Chapter 31

A LETTER TO GOD

"Do you keep a light burning in the Lair?" McLean turned to ask,
forgetting for the moment that it was not their domicile, but his.

"No, there's no light," replied Corp, equally forgetful, but even as he
spoke he stopped so suddenly that Elspeth struck against him. For he had
seen a light. "This is queer!" he cried, and both he and Gavinia fell
back in consternation. McLean pushed forward alone, and was back in a
trice, with a new expression on his face. "Are you playing some trick on
me?" he demanded suspiciously of Tommy. "There is some one there; I
almost ran against a pair of blazing eyes."

"But there's nobody; there can be nobody there," answered Tommy, in a
bewilderment that was obviously unfeigned, "unless--unless--" He looked
at Corp, and the eyes of both finished the sentence. The desolate scene
at Double Dykes, which the meeting with McLean and Miss Ailie had driven
from their minds, again confronted them, and they seemed once more to
hear the whimpering of the Painted Lady's door.

"Unless what?" asked the man, impatiently, but still the two boys only
stared at each other. "The Den's no mous the night," said Corp at last,
in a low voice, and his unspoken fears spread to the womankind, so that
Miss Ailie shuddered and Elspeth gripped Tommy with both hands and
Gavinia whispered, "Let's away hame, we can come back in the daylight."

But McLean chafed and pressed upward, and next moment a girl's voice was
heard, crying: "It is no business of yours; I won't let you touch her."

"Grizel!" exclaimed Tommy and his crew, simultaneously, and they had no
more fear until they were inside the Lair. What they saw had best be
described very briefly. A fire was burning in a corner of the Lair, and
in front of it, partly covered with a sheet, lay the Painted Lady, dead.
Grizel stood beside the body guarding it, her hands clenched, her eyes
very strange. "You sha'n't touch her!" she cried, passionately, and
repeated it many times, as if she had lost the power to leave off, but
Corp crept past her and raised the coverlet.

"She's straikit!" he shouted. "Did you do it yoursel', Grizel? God
behears, she did it hersel'!"

A very long silence it seemed to be after that.

Miss Ailie would have taken the motherless girl to her arms, but first,
at Corp's discovery, she had drawn back in uncontrollable repulsion, and
Grizel, about to go to her, saw it, and turned from her to Tommy. Her
eyes rested on him beseechingly, with a look he saw only once again in
them until she was a woman, but his first thought was not for Grizel.