King of the Castle Part 59

"Woodham called me. What is the matter? Is he worse?"

"Hus.h.!.+" said the doctor, in a hurried way, as he took her hand. "Don't be agitated. We must hope for the best, and--"

"Then he is worse," cried Claude, breaking from him and running to her father's side, but only to shrink back.

For the light had been s.h.i.+fted so that it should fall upon Gartram's fixed, stern face, in which she read so terrible a reality that it was as if a hand of ice had clutched her heart, paralysing thought and action, so that she stood there with staring eyes and parted lips, feeling that she was in the presence of death.

Then the reaction came, and, uttering a gasp, her womanly, helpful nature came to the front.

"I am not a child," she said in a quick, pa.s.sionate voice. "Tell me; how is this? When was he taken worse? Doctor Asher, why don't you speak to me? Tell me what I can do to help."

He shook his head.

"I am doing everything possible, and have sent Mrs Woodham for Doctor Rixton to share the responsibility."

Claude caught him in turn by the wrist, drew him right to the far side of the room, by the panel of the bookshelves which formed the masked door, and in a whisper, as if she were afraid that her father should hear, she said--

"Is he dead?"

"No, no--no, no, my dear Miss Gartram. It is only what I have always feared, but he would not be advised. Look, my child, look!"

He went quickly to Gartram's side, and drew something from his breast-pocket and held it before Claude in the light.

"Yes, I know," she said, "the medicine bottle--the sedative draught."

"Yes," said Asher, quietly. "You saw that he had it in his breast."

"It is generally in that cabinet. He keeps it there."

"Yes," said the doctor; "but I found it in his breast-pocket as I was trying to place him in an easier position. What can a medical man do when his patient acts in direct opposition to his wishes?"

"I don't understand you--that is the medicine you prescribed for him."

"Yes, my child," said the doctor, in quick, angry tones; "but if I order a patient to take a tablespoonful of brandy, I don't mean him to take a bottle."

"Oh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Claude, the word coming from her breast like a moan.

"You see he had this to take, but he has been in the habit of carrying it in his pocket, to apply to as a drunkard does to a flask. I suspected to-night that he had taken a stronger dose than usual, or at more frequent intervals, and thought that the effect, as he was so inured to it, would pa.s.s off, but--"

"It will, doctor--oh, say it will," whispered Claude. "Why don't you give him something? Would wine or spirits be of any good? Ah, here is Doctor Rixton."

She ran to open the door as steps were heard in the hall, but it was Sarah Woodham who entered, holding her hand to her side, haggard and breathless, as she staggered into the room, only just able to pant forth, "Coming directly," before she reeled and would have fallen, had not Claude supported her, and let her sink into a chair.

"Hold up, woman!" whispered the doctor, savagely; "you must not give way."

"I--ran--there--and--back--Miss Claude," whispered the woman, and then to herself, as she lay back with her eyes closed, "It is too horrible, too horrible!"

The doctor went to the table and poured out some brandy, as Claude crept with a gla.s.s of wine to her father's side, knelt by him, and, taking his hand, laid her other across her breast.

A chill crept through her, and a hysterical sob struggled to her lips, as she felt that the hand she held was growing clammy. But making an effort, she told herself that, in cases of sudden illness, the extremities did grow cold, and that this was not a matter for alarm.

There was the doctor's a.s.surance, too.

Just then she turned her head and saw Sarah Woodham thrusting back the gla.s.s the doctor had held to her lips.

"No, no," she said with a shudder; and the doctor turned away impatiently and set the gla.s.s upon the table.

"Miserable teetotal whims," he muttered; and he went back to Gartram's side, ignoring Claude's presence and inquiring looks as he bent over his patient for a moment, and then hurriedly crossed to the door, flung it open, and went out into the hall, and then to the front door, which he threw open, and stood out in the air wiping the perspiration from his brow.

"He ought to be here by now," he muttered, "he ought to be here by now."

"Sarah! Sarah!"

The wretched woman opened her eyes with a start, and gazed in a frightened way at her mistress, who was standing over her, and had shaken her shoulder.

"Tell me--you were here?"

"No, my dear. He sent me to lie down in the dining-room to wait till he called me, but I did not go to sleep. I was sitting there--in the dark--thinking, when he came to me and said, 'I want more help. Your master is worse.'"

"Oh, Sarah, Sarah!" moaned Claude, clinging to her; "tell me it is not so bad as I think. He will not die?"

The woman shuddered as she rose to her feet, and, in a curiously furtive weird way, she crossed to where Gartram lay back in his chair. Pausing once and shrinking away, but evidently overcome by the attraction, she once more advanced, battling the while with that which mastered her, and which drew her unwillingly on, till she stood close to the great easy-chair, and bent down over the form thereon.

Then, drawing herself up to her full height, she stood there erect, gazing straight before her into s.p.a.ce, and muttering strangely to herself.

Claude gazed at her in alarm.

"Sarah," she whispered, "Sarah! why don't you speak? Sarah!"

There was no reply, and at last Claude laid her hand upon the woman's arm, with the result that she turned slowly, muttering to herself the while, in a curiously absent manner, as if all the while unconscious of her mistress's presence.

"Sarah," whispered Claude again, as she gazed in affright at the woman's strange, drawn face, "speak to me! I want comfort--tell me--he is not dead?"

"And I tried so hard," said the woman, hoa.r.s.ely. "I tried to do that which was right and just.--With all his sins upon his head, unrepentant, harsh and cruel to the last."

"Sarah!"

"Hush, my child, hus.h.!.+" said the woman in a low voice, full of deep pa.s.sionate emotion. "I never had a child to love--to call me mother.

Oh, my poor dear, helpless, motherless, fatherless girl; and I tried so hard--I tried so hard."

"Sarah," cried Claude, struggling from the woman's encircling arm, "you don't think--"

"This way, please--quick, sir, quick."

The door was thrown open, and Doctor Asher entered, followed by a tall grave-looking man, who bowed to Claude, and laid his hat upon the table, looking then inquiringly at Asher.

"Yes; of course," said the doctor. "My dear Miss Gartram, you will go now."

"But, doctor--"