Blind Love | Page 8

breakfast-time. After opening one of
the letters, he dispatched a messenger in hot haste to the police.
"Look at that," he said, handing the letter to Iris. "Does the assassin
take me for a fool?"

She read the lines that follow:
"Unforeseen events force me, Sir Giles, to run a serious risk. I must
speak to you, and it must not be by daylight. My one hope of safety is
in darkness. Meet me at the first milestone, on the road to Garvan,
when the moon sets at ten o'clock to-night. No need to mention your
name. The password is: Fidelity."
"Do you mean to go?" Iris asked.
"Do I mean to be murdered!" Sir Giles broke out. "My dear child, do
pray try to think before you speak. The Sergeant will represent me, of
course."
"And take the man prisoner?" Iris added.
"Certainly!"
With that startling reply, the banker hurried away to receive the police
in another room. Iris dropped into the nearest chair. The turn that the
affair had now taken filled her with unutterable dismay.
Sir Giles came back, after no very long absence, composed and smiling.
The course of proceeding had been settled to his complete satisfaction.
Dressed in private clothes, the Sergeant was to go to the milestone at
the appointed time, representing the banker in the darkness, and giving
the password. He was to be followed by two of his men who would
wait in concealment, within hearing of his whistle, if their services
were required. "I want to see the ruffian when he is safely handcuffed,"
Sir Giles explained; "and I have arranged to wait for the police, to-night,
at my office."
There was but one desperate way that Iris could now discern of saving
the man who had confided in her godfather's honour, and whose trust
had already been betrayed. Never had she loved the outlawed Irish
lord--the man whom she was forbidden, and rightly forbidden, to
marry--as she loved him at that moment. Let the risk be what it might,

this resolute woman had determined that the Sergeant should not be the
only person who arrived at the milestone, and gave the password. There
was one devoted friend to Lord Harry, whom she could always
trust--and that friend was herself.
Sir Giles withdrew, to look after his business at the bank. She waited
until the clock had struck the servants' dinner hour, and then ascended
the stairs to her godfather's dressing-room. Opening his wardrobe, she
discovered in one part of it a large Spanish cloak, and, in another part, a
high-crowned felt hat which he wore on his country excursions. In the
dark, here was disguise enough for her purpose.
As she left the dressing-room, a measure of precaution occurred to her,
which she put in action at once. Telling her maid that she had some
purchases to make in the town, she went out, and asked her way to
Garvan of the first respectable stranger whom she met in the street. Her
object was to walk as far as the first milestone, in daylight, so as to be
sure of finding it again by night. She had made herself familiar with the
different objects on the road, when she returned to the banker's house.
As the time for the arrest drew nearer, Sir Giles became too restless to
wait patiently at home. He went away to the police-office, eager to hear
if any new counter-conspiracy had occurred to the authorities.
It was dark soon after eight o'clock, at that time of the year. At nine the
servants assembled at the supper-table. They were all downstairs
together, talking, and waiting for their meal.
Feeling the necessity of arriving at the place of meeting, in time to keep
out of the Sergeant's way, Iris assumed her disguise as the clock struck
nine. She left the house without a living creature to notice her, indoors
or out. Clouds were gathering over the sky. The waning moon was only
to be seen at intervals, as she set forth on her way to the milestone.
VI
THE wind rose a little, and the rifts in the clouds began to grow
broader as Iris gained the high road.

For a while, the glimmer of the misty moonlight lit the way before her.
As well as she could guess, she had passed over more than half of the
distance between the town and the milestone before the sky darkened
again. Objects by the wayside grew shadowy and dim. A few drops of
rain began to fall. The milestone, as she knew--thanks to the discovery
of it made by daylight--was on the right-hand side of the road. But the
dull-grey colour of the stone was not easy to see in the dark.
A doubt troubled her whether she might not have