The Black Box | Page 7

snow from his clothes as Ella crossed
the hall to the lift. Lenora turned towards him. He whispered something
in her ear. For a moment she shook. Then she turned away and
followed her mistress upstairs.
Arrived in her apartment, Ella threw herself with a little sigh of content
into a big easy-chair before the fire. Her sitting-room was the last word
in comfort and luxury. A great bowl of pink roses, arrived during her
absence, stood on the small table by her side. Lenora had just brought
her chocolate and was busy making preparations in the bedroom
adjoining. Ella gave herself up for a few moments to reverie. The
magic of the music was still in her blood. She had made progress. That
very afternoon her master, Van Haydn, had spoken to her of her
progress--Van Haydn, who had never flattered a pupil in his life. In a
few weeks' time her mother and father were coming out to her.
Meanwhile, she had made hosts of pleasant friends. Attentions of all
sorts had been showered upon her. She curled herself up in her chair. It
was good to be alive!
A log stirred upon the fire. She leaned forward lazily to replace it and
then stopped short. Exactly opposite to her was a door which opened on
to a back hall. It was used only by the servants connected with the hotel,
and was usually kept locked. Just as she was in the act of leaning
forward, Ella became conscious of a curious hallucination. She sat
looking at the handle with fascinated eyes. Then she called aloud to
Lenora.
"Lenora, come here at once."
The maid hurried in from the next room. Ella pointed to the door.

"Lenora, look outside. See if any one is on that landing. I fancied that
the door opened."
The maid shook her head incredulously.
"I don't think so, my lady," she said. "No one but the waiter and the
chambermaid who comes in to clean the apartment, ever comes that
way."
She crossed the room and tried the handle. Then she turned towards her
mistress in triumph.
"It is locked, my lady," she reported.
Ella rose to her feet and herself tried the handle. It was as the maid had
reported. She, however, was not altogether reassured. She was a young
woman whose nerves were in a thoroughly healthy state, and by no
means given to imaginative fears. She stood a little away, looking at the
handle. It was almost impossible that she could have been mistaken.
Her hands clasped for a moment the necklace which hung from her
neck. A queer presentiment of evil crept like a grey shadow over her.
She looked at herself in the glass--the colour had left her cheeks. She
tried to laugh at her self.
"This is absurd!" she exclaimed. "Lenora, go down and ask Macdougal
to come up for a minute. I am going to have this thing explained. Hurry,
there's a good girl."
"You are sure your ladyship doesn't mind being left?" the maid asked, a
little doubtfully.
"Of course not!" Ella replied, with a laugh which was not altogether
natural. "Hurry along, there's a good girl. I'll drink my chocolate while
you are gone, and get ready for bed, but I must see Macdougal before I
undress."
Something of her mistress's agitation seemed to have become

communicated to Lenora. Her voice shook a little as she stepped into
the elevator.
"Where are you off to, young lady?" the boy enquired.
"I want to go round to our quarters," Lenora explained. "Her ladyship
wants to speak to Mr. Macdougal."
"He's gone out, sure," the elevator boy remarked. "Shall I wait for you,
Miss Lenora?" he asked, as they descended into the hall.
"Do," she begged. "I sha'n't be more than a minute or two."
She walked quickly to the back part of the hotel and ascended in
another elevator to the wing in which the servants' quarters were
situated. Here she made her way along a corridor until she reached
Macdougal's room. She knocked, and knocked again. There was no
answer. She tried the door and found it was locked. Then she returned
to the elevator and descended once more to the floor upon which her
mistress's apartments were situated. She opened the door of the suite
without knocking and turned at once to the sitting-room.
"I am sorry, my lady," she began--
Then she stopped short. The elevator boy, who had had a little trouble
with his starting apparatus and had not as yet descended, heard the
scream which broke from her lips, and a fireman in an adjacent corridor
came running up almost at the same moment. Lenora was on her knees
by her mistress's side. Ella was still lying in the easy-chair in which