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diff --git a/old/winta10.txt b/old/winta10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..be92f94 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/winta10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7901 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext The Woman in the Alcove by Anna K. Green +#2 in our series by Anna Katharine Green + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared by Steve Crites of Everett, WA. + + + + + +The Woman in the Alcove + +by Anna Katharine Green + + + + +CONTENTS +I THE WOMAN WITH THE DIAMOND +II THE GLOVES +II ANSON DURAND +IV EXPLANATIONS +V SUPERSTITION +VI SUSPENSE +VII NIGHT AND A VOICE +VIII ARREST +IX THE MOUSE NIBBLES AT THE NET +X I ASTONISH THE INSPECTOR +XI THE INSPECTOR ASTONISHES ME +XII ALMOST +XIII THE MISSING RECOMMENDATION +XIV TRAPPED +XV SEARS OR WELLGOOD +XVI DOUBT +XVII SWEETWATER IN A NEW ROLE +XVIII THE CLOSED DOOR +XIX THE FACE +XX MOONLIGHT--AND A CLUE +XXI GRIZEL! GRIZEL! +XXII GUILT +XXIII THE GREAT MOGUL + + +I + +THE WOMAN WITH THE DIAMOND + +I was, perhaps, the plainest girl in the room that night. I was +also the happiest--up to one o'clock. Then my whole world +crumbled, or, at least, suffered an eclipse. Why and how, I am +about to relate. + +I was not made for love. This I had often said to myself; very +often of late. In figure I am too diminutive, in face far too +unbeautiful, for me to cherish expectations of this nature. +Indeed, love had never entered into my plan of life, as was +evinced by the nurse's diploma I had just gained after three +years of hard study and severe training. + +I was not made for love. But if I had been; had I been gifted +with height, regularity of feature, or even with that eloquence +of expression which redeems all defects save those which savor of +deformity, I knew well whose eye I should have chosen to please, +whose heart I should have felt proud to win. + +This knowledge came with a rush to my heart--(did I say heart? I +should have said understanding, which is something very +different)--when, at the end of the first dance, I looked up from +the midst of the bevy of girls by whom I was surrounded and saw +Anson Durand's fine figure emerging from that quarter of the hall +where our host and hostess stood to receive their guests. His eye +was roaming hither and thither and his manner was both eager and +expectant. Whom was he seeking? Some one of the many bright and +vivacious girls about me, for he turned almost instantly our way. +But which one? + +I thought I knew. I remembered at whose house I had met him +first, at whose house I had seen him many times since. She was a +lovely girl, witty and vivacious, and she stood at this very +moment at my elbow. In her beauty lay the lure, the natural lure +for a man of his gifts and striking personality. If I continued +to watch, I should soon see his countenance light up under the +recognition she could not fail to give him. And I was right; in +another instant it did, and with a brightness there was no +mistaking. But one feeling common to the human heart lends such +warmth, such expressiveness to the features. How handsome it made +him look, how distinguished, how everything I was not except-- + +But what does this mean? He has passed Miss Sperry--passed her +with a smile and a friendly word--and is speaking to me, singling +me out, offering me his arm! He is smiling, too, not as he smiled +on Miss Sperry, but more warmly, with more that is personal in +it. I took his arm in a daze. The lights were dimmer than I +thought; nothing was really bright except his smile. It seemed to +change the world for me. I forgot that I was plain, forgot that I +was small, with nothing to recommend me to the eye or heart, and +let myself be drawn away, asking nothing, anticipating nothing, +till I found myself alone with him in the fragrant recesses of +the conservatory, with only the throb of music in our ears to +link us to the scene we had left. + +Why had he brought me here, into this fairyland of opalescent +lights and intoxicating perfumes? What could he have to say--to +show? Ah in another moment I knew. He had seized my hands, and +love, ardent love, came pouring from his lips. + +Could it be real? Was I the object of all this feeling, I? If so, +then life had changed for me indeed. + +Silent from rush of emotion, I searched his face to see if this +Paradise, whose gates I was thus passionately bidden to enter, +was indeed a verity or only a dream born of the excitement of the +dance and the charm of a scene exceptional in its splendor and +picturesqueness even for so luxurious a city as New York. + +But it was no mere dream. Truth and earnestness were in his +manner, and his words were neither feverish nor forced. + +"I love you I! I need you!" So I heard, and so he soon made me +believe. "You have charmed me from the first. Your tantalizing, +trusting, loyal self, like no other, sweeter than any other, has +drawn the heart from my breast. I have seen many women, admired +many women, but you only have I loved. Will you be my wife?" + +I was dazzled; moved beyond anything I could have conceived. I +forgot all that I had hitherto said to myself--all that I had +endeavored to impress upon my heart when I beheld him +approaching, intent, as I believed, in his search for another +woman; and, confiding in his honesty, trusting entirely to his +faith, I allowed the plans and purposes of years to vanish in the +glamour of this new joy, and spoke the word which linked us +together in a bond which half an hour before I had never dreamed +would unite me to any man. + +His impassioned "Mine! mine!" filled my cup to overflowing. +Something of the ecstasy of living entered my soul; which, in +spite of all I have suffered since, recreated the world for me +and made all that went before but the prelude to the new life, +the new joy. + +Oh, I was happy, happy, perhaps too happy! As the conservatory +filled and we passed back into the adjoining room, the glimpse I +caught of myself in one of the mirrors startled me into thinking +so. For had it not been for the odd color of my dress and the +unique way in which I wore my hair that night, I should not have +recognized the beaming girl who faced me so naively from the +depths of the responsive glass. + +Can one be too happy? I do not know. I know that one can be too +perplexed, too burdened and too sad. + +Thus far I have spoken only of myself in connection with the +evening's elaborate function. But though entitled by my old Dutch +blood to a certain social consideration which I am happy to say +never failed me, I, even in this hour of supreme satisfaction, +attracted very little attention and awoke small comment. There +was another woman present better calculated to do this. A fair +woman, large and of a bountiful presence, accustomed to conquest, +and gifted with the power of carrying off her victories with a +certain lazy grace irresistibly fascinating to the ordinary man; +a gorgeously appareled woman, with a diamond on her breast too +vivid for most women, almost too vivid for her. I noticed this +diamond early in the evening, and then I noticed her. She was not +as fine as the diamond, but she was very fine, and, had I been in +a less ecstatic frame of mind, I might have envied the homage she +received from all the men, not excepting him upon whose arm I +leaned. Later, there was no one in the world I envied less. + +The ball was a private and very elegant one. There were some +notable guests. One gentleman in particular was pointed out to me +as an Englishman of great distinction and political importance. I +thought him a very interesting man for his years, but odd and a +trifle self-centered. Though greatly courted, he seemed strangely +restless under the fire of eyes to which he was constantly +subjected, and only happy when free to use his own in +contemplation of the scene about him. Had I been less absorbed in +my own happiness I might have noted sooner than I did that this +contemplation was confined to such groups as gathered about the +lady with the diamond. But this I failed to observe at the time, +and consequently was much surprised to come upon him, at the end +of one of the dances, talking With this lady in an animated and +courtly manner totally opposed to the apathy, amounting to +boredom, with which he had hitherto met all advances. + +Yet it was not admiration for her person which he openly +displayed. During the whole time he stood there his eyes seldom +rose to her face; they lingered mainly-and this was what aroused +my curiosity--on the great fan of ostrich plumes which this +opulent beauty held against her breast. Was he desirous of seeing +the great diamond she thus unconsciously (or was it consciously) +shielded from his gaze? It was possible, for, as I continued to +note him, he suddenly bent toward her and as quickly raised +himself again with a look which was quite inexplicable to me. The +lady had shifted her fan a moment and his eyes had fallen on the +gem. + +The next thing I recall with any definiteness was a tete-a-tete +conversation which I held with my lover on a certain yellow divan +at the end of one of the halls. + +To the right of this divan rose a curtained recess, highly +suggestive of romance, called "the alcove." As this alcove +figures prominently in my story, I will pause here to describe +it. + +It was originally intended to contain a large group of statuary +which our host, Mr. Ramsdell, had ordered from Italy to adorn his +new house. He is a man of original ideas in regard to such +matters, and in this instance had gone so far as to have this end +of the house constructed with a special view to an advantageous +display of this promised work of art. Fearing the ponderous +effect of a pedestal large enough to hold such a considerable +group, he had planned to raise it to the level of the eye by +having the alcove floor built a few feet higher than the main +one. A flight of low, wide steps connected the two, which, +following the curve of the wall, added much to the beauty of this +portion of the hall. + +The group was a failure and was never shipped; but the alcove +remained, and, possessing as it did all the advantages of a room +in the way of heat and light, had been turned into a miniature +retreat of exceptional beauty. + +The seclusion it offered extended, or so we were happy to think, +to the solitary divan at its base on which Mr. Durand and I were +seated. With possibly an undue confidence in the advantage of our +position, we were discussing a subject interesting only to +ourselves, when Mr. Durand interrupted himself to declare: "You +are the woman I want, you and you only. And I want you soon. When +do you think you can marry me? Within a week--if--" + +Did my look stop him? I was startled. I had heard no incoherent +phrase from him before. + +"A week!" I remonstrated. "We take more time than that to fit +ourselves for a journey or some transient pleasure. I hardly +realize my engagement yet." + +"You have not been thinking of it for these last two months as I +have." + +"No," I replied demurely, forgetting everything else in my +delight at this admission. + +"Nor are you a nomad among clubs and restaurants." + +"No, I have a home." + +"Nor do you love me as deeply as I do you." + +This I thought open to argument. + +"The home you speak of is a luxurious one," he continued. "I can +not offer you its equal Do you expect me to?" + +I was indignant. + +"You know that I do not. Shall I, who deliberately chose a +nurse's life when an indulgent uncle's heart and home were open +to me, shrink from braving poverty with the man I love? We will +begin as simply as you please--" + +"No," he peremptorily put in, yet with a certain hesitancy which +seemed to speak of doubts he hardly acknowledged to himself, "I +will not marry you if I must expose you to privation or to the +genteel poverty I hate. I love you more than you realize, and +wish to make your life a happy one. I can not give you all you +have been accustomed to in your rich uncle's house, but if +matters prosper with me, if the chance I have built on succeeds-- +and it will fail or succeed tonight--you will have those comforts +which love will heighten into luxuries and--and--" + +He was becoming incoherent again, and this time with his eyes +fixed elsewhere than on my face. Following his gaze, I discovered +what had distracted his attention. The lady with the diamond was +approaching us on her way to the alcove. She was accompanied by +two gentlemen, both strangers to me, and her head, sparkling with +brilliants, was turning from one to the other with an indolent +grace. I was not surprised that the man at my side quivered and +made a start as if to rise. She was a gorgeous image. In +comparison with her imposing figure in its trailing robe of rich +pink velvet, my diminutive frame in its sea-green gown must have +looked as faded and colorless as a half-obliterated pastel. + +"A striking woman," I remarked as I saw he was not likely to +resume the conversation which her presence had interrupted. "And +what a diamond!" + +The glance he cast me was peculiar. + +"Did you notice it particularly?" he asked. + +Astonished, for there was something very uneasy in his manner so +that I half expected to see him rise and join the group he was so +eagerly watching without waiting for my lips to frame a response, +I quickly replied: + +"It would be difficult not to notice what one would naturally +expect to see only on the breast of a queen. But perhaps she is a +queen. I should judge so from the homage which follows her." + +His eyes sought mine. There was inquiry in them, but it was an +inquiry I did not understand. + +"What can you know about diamonds?" he presently demanded. +"Nothing but their glitter, and glitter is not all,--the gem she +wears may be a very tawdry one." + +I flushed with humiliation. He was a dealer in gems--that was his +business--and the check which he had put upon my enthusiasm +certainly made me conscious of my own presumption. Yet I was not +disposed to take back my words. I had had a better opportunity +than himself for seeing this remarkable jewel, and, with the +perversity of a somewhat ruffled mood, I burst forth, as soon as +the color had subsided from my cheeks: + +"No, no! It is glorious, magnificent. I never saw its like. I +doubt if you ever have, for all your daily acquaintance with +jewels. Its value must be enormous. Who is she? You seem to know +her." + +It was a direct question, but I received no reply. Mr. Durand's +eyes had followed the lady, who had lingered somewhat +ostentatiously on the top step and they did not return to me till +she had vanished with her companions behind the long plush +curtain which partly veiled the entrance. By this time he had +forgotten my words, if he had ever heard them and it was with the +forced animation of one whose thoughts are elsewhere that he +finally returned to the old plea: + +When would I marry him? If he could offer me a home in a month-- +and he would know by to-morrow if he could do so--would I come to +him then? He would not say in a week; that was perhaps to soon; +but in a month? Would I not promise to be his in a month? + +What I answered I scarcely recall. His eyes had stolen back to +the alcove and mine had followed them. The gentlemen who had +accompanied the lady inside were coming out again, but others +were advancing to take their places, and soon she was engaged in +holding a regular court in this favored retreat. + +Why should this interest me? Why should I notice her or look that +way at all? Because Mr. Durand did? Possibly. I remember that for +all his ardent love-making, I felt a little piqued that he should +divide his attentions in this way. Perhaps I thought that for +this evening, at least, he might have been blind to a mere +coquette's fascinations. + +I was thus doubly engaged in listening to my lover's words and in +watching the various gentlemen who went up and down the steps, +when a former partner advanced and reminded me that I had +promised him a waltz. Loath to leave Mr. Durand, yet seeing no +way of excusing myself to Mr. Fox, I cast an appealing glance at +the former and was greatly chagrined to find him already on his +feet. + +"Enjoy your dance," he cried; "I have a word to say to Mrs. +Fairbrother," and was gone before my new partner had taken me on +his arm. + +Was Mrs. Fairbrother the lady with the diamond? Yes; as I turned +to enter the parlor with my partner, I caught a glimpse of Mr. +Durand's tall figure just disappearing from the step behind the +sage-green curtains. + +"Who is Mrs. Fairbrother?" I inquired of Mr. Fox at the end of +the dance. + +Mr. Fox, who is one of society's perennial beaux, knows +everybody. + +"She is--well, she was Abner Fairbrother's wife. You know +Fairbrother, the millionaire who built that curious structure on +Eighty-sixth Street. At present they are living apart--an +amicable understanding, I believe. Her diamond makes her +conspicuous. It is one of the most remarkable stones in New York, +perhaps in the United States. Have you observed it?" + +"Yes--that is, at a distance. Do you think her very handsome?" + +"Mrs. Fairbrother? She's called so, but she's not my style." Here +he gave me a killing glance. "I admire women of mind and heart. +They do not need to wear jewels worth an ordinary man's fortune." + +I looked about for an excuse to leave this none too desirable +partner. + +"Let us go back into the long hall," I urged. "The ceaseless +whirl of these dancers is making me dizzy." + +With the ease of a gallant man he took me on his arm and soon we +were promenading again in the direction of the alcove. A passing +glimpse of its interior was afforded me as we turned to retrace +our steps in front of the yellow divan. The lady with the diamond +was still there. A fold of the superb pink velvet she wore +protruded across the gap made by the half-drawn curtains, just as +it had done a half-hour before. But it was impossible to see her +face or who was with her. What I could see, however, and did, was +the figure of a man leaning against the wall at the foot of the +steps. At first I thought this person unknown to me, then I +perceived that he was no other than the chief guest of the +evening, the Englishman of whom I have previously spoken. + +His expression had altered. He looked now both anxious and +absorbed, particularly anxious and particularly absorbed; so much +so that I was not surprised that no one ventured to approach him. +Again I wondered and again I asked myself for whom or for what he +was waiting. For Mr. Durand to leave this lady's presence? No, +no, I would not believe that. Mr. Durand could not be there +still; yet some women make it difficult for a man to leave them +and, realizing this, I could not forbear casting a parting glance +behind me as, yielding to Mr. Fox's importunities, I turned +toward the supper-room. It showed me the Englishman in the act of +lifting two cups of coffee from a small table standing near the +reception-room door. As his manner plainly betokened whither he +was bound with this refreshment, I felt all my uneasiness vanish, +and was able to take my seat at one of the small tables with +which the supper-room was filled, and for a few minutes, at +least, lend an ear to Mr. Fox's vapid compliments and trite +opinions. Then my attention wandered. + +I had not moved nor had I shifted my gaze from the scene before +me the ordinary scene of a gay and well-filled supper-room, yet I +found myself looking, as if through a mist I had not even seen +develop, at something as strange, unusual and remote as any +phantasm, yet distinct enough in its outlines for me to get a +decided impression of a square of light surrounding the figure of +a man in a peculiar pose not easily imagined and not easily +described. It all passed in an instant, and I sat staring at the +window opposite me with the feeling of one who has just seen a +vision. Yet almost immediately I forgot the whole occurrence in +my anxiety as to Mr. Durand's whereabouts. Certainly he was +amusing himself very much elsewhere or he would have found an +opportunity of joining me long before this. He was not even in +sight, and I grew weary of the endless menu and the senseless +chit chat of my companion, and, finding him amenable to my whims, +rose from my seat at table and made my way to a group of +acquaintances standing just outside the supper-room door. As I +listened to their greetings some impulse led me to cast another +glance down the hall toward the alcove. A man--a waiter--was +issuing from it in a rush. Bad news was in his face, and as his +eyes encountered those of Mr. Ramsdell, who was advancing +hurriedly to meet him, he plunged down the steps with a cry which +drew a crowd about the two in an instant. + +What was it? What had happened? + +Mad with an anxiety I did not stop to define, I rushed toward +this group now swaying from side to side in irrepressible +excitement, when suddenly everything swam before me and I fell in +a swoon to the floor. + +Some one had shouted aloud + +"Mrs. Fairbrother has been murdered and her diamond stolen! Lock +the doors!" + + + +II + +THE GLOVES + +I must have remained insensible for many minutes, for when I +returned to full consciousness the supper-room was empty and the +two hundred guests I had left seated at table were gathered in +agitated groups about the hall. This was what I first noted; not +till afterward did I realize my own situation. I was lying on a +couch in a remote corner of this same hall and beside me, but not +looking at me, stood my lover, Mr. Durand. + +How he came to know my state and find me in the general +disturbance I did not stop to inquire. It was enough for me at +that moment to look up and see him so near. Indeed, the relief +was so great, the sense of his protection so comforting that I +involuntarily stretched out my hand in gratitude toward him, but, +failing to attract his attention, slipped to the floor and took +my stand at his side. This roused him and he gave me a look which +steadied me, in spite of the thrill of surprise with which I +recognized his extreme pallor and a certain peculiar hesitation +in his manner not at all natural to it. + +Meanwhile, some words uttered near us were slowly making their +way into my benumbed brain. The waiter who had raised the first +alarm was endeavoring to describe to an importunate group in +advance of us what he had come upon in that murderous alcove. + +"I was carrying about a tray of ices," he was saying, "and seeing +the lady sitting there, went up. I had expected to find the place +full of gentlemen, but she was all alone, and did not move as I +picked my way over her long train. The next moment I had dropped +ices, tray and all. I bad come face to face with her and seen +that she was dead. She had been stabbed and robbed. There was no +diamond on her breast, but there was blood." + +A hubbub of disordered sentences seasoned with horrified cries +followed this simple description. Then a general movement took +place in the direction of the alcove, during which Mr. Durand +stooped to my ear and whispered: + +"We must get out of this. You are not strong enough to stand such +excitement. Don't you think we can escape by the window over +there?" + +"What, without wraps and in such a snowstorm?" I protested. +"Besides, uncle will be looking for me. He came with me, you +know." + +An expression of annoyance, or was it perplexity, crossed Mr. +Durand's face, and he made a movement as if to leave me. + +"I must go," he began, but stopped at my glance of surprise and +assumed a different air--one which became him very much better. +"Pardon me, dear, I will take you to your uncle. This--this +dreadful tragedy, interrupting so gay a scene, has quite upset +me. I was always sensitive to the sight, the smell, even to the +very mention of the word blood." + +So was I, but not to the point of cowardice. But then I had not +just come from an interview with the murdered woman. Her glances, +her smiles, the lift of her eyebrows were not fresh memories to +me. Some consideration was certainly due him for the shock he +must be laboring under. Yet I did not know how to keep back the +vital question. + +"Who did it? You must have heard some one say." + +"I have heard nothing," was his somewhat fierce rejoinder. Then, +as I made a move, "What you do not wish to follow the crowd +there?" + +"I wish to find my uncle, and he is in that crowd." + +Mr. Durand said nothing further, and together we passed down the +hall. A strange mood pervaded my mind. Instead of wishing to fly +a scene which under ordinary conditions would have filled me with +utter repugnance, I felt a desire to see and hear everything. Not +from curiosity, such as moved most of the people about me, but +because of some strong instinctive feeling I could not +understand; as if it were my heart which had been struck, and my +fate which was trembling in the balance. + +We were consequently among the first to hear such further details +as were allowed to circulate among the now well-nigh frenzied +guests. No one knew the perpetrator of the deed nor did there +appear to be any direct evidence calculated to fix his identity. +Indeed, the sudden death of this beautiful woman in the midst of +festivity might have been looked upon as suicide, if the jewel +had not been missing from her breast and the instrument of death +removed from the wound. So far, the casual search which had been +instituted had failed to produce this weapon; but the police +would be here soon and then something would be done. As to the +means of entrance employed by the assassin, there seemed to be +but one opinion. The alcove contained a window opening upon a +small balcony. By this he had doubtless entered and escaped. The +long plush curtains which, during the early part of the evening, +had remained looped back on either side of the casement, were +found at the moment of the crime's discovery closely drawn +together. Certainly a suspicious circumstance. However, the +question was one easily settled. If any one had approached by the +balcony there would be marks in the snow to show it. Mr. Ramsdell +had gone out to see. He would be coming back soon. + +"Do you think this a probable explanation of the crime?" I +demanded of Mr. Durand at this juncture. "If I remember rightly +this window overlooks the carriage drive; it must, therefore, be +within plain sight of the door through which some three hundred +guests have passed to-night. How could any one climb to such a +height, lift the window and step in without being seen?" + +"You forget the awning." He spoke quickly and with unexpected +vivacity. "The awning runs up very near this window and quite +shuts it off from the sight of arriving guests. The drivers of +departing carriages could see it if they chanced to glance back. +But their eyes are usually on their horses in such a crowd. The +probabilities are against any of them having looked up." His brow +had cleared; a weight seemed removed from his mind. "When I went +into the alcove to see Mrs. Fairbrother, she was sitting in a +chair near this window looking out. I remember the effect of her +splendor against the snow sifting down in a steady stream behind +her. The pink velvet--the soft green of the curtains on either +side--her brilliants--and the snow for a background! Yes, the +murderer came in that way. Her figure would be plain to any one +outside, and if she moved and the diamond shone--Don't you see +what a probable theory it is? There must be ways by which a +desperate man might reach that balcony. I believe--" + +How eager he was and with what a look he turned when the word +came filtering through the crowd that, though footsteps had been +found in the snow pointing directly toward the balcony, there was +none on the balcony itself, proving, as any one could see, that +the attack had not come from without, since no one could enter +the alcove by the window without stepping on the balcony. + +"Mr. Durand has suspicions of his own," I explained determinedly +to myself. "He met some one going in as he stepped out. Shall I +ask him to name this person?" No, I did not have the courage; not +while his face wore so stern a look and was so resolutely turned +away. + +The next excitement was a request from Mr. Ramsdell for us all to +go into the drawing-room. This led to various cries from +hysterical lips, such as, "We are going to be searched!" " He +believes the thief and murderer to be still in the house!" "Do +you see the diamond on me?" "Why don't they confine their +suspicions to the favored few who were admitted to the alcove?" + +"They will," remarked some one close to my ear. + +But quickly as I turned I could not guess from whom the comment +came. Possibly from a much beflowered, bejeweled, elderly dame, +whose eyes were fixed on Mr. Durand's averted face. If so, she +received a defiant look from mine, which I do not believe she +forgot in a hurry. + +Alas! it was not the only curious, I might say searching glance I +surprised directed against him as we made our way to where I +could see my uncle struggling to reach us from a short side hall. +The whisper seemed to have gone about that Mr. Durand had been +the last one to converse with Mrs. Fairbrother prior to the +tragedy. + +In time I had the satisfaction of joining my uncle. He betrayed +great relief at the sight of me, and, encouraged by his kindly +smile, I introduced Mr. Durand. My conscious air must have +produced its impression, for he turned a startled and inquiring +look upon my companion, then took me resolutely on his own arm, +saying: + +"There is likely to be some unpleasantness ahead for all of us. I +do not think the police will allow any one to go till that +diamond has been looked for. This is a very serious matter, dear. +So many think the murderer was one of the guests." + +"I think so, too," said I. But why I thought so or why I should +say so with such vehemence, I do not know even now. + +My uncle looked surprised. + +"You had better not advance any opinions," he advised. "A lady +like yourself should have none on a subject so gruesome. I shall +never cease regretting bringing you here tonight. I shall seize +on the first opportunity to take you home. At present we are +supposed to await the action of our host." + +"He can not keep all these people here long," I ventured. + +"No; most of us will he relieved soon. Had you not better get +your wraps so as to be ready to go as soon as he gives the word?" + +"I should prefer to have a peep at the people in the drawing-room +first.," was my perverse reply. "I don't know why I want to see +them, but I do; and, uncle, I might as well tell you now that I +engaged myself to Mr. Durand this evening--the gentleman with me +when you first came up." + +"You have engaged yourself to--to this man--to marry him, do you +mean?" + +I nodded, with a sly look behind to see if Mr. Durand were near +enough to hear. He was not, and I allowed my enthusiasm to escape +in a few quick words. + +"He has chosen me," I said, "the plainest, most uninteresting +puss in the whole city." My uncle smiled. "And I believe he loves +me; at all events, I know that I love him." + +My uncle sighed, while giving me the most affectionate of +glances. + +"It's a pity you should have come to this understanding +to-night," said he. "He's an acquaintance of the murdered woman, +and it is only right for you to know that you will have to leave +him behind when you start for home. All who have been seen +entering that alcove this evening will necessarily be detained +here till the coroner arrives. + +My uncle and I strolled toward the drawing-room and as we did so +we passed the library. It held but one occupant, the Englishman. +He was seated before a table, and his appearance was such as +precluded any attempt at intrusion, even if one had been so +disposed. There was a fixity in his gaze and a frown on his +powerful forehead which bespoke a mind greatly agitated. It was +not for me to read that mind, much as it interested me, and I +passed on, chatting, as if I had not the least desire to stop. + +I can not say how much time elapsed before my uncle touched me on +the arm with the remark: + +"The police are here in full force. I saw a detective in plain +clothes look in here a minute ago. He seemed to have his eye on +you. There he is again! What can he want? No, don't turn; he's +gone away now." + +Frightened as I had never been in all my life, I managed to keep +my head up and maintain an indifferent aspect. What, as my uncle +said, could a detective want of me? I had nothing to do with the +crime; not in the remotest way could I be said to be connected +with it; why, then, had I caught the attention of the police? +Looking about, I sought Mr. Durand. He had left me on my uncle's +coming up, but had remained, as I supposed, within sight. But at +this moment he was nowhere to be seen. Was I afraid on his +account? Impossible; yet-- + +Happily just then the word was passed about that the police had +given orders that, with the exception of such as had been +requested to remain to answer questions, the guests generally +should feel themselves at liberty to depart. + +The time had now come to take a stand and I informed my uncle, to +his evident chagrin, that I should not leave as long as any +excuse could be found for staying. + +He said nothing at the time, but as the noise of departing +carriages gradually lessened and the great hall and drawing-rooms +began to wear a look of desertion he at last ventured on this +gentle protest: + +"You have more pluck, Rita, than I supposed. Do you think it wise +to stay on here? Will not people imagine that you have been +requested to do so? Look at those waiters hanging about in the +different doorways. Run up and put on your wraps. Mr. Durand will +come to the house fast enough as soon as he is released. I give +you leave to sit up for him if you will; only let us leave this +place before that impertinent little man dares to come around +again," he artfully added. + +But I stood firm, though somewhat moved by his final suggestion; +and, being a small tyrant in my way, at least with him, I carried +my point. + +Suddenly my anxiety became poignant. A party of men, among whom I +saw Mr. Durand, appeared at the end of the hall, led by a very +small but self-important personage whom my uncle immediately +pointed out as the detective who had twice come to the door near +which I stood. As this man looked up and saw me still there, a +look of relief crossed his face, and, after a word or two with +another stranger of seeming authority, he detached himself from +the group he had ushered upon the scene, and, approaching me +respectfully enough, said with a deprecatory glance at my uncle +whose frown he doubtless understood: + +"Miss Van Arsdale, I believe?" + +I nodded, too choked to speak. + +"I am sorry, Madam, if you were expecting to go. Inspector +Dalzell has arrived and would like to speak to you. Will you step +into one of these rooms? Not the library, but any other. He will +come to you as quickly as he can." + +I tried to carry it off bravely and as if I saw nothing in this +summons which was unique or alarming. But I succeeded only in +dividing a wavering glance between him and the group of men of +which he had just formed a part. In the latter were several +gentlemen whom I had noted in Mrs. Fairbrother's train early in +the evening and a few strangers, two of whom were officials. Mr. +Durand was with the former, and his expression did not encourage +me. + +"The affair is very serious," commented the detective on leaving +me. "That's our excuse for any trouble we may be putting you to." +I clutched my uncle's arm. + +"Where shall we go?" I asked. "The drawing-room is too large. In +this hall my eyes are for ever traveling in the direction of the +alcove. Don't you know some little room? Oh, what, what can he +want of me?" + +"Nothing serious, nothing important," blustered my good uncle. +"Some triviality such as you can answer in a moment. A little +room? Yes, I know one, there, under the stairs. Come, I will find +the door for you. Why did we ever come to this wretched ball?" + +I had no answer for this. Why, indeed! + +My uncle, who is a very patient man, guided me to the place he +had picked out, without adding a word to the ejaculation in which +he had just allowed his impatience to expend itself. But once +seated within, and out of the range of peering eyes and listening +ears, he allowed a sigh to escape him which expressed the +fullness of his agitation. + +"My dear," he began, and stopped. "I feel--" here he again came +to a pause--"that you should know--" + +"What?" I managed to ask. + +"That I do not like Mr. Durand and--that others do not like him." + +"Is it because of something you knew about him before to-night?" + +He made no answer. + +"Or because he was seen, like many other gentlemen, talking with +that woman some time before--a long time before--she was attacked +for her diamond and murdered?" + +"Pardon me, my dear, he was the last one seen talking to her. +Some one may yet be found who went in after he came out, but as +yet he is considered the last. Mr. Ramsdell himself told me so." + +"It makes no difference," I exclaimed, in all the heat of my +long-suppressed agitation. "I am willing to stake my life on his +integrity and honor. No man could talk to me as he did early this +evening with any vile intentions at heart. He was interested, no +doubt, like many others, in one who had the name of being a +captivating woman, but--" + +I paused in sudden alarm. A look had crossed my uncle's face +which assured me that we were no longer alone. Who could have +entered so silently? In some trepidation I turned to see. A +gentleman was standing in the doorway, who smiled as I met his +eye. + +"Is this Miss Van Arsdale?" he asked. + +Instantly my courage, which had threatened to leave me, returned +and I smiled. + +"I am," said I. "Are you the inspector?" + +"Inspector Dalzell," he explained with a bow, which included my +uncle. + +Then he closed the door. + +"I hope I have not frightened you," he went on, approaching me +with a gentlemanly air. "A little matter has come up concerning +which I mean to be perfectly frank with you. It may prove to be +of trivial importance; if so, you will pardon my disturbing you. +Mr. Durand--you know him?" + +"I am engaged to him," I declared before poor uncle could raise +his hand. + +"You are engaged to him. Well, that makes it difficult, and yet, +in some respects, easier for me to ask a certain question." + +It must have made it more difficult than easy, for he did not +proceed to put this question immediately, but went on: + +"You know that Mr. Durand visited Mrs. Fairbrother in the alcove +a little while before her death?" + +"I have been told so." + + "He was seen to go in, but I have not yet found any one who saw +him come out; consequently we have been unable to fix the exact +minute when he did so. What is the matter, Miss Van Arsdale? You +want to say something?" + +"No, no," I protested, reconsidering my first impulse. Then, as I +met his look, "He can probably tell you that himself. I am sure +he would not hesitate." + +"We shall ask him later," was the inspector's response. +"Meanwhile, are you ready to assure me that since that time he +has not intrusted you with a little article to keep--No, no, I do +not mean the diamond," he broke in, in very evident dismay, as I +fell back from him in irrepressible indignation and alarm. "The +diamond--well, we shall look for that later; it is another +article we are in search of now, one which Mr. Durand might very +well have taken in his hand without realizing just what he was +doing. As it is important for us to find this article, and as it +is one he might very naturally have passed over to you when he +found himself in the hall with it in his hand, I have ventured to +ask you if this surmise is correct." + +"It is not," I retorted fiercely, glad that I could speak from my +very heart. "He has given me nothing to keep for him. He would +not--" + +Why that peculiar look in the inspector's eye? Why did he reach +out for a chair and seat me in it before he took up my +interrupted sentence and finished it? + +"--would not give you anything to hold which had belonged to +another woman? Miss Van Arsdale, you do not know men. They do +many things which a young, trusting girl like yourself would +hardly expect from them." + +"Not Mr. Durand," I maintained stoutly. + +"Perhaps not; let us hope not." Then, with a quick change of +manner, he bent toward me, with a sidelong look at uncle, and, +pointing to my gloves, remarked: "You wear gloves. Did you feel +the need of two pairs, that you carry another in that pretty bag +hanging from your arm?" + +I started, looked down, and then slowly drew up into my hand the +bag he had mentioned. The white finger of a glove was protruding +from the top. Any one could see it; many probably had. What did +it mean? I had brought no extra pair with me. + +"This is not mine," I began, faltering into silence as I +perceived my uncle turn and walk a step or two away. + +"The article we are looking for," pursued the inspector, "is a +pair of long, white gloves, supposed to have been worn by Mrs. +Fairbrother when she entered the alcove. Do you mind showing me +those, a finger of which I see?" + +I dropped the bag into his hand. The room and everything in it +was whirling around me. But when I noted what trouble it was to +his clumsy fingers to open it, my senses returned and, reaching +for the bag, I pulled it open and snatched out the gloves. They +had been hastily rolled up and some of the fingers were showing. + +"Let me have them," he said. + +With quaking heart and shaking fingers I handed over the gloves. + +"Mrs. Fairbrother's hand was not a small one," he observed as he +slowly unrolled them. "Yours is. We can soon tell--" + +But that sentence was never finished. As the gloves fell open in +his grasp he uttered a sudden, sharp ejaculation and I a +smothered shriek. An object of superlative brilliancy had rolled +out from them. The diamond! the gem which men said was worth a +king's ransom, and which we all knew had just cost a life. + + + +III + +ANSON DURAND + +With benumbed senses and a dismayed heart, I stared at the fallen +jewel as at some hateful thing menacing both my life and honor. + +"I have had nothing to do with it," I vehemently declared. "I did +not put the gloves in my bag, nor did I know the diamond was in +them. I fainted at the first alarm, and + +"There! there! I know," interposed the inspector kindly. "I do +not doubt you in the least; not when there is a man to doubt. +Miss Van Arsdale, you had better let your uncle take you home. I +will see that the hall is cleared for you. Tomorrow I may wish to +talk to you again, but I will spare you all further importunity +tonight." + +I shook my head. It would require more courage to leave at that +moment than to stay. Meeting the inspector's eye firmly, I +quietly declared, + +"If Mr. Durand's good name is to suffer in any way, I will not +forsake him. I have confidence in his integrity, if you have not. +It was not his hand, but one much more guilty, which dropped this +jewel into the bag." + +"So! so! do not be too sure of that, little woman. You had better +take your lesson at once. It will be easier for you, and more +wholesome for him." + +Here he picked up the jewel. + +"Well, they said it was a wonder!" he exclaimed, in sudden +admiration. "I am not surprised, now that I have seen a great +gem, at the famous stories I have read of men risking life and +honor for their possession. If only no blood had been shed!" + +"Uncle! uncle!" I wailed aloud in my agony. + +It was all my lips could utter, but to uncle it was enough. +Speaking for the first time, he asked to have a passage made for +us, and when the inspector moved forward to comply, he threw his +arm about me, and was endeavoring to find fitting words with +which to fill up the delay, when a short altercation was heard +from the doorway, and Mr. Durand came rushing in, followed +immediately by the inspector. + +His first look was not at myself, but at the bag, which still +hung from my arm. As I noted this action, my whole inner self +seemed to collapse, dragging my happiness down with it. But my +countenance remained unchanged, too much so, it seems; for when +his eye finally rose to my face, he found there what made him +recoil and turn with something like fierceness on his companion. + +"You have been talking to her," he vehemently protested. "Perhaps +you have gone further than that. What has happened here? I think +I ought to know. She is so guileless, Inspector Dalzell; so +perfectly free from all connection with this crime. Why have you +shut her up here, and plied her with questions, and made her look +at me with such an expression, when all you have against me is +just what you have against some half-dozen others,--that I was +weak enough, or unfortunate enough, to spend a few minutes with +that unhappy woman in the alcove before she died?" + +"It might be well if Miss Van Arsdale herself would answer you," +was the inspector's quiet retort. "What you have said may +constitute all that we have against you, but it is not all we +have against her." + +I gasped, not so much at this seeming accusation, the motive of +which I believed myself to understand, but at the burning blush +with which it was received by Mr. Durand. + +"What do you mean?" he demanded, with certain odd breaks in his +voice. "What can you have against her?" + +"A triviality," returned the inspector, with a look in my +direction that was, I felt, not to be mistaken. + +"I do not call it a triviality," I burst out. "It seems that Mrs. +Fairbrother, for all her elaborate toilet, was found without +gloves on her arms. As she certainly wore them on entering the +alcove, the police have naturally been looking for them. And +where do you think they have found them? Not in the alcove with +her, not in the possession of the man who undoubtedly carried +them away with him, but--" + +"I know, I know," Mr. Durand hoarsely put in. "You need not say +any more. Oh, my poor Rita! what have I brought upon you by my +weakness?" + +"Weakness!" + +He started; I started; my voice was totally unrecognizable. + +"I should give it another name," I added coldly. + +For a moment he seemed to lose heart, then he lifted his head +again, and looked as handsome as when he pleaded for my hand in +the little conservatory. + +"You have that right," said he; "besides, weakness at such a +time, and under such an exigency, is little short of wrong. It +was unmanly in me to endeavor to secrete these gloves; more than +unmanly for me to choose for their hiding-place the recesses of +an article belonging exclusively to yourself. I acknowledge it, +Rita, and shall meet only my just punishment if you deny me in +the future both your sympathy and regard. But you must let me +assure you and these gentlemen also, one of whom can make it very +unpleasant for me, that consideration for you, much more than any +miserable anxiety about myself, lay at the bottom of what must +strike you all as an act of unpardonable cowardice. From the +moment I learned of this woman's murder in the alcove, where I +had visited her, I realized that every one who had been seen to +approach her within a half-hour of her death would be subjected +to a more or less rigid investigation, and I feared, if her +gloves were found in my possession, some special attention might +be directed my way which would cause you unmerited distress. So, +yielding to an impulse which I now recognize as a most unwise, as +well as unworthy one, I took advantage of the bustle about us, +and of the insensibility into which you had fallen, to tuck these +miserable gloves into the bag I saw lying on the floor at your +side. I do not ask your pardon. My whole future life shall be +devoted to winning that; I simply wish to state a fact." + +"Very good!" It was the inspector who spoke; I could not have +uttered a word to save my life. "Perhaps you will now feel that +you owe it to this young lady to add how you came to have these +gloves in your possession?" + +"Mrs. Fairbrother handed them to me." + +"Handed them to you?" + +"Yes, I hardly know why myself. She asked me to take care of them +for her. I know that this must strike you as a very peculiar +statement. It was my realization of the unfavorable effect it +could not fail to produce upon those who beard it, which made me +dread any interrogation on the subject. But I assure you it was +as I say. She put the gloves into my hand while I was talking to +her, saying they incommoded her." + +"And you?" + +"Well, I held them for a few minutes, then I put them in my +pocket, but quite automatically, and without thinking very much +about it. She was a woman accustomed to have her own way. People +seldom questioned it, I judge." + +Here the tension about my throat relaxed, and I opened my lips to +speak. But the inspector, with a glance of some authority, +forestalled me. + +"Were the gloves open or rolled up when she offered them to you?" + +"They were rolled up." + +"Did you see her take them off?" + +"Assuredly." + +"And roll them up?" + +"Certainly." + +"After which she passed them over to you?" + +"Not immediately. She let them lie in her lap for a while." + +"While you talked?" + +Mr. Durand bowed. + +"And looked at the diamond?" + +Mr. Durand bowed for the second time. + +"Had you ever seen so fine a diamond before?" + +"No." + +"Yet you deal in precious stones?" + +"That is my business." + +"And are regarded as a judge of them?" + +"I have that reputation." + +"Mr. Durand, would you know this diamond if you saw it?" + +"I certainly should." + +"The setting was an uncommon one, I hear." + +"Quite an unusual one." + +The inspector opened his hand. + +"Is this the article?" + +"Good God! Where--" + +"Don't you know?" + +"I do not." + +The inspector eyed him gravely. + +"Then I have a bit of news for you. It was hidden in the gloves +you took from Mrs. Fairbrother. Miss Van Arsdale was present at +their unrolling." + +Do we live, move, breathe at certain moments? It hardly seems so. +I know that I was conscious of but one sense, that of seeing; and +of but one faculty, that of judgment. Would he flinch, break +down, betray guilt, or simply show astonishment? I chose to +believe it was the latter feeling only which informed his slowly +whitening and disturbed features. Certainly it was all his words +expressed, as his glances flew from the stone to the gloves, and +back again to the inspector's face. + +"I can not believe it. I can not believe it." And his hand flew +wildly to his forehead. + +"Yet it is the truth, Mr. Durand, and one you have now to face. +How will you do this? By any further explanations, or by what you +may consider a discreet silence?" + +"I have nothing to explain,--the facts are as I have stated." + +The inspector regarded him with an earnestness which made my +heart sink. + +"You can fix the time of this visit, I hope; tell us, I mean, +just when you left the alcove. You must have seen some one who +can speak for you." + +"I fear not." + +Why did he look so disturbed and uncertain? + +"There were but few persons in the hall just then," he went on to +explain. "No one was sitting on the yellow divan." + +"You know where you went, though? Whom you saw and what you did +before the alarm spread?" + +"Inspector, I am quite confused. I did go somewhere; I did not +remain in that part of the hall. But I can tell you nothing +definite, save that I walked about, mostly among strangers, till +the cry rose which sent us all in one direction and me to the +side of my fainting sweetheart." + +"Can you pick out any stranger you talked to, or any one who +might have noted you during this interval? You see, for the sake +of this little woman, I wish to give you every chance." + +"Inspector, I am obliged to throw myself on your mercy. I have no +such witness to my innocence as you call for. Innocent people +seldom have. It is only the guilty who take the trouble to +provide for such contingencies." + +This was all very well, if it had been uttered with a +straightforward air and in a clear tone. But it was not. I who +loved him felt that it was not, and consequently was more or less +prepared for the change which now took place in the inspector's +manner. Yet it pierced me to the heart to observe this change, +and I instinctively dropped my face into my hands when I saw him +move toward Mr. Durand with some final order or word of caution. + +Instantly (and who can account for such phenomena?) there floated +into view before my retina a reproduction of the picture I had +seen, or imagined myself to have seen, in the supper-room; and as +at that time it opened before me an unknown vista quite removed +from the surrounding scene, so it did now, and I beheld again in +faint outlines, and yet with the effect of complete distinctness, +a square of light through which appeared an open passage partly +shut off from view by a half-lifted curtain and the tall figure +of a man holding back this curtain and gazing, or seeming to +gaze, at his own breast, on which he had already laid one +quivering finger. + +What did it mean? In the excitement of the horrible occurrence +which had engrossed us all, I had forgotten this curious +experience; but on feeling anew the vague sensation of shock and +expectation which seemed its natural accompaniment, I became +conscious of a sudden conviction that the picture which had +opened before me in the supper-room was the result of a +reflection in a glass or mirror of something then going on in a +place not otherwise within the reach of my vision; a reflection, +the importance of which I suddenly realized when I recalled at +what a critical moment it had occurred. A man in a state of dread +looking at his breast, within five minutes of the stir and rush +of the dreadful event which had marked this evening! + +A hope, great as the despair in which I had just been sunk, gave +me courage to drop my hands and advance impetuously toward the +inspector. + +"Don't speak, I pray; don't judge any of us further till you have +heard what I have to say." + +In great astonishment and with an aspect of some severity, he +asked me what I had to say now which I had not had the +opportunity of saying before. I replied with all the passion of a +forlorn hope that it was only at this present moment I remembered +a fact which might have a very decided bearing on this case; and, +detecting evidences, as I thought, of relenting on his part, I +backed up this statement by an entreaty for a few words with him +apart, as the matter I had to tell was private and possibly too +fanciful for any ear but his own. + +He looked as if he apprehended some loss of valuable time, but, +touched by the involuntary gesture of appeal with which I +supplemented my request, he led me into a corner, where, with +just an encouraging glance toward Mr. Durand, who seemed struck +dumb by my action, I told the inspector of that momentary picture +which I had seen reflected in what I was now sure was some +window-pane or mirror. + +"It was at a time coincident, or very nearly coincident, with the +perpetration of the crime you are now investigating," I +concluded. "Within five minutes afterward came the shout which +roused us all to what had happened in the alcove. I do not know +what passage I saw or what door or even what figure; but the +latter, I am sure, was that of the guilty man. Something in the +outline (and it was the outline only I could catch) expressed an +emotion incomprehensible to me at the moment, but which, in my +remembrance, impresses me as that of fear and dread. It was not +the entrance to the alcove I beheld--that would have struck me at +once--but some other opening which I might recognize if I saw it. +Can not that opening be found, and may it not give a clue to the +man I saw skulking through it with terror and remorse in his +heart?" + +"Was this figure, when you saw it, turned toward you or away?" +the inspector inquired with unexpected interest. + +"Turned partly away. He was going from me." + +"And you sat--where?" + +"Shall I show you?" + +The inspector bowed, then with a low word of caution turned to my +uncle. + +"I am going to take this young lady into the hall for a moment, +at her own request. May I ask you and Mr. Durand to await me +here?" + +Without pausing for reply, he threw open the door and presently +we were pacing the deserted supper-room, seeking the place where +I had sat. I found it almost by a miracle,--everything being in +great disorder. Guided by my bouquet, which I had left behind me +in my escape from the table, I laid hold of the chair before +which it lay, and declared quite confidently to the inspector: + +"This is where I sat." + +Naturally his glance and mine both flew to the opposite wall. A +window was before us of an unusual size and make. Unlike any +which had ever before come under my observation, it swung on a +pivot, and, though shut at the present moment, might very easily, +when opened, present its huge pane at an angle capable of +catching reflections from some of the many mirrors decorating the +reception-room situated diagonally across the hall. As all the +doorways on this lower floor were of unusual width, an open path +was offered, as it were, for these reflections to pass, making it +possible for scenes to be imaged here which, to the persons +involved, would seem as safe from any one's scrutiny as if they +were taking place in the adjoining house. + +As we realized this, a look passed between us of more than +ordinary significance. Pointing to the window, the inspector +turned to a group of waiters watching us from the other side of +the room and asked if it had been opened that evening. + +The answer came quickly. + +"Yes, sir,--just before the--the--" + +"I understand," broke in the inspector; and, leaning over me, he +whispered: "Tell me again exactly what you thought you saw." + +But I could add little to my former description. "Perhaps you can +tell me this," he kindly persisted. "Was the picture, when you +saw it, on a level with your eye, or did you have to lift your +head in order to see it?" + +"It was high up,--in the air, as it were. That seemed its oddest +feature." + +The inspector's mouth took a satisfied curve. "Possibly I might +identify the door and passage, if I saw them," I suggested. + +"Certainly, certainly," was his cheerful rejoinder; and, +summoning one of his men, he was about to give some order, when +his impulse changed, and he asked if I could draw. + +I assured him, in some surprise, that I was far from being an +adept in that direction, but that possibly I might manage a rough +sketch; whereupon he pulled a pad and pencil from his pocket and +requested me to make some sort of attempt to reproduce, on paper, +my memory of this passage and the door. + +My heart was beating violently, and the pencil shook in my hand, +but I knew that it would not do for me to show any hesitation in +fixing for all eyes what, unaccountably to myself, continued to +be perfectly plain to my own. So I endeavored to do as he bade +me, and succeeded, to some extent, for he uttered a slight +ejaculation at one of its features, and, while duly expressing +his thanks, honored me with a very sharp look. + +"Is this your first visit to this house?" he asked. + +"No; I have been here before." + +"In the evening, or in the afternoon?" + +"In the afternoon." + +"I am told that the main entrance is not in use to-night." + +"No. A side door is provided for occasions like the present. +Guests entering there find a special hall and staircase, by which +they can reach the upstairs dressing-rooms, without crossing the +main hall. Is that what you mean?" + +"Yes, that is what I mean." + +I stared at him in wonder. What lay back of such questions as +these? + +"You came in, as others did, by this side entrance," he now +proceeded. "Did you notice, as you turned to go up stairs, an +arch opening into a small passageway at your left?" + +"I did not," I began, flushing, for I thought I understood him +now. "I was too eager to reach the dressing-room to look about +me." + +"Very well," he replied; "I may want to show you that arch." + +The outline of an arch, backing the figure we were endeavoring to +identify, was a marked feature in the sketch I had shown him. + +"Will you take a seat near by while I make a study of this +matter?" + +I turned with alacrity to obey. There was something in his air +and manner which made me almost buoyant. Had my fanciful +interpretation of what I had seen reached him with the conviction +it had me? If so, there was hope,--hope for the man I loved, who +had gone in and out between curtains, and not through any arch +such as he had mentioned or I had described. Providence was +working for me. I saw it in the way the men now moved about, +swinging the window to and fro, under the instruction of the +inspector, manipulating the lights, opening doors and drawing +back curtains. Providence was working for me, and when, a few +minutes later, I was asked to reseat myself in my old place at +the supper-table and take another look in that slightly deflected +glass, I knew that my effort had met with its reward, and that +for the second time I was to receive the impression of a place +now indelibly imprinted on my consciousness. + +"Is not that it?" asked the inspector, pointing at the glass with +a last look at the imperfect sketch I had made him, and which he +still held in his hand. + +"Yes," I eagerly responded. "All but the man. He whose figure I +see there is another person entirely; I see no remorse, or even +fear, in his looks." + +"Of course not. You are looking at the reflection of one of my +men. Miss Van Arsdale, do you recognize the place now under your +eye?" + +"I do not. You spoke of an arch in the hall, at the left of the +carriage entrance, and I see an arch in the window-pane before +me, but--" + +"You are looking straight through the alcove,--perhaps you did +not know that another door opened at its back,--into the passage +which runs behind it. Farther on is the arch, and beyond that +arch the side hall and staircase leading to the dressing-rooms. +This door, the one in the rear of the alcove, I mean, is hidden +from those entering from the main hall by draperies which have +been hung over it for this occasion, but it is quite visible from +the back passageway, and there can be no doubt that it was by its +means the man, whose reflected image you saw, both entered and +left the alcove. It is an important fact to establish, and we +feel very much obliged to you for the aid you have given us in +this matter." + +Then, as I continued to stare at him in my elation and surprise, +he added, in quick explanation: + +"The lights in the alcove, and in the several parlors, are all +hung with shades, as you must perceive, but the one in the hall, +beyond the arch, is very bright, which accounts for the +distinctness of this double reflection. Another thing,--and it is +a very interesting point,--it would have been impossible for this +reflection to be noticeable from where you sit, if the level of +the alcove flooring had not been considerably higher than that of +the main floor. But for this freak of the architect, the +continual passing to and fro of people would have prevented the +reflection in its passage from surface to surface. Miss Van +Arsdale, it would seem that by one of those chances which happen +but once or twice in a lifetime, every condition was propitious +at the moment to make this reflection a possible occurrence, even +the location and width of the several doorways and the exact +point at which the portiere was drawn aside from the entrance to +the alcove." + +"It is wonderful," I cried, "wonderful!" Then, to his +astonishment, perhaps, I asked if there was not a small door of +communication between the passageway back of the alcove and the +large central hall. + +"Yes," he replied. "It opens just beyond the fireplace. Three +small steps lead to it." + +"I thought so," I murmured, but more to myself than to him. In my +mind I was thinking how a man, if he so wished, could pass from +the very heart of this assemblage into the quiet passageway, and +so on into the alcove, without attracting very much attention +from his fellow guests. I forgot that there was another way of +approach even less noticeable that by the small staircase running +up beyond the arch directly to the dressing-rooms. + +That no confusion may arise in any one's mind in regard to these +curious approaches, I subjoin a plan of this portion of the lower +floor as it afterward appeared in the leading dailies. + +"And Mr. Durand?" I stammered, as I followed the inspector back +to the room where we had left that gentleman. "You will believe +his statement now and look for this second intruder with the +guiltily-hanging head and frightened mien?" + +"Yes," he replied, stopping me on the threshold of the door and +taking my hand kindly in his, "if--(don't start, my dear; life is +full of trouble for young and old, and youth is the best time to +face a sad experience) if he is not himself the man you saw +staring in frightened horror at his breast. Have you not noticed +that he is not dressed in all respects like the other gentlemen +present? That, though he has not donned his overcoat, he has put +on, somewhat prematurely, one might say, the large silk +handkerchief lie presumably wears under it? Have you not noticed +this, and asked yourself why?" + +I had noticed it. I had noticed it from the moment I recovered +from my fainting fit, but I had not thought it a matter of +sufficient interest to ask, even of myself, his reason for thus +hiding his shirt-front. Now I could not. My faculties were too +confused, my heart too deeply shaken by the suggestion which the +inspector's words conveyed, for me to be conscious of anything +but the devouring question as to what I should do if, by my own +mistaken zeal, I had succeeded in plunging the man I loved yet +deeper into the toils in which he had become enmeshed. + +The inspector left me no time for the settlement of this +question. Ushering me back into the room where Mr. Durand and my +uncle awaited our return in apparently unrelieved silence, he +closed the door upon the curious eyes of the various persons +still lingering in the hall, and abruptly said to Mr. Durand: + +"The explanations you have been pleased to give of the manner in +which this diamond came into your possession are not too fanciful +for credence, if you can satisfy us on another point which has +awakened some doubt in the mind of one of my men. Mr. Durand, you +appear to have prepared yourself for departure somewhat +prematurely. Do you mind removing that handkerchief for a moment? +My reason for so peculiar a request will presently appear." + +Alas, for my last fond hope! Mr. Durand, with a face as white as +the background of snow framed by the uncurtained window against +which he leaned, lifted his hand as if to comply with the +inspector's request, then let it fall again with a grating laugh. + +"I see that I am not likely to escape any of the results of my +imprudence," he cried, and with a quick jerk bared his +shirt-front. + +A splash of red defiled its otherwise uniform whiteness! That it +was the red of heart's blood was proved by the shrinking look he +unconsciously cast at it. + + + +IV + +EXPLANATIONS + +My love for Anson Durand died at sight o£ that crimson splash or +I thought it did. In this spot of blood on the breast of him to +whom I had given my heart I could read but one word--guilt-- +heinous guilt, guilt denied and now brought to light in language +that could be seen and read by all men. Why should I stay in such +a presence? Had not the inspector himself advised me to go? + +Yes, but another voice bade me remain. Just as I reached the +door, Anson Durand found his voice and I heard, in the full, +sweet tones I loved so well: + +"Wait I am not to be judged like this. I will explain!" + +But here the inspector interposed. + +"Do you think it wise to make any such attempt without the advice +of counsel, Mr. Durand?" + +The indignation with which Mr. Durand wheeled toward him raised +in me a faint hope. + +"Good God, yes!" he cried. "Would you have me leave Miss Van +Arsdale one minute longer than is necessary to such dreadful +doubts? Rita--Miss Van Arsdale--weakness, and weakness only, has +brought me into my present position. I did not kill Mrs. +Fairbrother, nor did I knowingly take her diamond, though +appearances look that way, as I am very ready to acknowledge. I +did go to her in the alcove, not once, but twice, and these are +my reasons for doing so: About three months ago a certain +well-known man of enormous wealth came to me with the request +that I should procure for him a diamond of superior beauty. He +wished to give it to his wife, and he wished it to outshine any +which could now be found in New York. This meant sending abroad-- +an expense he was quite willing to incur on the sole condition +that the stone should not disappoint him when he saw it, and that +it was to be in his hands on the eighteenth of March, his wife's +birthday. Never before had I had such an opportunity for a large +stroke of business. Naturally elated, I entered at once into +correspondence with the best known dealers on the other side, and +last week a diamond was delivered to me which seemed to fill all +the necessary requirements. I had never seen a finer stone, and +was consequently rejoicing in my success, when some one, I do not +remember who now, chanced to speak in my hearing of the wonderful +stone possessed by a certain Mrs. Fairbrother--a stone so large, +so brilliant and so precious altogether that she seldom wore it, +though it was known to connoisseurs and had a great reputation at +Tiffany's, where it had once been sent for some alteration in the +setting. Was this stone larger and finer than the one I had +procured with so much trouble? If so, my labor had all been in +vain, for my patron must have known of this diamond and would +expect to see it surpassed. + +"I was so upset by this possibility that I resolved to see the +jewel and make comparisons for myself. I found a friend who +agreed to introduce me to the lady. She received me very +graciously and was amiable enough until the subject of diamonds +was broached, when she immediately stiffened and left me without +an opportunity of proffering my request. However, on every other +subject she was affable, and I found it easy enough to pursue the +acquaintance till we were almost on friendly terms. But I never +saw the diamond, nor would she talk about it, though I caused her +some surprise when one day I drew out before her eyes the one I +had procured for my patron and made her look at it. 'Fine,' she +cried, 'fine!' But I failed to detect any envy in her manner, and +so knew that I had not achieved the object set me by my wealthy +customer. This was a woeful disappointment; yet, as Mrs. +Fairbrother never wore her diamond, it was among the +possibilities that he might be satisfied with the very fine gem I +had obtained for him, and, influenced by this hope, I sent him +this morning a request to come and see it tomorrow. Tonight I +attended this ball, and almost as soon as I enter the +drawing-room I hear that Mrs. Fairbrother is present and is +wearing her famous jewel. What could you expect of me? Why, that +I would make an effort to see it and so be ready with a reply to +my exacting customer when he should ask me to-morrow if the stone +I showed him had its peer in the city. But was not in the +drawing-room then, and later I became interested elsewhere"--here +he cast a look at me--"so that half the evening passed before I +had an opportunity to join her in the so-called alcove, where I +had seen her set up her miniature court. What passed between us +in the short interview we held together you will find me prepared +to state, if necessary. It was chiefly marked by the one short +view I succeeded in obtaining of her marvelous diamond, in spite +of the pains she took to hide it from me by some natural movement +whenever she caught my eyes leaving her face. But in that one +short look I had seen enough. This was a gem for a collector, not +to be worn save in a royal presence. How had she come by it? And +could Mr. Smythe expect me to procure him a stone like that? In +my confusion I arose to depart, but the lady showed a disposition +to keep me, and began chatting so vivaciously that I scarcely +noticed that she was all the time engaged in drawing off her +gloves. Indeed, I almost forgot the jewel, possibly because her +movements hid it so completely, and only remembered it when, with +a sudden turn from the window where she had drawn me to watch the +falling flakes, she pressed the gloves into my hand with the +coquettish request that I should take care of them for her. I +remember, as I took them, of striving to catch another glimpse of +the stone, whose brilliancy had dazzled me, but she had opened +her fan between us. A moment after, thinking I heard approaching +steps, I quitted the room. This was my first visit." + +As he stopped, possibly for breath, possibly to judge to what +extent I was impressed by his account, the inspector seized the +opportunity to ask if Mrs. Fairbrother had been standing any of +this time with her back to him. To which he answered yes, while +they were in the window. + +"Long enough for her to pluck off the jewel and thrust it into +the gloves, if she had so wished?" + +"Quite long enough." + +"But you did not see her do this?" + +"I did not." + +"And so took the gloves without suspicion?" + +"Entirely so." + +"And carried them away?" + +"Unfortunately, yes." + +"Without thinking that she might want them the next minute?" + +"I doubt if I was thinking seriously of her at all. My thoughts +were on my own disappointment." + +"Did you carry these gloves out in your hand?" + +"No, in my pocket." + +"I see. And you met--" + +"No one. The sound I heard must have come from the rear hall." + +"And there was nobody on the steps?" + +"No. A gentleman was standing at their foot--Mr. Grey, the +Englishman--but his face was turned another way, and he looked as +if he had been in that same position for several minutes." + +"Did this gentleman--Mr. Grey--see you?" + +"I can not say, but I doubt it. He appeared to be in a sort of +dream. There were other people about, but nobody with whom I was +acquainted." + +"Very good. Now for the second visit you acknowledge having paid +this unfortunate lady." + +The inspector's voice was hard. I clung a little more tightly to +my uncle, and Mr. Durand, after one agonizing glance my way, drew +himself up as if quite conscious that he had entered upon the +most serious part of the struggle. + +"I had forgotten the gloves in my hurried departure; but +presently I remembered them, and grew very uneasy. I did not like +carrying this woman's property about with me. I had engaged +myself, an hour before, to Miss Van Arsdale, and was very anxious +to rejoin her. The gloves worried me, and finally, after a little +aimless wandering through the various rooms, I determined to go +back and restore them to their owner. The doors of the +supper-room had just been flung open, and the end of the hall +near the alcove was comparatively empty, save for a certain +quizzical friend of mine, whom I saw sitting with his partner on +the yellow divan. I did not want to encounter him just then, for +he had already joked me about my admiration for the lady with the +diamond, and so I conceived the idea of approaching her by means +of a second entrance to the alcove, unsuspected by most of those +present, but perfectly well-known to me, who have been a frequent +guest in this house. A door, covered by temporary draperies, +connects, as you may know, this alcove with a passageway +communicating directly with the hall of entrance and the +up-stairs dressing-rooms. To go up the main stairs and come down +by the side one, and so on, through a small archway, was a very +simple matter for me. If no early-departing or late arriving +guests were in that hall, I need fear but one encounter, and that +was with the servant stationed at the carriage entrance. But even +he was absent at this propitious instant, and I reached the door +I sought without any unpleasantness. This door opened out instead +of in,--this I also knew when planning this surreptitious +intrusion, but, after pulling it open and reaching for the +curtain, which hung completely across it, I found it not so easy +to proceed as I had imagined. The stealthiness of my action held +back my hand; then the faint sounds I heard within advised me +that she was not alone, and that she might very readily regard +with displeasure my unexpected entrance by a door of which she +was possibly ignorant. I tell you all this because, if by any +chance I was seen hesitating in face of that curtain, doubts +might have been raised which I am anxious to dispel." Here his +eyes left my face for that of the inspector. + +"It certainly had a bad look,--that I don't deny; but I did not +think of appearances then. I was too anxious to complete a task +which had suddenly presented unexpected difficulties. That I +listened before entering was very natural, and when I heard no +voice, only something like a great sigh, I ventured to lift the +curtain and step in. She was sitting, not where I had left her, +but on a couch at the left of the usual entrance, her face toward +me, and--you know how, Inspector. It was her last sigh I had +heard. Horrified, for I had never looked on death before, much +less crime, I reeled forward, meaning, I presume, to rush down +the steps shouting for help, when, suddenly, something fell +splashing on my shirt-front, and I saw myself marked with a stain +of blood. This both frightened and bewildered me, and it was a +minute or two before I had the courage to look up. When I did do +so, I saw whence this drop had come. Not from her, though the red +stream was pouring down the rich folds of her dress, but from a +sharp needle-like instrument which had been thrust, point +downward, in the open work of an antique lantern hanging near the +doorway. What had happened to me might have happened to any one +who chanced to be in that spot at that special moment, but I did +not realize this then. Covering the splash with my hands, I edged +myself back to the door by which I had entered, watching those +deathful eyes and crushing under my feet the remnants of some +broken china with which the carpet was bestrewn. I had no thought +of her, hardly any of myself. To cross the room was all; to +escape as secretly as I came, before the portiere so nearly drawn +between me and the main hall should stir under the hand of some +curious person entering. It was my first sight of blood; my first +contact with crime, and that was what I did, --I fled." + +The last word was uttered with a gasp. Evidently he was greatly +affected by this horrible experience. + +"I am ashamed of myself," he muttered, "but nothing can now undo +the fact. I slid from the presence of this murdered woman as +though she had been the victim of my own rage or cupidity; and, +being fortunate enough to reach the dressing-room before the +alarm had spread beyond the immediate vicinity of the alcove, +found and put on the handkerchief, which made it possible for me +to rush down and find Miss Van Arsdale, who, somebody told me, +had fainted. Not till I stood over her in that remote corner +beyond the supper-room did I again think of the gloves. What I +did when I happened to think of them, you already know. I could +have shown no greater cowardice if I had known that the murdered +woman's diamond was hidden inside them. Yet, I did not know this, +or even suspect it. Nor do I understand, now, her reason for +placing it there. Why should Mrs. Fairbrother risk such an +invaluable gem to the custody of one she knew so little? An +unconscious custody, too? Was she afraid of being murdered if she +retained this jewel?" + +The inspector thought a moment, and then said: + +"You mention your dread of some one entering by the one door +before you could escape by the other. Do you refer to the friend +you left sitting on the divan opposite?" + +"No, my friend had left that seat. The portiere was sufficiently +drawn for me to detect that. If I had waited a minute longer," he +bitterly added, "I should have found my way open to the regular +entrance, and so escaped all this." + +"Mr. Durand, you are not obliged to answer any of my questions; +but, if you wish, you may tell me whether, at this moment of +apprehension, you thought of the danger you ran of being seen +from outside by some one of the many coachmen passing by on the +driveway?" + +"No,--I did not even think of the window,--I don't know why; but, +if any one passing by did see me, I hope they saw enough to +substantiate my story." + +The inspector made no reply. He seemed to be thinking. I heard +afterward that the curtains, looped back in the early evening, +had been found hanging at full length over this window by those +who first rushed in upon the scene of death. Had he hoped to +entrap Mr. Durand into some damaging admission? Or was he merely +testing his truth? His expression afforded no clue to his +thoughts, and Mr. Durand, noting this, remarked with some +dignity: + +"I do not expect strangers to accept these explanations, which +must sound strange and inadequate in face of the proof I carry of +having been with that woman after the fatal weapon struck her +heart. But, to one who knows me, and knows me well, I can surely +appeal for credence to a tale which I here declare to be as true +as if I had sworn to it in a court of justice." + +"Anson!:" I passionately cried out, loosening my clutch upon my +uncle's arm. My confidence in him had returned. + +And then, as I noted the inspector's businesslike air, and my +uncle's wavering look and unconvinced manner, I felt my heart +swell, and, flinging all discretion to the wind, I bounded +eagerly forward. Laying my hands in those of Mr. Durand, I cried +fervently: + +"I believe in you. Nothing but your own words shall ever shake my +confidence in your innocence." + +The sweet, glad look I received was my best reply. I could leave +the room, after that. + +But not the house. Another experience awaited me, awaited us all, +before this full, eventful evening came to a close. + + + +V + +SUPERSTITION + +I had gone up stairs for my wraps--my uncle having insisted on my +withdrawing from a scene where my very presence seemed in some +degree to compromise me. + +Soon prepared for my departure, I was crossing the hall to the +small door communicating with the side staircase where my uncle +had promised to await me, when I felt myself seized by a desire +to have another look below before leaving the place in which were +centered all my deepest interests. + +A wide landing, breaking up the main flight of stairs some few +feet from the top, offered me an admirable point of view. With +but little thought of possible consequences, and no thought at +all of my poor, patient uncle, I slipped down to this landing, +and, protected by the unusual height of its balustrade, allowed +myself a parting glance at the scene with which my most poignant +memories were henceforth to be connected. + +Before me lay the large square of the central hall. Opening out +from this was the corridor leading to the front door, and +incidentally to the library. As my glance ran down this corridor, +I beheld, approaching from the room just mentioned, the tall +figure of the Englishman. + +He halted as he reached the main hall and stood gazing eagerly at +a group of men and women clustered near the fireplace--a group on +which I no sooner cast my own eye than my attention also became +fixed. + +The inspector had come from the room where I had left him with +Mr. Durand and was showing to these people the extraordinary +diamond, which he had just recovered under such remarkable if not +suspicious circumstances. Young heads and old were meeting over +it, and I was straining my ears to hear such comments as were +audible above the general hubbub, when Mr. Grey made a quick move +and I looked his way again in time to mark his air of concern and +the uncertainty he showed whether to advance or retreat. + +Unconscious of my watchful eye, and noting, no doubt, that most +of the persons in the group on which his own eye was leveled +stood with their backs toward him, he made no effort to disguise +his profound interest in the stone. His eye followed its passage +from hand to hand with a covetous eagerness of which he may not +have been aware, and I was not at all surprised when, after a +short interval of troubled indecision, he impulsively stepped +forward and begged the privilege of handling the gem himself. + +Our host, who stood not far from the inspector, said something to +that gentleman which led to this request being complied with. The +stone was passed over to Mr. Grey, and I saw, possibly because my +heart was in my eyes, that the great man's hand trembled as it +touched his palm. Indeed, his whole frame trembled, and I was +looking eagerly for the result of his inspection when, on his +turning to hold the jewel up to the light, something happened so +abnormal and so strange that no one who was fortunate (or +unfortunate) enough to be present in the house at that instant +will ever forget it. + +This something was a cry, coming from no one knew where, which, +unearthly in its shrillness and the power it had on the +imagination, reverberated through the house and died away in a +wail so weird, so thrilling and so prolonged that it gripped not +only my own nerveless and weakened heart, but those of the ten +strong men congregated below me. The diamond dropped from Mr. +Grey's hand, and neither he nor any one else moved to pick it up. +Not till silence had come again--a silence almost as unendurable +to the sensitive ear as the cry which had preceded it--did any +one stir or think of the gem. Then one gentleman after another +bent to look for it, but with no success, till one of the +waiters, who possibly had followed it with his eye or caught +sight of its sparkle on the edge of the rug, whither it had +rolled, sprang and picked it up and handed it back to Mr. Grey. + +Instinctively the Englishman's hand closed on it, but it was very +evident to me, and I think to all, that his interest in it was +gone. If he looked at it he did not see it, for he stood like one +stunned all the time that agitated men and women were running +hither and thither in unavailing efforts to locate the sound yet +ringing in their ears. Not till these various searchers had all +come together again, in terror of a mystery they could not solve, +did he let his hand fall and himself awake to the scene about +him. + +The words he at once gave utterance to were as remarkable as all +the rest. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "you must pardon my agitation. This cry-- +you need not seek its source--is one to which I am only too well +accustomed. I have been the happy father of six children. Five I +have buried, and, before the death of each, this same cry has +echoed in my ears. I have but one child left, a daughter,--she is +ill at the hotel. Do you wonder that I shrink from this note of +warning, and show myself something less than a man under its +influence? I am going home; but, first, one word about this +stone." Here he lifted it and bestowed, or appeared to bestow on +it, an anxious scrutiny, putting on his glasses and examining it +carefully before passing it back to the inspector. + +"I have heard," said he, with a change of tone which must have +been noticeable to every one, "that this stone was a very +superior one, and quite worthy of the fame it bore here in +America. But, gentlemen, you have all been greatly deceived in +it; no one more than he who was willing to commit murder for its +possession. The stone, which you have just been good enough to +allow me to inspect, is no diamond, but a carefully manufactured +bit of paste not worth the rich and elaborate setting which has +been given to it. I am sorry to be the one to say this, but I +have made a study of precious stones, and I can not let this +bare-faced imitation pass through my hands without a protest. Mr. +Ramsdell," this to our host, "I beg you will allow me to utter my +excuses, and depart at once. My daughter is worse,--this I know, +as certainly as that I am standing here. The cry you have heard +is the one superstition of our family. Pray God that I find her +alive!" + +After this, what could be said? Though no one who had heard him, +not even my own romantic self, showed any belief in this +interpretation of the remarkable sound that had just gone +thrilling through the house, yet, in face of his declared +acceptance of it as a warning, and the fact that all efforts had +failed to locate the sound, or even to determine its source, no +other course seemed open but to let this distinguished man depart +with the suddenness his superstitious fears demanded. + +That this was in opposition to the inspector's wishes was evident +enough. Naturally, he would have preferred Mr. Grey to remain, if +only to make clear his surprising conclusions in regard to a +diamond which had passed through the hands of some of the best +judges in the country, without a doubt having been raised as to +its genuineness. + +With his departure the inspector's manner changed. He glanced at +the stone in his hand, and slowly shook his head. + +"I doubt if Mr. Grey's judgment can be depended on, to-night," +said he, and pocketed the gem as carefully as if his belief in +its real value had been but little disturbed by the assertions of +this renowned foreigner. + +I have no distinct remembrance of how I finally left the house, +or of what passed between my uncle and myself on our way home. I +was numb with the shock, and neither my intelligence nor my +feelings were any longer active. I recall but one impression, and +that was the effect made on me by my old home on our arrival +there, as of something new and strange; so much had happened, and +such changes had taken place in myself since leaving it five +hours before. But nothing else is vivid in my remembrance till +that early hour of the dreary morning, when, on waking to the +world with a cry, I beheld my uncle's anxious figure, bending +over me from the foot-board. + +Instantly I found tongue, and question after question leaped from +my lips. He did not answer them; he could not; but when I grew +feverish and insistent, he drew the morning paper from behind his +back, and laid it quietly down within my reach. I felt calmed in +an instant, and when, after a few affectionate words, he left me +to myself, I seized on the sheet and read what so many others +were reading at that moment throughout the city. + +I spare you the account so far as it coincides with what I had +myself seen and heard the night before. A few particulars which +had not reached my ears will interest you. The instrument of +death found in the place designated by Mr. Durand was one of note +to such as had any taste or knowledge of curios. It was a +stiletto of the most delicate type, long, keen and slender. Not +an American product, not even of this century's manufacture, but +a relic of the days when deadly thrusts were given in the corners +and by-ways of medieval streets. + +This made the first mystery. + +The second was the as yet unexplainable presence, on the alcove +floor, of two broken coffee-cups, which no waiter nor any other +person, in fact, admitted having carried there. The tray, which +had fallen from Peter Mooney's hand,--the waiter who had been the +first to give the alarm of murder,-- had held no cups, only ices. +This was a fact, proved. But the handles of two cups had been +found among the debris,-- cups which must have been full, from +the size of the coffee stain left on the rug where they had +fallen. + +In reading this I remembered that Mr. Durand had mentioned +stepping on some broken pieces of china in his escape from the +fatal scene, and, struck with this confirmation of a theory which +was slowly taking form in my own mind, I passed on to the next +paragraph, with a sense of expectation. + +The result was a surprise. Others may have been told, I was not, +that Mrs. Fairbrother had received a communication from outside +only a few minutes previous to her death. A Mr. Fullerton, who +had preceded Mr. Durand in his visit to the alcove, owned to +having opened the window for her at some call or signal from +outside, and taken in a small piece of paper which he saw lifted +up from below on the end of a whip handle. He could not see who +held the whip, but at Mrs. Fairbrother'S entreaty he unpinned the +note and gave it to her. While she was puzzling over it, for it +was apparently far from legible, he took another look out in time +to mark a figure rush from below toward the carriage drive. He +did not recognize the figure nor would he know it again. As to +the nature of the communication itself he could say nothing, save +that Mrs. Fairbrother did not seem to be affected favorably by +it. She frowned and was looking very gloomy when he left the +alcove. Asked if he had pulled the curtains together after +closing the window, he said that he had not; that she had not +requested him to do so. + +This story, which was certainly a strange one, had been confirmed +by the testimony of the coachman who had lent his whip for the +purpose. This coachman, who was known to be a man of extreme good +nature, had seen no harm in lending his whip to a poor devil who +wished to give a telegram or some such hasty message to the lady +sitting just above them in a lighted window. The wind was fierce +and the snow blinding, and it was natural that the man should +duck his head, but he remembered his appearance well enough to +say that he was either very cold or very much done up and that he +wore a greatcoat with the collar pulled up about his ears. When +he came back with the whip he seemed more cheerful than when he +asked for it, but had no "thank you" for the favor done him, or +if he had, it was lost in his throat and the piercing gale. + +The communication, which was regarded by the police as a matter +of the highest importance, had been found in her hand by the +coroner. It was a mere scrawl written in pencil on a small scrap +of paper. The following facsimile of the scrawl was given to the +public in the hope that some one would recognize the handwriting. + +The first two lines overlapped and were confused, but the last +one was clear enough. Expect trouble if--If what? Hundreds were +asking the question and at this very moment. I should soon be +asking it, too, but first, I must make an effort to understand +the situation,--a situation which up to now appeared to involve +Mr. Durand, and Mr. Durand only, as the suspected party. + +This was no more than I expected, yet it came with a shock under +the broad glare of this wintry morning; so impossible did it seem +in the light of every-day life that guilt could be associated in +any one's mind with a man of such unblemished record and +excellent standing. But the evidence adduced against him was of a +kind to appeal to the common mind--we all know that evidence--nor +could I say, after reading the full account, that I was myself +unaffected by its seeming weight. Not that my faith in his +innocence was shaken. I had met his look of love and tender +gratitude and my confidence in him had been restored, but I saw, +with all the clearness of a mind trained by continuous study, how +difficult it was going to be to counteract the prejudice induced, +first, by his own inconsiderate acts, especially by that +unfortunate attempt of his to secrete Mrs. Fairbrother's gloves +in another woman's bag, and secondly, by his peculiar +explanations--explanations which to many must seem forced and +unnatural. + +I saw and felt nerved to a superhuman task. I believed him +innocent, and if others failed to prove him so, I would undertake +to clear him myself,--I, the little Rita, with no experience of +law or courts or crime, but with simply an unbounded faith in the +man suspected and in the keenness of my own insight,--an insight +which had already served me so well and would serve me yet +better, once I had mastered the details which must be the prelude +to all intelligent action. + +The morning's report stopped with the explanations given by Mr. +Durand of the appearances against him. Consequently no word +appeared of the after events which had made such an impression at +the time on all the persons present. Mr. Grey was mentioned, but +simply as one of the guests, and to no one reading this early +morning issue would any doubt come as to the genuineness of the +diamond which, to all appearance, had been the leading motive in +the commission of this great crime. + +The effect on my own mind of this suppression was a curious one. +I began to wonder if the whole event had not been a chimera of my +disturbed brain--a nightmare which had visited me, and me alone, +and not a fact to be reckoned with. But a moment's further +thought served to clear my mind of all such doubts, and I +perceived that the police had only exercised common prudence in +withholding Mr. Grey's sensational opinion of the stone till it +could be verified by experts. + +The two columns of gossip devoted to the family differences which +had led to the separation of Mr. and Mrs. Fairbrother, I shall +compress into a few lines. They had been married three years +before in the city of Baltimore. He was a rich man then, but not +the multimillionaire he is to-day. Plain-featured and without +manner, lie was no mate for this sparkling coquette, whose charm +was of the kind which grows with exercise. Though no actual +scandal was ever associated with her name, he grew tired of her +caprices, and the conquests which she made no endeavor to hide +either from him or from the world at large; and at some time +during the previous year they had come to a friendly +understanding which led to their living apart, each in grand +style and with a certain deference to the proprieties which +retained them their friends and an enviable place in society. He +was not often invited where she was, and she never appeared in +any assemblage where he was expected; but with this exception, +little feeling was shown; matters progressed smoothly, and to +their credit, let it be said, no one ever heard either of them +speak otherwise than considerately of the other. He was at +present out or town, having started some three weeks before for +the southwest, but would probably return on receipt of the +telegram which had been sent him. + +The comments made on the murder were necessarily hurried. It was +called a mystery, but it was evident enough that Mr. Durand's +detention was looked on as the almost certain prelude to his +arrest on the charge of murder. + +I had had some discipline in life. Although a favorite of my +wealthy uncle, I had given up very early the prospects he held +out to me of a continued enjoyment of his bounty, and entered on +duties which required self-denial and hard work. I did this +because I enjoy having both my mind and heart occupied. To be +necessary to some one, as a nurse is to a patient, seemed to me +an enviable fate till I came under the influence of Anson Durand. +Then the craving of all women for the common lot of their sex +became my craving also; a craving, however, to which I failed at +first to yield, for I felt that it was unshared, and thus a token +of weakness. Fighting my battle, I succeeded in winning it, as I +thought, just as the nurse's diploma was put in my hands. Then +came the great surprise of my life. Anson Durand expressed his +love for me and I awoke to the fact that all my preparation had +been for home joys and a woman's true existence. One hour of +ecstasy in the light of this new hope, then tragedy and something +approaching chaos! Truly I had been through a schooling. But was +it one to make me useful in the only way I could be useful now? I +did not know; I did not care; I was determined on my course, fit +or unfit, and, in the relief brought by this appeal to my energy, +I rose and dressed and went about the duties of the day. + +One of these was to determine whether Mr. Grey, on his return to +his hotel, had found his daughter as ill as his fears had +foreboded. A telephone message or two satisfied me on this point. +Miss Grey was very ill, but not considered dangerously so; +indeed, if anything, her condition was improved, and if nothing +happened in the way of fresh complications, the prospects were +that she would be out in a fortnight. + +I was not surprised. It was more than I had expected. The cry of +the banshee in an American house was past belief, even in an +atmosphere surcharged with fear and all the horror surrounding a +great crime; and in the secret reckoning I was making against a +person I will not even name at this juncture, I added it as +another suspicious circumstance. + + + +VI + +SUSPENSE + +To relate the full experiences of the next few days would be to +encumber my narrative with unnecessary detail. + +I did not see Mr. Durand again. My uncle, so amenable in most +matters, proved Inexorable on this point. Till Mr. Durand's good +name should be restored by the coroner's verdict, or such +evidence brought to light as should effectually place him beyond +all suspicion, I was to hold no communication with him of any +sort whatever. I remember the very words with which my uncle +ended the one exhaustive conversation we had on the subject. They +were these: + +"You have fully expressed to Mr. Durand your entire confidence In +his Innocence. That must suffice him for the present. If he Is +the honest gentleman you think him, It will." + +As uncle seldom asserted himself, and as he is very much in +earnest when he does, I made no attempt to combat this +resolution, especially as it met the approval of my better +judgment. But though my power to convey sympathy fell thus under +a yoke, my thoughts and feelings remained free, and these were +all consecrated to the man struggling under an imputation, the +disgrace and humiliation of which he was but poorly prepared, by +his former easy life of social and business prosperity, to meet. + +For Mr. Durand, in spite of the few facts which came up from time +to time in confirmation of his story, continued to be almost +universally regarded as a suspect. + +This seemed to me very unjust. What if no other clue offered—no +other clue, I mean, recognized as such by police or public! Was +he not to have the benefit of whatever threw a doubt on his own +culpability? For instance, that splash of blood on his +shirt-front, which I had seen, and the shape of which I knew! Why +did not the fact that it was a splash and not a spatter (and +spatter it would have been had it spurted there, instead of +falling from above, as he stated), count for more in the minds of +those whose business it was to probe into the very heart of this +crime ? To me, it told such a tale of innocence that I wondered +how a man like the inspector could pass over it. But later I +understood. A single word enlightened me. The stain, it was true, +was In the form of a splash and not a spurt, but a splash would +have been the result of a drop falling from the reeking end of +the stiletto, whether it dislodged itself early or late. And what +was there to prove that this drop had not fallen at the instant +the stiletto was being thrust Into the lantern, instead of after +the escape of the criminal, and the entrance of another man? + +But the mystery of the broken coffee-cups! For that no +explanation seemed to be forthcoming. + +And the still unsolved one of the written warning found in the +murdered woman's hand—a warning which had been deciphered to +read: "Be warned! He means to be at the ball! Expect trouble if—" +Was that to be looked upon as directed against a man who, from +the nature of his projected attempt, would take no one into his +confidence? + +Then the stiletto—a photographic reproduction of which was in all +the papers—was that the kind of instrument which a plain New York +gentleman would be likely to use In a crime of this nature? It +was a marked and unique article, capable, as one would think, of +being easily traced to its owner. Had it been claimed by Mr. +Ramsdell, had it been recognized as one of the many works of art +scattered about the highly-decorated alcove, its employment as a +means of death would have gone only to prove the possibly +unpremeditated nature of the crime, and so been valueless as the +basis of an argument in favor of Mr. Durand's innocence. But Mr. +Ramsdell had disclaimed from the first all knowledge of it, +consequently one could but feel justified in asking whether a man +of Mr. Durand's judgment would choose such an extraordinary +weapon in meditating so startling a crime which from its nature +and circumstance could not fail to attract the attention of the +whole civilized world. + +Another argument, advanced by himself and subscribed to by all +his friends, was this: That a dealer in precious stones would be +the last man to seek by any unlawful means to possess so +conspicuous a jewel. For he, better than any one else, would know +the impossibility of disposing of a gem of this distinction in +any market short of the Orient. To which the unanswerable reply +was made that no one attributed to him any such folly; that if he +had planned to possess himself of this great diamond, it was for +the purpose of eliminating it from competition with the one he +had procured for Mr. Smythe; an argument, certainly, which drove +us back on the only plea we had at our command—his hitherto +unblemished reputation and the confidence which was felt In him +by those who knew him. + +But the one circumstance which affected me most at the time, and +which undoubtedly was the source of the greatest confusion to all +minds, whether official or otherwise, was the unexpected +confirmation by experts of Mr. Grey's opinion in regard to the +diamond. His name was not used, indeed it had been kept out of +the papers with the greatest unanimity, but the hint he had given +the inspector at Mr. Ramsdell's ball had been acted upon and, the +proper tests having been made, the stone, for which so many +believed a life to have been risked and another taken, was +declared to be an imitation, fine and successful beyond all +parallel, but still an imitation, of the great and renowned gem +which had passed through Tiffany's hands a twelve-month before: a +decision which fell like a thunderbolt on all such as had seen +the diamond blazing in unapproachable brilliancy on the breast of +the unhappy Mrs. Fairbrother only an hour or two before her +death. + +On me the effect was such that for days I lived in a dream, a +condition that, nevertheless, did not prevent me from starting a +certain little inquiry of my own, of which more hereafter. + +Here let me say that I did not share the general confusion on +this topic. I had my own theory, both as to the cause of this +substitution and the moment when it was made. But the time had +not yet come for me to advance it. I could only stand back and +listen to the suppositions aired by the press, suppositions which +fomented so much private discussion that ere long the one +question most frequently heard in this connection was not who +struck the blow which killed Mrs. Fairbrother (this was a +question which some seemed to think settled), but whose juggling +hand had palmed off the paste for the diamond, and how and when +and where had the jugglery taken place? + +Opinions on this point were, as I have said, many and various. +Some fixed upon the moment of exchange as that very critical and +hardly appreciable one elapsing between the murder and Mr. +Durand's appearance upon the scene. This theory, I need not say, +was advanced by such as believed that while he was not guilty of +Mrs. Fairbrother's murder, lie had been guilty of taking +advantage of the same to rob the body of what, in the terror and +excitement of the moment, he evidently took to be her great gem. +To others, among whom were many eyewitnesses of the event, it +appeared to be a conceded fact that this substitution had been +made prior to the ball and with Mrs. Fairbrother's full +cognizance. The effectual way in which she had wielded her fan +between the glittering ornament on her breast and the inquisitive +glances constantly leveled upon it might at the time have been +due to coquetry, but to them it looked much more like an +expression of fear lest the deception in which she was indulging +should be discovered. No one fixed the time where I did; but +then, no one but myself had watched the scene with the eyes of +love; besides, and this must be remembered, most people, among +whom I ventured to count the police officials, were mainly +interested in proving Mr. Durand guilty, while I, with contrary +mind, was bent on establishing such facts as confirmed the +explanations he had been pleased to give us, explanations which +necessitated a conviction, on Mrs. Fairbrother's part, of the +great value of the jewel she wore, and the consequent +advisability of ridding herself of it temporarily, if, as so many +believed, the full letter of the warning should read: "Be warned, +he means to be at the ball. Expect trouble if you are found +wearing the great diamond." + +True, she may herself have been deceived concerning it. +Unconsciously to herself, she may have been the victim of a +daring fraud on the part of some hanger-on who had access to her +jewels, but, as no such evidence had yet come to life, as she had +no recognized, or, so far as could be learned, secret lover or +dishonest dependent; and, moreover, as no gem of such unusual +value was known to have been offered within the year, here or +abroad, in public or private market, I could not bring myself to +credit this assumption; possibly because I was so ignorant as to +credit another, and a different one,—one which you have already +seen growing in my mind, and which, presumptuous as it was, kept +my courage from failing through all those dreadful days of +enforced waiting and suspense. For I was determined not to +intrude my suggestions, valuable as I considered them, till all +hope was gone of his being righted by the judgment of those who +would not lightly endure the interference of such an +insignificant mote in the great scheme of justice as myself. + +The inquest, which might be trusted to bring out all these +doubtful points, had been delayed in anticipation of Mr. +Fairbrother's return. His testimony could not but prove valuable, +if not in fixing the criminal, at least in settling the moot +point as to whether the stone, which the estranged wife had +carried away with her on leaving the house, had been the genuine +one returned to him from Tiffany's or the well-known imitation +now in the hands of the police. He had been located somewhere in +the mountains of lower Colorado, but, strange to say, It had been +found impossible to enter into direct communication with him; nor +was it known whether he was aware as yet of his wife's tragic +death. So affairs went slowly in New York and the case seemed to +come to a standstill, when public opinion was suddenly reawakened +and a more definite turn given to the whole matter by a despatch +from Santa Fe to the Associated Press. This despatch was to the +effect that Abner Fairbrother had passed through that city some +three days before on his way to his new mining camp, the Placide; +that he then showed symptoms of pneumonia, and from advices since +received might be regarded as a very sick man. + +Ill,—well, that explained matters. His silence, which many had +taken for indifference, was that of a man physically disabled and +unfit for exertion of any kind. Ill,—a tragic circumstance which +roused endless conjecture. Was he aware, or was he not aware, of +his wife's death? Had he been taken ill before or after he left +Colorado for New Mexico? Was he suffering mainly from shock, or, +as would appear from his complaint, from a too rapid change of +climate? + +The whole country seethed with excitement, and my poor little +unthought-of, insignificant self burned with impatience, which +only those who have been subjected to a like suspense can +properly estimate. Would the proceedings which were awaited with +so much anxiety be further delayed? Would Mr. Durand remain +indefinitely in durance and under such a cloud of disgrace as +would kill some men and might kill him? Should I be called upon +to endure still longer the suffering which this entailed upon me, +when I thought I knew? + +But fortune was less obdurate than I feared. Next morning a +telegraphic statement from Santa Fe settled one of the points of +this great dispute, a statement which you will find detailed at +more length in the following communication, which appeared a few +days later in one of our most enterprising journals. + +It was from a resident correspondent in New Mexico, and was +written, as the editor was careful to say, for his own eyes and +not for the public. He had ventured, however, to give It in full, +knowing the great interest which this whole subject had for his +readers. + + + +VII + +NIGHT AND A VOICE + +Not to be outdone by the editor, I insert the article here with +all its details, the importance of which I trust I have +anticipated. + +SANTA FE, N.M., April --. + +Arrived in Santa Fe, I inquired where Abner Fairbrother could be +found. I was told that he was at his mine, sick. + +Upon inquiring as to the location of the Placide, I was informed +that it was fifteen miles or so distant in the mountains, and +upon my expressing an intention of going there immediately, I was +given what I thought very unnecessary advice and then directed to +a certain livery stable, where I was told I could get the right +kind of a horse and such equipment as I stood in need of. + +I thought I was equipped all right as it was, but I said nothing +and went on to the livery stable. Here I was shown a horse which +I took to at once and was about to mount, when a pair of leggings +was brought to me. + +"You will need these for your journey," said the man. + +"Journey!" I repeated. "Fifteen miles!" + +The livery stable keeper--a half-breed with a peculiarly pleasant +smile--cocked up his shoulders with the remark: + +"Three men as willing but as inexperienced as yourself have +attempted the same journey during the last week and they all came +back before they reached the divide. You will probably come back, +too; but I shall give you as fair a start as if I knew you were +going straight through." + +"But a woman has done it," said I; "a nurse from the hospital +went up that very road last week." + +"Oh, women! they can do anything--women who are nurses. But they +don't start off alone. You are going alone." + +"Yes," I remarked grimly. "Newspaper correspondents make their +journeys singly when they can." + +"Oh! you are a newspaper correspondent! Why do so many men from +the papers want to see that sick old man? Because he's so rich?" + +"Don't you know?" I asked. + +He did not seem to. + +I wondered at his ignorance but did not enlighten him. + +"Follow the trail and ask your way from time to time. All the +goatherds know where the Placide mine is. + +Such were his simple instructions as he headed my horse toward +the canyon. But as I drew off, he shouted out: + +"If you get stuck, leave it to the horse. He knows more about it +than you do." + +With a vague gesture toward the northwest, he turned away, +leaving me in contemplation of the grandest scenery I had yet +come upon in all my travels. + +Fifteen miles! but those miles lay through the very heart of the +mountains, ranging anywhere from six to seven thousand feet high. +In ten minutes the city and all signs of city life were out of +sight. In five more I was seemingly as far removed from all +civilization as if I had gone a hundred miles into the +wilderness. + +As my horse settled down to work, picking his way, now here and +now there, sometimes over the brown earth, hard and baked as in a +thousand furnaces, and sometimes over the stunted grass whose +needle-like stalks seemed never to have known moisture, I let my +eyes roam to such peaks as were not cut off from view by the +nearer hillsides, and wondered whether the snow which capped them +was whiter than any other or the blue of the sky bluer, that the +two together had the effect upon me of cameo work on a huge and +unapproachable scale. + +Certainly the effect of these grand mountains, into which you +leap without any preparation from the streets and market-places +of America's oldest city, is such as is not easily described. + +We struck water now and then,--narrow water--courses which my +horse followed in mid stream, and, more interesting yet, +goatherds with their flocks, Mexicans all, who seemed to +understand no English, but were picturesque enough to look at and +a welcome break in the extreme lonesomeness of the way. + +I had been told that they would serve me as guides if I felt at +all doubtful of the trail, and in one or two instances they +proved to be of decided help. They could gesticulate, if they +could not speak English, and when I tried them with the one word +Placide they would nod and point out which of the many side +canyons I was to follow. But they always looked up as they did +so, up, up, till I took to looking up, too, and when, after miles +multiplied indefinitely by the winding of the trail, I came out +upon a ledge from which a full view of the opposite range could +be had, and saw fronting me, from the side of one of its +tremendous peaks, the gap of a vast hole not two hundred feet +from the snowline, I knew that, inaccessible as it looked, I was +gazing up at the opening of Abner Fairbrother's new mine, the +Placide. + +The experience was a strange one. The two ranges approached so +nearly that it seemed as if a ball might be tossed from one to +the other. But the chasm between was stupendous. I grew dizzy as +I looked downward and saw the endless zigzags yet to be traversed +step by step before the bottom of the canyon could be reached, +and then the equally interminable zigzags up the acclivity +beyond, all of which I must trace, still step by step, before I +could hope to arrive at the camp which, from where I stood, +looked to be almost within hail of my voice. + +I have described the mine as a hole. That was all I saw at +first--a great black hole in the dark brown earth of the +mountain-side, from which ran down a still darker streak into the +waste places far below it. But as I looked longer I saw that it +was faced by a ledge cut out of the friable soil, on which I was +now able to descry the pronounced white of two or three tent-tops +and some other signs of life, encouraging enough to the eye of +one whose lot it was to crawl like a fly up that tremendous +mountain-side. + +Truly I could understand why those three men, probably newspaper +correspondents like myself, had turned back to Santa Fe, after a +glance from my present outlook. But though I understood I did not +mean to duplicate their retreat. + +The sight of those tents, the thought of what one of them +contained, inspired me with new courage, and, releasing my grip +upon the rein, I allowed my patient horse to proceed. Shortly +after this I passed the divide--that is where the water sheds +both ways--then the descent began. It was zigzag, just as the +climb had been, but I preferred the climb. I did not have the +unfathomable spaces so constantly before me, nor was my +imagination so active. It was fixed on heights to be attained +rather than on valleys to roll into. However, I did not roll. + +The Mexican saddle held me securely at whatever angle I was +poised, and once the bottom was reached I found that I could +face, with considerable equanimity, the corresponding ascent. +Only, as I saw how steep the climb bade fair to be, I did not see +how I was ever to come down again. Going up was possible, but the +descent-- + +However, as what goes up must in the course of nature come down, +I put this question aside and gave my horse his head, after +encouraging him with a few blades of grass, which he seemed to +find edible enough, though they had the look and something of the +feel of spun glass. + +How we got there you must ask this good animal, who took all the +responsibility and did all the work. I merely clung and balanced, +and at times, when he rounded the end of a zigzag, for instance, +I even shut my eyes, though the prospect was magnificent. At last +even his patience seemed to give out, and he stopped and +trembled. But before I could open my eyes on the abyss beneath he +made another effort. I felt the brush of tree branches across my +face, and, looking up, saw before me the ledge or platform dotted +with tents, at which I had looked with such longing from the +opposite hillsides. + +Simultaneously I heard voices, and saw approaching a bronzed and +bearded man with strongly-marked Scotch features and a determined +air. + +"The doctor!" I involuntarily exclaimed, with a glance at the +small and curious tent before which he stood guard. + +"Yes, the doctor," he answered in unexpectedly good English. "And +who are you? Have you brought the mail and those medicines I sent +for?" + +"No," I replied with as propitiatory a smile as I could muster up +in face of his brusk forbidding expression. "I came on my own +errand. I am a representative of the New York--,and I hope you +will not deny me a word with Mr. Fairbrother." + +With a gesture I hardly knew how to interpret he took my horse by +the rein and led us on a few steps toward another large tent, +where he motioned me to descend. Then he laid his hand on my +shoulder and, forcing me to meet his eye, said: + +"You have made this journey--I believe you said from New York--to +see Mr. Fairbrother. Why?" + +"Because Mr. Fairbrother is at present the most sought-for man in +America," I returned boldly. "His wife--you know about his wife-- +" + +"No. How should I know about his wife? I know what his +temperature is and what his respiration is--but his wife? What +about his wife? He don't know anything about her now himself; he +is not allowed to read letters." + +"But you read the papers. You must have known, before you left +Santa Fe, of Mrs. Fairbrother's foul and most mysterious murder +in New York. It has been the theme of two continents for the last +ten days." + +He shrugged his shoulders, which might mean anything, and +confined his reply to a repetition of my own words. + +"Mrs. Fairbrother murdered!" he exclaimed, but in a suppressed +voice, to which point was given by the cautious look he cast +behind him at the tent which had drawn my attention. "He must not +know it, man. I could not answer for his life if he received the +least shock in his present critical condition. Murdered? When?" + +"Ten days ago, at a ball in New York. It was after Mr. +Fairbrother left the city. He was expected to return, after +hearing the news, but he seems to have kept straight on to his +destination. He was not very fond of his wife,--that is, they +have not been living together for the last year. But he could not +help feeling the shock of her death which he must have heard of +somewhere along the route." + +"He has said nothing in his delirium to show that he knew it. It +is possible, just possible, that he didn't read the papers. He +could not have been well for days before he reached Santa Fe." + +"When were you called in to attend him?" + +"The very night after he reached this place. It was thought he +wouldn't live to reach the camp. But he is a man of great pluck. +He held up till his foot touched this platform. Then he +succumbed." + +"If he was as sick as that," I muttered, "why did he leave Santa +Fe? He must have known what it would mean to be sick here." + +"I don't think he did. This is his first visit to the mine. He +evidently knew nothing of the difficulties of the road. But he +would not stop. He was determined to reach the camp, even after +he had been given a sight of it from the opposite mountain. He +told them that he had once crossed the Sierras in midwinter. But +he wasn't a sick man then." + +"Doctor, they don't know who killed his wife." + +"He didn't." + +"I know, but under such circumstances every fact bearing on the +event is of immense importance. There is one which Mr. +Fairbrother only can make clear. It can be said in a word--" + +The grim doctor's eye flashed angrily and I stopped. + +"Were you a detective from the district attorney's office in New +York, sent on with special powers to examine him, I should still +say what I am going to say now. While Mr. Fairbrother's +temperature and pulse remain where they now are, no one shall see +him and no one shall talk to him save myself and his nurse." + +I turned with a sick look of disappointment toward the road up +which I had so lately come. "Have I panted, sweltered, trembled, +for three mortal hours on the worst trail a man ever traversed to +go back with nothing for my journey? That seems to me hard lines. +Where is the manager of this mine?" + +The doctor pointed toward a man bending over the edge of the +great hole from which, at that moment, a line of Mexicans was +issuing, each with a sack on his back which he flung down before +what looked like a furnace built of clay. + +"That's he. Mr. Haines, of Philadelphia. What do you want of +him?" + +"Permission to stay the night. Mr. Fairbrother may be better +to-morrow." + +"I won't allow it and I am master here, so far as my patient is +concerned. You couldn't stay here without talking, and talking +makes excitement, and excitement is just what he can not stand. A +week from now I will see about it--that is, if my patient +continues to improve. I am not sure that he will." + +Let me spend that week here. I'll not talk any more than the +dead. Maybe the manager will let me carry sacks." + +"Look here," said the doctor, edging me farther and farther away +from the tent he hardly let out of his sight for a moment. +"You're a canny lad, and shall have your bite and something to +drink before you take your way back. But back you go before +sunset and with this message: No man from any paper north or +south will be received here till I hang out a blue flag. I say +blue, for that is the color of my bandana. When my patient is in +a condition to discuss murder I'll hoist it from his tent-top. It +can be seen from the divide, and if you want to camp there on the +lookout, well and good. As for the police, that's another matter. +I will see them if they come, but they need not expect to talk to +my patient. You may say so down there. It will save scrambling up +this trail to no purpose." + +"You may count on me," said I; "trust a New York correspondent to +do the right thing at the right time to head off the boys. But I +doubt if they will believe me." + +"In that case I shall have a barricade thrown up fifty feet down +the mountain-side," said he. + +"But the mail and your supplies?" + +"Oh, the burros can make their way up. We shan't suffer." + +"You are certainly master," I remarked. + +All this time I had been using my eyes. There was not much to +see, but what there was was romantically interesting. Aside from +the furnace and what was going on there, there was little else +but a sleeping-tent, a cooking-tent, and the small one I had come +on first, which, without the least doubt, contained the sick man. +This last tent was of a peculiar construction and showed the +primitive nature of everything at this height. It consisted +simply of a cloth thrown over a thing like a trapeze. This cloth +did not even come to the ground on either side, but stopped short +a foot or so from the flat mound of adobe which serves as a base +or floor for hut or tent in New Mexico. The rear of the simple +tent abutted on the mountain-side; the opening was toward the +valley. I felt an intense desire to look into this opening,--so +intense that I thought I would venture on an attempt to gratify +it. Scrutinizing the resolute face of the man before me and +flattering myself that I detected signs of humor underlying his +professional bruskness, I asked, somewhat mournfully, if he would +let me go away without so much as a glance at the man I had come +so far to see. "A glimpse would satisfy me I assured him, as the +hint of a twinkle flashed in his eye. "Surely there will be no +harm in that. I'll take it instead of supper." + +He smiled, but not encouragingly, and I was feeling very +despondent, indeed, when the canvas on which our eyes were fixed +suddenly shook and the calm figure of a woman stepped out before +us, clad in the simplest garb, but showing in every line of face +and form a character of mingled kindness and shrewdness. She was +evidently on the lookout for the doctor, for she made a sign as +she saw him and returned instantly into the tent. + +"Mr. Fairbrother has just fallen asleep," he explained. "It isn't +discipline and I shall have to apologize to Miss Serra, but if +you will promise not to speak nor make the least disturbance I +will let you take the one peep you prefer to supper." + +"I promise," said I. + +Leading the way to the opening, he whispered a word to the nurse, +then motioned me to look in. The sight was a simple one, but to +me very impressive. The owner of palaces, a man to whom millions +were as thousands to such poor devils as myself, lay on an +improvised bed of evergreens, wrapped in a horse blanket and with +nothing better than another of these rolled up under his head. At +his side sat his nurse on what looked like the uneven stump of a +tree. Close to her hand was a tolerably flat stone, on which I +saw arranged a number of bottles and such other comforts as were +absolutely necessary to a proper care of the sufferer. + +That was all. In these few words I have told the whole story. To +be sure, this simple tent, perched seven thousand feet and more +above sea-level, had one advantage which even his great house in +New York could not offer This was the out look. Lying as he did +facing the valley, he had only to open his eyes to catch a full +view of the panorama of sky and mountain stretched out before +him. It was glorious; whether seen at morning, noon or night, +glorious. But I doubt if he would not gladly have exchanged it +for a sight of his home walls. + +As I started to go, a stir took place in the blanket wrapped +about his chin, and I caught a glimpse of the iron-gray head and +hollow cheeks of the great financier. He was a very sick man. +Even I could see that. Had I obtained the permission I sought and +been allowed to ask him one of the many questions burning on my +tongue, I should have received only delirium for reply. There was +no reaching that clouded intelligence now, and I felt grateful to +the doctor for convincing me of it. + +I told him so and thanked him quite warmly when we were well away +from the tent, and his answer was almost kindly, though he made +no effort to hide his impatience and anxiety to see me go. The +looks he cast at the sun were significant, and, having no wish to +antagonize him and every wish to visit the spot again, I moved +toward my horse with the intention of untying him. + +To my surprise the doctor held me back. + +"You can't go to-night," said he, "your horse has hurt himself." + +It was true. There was something the matter with the animal's +left forefoot. As the doctor lifted it, the manager came up. He +agreed with the doctor. I could not make the descent to Santa Fe +on that horse that night. Did I feel elated? Rather. I had no +wish to descend. Yet I was far from foreseeing what the night was +to bring me. + +I was turned over to the manager, but not without a final +injunction from the doctor. "Not a word to any one about your +errand! Not a word about the New York tragedy, as you value Mr. +Fairbrother's life." + +"Not a word," said I. + +Then he left me. + +To see the sun go down and the moon come up from a ledge hung, as +it were, in mid air! The experience was novel--but I refrain. I +have more important matters to relate. + +I was given a bunk at the extreme end of the long sleeping-tent, +and turned in with the rest. I expected to sleep, but on finding +that I could catch a sight of the sick tent from under the +canvas, I experienced such fascination in watching this forbidden +spot that midnight came before I had closed my eyes. Then all +desire to sleep left me, for the patient began to moan and +presently to talk, and, the stillness of the solitary height +being something abnormal, I could sometimes catch the very words. +Devoid as they were of all rational meaning, they excited my +curiosity to the burning point; for who could tell if he might +not say something bearing on the mystery? + +But that fevered mind had recurred to early scenes and the babble +which came to my ears was all of mining camps in the Rockies and +the dicker of horses. Perhaps the uneasy movement of my horse +pulling at the end of his tether had disturbed him. Perhaps-- + +But at the inner utterance of the second "perhaps" I found myself +up on my elbow listening with all my ears, and staring with +wide-stretched eyes at the thicket of stunted trees where the +road debouched on the platform. Something was astir there besides +my horse. I could catch sounds of an unmistakable nature. A rider +was coming up the trail. + +Slipping back into my place, I turned toward the doctor, who lay +some two or three bunks nearer the opening. He had started up, +too, and in a moment was out of the tent. I do not think he had +observed my action, for it was very dark where I lay and his back +had been turned toward me. As for the others, they slept like the +dead, only they made more noise. + +Interested--everything is interesting at such a height--I brought +my eye to bear on the ledge, and soon saw by the limpid light of +a full moon the stiff, short branches of the trees, on which my +gaze was fixed, give way to an advancing horse and rider. + +"Halloo!" saluted the doctor in a whisper, which was in itself a +warning. "Easy there! We have sickness in this camp and it's a +late hour for visitors." + +"I know?' + +The answer was subdued, but earnest. + +"I'm the magistrate of this district. I've a question to ask this +sick man, on behalf of the New York Chief of Police, who is a +personal friend of mine. It is connected with--" + +"Hush!" + +The doctor had seized him by the arm and turned his face away +from the sick tent. Then the two heads came together and an +argument began. + +I could not hear a word of it, but their motions were eloquent. +My sympathy was with the magistrate, of course, and I watched +eagerly while he passed a letter over to the doctor, who vainly +strove to read it by the light of the moon. Finding this +impossible, he was. about to return it, when the other struck a +match and lit a lantern hanging from the horn of his saddle. The +two heads came together again, but as quickly separated with +every appearance of irreconcilement, and I was settling back with +sensations of great disappointment, when a sound fell on the +night so unexpected to all concerned that with a common impulse +each eye sought the sick tent. + +"Water! will some one give me water?" a voice had cried, quietly +and with none of the delirium which had hitherto rendered it +unnatural. + +The doctor started for the tent. There was the quickness of +surprise in his movement and the gesture he made to the +magistrate, as he passed in, reawakened an expectation in my +breast which made me doubly watchful. + +Providence was intervening in our favor, and I was not surprised +to see him presently reissue with the nurse, whom he drew into +the shadow of the trees, where they had a short conference. If +she returned alone into the tent after this conference I should +know that the matter was at an end and that the doctor had +decided to maintain his authority against that of the magistrate. +But she remained outside and the magistrate was invited to join +their council; when they again left the shadow of the trees it +was to approach the tent. + +The magistrate, who was in the rear, could not have more than +passed the opening, but I thought him far enough inside not to +detect any movement on my part, so I took advantage of the +situation to worm myself out of my corner and across the ledge to +where the tent made a shadow in the moonlight. + +Crouching close, and laying my ear against the canvas, I +listened. + +The nurse was speaking in a gently persuasive tone. I imagined +her kneeling by the head of the patient and breathing words into +his ear. These were what I heard: + +"You love diamonds. I have often noticed that; you look so long +at the ring on your hand. That is why I have let it stay there, +though at times I have feared it would drop off and roll away +over the adobe down the mountain-side. Was I right?" + +"Yes, yes." The words came with difficulty, but they were clear +enough. "It's of small value. I like it because--" + +He appeared to be too weak to finish. + +A pause, during which she seemed to edge nearer to him. + +"We all have some pet keepsake," said she. "But I should never +have supposed this stone of yours an inexpensive one. But I +forget that you are the owner of a very large and remarkable +diamond, a diamond that is spoken of sometimes in the papers. Of +course, if you have a gem like that, this one must appear very +small and valueless to you." + +"Yes, this is nothing, nothing." And he appeared to turn away his +head. + +"Mr. Fairbrother! Pardon me, but I want to tell you something +about that big diamond of yours. You have been in and have not +been able to read your letters, so do not know that your wife has +had some trouble with that diamond. People have said that it is +not a real stone, but a well-executed imitation. May I write to +her that this is a mistake, that it is all you have ever claimed +for it--that is, an unusually large diamond of the first water?" + +I listened in amazement. Surely, this was an insidious way to get +at the truth,--a woman's way, but who would say it was not a wise +one, the wisest, perhaps, which could be taken under the +circumstances? What would his reply be? Would it show that he was +as ignorant of his wife's death as was generally believed, both +by those about him here and those who knew him well in New York? +Or would the question convey nothing further to him than the +doubt--in itself an insult of the genuineness of that great stone +which had been his pride? + +A murmur--that was all it could be called--broke from his +fever-dried lips and died away in an inarticulate gasp. Then, +suddenly, sharply, a cry broke from him, an intelligible cry, and +we heard him say: + +"No imitation! no imitation! It was a sun! a glory! No other like +it! It lit the air! it blazed, it burned! I see it now! I see--" + +There the passion succumbed, the strength failed; another murmur, +another, and the great void of night which stretched over--I +might almost say under us--was no more quiet or seemingly +impenetrable than the silence of that moon-enveloped tent + +Would he speak again? I did not think so. Would she even try to +make him? I did not think this, either. But I did not know the +woman. + +Softly her voice rose again. There was a dominating insistence in +her tones, gentle as they were; the insistence of a healthy mind +which seeks to control a weakened one. + +"You do not know of any imitation, then? It was the real stone +you gave her. You are sure of it; you would be ready to swear to +it if--say just yes or no," she finished in gentle urgency. + +Evidently he was sinking again into unconsciousness, and she was +just holding him back long enough for the necessary word. + +It came slowly and with a dragging intonation, but there was no +mistaking the ring of truth with which he spoke. + +"Yes," said he, + +When I heard the doctor's voice and felt a movement in the canvas +against which I leaned, I took the warning and stole back +hurriedly to my quarters. + +I was scarcely settled, when the same group of three I had before +watched silhouetted itself again against the moonlight. There was +some talk, a mingling and separating of shadows; then the nurse +glided back to her duties and the two men went toward the clump +of trees where the horse had been tethered. + +Ten minutes and the doctor was back in his bunk. Was it +imagination, or did I feel his hand on my shoulder before he +finally lay down and composed himself to sleep? I can not say; I +only know that I gave no sign, and that soon all stir ceased in +his direction and I was left to enjoy my triumph and to listen +with anxious interest to the strange and unintelligible sounds +which accompanied the descent of the horseman down the face of +the cliff, and finally to watch with a fascination, which drew me +to my knees, the passage of that sparkling star of light hanging +from his saddle. It crept to and fro across the side of the +opposite mountain as he threaded its endless zigzags and finally +disappeared over the brow into the invisible canyons beyond. + +With the disappearance of this beacon came lassitude and sleep, +through whose hazy atmosphere floated wild sentences from the +sick tent, which showed that the patient was back again in +Nevada, quarreling over the price of a horse which was to carry +him beyond the reach of some threatening avalanche. + +When next morning I came to depart, the doctor took me by both +hands and looked me straight in the eyes. + +"You heard," he said. + +"How do you know?" I asked. + +"I can tell a satisfied man when I see him," he growled, throwing +down my hands with that same humorous twinkle in his eyes which +had encouraged me from the first. + +I made no answer, but I shall remember the lesson. + +One detail more. When I stared on my own descent I found why the +leggings, with which I had been provided, were so indispensable. +I was not allowed to ride; indeed, riding down those steep +declivities was impossible. No horse could preserve his balance +with a rider on his back. I slid, so did my horse, and only in +the valley beneath did we come together again. + +VIII + +ARREST + +The success of this interview provoked other attempts on the part +of the reporters who now flocked into the Southwest. Ere long +particulars began to pour in of Mr. Fairbrother's painful journey +south, after his illness set in. The clerk of the hotel in El +Moro, where the great mine-owner's name was found registered at +the time of the murder, told a story which made very good reading +for those who were more interested in the sufferings and +experiences of the millionaire husband of the murdered lady than +in those of the unhappy but comparatively insignificant man upon +whom public opinion had cast the odium of her death. + +It seems that when the first news came of the great crime which +had taken place in New York, Mr. Fairbrother was absent from the +hotel on a prospecting tour through the adjacent mountains. +Couriers had been sent after him, and it was one of these who +finally brought him into town. He had been found wandering alone +on horseback among the defiles of an untraveled region, sick and +almost incoherent from fever. Indeed, his condition was such that +neither the courier nor such others as saw him had the heart to +tell him the dreadful news from New York, or even to show him the +papers. To their great relief, he betrayed no curiosity in them. +All he wanted was a berth in the first train going south, and +this was an easy way for them out of a great responsibility. They +listened to his wishes and saw him safely aboard, with such +alacrity and with so many precautions against his being disturbed +that they have never doubted that he left El Moro in total +ignorance, not only of the circumstances of his great +bereavement, but of the bereavement itself. + +This ignorance, which he appeared to have carried with him to the +Placide, was regarded by those who knew him best as proving the +truth of the affirmation elicited from him in the pauses of his +delirium of the genuineness of the stone which had passed from +his hands to those of his wife at the time of their separation; +and, further despatches coming in, some private and some +official, but all insisting upon the fact that it would be weeks +before he would be in a condition to submit to any sort of +examination on a subject so painful, the authorities in New York +decided to wait no longer for his testimony, but to proceed at +once with the inquest. + +Great as is the temptation to give a detailed account of +proceedings which were of such moment to myself, and to every +word of which I listened with the eagerness of a novice and the +anguish of a woman who sees her lover's reputation at the mercy +of a verdict which may stigmatize him as a possible criminal, I +see no reason for encumbering my narrative with what, for the +most part, would be a mere repetition of facts already known to +you. + +Mr. Durand's intimate and suggestive connection with this crime, +the explanations he had to give of this connection, frequently +bizarre and, I must acknowledge, not always convincing,--nothing +could alter these nor change the fact of the undoubted cowardice +he displayed in hiding Mrs. Fairbrother's gloves in my +unfortunate little bag. + +As for the mystery of the warning, it remained as much of a +mystery as ever. Nor did any better success follow an attempt to +fix the ownership of the stiletto, though a half-day was +exhausted in an endeavor to show that the latter might have come +into Mr. Durand's possession in some of the many visits he was +shown to have made of late to various curio-shops in and out of +New York City.* + +I had expected all this, just as I had expected Mr. Grey to be +absent from the proceedings and his testimony ignored. But this +expectation did not make the ordeal any easier, and when I +noticed the effect of witness after witness leaving the stand +without having improved Mr. Durand's position by a jot or +offering any new clue capable of turning suspicion into other +directions, I felt my spirit harden and my purpose strengthen +till I hardly knew myself. I must have frightened my uncle, for +his hand was always on my arm and his chiding voice in my ear, +bidding me beware, not only for my own sake and his, but for that +of Mr. Durand, whose eye was seldom away from my face. + +The verdict, however, was not the one I had so deeply dreaded. +While it did not exonerate Mr. Durand, it did not openly accuse +him, and I was on the point of giving him a smile of +congratulation and renewed hope when I saw my little detective-- +the one who had spied the gloves in my bag at the ball--advance +and place his hand upon his arm. + +The police had gone a step further than the coroner's jury, and +Mr. Durand was arrested, before my eyes, on a charge of murder. + + +*Mr. Durand's visits to the curio-shops, as explained by him, +were made with a view of finding a casket in which to place his +diamond. This explanation was looked upon with as much doubt as +the others he had offered where the situation seemed to be of a +compromising character. + + + +IX + +THE MOUSE NIBBLES AT THE NET + +The next day saw me at police headquarters begging an interview +from the inspector, with the intention of confiding to him a +theory which must either cost me his sympathy or open the way to +a new inquiry, which I felt sure would lead to Mr. Durand's +complete exoneration. + +I chose this gentleman for my confidant, from among all those +with whom I had been brought in contact by my position as witness +in a case of this magnitude, first, because he had been present +at the most tragic moment of my life, and secondly, because I was +conscious of a sympathetic bond between us which would insure me +a kind hearing. However ridiculous my idea might appear to him, I +was assured that he would treat me with consideration and not +visit whatever folly I might be guilty of on the head of him for +whom I risked my reputation for good sense. + +Nor was I disappointed in this. Inspector Dalzell's air was +fatherly and his tone altogether gentle as, in reply to my +excuses for troubling him with my opinions, he told me that in a +case of such importance he was glad to receive the impressions +even of such a prejudiced little partizan as myself. The word +fired me, and I spoke. + +"You consider Mr. Durand guilty, and so do many others, I fear, +in spite of his long record for honesty and uprightness. And why? +Because you will not admit the possibility of another person's +guilt,--a person standing so high in private and public +estimation that the very idea seems preposterous and little short +of insulting to the country of which he is an acknowledged +ornament." + +"My dear!" + +The inspector had actually risen. His expression and whole +attitude showed shock. But I did not quail; I only subdued my +manner and spoke with quieter conviction. + +"I am aware," said I, "how words so daring must impress you. But +listen, sir; listen to what I have to say before you utterly +condemn me. I acknowledge that it is the frightful position into +which I threw Mr. Durand by my officious attempt to right him +which has driven me to make this second effort to fix the crime +on the only other man who had possible access to Mrs. Fairbrother +at the fatal moment. How could I live in inaction? How could you +expect me to weigh for a moment this foreigner's reputation +against that of my own lover? If I have reasons--" + +"Reasons!" + +"--reasons which would appeal to all; if instead of this person's +having an international reputation at his back he had been a +simple gentleman like Mr. Durand,--would you not consider me +entitled to speak?" + +"Certainly, but--" + +"You have no confidence in my reasons, Inspector; they may not +weigh against that splash of blood on Mr. Durand's shirt-front, +but such as they are I must give them. But first, it will be +necessary for you to accept for the nonce Mr. Durand's statements +as true. Are you willing to do this?" + +"I will try." + +"Then, a harder thing yet,--to put some confidence in my +judgment. I saw the man and did not like him long before any +intimation of the evening's tragedy had turned suspicion on any +one. I watched him as I watched others. I saw that he had not +come to the ball to please Mr. Ramsdell or for any pleasure he +himself hoped to reap from social intercourse, but for some +purpose much more important, and that this purpose was connected +with Mrs. Fairbrother's diamond. Indifferent, almost morose +before she came upon the scene, he brightened to a surprising +extent the moment he found himself in her presence. Not because +she was a beautiful woman, for he scarcely honored her face or +even her superb figure with a look. All his glances were centered +on her large fan, which, in swaying to and fro, alternately hid +and revealed the splendor on her breast; and when by chance it +hung suspended for a moment in her forgetful hand and he caught a +full glimpse of the great gem, I perceived such a change in his +face that, if nothing more had occurred that night to give +prominence to this woman and her diamond, I should have carried +home the conviction that interests of no common import lay behind +a feeling so extraordinarily displayed." + +"Fanciful, my dear Miss Van Arsdale I Interesting, but fanciful." + +"I know. I have not yet touched on fact. But facts are coming, +Inspector." + +He stared. Evidently he was not accustomed to hear the law laid +down in this fashion by a midget of my proportions. + +"Go on," said he; "happily, I have no clerk here to listen." + +"I would not speak if you had. These are words for but one ear as +yet. Not even my uncle suspects the direction of my thoughts." + +"Proceed," he again enjoined. + +Upon which I plunged into my subject. + +"Mrs. Fairbrother wore the real diamond, and no imitation, to the +ball. Of this I feel sure. The bit of glass or paste displayed to +the coroner's jury was bright enough, but it was not the star of +light I saw burning on her breast as she passed me on her way to +the alcove." + +"Miss Van Arsdale!" + +"The interest which Mr. Durand displayed in it, the marked +excitement into which he was thrown by his first view of its size +and splendor, confirm in my mind the evidence which he gave on +oath (and he is a well-known diamond expert, you know, and must +have been very well aware that he would injure rather than help +his cause by this admission) that at that time he believed the +stone to be real and of immense value. Wearing such a gem, then, +she entered the fatal alcove, and, with a smile on her face, +prepared to employ her fascinations on whoever chanced to come +within their reach. But now something happened. Please let me +tell it my own way. A shout from the driveway, or a bit of snow +thrown against the window, drew her attention to a man standing +below, holding up a note fastened to the end of a whip-handle. I +do not know whether or not you have found that man. If you have-- +" The inspector made no sign. "I judge that you have not, so I +may go on with my suppositions. Mrs. Fairbrother took in this +note. She may have expected it and for this reason chose the +alcove to sit in, or it may have been a surprise to her. Probably +we shall never know the whole truth about it; but what we can +know and do, if you are still holding to our compact and viewing +this crime in the light of Mr. Durand's explanations, is that it +made a change in her and made her anxious to rid herself of the +diamond. It has been decided that the hurried scrawl should read, +'Take warning. He means to be at the ball. Expect trouble if you +do not give him the diamond,' or something to that effect. But +why was it passed up to her unfinished? Was the haste too great? +I hardly think so. I believe in another explanation, which points +with startling directness to the possibility that the person +referred to in this broken communication was not Mr. Durand, but +one whom I need not name; and that the reason you have failed to +find the messenger, of whose appearance you have received +definite information, is that you have not looked among the +servants of a certain distinguished visitor in town. Oh," I burst +forth with feverish volubility, as I saw the inspector's lips +open in what could not fail to be a sarcastic utterance, "I know +what you feel tempted to reply. Why should a servant deliver a +warning against his own master? If you will be patient with me +you will soon see; but first I wish to make it clear that Mrs. +Fairbrother, having received this warning just before Mr. Durand +appeared in the alcove,--reckless, scheming woman that she was!-- +sought to rid herself of the object against which it was directed +in the way we have temporarily accepted as true. Relying on her +arts, and possibly misconceiving the nature of Mr. Durand's +interest in her, she hands over the diamond hidden in her +rolled-up gloves, which he, without suspicion, carries away with +him, thus linking himself indissolubly to a great crime of which +another was the perpetrator. That other, or so I believe from my +very heart of hearts, was the man I saw leaning against the wall +at the foot of the alcove a few minutes before I passed into the +supper-room." + +I stopped with a gasp, hardly able to meet the stern and +forbidding look with which the inspector sought to restrain what +he evidently considered the senseless ravings of a child. But I +had come there to speak, and I hastily proceeded before the +rebuke thus expressed could formulate itself into words. + +"I have some excuse for a declaration so monstrous. Perhaps I am +the only person who can satisfy you in regard to a certain fact +about which you have expressed some curiosity. Inspector, have +you ever solved the mystery of the two broken coffee-cups found +amongst the debris at Mrs. Fairbrother's feet? It did not come +out in the inquest, I noticed." + +"Not yet," he cried, "but--you can not tell me anything about +them!" + +"Possibly not. But I can tell you this: When I reached the +supper-room door that evening I looked back and, providentially +or otherwise--only the future can determine that--detected Mr. +Grey in the act of lifting two cups from a tray left by some +waiter on a table standing just outside the reception-room door. +I did not see where he carried them; I only saw his face turned +toward the alcove; and as there was no other lady there, or +anywhere near there, I have dared to think--" + +Here the inspector found speech. + +"You saw Mr. Grey lift two cups and turn toward the alcove at a +moment we all know to have been critical? You should have told me +this before. He may be a possible witness." + +I scarcely listened. I was too full of my own argument. + +"There were other people in the hall, especially at my end of it. +A perfect throng was coming from the billiard-room, where the +dancing had been, and it might easily be that he could both enter +and leave that secluded spot without attracting attention. He had +shown too early and much too unmistakably his lack of interest in +the general company for his every movement to be watched as at +his first arrival. But this is simple conjecture; what I have to +say next is evidence. The stiletto--have you studied it, sir? I +have, from the pictures. It is very quaint; and among the devices +on the handle is one that especially attracted my attention. See! +This is what I mean." And I handed him a drawing which I had made +with some care in expectation of this very interview. + +He surveyed it with some astonishment. + +"I understand," I pursued in trembling tones, for I was much +affected by my own daring, "that no one has so far succeeded in +tracing this weapon to its owner. Why didn't your experts study +heraldry and the devices of great houses? They would have found +that this one is not unknown in England. I can tell you on whose +blazon it can often be seen, and so could-- Mr. Grey." + + + +X + +I ASTONISH THE INSPECTOR + +I was not the only one to tremble now. This man of infinite +experience and daily contact with crime had turned as pale as +ever I myself had done in face of a threatening calamity. + +"I shall see about this," he muttered, crumpling the paper in his +hand. "But this is a very terrible business you are plunging me +into. I sincerely hope that you are not heedlessly misleading +me." + +"I am correct in my facts, if that is what you mean," said I. +"The stiletto is an English heirloom, and bears on its blade, +among other devices, that of Mr. Grey's family on the female +side. But that is not all I want to say. If the blow was struck +to obtain the diamond, the shock of not finding it on his victim +must have been terrible. Now Mr. Grey's heart, if my whole theory +is not utterly false, was set upon obtaining this stone. Your eye +was not on him as mine was when you made your appearance in the +hall with the recovered jewel. He showed astonishment, eagerness, +and a determination which finally led him forward, as you know, +with the request to take the diamond in his hand. Why did he want +to take it in his hand? And why, having taken it, did he drop +it--a diamond supposed to be worth an ordinary man's fortune? +Because he was startled by a cry he chose to consider the +traditional one of his family proclaiming death? Is it likely, +sir? Is it conceivable even that any such cry as we heard could, +in this day and generation, ring through such an assemblage, +unless it came with ventriloquial power from his own lips? You +observed that he turned his back; that his face was hidden from +us. Discreet and reticent as we have all been, and careful in our +criticisms of so bizarre an event, there still must be many to +question the reality of such superstitious fears, and some to ask +if such a sound could be without human agency, and a very guilty +agency, too. Inspector, I am but a child in your estimation, and +I feel my position in this matter much more keenly than you do, +but I would not be true to the man whom I have unwittingly helped +to place in his present unenviable position if I did not tell you +that, in my judgment, this cry was a spurious one, employed by +the gentleman himself as an excuse for dropping the stone." + +"And why should he wish to drop the stone?" + +"Because of the fraud he meditated. Because it offered him an +opportunity for substituting a false stone for the real. Did you +not notice a change in the aspect of this jewel dating from this +very moment? Did it shine with as much brilliancy in your hand +when you received it back as when you passed it over?" + +"Nonsense! I do not know; it is all too absurd for argument." Yet +he did stop to argue, saying in the next breath: "You forget that +the stone has a setting. Would you claim that this gentleman of +family, place and political distinction had planned this hideous +crime with sufficient premeditation to have provided himself with +the exact counterpart of a brooch which it is highly improbable +he ever saw? You would make him out a Cagliostro or something +worse. Miss Van Arsdale, I fear your theory will topple over of +its own weight." + +He was very patient with me; he did not show me the door. + +"Yet such a substitution took place, and took place that +evening," I insisted. "The bit of paste shown us at the inquest +was never the gem Mrs. Fairbrother wore on entering the alcove. +Besides, where all is sensation, why cavil at one more +improbability? Mr. Grey may have come over to America for no +other reason. He is known as a collector, and when a man has a +passion for diamond-getting--" + +"He is known as a collector?" + +"In his own country." + +"I was not told that." + +"Nor I. But I found it out." + +"How, my dear child, how?" + +"By a cablegram or so." + +"You--cabled--his name--to England?" + +"No, Inspector; uncle has a code, and I made use of it to ask a +friend in London for a list of the most. noted diamond fanciers +in the country. Mr. Grey's name was third on the list." + +He gave me a look in which admiration was strangely blended with +doubt and apprehension. + +"You are making a brave struggle," said he, "but it is a hopeless +one." + +"I have one more confidence to repose in you. The nurse who has +charge of Miss Grey was in my class in the hospital. We love each +other, and to her I dared appeal on one point. Inspector--" here +my voice unconsciously fell as he impetuously drew nearer--"a +note was sent from that sick chamber on the night of the ball,--a +note surreptitiously written by Miss Grey, while the nurse was in +an adjoining room. The messenger was Mr. Grey's valet, and its +destination the house in which her father was enjoying his +position as chief guest. She says that it was meant for him, but +I have dared to think that the valet would tell a different +story. My friend did not see what her patient wrote, but she +acknowledged that if her patient wrote more than two words the +result must have been an unintelligible scrawl, since she was too +weak to hold a pencil firmly, and so nearly blind that she would +have had to feel her way over the paper." + +The inspector started, and, rising hastily, went to his desk, +from which he presently brought the scrap of paper which had +already figured in the inquest as the mysterious communication +taken from Mrs. Fairbrother's hand by the coroner. Pressing it +out flat, he took another look at it, then glanced up in visible +discomposure. + +"It has always looked to us as if written in the dark, by an +agitated hand; but--" + +I said nothing; the broken and unfinished scrawl was sufficiently +eloquent. + +"Did your friend declare Miss Grey to have written with a pencil +and on a small piece of unruled paper?" + +"Yes, the pencil was at her bedside; the paper was torn from a +book which lay there. She did not put the note when written in an +envelope, but gave it to the valet just as it was. He is an old +man and had come to her room for some final orders." + +"The nurse saw all this? Has she that book?" + +"No, it went out next morning, with the scraps. It was some +pamphlet, I believe." + +The inspector turned the morsel of paper over and over in his +hand. + +"What is this nurse's name?" + +"Henrietta Pierson." + +"Does she share your doubts?" + +"I can not say." + +"You have seen her often?" + +"No, only the one time." + +"Is she discreet?" + +"Very. On this subject she will be like the grave unless forced +by you to speak." + +"And Miss Grey?" + +"She is still ill, too ill to be disturbed by questions, +especially on so delicate a topic. But she is getting well fast. +Her father's fears as we heard them expressed on one memorable +occasion were ill founded, sir." + +Slowly the inspector inserted this scrap of paper between the +folds of his pocketbook. He did not give me another look, though +I stood trembling before him. Was he in any way convinced or was +he simply seeking for the most considerate way in which to +dismiss me and my abominable theory? I could not gather his +intentions from his expression, and was feeling very faint and +heart-sick when he suddenly turned upon me with the remark: + +"A girl as ill as you say Miss Grey was must have had some very +pressing matter on her mind to attempt to write and send a +message under such difficulties. According to your idea, she had +some notion of her father's designs and wished to warn Mrs. +Fairbrother against them. But don't you see that such conduct as +this would be preposterous, nay, unparalleled in persons of their +distinction? You must find some other explanation for Miss Grey's +seemingly mysterious action, and I an agent of crime other than +one of England's most reputable statesmen." + +"So that Mr. Durand is shown the same consideration, I am +content," said I. "It is the truth and the truth only I desire. I +am willing to trust my cause with you." + +He looked none too grateful for this confidence. Indeed, now that +I look back on this scene, I do not wonder that he shrank from +the responsibility thus foisted upon him. + +"What do you want me to do?" he asked. + +"Prove something. Prove that I am altogether wrong or altogether +right. Or if proof is not possible, pray allow me the privilege +of doing what I can myself to clear up the matter." + +"You?" + +There was apprehension, disapprobation, almost menace in his +tone. I bore it with as steady and modest a glance as possible, +saying, when I thought he was about to speak again: + +"I will do nothing without your sanction. I realize the dangers +of this inquiry and the disgrace that would follow if our attempt +was suspected before proof reached a point sufficient to justify +it. It is not an open attack I meditate, but one--" + +Here I whispered in his ear for several minutes. when I had +finished he gave me a prolonged stare, then he laid his hand on +my head. + +"You are a little wonder," he declared. "But your ideas are very +quixotic, very. However," he added, suddenly growing grave, +"something, I must admit, may be excused a young girl who finds +herself forced to choose between the guilt of her lover and that +of a man esteemed great by the world, but altogether removed from +her and her natural sympathies." + +"You acknowledge, then, that it lies between these two?" + +"I see no third," said he. + +I drew a breath of relief. + +"Don't deceive yourself, Miss Van Arsdale; it is not among the +possibilities that Mr. Grey has had any connection with this +crime. He is an eccentric man, that's all." + +"But--but--" + +"I shall do my duty. I shall satisfy you and myself on certain +points, and if--" I hardly breathed "--there is the least doubt, +I will see you again and--" + +The change he saw in me frightened away the end of his sentence. +Turning upon me with some severity, he declared: "There are nine +hundred and ninety-nine chances in a thousand that my next word +to you will be to prepare yourself for Mr. Durand's arraignment +and trial. But an infinitesimal chance remains to the contrary. +If you choose to trust to it, I can only admire your pluck and +the great confidence you show in your unfortunate lover." + +And with this half-hearted encouragement I was forced to be +content, not only for that day, but for many days, when-- + + + +XI + +THE INSPECTOR ASTONISHES ME + + +But before I proceed to relate what happened at the end of those +two weeks, I must say a word or two in regard to what happened +during them. + +Nothing happened to improve Mr. Durand's position, and nothing +openly to compromise Mr. Grey's. Mr. Fairbrother, from whose +testimony many of us hoped something would yet be gleaned +calculated to give a turn to the suspicion now centered on one +man, continued ill in New Mexico; and all that could be learned +from him of any importance was contained in a short letter +dictated from his bed, in which he affirmed that the diamond, +when it left him, was in a unique setting procured by himself in +France; that he knew of no other jewel similarly mounted, and +that if the false gem was set according to his own description, +the probabilities were that the imitation stone had been put in +place of the real one under his wife's direction and in some +workshop in New York, as she was not the woman to take the +trouble to send abroad for anything she could get done in this +country. The description followed. It coincided with the one we +all knew. + +This was something of a blow to me. Public opinion would +naturally reflect that of the husband, and it would require very +strong evidence indeed to combat a logical supposition of this +kind with one so forced and seemingly extravagant as that upon +which my own theory was based. Yet truth often transcends +imagination, and, having confidence in the inspector's integrity, +I subdued my impatience for a week, almost for two, when my +suspense and rapidly culminating dread of some action being taken +against Mr. Durand were suddenly cut short by a message from the +inspector, followed by his speedy presence in my uncle's house. + +We have a little room on our parlor floor, very snug and +secluded, and in this room I received him. Seldom have I dreaded +a meeting more and seldom have I been met with greater kindness +and consideration. He was so kind that I feared he had only +disappointing news to communicate, but his first words reassured +me. He said: + +"I have come to you on a matter of importance. We have found +enough truth in the suppositions you advanced at our last +interview to warrant us in the attempt you yourself proposed for +the elucidation of this mystery. That this is the most risky and +altogether the most unpleasant duty which I have encountered +during my several years of service, I am willing to acknowledge +to one so sensible and at the same time of so much modesty as +yourself. This English gentleman has a reputation which lifts him +far above any unworthy suspicion, and were it not for the +favorable impression made upon us by Mr. Durand in a long talk we +had with him last night, I would sooner resign my place than +pursue this matter against him. Success would create a horror on +both sides the water unprecedented during my career, while +failure would bring down ridicule on us which would destroy the +prestige of the whole force. Do you see my difficulty, Miss Van +Arsdale? We can not even approach this haughty and highly +reputable Englishman with questions without calling down on us +the wrath of the whole English nation. We must be sure before we +make a move, and for us to be sure where the evidence is all +circumstantial, I know of no better plan than the one you were +pleased to suggest, which, at the time, I was pleased to call +quixotic." + +Drawing a long breath I surveyed him timidly. Never had I so +realized my presumption or experienced such a thrill of joy in my +frightened yet elated heart. They believed in Anson's innocence +and they trusted me. Insignificant as I was, it was to my +exertions this great result was due. As I realized this, I felt +my heart swell and my throat close. In despair of speaking I held +out my hands. He took them kindly and seemed to be quite +satisfied. + +"Such a little, trembling, tear-filled Amazon!" he cried. "Shall +you have courage to undertake the task before you? If not--" + +"Oh, but I have," said I. "It is your goodness and the surprise +of it all which unnerves me. I can go through what we have +planned if you think the secret of my personality and interest in +Mr. Durand can be kept from the people I go among." + +"It can if you will follow our advice implicitly. You say that +you know the doctor and that he stands ready to recommend you in +case Miss Pierson withdraws her services." + +"Yes, he is eager to give me a chance. He was a college mate of +my father's." + +"How will you explain to him your wish to enter upon your duties +under another name?" + +"Very simply. I have already told him that the publicity given my +name in the late proceedings has made me very uncomfortable; that +my first case of nursing would require all my self-possession and +that if he did not think it wrong I should like to go to it under +my mother's name. He made no dissent and I think I can persuade +him that I would do much better work as Miss Ayers than as the +too well-known Miss Van Arsdale." + +"You have great powers of persuasion. But may you not meet people +at the hotel who know you?" + +"I shall try to avoid people; and, if my identity is discovered, +its effect or non-effect upon one we find it difficult to mention +will give us our clue. If he has no guilty interest in the crime, +my connection with it as a witness will not disturb him. Besides, +two days of unsuspicious acceptance of me as Miss Grey's nurse +are all I want. I shall take immediate opportunity, I assure you, +to make the test I mentioned. But how much confidence you will +have to repose in me! I comprehend all the importance of my +undertaking, and shall work as if my honor, as well as yours, +were at stake." + +"I am sure you will." Then for the first time in my life I was +glad that I was small and plain rather than tall and fascinating +like so many of my friends, for he said: "If you had been a +triumphant beauty, depending on your charms as a woman to win +people to your will, we should never have listened to your +proposition or risked our reputation in your hands. It is your +wit, your earnestness and your quiet determination which have +impressed us. You see I speak plainly. I do so because I respect +you. And now to business." + +Details followed. After these were well understood between us, I +ventured to say: "Do you object--would it be asking too much--if +I requested some enlightenment as to what facts you have +discovered about Mr. Grey which go to substantiate my theory? I +might work more intelligently." + +"No, Miss Van Arsdale, you would not work more intelligently, and +you know it. But you have the natural curiosity of one whose very +heart is bound up in this business. I could deny you what you ask +but I won't, for I want you to work with quiet confidence, which +you would not do if your mind were taken up with doubts and +questions. Miss Van Arsdale, one surmise of yours was correct. A +man was sent that night to the Ramsdell house with a note from +Miss Grey. We know this because he boasted of it to one of the +bell-boys before he went out, saying that he was going to have a +glimpse of one of the swellest parties of the season. It is also +true that this man was Mr. Grey's valet, an old servant who came +over with him from England. But what adds weight to all this and +makes us regard the whole affair with suspicion, is the +additional fact that this man received his dismissal the +following morning and has not been seen since by any one we could +reach. This looks bad to begin with, like the suppression of +evidence, you know. Then Mr. Grey has not been the same man since +that night. He is full of care and this care is not entirely in +connection with his daughter, who is doing very well and bids +fair to be up in a few days. But all this would be nothing if we +had not received advices from England which prove that Mr. Grey's +visit here has an element of mystery in it. There was every +reason for his remaining in his own country, where a political +crisis is approaching, yet he crossed the water, bringing his +sickly daughter with him. The explanation as volunteered by one +who knew him well was this: That only his desire to see or +acquire some precious object for his collection could have taken +him across the ocean at this time, nothing else rivaling his +interest in governmental affairs. Still this would be nothing if +a stiletto similar to the one employed in this crime had not once +formed part of a collection of curios belonging to a cousin of +his whom he often visited. This stiletto has been missing for +some time, stolen, as the owner declared, by some unknown person. +All this looks bad enough, but when I tell you that a week before +the fatal ball at Mr. Ramsdell's, Mr. Grey made a tour of the +jewelers on Broadway and, with the pretext of buying a diamond +for his daughter, entered into a talk about famous stones, ending +always with some question about the Fairbrother gem, you will see +that his interest in that stone is established and that it only +remains for us to discover if that interest is a guilty one. I +can not believe this possible, but you have our leave to make +your experiment and see. Only do not count too much on his +superstition. If he is the deep-dyed criminal you imagine, the +cry which startled us all at a certain critical instant was +raised by himself and for the purpose you suggested. None of the +sensitiveness often shown by a man who has been surprised into +crime will be his. Relying on his reputation and the prestige of +his great name, he will, if he thinks himself under fire, face +every shock unmoved." + +"I see; I understand. He must believe himself all alone; then, +the natural man may appear. I thank you, Inspector. That idea is +of inestimable value to me, and I shall act on it. I do not say +immediately; not on the first day, and possibly not on the +second, but as soon as opportunity offers for my doing what I +have planned with any chance of success. And now, advise me how +to circumvent my uncle and aunt, who must never know to what an +undertaking I have committed myself." + +Inspector Dalzell spared me another fifteen minutes, and this +last detail was arranged. Then he rose to go. As he turned from +me he said: + +"To-morrow?" + +And I answered with a full heart, but a voice clear as my +purpose: + +"To-morrow." + + + +XII + +ALMOST + +"This is your patient. Your new nurse, my dear. What did you say +your name is? Miss Ayers?" + +"Yes, Mr. Grey, Alice Ayers." + +"Oh, what a sweet name!" + +This expressive greeting, from the patient herself, was the first +heart-sting I received,--a sting which brought a flush into my +cheek which I would fain have kept down. + +"Since a change of nurses was necessary, I am glad they sent me +one like you," the feeble, but musical voice went on, and I saw a +wasted but eager hand stretched out. + +In a whirl of strong feeling I advanced to take it. I had not +counted on such a reception. I had not expected any bond of +congeniality to spring up between this high-feeling English girl +and myself to make my purpose hateful to me. Yet, as I stood +there looking down at her bright if wasted face, I felt that it +would be very easy to love so gentle and cordial a being, and +dreaded raising my eyes to the gentleman at my side lest I should +see something in him to hamper me, and make this attempt, which I +had undertaken in such loyalty of spirit, a misery to myself and +ineffectual to the man I had hoped to save by it. When I did look +up and catch the first beams of Mr. Grey's keen blue eyes fixed +inquiringly on me, I neither knew what to think nor how to act. +He was tall and firmly knit, and had an intellectual aspect +altogether. I was conscious of regarding him with a decided +feeling of awe, and found myself forgetting why I had come there, +and what my suspicions were,--suspicions which had carried hope +with them, hope for myself and hope for my lover, who would never +escape the opprobrium, even if he did the punishment, of this +great crime, were this, the only other person who could possibly +be associated with it, found to be the fine, clear-souled man he +appeared to be in this my first interview with him. + +Perceiving very soon that his apprehensions in my regard were +limited to a fear lest I should not feel at ease in my new home +under the restraint of a presence more accustomed to intimidate +than attract strangers, I threw aside all doubts of myself and +met the advances of both father and daughter with that quiet +confidence which my position there demanded. + +The result both gratified and grieved me. As a nurse entering on +her first case I was happy; as a woman with an ulterior object in +view verging on the audacious and unspeakable, I was wretched and +regretful and just a little shaken in the conviction which had +hitherto upheld me. + +I was therefore but poorly prepared to meet the ordeal which +awaited me, when, a little later in the day, Mr. Grey called me +into the adjoining room, and, after saying that it would afford +him great relief to go out for an hour or so, asked if I were +afraid to be left alone with my patient. + +"O no, sir--" I began, but stopped in secret dismay. I was +afraid, but not on account of her condition; rather on account of +my own. What if I should be led into betraying my feelings on +finding myself under no other eye than her own! What if the +temptation to probe her poor sick mind should prove stronger than +my duty toward her as a nurse! + +My tones were hesitating but Mr. Grey paid little heed; his mind +was too fixed on what he wished to say himself. + +"Before I go," said he, "I have a request to make--I may as well +say a caution to give you. Do not, I pray, either now or at any +future time, carry or allow any one else to carry newspapers into +Miss Grey's room. They are just now too alarming. There has been, +as you know, a dreadful murder in this city. If she caught one +glimpse of the headlines, or saw so much as the name of +Fairbrother--which--which is a name she knows, the result might +be very hurtful to her. She is not only extremely sensitive from +illness but from temperament. Will you be careful?" + +"I shall be careful." + +It was such an effort for me to say these words, to say anything +in the state of mind into which I had been thrown by his +unexpected allusion to this subject, that I unfortunately drew +his attention to myself and it was with what I felt to be a +glance of doubt that he added with decided emphasis: + +"You must consider this whole subject as a forbidden one in this +family. Only cheerful topics are suitable for the sick-room. If +Miss Grey attempts to introduce any other, stop her. Do not let +her talk about anything which will not be conducive to her speedy +recovery. These are the only instructions I have to give you; all +others must come from her physician." + +I made some reply with as little show of emotion as possible. It +seemed to satisfy him, for his face cleared as he kindly +observed: + +"You have a very trustworthy look for one so young. I shall rest +easy while you are with her, and I shall expect you to be always +with her when I am not. Every moment, mind. She is never to be +left alone with gossiping servants. If a word is mentioned in her +hearing about this crime which seems to be in everybody's mouth, +I shall feel forced, greatly as I should regret the fad, to blame +you." + +This was a heart-stroke, but I kept up bravely, changing color +perhaps, but not to such a marked degree as to arouse any deeper +suspicion in his mind than that I had been wounded in my amour +propre. + +"She shall be well guarded," said I. "You may trust me to keep +from her all avoidable knowledge of this crime." + +He bowed and I was about to leave his presence, when he detained +me by remarking with the air of one who felt that some +explanation was necessary: + +"I was at the ball where this crime took place. Naturally it has +made a deep impression on me and would on her if she heard of +it." + +"Assuredly," I murmured, wondering if he would say more and how I +should have the courage to stand there and listen if he did. + +"It is the first time I have ever come in contact with crime," he +went on with what, in one of his reserved nature, seemed a hardly +natural insistence. "I could well have been spared the +experience. A tragedy with which one has been even thus remotely +connected produces a lasting effect upon the mind." + +"Oh yes, oh yes!" I murmured, edging involuntarily toward the +door. Did I not know? Had I not been there, too; I, little I, +whom he stood gazing down upon from such a height, little +realizing the fatality which united us and, what was even a more +overwhelming thought to me at the moment, the fact that of all +persons in the world the shrinking little being, into whose eyes +he was then looking, was, perhaps, his greatest enemy and the one +person, great or small, from whom he had the most to fear. + +But I was no enemy to his gentle daughter and the relief I felt +at finding myself thus cut off by my own promise from even the +remotest communication with her on this forbidden subject was +genuine and sincere. + +But the father! What was I to think of the father? Alas! I could +have but one thought, admirable as he appeared in all lights save +the one in which his too evident connection with this crime had +placed him. I spent the hours of the afternoon in alternately +watching the sleeping face of my patient, too sweetly calm in its +repose, or so it seemed, for the mind beneath to harbor such +doubts as were shown in the warning I had ascribed to her, and +vain efforts to explain by any other hypothesis than that of +guilt, the extraordinary evidence which linked this man of great +affairs and the loftiest repute to a crime involving both theft +and murder. + +Nor did the struggle end that night. It was renewed with still +greater positiveness the next day, as I witnessed the glances +which from time to time passed between this father and +daughter,--glances full of doubt and question on both sides, but +not exactly such doubt or such question as my suspicions called +for. Or so I thought, and spent another day or two hesitating +very much over my duty, when, coming unexpectedly upon Mr. Grey +one evening, I felt all my doubts revive in view of the +extraordinary expression of dread--I might with still greater +truth say fear--which informed his features and made them, to my +unaccustomed eyes, almost unrecognizable. + +He was sitting at his desk in reverie over some papers which he +seemed not to have touched for hours, and when, at some movement +I made, he started up and met my eye, I could swear that his +cheek was pale, the firm carriage of his body shaken, and the +whole man a victim to some strong and secret apprehension he +vainly sought to hide. when I ventured to tell him what I wanted, +he made an effort and pulled himself together, but I had seen him +with his mask off, and his usually calm visage and self-possessed +mien could not again deceive me. + +My duties kept me mainly at Miss Grey's bedside, but I had been +provided with a little room across the hall, and to this room I +retired very soon after this, for rest and a necessary +understanding with myself. + +For, in spite of this experience and my now settled convictions, +my purpose required whetting. The indescribable charm, the +extreme refinement and nobility of manner observable in both Mr. +Grey and his daughter were producing their effect. I felt guilty; +constrained. whatever my convictions, the impetus to act was +leaving me. How could I recover it? By thinking of Anson Durand +and his present disgraceful position. + +Anson Durand! Oh, how the feeling surged up in my breast as that +name slipped from my lips on crossing the threshold of my little +room! Anson Durand, whom I believed innocent, whom I loved, but +whom I was betraying with every moment of hesitation in which I +allowed myself to indulge! what if the Honorable Mr. Grey is an +eminent statesman, a dignified, scholarly, and to all appearance, +high-minded man? what if my patient is sweet, dove-eyed and +affectionate? Had not Anson qualities as excellent in their way, +rights as certain, and a hold upon myself superior to any claims +which another might advance? Drawing a much-crumpled little note +from my pocket, I eagerly read it. It was the only one I had of +his writing, the only letter he had ever written me. I had +already re-read it a hundred times, but as I once more repeated +to myself its well-known lines, I felt my heart grow strong and +fixed in the determination which had brought me into this family. + +Restoring the letter to its place, I opened my gripsack and from +its inmost recesses drew forth an object which I had no sooner in +hand than a natural sense of disquietude led me to glance +apprehensively, first at the door, then at the window, though I +had locked the one and shaded the other. It seemed as if some +other eye besides my own must be gazing at what I held so +gingerly in hand; that the walls were watching me, if nothing +else, and the sensation this produced was so exactly like that of +guilt (or what I imagined to be guilt), that I was forced to +repeat once more to myself that it was not a good man's overthrow +I sought, or even a bad man's immunity from punishment, but the +truth, the absolute truth. No shame could equal that which I +should feel if, by any over-delicacy now, I failed to save the +man who trusted me. + +The article which I held--have you guessed it?--was the stiletto +with which Mrs. Fairbrother had been killed. It had been +intrusted to me by the police for a definite purpose. The time +for testing that purpose had come, or so nearly come, that I felt +I must be thinking about the necessary ways and means. + +Unwinding the folds of tissue paper in which the stiletto was +wrapped, I scrutinized the weapon very carefully. Hitherto, I had +seen only pictures of it, now, I had the article itself in my +hand. It was not a natural one for a young woman to hold, a woman +whose taste ran more toward healing than inflicting wounds, but I +forced myself to forget why the end of its blade was rusty, and +looked mainly at the devices which ornamented the handle. I had +not been mistaken in them. They belonged to the house of Grey, +and to none other. It was a legitimate inquiry I had undertaken. +However the matter ended, I should always have these historic +devices for my excuse. + +My plan was to lay this dagger on Mr. Grey's desk at a moment +when he would be sure to see it and I to see him. If he betrayed +a guilty knowledge of this fatal steel; if, unconscious of my +presence, he showed surprise and apprehension,--then we should +know how to proceed; justice would be loosed from constraint and +the police feel at liberty to approach him. It was a delicate +task, this. I realized how delicate, when I had thrust the +stiletto out of sight under my nurse's apron and started to cross +the hall. Should I find the library clear? Would the opportunity +be given me to approach his desk, or should I have to carry this +guilty witness of a world-famous crime on into Miss Grey's room, +and with its unholy outline pressing a semblance of itself upon +my breast, sit at that innocent pillow, meet those innocent eyes, +and answer the gentle inquiries which now and then fell from the +sweetest lips I have ever seen smile into the face of a lonely, +preoccupied stranger? + +The arrangement of the rooms was such as made it necessary for me +to pass through this sittting-room in order to reach my patient's +bedroom. + +With careful tread, so timed as not to appear stealthy, I +accordingly advanced and pushed open the door. The room was +empty. Mr. Grey was still with his daughter and I could cross the +floor without fear. But never had I entered upon a task requiring +more courage or one more obnoxious to my natural instincts. I +hated each step I took, but I loved the man for whom I took those +steps, and moved resolutely on. Only, as I reached the chair in +which Mr. Grey was accustomed to sit, I found that it was easier +to plan an action than to carry it out. Home life and the +domestic virtues had always appealed to me more than a man's +greatness. The position which this man held in his own country, +his usefulness there, even his prestige as statesman and scholar, +were facts, but very dreamy facts, to me, while his feelings as a +father, the place he held in his daughter's heart--these were +real to me, these I could understand; and it was of these and not +of his place as a man, that this his favorite seat spoke to me. +How often had I beheld him sit by the hour with his eye on the +door behind which his one darling lay ill! Even now, it was easy +for me to recall his face as I had sometimes caught a glimpse of +it through the crack of the suddenly opened door, and I felt my +breast heave and my hand falter as I drew forth the stiletto and +moved to place it where his eye would fall upon it on his leaving +his daughter's bedside. + +But my hand returned quickly to my breast and fell hack again +empty. A pile of letters lay before me on the open lid of the +desk. The top one was addressed to me with the word "Important" +written in the corner. I did not know the writing, but I felt +that I should open and read this letter before committing myself +or those who stood back of me to this desperate undertaking. + +Glancing behind me and seeing that the door into Miss Grey's room +was ajar, I caught up this letter and rushed with it back into my +own room. As I surmised, it was from the inspector, and as I read +it I realized that I had received it not one moment too soon. In +language purposely non-committal, but of a meaning not to be +mistaken, it advised me that some unforeseen facts had come to +light which altered all former suspicions and made the little +surprise I had planned no longer necessary. + +There was no allusion to Mr. Durand but the final sentence ran: + +"Drop all care and give your undivided attention to your +patient." + + + +XIII + +THE MISSING RECOMMENDATION + +My patient slept that night, but I did not. The shock given by +this sudden cry of Halt! at the very moment I was about to make +my great move, the uncertainty as to what it meant and my doubt +of its effect upon Mr. Durand's position, put me on the anxious +seat and kept my thoughts fully occupied till morning. + +I was very tired and must have shown it, when, with the first +rays of a very meager sun, Miss Grey softly unclosed her eyes and +found me looking at her, for her smile had a sweet compassion in +it, and she said as she pressed my hand: + +"You must have watched me all night. I never saw any one look so +tired,--or so good," she softly finished. + +I had rather she had not uttered that last phrase. It did not fit +me at the moment,--did not fit me, perhaps, at any time. Good! I! +when my thoughts had not been with her, but with Mr. Durand; when +the dominating feeling in my breast was not that of relief, but a +vague regret that I had not been allowed to make my great test +and so establish, to my own satisfaction, at least, the perfect +innocence of my lover even at the cost of untold anguish to this +confiding girl upon whose gentle spirit the very thought of crime +would cast a deadly blight. + +I must have flushed; certainly I showed some embarrassment, for +her eyes brightened with shy laughter as she whispered: + +"You do not like to be praised,--another of your virtues. You +have too many. I have only one--I love my friends." + +She did. One could see that love was life to her. + +For an instant I trembled. How near I had been to wrecking this +gentle soul! Was she safe yet? I was not sure. My own doubts were +not satisfied. I awaited the papers with feverish impatience. +They should contain news. News of what? Ah, that was the +question! + +"You will let me see my mail this morning, will you not?" she +asked, as I busied myself about her. + +"That is for the doctor to say," I smiled. "You are certainly +better this morning." + +"It is so hard for me not to be able to read his letters, or to +write a word to relieve his anxiety." + +Thus she told me her heart's secret, and unconsciously added +another burden to my already too heavy load. + +I was on my way to give some orders about my patient's breakfast, +when Mr. Grey came into the sitting-room and met me face to face. +He had a newspaper in his hand and my heart stood still as I +noted his altered looks and disturbed manner. Were these due to +anything he had found in those columns? It was with difficulty +that I kept my eyes from the paper which he held in such a manner +as to disclose its glaring head-lines. These I dared not read +with his eyes fixed on mine. + +"How is Miss Grey? How is my daughter?" he asked in great haste +and uneasiness. "Is she better this morning, or--worse?" + +"Better," I assured him, and was greatly astonished to see his +brow instantly clear. + +"Really?" he asked. "You really consider her better? The doctors +say so' but I have not very much faith in doctors in a case like +this," he added. + +"I have seen no reason to distrust them," I protested. "Miss +Grey's illness, while severe, does not appear to be of an +alarming nature. But then I have had very little experience out +of the hospital. I am young yet, Mr. Grey." + +He looked as if he quite agreed with me in this estimate of +myself, and, with a brow still clouded, passed into his +daughter's room, the paper in his hand. Before I joined them I +found and scanned another journal. Expecting great things, I was +both surprised and disappointed to find only a small paragraph +devoted to the Fairbrother case. In this it was stated that the +authorities hoped for new light on this mystery as soon as they +had located a certain witness, whose connection with the crime +they had just discovered. No more, no less than was contained in +Inspector Dalzell's letter. How could I bear it,--the suspense, +the doubt,--and do my duty to my patient! Happily, I had no +choice. I had been adjudged equal to this business and I must +prove myself to be so. Perhaps my courage would revive after I +had had my breakfast; perhaps then I should be able to fix upon +the identity of the new witness,--something which I found myself +incapable of at this moment. + +These thoughts were on my mind as I crossed the rooms on my way +back to Miss Grey's bedside. By the time I reached her door I was +outwardly calm, as her first words showed: + +"Oh, the cheerful smile! It makes me feel better in spite of +myself." + +If she could have seen into my heart! + +Mr. Grey, who was leaning over the foot of the bed, cast me a +quick glance which was not without its suspicion. Had he detected +me playing a part, or were such doubts as he displayed the +product simply of his own uneasiness? I was not able to decide, +and, with this unanswered question added to the number already +troubling me, I was forced to face the day which, for aught I +knew, might be the precursor of many others equally trying and +unsatisfactory. + +But help was near. Before noon I received a message from my uncle +to the effect that if I could be spared he would be glad to see +me at his home as near three o'clock as possible. What could he +want of me? I could not guess, and it was with great inner +perturbation that, having won Mr. Grey's permission, I responded +to his summons. + +I found my uncle awaiting me in a carriage before his own door, +and I took my seat at his side without the least idea of his +purpose. I supposed that he had planned this ride that he might +talk to me unreservedly and without fear of interruption. But I +soon saw that he had some very different object in view, for not +only did he start down town instead of up, but his conversation, +such as it was, confined itself to generalities and studiously +avoided the one topic of supreme interest to us both. + +At last, as we turned into Bleecker Street, I let my astonishment +and perplexity appear. + +"Where are we bound?" I asked. "It can not be that you are taking +me to see Mr. Durand?" + +"No," said he, and said no more. + +"Ah, Police Headquarters!" I faltered as the carriage made +another turn and drew up before a building I had reason to +remember. "Uncle, what am I to do here?" + +"See a friend," he answered, as he helped me to alight. Then as I +followed him in some bewilderment, he whispered in my ear: +"Inspector Dalzell. He wants a few minutes conversation with +you." + +Oh, the weight which fell from my shoulders at these words! I was +to hear, then, what had intervened between me and my purpose. The +wearing night I had anticipated was to be lightened with some +small spark of knowledge. I had confidence enough in the +kind-hearted inspector to be sure of that. I caught at my uncle's +arm and squeezed it delightedly, quite oblivious of the curious +glances I must have received from the various officials we passed +on our way to the inspector's office. + +We found him waiting for us, and I experienced such pleasure at +sight of his kind and earnest face that I hardly noticed uncle's +sly retreat till the door closed behind him. + +"Oh, Inspector, what has happened?" I impetuously exclaimed in +answer to his greeting. "Something that will help Mr. Durand +without disturbing Mr. Grey--have you as good news for me as +that?" + +"Hardly," he answered, moving up a chair and seating me in it +with a fatherly air which, under the circumstances, was more +discouraging than consolatory. "We have simply heard of a new +witness, or rather a fact has come to light which has turned our +inquiries into a new direction." + +"And--and--you can not tell me what this fact is?" I faltered as +he showed no intention of adding anything to this very +unsatisfactory explanation. + +"I should not, but you were willing to do so much for us I must +set aside my principles a little and do something for you. After +all, it is only forestalling the reporters by a day. Miss Van +Arsdale, this is the story: Yesterday morning a man was shown +into this room, and said that he had information to give which +might possibly prove to have some bearing on the Fairbrother +case. I had seen the man before and recognized him at the first +glance as one of the witnesses who made the inquest unnecessarily +tedious. Do you remember Jones, the caterer, who had only two or +three facts to give and yet who used up the whole afternoon in +trying to state those facts?" + +"I do, indeed," I answered. + +"Well, he was the man, and I own that I was none too delighted to +see him. But he was more at his ease with me than I expected, and +I soon learned what he had to tell. It was this: One of his men +had suddenly left him, one of his very best men, one of those who +had been with him in the capacity of waiter at the Ramsdell ball. +It was not uncommon for his men to leave him, but they usually +gave notice. This man gave no notice; he simply did not show up +at the usual hour. This was a week or two ago. Jones, having a +liking for the man, who was an excellent waiter, sent a messenger +to his lodging-house to see if he were ill. But he had left his +lodgings with as little ceremony as he had left the caterer. + +"This, under ordinary circumstances, would have ended the +business, but there being some great function in prospect, Jones +did not feel like losing so good a man without making an effort +to recover him, so he looked up his references in the hope of +obtaining some clue to his present whereabouts. + +"He kept all such matters in a special book and expected to have +no trouble in finding the man's name, James Wellgood, or that of +his former employer But when he came to consult this book, he was +astonished to find that nothing was recorded against this man's +name but the date of his first employment--March 15. + +"Had he hired him without a recommendation? He would not be +likely to, yet the page was clear of all reference; only the name +and the date. But the date! You have already noted its +significance, and later he did, too. The day of the Ramsdell +ball! The day of the great murder! As he recalled the incidents +of that day he understood why the record of Wellgood's name was +unaccompanied by the usual reference. It had been a difficult day +all round. The function was an important one, and the weather +bad. There was, besides, an unusual shortage in his number of +assistants. Two men had that very morning been laid up with +sickness, and when this able-looking, self-confident Wellgood +presented himself for immediate employment, he took him out of +hand with the merest glance at what looked like a very +satisfactory reference. Later, he had intended to look up this +reference, which he had been careful to preserve by sticking it, +along with other papers, on his spike-file. But in the +distractions following the untoward events of the evening, he had +neglected to do so, feeling perfectly satisfied with the man's +work and general behavior. Now it was a different thing. The man +had left him summarily, and he felt impelled to hunt up the +person who had recommended him and see whether this was the first +time that Wellgood had repaid good treatment with bad. Running +through the papers with which his file was now full, he found +that the one he sought was not there. This roused him in good +earnest, for he was certain that he had not removed it himself +and there was no one else who had the right to do so. He +suspected the culprit,--a young lad who occasionally had access +to his desk. But this boy was no longer in the office. He had +dismissed him for some petty fault the previous week, and it took +him several days to find him again. Meantime his anger grew and +when he finally came face to face with the lad, he accused him of +the suspected trick with so much vehemence that the inevitable +happened, and the boy confessed. This is what he acknowledged. He +had taken the reference off the file, but only to give it to +Wellgood himself, who had offered him money for it. When asked +how much money, the boy admitted that the sum was ten dollars,-- +an extraordinary amount from a poor man for so simple a service, +if the man merely wished to secure his reference for future use; +so extraordinary that Mr. Jones grew more and more pertinent in +his inquiries, eliciting finally what he surely could not have +hoped for in the beginning,--the exact address of the party +referred to in the paper he had stolen, and which, for some +reason, the boy remembered. It was an uptown address, and, as +soon as the caterer could leave his business, he took the +elevated and proceeded to the specified street and number. + +"Miss Van Arsdale, a surprise awaited him, and awaited us when he +told the result of his search. The name attached to the +recommendation had been--'Hiram Sears, Steward.' He did not know +of any such man--perhaps you do--but when he reached the house +from which the recommendation was dated, he saw that it was one +of the great houses of New York, though he could not at the +instant remember who lived there. But he soon found out. The +first passer-by told him. Miss Van Arsdale, perhaps you can do +the same. The number was--Eighty-sixth Street." + +"--!" I repeated, quite aghast. "Why, Mr. Fairbrother himself! +The husband of--" + +"Exactly so, and Hiram Sears, whose name you may have heard +mentioned at the inquest, though for a very good reason he was +not there in person, is his steward and general factotum." + +"Oh! and it was he who recommended Wellgood?" + +"Yes." + +"And did Mr. Jones see him?" + +"No. The house, you remember, is closed. Mr. Fairbrother, on +leaving town, gave his servants a vacation. His steward he took +with him,--that is, they started together. But we hear no mention +made of him in our telegrams from Santa Fe. He does not seem to +have followed Mr. Fairbrother into the mountains." + +"You say that in a peculiar way," I remarked. + +"Because it has struck us peculiarly. Where is Sears now? And why +did he not go on with Mr. Fairbrother when he left home with +every apparent intention of accompanying him to the Placide mine? +Miss Van Arsdale, we were impressed with this fact when we heard +of Mr. Fairbrother's lonely trip from where he was taken ill to +his mine outside of Santa Fe; but we have only given it its due +importance since hearing what has come to us to-day. + +"Miss Van Arsdale," continued the inspector, as I looked up +quickly, "I am going to show great confidence in you. I am going +to tell you what our men have learned about this Sears. As I have +said before, it is but forestalling the reporters by a day, and +it may help you to understand why I sent you such peremptory +orders to stop, when your whole heart was fixed on an attempt by +which you hoped to right Mr. Durand. We can not afford to disturb +so distinguished a person as the one you have under your eye, +while the least hope remains of fixing this crime elsewhere. And +we have such hope. This man, this Sears, is by no means the +simple character one would expect from his position. Considering +the short time we have had (it was only yesterday that Jones +found his way into this office), we have unearthed some very +interesting facts in his regard. His devotion to Mr. Fairbrother +was never any secret, and we knew as much about that the day +after the murder as we do now. But the feelings with which he +regarded Mrs. Fairbrother--well, that is another thing--and it +was not till last night we heard that the attachment which bound +him to her was of the sort which takes no account of youth or +age, fitness or unfitness. He was no Adonis, and old enough, we +are told, to be her father; but for all that we have already +found several persons who can tell strange stories of the +persistence with which his eager old eyes would follow her +whenever chance threw them together during the time she remained +under her husband's roof; and others who relate, with even more +avidity, how, after her removal to apartments of her own, he used +to spend hours in the adjoining park just to catch a glimpse of +her figure as she crossed the sidewalk on her way to and from her +carriage. Indeed, his senseless, almost senile passion for this +magnificent beauty became a by-word in some mouths, and it only +escaped being mentioned at the inquest from respect to Mr. +Fairbrother, who had never recognized this weakness in his +steward, and from its lack of visible connection with her +horrible death and the stealing of her great jewel. Nevertheless, +we have a witness now--it is astonishing how many witnesses we +can scare up by a little effort, who never thought of coming +forward themselves--who can swear to having seen him one night +shaking his fist at her retreating figure as she stepped +haughtily by him into her apartment house. This witness is sure +that the man he saw thus gesticulating was Sears, and he is sure +the woman was Mrs. Fairbrother. The only thing he is not sure of +is how his own wife will feel when she hears that he was in that +particular neighborhood on that particular evening, when he was +evidently supposed to be somewhere else." And the inspector +laughed. + +"Is the steward's disposition a bad one." I asked, "that this +display of feeling should impress you so much?" + +"I don't know what to say about that yet. Opinions differ on this +point. His friends speak of him as the mildest kind of a man who, +without native executive skill, could not manage the great +household he has in charge. His enemies, and we have unearthed a +few, say, on the contrary, that they have never had any +confidence in his quiet ways; that these were not in keeping with +the fact or his having been a California miner in the early +fifties. + +"You can see I am putting you very nearly where we are ourselves. +Nor do I see why I should not add that this passion of the +seemingly subdued but really hot-headed steward for a woman, who +never showed him anything but what he might call an insulting +indifference, struck us as a clue to be worked up, especially +after we received this answer to a telegram we sent late last +night to the nurse who is caring for Mr. Fairbrother in New +Mexico." + +He handed me a small yellow slip and I read: + +"The steward left Mr. Fairbrother at El Moro. He has not heard +from him since. + +"ANNETTA LA SERRA + +"For Abner Fairbrother." + +"At El Moro?" I cried. "Why, that was long enough ago" + +"For him to have reached New York before the murder. Exactly so, +if he took advantage of every close connection." + + + +XIV + +TRAPPED + +I caught my breath sharply. I did not say anything. I felt that I +did not understand the inspector sufficiently yet to speak. He +seemed to be pleased with my reticence. At all events, his manner +grew even kinder as he said: + +"This Sears is a witness we must have. He is being looked for +now, high and low, and we hope to get some clue to his +whereabouts before night. That is, if he is in this city. +Meanwhile, we are all glad--I am sure you are also--to spare so +distinguished a gentleman as Mr. Grey the slightest annoyance." + +"And Mr. Durand? What of him in this interim?" + +"He will have to await developments. I see no other way, my +dear." + +It was kindly said, but my head drooped. This waiting was what +was killing him and killing me. The inspector saw and gently +patted my hand. + +"Come," said he, "you have head enough to see that it is never +wise to force matters." Then, possibly with an intention of +rousing me, he remarked: "There is another small fact which may +interest you. It concerns the waiter, Wellgood, recommended, as +you will remember, by this Sears. In my talk with Jones it leaked +out as a matter of small moment, and so it was to him, that this +Wellgood was the waiter who ran and picked up the diamond after +it fell from Mr. Grey's hand." + +"Ah!" + +"This may mean nothing--it meant nothing to Jones--but I inform +you of it because there is a question I want to put to you in +this connection. You smile." + +"Did I?" I meekly answered. "I do not know why." + +This was not true. I had been waiting to see why the inspector +had so honored me with all these disclosures, almost with his +thoughts. Now I saw. He desired something in return. + +"You were on the scene at this very moment," he proceeded, after +a brief contemplation of my face, "and you must have seen this +man when he lifted the jewel and handed it back to Mr. Grey. Did +you remark his features?" + +"No, sir; I was too far off; besides, my eyes were on Mr. Grey." +"That is a pity. I was in hopes you could satisfy me on a very +important point." + +"What point is that, Inspector Dalzell?" + +"Whether he answered the following description." And, taking up +another paper, he was about to read it aloud to me, when an +interruption occurred. A man showed himself at the door, whom the +inspector no sooner recognized than he seemed to forget me in his +eagerness to interrogate him. Perhaps the appearance of the +latter had something to do with it; he looked as if he had been +running, or had been the victim of some extraordinary adventure. +At all events, the inspector arose as he entered, and was about +to question him when he remembered me, and, casting about for +some means of ridding himself of my presence without injury to my +feelings, he suddenly pushed open the door of an adjoining room +and requested me to step inside while he talked a moment with +this man. + +Of course I went, but I cast him an appealing look as I did so. +It evidently had its effect, for his expression changed as his +band fell on the doorknob. Would he snap the lock tight, and so +shut me out from what concerned me as much as it did any one in +the whole world? Or would he recognize my anxiety--the necessity +I was under of knowing just the ground I was standing on--and let +me hear what this man had to report? + +I watched the door. It closed slowly, too slowly to latch. Would +he catch it anew by the knob? No; he left it thus, and, while the +crack was hardly perceptible, I felt confident that the least +shake of the floor would widen it and give me the opportunity I +sought. But I did not have to wait for this. The two men in the +office I had just left began to speak, and to my unbounded relief +were sufficiently intelligible, even now, to warrant me in giving +them my fullest attention. + +After some expressions of astonishment on the part of the +inspector as to the plight in which the other presented himself, +the latter broke out: + +"I've just escaped death! I'll tell you about that later. What I +want to tell you now is that the man we want is in town. I saw +him last night, or his shadow, which is the same thing. It was in +the house in Eighty-sixth Street,--the house they all think +closed. He came in with a key and--" + +"Wait! You have him?" + +"No. It's a long story, sir--" + +"Tell it!" + +The tone was dry. The inspector was evidently disappointed. + +"Don't blame me till you hear," said the other. "He is no common +crook. This is how it was: You wanted the suspect's photograph +and a specimen of his writing. I knew no better place to look for +them than in his own room in Mr. Fairbrother's house. I +accordingly got the necessary warrant and late last evening +undertook the job. I went alone I was always an egotistical chap, +more's the pity--and with no further precaution than a passing +explanation to the officer I met at the corner, I hastened up the +block to the rear entrance on Eighty-seventh Street. There are +three doors to the Fairbrother house, as you probably know. Two +on Eighty-sixth Street (the large front one and a small one +connecting directly with the turret stairs), and one on +Eighty-seventh Street. It was to the latter I had a key. I do not +think any one saw me go in. It was raining, and such people as +went by were more concerned in keeping their umbrellas properly +over their heads than in watching men skulking about in doorways. + +"I got in, then, all right, and, being careful to close the door +behind me, went up the first short flight of steps to what I knew +must be the main hall. I had been given a plan of the interior, +and I had studied it more or less before starting out, but I knew +that I should get lost if I did not keep to the rear staircase, +at the top of which I expected to find the steward's room. There +was a faint light in the house, in spite of its closed shutters +and tightly-drawn shades; and, having a certain dread of using my +torch, knowing my weakness for pretty things and how hard it +would be for me to pass so many fine rooms without looking in, I +made my way up stairs, with no other guide than the hand-rail. +When I had reached what I took to be the third floor I stopped. +Finding it very dark, I first listened--a natural instinct with +us--then I lit up and looked about me. + +"I was in a large hall, empty as a vault and almost as desolate. +Blank doors met my eyes in all directions, with here and there an +open passageway. I felt myself in a maze. I had no idea which was +the door I sought, and it is not pleasant to turn unaccustomed +knobs in a shut-up house at midnight, with the rain pouring in +torrents and the wind making pandemonium in a half-dozen great +chimneys. + +"But it had to be done, and I went at it in regular order till I +came to a little narrow one opening on the turret-stair. This +gave me my bearings. Sears' room adjoined the staircase. There +was no difficulty in spotting the exact door now and, merely +stopping to close the opening I had made to this little +staircase, I crossed to this door and flung it open. I had been +right in my calculations. It was the steward's room, and I made +at once for the desk." + +"And you found--?" + +"Mostly locked drawers. But a key on my bunch opened some of +these and my knife the rest. Here are the specimens of his +handwriting which I collected. I doubt if you will get much out +of them. I saw nothing compromising in the whole room, but then I +hadn't time to go through his trunks, and one of them looked very +interesting,--old as the hills and--" + +"You hadn't time? Why hadn't you time? What happened to cut it +short?" + +"Well, sir, I'll tell you." The tone in which this was said +roused me if it did not the inspector. "I had just come from the +desk which had disappointed me, and was casting a look about the +room, which was as bare as my hand of everything like ornament--I +might almost say comfort--when I heard a noise which was not that +of swishing rain or even gusty wind--these had not been absent +from my ears for a moment. I didn't like that noise; it had a +sneakish sound, and I shut my light off in a hurry. After that I +crept hastily out of the room, for I don't like a set-to in a +trap. + +"It was darker than ever now in the hall, or so it seemed, and as +I backed away I came upon a jog in the wall, behind which I +crept. For the sound I had heard was no fancy. Some one besides +myself was in the house, and that some one was coming up the +little turret-stair, striking matches as he approached. Who could +it be? A detective from the district attorney's office? I hardly +thought so. He would have been provided with something better +than matches to light his way. A burglar? No, not on the third +floor of a house as rich as this. Some fellow on the force, then, +who had seen me come in and, by some trick of his own, had +managed to follow me? I would see. Meantime I kept my place +behind the jog and watched, not knowing which way the intruder +would go. + +"Whoever he was, he was evidently astonished to see the turret +door ajar, for he lit another match as he threw it open and, +though I failed to get a glimpse of his figure, I succeeded in +getting a very good one of his shadow. It was one to arouse a +detective's instinct at once. I did not say to myself, this is +the man I want, but I did say, this is nobody from headquarters, +and I steadied myself for whatever might turn up. + +"The first thing that happened was the sudden going out of the +match which had made this shadow visible. The intruder did not +light another. I heard him move across the floor with the rapid +step of one who knows his way well, and the next minute a gas-jet +flared up in the steward's room, and I knew that the man the +whole force was looking for had trapped himself. + +"You will agree that it was not my duty to take him then and +there without seeing what he was after. He was thought to be in +the eastern states, or south or west, and he was here; but why +here? That is what I knew you would want to know, and it was just +what I wanted to know myself. So I kept my place, which was good +enough, and just listened, for I could not see. + +"What was his errand? What did he want in this empty house at +midnight? Papers first, and then clothes. I heard him at his +desk, I heard him in the closet, and afterward pottering in the +old trunk I had been so anxious to look into myself. He must have +brought the key with him, for it was no time before I heard him +throwing out the contents in a wild search for something he +wanted in a great hurry. He found it sooner than you would +believe, and began throwing the things back, when something +happened. Expectedly or unexpectedly, his eye fell on some object +which roused all his passions, and he broke into loud +exclamations ending in groans. Finally he fell to kissing this +object with a fervor suggesting rage, and a rage suggesting +tenderness carried to the point of agony. I have never heard the +like; my curiosity was so aroused that I was on the point of +risking everything for a look, when he gave a sudden snarl and +cried out, loud enough for me to hear: 'Kiss what I've hated? +That is as bad as to kill what I've loved.' Those were the words. +I am sure he said kiss and I am sure he said kill." + +"This is very interesting. Go on with your story. Why didn't you +collar him while he was in this mood? You would have won by the +surprise. + +"I had no pistol, sir, and he had. I heard him cock it. I thought +he was going to take his own life, and held my breath for the +report. But nothing like that was in his mind. Instead, he laid +the pistol down and deliberately tore in two the object of his +anger. Then with a smothered curse he made for the door and +turret staircase. + +"I was for following, but not till I had seen what he had +destroyed in such an excess of feeling. I thought I knew, but I +wanted to feel sure. So, before risking myself in the turret, I +crept to the room he had left and felt about on the floor till I +came upon these." + +"A torn photograph! Mrs. Fairbrother's!" + +"Yes. Have you not heard how he loved her? A foolish passion, but +evidently sincere and--" + +"Never mind comments, Sweetwater. Stick to facts." + +"I will, sir. They are interesting enough. After I had picked up +these scraps I stole back to the turret staircase. And here I +made my first break. I stumbled in the darkness, and the man +below heard me, for the pistol clicked again. I did not like +this, and had some thoughts of backing out of my job. But I +didn't. I merely waited till I heard his step again; then I +followed. + +"But very warily this time. It was not an agreeable venture. It +was like descending into a well with possible death at the +bottom. I could see nothing and presently could hear nothing but +the almost imperceptible sliding of my own fingers down the curve +of the wall, which was all I had to guide me. Had he stopped +midway, and would my first intimation of his presence be the +touch of cold steel or the flinging around me of two murderous +arms? I had met with no break in the smooth surface of the wall, +so could not have reached the second story. When I should get +there the question would be whether to leave the staircase and +seek him in the mazes of its great rooms, or to keep on down to +the parlor floor and so to the street, whither he was possibly +bound. I own that I was almost tempted to turn on my light and +have done with it, but I remembered of how little use I should be +to you lying in this well of a stairway with a bullet in me, and +so I managed to compose myself and go on as I had begun. Next +instant my fingers slipped round the edge of an opening, and I +knew that the moment of decision had come. Realizing that no one +can move so softly that he will not give away his presence in +some way, I paused for the sound which I knew must come, and when +a click rose from the depths of the hall before me I plunged into +that hall and thus into the house proper. + +"Here it was not so dark; yet I could make out none of the +objects I now and then ran against. I passed a mirror (I hardly +know how I knew it to be such), and in that mirror I seemed to +see the ghost of a ghost flit by and vanish. It was too much. I +muttered a suppressed oath and plunged forward, when I struck +against a closing door. It flew open again and I rushed in, +turning on my light in my extreme desperation, when, instead of +hearing the sharp report of a pistol, as I expected, I saw a +second door fall to before me, this time with a sound like the +snap of a spring lock. Finding that this was so, and that all +advance was barred that way, I wheeled hurriedly back toward the +door by which I had entered the place, to find that that had +fallen to simultaneously with the other, a single spring acting +for both. I was trapped--a prisoner in the strangest sort of +passageway or closet; and, as a speedy look about presently +assured me, a prisoner with very little hope of immediate escape, +for the doors were not only immovable, without even locks to pick +or panels to break in, but the place was bare of windows, and the +only communication which it could be said to have with the +outside world at all was a shaft rising from the ceiling almost +to the top of the house. Whether this served as a ventilator, or +a means of lighting up the hole when both doors were shut, it was +much too inaccessible to offer any apparent way of escape. + +"Never was a man more thoroughly boxed in. As I realized how +little chance there was of any outside interference, how my +captor, even if he was seen leaving the house by the officer on +duty, would be taken for myself and so allowed to escape, I own +that I felt my position a hopeless one. But anger is a powerful +stimulant, and I was mortally angry, not only with Sears, but +with myself. So when I was done swearing I took another look +around, and, finding that there was no getting through the walls, +turned my attention wholly to the shaft, which would certainly +lead me out of the place if I could only find means to mount it. + +"And how do you think I managed to do this at last? A look at my +bedraggled, lime-covered clothes may give you some idea. I cut a +passage for myself up those perpendicular walls as the boy did up +the face of the natural bridge in Virginia. Do you remember that +old story in the Reader? It came to me like an inspiration as I +stood looking up from below, and though I knew that I should have +to work most of the way in perfect darkness, I decided that a +man's life was worth some risk, and that I had rather fall and +break my neck while doing something than to spend hours in +maddening inactivity, only to face death at last from slow +starvation. + +"I had a knife, an exceedingly good knife, in my pocket--and for +the first few steps I should have the light of my electric torch. +The difficulty (that is, the first difficulty) was to reach the +shaft from the floor where I stood. There was but one article of +furniture in the room, and that was something between a table and +a desk. No chairs, and the desk was not high enough to enable me +to reach the mouth of the shaft. If I could turn it on end there +might be some hope. But this did not look feasible. However, I +threw off my coat and went at the thing with a vengeance, and +whether I was given superhuman power or whether the clumsy thing +was not as heavy as it looked, I did finally succeed in turning +it on its end close under the opening from which the shaft rose. +The next thing was to get on its top. That seemed about as +impossible as climbing the bare wall itself, but presently I +bethought me of the drawers, and, though they were locked, I did +succeed by the aid of my keys to get enough of them open to make +for myself a very good pair of stairs. + +"I could now see my way to the mouth of the shaft, but after +that! Taking out my knife, I felt the edge. It was a good one, so +was the point, but was it good enough to work holes in plaster? +It depended somewhat upon the plaster. Had the masons, in +finishing that shaft, any thought of the poor wretch who one day +would have to pit his life against the hardness of the final +covering? My first dig at it would tell. I own I trembled +violently at the prospect of what that first test would mean to +me, and wondered if the perspiration which I felt starting at +every pore was the result of the effort I had been engaged in or +just plain fear. + +"Inspector, I do not intend to have you live with me through the +five mortal hours which followed. I was enabled to pierce that +plaster with my knife, and even to penetrate deep enough to +afford a place for the tips of my fingers and afterward for the +point of my toes, digging, prying, sweating, panting, listening, +first for a sudden opening of the doors beneath, then for some +shout or wicked interference from above as I worked my way up +inch by inch, foot by foot, to what might not be safety after it +was attained. + +"Five hours--six. Then I struck something which proved to be a +window; and when I realized this and knew that with but one more +effort I should breathe freely again, I came as near falling as I +had at any time before I began this terrible climb. + +"Happily, I had some premonition of my danger, and threw myself +into a position which held me till the dizzy minute passed. Then +I went calmly on with my work, and in another half-hour had +reached the window, which, fortunately for me, not only opened +inward, but was off the latch. It was with a sense of +inexpressible relief that I clambered through this window and for +a brief moment breathed in the pungent odor of cedar. But it +could have been only for a moment. It was three o'clock in the +afternoon before I found myself again in the outer air. The only +way I can account for the lapse of time is that the strain to +which both body and nerve had been subjected was too much for +even my hardy body and that I fell to the floor of the cedar +closet and from a faint went into a sleep that lasted until two. +I can easily account for the last hour because it took me that +long to cut the thick paneling from the door of the closet. +However, I am here now, sir, and in very much the same condition +in which I left that house. I thought my first duty was to tell +you that I had seen Hiram Sears in that house last night and put +you on his track." + +I drew a long breath,--I think the inspector did. I had been +almost rigid from excitement, and I don't believe he was quite +free from it either. But his voice was calmer than I expected +when he finally said: + +"I'll remember this. It was a good night's work." Then the +inspector put to him some questions, which seemed to fix the fact +that Sears had left the house before Sweetwater did, after which +he bade him send certain men to him and then go and fix himself +up. + +I believe he had forgotten me. I had almost forgotten myself. + + + +XV + +SEARS OR WELLGOOD + +Not till the inspector had given several orders was I again +summoned into his presence. He smiled as our eyes met, but did +not allude, any more than I did, to what had just passed. +Nevertheless, we understood each other. + +When I was again seated, he took up the conversation where we had +left it. + +"The description I was just about to read to you," he went on; +"will you listen to it now?" + +"Gladly," said I; "it is Wellgood's, I believe." + +He did not answer save by a curious glance from under his brows, +but, taking the paper again from his desk, went on reading: + +"A man of fifty-five looking like one of sixty. Medium height, +insignificant features, head bald save for a ring of scanty dark +hair. No beard, a heavy nose, long mouth and sleepy half-shut +eyes capable of shooting strange glances. Nothing distinctive in +face or figure save the depth of his wrinkles and a scarcely +observable stoop in his right shoulder. Do you see Wellgood in +that?" he suddenly asked. + +"I have only the faintest recollection of his appearance," was my +doubtful reply. "But the impression I get from this description +is not exactly the one I received of that waiter in the momentary +glimpse I got of him." + +"So others have told me before;' he remarked, looking very +disappointed. "The description is of Sears given me by a man who +knew him well, and if we could fit the description of the one to +that of the other, we should have it easy. But the few persons +who have seen Wellgood differ greatly in their remembrance of his +features, and even of his coloring. It is astonishing how +superficially most people see a man, even when they are thrown +into daily contact with him. Mr. Jones says the man's eyes are +gray, his hair a wig and dark, his nose pudgy, and his face +without much expression. His land-lady, that his eyes are blue, +his hair, whether wig or not, a dusty auburn, and his look quick +and piercing,--a look which always made her afraid. His nose she +don't remember. Both agree, or rather all agree, that he wore no +beard--Sears did, but a beard can be easily taken off--and all of +them declare that they would know him instantly if they saw him. +And so the matter stands. Even you can give me no definite +description,--one, I mean, as satisfactory or unsatisfactory as +this of Sears." + +I shook my head. Like the others, I felt that I should know him +if I saw him, but I could go no further than that. There seemed +to be so little that was distinctive about the man. + +The inspector, hoping, perhaps, that all this would serve to +rouse my memory, shrugged his shoulders and put the best face he +could on the matter. + +"Well, well," said he, "we shall have to be patient. A day may +make all the difference possible in our outlook. If we can lay +hands on either of these men--" + +He seemed to realize he had said a word too much, for he +instantly changed the subject by asking if I had succeeded in +getting a sample of Miss Grey's writing. I was forced to say no; +that everything had been very carefully put away. "But I do not +know what moment I may come upon it," I added. "I do not forget +its importance in this investigation." + +"Very good. Those lines handed up to Mrs. Fairbrother from the +walk outside are the second most valuable clue we possess." + +I did not ask him what the first was. I knew. It was the +stiletto. + +"Strange that no one has testified to that handwriting," I +remarked. + +He looked at me in surprise. + +"Fifty persons have sent in samples of writing which they think +like it," he observed. "Often of persons who never heard of the +Fairbrothers. We have been bothered greatly with the business. +You know little of the difficulties the police labor under." + +"I know too much," I sighed. + +He smiled and patted me on the hand. + +"Go back to your patient," he said. "Forget every other duty but +that of your calling until you get some definite word from me. I +shall not keep you in suspense one minute longer than is +absolutely necessary." + +He had risen. I rose too. But I was not satisfied. I could not +leave the room with my ideas (I might say with my convictions) in +such a turmoil. + +"Inspector," said I, "you will think me very obstinate, but all +you have told me about Sears, all I have heard about him, in +fact,"--this I emphasized,--"does not convince me of the entire +folly of my own suspicions. Indeed, I am afraid that, if +anything, they are strengthened. This steward, who is a doubtful +character, I acknowledge, may have had his reasons for wishing +Mrs. Fairbrother's death, may even have had a hand in the matter; +but what evidence have you to show that he, himself, entered the +alcove, struck the blow or stole the diamond? I have listened +eagerly for some such evidence, but I have listened in vain." + +"I know," he murmured, "I know. But it will come; at least I +think so." + +This should have reassured me, no doubt, and sent me away quiet +and happy. But something--the tenacity of a deep conviction, +possibly--kept me lingering before the inspector and finally gave +me the courage to say: + +"I know I ought not to speak another word; that I am putting +myself at a disadvantage in doing so; but I can not help it, +Inspector; I can not help it when I see you laying such stress +upon the few indirect clues connecting the suspicious Sears with +this crime, and ignoring the direct clues we have against one +whom we need not name." + +Had I gone too far? Had my presumption transgressed all bounds +and would he show a very natural anger? No, he smiled instead, an +enigmatical smile, no doubt, which I found it difficult to +understand, but yet a smile. + +"You mean," he suggested, "that Sears' possible connection with +the crime can not eliminate Mr. Grey's very positive one; nor can +the fact that Wellgood's hand came in contact with Mr. Grey's, at +or near the time of the exchange of the false stone with the +real, make it any less evident who was the guilty author of this +exchange?" + +The inspector's hand was on the door-knob, but he dropped it at +this, and surveying me very quietly said: + +"I thought that a few days spent at the bedside of Miss Grey in +the society of so renowned and cultured a gentleman as her father +would disabuse you of these damaging suspicions." + +"I don't wonder that you thought so," I burst out. "You would +think so all the more, if you knew how kind he can be and what +solicitude he shows for all about him. But I can not get over the +facts. They all point, it seems to me, straight in one +direction." + +"All? You heard what was said in this room--I saw it in your +eye--how the man, who surprised the steward in his own room last +night, heard him talking of love and death in connection with +Mrs. Fairbrother. 'To kiss what I hate! It is almost as bad as to +kill what I love'--he said something like that." + +"Yes, I heard that. But did he mean that he had been her actual +slayer? Could you convict him on those words?" + +"Well, we shall find out. Then, as to Wellgood's part in the +little business, you choose to consider that it took place at the +time the stone fell from Mr. Grey's hand. What proof have you +that the substitution you believe in was not made by him? He +could easily have done it while crossing the room to Mr. Grey's +side." + +"Inspector!" Then hotly, as the absurdity of the suggestion +struck me with full force: "He do this! A waiter, or as you +think, Mr. Fairbrother's steward, to be provided with so +hard-to-come-by an article as this counterpart of a great stone? +Isn't that almost as incredible a supposition as any I have +myself presumed to advance?" + +"Possibly, but the affair is full of incredibilities, the +greatest of which, to my mind, is the persistence with which you, +a kind-hearted enough little woman, persevere in ascribing the +deepest guilt to one you profess to admire and certainly would be +glad to find innocent of any complicity with a great crime." + +I felt that I must justify myself. + +"Mr. Durand has had no such consideration shown him," said I. + +"I know, my child, I know; but the cases differ. Wouldn't it be +well for you to see this and be satisfied with the turn which +things have taken, without continuing to insist upon involving +Mr. Grey in your suspicions?" + +A smile took off the edge of this rebuke, yet I felt it keenly; +and only the confidence I had in his fairness as a man and public +official enabled me to say: + +"But I am talking quite confidentially. And you have been so good +to me, so willing to listen to all I had to say, that I can not +help but speak my whole mind. It is my only safety valve. +Remember how I have to sit in the presence of this man with my +thoughts all choked up. It is killing me. But I think I should go +back content if you will listen to one more suggestion I have to +make. It is my last." + +"Say it I am nothing if not indulgent." + +He had spoken the word. Indulgent, that was it. He let me speak, +probably had let me speak from the first, from pure kindness. He +did not believe one little bit in my good sense or logic. But I +was not to be deterred. I would empty my mind of the ugly thing +that lay there. I would leave there no miserable dregs of doubt +to ferment and work their evil way with me in the dead watches of +the night, which I had yet to face. So I took him at his word. + +"I only want to ask this. In case Sears is innocent of the crime, +who wrote the warning and where did the assassin get the stiletto +with the Grey arms chased into its handle? And the diamond? Still +the diamond! You hint that he stole that, too. That with some +idea of its proving useful to him on this gala occasion, he had +provided himself with an imitation stone, setting and all,--he +who has never shown, so far as we have heard, any interest in +Mrs. Fairbrother's diamond, only in Mrs. Fairbrother herself. If +Wellgood is Sears and Sears the medium by which the false stone +was exchanged for the real, then he made this exchange in Mr. +Grey's interests and not his own. But I don't believe he had +anything to do with it. I think everything goes to show that the +exchange was made by Mr. Grey himself." + +"A second Daniel," muttered the inspector lightly. "Go on, little +lawyer!" But for all this attempt at banter on his part, I +imagined that I saw the beginning of a very natural anxiety to +close the conversation. I therefore hastened with what I had yet +to say, cutting my words short and almost stammering in my +eagerness. + +"Remember the perfection of that imitation stone, a copy so exact +that it extends to the setting. That shows plan-- forgive me if I +repeat myself--preparation, a knowledge of stones, a particular +knowledge of this one. Mr. Fairbrother's steward may have had the +knowledge, but he would have been a fool to have used his +knowledge to secure for himself a valuable he could never have +found a purchaser for in any market. But a fancier--one who has +his pleasure in the mere possession of a unique and invaluable +gem--ah! that is different! He might risk a crime--history tells +us of several." + +Here I paused to take breath, which gave the inspector chance to +say: + +"In other words, this is what you think. The Englishman, desirous +of covering up his tracks, conceived the idea of having this +imitation on hand, in case it might be of use in the daring and +disgraceful undertaking you ascribe to him. Recognizing his own +inability to do this himself, he delegated the task to one who in +some way, he had been led to think, cherished a secret grudge +against its present possessor--a man who had had some opportunity +for seeing the stone and studying the setting. The copy thus +procured, Mr. Grey went to the ball, and, relying on his own +seemingly unassailable position, attacked Mrs. Fairbrother in the +alcove and would have carried off the diamond, if he had found it +where he had seen it earlier blazing on her breast. But it was +not there. The warning received by her--a warning you ascribe to +his daughter, a fact which is yet to be proved--had led her to +rid herself of the jewel in the way Mr. Durand describes, and he +found himself burdened with a dastardly crime and with nothing to +show for it. Later, however, to his intense surprise and possible +satisfaction, he saw that diamond in my hands, and, recognizing +an opportunity, as he thought, of yet securing it, he asked to +see it, held it for an instant, and then, making use of an almost +incredible expedient for distracting attention, dropped, not the +real stone but the false one, retaining the real one in his hand. +This, in plain English, as I take it, is your present idea of the +situation." + +Astonished at the clearness with which he read my mind, I +answered: "Yes, Inspector, that is what was in my mind." + +"Good! then it is just as well that it is out. Your mind is now +free and you can give it entirely to your duties." Then, as he +laid his hand on the door-knob, he added: "In studying so +intently your own point of view, you seem to have forgotten that +the last thing which Mr. Grey would be likely to do, under those +circumstances, would be to call attention to the falsity of the +gem upon whose similarity to the real stone he was depending. Not +even his confidence in his own position, as an honored and +highly-esteemed guest, would lead him to do that." + +"Not if he were a well-known connoisseur," I faltered, "with the +pride of one who has handled the best gems? He would know that +the deception would be soon discovered and that it would not do +for him to fail to recognize it for what it was, when the +make-believe was in his hands." + +"Forced, my dear child, forced; and as chimerical as all the +rest. It can not stand putting into words. I will go further,-- +you are a good girl and can bear to hear the truth from me. I +don't believe in your theory; I can't. I have not been able to +from the first, nor have any of my men; but if your ideas are +true and Mr. Grey is involved in this matter, you will find that +there has been more of a hitch about that diamond than you, in +your simplicity, believe. If Mr. Grey were in actual possession +of this valuable, he would show less care than you say he does. +So would he if it were in Wellgood's hands with his consent and a +good prospect of its coming to him in the near future. But if it +is in Wellgood's hands without his consent, or any near prospect +of his regaining it, then we can easily understand his present +apprehensions and the growing uneasiness he betrays." + +"True," I murmured. + +"If, then," the inspector pursued, giving me a parting glance not +without its humor, probably not without something really serious +underlying its humor, "we should find, in following up our +present clue, that Mr. Grey has had dealings with this Wellgood +or this Sears; or if you, with your advantages for learning the +fact, should discover that he shows any extraordinary interest in +either of them, the matter will take on a different aspect. But +we have not got that far yet. At present our task is to find one +or the other of these men. If we are lucky, we shall discover +that the waiter and the steward are identical, in spite of their +seemingly different appearance. A rogue, such as this Sears has +shown himself to be, would be an adept at disguise." + +"You are right," I acknowledged. "He has certainly the heart of a +criminal. If he had no hand in Mrs. Fairbrother's murder, he came +near having one in that of your detective. You know what I mean. +I could not help hearing, Inspector." + +He smiled, looked me steadfastly in the face for a moment, and +then bowed me out. + +The inspector told me afterward that, in spite of the cavalier +manner with which he had treated my suggestions, he spent a very +serious half-hour, head to head with the district attorney. The +result was the following order to Sweetwater, the detective. + +"You are to go to the St. Regis; make yourself solid there, and +gradually, as you can manage it, work yourself into a position +for knowing all that goes on in Room --. If the gentleman (mind +you, the gentleman; we care nothing about the women) should go +out, you are to follow him if it takes you to--. We want to know +his secret; but he must never know our interest in it and you are +to be as silent in this matter as if possessed of neither ear nor +tongue. I will add memory, for if you find this secret to be one +in which we have no lawful interest, you are to forget it +absolutely and for ever. You will understand why when you consult +the St Regis register." + +But they expected nothing from it; absolutely nothing. + + + +XVI + +DOUBT + +I prayed uncle that we might be driven home by the way of +Eighty-sixth Street. I wanted to look at the Fairbrother house. I +had seen it many times, but I felt that I should see it with new +eyes after the story I had just heard in the inspector's office. +That an adventure of this nature could take place in a New York +house taxed my credulity. I might have believed it of Paris, +wicked, mysterious Paris, the home of intrigue and every +redoubtable crime, but of our own homely, commonplace +metropolis--the house must be seen for me to be convinced of the +fact related. + +Many of you know the building. It is usually spoken of with a +shrug, the sole reason for which seems to be that there is no +other just like it in the city. I myself have always considered +it imposing and majestic; but to the average man it is too +suggestive of Old-World feudal life to be pleasing. On this +afternoon--a dull, depressing one--it looked undeniably heavy as +we approached it; but interesting in a very new way to me, +because of the great turret at one angle, the scene of that +midnight descent of two men, each in deadly fear of the other, +yet quailing not in their purpose,--the one of flight, the other +of pursuit. + +There was no railing in front of the house. It may have seemed an +unnecessary safeguard to the audacious owner. Consequently, the +small door in the turret opened directly upon the street, making +entrance and exit easy enough for any one who had the key. But +the shaft and the small room at the bottom--where were they? +Naturally in the center of the great mass, the room being without +windows. + +It was, therefore, useless to look for it, and yet my eye ran +along the peaks and pinnacles of the roof, searching for the +skylight in which it undoubtedly ended. At last I espied it, and, +my curiosity satisfied on this score, I let my eyes run over the +side and face of the building for an open window or a lifted +shade. But all were tightly closed and gave no more sign of life +than did the boarded-up door. But I was not deceived by this. As +we drove away, I thought how on the morrow there would be a +regular procession passing through this street to see just the +little I had seen to-day. The detective's adventure was like to +make the house notorious. For several minutes after I had left +its neighborhood my imagination pictured room after room shut up +from the light of day, but bearing within them the impalpable +aura of those two shadows flitting through them like the ghosts +of ghosts, as the detective had tellingly put it. + +The heart has its strange surprises. Through my whole ride and +the indulgence in these thoughts I was conscious of a great inner +revulsion against all I had intimated and even honestly felt +while talking with the inspector. Perhaps this is what this wise +old official expected. He had let me talk, and the inevitable +reaction followed. I could now see only Mr. Grey's goodness and +claims to respect, and began to hate myself that I had not been +immediately impressed by the inspector's views, and shown myself +more willing to drop every suspicion against the august personage +I had presumed to associate with crime. What had given me the +strength to persist? Loyalty to my lover? His innocence had not +been involved. Indeed, every word uttered in the inspector's +office had gone to prove that he no longer occupied a leading +place in police calculations: that their eyes were turned +elsewhere, and that I had only to be patient to see Mr. Durand +quite cleared in their minds. + +But was this really so? Was he as safe as that? What if this new +clue failed? What if they failed to find Sears or lay hands on +the doubtful Wellgood? Would Mr. Durand be released without a +trial? Should we hear nothing more of the strange and to many the +suspicious circumstances which linked him to this crime? It would +be expecting too much from either police or official +discrimination. + +No; Mr. Durand would never be completely exonerated till the true +culprit was found and all explanations made. I had therefore been +simply fighting his battles when I pointed out what I thought to +be the weak place in their present theory, and, sore as I felt in +contemplation of my seemingly heartless action, I was not the +unimpressionable, addle-pated nonentity I must have seemed to the +inspector. + +Yet my comfort was small and the effort it took to face Mr. Grey +and my young patient was much greater than I had anticipated. I +blushed as I approached to take my place at Miss Grey's bedside, +and, had her father been as suspicious of me at that moment as I +was of him, I am sure that I should have fared badly in his +thoughts. + +But he was not on the watch for my emotions. He was simply +relieved to see me back. I noticed this immediately, also that +something had occurred during my absence which absorbed his +thought and filled him with anxiety. + +A Western Union envelope lay at his feet,--proof that he had just +received a telegram. This, under ordinary circumstances, would +not have occasioned me a second thought, such a man being +naturally the recipient of all sorts of communications from all +parts of the world; but at this crisis, with the worm of a +half-stifled doubt still gnawing at my heart, everything that +occurred to him took on importance and roused questions. + +When he had left the room, Miss Grey nestled up to me with the +seemingly ingenuous remark: + +"Poor papa! something disturbs him. He will not tell me what. I +suppose he thinks I am not strong enough to share his troubles. +But I shall be soon. Don't you see I am gaining every day?" + +"Indeed I do," was my hearty response. In face of such a sweet +confidence and open affection doubt vanished and I was able to +give all my thoughts to her. + +"I wish papa felt as sure of this as you do," she said. "For some +reason he does not seem to take any comfort from my improvement. +When Doctor Freligh says, 'Well, well! we are getting on finely +to-day,' I notice that he does not look less anxious, nor does he +even meet these encouraging words with a smile. Haven't you +noticed it? He looks as care-worn and troubled about me now as he +did the first day I was taken sick. Why should he? Is it because +he has lost so many children he can not believe in his good +fortune at having the most insignificant of all left to him?" + +"I do not know your father very well," I protested; "and can not +judge what is going on in his mind. But he must see that you are +quite a different girl from what you were a week ago, and that, +if nothing unforeseen happens, your recovery will only be a +matter of a week or two longer." + +"Oh, how I love to hear you say that! To be well again! To read +letters!" she murmured, "and to write them!" And I saw the +delicate hand falter up to pinch the precious packet awaiting +that happy hour. I did not like to discuss her father with her, +so took this opportunity to turn the conversation aside into +safer channels. But we had not proceeded far before Mr. Grey +returned and, taking his stand at the foot of the bed, remarked, +after a moment's gloomy contemplation of his daughter's face: + +"You are better today, the doctor says,--I have just been +telephoning to him. But do you feel well enough for me to leave +you for a few days? There is a man I must see--must go to, if you +have no dread of being left alone with your good nurse and the +doctor's constant attendance." + +Miss Grey looked startled. Doubtless she found it difficult to +understand what man in this strange country could interest her +father enough to induce him to leave her while he was yet +laboring under such solicitude. But a smile speedily took the +place of her look of surprised inquiry and she affectionately +exclaimed: + +"Oh, I haven't the least dread in the world, not now. See, I can +hold up my arms. Go, papa, go; it will give me a chance to +surprise you with my good looks when you come back." + +He turned abruptly away. He was suffering from an emotion deeper +than he cared to acknowledge. But he gained control over himself +speedily and, coming back, announced with forced decision: + +"I shall have to go to-night. I have no choice. Promise me that +you will not go back in my absence; that you will strive to get +well; that you will put all your mind into striving to get well." + +"Indeed, I will," she answered, a little frightened by the +feeling he showed. "Don't worry so much. I have more than one +reason for living, papa." + +He shook his head and went immediately to make his preparations +for departure. His daughter gave one sob, then caught me by the +hand. + +"You look dumfounded," said she. "But never mind, we shall get on +very well together. I have the most perfect confidence in you." + +Was it my duty to let the inspector know that Mr. Grey +anticipated absenting himself from the city for a few days? I +decided that I would only be impressing my own doubts upon him +after a rebuke which should have allayed them. + +Yet, when Mr. Grey came to take his departure I wished that the +inspector might have been a witness to his emotion, if only to +give me one of his very excellent explanations. The parting was +more like that of one who sees no immediate promise of return +than of a traveler who intends to limit his stay to a few days. +He looked her in the eyes and kissed her a dozen times, each time +with an air of heartbreak which was good neither for her nor for +himself, and when he finally tore himself away it was to look +back at her from the door with an expression I was glad she did +not see, or it would certainly have interfered with the promise +she had made to concentrate all her energies on getting well. + +What was at the root of his extreme grief at leaving her? Did he +fear the person he was going to meet, or were his plans such as +involved a much longer stay than he had mentioned? Did he even +mean to return at all? + +Ah, that was the question! Did he intend to return, or had I been +the unconscious witness of a flight? + + + +XVII + +SWEETWATER IN A NEW ROLE + +A few days later three men were closeted in the district +attorney's office. Two of them were officials--the district +attorney himself, and our old friend, the inspector. The third +was the detective, Sweetwater, chosen by them to keep watch on +Mr. Grey. + +Sweetwater had just come to town,--this was evident from the +gripsack he had set down in a corner on entering, also from a +certain tousled appearance which bespoke hasty rising and but few +facilities for proper attention to his person. These details +counted little, however, in the astonishment created by his +manner. For a hardy chap he looked strangely nervous and +indisposed, so much so that, after the first short greeting, the +inspector asked him what was up, and if he had had another +Fairbrother-house experience. + +He replied with a decided no; that it was not his adventure which +had upset him, but the news he had to bring. + +Here he glanced at every door and window; and then, leaning +forward over the table at which the two officials sat, he brought +his head as nearly to them as possible and whispered five words. + +They produced a most unhappy sensation. Both the men, hardened as +they were by duties which soon sap the sensibilities, started and +turned as pale as the speaker himself. Then the district +attorney, with one glance at the inspector, rose and locked the +door. + +It was a prelude to this tale which I give, not as it came from +his mouth, but as it was afterward related to me. The language, I +fear, is mostly my own. + +The detective had just been with Mr. Grey to the coast of Maine. +Why there, will presently appear. His task had been to follow +this gentleman, and follow him he did. + +Mr. Grey was a very stately man, difficult of approach, and was +absorbed, besides, by some overwhelming care. But this fellow was +one in a thousand and somehow, during the trip, he managed to do +him some little service, which drew the attention of the great +man to himself. This done, he so improved his opportunity that +the two were soon on the best of terms, and he learned that the +Englishman was without a valet, and, being unaccustomed to move +about without one, felt the awkwardness of his position very +much. This gave Sweetwater his cue, and when he found that the +services of such a man were wanted only during the present trip +and for the handling of affairs quite apart from personal +tendance upon the gentleman himself, he showed such an honest +desire to fill the place, and made out to give such a good +account of himself, that he found himself engaged for the work +before reaching C--. + +This was a great stroke of luck, he thought, but he little knew +how big a stroke or into what a series of adventures it was going +to lead him. + +Once on the platform of the small station at which Mr. Grey had +bidden him to stop, he noticed two things: the utter helplessness +of the man in all practical matters, and his extreme anxiety to +see all that was going on about him without being himself seen. +There was method in this curiosity, too much method. Women did +not interest him in the least. They could pass and repass without +arousing his attention, but the moment a man stepped his way, he +shrank from him only to betray the greatest curiosity concerning +him the moment he felt it safe to turn and observe him. All of +which convinced Sweetwater that the Englishman's errand was in +connection with a man whom he equally dreaded and desired to +meet. + +Of this he was made absolutely certain a little later. As they +were leaving the depot with the rest of the arrivals, Mr. Grey +said: + +"I want you to get me a room at a very quiet hotel. This done, +you are to hunt up the man whose name you will find written in +this paper, and when you have found him, make up your mind how it +will be possible for me to get a good look at him without his +getting any sort of a look at me. Do this and you will earn a +week's salary in one day." + +Sweetwater, with his head in air and his heart on fire--for +matters were looking very promising indeed--took the paper and +put it in his pocket; then he began to hunt for a hotel. Not till +he bad found what he wished, and installed the Englishman in his +room, did he venture to open the precious memorandum and read the +name he had been speculating over for an hour. It was not the one +he had anticipated, but it came near to it. It was that of James +Wellgood. + +Satisfied now that he had a ticklish matter to handle, he +prepared for it, with his usual enthusiasm and circumspection. + +Sauntering out into the street, he strolled first toward the +post-office. The train on which he had just come had been a +mail-train, and he calculated that he would find half the town +there. + +His calculation was a correct one. The store was crowded with +people. Taking his place in the line drawn up before the +post-office window, he awaited his turn, and when it came shouted +out the name which was his one talisman--James Wellgood. + +The man behind the boxes was used to the name and reached out a +hand toward a box unusually well stacked, but stopped half-way +there and gave Sweetwater a sharp look. + +"Who are you?" he asked. + +"A stranger," that young man put in volubly, "looking for James +Wellgood. I thought, perhaps, you could tell me where to find +him. I see that his letters pass through this office." + +"You're taking up another man's time," complained the postmaster. +He probably alluded to the man whose elbow Sweetwater felt boring +into his back. "Ask Dick over there; he knows him." + +The detective was glad enough to escape and ask Dick. But he was +better pleased yet when Dick--a fellow with a squint whose hand +was always in the sugar--told him that Mr. Wellgood would +probably be in for his mail in a few moments. "That is his buggy +standing before the drug-store on the opposite side of the way." + +So! he had netted Jones' quondam waiter at the first cast! +"Lucky!" was what he said to himself, "still lucky!" + +Sauntering to the door, he watched for the owner of that buggy. +He had learned, as such fellows do, that there was a secret hue +and cry after this very man by the New York police; that he was +supposed by some to be Sears himself. In this way he would soon +be looking upon the very man whose steps he had followed through +the Fairbrother house a few nights before, and through whose +resolute action he had very nearly run the risk of a lingering +death from starvation. + +"A dangerous customer," thought he. "I wonder if my instinct will +go so far as to make me recognize his presence. I shouldn't +wonder. It has served me almost as well as that many times +before." + +It appeared to serve him now, for when the man finally showed +himself on the cross-walk separating the two buildings he +experienced a sudden indecision not unlike that of dread, and +there being nothing in the man's appearance to warrant +apprehension, he took it for the instinctive recognition it +undoubtedly was. + +He therefore watched him narrowly and succeeded in getting one +glance from his eye. It was enough. The man was commonplace,-- +commonplace in feature, dress and manner, but his eye gave him +away. There was nothing commonplace in that. It was an eye to +beware of. + +He had taken in Sweetwater as he passed, but Sweetwater was of a +commonplace type, too, and woke no corresponding dread in the +other's mind; for he went whistling into the store, from which he +presently reissued with a bundle of mail in his hand. The +detective's first instinct was to take him into custody as a +suspect much wanted by the New York police; but reason assured +him that he not only had no warrant for this, but that he would +better serve the ends of justice by following out his present +task of bringing this man and the Englishman together and +watching the result. But how, with the conditions laid on him by +Mr. Grey, was this to be done? He knew nothing of the man's +circumstances or of his position in the town. How, then, go to +work to secure his cooperation in a scheme possibly as mysterious +to him as it was to himself? He could stop this stranger in +mid-street, with some plausible excuse, but it did not follow +that he would succeed in luring him to the hotel where Mr. Grey +could see him. Wellgood, or, as he believed, Sears, knew too much +of life to be beguiled by any open clap-trap, and Sweetwater was +obliged to see him drive off without having made the least +advance in the purpose engrossing him. + +But that was nothing. He had all the evening before him, and +reentering the store, he took up his stand near the sugar barrel. +He had perceived that in the pauses of weighing and tasting, Dick +talked; if he were guided with suitable discretion, why should he +not talk of Wellgood? + +He was guided, and he did talk and to some effect. That is, he +gave information of the man which surprised Sweetwater. If in the +past and in New York he had been known as a waiter, or should I +say steward, he was known here as a manufacturer of patent +medicine designed to rejuvenate the human race. He had not been +long in town and was somewhat of a stranger yet, but he wouldn't +be so long. He was going to make things hum, he was. Money for +this, money for that, a horse where another man would walk, and +mail--well, that alone would make this post-office worth while. +Then the drugs ordered by wholesale. Those boxes over there were +his, ready to be carted out to his manufactory. Count them, some +one, and think of the bottles and bottles of stuff they stand +for. If it sells as he says it will--then he will soon be rich: +and so on, till Sweetwater brought the garrulous Dick to a +standstill by asking whether Wellgood had been away for any +purpose since he first came to town. He received the reply that +he had just come home from New York, where he had been for some +articles needed in his manufactory. Sweetwater felt all his +convictions confirmed, and ended the colloquy with the final +question: + +"And where is his manufactory? Might be worth visiting, perhaps." + +The other made a gesture, said something about northwest and +rushed to help a customer. Sweetwater took the opportunity to +slide away. More explicit directions could easily be got +elsewhere, and he felt anxious to return to Mr. Grey and +discover, if possible, whether it would prove as much a matter of +surprise to him as to Sweetwater himself that the man who +answered to the name of Wellgood was the owner of a manufactory +and a barrel or two of drugs, out of which he proposed to make a +compound that would rob the doctors of their business and make +himself and this little village rich. + +Sweetwater made only one stop on his way to Mr. Grey's hotel +rooms, and that was at the stables. Here he learned whatever else +there was to know, and, armed with definite information, he +appeared before Mr. Grey, who, to his astonishment, was dining in +his own room. + +He had dismissed the waiter and was rather brooding than eating. +He looked up eagerly, however, when Sweetwater entered, and asked +what news. + +The detective, with some semblance of respect, answered that he +had seen Wellgood, but that he had been unable to detain him or +bring him within his employer's observation. + +"He is a patent-medicine man," he then explained, "and +manufactures his own concoctions in a house he has rented here on +a lonely road some half-mile out of town." + +"Wellgood does? the man named Wellgood?" Mr. Grey exclaimed with +all the astonishment the other secretly expected. + +"Yes; Wellgood, James Wellgood. There is no other in town." + +"How long has this man been here?" the statesman inquired, after +a moment of apparently great discomfiture. + +"Just twenty-four hours, this time. He was here once before, when +he rented the house and made all his plans." + +"Ah!" + +Mr. Grey rose precipitately. His manner had changed. + +"I must see him. What you tell me makes it all the more necessary +for me to see him. How can you bring it about?" + +"Without his seeing you?" Sweetwater asked. + +"Yes, yes; certainly without his seeing me. Couldn't you rap him +up at his own door, and hold him in talk a minute, while I looked +on from the carriage or whatever vehicle we can get to carry us +there? The least glimpse of his face would satisfy me. That is, +to-night." + +"I'll try," said Sweetwater, not very sanguine as to the probable +result of this effort. + +Returning to the stables, he ordered the team. With the last ray +of the sun they set out, the reins in Sweetwater's hands. + +They headed for the coast-road. + + + +XVIII + +THE CLOSED DOOR + +The road was once the highway, but the tide having played so many +tricks with its numberless bridges a new one had been built +farther up the cliff, carrying with it the life and business of +the small town. Many old landmarks still remained--shops, +warehouses and even a few scattered dwellings. But most of these +were deserted, and those that were still in use showed such +neglect that it was very evident the whole region would soon be +given up to the encroaching sea and such interests as are +inseparable from it. + +The hour was that mysterious one of late twilight, when outlines +lose their distinctness and sea and shore melt into one mass of +uniform gray. There was no wind and the waves came in with a soft +plash, but so near to the level of the road that it was evident, +even to these strangers, that the tide was at its height and +would presently begin to ebb. + +Soon they had passed the last forsaken dwelling, and the town +proper lay behind them. Sand and a few rocks were all that lay +between them now and the open stretch of the ocean, which, at +this point, approached the land in a small bay, well-guarded on +either side by embracing rocky heads. This was what made the +harbor at C--. + +It was very still. They passed one team and only one. Sweetwater +looked very sharply at this team and at its driver, but saw +nothing to arouse suspicion. They were now a half-mile from C--, +and, seemingly, in a perfectly desolate region. + +"A manufactory here!" exclaimed Mr. Grey. It was the first word +he had uttered since starting. + +"Not far from here," was Sweetwater's equally laconic reply; and, +the road taking a turn almost at the moment of his speaking, he +leaned forward and pointed out a building standing on the +right-hand side of the road, with its feet in the water. "That's +it." said he. "They described it well enough for me to know it +when I see it. Looks like a robber's hole at this time of night," +he laughed; "but what can you expect from a manufactory of patent +medicine?" + +Mr. Grey was silent. He was looking very earnestly at the +building. + +"It is larger than I expected," he remarked at last. + +Sweetwater himself was surprised, but as they advanced and their +point of view changed they found it to be really an insignificant +structure, and Mr. Wellgood's portion of it more insignificant +still. + +In reality it was a collection of three stores under one roof: +two of them were shut up and evidently unoccupied, the third +showed a lighted window. This was the manufactory. It occupied +the middle place and presented a tolerably decent appearance. It +showed, besides the lighted lamp I have mentioned, such signs of +life as a few packing-boxes tumbled out on the small platform in +front, and a whinnying horse attached to an empty buggy, tied to +a post on the opposite side of the road. + +"I'm glad to see the lamp," muttered Sweetwater. "Now, what shall +we do? Is it light enough for you to see his face, if I can +manage to bring him to the door?" + +Mr. Grey seemed startled. + +"It's darker than I thought," said he. "But call the man and if I +can not see him plainly, I'll shout to the horse to stand, which +you will take as a signal to bring this Wellgood nearer. But do +not be surprised if I ride off before he reaches the buggy. I'll +come back again and take you up farther down the road." + +"All right, sir," answered Sweetwater, with a side glance at the +speaker's inscrutable features. "It's a go!" And leaping to the +ground he advanced to the manufactory door and knocked loudly. + +No one appeared. + +He tried the latch; it lifted, but the door did not open; it was +fastened from within. + +"Strange!" he muttered, casting a glance at the waiting horse and +buggy, then at the lighted window, which was on the second floor +directly over his head. "Guess I'll sing out." + +Here he shouted the man's name. "Wellgood! I say, Wellgood!" + +No response to this either. + +"Looks bad!" he acknowledged to himself; and, taking a step back, +he looked up at the window. + +It was closed, but there was neither shade nor curtain to +obstruct the view. + +"Do you see anything?" he inquired of Mr. Grey, who sat with his +eye at the small window in the buggy top. + +"Nothing." + +"No movement in the room above? No shadow at the window?" + +"Nothing." + +"Well, it's confounded strange!" And he went back, still calling +Wellgood. + +The tied-up horse whinnied, and the waves gave a soft splash and +that was all,--if I except Sweetwater's muttered oath. + +Coming back, he looked again at the window, then, with a gesture +toward Mr. Grey, turned the corner of the building and began to +edge himself along its side in an endeavor to reach the rear and +see what it offered. But he came to a sudden standstill. He found +himself on the edge of the bank before he had taken twenty steps. +Yet the building projected on, and he saw why it had looked so +large from a certain point of the approach. Its rear was built +out on piles, making its depth even greater than the united width +of the three stores. At low tide this might be accessible from +below, but just now the water was almost on a level with the top +of the piles, making all approach impossible save by boat. + +Disgusted with his failure, Sweetwater returned to the front, +and, finding the situation unchanged, took a new resolve. After +measuring with his eye the height of the first story, he coolly +walked over to the strange horse, and, slipping his bridle, +brought it back and cast it over a projection of the door; by its +aid he succeeded in climbing up to the window, which was the sole +eye to the interior, + +Mr. Grey sat far back in his buggy, watching every movement. + +There were no shades at the window, as I have before said, and, +once Sweetwater's eye had reached the level of the sill, he could +see the interior without the least difficulty. There was nobody +there. The lamp burned on a great table littered with papers, but +the rude cane-chair before it was empty, and so was the room. He +could see into every corner of it and there was not even a +hiding-place where anybody could remain concealed. Sweetwater was +still looking, when the lamp, which had been burning with +considerable smoke, flared up and went out. Sweetwater uttered an +ejaculation, and, finding himself face to face with utter +darkness, slid from his perch to the ground. + +Approaching Mr. Grey for the second time, he said: + +"I can not understand it. The fellow is either lying low, or he's +gone out, leaving his lamp to go out, too. But whose is the +horse--just excuse me while I tie him up again. It looks like the +one he was driving to-day. It is the one. Well, he won't leave +him here all night. Shall we lie low and wait for him to come and +unhitch this animal? Or do you prefer to return to the hotel?" + +Mr. Grey was slow in answering. Finally he said: + +"The man may suspect our intention. You can never tell anything +about such fellows as he. He may have caught some unexpected +glimpse of me or simply heard that I was in town. If he's the man +I think him, he has reasons for avoiding me which I can very well +understand. Let us go back,--not to the hotel, I must see this +adventure through tonight,--but far enough for him to think we +have given up all idea of routing him out to-night. Perhaps that +is all he is waiting for. You can steal back--" + +"Excuse me," said Sweetwater, "but I know a better dodge than +that. We'll circumvent him. We passed a boat-house on our way +down here. I'll just drive you up, procure a boat, and bring you +back here by water. I don't believe that he will expect that, and +if he is in the house we shall see him or his light." + +"Meanwhile he can escape by the road." + +"Escape? Do you think he is planning to escape?" + +The detective spoke with becoming surprise and Mr. Grey answered +without apparent suspicion. + +"It is possible if he suspects my presence in the neighborhood." + +"Do you want to stop him?" + +"I want to see him." + +"Oh, I remember. Well, sir, we will drive on,--that is, after a +moment." + +"What are you going to do?" + +"Oh, nothing. You said you wanted to see the man before he +escaped." + +"Yes, but--" + +"And that he might escape by the road." + +"Yes--" + +"Well, I was just making that a little bit impracticable. A small +pebble in the keyhole and--why, see now, his horse is walking +off! Gee! I must have fastened him badly. I shouldn't wonder if +he trotted all the way to town. But it can't be helped. I can not +be supposed to race after him. Are you ready now, sir? I'll give +another shout, then I'll get in." And once more the lonely region +about echoed with the cry: "Wellgood! I say, Wellgood!" + +There was no answer, and the young detective, masking for the +nonce as Mr. Grey's confidential servant, jumped into the buggy, +and turned the horse's head toward C--. + + + +XIX + +THE FACE + +The moon was well up when the small boat in which our young +detective was seated with Mr. Grey appeared in the bay +approaching the so-called manufactory of Wellgood. The looked-for +light on the waterside was not there. All was dark except where +the windows reflected the light of the moon. + +This was a decided disappointment to Sweetwater, if not to Mr. +Grey. He had expected to detect signs of life in this quarter, +and this additional proof of Wellgood's absence from home made it +look as if they had come out on a fool's errand and might much +better have stuck to the road. + +"No promise there," came in a mutter from his lips. "Shall I row +in, sir, and try to make a landing?" + +"You may row nearer. I should like a closer view. I don't think +we shall attract any attention. There are more boats than ours on +the water." + +Sweetwater was startled. Looking round, he saw a launch, or some +such small steamer, riding at anchor not far from the mouth of +the bay. But that was not all. Between it and them was a rowboat +like their own, resting quietly in the wake of the moon. + +"I don't like so much company," he muttered. "Something's +brewing; something in which we may not want to take a part." + +"Very likely," answered Mr. Grey grimly. "But we must not be +deterred--not till I have seen--" the rest Sweetwater did not +hear. Mr. Grey seemed to remember himself. "Row nearer," he now +bade. "Get under the shadow of the rocks if you can. If the boat +is for him, he will show himself. Yet I hardly see how he can +board from that bank." + +It did not look feasible. Nevertheless, they waited and watched +with much patience for several long minutes. The boat behind them +did not advance, nor was any movement discernible in the +direction of the manufactory. Another short period, then suddenly +a light flashed from a window high up in the central gable, +sparkled for an instant and was gone. Sweetwater took it for a +signal and, with a slight motion of the wrist, began to work his +way in toward shore till they lay almost at the edge of the +piles. + +"Hark!" + +It was Sweetwater who spoke. + +Both listened, Mr. Grey with his head turned toward the launch +and Sweetwater with his eye on the cavernous space, sharply +outlined by the piles, which the falling tide now disclosed under +each contiguous building. Goods had been directly shipped from +these stores in the old days. This he had learned in the village. +How shipped he had not been able to understand from his previous +survey of the building. But he thought he could see now. At low +tide, or better, at half-tide, access could be got to the floor +of the extension and, if this floor held a trap, the mystery +would be explainable. So would be the hovering boat--the +signal-light and--yes! this sound overheard of steps on a +rattling planking. + +"I hear nothing," whispered Mr. Grey from the other end. "The +boat is still there, but not a man has dipped an oar." + +"They will soon," returned Sweetwater as a smothered sound of +clanking iron reached his ears from the hollow spaces before him. +"Duck your head, sir; I'm going to row in under this portion of +the house." + +Mr. Grey would have protested and with very good reason. There +was scarcely a space of three feet between them and the boards +overhead. But Sweetwater had so immediately suited action to word +that he had no choice. + +They were now in utter darkness, and Mr. Grey's thoughts must +have been peculiar as he crouched over the stern, hardly knowing +what to expect or whether this sudden launch into darkness was +for the purpose of flight or pursuit. But enlightenment came +soon. The sound of a man's tread in the building above was every +moment becoming more perceptible, and while wondering, possibly, +at his position, Mr. Grey naturally turned his head as nearly as +he could in the direction of these sounds, and was staring with +blank eyes into the darkness, when Sweetwater, leaning toward +him, whispered: + +"Look up! There's a trap. In a minute he'll open it. Mark him, +but don't breathe a word, and I'll get you out of this all +right." + +Mr. Grey attempted some answer, but it was lost in the prolonged +creak of slowly-moving hinges somewhere over their heads. Spaces, +which had looked dark, suddenly looked darker; hearing was +satisfied, but not the eye. A man's breath panting with exertion +testified to a near-by presence; but that man was working without +a light in a room with shuttered windows, and Mr. Grey probably +felt that he knew very little more than before, when suddenly, +most unexpectedly, to him at least, a face started out of that +overhead darkness; a face so white, with every feature made so +startlingly distinct by the strong light Sweetwater had thrown +upon it, that it seemed the only thing in the world to the two +men beneath. In another moment it had vanished, or rather the +light which had revealed it. + +"What's that? Are you there?" came down from above in hoarse and +none too encouraging tones. + +There was none to answer; Sweetwater, with a quick pull on the +oars, had already shot the boat out of its dangerous harbor. + + + +XX + +MOONLIGHT--AND A CLUE + +"Are you satisfied? Have you got what you wanted?" asked +Sweetwater, when they were well away from the shore and the voice +they had heard calling at intervals from the chasm they had left. + +"Yes. You're a good fellow. It could not have been better +managed." Then, after a pause too prolonged and thoughtful to +please Sweetwater, who was burning with curiosity if not with +some deeper feeling: "What was that light you burned? A match?" + +Sweetwater did not answer. He dared not. How speak of the +electric torch he as a detective carried in his pocket? That +would be to give himself away. He therefore let this question +slip by and put in one of his own. + +"Are you ready to go back now, sir? Are we all done here?" This +with his ear turned and his eye bent forward; for the adventure +they had interrupted was not at an end, whether their part in it +was or not. + +Mr. Grey hesitated, his glances following those of Sweetwater. + +"Let us wait," said he, in a tone which surprised Sweetwater. "If +he is meditating an escape, I must speak to him before he reaches +the launch. At all hazards," he added after another moment's +thought. + +"All right, sir--How do you propose--" + +His words were interrupted by a shrill whistle from the direction +of the bank. Promptly, and as if awaiting this signal, the two +men in the rowboat before them dipped their oars and pulled for +the shore, taking the direction of the manufactory. + +Sweetwater said nothing, but held himself in readiness. + +Mr. Grey was equally silent, but the lines of his face seemed to +deepen in the moonlight as the boat, gliding rapidly through the +water, passed them within a dozen boat-lengths and slipped into +the opening under the manufactory building. + +"Now row!" he cried. "Make for the launch. We'll intercept them +on their return." + +Sweetwater, glowing with anticipation, bent to his work. The boat +beneath them gave a bound and in a few minutes they were far out +on the waters of the bay. + +"They're coming!" he whispered eagerly, as he saw Mr. Grey +looking anxiously back. "How much farther shall I go?" + +"Just within hailing distance of the launch," was Mr. Grey's +reply. + +Sweetwater, gaging the distance with a glance, stopped at the +proper point and rested on his oars. But his thoughts did not +rest. He realized that he was about to witness an interview whose +importance he easily recognized. How much of it would he hear? +What would be the upshot and what was his full duty in the case? +He knew that this man Wellgood was wanted by the New York police, +but he was possessed with no authority to arrest him, even if he +had the power. + +"Something more than I bargained for," he inwardly commented. +"But I wanted excitement, and now I have got it. If only I can +keep my head level, I may get something out of this, if not all I +could wish." + +Meantime the second boat was very nearly on them. He could mark +the three figures and pick out Wellgood's head from among the +rest. It had a resolute air; the face on which, to his evident +discomfiture, the moon shone, wore a look which convinced the +detective that this was no patent-medicine manufacturer, nor even +a caterer's assistant, but a man of nerve and resources, the +same, indeed, whom he had encountered in Mr. Fairbrother's house, +with such disastrous, almost fatal, results to himself. + +The discovery, though an unexpected one, did not lessen his sense +of the extreme helplessness of his own position. He could +witness, but he could not act; follow Mr. Grey's orders, but +indulge in none of his own. The detective must continue to be +lost in the valet, though it came hard and woke a sense of shame +in his ambitious breast. + +Meanwhile Wellgood had seen them and ordered his men to cease +rowing. + +"Give way, there," he shouted. "We're for the launch and in a +hurry." + +"There's some one here who wants to speak to you, Mr. Wellgood," +Sweetwater called out, as respectfully as he could. "Shall I +mention your name?" he asked of Mr. Grey. + +"No, I will do that myself." And raising his voice, he accosted +the other with these words: "I am the man, Percival Grey, of +Darlington Manor, England. I should like to say a word to you +before you embark." + +A change, quick as lightning and almost as dangerous, passed over +the face Sweetwater was watching with such painful anxiety; but +as the other added nothing to his words and seemed to be merely +waiting, he shrugged his shoulders and muttered an order to his +rowers to proceed. + +In another moment the sterns of the two small craft swung +together, but in such a way that, by dint of a little skilful +manipulation on the part of Wellgood's men, the latter's back was +toward the moon. + +Mr. Grey leaned toward Wellgood, and his face fell into shadow +also. + +"Bah!" thought the detective, "I should have managed that myself. +But if I can not see I shall at least hear." + +But he deceived himself in this. The two men spoke in such low +whispers that only their intensity was manifest. Not a word came +to Sweetwater's ears. + +"Bah!" he thought again, "this is bad." + +But he had to swallow his disappointment, and more. For presently +the two men, so different in culture, station and appearance, +came, as it seemed, to an understanding, and Wellgood, taking his +hand from his breast, fumbled in one of his pockets and drew out +something which he handed to Mr. Grey. + +This made Sweetwater start and peer with still greater anxiety at +every movement, when to his surprise both bent forward, each over +his own knee, doing something so mysterious he could get no clue +to its nature till they again stretched forth their hands to each +other and he caught the gleam of paper and realized that they +were exchanging memoranda or notes. + +These must have been important, for each made an immediate +endeavor to read his slip by turning it toward the moon's rays. +That both were satisfied was shown by their after movements. +Wellgood put his slip into his pocket, and without further word +to Mr. Grey motioned his men to row away. They did so with a +will, leaving a line of silver in their wake. Mr. Grey, on the +contrary, gave no orders. He still held his slip and seemed to be +dreaming. But his eye was on the shore, and he did not even turn +when sounds from the launch denoted that she was under way. + +Sweetwater; looking at this morsel of paper with greedy eyes, +dipped his oars and began pulling softly toward that portion of +the beach where a small and twinkling light defined the +boat-house. He hoped Mr. Grey would speak, hoped that in some +way, by some means, he might obtain a clue to his patron's +thoughts. But the English gentleman sat like an image and did not +move till a slight but sudden breeze, blowing in-shore, seized +the paper in his hand and carried it away, past Sweetwater, who +vainly sought to catch it as it went fluttering by, into the +water ahead, where it shone for a moment, then softly +disappeared. + +Sweetwater uttered a cry, so did Mr. Grey. + +"Is it anything you wanted?" called out the former, leaning over +the bow of the boat and making a dive at the paper with his oar. + +"Yes; but if it's gone, it's gone," returned the other with some +feeling. "Careless of me, very careless,--but I was thinking of-- +" + +He stopped; he was greatly agitated, but he did not encourage +Sweetwater in any further attempts to recover the lost +memorandum. Indeed, such an effort would have been fruitless; the +paper was gone, and there was nothing left for them but to +continue their way. As they did so it would have been hard to +tell in which breast chagrin mounted higher. Sweetwater had lost +a clue in a thousand, and Mr. Greywell, no one knew what he had +lost. He said nothing and plainly showed by his changed manner +that he was in haste to land now and be done with this doubtful +adventure. + +When they reached the boat-house Mr. Grey left Sweetwater to pay +for the boat and started at once for the hotel. + +The man in charge had the bow of the boat in hand, preparatory to +pulling it up on the boards. As Sweetwater turned toward him he +caught sight of the side of the boat, shining brightly in the +moonlight. He gave a start and, with a muttered ejaculation, +darted forward and picked off a small piece of paper from the +dripping keel. It separated in his hand and a part of it escaped +him, but the rest he managed to keep by secreting it in his palm, +where it still clung, wet and possibly illegible, when he came +upon Mr. Grey again in the hotel office. + +"Here's your pay," said that gentleman, giving him a bill. "I am +very glad I met you. You have served me remarkably well." + +There was an anxiety in his face and a hurry in his movements +which struck Sweetwater. + +"Does this mean that you are through with me?" asked Sweetwater. +"That you have no further call for my services?" + +"Quite so," said the gentleman. "I'm going to take the train +to-night. I find that I still have time." + +Sweetwater began to look alive. + +Uttering hasty thanks, he rushed away to his own room and, +turning on the gas, peeled off the morsel of paper which had +begun to dry on his hand. If it should prove to be the blank end! +If the written part were the one which had floated off! Such +disappointments had fallen to his lot! He was not unused to them. + +But he was destined to better luck this time. The written end had +indeed disappeared, but there was one word left, which he had no +sooner read than he gave a low cry and prepared to leave for New +York on the same train as Mr. Grey. + +The word was--diamond. + + + +XXI + +GRIZEL! GRIZEL! + +I indulged in some very serious thoughts after Mr. Grey's +departure. A fact was borne in upon me to which I had hitherto +closed my prejudiced eyes, but which I could no longer ignore, +whatever confusion it brought or however it caused me to change +my mind on a subject which had formed one of the strongest bases +to the argument by which I had sought to save Mr. Durand. Miss +Grey cherished no such distrust of her father as I, in my +ignorance of their relations, had imputed to her in the early +hours of my ministrations. This you have already seen in my +account of their parting. Whatever his dread, fear or remorse, +there was no evidence that she felt toward him anything but love +and confidence: but love and confidence from her to him were in +direct contradiction to the doubts I had believed her to have +expressed in the half-written note handed to Mrs. Fairbrother in +the alcove. Had I been wrong, then, in attributing this scrawl to +her? It began to look so. Though forbidden to allow her to speak +on the one tabooed subject, I had wit enough to know that nothing +would keep her from it, if the fate of Mrs. Fairbrother occupied +any real place in her thoughts. + +Yet when the opportunity was given me one morning of settling +this fact beyond all doubt, I own that my main feeling was one of +dread. I feared to see this article in my creed destroyed, lest I +should lose confidence in the whole. Yet conscience bade me face +the matter boldly, for had I not boasted to myself that my one +desire was the truth? + +I allude to the disposition which Miss Grey showed on the morning +of the third day to do a little surreptitious writing. You +remember that a specimen of her handwriting had been asked for by +the inspector, and once had been earnestly desired by myself. Now +I seemed likely to have it, if I did not open my eyes too widely +to the meaning of her seemingly chance requests. A little pencil +dangled at the end of my watch-chain. Would I let her see it, let +her hold it in her hand for a minute? it was so like one she used +to have. Of course I took it off, of course I let her retain it a +little while in her hand. But the pencil was not enough. A few +minutes later she asked for a book to look at--I sometimes let +her look at pictures. But the book bothered her--she would look +at it later; would I give her something to mark the place--that +postal over there. I gave her the postal. She put it in the book +and I, who understood her thoroughly, wondered what excuse she +would now find for sending me into the other room. She found one +very soon, and with a heavily-beating heart I left her with that +pencil and postal. A soft laugh from her lips drew me back. She +was holding up the postal. + +"See! I have written a line to him! Oh, you good, good nurse, to +let me! You needn't look so alarmed. It hasn't hurt me one bit." + +I knew that it had not; knew that such an exertion was likely to +be more beneficial than hurtful to her, or I should have found +some excuse for deterring her. I endeavored to make my face more +natural. As she seemed to want me to take the postal in my hand I +drew near and took it. + +"The address looks very shaky," she laughed. "I think you will +have to put it in an envelope." + +I looked at it,--I could not help it,--her eye was on me, and I +could not even prepare my mind for the shock of seeing it like or +totally unlike the writing of the warning. It was totally unlike; +so distinctly unlike that it was no longer possible to attribute +those lines to her which, according to Mr. Durand's story, had +caused Mrs. Fairbrother to take off her diamond. + +"Why, why!" she cried. "You actually look pale. Are you afraid +the doctor will scold us? It hasn't hurt me nearly so much as +lying here and knowing what he would give for one word from me." + +"You are right, and I am foolish," I answered with all the spirit +left in me. "I should be glad--I am glad that you have written +these words. I will copy the address on an envelope and send it +out in the first mail." + +"Thank you," she murmured, giving me back my pencil with a sly +smile. "Now I can sleep. I must have roses in my cheeks when papa +comes home." + +And she bade fair to have ruddier roses than myself, for +conscience was working havoc in my breast. The theory I had built +up with such care, the theory I had persisted in urging upon the +inspector in spite of his rebuke, was slowly crumbling to pieces +in my mind with the falling of one of its main pillars. With the +warning unaccounted for in the manner I have stated, there was a +weakness in my argument which nothing could make good. How could +I tell the inspector, if ever I should be so happy or so +miserable as to meet his eye again? Humiliated to the dust, I +could see no worth now in any of the arguments I had advanced. I +flew from one extreme to the other, and was imputing perfect +probity to Mr. Grey and an honorable if mysterious reason for all +his acts, when the door opened and he came in. Instantly my last +doubt vanished. I had not expected him to return so soon. + +He was glad to be back; that I could see, but there was no other +gladness in him. I had looked for some change in his manner and +appearance,--that is, if he returned at all,--but the one I saw +was not a cheerful one, even after he had approached his +daughter's bedside and found her greatly improved. She noticed +this and scrutinized him strangely. He dropped his eyes and +turned to leave the room, but was stopped by her loving cry; he +came back and leaned over her. + +"What is it, father? You are fatigued, worried--" + +"No, no, quite well," he hastily assured her. "But you! are you +as well as you seem?" + +"Indeed, yes. I am gaining every day. See! see! I shall soon be +able to sit up. Yesterday I read a few words." + +He started, with a side glance at me which took in a table near +by on which a little book was lying. + +"Oh, a book?" + +"Yes, and--and Arthur's letters." + +The father flushed, lifted himself, patted her arm tenderly and +hastened into another room. + +Miss Grey's eyes followed him longingly, and I heard her give +utterance to a soft sigh. A few hours before, this would have +conveyed to my suspicious mind deep and mysterious meanings; but +I was seeing everything now in a different light, and I found +myself no longer inclined either to exaggerate or to misinterpret +these little marks of filial solicitude. Trying to rejoice over +the present condition of my mind, I was searching in the hidden +depths of my nature for the patience of which I stood in such +need, when every thought and feeling were again thrown into +confusion by the receipt of another communication from the +inspector, in which he stated that something had occurred to +bring the authorities round to my way of thinking and that the +test with the stiletto was to be made at once. + +Could the irony of fate go further! I dropped the letter half +read, querying if it were my duty to let the inspector know of +the flaw I had discovered in my own theory, before I proceeded +with the attempt I had suggested when I believed in its complete +soundness. I had not settled the question when I took the letter +up again. Re-reading its opening sentence, I was caught by the +word "something." It was a very indefinite one, yet was capable +of covering a large field. It must cover a large field, or it +could not have produced such a change in the minds of these men, +conservative from principle and in this instance from discretion. +I would be satisfied with that word something and quit further +thinking. I was weary of it. The inspector was now taking the +initiative, and I was satisfied to be his simple instrument and +no more. Arrived at this conclusion, however, I read the rest of +the letter. The test was to go on, but under different +conditions. It was no longer to be made at my own discretion and +in the up-stairs room; it was to be made at luncheon hour and in +Mr. Grey's private dining-room, where, if by any chance Mr. Grey +found himself outraged by the placing of this notorious weapon +beside his plate, the blame could be laid on the waiter, who, +mistaking his directions, had placed it on Mr. Grey's table when +it was meant for Inspector Dalzell's, who was lunching in the +adjoining room. It was I, however, who was to do the placing. +With what precautions and under what circumstances will presently +appear. + +Fortunately, the hour set was very near. Otherwise I do not know +how I could have endured the continued strain of gazing on my +patient's sweet face, looking up at me from her pillow, with a +shadow over its beauty which had not been there before her +father's return. + +And that father! I could hear him pacing the library floor with a +restlessness that struck me as being strangely akin to my own +inward anguish of impatience and doubt. What was he dreading? +What was it I had seen darkening his face and disturbing his +manner, when from time to time he pushed open the communicating +door and cast an anxious glance our way, only to withdraw again +without uttering a word. Did he realize that a crisis was +approaching, that danger menaced him, and from me? No, not the +latter, for his glance never strayed to me, but rested solely on +his daughter. I was, therefore, not connected with the +disturbance in his thoughts. As far as that was concerned I could +proceed fearlessly; I had not him to dread, only the event. That +I did dread, as any one must who saw Miss Grey's face during +these painful moments and heard that restless tramp in the room +beyond. + +At last the hour struck,--the hour at which Mr. Grey always +descended to lunch. He was punctuality itself, and under ordinary +circumstances I could depend upon his leaving the room within +five minutes of the stroke of one. But would he be as prompt +to-day? Was he in the mood for luncheon? Would he go down stairs +at all? Yes, for the tramp, tramp stopped; I heard him +approaching his daughter's door for a last look in and managed to +escape just in time to procure what I wanted and reach the room +below before he came. + +My opportunity was short, but I had time to see two things: +first, that the location of his seat had been changed so that his +back was to the door leading into the adjoining room; secondly, +that this door was ajar. The usual waiter was in the room and +showed no surprise at my appearance, I having been careful to +have it understood that hereafter Miss Grey's appetite was to be +encouraged by having her soup served from her father's table by +her father's own hands, and that I should be there to receive it. + +"Mr. Grey is coming," said I, approaching the waiter and handing +him the stiletto loosely wrapped in tissue paper. "Will you be +kind enough to place this at his plate, just as it is? A man gave +it to me for Mr. Grey; said we were to place it there." + +The waiter, suspecting nothing, did as he was bidden, and I had +hardly time to catch up the tray laden with dishes, which I saw +awaiting me on a side-table, when Mr. Grey came in and was +ushered to his seat. + +The soup was not there, but I advanced with my tray and stood +waiting; not too near, lest the violent beating of my heart +should betray me. As I did so the waiter disappeared and the door +behind us opened. Though Mr. Grey's eye had fallen on the +package, and I saw him start, I darted one glance at the room +thus disclosed, and saw that it held two tables. At one, the +inspector and some one I did not know sat eating; at the other a +man alone, whose back was to us all, and who seemingly was +entirely disconnected with the interests of this tragic moment. +All this I saw in an instant,--the next my eyes were fixed on Mr. +Grey's face. + +He had reached out his hand to the package and his features +showed an emotion I hardly understood. + +"What's this?" he murmured, feeling it with wonder, I should +almost say anger. Suddenly he pulled off the wrapper, and my +heart stood still in expectancy. If he quailed--and how could he +help doing so if guilty--what a doubt would be removed from my +own breast, what an impediment from police action! But he did not +quail; he simply uttered an exclamation of intense anger, and +laid the weapon back on the table without even taking the +precaution of covering it up. I think he muttered an oath, but +there was no fear in it, not a particle. + +My disappointment was so great, my humiliation so unbounded, +that, forgetting myself in my dismay, I staggered back and let +the tray with all its contents slip from my hands. The crash that +followed stopped Mr. Grey in the act of rising. But it did +something more. It awoke a cry from the adjoining room which I +shall never forget. While we both started and turned to see from +whom this grievous sound had sprung, a man came stumbling toward +us with his hands before his eyes and this name wild on his lips: + +"Grizel! Grizel!" + +Mrs. Fairbrother's name! and the man-- + + + +XXII + +GUILT + +Was he Wellgood? Sears? Who? A lover of the woman certainly; that +was borne in on us by the passion of his cry: + +"Grizel! Grizel!" + +But how here? and why such fury in Mr. Grey's face and such +amazement in that of the inspector? + +This question was not to be answered offhand. Mr. Grey, +advancing, laid a finger on the man's shoulder. "Come," said he, +"we will have our conversation in another room." + +The man, who, in dress and appearance looked oddly out of place +in those gorgeous rooms, shook off the stupor into which he had +fallen and started to follow the Englishman. A waiter crossed +their track with the soup for our table. Mr. Grey motioned him +aside. + +"Take that back," said he. "I have some business to transact with +this gentleman before I eat. I'll ring when I want you." + +Then they entered where I was. As the door closed I caught sight +of the inspector's face turned earnestly toward me. In his eyes I +read my duty, and girded up my heart, as it were, to meet--what? +In that moment it was impossible to tell. + +The next enlightened me. With a total ignoring of my presence, +due probably to his great excitement, Mr. Grey turned on his +companion the moment he had closed the door and, seizing him by +the collar, cried: + +"Fairbrother, you villain, why have you called on your wife like +this? Are you murderer as well as thief?" + +Fairbrother! this man? Then who was he who was being nursed back +to life on the mountains beyond Santa Fe? Sears? Anything seemed +possible in that moment. + +Meanwhile, dropping his hand from the other's throat as suddenly +as he had seized it, Mr. Grey caught up the stiletto from the +table where he had flung it, crying: "Do you recognize this?" + +Ah, then I saw guilt! + +In a silence worse than any cry, this so-called husband of the +murdered woman, the man on whom no suspicion had fallen, the man +whom all had thought a thousand miles away at the time of the +deed, stared at the weapon thrust under his eyes, while over his +face passed all those expressions of fear, abhorrence and +detected guilt which, fool that I was, I had expected to see +reflected in response to the same test in Mr. Grey's equable +countenance. + +The surprise and wonder of it held me chained to the spot. I was +in a state of stupefaction, so that I scarcely noted the broken +fragments at my feet. But the intruder noticed them. Wrenching +his gaze from the stiletto which Mr. Grey continued to hold out, +he pointed to the broken cup and saucer, muttering: + +"That is what startled me into this betrayal--the noise of +breaking china. I can not bear it since--" + +He stopped, bit his lip and looked around him with an air of +sudden bravado. + +"Since you dropped the cups at your wife's feet in Mr. Ramsdell's +alcove," finished Mr. Grey with admirable self-possession. + +"I see that explanations from myself are not in order," was the +grim retort, launched with the bitterest sarcasm. Then as the +full weight of his position crushed in on him, his face assumed +an aspect startling to my unaccustomed eyes, and, thrusting his +hand into his pocket he drew forth a small box which he placed in +Mr. Grey's hands. + +"The Great Mogul," he declared simply. + +It was the first time I had heard this diamond so named. + +Without a word that gentleman opened the box, took one look at +the contents, assumed a satisfied air, and carefully deposited +the recovered gem in his own pocket. As his eyes returned to the +man before him, all the passion of the latter burst forth. + +"It was not for that I killed her!" cried he. "It was because she +defied me and flaunted her disobedience in my very face. I would +do it again, yet--" + +Here his voice broke and it was in a different tone and with a +total change of manner he added: "You stand appalled at my +depravity. You have not lived my life." Then quickly and with a +touch of sullenness: "You suspected me because of the stiletto. +It was a mistake, using that stiletto. Otherwise, the plan was +good. I doubt if you know now how I found my way into the alcove, +possibly under your very eyes; certainly, under the eyes of many +who knew me." + +"I do not. It is enough that you entered it; that you confess +your guilt." + +Here Mr. Grey stretched his hand toward the electric button. + +"No, it is not enough." The tone was fierce, authoritative. "Do +not ring the bell, not yet. I have a fancy to tell you how I +managed that little affair." + +Glancing about, he caught up from a near-by table a small brass +tray. Emptying it of its contents, he turned on us with +drawn-down features and an obsequious air so opposed to his +natural manner that it was as if another man stood before us. + +"Pardon my black tie," he muttered, holding out the tray toward +Mr. Grey. + +Wellgood! + +The room turned with me. It was he, then, the great financier, +the multimillionaire, the husband of the magnificent Grizel, who +had entered Mr. Ramsdell's house as a waiter! + +Mr. Grey did not show surprise, but he made a gesture, when +instantly the tray was thrown aside and the man resumed his +ordinary aspect. + +"I see you understand me," he cried. "I who have played host at +many a ball, passed myself off that night as one of the waiters. +I came and went and no one noticed me. It is such a natural sight +to see a waiter passing ices that my going in and out of the +alcove did not attract the least attention. I never look at +waiters when I attend balls. I never look higher than their +trays. No one looked at me higher than my tray. I held the +stiletto under the tray and when I struck her she threw up her +hands and they hit the tray and the cups fell. I have never been +able to bear the sound of breaking china since. I loved her--" + +A gasp and he recovered himself. + +"That is neither here nor there," he muttered. "You summoned me +under threat to present myself at your door to-day. I have done +so. I meant to restore you your diamond, simply. It has become +worthless to me. But fate exacted more. Surprise forced my secret +from me. That young lady with her damnable awkwardness has put my +head in a noose. But do not think to hold it there. I did not +risk this interview without precautions, I assure you, and when I +leave this hotel it will be as a free man." + +With one of his rapid changes, wonderful and inexplicable to me +at the moment, he turned toward me with a bow, saying courteously +enough: + +"We will excuse the young lady." + +Next moment the barrel of a pistol gleamed in his hand. + +The moment was critical. Mr. Grey stood directly in the line of +fire, and the audacious man who thus held him at his mercy was +scarcely a foot from the door leading into the hall. Marking the +desperation of his look and the steadiness of his finger on the +trigger, I expected to see Mr. Grey recoil and the man escape. +But Mr. Grey held his own, though he made no move, and did not +venture to speak. Nerved by his courage, I summoned up all my +own. This man must not escape, nor must Mr. Grey suffer. The +pistol directed against him must be diverted to myself. Such +amends were due one whose good name I had so deeply if secretly +insulted. I had but to scream, to call out for the inspector, but +a remembrance of the necessity we were now under of preserving +our secret, of keeping from Mr. Grey the fact that he had been +under surveillance, was even at that moment surrounded by the +police, deterred me, and I threw myself toward the bell instead, +crying out that I would raise the house if he moved, and laid my +finger on the button. + +The pistol swerved my way. The face above it smiled. I watched +that smile. Before it broadened to its full extent, I pressed the +button. + +Fairbrother stared, dropped his pistol, and burst forth with +these two words: + +"Brave girl!" + +The tone I can never convey. + +Then he made for the door. + +As he laid his hand on the knob, he called back: + +"I have been in worse straits than this!" + +But he never had; when he opened the door, he found himself face +to face with the inspector. + + + +XXIII + +THE GREAT MOGUL + +Later, it was all explained. Mr. Grey, looking like another man, +came into the room where I was endeavoring to soothe his startled +daughter and devour in secret my own joy. Taking the sweet girl +in his arms, he said, with a calm ignoring of my presence, at +which I secretly smiled: + +"This is the happiest moment of my existence, Helen. I feel as if +I had recovered you from the brink of the grave." + +"Me? Why, I have never been so ill as that." + +"I know; but I have felt as if you were doomed ever since I +heard, or thought I heard, in this city, and under no ordinary +circumstances, the peculiar cry which haunts our house on the eve +of any great misfortune. I shall not apologize for my fears; you +know that I have good cause for them, but to-day, only to-day, I +have heard from the lips of the most arrant knave I have ever +known, that this cry sprang from himself with intent to deceive +me. He knew my weakness; knew the cry; he was in Darlington Manor +when Cecilia died; and, wishing to startle me into dropping +something which I held, made use of his ventriloquial powers (he +had been a mountebank once, poor wretch!) and with such effect, +that I have not been a happy man since, in spite of your daily +improvement and continued promise of recovery. But I am happy +now, relieved and joyful; and this miserable being,--would you +like to hear his story? Are you strong enough for anything so +tragic? He is a thief and a murderer, but he has feelings, and +his life has been a curious one, and strangely interwoven with +ours. Do you care to hear about it? He is the man who stole our +diamond." + +My patient uttered a little cry. + +"Oh, tell me," she entreated, excited, but not unhealthfully; +while I was in an anguish of curiosity I could with difficulty +conceal. + +Mr. Grey turned with courtesy toward me and asked if a few family +details would bore me. I smiled and assured him to the contrary. +At which he settled himself in the chair he liked best and began +a tale which I will permit myself to present to you complete and +from other points of view than his own. + +Some five years before, one of the great diamonds of the world +was offered for sale in an Eastern market. Mr. Grey, who stopped +at no expense in the gratification of his taste in this +direction, immediately sent his agent to Egypt to examine this +stone. If the agent discovered it to be all that was claimed for +it, and within the reach of a wealthy commoner's purse, he was to +buy it. Upon inspection, it was found to be all that was claimed, +with one exception. In the center of one of the facets was a +flaw, but, as this was considered to mark the diamond, and rather +add to than detract from its value as a traditional stone with +many historical associations, it was finally purchased by Mr. +Grey and placed among his treasures in his manor-house in Kent. +Never a suspicious man, he took delight in exhibiting this +acquisition to such of his friends and acquaintances as were +likely to feel any interest in it, and it was not an uncommon +thing for him to allow it to pass from hand to hand while he +pottered over his other treasures and displayed this and that to +such as had no eyes for the diamond. + +It was after one such occasion that he found, on taking the stone +in his hand to replace it in the safe he had had built for it in +one of his cabinets, that it did not strike his eye with its +usual force and brilliancy, and, on examining it closely, he +discovered the absence of the telltale flaw. Struck with dismay, +he submitted it to a still more rigid inspection, when he found +that what he held was not even a diamond, but a worthless bit of +glass, which had been substituted by some cunning knave for his +invaluable gem. + +For the moment his humiliation almost equaled his sense of loss; +he had been so often warned of the danger he ran in letting so +priceless an object pass around under all eyes but his own. His +wife and friends had prophesied some such loss as this, not once, +but many times, and he had always laughed at their fears, saying +that he knew his friends, and there was not a scamp amongst them. +But now he saw it proved that even the intuition of a man +well-versed in human nature is not always infallible, and, +ashamed of his past laxness and more ashamed yet of the doubts +which this experience called up in regard to all his friends, he +shut up the false stone with his usual care and buried his loss +in his own bosom, till he could sift his impressions and recall +with some degree of probability the circumstances under which +this exchange could have been made. + +It had not been made that evening. Of this he was positive. The +only persons present on this occasion were friends of such +standing and repute that suspicion in their regard was simply +monstrous. when and to whom, then, had he shown the diamond last? +Alas, it had been a long month since be had shown the jewel. +Cecilia, his youngest daughter, had died in the interim; +therefore his mind had not been on jewels. A month! time for his +precious diamond to have been carried back to the East! Time for +it to have been recut! Surely it was lost to him for ever, unless +he could immediately locate the person who had robbed him of it. + +But this promised difficulties. He could not remember just what +persons he had entertained on that especial day in his little +hall of cabinets, and, when he did succeed in getting a list of +them from his butler, he was by no means sure that it included +the full number of his guests. His own memory was execrable, and, +in short, he had but few facts to offer to the discreet agent +sent up from Scotland Yard one morning to hear his complaint and +act secretly in his interests. He could give him carte blanche to +carry on his inquiries in the diamond market, but little else. +And while this seemed to satisfy the agent, it did not lead to +any gratifying result to himself, and he had thoroughly made up +his mind to swallow his loss and say nothing about it, when one +day a young cousin of his, living in great style in an adjoining +county, informed him that in some mysterious way he had lost from +his collection of arms a unique and highly-prized stiletto of +Italian workmanship. + +Startled by this coincidence, Mr. Grey ventured upon a question +or two, which led to his cousin's confiding to him the fact that +this article had disappeared after a large supper given by him to +a number of friends and gentlemen from London. This piece of +knowledge, still further coinciding with his own experience, +caused Mr. Grey to ask for a list of his guests, in the hope of +finding among them one who had been in his own house. + +His cousin, quite unsuspicious of the motives underlying this +request, hastened to write out this list, and together they pored +over the names, crossing out such as were absolutely above +suspicion. When they had reached the end of the list, but two +names remained uncrossed. One was that of a rattle-pated youth +who had come in the wake of a highly reputed connection of +theirs, and the other that of an American tourist who gave all +the evidences of great wealth and had presented letters to +leading men in London which had insured him attentions not +usually accorded to foreigners. This man's name was Fairbrother, +and, the moment Mr. Grey heard it, he recalled the fact that an +American with a peculiar name, but with a reputation for wealth, +had been among his guests on the suspected evening. + +Hiding the effect produced upon him by this discovery, he placed +his finger on this name and begged his cousin to look up its +owner's antecedents and present reputation in America; but, not +content with this, he sent his own agent over to New York-- +whither, as he soon learned, this gentleman had returned. The +result was an apparent vindication of the suspected American. He +was found to be a well-known citizen of the great metropolis, +moving in the highest circles and with a reputation for wealth +won by an extraordinary business instinct. + +To be sure, he had not always enjoyed these distinctions. Like +many another self-made man, he had risen from a menial position +in a Western mining camp, to be the owner of a mine himself, and +so up through the various gradations of a successful life to a +position among the foremost business men of New York. In all +these changes he had maintained a name for honest, if not +generous, dealing. He lived in great style, had married and was +known to have but one extravagant fancy. This was for the unique +and curious in art,--a taste which, if report spoke true, cost +him many thousands each year. + +This last was the only clause in the report which pointed in any +way toward this man being the possible abstractor of the Great +Mogul, as Mr. Grey's famous diamond was called, and the latter +was too just a man and too much of a fancier in this line himself +to let a fact of this kind weigh against the favorable nature of +the rest. So he recalled his agent, double-locked his cabinets +and continued to confine his display of valuables to articles +which did not suggest jewels. Thus three years passed, when one +day he heard mention made of a wonderful diamond which had been +seen in New York. From its description he gathered that it must +be the one surreptitiously abstracted from his cabinet, and when, +after some careful inquiries, he learned that the name of its +possessor was Fairbrother, he awoke to his old suspicions and +determined to probe this matter to the bottom. But secretly. He +still had too much consideration to attack a man in high position +without full proof. + +Knowing of no one he could trust with so delicate an inquiry as +this had now become, he decided to undertake it himself, and for +this purpose embraced the first opportunity to cross the water. +He took his daughter with him because he had resolved never to +let his one remaining child out of his sight. But she knew +nothing of his plans or reason for travel. No one did. Indeed, +only his lawyer and the police were aware of the loss of his +diamond. + +His first surprise on landing was to learn that Mr. Fairbrother, +of whose marriage he had heard, had quarreled with his wife and +that, in the separation which had occurred, the diamond had +fallen to her share and was consequently in her possession at the +present moment. + +This changed matters, and Mr. Grey's only thought now was to +surprise her with the diamond on her person and by one glance +assure himself that it was indeed the Great Mogul. Since Mrs. +Fairbrother was reported to be a beautiful woman and a great +society belle, he saw no reason why he should not meet her +publicly, and that very soon. He therefore accepted invitations +and attended theaters and balls, though his daughter had suffered +from her voyage and was not able to accompany him. But alas! he +soon learned that Mrs. Fairbrother was never seen with her +diamond and, one evening after an introduction at the opera, that +she never talked about it. So there he was, balked on the very +threshold of his enterprise, and, recognizing the fact, was +preparing to take his now seriously ailing daughter south, when +he received an invitation to a ball of such a select character +that he decided to remain for it, in the hope that Mrs. +Fairbrother would be tempted to put on all her splendor for so +magnificent a function and thus gratify him with a sight of his +own diamond. During the days that intervened he saw her several +times and very soon decided that, in spite of her reticence in +regard to this gem, she was not sufficiently in her husband's +confidence to know the secret of its real ownership. This +encouraged him to attempt piquing her into wearing the diamond on +this occasion. He talked of precious stones and finally of his +own, declaring that he had a connoisseur's eye for a fine +diamond, but had seen none as yet in America to compete with a +specimen or two he had in his own cabinets. Her eye flashed at +this and, though she said nothing, he felt sure that her presence +at Mr. Ramsdell's house would be enlivened by her great jewel. + +So much for Mr. Grey's attitude in this matter up to the night of +the ball. It is interesting enough, but that of Abner Fairbrother +is more interesting still and much more serious. + +His was indeed the hand which had abstracted the diamond from Mr. +Grey's collection. Under ordinary conditions he was an honest +man. He prized his good name and would not willingly risk it, but +he had little real conscience, and once his passions were aroused +nothing short of the object desired would content him. At once +forceful and subtle, he had at his command infinite resources +which his wandering and eventful life had heightened almost to +the point of genius. He saw this stone, and at once felt an +inordinate desire to possess it. He had coveted other men's +treasures before, but not as he coveted this. What had been +longing in other cases was mania in this. There was a woman in +America whom he loved. She was beautiful and she was +splendor-loving. To see her with this glory on her breast would +be worth almost any risk which his imagination could picture at +the moment. Before the diamond had left his hand he had made up +his mind to have it for his own. He knew that it could not be +bought, so he set about obtaining it by an act he did not +hesitate to acknowledge to himself as criminal. But he did not +act without precautions. Having a keen eye and a proper sense or +size and color, he carried away from his first view of it a true +image of the stone, and when he was next admitted to Mr. Grey's +cabinet room he had provided the means for deceiving the owner +whose character he had sounded. + +He might have failed in his daring attempt if he had not been +favored by a circumstance no one could have foreseen. A daughter +of the house, Cecilia by name, lay critically ill at the time, +and Mr. Grey's attention was more or less distracted. Still the +probabilities are that he would have noticed something amiss with +the stone when he came to restore it to its place, if, just as he +took it in his hand, there had not risen in the air outside a +weird and wailing cry which at once seized upon the imagination +of the dozen gentlemen present, and so nearly prostrated their +host that he thrust the box he held unopened into the safe and +fell upon his knees, a totally unnerved man, crying: + +"The banshee! the banshee! My daughter will die!" + +Another hand than his locked the safe and dropped the key into +the distracted father's pocket. + +Thus a superhuman daring conjoined with a special intervention of +fate had made the enterprise a successful one; and Fairbrother, +believing more than ever in his star, carried this invaluable +jewel back with him to New York. The stiletto--well, the taking +of that was a folly, for which he had never ceased to blush. He +had not stolen it; he would not steal so inconsiderable an +object. He had merely put it in his pocket when he saw it +forgotten, passed over, given to him, as it were. That the risk, +contrary to that involved in the taking of the diamond, was far +in excess of the gratification obtained, he realized almost +immediately, but, having made the break, and acquired the curio, +he spared himself all further thought or the consequences, and +presently resumed his old life in New York, none the worse, to +all appearances, for these escapades from virtue and his usual +course of fair and open dealing. + +But he was soon the worse from jealousy of the wife which his new +possession had possibly won for him. She had answered all his +expectations as mistress of his home and the exponent of his +wealth; and for a year, nay, for two, he had been perfectly +happy. Indeed, he had been more than that; he had been +triumphant, especially on that memorable evening when, after a +cautious delay of months, he had dared to pin that unapproachable +sparkler to her breast and present her thus bedecked to the smart +set--her whom his talents, and especially his far-reaching +business talents, had made his own. + +Recalling the old days of barter and sale across the pine counter +in Colorado, he felt that his star rode high, and for a time was +satisfied with his wife's magnificence and the prestige she gave +his establishment. But pride is not all, even to a man of his +daring ambition. Gradually he began to realize, first, that she +was indifferent to him, next, that she despised him, and, lastly, +that she hated him. She had dozens at her feet, any of whom was +more agreeable to her than her own husband; and, though he could +not put his finger on any definite fault, he soon wearied of a +beauty that only glowed for others, and made up his mind to part +with her rather than let his heart be eaten out by unappeasable +longing for what his own good sense told him would never be his. + +Yet, being naturally generous, he was satisfied with a +separation, and, finding it impossible to think of her as other +than extravagantly fed, waited on and clothed, he allowed her a +good share of his fortune with the one proviso, that she should +not disgrace him. But the diamond she stole, or rather carried +off in her naturally high-handed manner with the rest of her +jewels. He had never given it to hen She knew the value he set on +it, but not how he came by it, and would have worn it quite +freely if he had not very soon given her to understand that the +pleasure of doing so ceased when she left his house. As she could +not be seen with it without occasioning public remark, she was +forced, though much against her will, to heed his wishes, and +enjoy its brilliancy in private. But once, when he was out of +town, she dared to appear with this fortune on her breast, and +again while on a visit West,--and her husband heard of it. + +Mr. Fairbrother had had the jewel set to suit him, not in +Florence, as Sears had said, but by a skilful workman he had +picked up in great poverty in a remote corner of Williamsburg. +Always in dread of some complication, he had provided himself +with a second facsimile in paste, this time of an astonishing +brightness, and this facsimile he had had set precisely like the +true stone. Then he gave the workman a thousand dollars and sent +him back to Switzerland. This imitation in paste he showed +nobody, but he kept it always in his pocket; why, he hardly knew. +Meantime, he had one confidant, not of his crime, but of his +sentiments toward his wife, and the determination he had secretly +made to proceed to extremities if she continued to disobey him. + +This was a man of his own age or older, who had known him in his +early days, and had followed all his fortunes. He had been the +master of Fairbrother then, but he was his servant now, and as +devoted to his interests as if they were his own,--which, in a +way, they were. For eighteen years he had stood at the latter's +right hand, satisfied to look no further, but, for the last +three, his glances had strayed a foot or two beyond his master, +and taken in his master's wife. + +The feelings which this man had for Mrs. Fairbrother were +peculiar. She was a mere adjunct to her great lord, but she was a +very gorgeous one, and, while he could not imagine himself doing +anything to thwart him whose bread he ate, and to whose rise he +had himself contributed, yet if he could remain true to him +without injuring he; he would account himself happy. The day came +when he had to decide between them, and, against all chances, +against his own preconceived notion of what he would do under +these circumstances, he chose to consider her. + +This day came when, in the midst of growing complacency and an +intense interest in some new scheme which demanded all his +powers, Abner Fairbrother learned from the papers that Mr. Grey, +of English Parliamentary fame, had arrived in New York on an +indefinite visit. As no cause was assigned for the visit beyond a +natural desire on the part of this eminent statesman to see this +great country, Mr. Fairbrother's fears reached a sudden climax, +and he saw himself ruined and for ever disgraced if the diamond +now so unhappily out of his hands should fall under the eyes of +its owner, whose seeming quiet under its loss had not for a +moment deceived him. Waiting only long enough to make sure that +the distinguished foreigner was likely to accept social +attentions, and so in all probability would be brought in contact +with Mrs. Fairbrother, he sent her by his devoted servant a +peremptory message, in which he demanded back his diamond; and, +upon her refusing to heed this, followed it up by another, in +which he expressly stated that if she took it out of the safe +deposit in which he had been told she was wise enough to keep it, +or wore it so much as once during the next three months, she +would pay for her presumption with her life. + +This was no idle threat, though she chose to regard it as such, +laughing in the old servant's face and declaring that she would +run the risk if the notion seized her. But the notion did not +seem to seize her at once, and her husband was beginning to take +heart, when he heard of the great ball about to be given by the +Ramsdells and realized that if she were going to be tempted to +wear the diamond at all, it would be at this brilliant function +given in honor of the one man he had most cause to fear in the +whole world. + +Sears, seeing the emotion he was under, watched him closely. They +had both been on the point of starting for New Mexico to visit a +mine in which Mr. Fairbrother was interested, and he waited with +inconceivable anxiety to see if his master would change his +plans. It was while he was in this condition of mind that he was +seen to shake his fist at Mrs. Fairbrother's passing figure; a +menace naturally interpreted as directed against her, but which, +if we know the man, was rather the expression of his anger +against the husband who could rebuke and threaten so beautiful a +creature. Meanwhile, Mr. Fairbrother's preparations went on and, +three weeks before the ball, they started. Mr. Fairbrother had +business in Chicago and business in Denver. It was two weeks and +more before he reached La Junta. Sears counted the days. At La +Junta they had a long conversation; or rather Mr. Fairbrother +talked and Sears listened. The sum of what he said was this: He +had made up his mind to have back his diamond. He was going to +New York to get it. He was going alone, and as he wished no one +to know that he had gone or that his plans had been in any way +interrupted, the other was to continue on to El Moro, and, +passing himself off as Fairbrother, hire a room at the hotel and +shut himself up in it for ten days on any plea his ingenuity +might suggest. If at the end of that time Fairbrother should +rejoin him, well and good. They would go on together to Santa Fe. +But if for any reason the former should delay his return, then +Sears was to exercise his own judgment as to the length of time +he should retain his borrowed personality; also as to the +advisability of pushing on to the mine and entering on the work +there, as had been planned between them. + +Sears knew what all this meant. He understood what was in his +master's mind, as well as if he had been taken into his full +confidence, and openly accepted his part of the business with +seeming alacrity, even to the point of supplying Fairbrother with +suitable references as to the ability of one James Wellgood to +fill a waiter's place at fashionable functions. It was not the +first he had given him. Seventeen years before he had written the +same, minus the last phrase. That was when he was the master and +Fairbrother the man. But he did not mean to play the part laid +out for him, for all his apparent acquiescence. He began by +following the other's instructions. He exchanged clothes with him +and other necessaries, and took the train for La Junta at or near +the time that Fairbrother started east. But once at El Moro--once +registered there as Abner Fairbrother from New York--he took a +different course from the one laid out for him,--a course which +finally brought him into his master's wake and landed him at the +same hour in New York. + +This is what he did. Instead of shutting himself up in his room +he expressed an immediate desire to visit some neighboring mines, +and, procuring a good horse, started off at the first available +moment. He rode north, lost himself in the mountains, and +wandered till he found a guide intelligent enough to lend himself +to his plans. To this guide he confided his horse for the few +days he intended to be gone, paying him well and promising him +additional money if, during his absence, he succeeded in +circulating the report that he, Abner Fairbrother, had gone deep +into the mountains, bound for such and such a camp. + +Having thus provided an alibi, not only for himself, but for his +master, too, in case he should need it, he took the direct road +to the nearest railway station, and started on his long ride +east. He did not expect to overtake the man he had been +personating, but fortune was kinder than is usual in such cases, +and, owing to a delay caused by some accident to a freight train, +he arrived in Chicago within a couple of hours of Mr. +Fairbrother, and started out of that city on the same train. But +not on the same car. Sears had caught a glimpse of Fairbrother on +the platform, and was careful to keep out of his sight. This was +easy enough. He bought a compartment in the sleeper and stayed in +it till they arrived at the Grand Central Station. Then he +hastened out and, fortune favoring him with another glimpse of +the man in whose movements he was so interested, followed him +into the streets. + +Fairbrother had shaved off his beard before leaving El Moro. +Sears had shaved his off on the train. Both were changed, the +former the more, owing to a peculiarity of his mouth which up +till now he had always thought best to cover. Sears, therefore, +walked behind him without fear, and was almost at his heels when +this owner of one of New York's most notable mansions, entered, +with a spruce air, the doors of a prominent caterer. + +Understanding the plot now, and having everything to fear for his +mistress, he walked the streets for some hours in a state of +great indecision. Then he went up to her apartment. But he had no +sooner come within sight of it than a sense of disloyalty struck +him and he slunk away, only to come sidling back when it was too +late and she had started for the ball. + +Trembling with apprehension, but still strangely divided in his +impulses, wishing to serve master and mistress both, without +disloyalty to the one or injury to the other, he hesitated and +argued with himself, till his fears for the latter drove him to +Mr. Ramsdell's house. + +The night was a stormy one. The heaviest snow of the season was +falling with a high gale blowing down the Sound. As he approached +the house, which, as we know, is one of the modern ones in the +Riverside district, he felt his heart fail him. But as he came +nearer and got the full effect of glancing lights, seductive +music, and the cheery bustle of crowding carriages, he saw in his +mind's eye such a picture of his beautiful mistress, threatened, +unknown to herself, in a quarter she little realized, that he +lost all sense of what had hitherto deterred him. Making then and +there his great choice, he looked about for the entrance, with +the full intention of seeing and warning her. + +But this, he presently perceived, was totally impracticable. He +could neither go to her nor expect her to come to him; meanwhile, +time was passing, and if his master was there-- The thought made +his head dizzy, and, situated as he was, among the carriages, he +might have been run over in his confusion if his eyes had not +suddenly fallen on a lighted window, the shade of which had been +inadvertently left up. + +Within this window, which was only a few feet above his head, +stood the glowing image of a woman clad in pink and sparkling +with jewels. Her face was turned from him, but he recognized her +splendor as that of the one woman who could never be too gorgeous +for his taste; and, alive to this unexpected opportunity, he made +for this window with the intention of shouting up to her and so +attracting her attention. + +But this proved futile, and, driven at last to the end of his +resources, he tore out a slip of paper from his note-book and, in +the dark and with the blinding snow in his eyes, wrote the few +broken sentences which he thought would best warn her, without +compromising his master. The means he took to reach her with this +note I have already related. As soon as he saw it in her hands he +fled the place and took the first train west. He was in a +pitiable condition, when, three days later, he reached the small +station from which he had originally set out. The haste, the +exposure, the horror of the crime he had failed to avert, had +undermined his hitherto excellent constitution, and the symptoms +of a serious illness were beginning to make themselves manifest. +But he, like his indomitable master, possessed a great fund of +energy and willpower. He saw that if he was to save Abner +Fairbrother (and now that Mrs. Fairbrother was dead, his old +master was all the world to him) he must make Fairbrother's alibi +good by carrying on the deception as planned by the latter, and +getting as soon as possible to his camp in the New Mexico +mountains. He knew that he would have strength to do this and he +went about it without sparing himself. + +Making his way into the mountains, he found the guide and his +horse at the place agreed upon and, paying the guide enough for +his services to insure a quiet tongue, rode back toward El Moro +where he was met and sent on to Santa Fe as already related. + +Such is the real explanation of the well-nigh unintelligible +scrawl found in Mrs. Fairbrother's hand after her death. As to +the one which left Miss Grey's bedside for this same house, it +was, alike in the writing and sending, the loving freak of a very +sick but tender-hearted girl. She had noted the look with which +Mr. Grey had left her, and, in her delirious state, thought that +a line in her own hand would convince him of her good condition +and make it possible for him to enjoy the evening. She was, +however, too much afraid of her nurse to write it openly, and +though we never found that scrawl, it was doubtless not very +different in appearance from the one with which I had confounded +it. The man to whom it was intrusted stopped for too many warming +drinks on his way for it ever to reach Mr. Ramsdell's house. He +did not even return home that night, and when he did put in an +appearance the next morning, he was dismissed. + +This takes me back to the ball and Mrs. Fairbrother. She had +never had much fear of her husband till she received his old +servant's note in the peculiar manner already mentioned. This, +coming through the night and the wet and with all the marks of +hurry upon it, did impress her greatly and led her to take the +first means which offered of ridding herself of her dangerous +ornament. The story of this we know. + +Meanwhile, a burning heart and a scheming brain were keeping up +their deadly work a few paces off under the impassive aspect and +active movements of the caterer's newly-hired waiter. Abner +Fairbrother, whose real character no one had ever been able to +sound, unless it was the man who had known him in his days of +struggle, was one of those dangerous men who can conceal under a +still brow and a noiseless manner the most violent passions and +the most desperate resolves. He was angry with his wife, who was +deliberately jeopardizing his good name, and he had come there to +kill her if he found her flaunting the diamond in Mr. Grey's +eyes; and though no one could have detected any change in his +look and manner as he passed through the room where these two +were standing, the doom of that fair woman was struck when he saw +the eager scrutiny and indescribable air of recognition with +which this long-defrauded gentleman eyed his own diamond. + +He had meant to attack her openly, seize the diamond, fling it at +Mr. Grey's feet, and then kill himself. That had been his plan. +But when he found, after a round or two among the guests, that +nobody looked at him, and nobody recognized the well-known +millionaire in the automaton-like figure with the +formally-arranged whiskers and sleekly-combed hair, colder +purposes intervened, and he asked himself if it would not be +possible to come upon her alone, strike his blow, possess himself +of the diamond, and make for parts unknown before his identity +could be discovered. He loved life even without the charm cast +over it by this woman. Its struggles and its hard-bought luxuries +fascinated him. If Mr. Grey suspected him, why, Mr. Grey was +English, and he a resourceful American. If it came to an issue, +the subtle American would win if Mr. Grey were not able to point +to the flaw which marked this diamond as his own. And this, +Fairbrother had provided against, and would succeed in if he +could hold his passions in check and be ready with all his wit +when matters reached a climax. + +Such were the thoughts and such the plans of the quiet, attentive +man who, with his tray laden with coffee and ices, came and went +an unnoticed unit among twenty other units similarly quiet and +similarly attentive. He waited on lady after lady, and when, on +the reissuing of Mr. Durand from the alcove, he passed in there +with his tray and his two cups of coffee, nobody heeded and +nobody remembered. + +It was all over in a minute, and he came out, still unnoted, and +went to the supper-room for more cups of coffee. But that minute +had set its seal on his heart for ever. She was sitting there +alone with her side to the entrance, so that he had to pass +around in order to face her. Her elegance and a certain air she +had of remoteness from the scene of which she was the glowing +center when she smiled, awed him and made his hand loosen a +little on the slender stiletto he held close against the bottom +of the tray. But such resolution does not easily yield, and his +fingers soon tightened again, this time with a deadly grip. + +He had expected to meet the flash of the diamond as he bent over +her, and dreaded doing so for fear it would attract his eye from +her face and so cost him the sight of that startled recognition +which would give the desired point to his revenge. But the tray, +as he held it, shielded her breast from view, and when he lowered +it to strike his blow, he thought of nothing but aiming so truly +as to need no second blow. He had had his experience in those old +years in a mining camp, and he did not fear failure in this. What +he did fear was her utterance of some cry,--possibly his name. +But she was stunned with horror, and did not shriek,--horror of +him whose eyes she met with her glassy and staring ones as he +slowly drew forth the weapon. + +Why he drew it forth instead of leaving it in her breast he could +not say. Possibly because it gave him his moment of gloating +revenge. When in another instant, her hands flew up, and the tray +tipped, and the china fell, the revulsion came, and his eyes +opened to two facts: the instrument of death was still in his +grasp, and the diamond, on whose possession he counted, was gone +from his wife's breast. + +It was a horrible moment. Voices could be heard approaching the +alcove,--laughing voices that in an instant would take on the +note of horror. And the music,--ah! how low it had sunk, as if to +give place to the dying murmur he now heard issuing from her +lips. But he was a man of iron. Thrusting the stiletto into the +first place that offered, he drew the curtains over the staring +windows, then slid out with his tray, calm, speckless and +attentive as ever, dead to thought, dead to feeling, but aware, +quite aware in the secret depths of his being that something +besides his wife had been killed that night, and that sleep and +peace of mind and all pleasure in the past were gone for ever. + +It was not he I saw enter the alcove and come out with news of +the crime. He left this role to one whose antecedents could +better bear investigation. His part was to play, with just the +proper display of horror and curiosity, the ordinary menial +brought face to face with a crime in high life. He could do this. +He could even sustain his share in the gossip, and for this +purpose kept near the other waiters. The absence of the diamond +was all that troubled him. That brought him at times to the point +of vertigo. Had Mr. Grey recognized and claimed it? If so, he, +Abner Fairbrother, must remain James Wellgood, the waiter, +indefinitely. This would require more belief in his star than +ever he had had yet. But as the moments passed, and no +contradiction was given to the universally-received impression +that the same hand which had struck the blow had taken the +diamond, even this cause of anxiety left his breast and he faced +people with more and more courage till the moment when he +suddenly heard that the diamond had been found in the possession +of a man perfectly strange to him, and saw the inspector pass it +over into the hands of Mr. Grey. + +Instantly he realized that the crisis of his fate was on him. If +Mr. Grey were given time to identify this stone, he, Abner +Fairbrother, was lost and the diamond as well. Could he prevent +this? There was but one way, and that way he took. Making use of +his ventriloquial powers--he had spent a year on the public stage +in those early days, playing just such tricks as these--he raised +the one cry which he knew would startle Mr. Grey more than any +other in the world, and when the diamond fell from his hand, as +he knew it would, he rushed forward and, in the act of picking it +up, made that exchange which not only baffled the suspicions of +the statesman, but restored to him the diamond, for whose +possession he was now ready to barter half his remaining days. + +Meanwhile Mr. Grey had had his own anxieties. During this whole +long evening, he had been sustained by the conviction that the +diamond of which he had caught but one passing glimpse was the +Great Mogul of his once famous collection. So sure was he of +this, that at one moment he found himself tempted to enter the +alcove, demand a closer sight of the diamond and settle the +question then and there. He even went so far as to take in his +hands the two cups of coffee which should serve as his excuse for +this intrusion, but his naturally chivalrous instincts again +intervened, and he set the cups down again--this I did not see-- +and turned his steps toward the library with the intention of +writing her a note instead. But though he found paper and pen to +hand, he could find no words for so daring a request, and he came +back into the hall, only to hear that the woman he had +contemplated addressing had just been murdered and her great +jewel stolen. + +The shock was too much, and as there was no leaving the house +then, he retreated again to the library where he devoured his +anxieties in silence till hope revived again at sight of the +diamond in the inspector's hand, only to vanish under the +machinations of one he did not even recognize when he took the +false jewel from his hand. + +The American had outwitted the Englishman and the triumph of evil +was complete. + +Or so it seemed. But if the Englishman is slow, he is sure. +Thrown off the track for the time being, Mr. Grey had only to see +a picture of the stiletto in the papers, to feel again that, +despite all appearances, Fairbrother was really not only at the +bottom of the thefts from which his cousin and himself had +suffered, but of this frightful murder as well. He made no open +move--he was a stranger in a strange land and much disturbed, +besides, by his fears for his daughter--but he started a secret +inquiry through his old valet, whom he ran across in the street, +and whose peculiar adaptability for this kind of work he well +knew. + +The aim of these inquiries was to determine if the person, whom +two physicians and three assistants were endeavoring to nurse +back to health on the top of a wild plateau in a remote district +of New Mexico, was the man he had once entertained at his own +board in England, and the adventures thus incurred would make a +story in itself. But the result seemed to justify them. Word came +after innumerable delays, very trying to Mr. Grey, that be was +not the same, though he bore the name of Fairbrother, and was +considered by every one around there to be Fairbrother. Mr. Grey, +ignorant of the relations between the millionaire master and his +man which sometimes led to the latter's personifying the former, +was confident of his own mistake and bitterly ashamed of his own +suspicions. + +But a second message set him right. A deception was being +practised down in New Mexico, and this was how his spy had found +it out. Certain letters which went into the sick tent were sent +away again, and always to one address. He had learned the +address. It was that of James Wellgood, C--, Maine. If Mr. Grey +would look up this Wellgood he would doubtless learn something of +the man he was so interested in. + +This gave Mr. Grey personally something to do, for he would trust +no second party with a message involving the honor of a possibly +innocent man. As the place was accessible by railroad and his +duty clear, he took the journey involved and succeeded in getting +a glimpse in the manner we know of the man James Wellgood. This +time he recognized Fairbrother and, satisfied from the +circumstances of the moment that he would be making no mistake in +accusing him of having taken the Great Mogul, he intercepted him +in his flight, as you have already read, and demanded the +immediate return of his great diamond. + +And Fairbrother? We shall have to go back a little to bring his +history up to this critical instant. + +When he realized the trend of public opinion; when he saw a +perfectly innocent man committed to the Tombs for his crime, he +was first astonished and then amused at what he continued to +regard as the triumph of his star. But he did not start for El +Moro, wise as he felt it would be to do so. Something of the +fascination usual with criminals kept him near the scene of his +crime,--that, and an anxiety to see how Sears would conduct +himself in the Southwest. That Sears had followed him to New +York, knew his crime, and was the strongest witness against him, +was as far from his thoughts as that he owed him the warning +which had all but balked him of his revenge. When therefore he +read in the papers that "Abner Fairbrother" had been found sick +in his camp at Santa Fe, he felt that nothing now stood in the +way of his entering on the plans he had framed for ultimate +escape. On his departure from El Moro he had taken the precaution +of giving Sears the name of a certain small town on the coast of +Maine where his mail was to be sent in case of a great emergency. +He had chosen this town for two reasons. First, because he knew +all about it, having had a young man from there in his employ; +secondly, because of its neighborhood to the inlet where an old +launch of his had been docked for the winter. Always astute, +always precautionary, he had given orders to have this launch +floated and provisioned, so that now he had only to send word to +the captain, to have at his command the best possible means of +escape. + +Meanwhile, he must make good his position in C--. He did it in +the way we know. Satisfied that the only danger he need fear was +the discovery of the fraud practised in New Mexico, he had +confidence enough in Sears, even in his present disabled state, +to take his time and make himself solid with the people of +C--while waiting for the ice to disappear from the harbor. This +accomplished and cruising made possible, he took a flying trip to +New York to secure such papers and valuables as he wished to +carry out of the country with him. They were in safe deposit, but +that safe deposit was in his strong room in the center of his +house in Eighty-sixth Street (a room which you will remember in +connection with Sweetwater's adventure). To enter his own door +with his own latch-key, in the security and darkness of a stormy +night, seemed to this self-confident man a matter of no great +risk. Nor did he find it so. He reached his strong room, procured +his securities and was leaving the house, without having suffered +an alarm, when some instinct of self-preservation suggested to +him the advisability of arming himself with a pistol. His own was +in Maine, but he remembered where Sears kept his; he had seen it +often enough in that old trunk he had brought with him from the +Sierras. He accordingly went up stairs to the steward's room, +found the pistol and became from that instant invincible. But in +restoring the articles he had pulled out he came across a +photograph of his wife and lost himself over it and went mad, as +we have heard the detective tell. That later, he should succeed +in trapping this detective and should leave the house without a +qualm as to his fate shows what sort of man he was in moments of +extreme danger. I doubt, from what I have heard of him since, if +he ever gave two thoughts to the man after he had sprung the +double lock on him; which, considering his extreme ignorance of +who his victim was or what relation he bore to his own fate, was +certainly remarkable. + +Back again in C--, he made his final preparations for departure. +He had already communicated with the captain of the launch, who +may or may not have known his passenger's real name. He says that +he supposed him to be some agent of Mr. Fairbrother's; that among +the first orders he received from that gentleman was one to the +effect that he was to follow the instructions of one Wellgood as +if they came from himself; that he had done so, and not till he +had Mr. Fairbrother on board had he known whom he was expected to +carry into other waters. However, there are many who do not +believe the captain. Fairbrother had a genius for rousing +devotion in the men who worked for him, and probably this man was +another Sears. + +To leave speculation, all was in train, then, and freedom but a +quarter of a mile away, when the boat he was in was stopped by +another and he heard Mr. Grey's voice demanding the jewel. + +The shock was severe and he had need of all the nerve which had +hitherto made his career so prosperous, to sustain the encounter +with the calmness which alone could carry off the situation. +Declaring that the diamond was in New York, he promised to +restore it if the other would make the sacrifice worth while by +continuing to preserve his hitherto admirable silence concerning +him: Mr. Grey responded by granting him just twenty-four hours; +and when Fairbrother said the time was not long enough and +allowed his hand to steal ominously to his breast, he repeated +still more decisively, "Twenty-four hours." + +The ex-miner honored bravery. Withdrawing his hand from his +breast, he brought out a note-book instead of a pistol and, in a +tone fully as determined, replied: "The diamond is in a place +inaccessible to any one but myself. If you will put your name to +a promise not to betray me for the thirty-six hours I ask, I will +sign one to restore you the diamond before one-thirty o'clock on +Friday." + +"I will," said Mr. Grey. + +So the promises were written and duly exchanged. Mr. Grey +returned to New York and Fairbrother boarded his launch. + +The diamond really was in New York, and to him it seemed more +politic to use it as a means of securing Mr. Grey's permanent +silence than to fly the country, leaving a man behind him who +knew his secret and could precipitate his doom with a word. He +would, therefore, go to New York, play his last great card and, +if he lost, be no worse off than he was now. He did not mean to +lose. + +But he had not calculated on any inherent weakness in himself,-- +had not calculated on Providence. A dish tumbled and with it fell +into chaos the fair structure of his dreams. With the cry of +"Grizel! Grizel!" he gave up his secret, his hopes and his life. +There was no retrieval possible after that. The star of Abner +Fairbrother had set. + + +Mr. Grey and his daughter learned very soon of my relations to +Mr. Durand, but through the precautions of the inspector and my +own powers of self-control, no suspicion has ever crossed their +minds of the part I once played in the matter of the stiletto. + +This was amply proved by the invitation Mr. Durand and I have +just received to spend our honeymoon at Darlington Manor. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Woman in the Alcove by Anna K. Green + |