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"Hoist with his own petard," Carlton said, his lip curling. "That stick is as notorious as its owner; it is lead-filled, and has often been employed as an offensive weapon. What happened next?"
"I was too dazed to think," Maria
She repeated the words. Carlton nodded thoughtfully.
"Old Harry. Well, it's not much, but it is more than I had. Don't worry; I inquired at the hospitals and the police stations, and no one answering her description has turned up."
"Why are you taking so much trouble?" Maria
"My motives need not concern you," was the curt answer.
But Maria
She tried to be angry, but the memories of her folly had so lowered her opinion of herself that she could only feel chagrin and remorse. How could she blame Carlton for thinking the worst of her? And the clergyman… Maria
"Perhaps it would be better to forget it," she said in a stilted voice. "Trying to trace her might only call attention to her. Mr. Bagshot seems to have dismissed the incident."
Carlton did not reply for a moment.
"Possibly he has," he said at last. "But… I don't want to frighten you, but you are so incredibly careless and naive! The man is well known for harboring grudges, and it would not be difficult for him to trace you if he cared to do so. His presence at the opera that night may have been a coincidence. Or he may have heard a description of the Duchess's protegee and followed her carriage to see if you were the girl he was seeking. Are you all right? You are not going to faint?"
"Certainly not," Maria
"You are very pale. Mind you, I think it unlikely that Bagshot would dare pursue you here. I only mention the possibility to warn you. Don't wander about alone."
"No. And you will look for Maggie?"
"I have people in London searching for her. I will telegraph the information you have given me at once."
In her distress Maria
"Are you recovered?" Carlton asked. "Do you wish to return, or have you strength to go on a little farther?"
"I would prefer to ride awhile longer."
"Follow me, then. We must go single file for a time."
Before long they were among the trees and riding along a narrow path blanketed with fallen needles. As they proceeded the going became more difficult. The trees closed in and the silence was profound. When Maria
They came out of the trees and Carlton's arm shot out like a bar, grasping Stella's bridle and stopping her.
They were on a rocky ledge, wide enough to make Carlton's gesture a needless precaution, though an unskilled rider or a frightened horse might easily go over the brink. Below, a wide mountain stream ran murmuring over peaty brown rocks. So steep was the gorge through which it ran that although the sky above was visible, the sunlight would only strike down into the depths at midday. Now the oblique rays cast a strange light over a scene of wild grandeur – the rocky slopes and twisted tree trunks, the bubbling water, the glistening stones in its depth.
The murmur she had heard was now a roar. Looking for its source Maria
And then, as unmistakably as if he had spoken, she knew why Carlton had brought her here.
"Is this where it happened? Where he died?"
"It seems that your claims of clairvoyance are not entirely unfounded," Carlton said. "Yes, this is the place. Holmes's cloak was found caught among the rocks beyond the waterfall. He was a great walker, and this was one of his favorite spots. The stream is comparatively shallow now. When there are heavy rains – as there were that autumn eighteen years ago – the water rises and the current is extremely swift. Gruffstone told me he had never seen it so high as it was that year; one of the men in the searching party he led came close to being swept away himself."
"But his body was never found," Maria
"That is not surprising. This stream is a tributary of the Tay, which it flows into a few miles downstream. The body might have been swept down all the way to the sea, or it might have been caught under some rocky bank."
"Yet I find it hard to believe no trace was ever found. The Duchess must have had every inch of the area searched."
"I believe she still harbors the belief that Holmes was snatched bodily into heaven like the prophet Elijah," Carlton said. "Don't start imagining things, Miss Ransom. If he had survived, even wounded and suffering from that convenient device of novelists, temporary amnesia, he would have been found eventually. The Duchess offered incredible rewards."
"I suppose so." Maria
"No, I have done my share. No doubt Gruffstone will have more to say."
Maria
Instead of going back the way they had come, they followed a great circle that led to the main road beyond the village. Before long the church spire came into view. Conscious of her disheveled state, Maria
"My hat!" she exclaimed in dismay. "Oh, dear, I have lost my beautiful hat."
"You can hardly blame me for failing to retrieve it," Carlton said. "I was too concerned about your breaking your head to worry about its covering."