The Eight Strokes of the Clock

ushed her window

there,

oice from the shrubbery

ng up at her out of a gross red face with its c

?" he

hey absolutely refuse to sign the document of which my lawyer sent

nsible by the terms of t

er. He r

do you pro

d to run away with me?"

so tha

are strictly hono

You know that I am ma

am not madly in

made you

of my humdrum existence. So I'm ready to

ouple of large leather kit-bags.

nd wait for me with your car at the If

n't run off wi

go home b

.. Oh, by

t is

's been here the last three day

y uncle met him at a friend's s

on him. You went for a long ride with hi

company. The scandal will cool him off.... Well, w

g under the weight of her traps as he moved away in the

y of the hunt that morning at the Chateau de la Marèze, where, every year, in the first week in September, the Comte d'Aigleroche,

circled her lovely face and auburn hair, and sat down to her writing-desk, at which she wrote to her uncle, M. d'Aigleroche, a farewell letter

" she said to herself, "whe

ownstairs to t

n from every side, shaking hands with the Comte d'Aigleroche, one of those typical country squires, heavily and powerfully built, who lives only

kissed hi

You who are us

ay surely indulge himself

give you

ing down. Besides," he added, gruffly, "it is not her b

ow and rather pale face, whose eyes held by turns the gentlest and the harshest, the mos

of your kind pro

prom

terday and try to go over that old boarded-up place the look of which

red a lit

her far and I'm feeling a little done up. I shall g

d, smiling, with his eyes fixed on hers

promise and that you'll let me co

For you,

too, I a

t reply, shook hands with a few p

oot of the steps. She mounted and set

wed crystalline blue. Hortense rode at a walk down winding avenues which in half an

ust have stopped his engine and concealed the

dismounted, tied her horse carelessly, so that he could release himself by the least effort and ret

she reached the first turn in the road. He

ould be late ... or even change your mind! An

sm

quite happy to do

you will! Your life will be one long fairy-tale. You sha

her money no

t th

pine

y leave your h

lied, j

lity of the happiness w

'll see! Y

f in a wide cloak. The car followed the narrow, grassy path which led back to the cross-roads and Rossigny was accelerating the speed, wh

" shouted Rossigny,

" cried Hortense.

y dear! Don't

and two more reports were heard, one after t

gny s

ut who, in the devil's name, can the ruffian be?

here was no one there. Moreover, the l

ng at the car! Oh, this is a bit thick! We shall be held up for

hted from the car. She ra

goi

t w

e one fired. I want

us separa

going to wait here

running away?...

to the house. Take back my things wit

o find her horse and set off at a gallop i

n her mind that the three shots

ly, "it was he. No one else woul

in his smiling, masterful wa

ment, had she found herself face to face with Prince

s she had to cover some six miles before reaching her destination. But, though the speed at which she rode became less headlong, though her physical effort gradually slackened, she nevertheless persisted in her indignation against Pri

l-turret of a chateau and a few windows with closed shutters. This was the Domaine de Halingre. She followed the wall and turned a

he stepped forward, hat in hand, t

licable happened just now. Three shots were fired at a mo

es

med dum

ou conf

estion, madame, and

you? What gave

a right, madame; I w

nd what du

against a man who is trying

responsible for my own actions, and I

re accompanying him with a light heart. I admit the ruthlessness and bad taste of my interference and I apol

. When I have once made up my min

etimes. If not, why are y

rsons who are unlike their fellows, more capable of performing unusual actions, more generous and disinterested. She realised perfectly that he was acting w

ery gently

and countess do not agree. Years ago, the count was deserted by his first wife, who ran away with the countess' first husband. The abandoned husband and wife decided out of spite to unite their fortunes, but found nothing but disappointment and ill-will in this second marriage. And you suffer the consequences. They lead a monotonous, narrow, lonely life for eleven months or more out of the year. One day, you met M. Rossigny, who fell in love with you and suggested an elopement. You did not care for

the purport of this offer which he made so seriously, l

ed the heavy gates, each of which was strengthened by two planks nailed cross-wise. An electora

them uncovered the lock, which he attacked with a big knife, containing a number of blades and implements. A minute later, the gate opened on a waste

turned to

ive you my word of honour that I shall not cross your path. Until then, grant me the privilege of your company. We made up our minds yesterday to

se did not even seek to shake off the enervation into which her will was slowly sinking. She followed him to a half-d

old sideboards and choir-stalls and adorned with a carved escutcheon which displayed the remains of armorial bearings, represent

rawing-room, evide

as only by repeatedly charging it with his sho

ies of forcible entries, which were accomplished with a really masterly s

ay to me. I was

his arm and

ste

at?" h

her hand, to demand silence.

lly very

e repeated, in bewilderme

, it was this and nothing else that broke the profound silence of the dark room; it was indeed the deliberate ticking, rhythmical as the beat of a metronome, produced by a heavy brass pendulum. That was

out daring to raise her voice, "no

at clock to have kept going for tw

impos

en

e three windows and th

ir places. Not a piece of furniture was missing. The people who had lived there and who had made it the most individual room in their

ich showed the disk of the pendulum through an oval pane of glass. He opened the

clock struck eight with a serious no

ordinary!"

the works are exceedingly simple and

e nothing out

g ... or, a

, drew a metal tube which was concealed b

ey hide it?... And they left it drawn out to its

hout putting his telescope down. A wide arch led from the drawing-room to a smaller apartment, a sort of smoking-room. This also was furnished,

y!... They tore off the leaves until the 5th of September....

the anniversary of their departu

said, "that all this

. but, all the sam

you an

ew seconds be

round-floor windows you see nothing but the trees in the garden ... and the same, I expect, from all the windows.... We are in a va

e excited her curiosity so keenly that she could think of nothin

cond floor, came to a landing where they found

m in the open air, but surrounde

d in since," observed Prince Rénine. "Look here, there

scope was of no use up here either

t have been some gap through which the country could be

valley, including the park, with its tall trees marking the horizon; and, beyond, a depression in a wood surmounting a hill, a

o the problem lay in the use to which the telescope was put and tha

it, there was a hollow filled with earth in which plants had grown. He pulled out the plants and removed the earth, thus clearing the mouth of a hole some five inches in diameter, which completely penetrate

t like a gutter, the telescope fitted so exactly that it was quite imp

e taking care not to disturb the lie of the instrume

gazing attentively and silently. Then he

e ... it's re

she asked

oo

and the telescope had to be focussed to suit he

isn't it, both stuck u

ook more carefully under

urning faint with

en tower, the walls of which were higher in the more distant part and formed as it were a back-drop, over which surged waves of

true, wore clothes and hats--or rather shreds of clothes and remnants of hats--but had lost their eyes, their che

nse. "Two skeletons with clothes

bod

still

f the tower, years and years ago ... and their flesh

cried Hortense, pale as death

of an old donjon-keep more than half demolished. The inside was empty. There seemed to have been a way of climbing to the top, at a comparatively recent perio

did not even speak of it any longer; and, in the inn at which they stopped and took a light meal in the nearest village, it was she who asked the landlord about the

the squalid sight which had met their eyes. But Rénine, who was in a lively mood an

patiently, "we can't leave the matt

d for. M. Rossigny has to know where he stands

He's of no importance for the

wh

at those two d

Rossig

hown me a mystery which is now the only thi

o

dies.... You'll inform

!" he exclaimed, l

has to be cleared up at all

eed any one

an to say that y

in a book, told in full detail, with expl

ering if he was making fun of h

ked, quivering

ad trotted at a good pace; and the hunt

ncle, for instance; and you will see how logically all the facts fit in. When you hold the first link of

rtense found her luggage and a furious letter from Rossigny

e knocked

e said. "Will you go down with me

with him.

to trust me, I naturally undertook an obligation towards you which I mea

laug

you took upon yourself wa

red her, gravely, "and more full

ing his pipe and drinking sherry. He o

t it's pretty dull here, except in these September days. You must

to talk about, my dear si

o go to the station in ten minute

inutes wil

me to smoke

long

case which M. d'Aigleroche ha

to take us to an old domain which you ar

sed, boarded up for twenty-five years or

we w

Was it in

iscovered the st

ked the count, lo

ibed what th

dies, two skeletons rather ... a man and a woman still wea

me, now!

u about. The tragedy must date back to some twent

count. "I never heard of any

ng a little disappointed. "I hop

sor

case, I a

glance and moved towards th

touch with some persons in the neighbourhood, some m

amily? A

ill belongs to the d'Aigleroches. The arms are an eagle on a he

rised. He pushed back his decante

g me? I had no idea that w

k his head

were not very eager to admit any relationship between

not a respe

ut it plainly,

do you

om his chair. Hortense

en a murder and that the murder was do

te s

are you s

wo victims were and what

tatements and his method suggested the belie

wn the room, with his hands behi

of fact, twenty years ago, a relation of mine, a distant cousin, used to live at the Domaine de Halingre. I hoped, be

usin killed

was obl

shook h

rary, is that your cousin took his victims' lives in cold blood and in a cowa

it that y

ken moment, the full gravity of which Hortense understood, though she had not

other husband in the ivy-covered tower, which had a door opening outside the estate. On discovering the intrigue, your cousin d'Aigleroche resolved to be revenged, but in such a manner that there should be no scandal and that no one even should ever know that the guilty pair had been killed. Now he had ascertained--as I did just now--that there was a part of the house, the belvedere, from which you can see, over the trees and the undulations of the park, the tower standing eight hundred yards awa

rent. The light of day was

e happened. I expect that

on the top of that tower which was never visited and of which he took the precaution to demolish the wooden stairs. Nothing therefore remained f

nce were a complete and to her an absolutely unexpected r

ou mean?"

e accused his wife and his

t!... You are speaking of a cousin of m

me?" said the prince. "But I am not mixing them up, my dear mad

his arms folded; and his head remained in the shad

eated in a

glass case. At the last minute, he had a presentiment, which has been justified to-day, that the discovery of the telescope which had played so great a part in the preparation of his crime might serve as a clue to an enquiry; and he threw it into the clock-case, where, as luck would have it, it interrupted the swing of the pendulum. Thi

mmered Horten

thing except the guns, those guns which an ardent sportsman cannot afford to leave behind--you agree, M. d'Aigleroche--those guns which we find here, hanging in trophies on the walls!... Proofs? What about that date, the 5th of September, which was the date of the crime and which has left such a horrible memory in

leroche, who, terrified by this evocation of the past, had s

never liked her uncle, or rather her husband's unc

hen M. d'Aigleroche wal

't call a husband a criminal for avenging

ory. There is another which is infinitely more serious ... and more pro

do you

covets his friend's money and his friend's wife and who, with this object in view, to secure his freedom, to get rid of his friend and of his own wife

t protested. "No,

hich up to now have been extremely accurate. All the same, I admit that the second version may be

life. It is a crush

. d'Aigleroche penniless? Was the woman he was taking as his second wife rich? Or were they both in love with each other and did M. d'Aigleroche plan with her to kill his first wife and the husband of his sec

teady himself against the back of a ch

ng to inform

hatred, a daily hell ... and, in the end, the necessity of returning to the tower and removing the traces of the two murders, the frightful punishment of climbing that tower, of touching those skeletons, of undressing them and

the table, with his hands clut

why

peaking. That is so. There must indeed be a penalty, however slight, and our interview mus

formality to fulfil, a sacrifice to accept; and, recovering s

s your

urst out

make a mistake in drawing me into the busin

hat c

d upon at most to

titu

over the ta

ent between you and your niece Hortense Daniel, relating to her private fortune,

eroche ga

know the

wish to

I refu

see the Comtes

opened a drawer, produced a document o

," he said, "

future dealings? I'm convinced of it. I shall leave th

hat she had heard; and the thing that bewildered her even more than the relentless light shed upon her uncle's past was the miraculous insight and amazing lucidi

isfied with

him both

given me back my freedom and my independenc

y first and main object was to amuse you. Your life seemed so

on? I have had the strangest a

he meanest hovel, under the mask of the wisest of men. Everywhere, if you are only willing, you w

power and authori

e you e

e, the adventures of others or personal adventures. To-day's has upset you because it affected the innermos

ow

help him with me. If chance or instinct puts me on the track of a crime

he said,

gh trying to guess Rén

elf is, 'How far does that lover of adventures want to make me go? It is quite obvious that I attract him; and sooner or

ng to give a jesting tone to the conve

for a moment

Will you accept its decree and agree to carry out seven more of these delightful enterprises with me, during a p

ha

rred hi

allow me to begin and complete the eighth enterprise with you, in three months, on the 5th of December, at the very moment when the eighth stroke of tha

ted, a little unn

to claim as his reward. He felt perfectly certain that Hortense

o satisfy me. It is not for me but for you to im

or his respect and

do I d

es

g I like, however dif

ything is possible to the ma

she

t came to me from my mother and everyone knew that it used to bring her happiness and me too. Since the day

the clas

swered

on't know exactly ... I don't know where ... I

nine declared, "and