The Jewelled Snuff Box Read Online Free

spoke.
    “This is an odd tale!” he burst out. “For the life of me, I cannot understand it! I have no recollection of being upon the Dartford road, nor of anything that happened there to put me in the sorry plight in which you found me.”
    “That isn’t surprising, sir,” replied Jane, reasonably. “You have suffered a shock, and must expect to be in some mental confusion just at first.”
    “Yes, but —”
    He broke off, pondering.
    “Where is this place — the spot where you found me, I mean?”
    “I should say it was some two hundred yards distant from this inn,” replied Jane. “It was halfway up the hill which leads here.”
    She shivered a little, recalling her fright of yesterday. The man did not notice, too taken up with his own thoughts, which did not seem to be of the happiest.
    “That seems an odd spot for a highwayman to choose,” he said, frowning again. “Unless, of course, the people here are in league with him.”
    “Exactly the opinion of the guard of my stage!” exclaimed Jane. “That is to say, he thought it an odd place for a highwayman to lurk. He mentioned no suspicion of the other matter.”
    “What is your opinion?”
    Jane frowned, considering.
    “I do not credit it,” she said, at last. “After all, I have been here at hand all night, and have heard nothing untoward. Surely these gentry come and go at night?”
    He nodded. “One supposes so. Well, we must keep our eyes peeled for any indication of that sort. But I cannot hope to achieve much in the way of detection while I am in the dark as to what really happened to me.”
    He relapsed into thought once more.
    “Was there any conveyance — or a horse — found by me?” he asked suddenly.
    Jane shook her head.
    “Nothing? Then I must have been on foot.” He turned this over in his mind for a few minutes, then exclaimed, “On foot! And in such weather! I could not have come far.”
    She stared at him. “But surely —”
    “Tell me, Miss Spencer,” he interposed, ignoring her interjection, “did the people here appear to know me?”
    “Know you?” asked Jane, puzzled. “No, they had no notion who you could be. In fact —”
    She had been about to say that the landlady was reluctant to admit him, but changed her mind in time. Such news would not make pleasant hearing, and could serve no useful purpose.
    He did not notice her unfinished speech, but lapsed into a fit of abstraction. A long silence fell over the room, broken only by the ticking of the clock on the mantelshelf. Jane lingered uncertainly by the door, not knowing whether to go or stay. At length, she crossed over to the window to look out. It was no longer snowing, and a pale sun was struggling to pierce the watery sky.
    “I believe it has begun to thaw in the night,” said Jane, with a desire to make conversation. From the expression on the man’s face, she feared that his thoughts could not be pleasant company. “I do hope it may be so; we cannot look to find much comfort here, and, to speak the truth, the landlady’s manner left much to be desired.”
    He made no answer.
    “I suppose you may at least be able to hire a horse here,” she continued, in an attempt to draw him out of his abstraction. “Have you far to go to your home, sir?”
    “I do not know,” he answered, in a tone of great despondency.
    She turned and looked at him in surprise. All at once, he went striding restlessly up and down the room.
    “That is what I have been trying to find out all this time!” he said, with a wild look. “I have been trying to remember — remember where I live, where I was going, what happened. I find that I can recollect none of these things, not even —”
    He broke off, and clapped his hands to his head.
    “Good God, it isn’t possible!”
    She was a little alarmed by his manner, but tried to keep her voice even as she asked, “What is not possible, sir?”
    He wheeled on her, his face haggard.
    “Such things cannot happen! Indeed, if I