The Mask of the Enchantress (35 page)

elp me, miss,he said. y cat caught up in the barn. I can reach her. You could. She crying. Come and help me.

how me the way,I said.

His face broke into a smile. l show you, miss. Will you get her down for me?

will if I can.

He turned and started to walk quickly. I followed. We went over a field to a barn, the door of which was swinging open.

he cat she got in high up and she can get down. You can get her, miss.

l try,I said.

n here, miss.

He stood aside for me to enter. I did so and the door was immediately shut. I was in complete darkness and could see nothing after the light outside.

I cried out in astonishment, but the boy was gone and I heard a bolt slide. Then I was alone.

I looked about me and suddenly I felt the goose pimples rise on my flesh. I had heard people talk of their hair standing on end. I had never experienced it before, but I did then. For hanging from one of the beams was the body of a man. He was swaying on a rope, turning slightly as he did so.

I screamed. I cried: h no !I wanted to turn and run.

Those first seconds were terrible. The boy had shut me in here with a dead man moreover a man who had hanged himself or been hanged by others.

Terror gripped me. It was so dark and eerie in the barn. I could not bear this. The boy had done it deliberately. There was no cat only a body hanging on a rope.

I was trembling. I had been lured here for a purpose. That boy must have known what was here. Why had he done this to me?

Panic seized me. I did not know which way to turn.

The barn was some distance from the farmhouse. If I shouted, would they hear and if they did would the Cringles come and help me?

The last thing they would do was that. I could feel the waves of hatred coming towards me in that farmhouse kitchen from all except the girl Leah. She had too many problems of her own to consider me.

A terrible inadequacy came over me. What should I do? Suppose he wasn dead. I must try to get him down. I must try to save him. But my first impulse was to escape, to call someone, to get help. I tried to push open the door but it had been bolted from the outside. I shook it. But the barn was a flimsy structure and it shook as I banged on the door.

I had to see whether the man was alive. I had to get him down.

I felt sick and inadequate. I longed to be out in the sunshine, away from this horrible place.

I looked again towards that grisly sight. I could see now that the figure was limp and lifeless. There was something about the way it sagged that told me that.

I stared at it in horror, for it had swung round and I was looking at a grotesque face a face that was not human. It was white white as freshly fallen snow, and it had a grinning gash of a mouth the color of blood.

It was not a man. It was not a human being, though the corduroy breeches and the tweed cloth cap were those of a man who worked on the land.

I moved forward but every instinct rebelled against my going near the thing.

I suddenly felt I could not stay there a moment longer. I banged on the door and called out: et me out. Help.

I kept my back on the thing that was hanging there. I had an uncanny feeling that it might come to life, detach the rope about its neck and come over to me and then I knew not what.

The cider was having an effect on meaking me a little lightheaded. It was no ordinary cider. I believed that they had deliberately given me too much of their strongest brew. They hated me, those Cringles. Who was the boy who had shut me in the barn? A Cringle, I was sure. It must be. I had heard there were two sons and a daughter.

I started to hammer on the door again. I went on shouting for help.

My eyes slewed round. It was there that horrible grinning thing.

I must try to be calm. I asked myself what this could mean. The Cringles had done this. They wanted to frighten me. They must have told the boy to bring me out here and lock me in. For what purpose? Did they intend to keep me here? To kill me perhaps?

That was too preposterous, but I was frightened enough to think anything possible.

I must get out of here. I could not bear to stay in this barn with that horrible grinning thing looking at me as it swayed on its rope.

I shouted again. I banged on the door until it shook under my blows. What a hope! Who would pass this way? Who would hear me? How long must I stay here shut in with that thing?

I leaned against the door. I must try to think rationally, calmly. I had been locked in here by a mischievous boy. But what was the significance of that hanging figure? Why should the boy bring me here with the story of a trapped cat? Boys were mischievous by nature. Some of them enjoyed playing unpleasant practical jokes. Perhaps the boy had thought it would be funny to lock me in here with that thing. It was the boy I had seen when I arrived at the farm. He must be a Cringle. He could have hung up the figure there and then waited for me. Why? There was some meaning behind it, I was sure.

I could not stay here forever. I should be missed. But who would know where to look for me?

If I went to that thing examined it more closely But I could not bring myself to do that. It was so uncanny, so horrible in the gloom. It was like a ventriloquist dummy. But there was something about this one It seemed alive.

I hammered on the door again. My hands were grazed. I shouted as loudly as I could for help.

Then I Listened tensely, and my heart leaped with hope, for I heard a voice.

ello. What wrong? Who there?

I banged with all my might on the door. The barn seemed to shake.

Then there came the sound of horse hoofs and the voice again. ait a minute. I coming.The horse had stopped. There was a brief silence. Then the voice was closer. ait a minute.Then the bolt was being drawn. I heard it scrape out of the sheath. A shaft of light came into the barn and I almost fell into the arms of the man who was coming in.

ood Lord!he cried. hat are you doing here, Susannah?

Who was it? I did not know. In that moment I had time for nothing but relief.

He held me against him for a moment and he said: thought the barn was coming down.

I stammered: boy lured me here and bolted the door. I looked up and saw that.

He stared at the thing swaying on the rope.

He said slowly: y God! What a trick to play what a foolish joke.

took one look at it and thought it was a man. The face was round the other way then.

ill they never forget?

I did not know what he was talking about, but I was now realizing that I had been brought out of a terrifying situation into a very dangerous one.

He had gone over to the figure and was examining it.

t one of their scarecrows,he said. hatever made them string it up like this?

e told me his cat was trapped in here.

ne of the Cringle boys, was it?

I took a chance. I gathered I ought to know the Cringle boys. I nodded.

his is too much. Some people would have had a heart attack. Youe made of stronger stuff, Susannah. Let get out of here, shall we? Have you your horse nearby?

es, near the approach to the farm.

ight Wel go back. I came this morning. Heard you gone out round the estate and thought I come and look for you.

We came out into the sunshine. I was still trembling from my experience but I had recovered sufficiently to take stock of him. He was tall and what struck me most about him was an air of authority. I had noticed it and admired it in my father and I realized in that moment that it had been lacking in Philip. The man hair was dark and there was a penetrating look in his brown eyes which would have warned me if I had not been in such a state of shock. He seemed to notice my scrutiny, for he said: et me have a look at you, Susannah. Have you changed much since your circumnavigation of the world?

I avoided his gaze and tried not to look as uneasy as I felt.

ome people seem to think I have a little,I said.

He was looking at me intently and I took off my hat, shaking out my hair as I did so, for because of my fringe I fancied I resembled Susannah more hatless.

es,he said. oue mellowed. That what travel does for you. Especially your sort of travel.

ou mean Ie grown older?

aven we all? It been nearly a year more than that. I didn see you when you came back from school. How long were you here then?

t must have been about two months.

nd then this wild notion to go to Australia took you. You were going to find your father. You succeeded, I know.

es, I succeeded.

et find the horses and go back. My word, you do look shaken. That wretched scarecrow! Theye a vengeful crowd, those Cringles. I never liked them. Why should they blame you for Saul death? I know you were always getting at him. It a pity you got on the wrong side of them. All that religious fanaticism. Old Moses is a self-righteous old devil, for all that he fancies himself an angel. I think he gave those boys a dance when they were young. And where has it led them? Saul to a rope in a barn and Jacob turning into another such as his father. He a fool too, if he had a hand in playing that trick. He should be more careful now that youe in control. He should think of losing the farm. Theye all scared of the changes youl make. As for that girl of his, Leah Is that her name?

es, that her name. I saw her this morning.

l bet she has a hard time of it. She looked frightened out of her wits.

I was growing more and more bewildered. So Saul Cringle had hanged himself in a barn! And because of this I had been shut in with that scarecrow hanging from the rafters. There was some secret in the Cringle household and Susannah was part of it.

I suddenly felt very much afraid.

In the meantime I had to discover who my rescuer was.

We rode back to the castle. He was talking all the time and I was desperately working hard not to betray myself.

When we came to the stables I had my first piece of luck of the morning.

One of the grooms called out: o you found Miss Susannah then, Mr. Malcolm.

Then I knew that my companion was the man whom I had cheated of his inheritance.

As we came into the castle Janet was in the hall.

She said: ood day, Miss Susannah, Mr. Malcolm.

We acknowledged her greeting and I noticed that she was studying me intently.

uncheon in an hour,she said.

hanks, Janet,replied Malcolm.

I went to my room and it was not long before Janet came knocking on my door.

ome in,I called. She came and I was aware of that alert look on her face which I had noticed in the hall.

oue no idea how long Mr. Malcolm will be staying, Miss Susannah?she said. nly Mrs. Bates was asking me. He used to be fond of saffron flavor and she run out of it. It not all that easy to get hold of.

e no idea how long he staying.

ike him to turn up unexpected. He been turning up like thatoh, ever since your grandfather used to encourage him after the trouble.

h yes,I murmured. ou can never be sure with Malcolm.

ou never got on very well with him, did you?

o. I didn.

oo much alike, you two, that what I used to say. You wanted to take over charge of everything both of you. I always used to think poor Mr. Esmond got squashed between the two of you.

suppose it was a bit like that.

ell, with you two always at each other throats I used to look forward to Mr. Malcolm visits. I used to say it was good for you.She looked at me quizzically. ou could be a little demon at times.

expect I was rather foolish.

ell, I never thought I hear you say that. I always used to say, iss Susannah always sees one point of view and that her own.It was rather the same with Mr. Malcolm. There no doubt about it though, he got a great feeling for the castle. And the tenants like him too. Not that they didn like Mr. Esmond. But he was a bit too soft, and then, of course, he had that way of promising and not carrying out. He gave way always because he wanted to please people. He hated saying no, and so he never did. It was yes, yes, yes, whether he could do it or not.

hat was a mistake.

agree with you on that, Miss Susannah. But he was well liked. It was a shock to us all when he went like that and the people on the estate mourned him.

I thought it was safe to ask about Esmond death because I knew Susannah had not been here when it happened.

I said: like to hear more about Esmond last illness.

ell, it was like that time when he was ill. You were here when that happened. He had the same symptoms that terrible weakness that came over him suddenly. You remember how he was when you came back from your finishing school. Mr. Garth was here then. It was at the time Saul Cringle killed himself. After that Mr. Esmond seemed to get better. It was all a bit dramatic, wasn it? Then you decided to go off and find your father. I know how you felt. Il never forget the day they found Saul Cringle hanging in the barn. Nobody could say why he done it. It might have had something to do with that old Moses. He led them all a dance. Saul and Jacob and now the grandchildren. I reckon young Leah and Reuben and Amos have a terrible life of it. But they got the idea somehow that you had something to do with Saul taking his life. You been bothering him, they said finding fault. You were always at Cringles remember.

wanted to see that the estate was running properly.

She looked at me slyly, I thought. ell, that was for Esmond to see then, wasn it? They said Saul had been so strictly brought up that he thought he was destined for hell-fire if he did anything that could be the slightest bit wrong. That could explain it.

ow?I demanded. f he thought he was destined for hellfire you think he delay his arrival there.

hat just what you would say, Miss Susannah. You were always irreverent, you were. I used to say to Mrs. Bates, iss Susannah cares for neither God nor man.Your mother went in fear for you.

h, my mother I murmured.

oor dear lady! She never got over being left like that and him going off with her best friend.

hey had their reasons.