tramp who wished to get in failed just now well it is just as difficult for strangers to escape from the house by the lock as it is for them to effect an entrance for instance you and i are now cut off by means of a sliding iron door from the old portion of the house from this there is absolutely no way out unless i allow it save one and that way two or three people have already found by going through a certain little door hidden behind the hangings i'll show it to you if you like or perhaps the lady who told you so much has told you that as well she has she told me all about poor mr farnham how you made him believe you a friend to be trusted how you induced him to smoke opium here in this very room this awful room till he was dazed and unconscious and how he only roused from his stupor just as you were going to burn him alive in your horrible crematorium she told me how the furnace went wrong at the last moment and you had to kill him in a different way from what you had planned less easy for you more dangerous of discovery oh the horror of listening to those details for she spared me nothing nothing i heard from her how mr stanton came in the midst of the dreadful happenings on christmas day how she saw him through the door and afterwards when he had spoken to the police how you bribed her with jewels and money to pretend that she was your cook that she had screamed with a pain of burning her foot and how she painted her ankle to look like a red scar when she had to show some proof of her story she would have been true to you through everything she said

Starting point is 06:01:10 poor misguided woman, if she had not been taken ill and stopped in London instead of going to France, as she had promised, and so seen in the papers about our coming marriage. What mockery to call it that? And yet I thank heaven that it need only be mockery, that it is not real. I wonder that the shock of finding that woman concealed in my room, waiting for me to come, did not drive me mad. But I am not. mad and such wit as i have i warn you i shall devote to thwarting you carson wildred do you think i could go on living under the same roof with you even if i were in reality your wife no you can kill me if you like it is the only way in which you can keep me here he did not answer for an instant then he said slowly do you remember just putting your name on a paper i asked you to sign for me with my stylographic pen in the train this afternoon well you thought it was merely in order for letters to be sent on to your new address but it was something rather more important than that

Starting point is 06:02:24 you put your name to a document which leaves all the money of which you die possessed unreservedly to me i have already had it witnessed by my servant and another you understand to what this points perhaps if you show yourself amenable to reason i shall consider you a wife to be proud of and there is no ambition which we need cherish in vain if we are to live our lives together but on the other hand unless you will go heart and soul with me ignoring the past you have to-day been told too much for my safety or your own what if you should catch a serious cold here at the house by the lock unfortunately the place is rather damp though so charming in many ways you might have an attack of pneumonia only fancy how the world would sympathize with the husband of so beautiful and popular a girl as yourself if he were bereaved of you during the honeymoon oh you are horrible horrible it is like death even to listen to you cried karen if only there was a soul on earth to help me but there's none none his answer if he had made one was drowned in the crashing of glass better that she should be startled even to the point of swooning rather than endure for another second the torture that that fiend was inflicting upon her i broke in the skylight with the heavy stick which i had brought up to the roof between my teeth then with hands cut and bleeding despite the protection of my gloves i swung myself down and dropped on to the floor there was a cry from karen and a sharp exclamation of dismayed astonishment from wildred for once outwitted

Starting point is 06:04:22 i had never been a match for him in diplomacy but when it came to a physical encounter i had every advantage over him and i knew it he had no time to pull out the knife or revolver for which his hand flew to his pocket for i was on him taking him by the throat and shaking him as a terrier shakes a rat i had not stopped even to look at karen and yet the vision of her pale face and hands clasped over her bosom had flashed over her bosom had flat lightening-like upon my consciousness thank heaven thank heaven i could hear her sob i hoped that she did not look that she had closed her eyes or covered them with her hands but wildred did not give me time to make suggestions he was more nimble if he was less strong than i i could feel through all his writhings that he was trying to force me along with him towards a certain corner of the room and realizing it resolved to thwart him whatever his object might be i had come to the knowledge exactly one second too late however he had managed to place his foot on a bell concealed under one of the rugs on the floor and i heard its summons go pealing shrilly out through the house i remembered how i had looked for a bell in this room once before it was scarcely to be wondered at considering its position that I had not found it. In another moment, the servant accomplice would come to the assistance of his master. Had it not been for Karen's presence, I felt that I should not have found it

Starting point is 06:06:04 difficult in my present mood to have held them both in check, but as it was, I should greatly have preferred only one antagonist. The struggle in which I was engaged with Wildred had degenerated into a species of wrestling match. I had him down on one knee at last, and bending his arms behind him, while he poured forth a volley of deadly oaths, his strange light eyes flashing into mine, I attempted to tie his hands together with my silk handkerchief, wound into a slit-knot I had learned to make it see. He was slippery as a serpent in my grasp, and it was taking all I knew to manage him when a cry from Karen gave me the first warning that I was attacked from behind. The confidential man had stolen in as noiselessly as I had crept upon the roof and to the skylight.

Starting point is 06:06:58 Take that, then, I heard him snarl savagely, and a low exclamation from my darling told me that in some way he had revenged himself upon her. For an instant I lost my presence of mind and my hold upon Wildred. Involuntarily, I turned to go to Karen's rescue, and the movement was a fatal one. Wildred was up like a rod of steel that has been forcibly bent backward. The two threw themselves upon me together. I felt a sharp, hot pain run fiercely through my side

Starting point is 06:07:34 and knew that I had been stabbed. My one thought was for the girl. If they worked their will upon me, and killed me before her eyes, what was to become of her. Run, Karen, escape, I panted. I could not see her, but I was assured that she had not obeyed by the loud screams for help which she was desperately uttering. Again I got Wildred down, but the other man was on top of me,

Starting point is 06:08:03 and for the second time I felt the burning pain, this time in my shoulder. I fought like a mad creature now, with the intent to come. kill, which I had not had before, but the conviction grew within me that battle as I might, the effort would be all in vain. Sparks danced before my eyes, and then everything grew dim. Out of chaos came a shriek from Karen. Could it be a cry of joy? What reason was there for rejoicing? But there followed a renewed crashing of glass, the muffled thud of feet, descending from a height upon the soft surface of rugs and the sound of men's voices. It seemed to me that Cunningham's was among them,

Starting point is 06:08:52 but a strange cold pall of darkness enveloped me, and I knew no more. Afterwards I learned how it was that Cunningham, with two detectives from Scotland Yard, had arrived in the very nick of time. His statements to the police authorities had been necessarily something, elaborate and had been deemed so extraordinary that it had taken some time to create the desired impression at headquarters he had been still at the yard when my wire had arrived when at last he had induced the powers that be to grant a warrant for wildred's arrest on suspicion of having murdered harvey farnham and to send a couple of men to the house by the lock where my telegram had announced that he was probably to be found it was too late to keep to kill him to kill him to be found it was too late to kill him to kill him to be found it was too late to kill him. catch anything save the ten o'clock train. Having reached the door of the grim old mansion,

Starting point is 06:09:48 Karen's cries for help, ringing out upon the night through the broken skylight, had told them in which direction to proceed, and they had used the same method of surmounting the obstacles which I had adopted and left for them. The servant was secured, but Wildred, seeing with his usual quickness that all hope of escape was over, had shot himself through the heart before the officers could reach him. So died a man who had accomplished the death of many another,

Starting point is 06:10:19 and through his humble accomplice, who now breaks stones at Portland, and the wretched wife found prisoned in a room upstairs, the secrets of his numerous crimes and the dark house by the lock were revealed. It was not for many a day after that night's terrible experience that I heard all the truth. What with the two wounds I had received, and the strain of the past few weeks, which had begun to tell upon me at last,

Starting point is 06:10:49 for a time I lay in rather a precarious condition. But one morning I woke to consciousness and found that the beautiful face which had been near me in my dreams was present in reality. Karen and her brother had nursed me through more than a fortnight's illness. Had I been to be a man,

Starting point is 06:11:08 quite myself i would have felt that then was not the time to speak of love to the girl who had endured so much but the words were uttered before my judgment would let me restrain them as it so often had done in the first sweet sad days of our acquaintance forgive me i said weakly i'm a brute you've been such an angel to me and i oughtn't to have told you now oughtn't you she answered softly Do you remember my saying one evening at the Savoy Hotel that there was only one thing in the world which might even then keep me from making a marriage that was horrible to me? I remember well, I returned. I remember everything you ever said to me. Will you tell me what that one thing was?

Starting point is 06:12:02 I meant if you had loved me. Sometimes I thought you did. but you would never say so. You only asked to be my friend. Oh, if I had but known, if I had but dared, I exclaimed. I was perishing of love for you from the first night I ever saw your face. Is it too late now? I don't ask to be your friend. I ask to be everything, your lover and your husband. And I give you everything, she said. said so it came about that the sunshine of happiness drove forth the black shadows which would fain have lingered to haunt us like ghosts from the house by the lock the end

Starting point is 06:12:53 of chapter thirty end of the house by the lock by mrs c and williamson

Classic Audiobook Collection - The House by the Lock by Mrs. C. N. Williamson ~ Full Audiobook [mystery]

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