Read Online Wall by Mary Roberts Rinehart - Free Book Online Page A

in the mud of the pond, but there were no footprints except his own.
    “Looked as though it had been thrown there,” he said. “Anybody standing in the drive near the gates could do it.”
    The excitement in the house was dying down. Ellen was sleeping under a hypnotic, the key to the hospital rooms was again in the drawer, and except that Lizzie was positive that the man with the hatchet had been chasing somebody or something, I had learned nothing whatever. But the bells chose that morning to ring again. They rang from all the rooms, indiscriminately, and I sent again for the electrician.
    “Take out all the wires if you have to,” I told him, “or the servants will desert in a body.”
    “There’s nothing wrong with the wiring, Miss Lloyd,” he told me. “Looks like somebody’s playing a joke on you. They don’t ring by themselves. That’s sure.”
    It was at noon that the riding academy called up.
    “I just wondered, Miss Lloyd,” said Ed Smith, “if Mrs. Ransom has come back?”
    “Not yet, Ed. Why?”
    “Well, I suppose it’s all right,” he said doubtfully. “But she’s about two hours over her time, and I like to keep an eye on my customers.”
    “I wouldn’t worry, Ed. She knows how to ride.”
    “She does that all right,” he agreed. “Good seat and good hands. Has a quiet mare too. Sorry to have bothered you. She’ll be coming in any minute probably.”
    The car was still at the academy, so I was virtually marooned. I went upstairs and telephoned for the house supplies, meanwhile trying to put Arthur out of my mind. But I could think of nothing else. Something had roused him, he had picked up the hatchet and got out the window. Then what?
    Even by plane, if he had kept the one that brought him, it was too soon for him to have reached New York. Nevertheless, I called his office, to be told that he was out on his sloop and had given no time for his return. It was only then that I remembered Mary Lou at Millbank, and at one o’clock I telephoned her there.
    “How are you?” I said, as naturally as possible. “And how is Junior?”
    “All right,” she replied. “What are the prospects, Marcia? How soon is she going? I detest this place.”
    “I can’t tell yet. Pretty soon, I think. Any word from Arthur?”
    “He’s left town to see about the boat. I suppose he’s got it out somewhere,” she said vaguely. “He called me the day before yesterday and told me. I do hope it doesn’t blow up a gale.”
    I had entirely forgotten Juliette by that time; and it was something after one o’clock, when William was announcing lunch, that Ed Smith called again.
    “I think I’d better tell you and get it over,” he said. “The mare’s just come back. She must have got away from Mrs. Ransom. She didn’t bolt. She’s as cool as when she went out.” And when I said nothing, he added: “I wouldn’t worry, Miss Lloyd. Mrs. Ransom probably just got off for something and the horse started home. I’ve sent a couple of boys up with an extra for her. She generally takes the same trail, over above Loon Lake.”
    “Did she jump that mare?” I said sharply.
    “I guess maybe she did, but those jumps are safe.”
    Well up in our hills is a small cleared space with two or three low jumps built, and the trail Juliette usually took led to it. But, as Ed said, they were safe enough. I took them myself, had taken them ever since I was a child, and I had never heard of an accident.
    “I’m going up myself,” he added. “What I want to know, will I send your car to you? It’s here and you may need it.”
    I asked him to do so, and got my hat and a light coat. Then I saw William in the doorway, and told him.
    “Miss Juliette’s horse has come back without her,” I said. “She is probably all right, but I’ll get the doctor and drive to the foot of the trail anyhow. I wouldn’t tell Jordan. Time enough when we know what’s happened.”
    I must have been pale, for he made me drink a cup of