Without a word, or sign, or glance, Gurn went out of the room, and Walter followed behind him to obey his mistress's command.
Once more alone in the great hall, Lady Beltham waited nervously to hear the sound of the park gate closing behind Gurn. She did not dare go on to the balcony to follow her departing lover with her eyes. So, shaken by her recent emotions, she stood waiting and listening, in an agony to know that he was safe. Then, of a sudden, the noise that she had heard an hour before broke on her ears again: the noise of hurrying feet and broken shouts, and words, vague at first but rapidly growing clearer. She crouched forward listening, filled with a horrible fear, her hand laid upon her scarcely beating heart.
"There he is: hold him!" some one shouted. "That's him all right! Look out, constable!"
"This way, Inspector! Yes, it's him, it's Gurn! Ah, would you!"
Paler than death, Lady Beltham cowered down upon a sofa.
"Good God! Good God!" she moaned. "What are they doing to him!"
The uproar in the garden decreased, then voices sounded in the corridor, Silbertown's exclamations rising above the frightened cries of the three young girls.
"Gurn! Arrested! The man who murdered Lord Beltham!" Lisbeth called out in anxious terror.
"But Lady Beltham? Dear God, perhaps he has murdered her too!"
The door was flung open and the girls rushed in. Lady Beltham by a tremendous effort of will had risen to her feet, and was standing by the end of the sofa.
"Lady Beltham! Alive! Yes, yes!" and Thérèse and Lisbeth and Susannah rushed sobbing to her, and smothered her with caresses.
But the agonised woman motioned them away. With hard eyes and set mouth she moved towards the window, straining her ears to listen. From the park outside Gurn's voice rang distinctly; the lover wished to let his mistress know what had happened, and to take a last farewell.
"I am caught, I am caught! Yes, I am Gurn, and I am caught!"
The fatal words were still ringing in Lady Beltham's ears when the major-domo, Silbertown, came bursting into the room, with radiant face and shining eyes and smiling lips, and hurried to his mistress.
"I thought as much!" he exclaimed excitedly. "It was the villain all right. I recognised him from the description, in spite of his beard. I informed the police! As a matter of fact they have been watching for the last two days. Just fancy, your ladyship, a detective was shadowing Gurn--and when he was going out of the house I gave him the signal!"
