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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.07.00*END* + + + + + +This book scanned and processed for Project Gutenberg by Lynn +and Chris Hill. + + + + + +THE GOLDEN SLIPPER +And Other Problems for Violet Strange + +by ANNA KATHARINE GREEN +(Mrs. Charles Rohlfs) + + + + +CONTENTS + +I THE GOLDEN SLIPPER + +II THE SECOND BULLET + +III THE INTANGIBLE CLEW + +IV THE GROTTO SPECTRE + +V THE DREAMING LADY + +VI THE HOUSE OF CLOCKS + +VII THE DOCTOR, HIS WIFE, AND THE CLOCK + +VIII MISSING: PAGE THIRTEEN + +IX VIOLET'S OWN + +The Golden Slipper And Other Problems for Violet Strange + +PROBLEM I THE GOLDEN SLIPPER + +"She's here! I thought she would be. She's one of the three +young ladies you see in the right-hand box near the proscenium." + +The gentleman thus addressed--a man of middle age and a member +of the most exclusive clubs--turned his opera glass toward the +spot designated, and in some astonishment retorted: + +"She? Why those are the Misses Pratt and--" + +"Miss Violet Strange; no other." + +"And do you mean to say--" + +"I do--" + +"That yon silly little chit, whose father I know, whose fortune +I know, who is seen everywhere, and who is called one of the +season's belles is an agent of yours; a--a--" + +"No names here, please. You want a mystery solved. It is not a +matter for the police--that is, as yet,--and so you come to me, +and when I ask for the facts, I find that women and only women +are involved, and that these women are not only young but one +and all of the highest society. Is it a man's work to go to the +bottom of a combination like this? No. Sex against sex, and, if +possible, youth against youth. Happily, I know such a person--a +girl of gifts and extraordinarily well placed for the purpose. +Why she uses her talents in this direction--why, with means +enough to play the part natural to her as a successful +debutante, she consents to occupy herself with social and other +mysteries, you must ask her, not me. Enough that I promise you +her aid if you want it. That is, if you can interest her. She +will not work otherwise." + +Mr. Driscoll again raised his opera glass. + +"But it's a comedy face," he commented. "It's hard to associate +intellectuality with such quaintness of expression. Are you sure +of her discretion?" + +"Whom is she with?" + +"Abner Pratt, his wife, and daughters." + +"Is he a man to entrust his affairs unadvisedly?" + +"Abner Pratt! Do you mean to say that she is anything more to +him than his daughters' guest?" + +"Judge. You see how merry they are. They were in deep trouble +yesterday. You are witness to a celebration." + +"And she?" + +"Don't you observe how they are loading her with attentions? +She's too young to rouse such interest in a family of notably +unsympathetic temperament for any other reason than that of +gratitude." + +"It's hard to believe. But if what you hint is true, secure me +an opportunity at once of talking to this youthful marvel. My +affair is serious. The dinner I have mentioned comes off in +three days and--" + +"I know. I recognize your need; but I think you had better enter +Mr. Pratt's box without my intervention. Miss Strange's value to +us will be impaired the moment her connection with us is +discovered." + +"Ah, there's Ruthven! He will take me to Mr. Pratt's box," +remarked Driscoll as the curtain fell on the second act. "Any +suggestions before I go?" + +"Yes, and an important one. When you make your bow, touch your +left shoulder with your right hand. It is a signal. She may +respond to it; but if she does not, do not be discouraged. One of +her idiosyncrasies is a theoretical dislike of her work. But once +she gets interested, nothing will hold her back. That's all, +except this. In no event give away her secret. That's part of the +compact, you remember." + +Driscoll nodded and left his seat for Ruthven's box. When the +curtain rose for the third time he could be seen sitting with +the Misses Pratt and their vivacious young friend. A widower and +still on the right side of fifty, his presence there did not +pass unnoted, and curiosity was rife among certain onlookers as +to which of the twin belles was responsible for this change in +his well-known habits. Unfortunately, no opportunity was given +him for showing. Other and younger men had followed his lead +into the box, and they saw him forced upon the good graces of +the fascinating but inconsequent Miss Strange whose rapid fire +of talk he was hardly of a temperament to appreciate. + +Did he appear dissatisfied? Yes; but only one person in the +opera house knew why. Miss Strange had shown no comprehension of +or sympathy with his errand. Though she chatted amiably enough +between duets and trios, she gave him no opportunity to express +his wishes though she knew them well enough, owing to the signal +he had given her. + +This might be in character but it hardly suited his views; and, +being a man of resolution, he took advantage of an absorbing +minute on the stage to lean forward and whisper in her ear: + +"It's my daughter for whom I request your services; as fine a +girl as any in this house. Give me a hearing. You certainly can +manage it." + +She was a small, slight woman whose naturally quaint appearance +was accentuated by the extreme simplicity of her attire. In the +tier upon tier of boxes rising before his eyes, no other +personality could vie with hers in strangeness, or in the +illusive quality of her ever-changing expression. She was +vivacity incarnate and, to the ordinary observer, light as +thistledown in fibre and in feeling. But not to all. To those who +watched her long, there came moments--say when the music rose to +heights of greatness--when the mouth so given over to laughter +took on curves of the rarest sensibility, and a woman's lofty +soul shone through her odd, bewildering features. + +Driscoll had noted this, and consequently awaited her reply in +secret hope. + +It came in the form of a question and only after an instant's +display of displeasure or possibly of pure nervous irritability. + +"What has she done?" + +"Nothing. But slander is in the air, and any day it may ripen +into public accusation." + +"Accusation of what?" Her tone was almost pettish. + +"Of--of theft," he murmured. "On a great scale," he emphasized, +as the music rose to a crash. + +"Jewels?" + +"Inestimable ones. They are always returned by somebody. People +say, by me." + +"Ah!" The little lady's hands grew steady,--they had been +fluttering all over her lap. "I will see you to-morrow morning +at my father's house," she presently observed; and turned her +full attention to the stage. + +Some three days after this Mr. Driscoll opened his house on the +Hudson to notable guests. He had not desired the publicity of +such an event, nor the opportunity it gave for an increase of +the scandal secretly in circulation against his daughter. But +the Ambassador and his wife were foreign and any evasion of the +promised hospitality would be sure to be misunderstood; so the +scheme was carried forward though with less eclat than possibly +was expected. + +Among the lesser guests, who were mostly young and well +acquainted with the house and its hospitality, there was one +unique figure,--that of the lively Miss Strange, who, if +personally unknown to Miss Driscoll, was so gifted with the +qualities which tell on an occasion of this kind, that the +stately young hostess hailed her presence with very obvious +gratitude. + +The manner of their first meeting was singular, and of great +interest to one of them at least. Miss Strange had come in an +automobile and had been shown her room; but there was nobody to +accompany her down-stairs afterward, and, finding herself alone +in the great hall, she naturally moved toward the library, the +door of which stood ajar. She had pushed this door half open +before she noticed that the room was already occupied. As a +consequence, she was made the unexpected observer of a beautiful +picture of youth and love. + +A young man and a young woman were standing together in the glow +of a blazing wood-fire. No word was to be heard, but in their +faces, eloquent with passion, there shone something so deep and +true that the chance intruder hesitated on the threshold, eager +to lay this picture away in her mind with the other lovely and +tragic memories now fast accumulating there. Then she drew back, +and readvancing with a less noiseless foot, came into the full +presence of Captain Holliday drawn up in all the pride of his +military rank beside Alicia, the accomplished daughter of the +house, who, if under a shadow as many whispered, wore that shadow +as some women wear a crown. + +Miss Strange was struck with admiration, and turned upon them +the brightest facet of her vivacious nature all the time she was +saying to herself: "Does she know why I am here? Or does she +look upon me only as an additional guest foisted upon her by a +thoughtless parent?" + +There was nothing in the manner of her cordial but composed +young hostess to show, and Miss Strange, with but one thought in +mind since she had caught the light of feeling on the two faces +confronting her, took the first opportunity that offered of +running over the facts given her by Mr. Driscoll, to see if any +reconcilement were possible between them and an innocence in +which she must henceforth believe. + +They were certainly of a most damaging nature. + +Miss Driscoll and four other young ladies of her own station in +life had formed themselves, some two years before, into a coterie +of five, called The Inseparables. They lunched together, rode +together, visited together. So close was the bond and their +mutual dependence so evident, that it came to be the custom to +invite the whole five whenever the size of the function warranted +it. In fact, it was far from an uncommon occurrence to see them +grouped at receptions or following one another down the aisles of +churches or through the mazes of the dance at balls or +assemblies. And no one demurred at this, for they were all +handsome and attractive girls, till it began to be noticed that, +coincident with their presence, some article of value was found +missing from the dressing-room or from the tables where wedding +gifts were displayed. Nothing was safe where they went, and +though, in the course of time, each article found its way back to +its owner in a manner as mysterious as its previous abstraction, +the scandal grew and, whether with good reason or bad, finally +settled about the person of Miss Driscoll, who was the showiest, +least pecuniarily tempted, and most dignified in manner and +speech of them all. + +Some instances had been given by way of further enlightenment. +This is one: A theatre party was in progress. There were twelve +in the party, five of whom were the Inseparables. In the course of +the last act, another lady--in fact, their chaperon--missed her +handkerchief, an almost priceless bit of lace. Positive that she +had brought it with her into the box, she caused a careful +search, but without the least success. Recalling certain whispers +she had heard, she noted which of the five girls were with her in +the box. They were Miss Driscoll, Miss Hughson, Miss Yates, and +Miss Benedict. Miss West sat in the box adjoining. + +A fortnight later this handkerchief reappeared--and where? Among +the cushions of a yellow satin couch in her own drawing-room. The +Inseparables had just made their call and the three who had sat +on the couch were Miss Driscoll, Miss Hughson, and Miss Benedict. + +The next instance seemed to point still more insistently toward +the lady already named. Miss Yates had an expensive present to +buy, and the whole five Inseparables went in an imposing group to +Tiffany's. A tray of rings was set before them. All examined and +eagerly fingered the stock out of which Miss Yates presently +chose a finely set emerald. She was leading her friends away when +the clerk suddenly whispered in her ear, "I miss one of the +rings." Dismayed beyond speech, she turned and consulted the +faces of her four companions who stared back at her with +immovable serenity. But one of them was paler than usual, and +this lady (it was Miss Driscoll) held her hands in her muff and +did not offer to take them out. Miss Yates, whose father had +completed a big "deal" the week before, wheeled round upon the +clerk. "Charge it! charge it at its full value," said she. "I buy +both the rings." + +And in three weeks the purloined ring came back to her, in a box +of violets with no name attached. + +The third instance was a recent one, and had come to Mr. +Driscoll's ears directly from the lady suffering the loss. She +was a woman of uncompromising integrity, who felt it her duty to +make known to this gentleman the following facts: She had just +left a studio reception, and was standing at the curb waiting for +a taxicab to draw up, when a small boy--a street arab--darted +toward her from the other side of the street, and thrusting into +her hand something small and hard, cried breathlessly as he +slipped away, "It's yours, ma'am; you dropped it." Astonished, +for she had not been conscious of any loss, she looked down at +her treasure trove and found it to be a small medallion which she +sometimes wore on a chain at her belt. But she had not worn it +that day, nor any day for weeks. Then she remembered. She had +worn it a month before to a similar reception at this same +studio. A number of young girls had stood about her admiring it-- +she remembered well who they were; the Inseparables, of course, +and to please them she had slipped it from its chain. Then +something had happened,--something which diverted her attention +entirely,--and she had gone home without the medallion; had, in +fact, forgotten it, only to recall its loss now. Placing it in +her bag, she looked hastily about her. A crowd was at her back; +nothing to be distinguished there. But in front, on the opposite +side of the street, stood a club-house, and in one of its windows +she perceived a solitary figure looking out. It was that of Miss +Driscoll's father. He could imagine her conclusion. + +In vain he denied all knowledge of the matter. She told him other +stories which had come to her ears of thefts as mysterious, +followed by restorations as peculiar as this one, finishing with, +"It is your daughter, and people are beginning to say so." + +And Miss Strange, brooding over these instances, would have said +the same, but for Miss Driscoll's absolute serenity of demeanour +and complete abandonment to love. These seemed incompatible with +guilt; these, whatever the appearances, proclaimed innocence--an +innocence she was here to prove if fortune favoured and the +really guilty person's madness should again break forth. + +For madness it would be and nothing less, for any hand, even the +most experienced, to draw attention to itself by a repetition of +old tricks on an occasion so marked. Yet because it would take +madness, and madness knows no law, she prepared herself for the +contingency under a mask of girlish smiles which made her at once +the delight and astonishment of her watchful and uneasy host. + +With the exception of the diamonds worn by the Ambassadress, +there was but one jewel of consequence to be seen at the dinner +that night; but how great was that consequence and with what +splendour it invested the snowy neck it adorned! + +Miss Strange, in compliment to the noble foreigners, had put on +one of her family heirlooms--a filigree pendant of extraordinary +sapphires which had once belonged to Marie Antoinette. As its +beauty flashed upon the women, and its value struck the host, the +latter could not restrain himself from casting an anxious eye +about the board in search of some token of the cupidity with +which one person there must welcome this unexpected sight. + +Naturally his first glance fell upon Alicia, seated opposite to +him at the other end of the table. But her eyes were elsewhere, +and her smile for Captain Holliday, and the father's gaze +travelled on, taking up each young girl's face in turn. All were +contemplating Miss Strange and her jewels, and the cheeks of one +were flushed and those of the others pale, but whether with dread +or longing who could tell. Struck with foreboding, but alive to +his duty as host, he forced his glances away, and did not even +allow himself to question the motive or the wisdom of the +temptation thus offered. + +Two hours later and the girls were all in one room. It was a +custom of the Inseparables to meet for a chat before retiring, +but always alone and in the room of one of their number. But this +was a night of innovations; Violet was not only included, but the +meeting was held in her room. Her way with girls was even more +fruitful of result than her way with men. They might laugh at +her, criticize her or even call her names significant of disdain, +but they never left her long to herself or missed an opportunity +to make the most of her irrepressible chatter. + +Her satisfaction at entering this charmed circle did not take +from her piquancy, and story after story fell from her lips, as +she fluttered about, now here now there, in her endless +preparations for retirement. She had taken off her historic +pendant after it had been duly admired and handled by all +present, and, with the careless confidence of an assured +ownership, thrown it down upon the end of her dresser, which, by +the way, projected very close to the open window. + +"Are you going to leave your jewel there?" whispered a voice in +her ear as a burst of laughter rang out in response to one of her +sallies. + +Turning, with a simulation of round-eyed wonder, she met Miss +Hughson's earnest gaze with the careless rejoinder, "What's the +harm?" and went on with her story with all the reckless ease of a +perfectly thoughtless nature. + +Miss Hughson abandoned her protest. How could she explain her +reasons for it to one apparently uninitiated in the scandal +associated with their especial clique. + +Yes, she left the jewel there; but she locked her door and +quickly, so that they must all have heard her before reaching +their rooms. Then she crossed to the window, which, like all on +this side, opened on a balcony running the length of the house. +She was aware of this balcony, also of the fact that only young +ladies slept in the corridor communicating with it. But she was +not quite sure that this one corridor accommodated them all. If +one of them should room elsewhere! (Miss Driscoll, for instance). +But no! the anxiety displayed for the safety of her jewel +precluded that supposition. Their hostess, if none of the others, +was within access of this room and its open window. But how about +the rest? Perhaps the lights would tell. Eagerly the little +schemer looked forth, and let her glances travel down the full +length of the balcony. Two separate beams of light shot across it +as she looked, and presently another, and, after some waiting, a +fourth. But the fifth failed to appear. This troubled her, but +not seriously. Two of the girls might be sleeping in one bed. + +Drawing her shade, she finished her preparations for the night; +then with her kimono on, lifted the pendant and thrust it into a +small box she had taken from her trunk. A curious smile, very +unlike any she had shown to man or woman that day, gave a +sarcastic lift to her lips, as with a slow and thoughtful +manipulation of her dainty fingers she moved the jewel about in +this small receptacle and then returned it, after one quick +examining glance, to the very spot on the dresser from which she +had taken it. "If only the madness is great enough!" that smile +seemed to say. Truly, it was much to hope for, but a chance is a +chance; and comforting herself with the thought, Miss Strange put +out her light, and, with a hasty raising of the shade she had +previously pulled down, took a final look at the prospect. + +Its aspect made her shudder. A low fog was rising from the +meadows in the far distance, and its ghostliness under the moon +woke all sorts of uncanny images in her excited mind. To escape +them she crept into bed where she lay with her eyes on the end of +her dresser. She had closed that half of the French window over +which she had drawn the shade; but she had left ajar the one +giving free access to the jewels; and when she was not watching +the scintillation of her sapphires in the moonlight, she was +dwelling in fixed attention on this narrow opening. + +But nothing happened, and two o'clock, then three o'clock struck, +without a dimming of the blue scintillations on the end of her +dresser. Then she suddenly sat up. Not that she heard anything +new, but that a thought had come to her. "If an attempt is made," +so she murmured softly to herself, "it will be by--" She did not +finish. Something--she could not call it sound--set her heart +beating tumultuously, and listening--listening--watching-- +watching--she followed in her imagination the approach down the +balcony of an almost inaudible step, not daring to move herself, +it seemed so near, but waiting with eyes fixed, for the shadow +which must fall across the shade she had failed to raise over +that half of the swinging window she had so carefully left shut. + +At length she saw it projecting slowly across the slightly +illuminated surface. Formless, save for the outreaching hand, it +passed the casement's edge, nearing with pauses and hesitations +the open gap beyond through which the neglected sapphires beamed +with steady lustre. Would she ever see the hand itself appear +between the dresser and the window frame? Yes, there it comes,-- +small, delicate, and startlingly white, threading that gap-- +darting with the suddenness of a serpent's tongue toward the +dresser and disappearing again with the pendant in its clutch. + +As she realizes this,--she is but young, you know,--as she sees +her bait taken and the hardly expected event fulfilled, her pent- +up breath sped forth in a sigh which sent the intruder flying, +and so startled herself that she sank back in terror on her +pillow. + +The breakfast-call had sounded its musical chimes through the +halls. The Ambassador and his wife had responded, so had most of +the young gentlemen and ladies, but the daughter of the house was +not amongst them, nor Miss Strange, whom one would naturally +expect to see down first of all. + +These two absences puzzled Mr. Driscoll. What might they not +portend? But his suspense, at least in one regard, was short. +Before his guests were well seated, Miss Driscoll entered from +the terrace in company with Captain Holliday. In her arms she +carried a huge bunch of roses and was looking very beautiful. Her +father's heart warmed at the sight. No shadow from the night +rested upon her. + +But Miss Strange!--where was she? He could not feel quite easy +till he knew. + +"Have any of you seen Miss Strange?" he asked, as they sat down +at table. And his eyes sought the Inseparables. + +Five lovely heads were shaken, some carelessly, some wonderingly, +and one, with a quick, forced smile. But he was in no mood to +discriminate, and he had beckoned one of the servants to him, +when a step was heard at the door and the delinquent slid in and +took her place, in a shamefaced manner suggestive of a cause +deeper than mere tardiness. In fact, she had what might be called +a frightened air, and stared into her plate, avoiding every eye, +which was certainly not natural to her. What did it mean? and +why, as she made a poor attempt at eating, did four of the +Inseparables exchange glances of doubt and dismay and then +concentrate their looks upon his daughter? That Alicia failed to +notice this, but sat abloom above her roses now fastened in a +great bunch upon her breast, offered him some comfort, yet, for +all the volubility of his chief guests, the meal was a great +trial to his patience, as well as a poor preparation for the hour +when, the noble pair gone, he stepped into the library to find +Miss Strange awaiting him with one hand behind her back and a +piteous look on her infantile features. + +"O, Mr. Driscoll," she began,--and then he saw that a group of +anxious girls hovered in her rear--"my pendant! my beautiful +pendant! It is gone! Somebody reached in from the balcony and +took it from my dresser in the night. Of course, it was to +frighten me; all of the girls told me not to leave it there. But +I--I cannot make them give it back, and papa is so particular +about this jewel that I'm afraid to go home. Won't you tell them +it's no joke, and see that I get it again. I won't be so careless +another time." + +Hardly believing his eyes, hardly believing his ears,--she was +so perfectly the spoiled child detected in a fault--he looked +sternly about upon the girls and bade them end the jest and +produce the gems at once. + +But not one of them spoke, and not one of them moved; only his +daughter grew pale until the roses seemed a mockery, and the +steady stare of her large eyes was almost too much for him to +bear. + +The anguish of this gave asperity to his manner, and in a +strange, hoarse tone he loudly cried: + +"One of you did this. Which? If it was you, Alicia, speak. I am +in no mood for nonsense. I want to know whose foot traversed the +balcony and whose hand abstracted these jewels." + +A continued silence, deepening into painful embarrassment for +all. Mr. Driscoll eyed them in ill-concealed anguish, then +turning to Miss Strange was still further thrown off his balance +by seeing her pretty head droop and her gaze fall in confusion. + +"Oh! it's easy enough to tell whose foot traversed the balcony," +she murmured. "It left this behind." And drawing forward her +hand, she held out to view a small gold-coloured slipper. "I +found it outside my window," she explained. "I hoped I should not +have to show it." + +A gasp of uncontrollable feeling from the surrounding group of +girls, then absolute stillness. + +"I fail to recognize it," observed Mr. Driscoll, taking it in +his hand. "Whose slipper is this?" he asked in a manner not to +be gainsaid. + +Still no reply, then as he continued to eye the girls one after +another a voice--the last he expected to hear--spoke and his +daughter cried: + +"It is mine. But it was not I who walked in it down the +balcony." + +"Alicia!" + +A month's apprehension was in that cry. The silence, the pent-up +emotion brooding in the air was intolerable. A fresh young laugh +broke it. + +"Oh," exclaimed a roguish voice, "I knew that you were all in it! +But the especial one who wore the slipper and grabbed the pendant +cannot hope to hide herself. Her finger-tips will give her away." + +Amazement on every face and a convulsive movement in one half- +hidden hand. + +"You see," the airy little being went on, in her light way, "I +have some awfully funny tricks. I am always being scolded for +them, but somehow I don't improve. One is to keep my jewelry +bright with a strange foreign paste an old Frenchwoman once gave +me in Paris. It's of a vivid red, and stains the fingers +dreadfully if you don't take care. Not even water will take it +off, see mine. I used that paste on my pendant last night just +after you left me, and being awfully sleepy I didn't stop to rub +it off. If your finger-tips are not red, you never touched the +pendant, Miss Driscoll. Oh, see! They are as white as milk. + +"But some one took the sapphires, and I owe that person a +scolding, as well as myself. Was it you, Miss Hughson? You, Miss +Yates? or--" and here she paused before Miss West, "Oh, you have +your gloves on! You are the guilty one!" and her laugh rang out +like a peal of bells, robbing her next sentence of even a +suggestion of sarcasm. "Oh, what a sly-boots!" she cried. "How +you have deceived me! Whoever would have thought you to be the +one to play the mischief!" + +Who indeed! Of all the five, she was the one who was considered +absolutely immune from suspicion ever since the night Mrs. +Barnum's handkerchief had been taken, and she not in the box. +Eyes which had surveyed Miss Driscoll askance now rose in wonder +toward hers, and failed to fall again because of the stoniness +into which her delicately-carved features had settled. + +"Miss West, I know you will be glad to remove your gloves; Miss +Strange certainly has a right to know her special tormentor," +spoke up her host in as natural a voice as his great relief would +allow. + +But the cold, half-frozen woman remained without a movement. She +was not deceived by the banter of the moment. She knew that to +all of the others, if not to Peter Strange's odd little daughter, +it was the thief who was being spotted and brought thus +hilariously to light. And her eyes grew hard, and her lips grey, +and she failed to unglove the hands upon which all glances were +concentrated. + +"You do not need to see my hands; I confess to taking the +pendant." + +"Caroline!" + +A heart overcome by shock had thrown up this cry. Miss West eyed +her bosom-friend disdainfully. + +"Miss Strange has called it a jest," she coldly commented. "Why +should you suggest anything of a graver character?" + +Alicia brought thus to bay, and by one she had trusted most, +stepped quickly forward, and quivering with vague doubts, aghast +before unheard-of possibilities, she tremulously remarked: + +"We did not sleep together last night. You had to come into my +room to get my slippers. Why did you do this? What was in your +mind, Caroline?" + +A steady look, a low laugh choked with many emotions answered +her. + +"Do you want me to reply, Alicia? Or shall we let it pass?" + +"Answer!" + +It was Mr. Driscoll who spoke. Alicia had shrunk back, almost to +where a little figure was cowering with wide eyes fixed in +something like terror on the aroused father's face. + +"Then hear me," murmured the girl, entrapped and suddenly +desperate. "I wore Alicia's slippers and I took the jewels, +because it was time that an end should come to your mutual +dissimulation. The love I once felt for her she has herself +deliberately killed. I had a lover--she took him. I had faith in +life, in honour, and in friendship. She destroyed all. A thief-- +she has dared to aspire to him! And you condoned her fault. You, +with your craven restoration of her booty, thought the matter +cleared and her a fit mate for a man of highest honour." + +"Miss West,"--no one had ever heard that tone in Mr. Driscoll's +voice before, "before you say another word calculated to mislead +these ladies, let me say that this hand never returned any one's +booty or had anything to do with the restoration of any +abstracted article. You have been caught in a net, Miss West, +from which you cannot escape by slandering my innocent +daughter." + +"Innocent!" All the tragedy latent in this peculiar girl's nature +blazed forth in the word. "Alicia, face me. Are you innocent? Who +took the Dempsey corals, and that diamond from the Tiffany tray?" + +"It is not necessary for Alicia to answer," the father interposed +with not unnatural heat. "Miss West stands self-convicted." + +"How about Lady Paget's scarf? I was not there that night." + +"You are a woman of wiles. That could be managed by one bent on +an elaborate scheme of revenge." + +"And so could the abstraction of Mrs. Barnum's five-hundred- +dollar handkerchief by one who sat in the next box," chimed in +Miss Hughson, edging away from the friend to whose honour she +would have pinned her faith an hour before. "I remember now +seeing her lean over the railing to adjust the old lady's shawl." + +With a start, Caroline West turned a tragic gaze upon the +speaker. + +"You think me guilty of all because of what I did last night?" + +"Why shouldn't I?" + +"And you, Anna?" + +"Alicia has my sympathy," murmured Miss Benedict. + +Yet the wild girl persisted. + +"But I have told you my provocation. You cannot believe that I am +guilty of her sin; not if you look at her as I am looking now." + +But their glances hardly followed her pointing finger. Her +friends--the comrades of her youth, the Inseparables with their +secret oath--one and all held themselves aloof, struck by the +perfidy they were only just beginning to take in. Smitten with +despair, for these girls were her life, she gave one wild leap +and sank on her knees before Alicia. + +"O speak!" she began. "Forgive me, and--" + +A tremble seized her throat; she ceased to speak and let fall her +partially uplifted hands. The cheery sound of men's voices had +drifted in from the terrace, and the figure of Captain +Holliday could be seen passing by. The shudder which shook +Caroline West communicated itself to Alicia Driscoll, and the +former rising quickly, the two women surveyed each other, +possibly for the first time, with open soul and a complete +understanding. + +"Caroline!" murmured the one. + +"Alicia!" pleaded the other. + +"Caroline, trust me," said Alicia Driscoll in that moving voice +of hers, which more than her beauty caught and retained all +hearts. "You have served me ill, but it was not all undeserved. +Girls," she went on, eyeing both them and her father with the +wistfulness of a breaking heart, "neither Caroline nor myself are +worthy of Captain Holliday's love. Caroline has told you her +fault, but mine is perhaps a worse one. The ring--the scarf--the +diamond pins--I took them all--took them if I did not retain +them. A curse has been over my life--the curse of a longing I +could not combat. But love was working a change in me. Since I +have known Captain Holliday--but that's all over. I was mad to +think I could be happy with such memories in my life. I shall +never marry now--or touch jewels again--my own or another's. +Father, father, you won't go back on your girl! I couldn't see +Caroline suffer for what I have done. You will pardon me and +help--help--" + +Her voice choked. She flung herself into her father's arms; his +head bent over hers, and for an instant not a soul in the room +moved. Then Miss Hughson gave a spring and caught her by the +hand. "We are inseparable," said she, and kissed the hand, +murmuring, "Now is our time to show it." + +Then other lips fell upon those cold and trembling fingers, which +seemed to warm under these embraces. And then a tear. It +came from the hard eye of Caroline, and remained a sacred secret +between the two. + +"You have your pendant?" + +Mr. Driscoll's suffering eye shone down on Violet Strange's +uplifted face as she advanced to say good-bye preparatory to +departure. + +"Yes," she acknowledged, "but hardly, I fear, your gratitude." + +And the answer astonished her. + +"I am not sure that the real Alicia will not make her father +happier than the unreal one has ever done." + +"And Captain Holliday?" + +"He may come to feel the same." + +"Then I do not quit in disgrace?" + +"You depart with my thanks." + +When a certain personage was told of the success of Miss +Strange's latest manoeuvre, he remarked: "The little one +progresses. We shall have to give her a case of prime importance +next." + +END OF PROBLEM I + + +PROBLEM II + +THE SECOND BULLET + +"You must see her." + +"No. No." + +"She's a most unhappy woman. Husband and child both taken from +her in a moment; and now, all means of living as well, unless +some happy thought of yours--some inspiration of your genius-- +shows us a way of re-establishing her claims to the policy voided +by this cry of suicide." + +But the small wise head of Violet Strange continued its slow +shake of decided refusal. + +"I'm sorry," she protested, "but it's quite out of my province. +I'm too young to meddle with so serious a matter." + +"Not when you can save a bereaved woman the only possible +compensation left her by untoward fate?" + +"Let the police try their hand at that." + +"They have had no success with the case." + +"Or you?" + +"Nor I either." + +"And you expect--" + +"Yes, Miss Strange. I expect you to find the missing bullet which +will settle the fact that murder and not suicide ended George +Hammond's life. If you cannot, then a long litigation awaits this +poor widow, ending, as such litigation usually does, in favour of +the stronger party. There's the alternative. If you once saw her--" + +"But that's what I'm not willing to do. If I once saw her I +should yield to her importunities and attempt the seemingly +impossible. My instincts bid me say no. Give me something +easier." + +"Easier things are not so remunerative. There's money in this +affair, if the insurance company is forced to pay up. I can offer +you--" + +"What?" + +There was eagerness in the tone despite her effort at +nonchalance. The other smiled imperceptibly, and briefly named +the sum. + +It was larger than she had expected. This her visitor saw by the +way her eyelids fell and the peculiar stillness which, for an +instant, held her vivacity in check. + +"And you think I can earn that?" + +Her eyes were fixed on his in an eagerness as honest as it was +unrestrained. + +He could hardly conceal his amazement, her desire was so evident +and the cause of it so difficult to understand. He knew she +wanted money--that was her avowed reason for entering into this +uncongenial work. But to want it so much! He glanced at her +person; it was simply clad but very expensively--how expensively +it was his business to know. Then he took in the room in which +they sat. Simplicity again, but the simplicity of high art--the +drawing-room of one rich enough to indulge in the final luxury of +a highly cultivated taste, viz.: unostentatious elegance and the +subjection of each carefully chosen ornament to the general +effect. + +What did this favoured child of fortune lack that she could be +reached by such a plea, when her whole being revolted from the +nature of the task he offered her? It was a question not new to +him; but one he had never heard answered and was not likely to +hear answered now. But the fact remained that the consent he had +thought dependent upon sympathetic interest could be reached +much more readily by the promise of large emolument,--and he +owned to a feeling of secret disappointment even while he +recognized the value of the discovery. + +But his satisfaction in the latter, if satisfaction it were, was +of very short duration. Almost immediately he observed a change +in her. The sparkle which had shone in the eye whose depths he +had never been able to penetrate, had dissipated itself in +something like a tear and she spoke up in that vigorous tone no +one but himself had ever heard, as she said: + +"No. The sum is a good one and I could use it; but I will not +waste my energy on a case I do not believe in. The man shot +himself. He was a speculator, and probably had good reason for +his act. Even his wife acknowledges that he has lately had more +losses than gains." + +"See her. She has something to tell you which never got into the +papers." + +"You say that? You know that?" + +"On my honour, Miss Strange." + +Violet pondered; then suddenly succumbed. + +"Let her come, then. Prompt to the hour. I will receive her at +three. Later I have a tea and two party calls to make." + +Her visitor rose to leave. He had been able to subdue all +evidence of his extreme gratification, and now took on a formal +air. In dismissing a guest, Miss Strange was invariably the +society belle and that only. This he had come to recognize. + +The case (well known at the time) was, in the fewest possible +words, as follows: + +On a sultry night in September, a young couple living in one of +the large apartment houses in the extreme upper portion of +Manhattan were so annoyed by the incessant crying of a child in +the adjoining suite, that they got up, he to smoke, and she to +sit in the window for a possible breath of cool air. They were +congratulating themselves upon the wisdom they had shown in thus +giving up all thought of sleep--for the child's crying had not +ceased--when (it may have been two o'clock and it may have been +a little later) there came from somewhere near, the sharp and +somewhat peculiar detonation of a pistol-shot. + +He thought it came from above; she, from the rear, and they were +staring at each other in the helpless wonder of the moment, when +they were struck by the silence. The baby had ceased to cry. All +was as still in the adjoining apartment as in their own--too +still--much too still. Their mutual stare turned to one of +horror. "It came from there!" whispered the wife. "Some accident +has occurred to Mr. or Mrs. Hammond--we ought to go--" + +Her words--very tremulous ones--were broken by a shout from +below. They were standing in their window and had evidently been +seen by a passing policeman. "Anything wrong up there?" they +heard him cry. Mr. Saunders immediately looked out. "Nothing +wrong here," he called down. (They were but two stories from the +pavement.) "But I'm not so sure about the rear apartment. We +thought we heard a shot. Hadn't you better come up, officer? My +wife is nervous about it. I'll meet you at the stair-head and +show you the way." + +The officer nodded and stepped in. The young couple hastily +donned some wraps, and, by the time he appeared on their floor, +they were ready to accompany him. + +Meanwhile, no disturbance was apparent anywhere else in the +house, until the policeman rang the bell of the Hammond +apartment. Then, voices began to be heard, and doors to open +above and below, but not the one before which the policeman +stood. + +Another ring, and this time an insistent one;--and still no +response. The officer's hand was rising for the third time when +there came a sound of fluttering from behind the panels against +which he had laid his ear, and finally a choked voice uttering +unintelligible words. Then a hand began to struggle with the +lock, and the door, slowly opening, disclosed a woman clad in a +hastily donned wrapper and giving every evidence of extreme +fright. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed, seeing only the compassionate faces of her +neighbours. "You heard it, too! a pistol-shot from there--there-- +my husband's room. I have not dared to go--I--I--O, have mercy +and see if anything is wrong! It is so still--so still, and only +a moment ago the baby was crying. Mrs. Saunders, Mrs. Saunders, +why is it so still?" + +She had fallen into her neighbour's arms. The hand with which she +had pointed out a certain door had sunk to her side and she +appeared to be on the verge of collapse. + +The officer eyed her sternly, while noting her appearance, which +was that of a woman hastily risen from bed. + +"Where were you?" he asked. "Not with your husband and child, or +you would know what had happened there." + +"I was sleeping down the hall," she managed to gasp out. "I'm +not well--I--Oh, why do you all stand still and do nothing? My +baby's in there. Go! go!" and, with sudden energy, she sprang +upright, her eyes wide open and burning, her small well featured +face white as the linen she sought to hide. + +The officer demurred no longer. In another instant he was trying +the door at which she was again pointing. + +It was locked. + +Glancing back at the woman, now cowering almost to the floor, he +pounded at the door and asked the man inside to open. + +No answer came back. + +With a sharp turn he glanced again at the wife. + +"You say that your husband is in this room?" + +She nodded, gasping faintly, "And the child!" + +He turned back, listened, then beckoned to Mr. Saunders. "We +shall have to break our way in," said he. "Put your shoulder well +to the door. Now!" + +The hinges of the door creaked; the lock gave way (this special +officer weighed two hundred and seventy-five, as he found out, +next day), and a prolonged and sweeping crash told the rest. + +Mrs. Hammond gave a low cry; and, straining forward from where +she crouched in terror on the floor, searched the faces of the +two men for some hint of what they saw in the dimly-lighted +space beyond. Something dreadful, something which made Mr. +Saunders come rushing back with a shout: + +"Take her away! Take her to our apartment, Jennie. She must not +see--" + +Not see! He realized the futility of his words as his gaze fell +on the young woman who had risen up at his approach and now stood +gazing at him without speech, without movement, but with a glare +of terror in her eyes, which gave him his first realization of +human misery. + +His own glance fell before it. If he had followed his instinct he +would have fled the house rather than answer the question of her +look and the attitude of her whole frozen body. + +Perhaps in mercy to his speechless terror, perhaps in mercy to +herself, she was the one who at last found the word which voiced +their mutual anguish. + +"Dead?" + +No answer. None was needed. + +"And my baby?" + +O, that cry! It curdled the hearts of all who heard it. It shook +the souls of men and women both inside and outside the apartment; +then all was forgotten in the wild rush she made. The wife and +mother had flung herself upon the scene, and, side by +side with the not unmoved policeman, stood looking down upon the +desolation made in one fatal instant in her home and heart. + +They lay there together, both past help, both quite dead. The +child had simply been strangled by the weight of his father's arm +which lay directly across the upturned little throat. But the +father was a victim of the shot they had heard. There was blood +on his breast, and a pistol in his hand. + +Suicide! The horrible truth was patent. No wonder they wanted to +hold the young widow back. Her neighbour, Mrs. Saunders, crept in +on tiptoe and put her arms about the swaying, fainting woman; but +there was nothing to say--absolutely nothing. + +At least, they thought not. But when they saw her throw herself +down, not by her husband, but by the child, and drag it out from +under that strangling arm and hug and kiss it and call out +wildly for a doctor, the officer endeavoured to interfere and +yet could not find the heart to do so, though he knew the child +was dead and should not, according to all the rules of the +coroner's office, be moved before that official arrived. Yet +because no mother could be convinced of a fact like this, he let +her sit with it on the floor and try all her little arts to +revive it, while he gave orders to the janitor and waited +himself for the arrival of doctor and coroner. + +She was still sitting there in wide-eyed misery, alternately +fondling the little body and drawing back to consult its small +set features for some sign of life, when the doctor came, and, +after one look at the child, drew it softly from her arms and +laid it quietly in the crib from which its father had evidently +lifted it but a short time before. Then he turned back to her, +and found her on her feet, upheld by her two friends. She had +understood his action, and without a groan had accepted her fate. +Indeed, she seemed incapable of any further speech or action. She +was staring down at her husband's body, which she, for the first +time, seemed fully to see. Was her look one of grief or of +resentment for the part he had played so unintentionally in her +child's death? It was hard to tell; and when, with slowly rising +finger, she pointed to the pistol so tightly clutched in the +other outstretched hand, no one there--and by this time the room +was full--could foretell what her words would be when her tongue +regained its usage and she could speak. + +What she did say was this: + +"Is there a bullet gone? Did he fire off that pistol?" A question +so manifestly one of delirium that no one answered it, which +seemed to surprise her, though she said nothing till her glance +had passed all around the walls of the room to where a window +stood open to the night,--its lower sash being entirely raised. +"There! look there!" she cried, with a commanding accent, and, +throwing up her hands, sank a dead weight into the arms of those +supporting her. + +No one understood; but naturally more than one rushed to the +window. An open space was before them. Here lay the fields not +yet parcelled out into lots and built upon; but it was not upon +these they looked, but upon the strong trellis which they found +there, which, if it supported no vine, formed a veritable ladder +between this window and the ground. + +Could she have meant to call attention to this fact; and were her +words expressive of another idea than the obvious one of suicide? + +If so, to what lengths a woman's imagination can go! Or so their +combined looks seemed to proclaim, when to their utter +astonishment they saw the officer, who had presented a calm +appearance up till now, shift his position and with a surprised +grunt direct their eyes to a portion of the wall just visible +beyond the half-drawn curtains of the bed. The mirror hanging +there showed a star-shaped breakage, such as follows the sharp +impact of a bullet or a fiercely projected stone. + +"He fired two shots. One went wild; the other straight home." + +It was the officer delivering his opinion. + +Mr. Saunders, returning from the distant room where he had +assisted in carrying Mrs. Hammond, cast a look at the shattered +glass, and remarked forcibly: + +"I heard but one; and I was sitting up, disturbed by that poor +infant. Jennie, did you hear more than one shot?" he asked, +turning toward his wife. + +"No," she answered, but not with the readiness he had evidently +expected. "I heard only one, but that was not quite usual in its +tone. I'm used to guns," she explained, turning to the officer. +"My father was an army man, and he taught me very early to load +and fire a pistol. There was a prolonged sound to this shot; +something like an echo of itself, following close upon the first +ping. Didn't you notice that, Warren?" + +"I remember something of the kind," her husband allowed. + +"He shot twice and quickly," interposed the policeman, +sententiously. "We shall find a spent bullet back of that +mirror." + +But when, upon the arrival of the coroner, an investigation was +made of the mirror and the wall behind, no bullet was found +either there or any where else in the room, save in the dead +man's breast. Nor had more than one been shot from his pistol, as +five full chambers testified. The case which seemed so simple had +its mysteries, but the assertion made by Mrs. Saunders no longer +carried weight, nor was the evidence offered by the broken mirror +considered as indubitably establishing the fact that a second +shot had been fired in the room. + +Yet it was equally evident that the charge which had entered the +dead speculator's breast had not been delivered at the close +range of the pistol found clutched in his hand. There were no +powder-marks to be discerned on his pajama-jacket, or on the +flesh beneath. Thus anomaly confronted anomaly, leaving open but +one other theory: that the bullet found in Mr. Hammond's breast +came from the window and the one he shot went out of it. But this +would necessitate his having shot his pistol from a point far +removed from where he was found; and his wound was such as made +it difficult to believe that he would stagger far, if at all, +after its infliction. + +Yet, because the coroner was both conscientious and alert, he +caused a most rigorous search to be made of the ground overlooked +by the above mentioned window; a search in which the police +joined, but which was without any result save that of rousing the +attention of people in the neighbourhood and leading to a story +being circulated of a man seen some time the night before +crossing the fields in a great hurry. But as no further +particulars were forthcoming, and not even a description of the +man to be had, no emphasis would have been laid upon this story +had it not transpired that the moment a report of it had come to +Mrs. Hammond's ears (why is there always some one to carry these +reports?) she roused from the torpor into which she had fallen, +and in wild fashion exclaimed: + +"I knew it! I expected it! He was shot through the window and by +that wretch. He never shot himself." Violent declarations which +trailed off into the one continuous wail, "O, my baby! my poor +baby!" + +Such words, even though the fruit of delirium, merited some sort +of attention, or so this good coroner thought, and as soon as +opportunity offered and she was sufficiently sane and quiet to +respond to his questions, he asked her whom she had meant by +that wretch, and what reason she had, or thought she had, of +attributing her husband's death to any other agency than his own +disgust with life. + +And then it was that his sympathies, although greatly roused in +her favour began to wane. She met the question with a cold stare +followed by a few ambiguous words out of which he could make +nothing. Had she said wretch? She did not remember. They must not +be influenced by anything she might have uttered in her first +grief. She was well-nigh insane at the time. But of one thing +they might be sure: her husband had not shot himself; he was too +much afraid of death for such an act. Besides, he was too happy. +Whatever folks might say he was too fond of his family to wish to +leave it. + +Nor did the coroner or any other official succeed in eliciting +anything further from her. Even when she was asked, with cruel +insistence, how she explained the fact that the baby was found +lying on the floor instead of in its crib, her only answer was: +"His father was trying to soothe it. The child was crying +dreadfully, as you have heard from those who were kept awake by +him that night, and my husband was carrying him about when the +shot came which caused George to fall and overlay the baby in his +struggles." + +"Carrying a baby about with a loaded pistol in his hand?" came +back in stern retort. + +She had no answer for this. She admitted when informed that the +bullet extracted from her husband's body had been found to +correspond exactly with those remaining in the five chambers of +the pistol taken from his hand, that he was not only the owner of +this pistol but was in the habit of sleeping with it under his +pillow; but, beyond that, nothing; and this reticence, as well as +her manner which was cold and repellent, told against her. + +A verdict of suicide was rendered by the coroner's jury, and the +life-insurance company, in which Mr. Hammond had but lately +insured himself for a large sum, taking advantage of the suicide +clause embodied in the policy, announced its determination of not +paying the same. + +Such was the situation, as known to Violet Strange and the +general public, on the day she was asked to see Mrs. Hammond and +learn what might alter her opinion as to the justice of this +verdict and the stand taken by the Shuler Life Insurance +Company. + +The clock on the mantel in Miss Strange's rose-coloured boudoir +had struck three, and Violet was gazing in some impatience at the +door, when there came a gentle knock upon it, and the maid (one +of the elderly, not youthful, kind) ushered in her expected +visitor. + +"You are Mrs. Hammond?" she asked, in natural awe of the too +black figure outlined so sharply against the deep pink of the +sea-shell room. + +The answer was a slow lifting of the veil which shadowed the +features she knew only from the cuts she had seen in newspapers. + +"You are--Miss Strange?" stammered her visitor; "the young lady +who--" + +"I am," chimed in a voice as ringing as it was sweet. "I am the +person you have come here to see. And this is my home. But that +does not make me less interested in the unhappy, or less +desirous of serving them. Certainly you have met with the two +greatest losses which can come to a woman--I know your story +well enough to say that--; but what have you to tell me in proof +that you should not lose your anticipated income as well? +Something vital, I hope, else I cannot help you; something which +you should have told the coroner's jury--and did not." + +The flush which was the sole answer these words called forth did +not take from the refinement of the young widow's expression, but +rather added to it; Violet watched it in its ebb and flow and, +seriously affected by it (why, she did not know, for Mrs. Hammond +had made no other appeal either by look or gesture), pushed +forward a chair and begged her visitor to be seated. + +"We can converse in perfect safety here," she said. "When you +feel quite equal to it, let me hear what you have to +communicate. It will never go any further. I could not do the +work I do if I felt it necessary to have a confidant." + +"But you are so young and so--so--" + +"So inexperienced you would say and so evidently a member of +what New Yorkers call 'society.' Do not let that trouble you. My +inexperience is not likely to last long and my social pleasures +are more apt to add to my efficiency than to detract from it." + +With this Violet's face broke into a smile. It was not the +brilliant one so often seen upon her lips, but there was +something in its quality which carried encouragement to the +widow and led her to say with obvious eagerness: + +"You know the facts?" + +"I have read all the papers." + +"I was not believed on the stand." + +"It was your manner--" + +"I could not help my manner. I was keeping something back, and, +being unused to deceit, I could not act quite naturally." + +"Why did you keep something back? When you saw the unfavourable +impression made by your reticence, why did you not speak up and +frankly tell your story?" + +"Because I was ashamed. Because I thought it would hurt me more +to speak than to keep silent. I do not think so now; but I did +then--and so made my great mistake. You must remember not only +the awful shock of my double loss, but the sense of guilt +accompanying it; for my husband and I had quarreled that night, +quarreled bitterly--that was why I had run away into another +room and not because I was feeling ill and impatient of the +baby's fretful cries." + +"So people have thought." In saying this, Miss Strange was +perhaps cruelly emphatic. "You wish to explain that quarrel? You +think it will be doing any good to your cause to go into that +matter with me now?" + +"I cannot say; but I must first clear my conscience and then try +to convince you that quarrel or no quarrel, he never took his own +life. He was not that kind. He had an abnormal fear of death. I +do not like to say it but he was a physical coward. I have seen +him turn pale at the least hint of danger. He could no more have +turned that muzzle upon his own breast than he could have turned +it upon his baby. Some other hand shot him, Miss Strange. +Remember the open window, the shattered mirror; and I think I +know that hand." + +Her head had fallen forward on her breast. The emotion she +showed was not so eloquent of grief as of deep personal shame. + +"You think you know the man?" In saying this, Violet's voice +sunk to a whisper. It was an accusation of murder she had just +heard. + +"To my great distress, yes. When Mr. Hammond and I were +married," the widow now proceeded in a more determined tone, +"there was another man--a very violent one--who vowed even at +the church door that George and I should never live out two full +years together. We have not. Our second anniversary would have +been in November." + +"But--" + +"Let me say this: the quarrel of which I speak was not serious +enough to occasion any such act of despair on his part. A man +would be mad to end his life on account of so slight a +disagreement. It was not even on account of the person of whom +I've just spoken, though that person had been mentioned between +us earlier in the evening, Mr. Hammond having come across him +face to face that very afternoon in the subway. Up to this time +neither of us had seen or heard of him since our wedding-day." + +"And you think this person whom you barely mentioned, so mindful +of his old grudge that he sought out your domicile, and, with +the intention of murder, climbed the trellis leading to your +room and turned his pistol upon the shadowy figure which was all +he could see in the semi-obscurity of a much lowered gas-jet?" + +"A man in the dark does not need a bright light to see his enemy +when he is intent upon revenge." + +Miss Strange altered her tone. + +"And your husband? You must acknowledge that he shot off his +pistol whether the other did or not." + +"It was in self-defence. He would shoot to save his own life--or +the baby's." + +"Then he must have heard or seen--" + +"A man at the window." + +"And would have shot there?" + +"Or tried to." + +"Tried to?" + +"Yes; the other shot first--oh, I've thought it all out--causing +my husband's bullet to go wild. It was his which broke the +mirror." + +Violet's eyes, bright as stars, suddenly narrowed. + +"And what happened then?" she asked. "Why cannot they find the +bullet?" + +"Because it went out of the window;--glanced off and went out of +the window." + +Mrs. Hammond's tone was triumphant; her look spirited and +intense. + +Violet eyed her compassionately. + +"Would a bullet glancing off from a mirror, however hung, be apt +to reach a window so far on the opposite side?" + +"I don't know; I only know that it did," was the contradictory, +almost absurd, reply. + +"What was the cause of the quarrel you speak of between your +husband and yourself? You see, I must know the exact truth and +all the truth to be of any assistance to you." + +"It was--it was about the care I gave, or didn't give, the baby. +I feel awfully to have to say it, but George did not think I did +my full duty by the child. He said there was no need of its +crying so; that if I gave it the proper attention it would not +keep the neighbours and himself awake half the night. And I--I +got angry and insisted that I did the best I could; that the +child was naturally fretful and that if he wasn't satisfied with +my way of looking after it, he might try his. All of which was +very wrong and unreasonable on my part, as witness the awful +punishment which followed." + +"And what made you get up and leave him?" + +"The growl he gave me in reply. When I heard that, I bounded out +of bed and said I was going to the spare room to sleep; and if +the baby cried he might just try what he could do himself to +stop it." + +"And he answered?" + +"This, just this--I shall never forget his words as long as I +live--'If you go, you need not expect me to let you in again no +matter what happens.'" + +"He said that?" + +"And locked the door after me. You see I could not tell all +that." + +"It might have been better if you had. It was such a natural +quarrel and so unprovocative of actual tragedy." + +Mrs. Hammond was silent. It was not difficult to see that she +had no very keen regrets for her husband personally. But then he +was not a very estimable man nor in any respect her equal. + +"You were not happy with him," Violet ventured to remark. + +"I was not a fully contented woman. But for all that he had no +cause to complain of me except for the reason I have mentioned. I +was not a very intelligent mother. But if the baby were living +now--O, if he were living now--with what devotion I should care +for him." + +She was on her feet, her arms were raised, her face impassioned +with feeling. Violet, gazing at her, heaved a little sigh. It +was perhaps in keeping with the situation, perhaps extraneous to +it, but whatever its source, it marked a change in her manner. +With no further check upon her sympathy, she said very softly: + +"It is well with the child." + +The mother stiffened, swayed, and then burst into wild weeping. + +"But not with me," she cried, "not with me. I am desolate and +bereft. I have not even a home in which to hide my grief and no +prospect of one." + +"But," interposed Violet, "surely your husband left you +something? You cannot be quite penniless?" + +"My husband left nothing," was the answer, uttered without +bitterness, but with all the hardness of fact. "He had debts. I +shall pay those debts. When these and other necessary expenses +are liquidated, there will be but little left. He made no secret +of the fact that he lived close up to his means. That is why he +was induced to take on a life insurance. Not a friend of his but +knows his improvidence. I--I have not even jewels. I have only my +determination and an absolute conviction as to the real nature of +my husband's death." + +"What is the name of the man you secretly believe to have shot +your husband from the trellis?" + +Mrs. Hammond told her. + +It was a new one to Violet. She said so and then asked: + +"What else can you tell me about him?" + +"Nothing, but that he is a very dark man and has a club-foot." + +"Oh, what a mistake you've made." + +"Mistake? Yes, I acknowledge that." + +"I mean in not giving this last bit of information at once to +the police. A man can be identified by such a defect. Even his +footsteps can be traced. He might have been found that very day. +Now, what have we to go upon?" + +"You are right, but not expecting to have any difficulty about +the insurance money I thought it would be generous in me to keep +still. Besides, this is only surmise on my part. I feel certain +that my husband was shot by another hand than his own, but I know +of no way of proving it. Do you?" + +Then Violet talked seriously with her, explaining how their only +hope lay in the discovery of a second bullet in the room which +had already been ransacked for this very purpose and without the +shadow of a result. + +A tea, a musicale, and an evening dance kept Violet Strange in a +whirl for the remainder of the day. No brighter eye nor more +contagious wit lent brilliance to these occasions, but with the +passing of the midnight hour no one who had seen her in the +blaze of electric lights would have recognized this favoured +child of fortune in the earnest figure sitting in the obscurity +of an up-town apartment, studying the walls, the ceilings, and +the floors by the dim light of a lowered gas-jet. Violet Strange +in society was a very different person from Violet Strange under +the tension of her secret and peculiar work. + +She had told them at home that she was going to spend the night +with a friend; but only her old coachman knew who that friend +was. Therefore a very natural sense of guilt mingled with her +emotions at finding herself alone on a scene whose gruesome +mystery she could solve only by identifying herself with the +place and the man who had perished there. + +Dismissing from her mind all thought of self, she strove to +think as he thought, and act as he acted on the night when he +found himself (a man of but little courage) left in this room +with an ailing child. + +At odds with himself, his wife, and possibly with the child +screaming away in its crib, what would he be apt to do in his +present emergency? Nothing at first, but as the screaming +continued he would remember the old tales of fathers walking the +floor at night with crying babies, and hasten to follow suit. +Violet, in her anxiety to reach his inmost thought, crossed to +where the crib had stood, and, taking that as a start, began +pacing the room in search of the spot from which a bullet, if +shot, would glance aside from the mirror in the direction of the +window. (Not that she was ready to accept this theory of Mrs. +Hammond, but that she did not wish to entirely dismiss it +without putting it to the test.) + +She found it in an unexpected quarter of the room and much nearer +the bed-head than where his body was found. This, which might +seem to confuse matters, served, on the contrary to remove from +the case one of its most serious difficulties. Standing here, he +was within reach of the pillow under which his pistol lay hidden, +and if startled, as his wife believed him to have been by a noise +at the other end of the room, had but to crouch and reach behind +him in order to find himself armed and ready for a possible +intruder. + +Imitating his action in this as in other things, she had herself +crouched low at the bedside and was on the point of withdrawing +her hand from under the pillow, when a new surprise checked her +movement and held her fixed in her position, with eyes staring +straight at the adjoining wall. She had seen there what he must +have seen in making this same turn--the dark bars of the opposite +window-frame outlined in the mirror--and understood at once what +had happened. In the nervousness and terror of the moment, George +Hammond had mistaken this reflection of the window for the window +itself, and shot impulsively at the man he undoubtedly saw +covering him from the trellis without. But while this explained +the shattering of the mirror, how about the other and still more +vital question, of where the bullet went afterward? Was the angle +at which it had been fired acute enough to send it out of a +window diagonally opposed? No; even if the pistol had been held +closer to the man firing it than she had reason to believe, the +angle still would be oblique enough to carry it on to the further +wall. + +But no sign of any such impact had been discovered on this wall. +Consequently, the force of the bullet had been expended before +reaching it, and when it fell-- + +Here, her glance, slowly traveling along the floor, impetuously +paused. It had reached the spot where the two bodies had been +found, and unconsciously her eyes rested there, conjuring up the +picture of the bleeding father and the strangled child. How +piteous and how dreadful it all was. If she could only +understand-- Suddenly she rose straight up, staring and +immovable in the dim light. Had the idea--the explanation--the +only possible explanation covering the whole phenomena come to +her at last? + +It would seem so, for as she so stood, a look of conviction +settled over her features, and with this look, evidences of a +horror which for all her fast accumulating knowledge of life and +its possibilities made her appear very small and very helpless. + +A half-hour later, when Mrs. Hammond, in her anxiety at hearing +nothing more from Miss Strange, opened the door of her room, it +was to find, lying on the edge of the sill, the little +detective's card with these words hastily written across it: + +I do not feel as well as I could wish, and so have telephoned to +my own coachman to come and take me home. I will either see or +write you within a few days. But do not allow yourself to hope. +I pray you do not allow yourself the least hope; the outcome is +still very problematical. + +When Violet's employer entered his office the next morning it +was to find a veiled figure awaiting him which he at once +recognized as that of his little deputy. She was slow in lifting +her veil and when it finally came free he felt a momentary doubt +as to his wisdom in giving her just such a matter as this to +investigate. He was quite sure of his mistake when he saw her +face, it was so drawn and pitiful. + +"You have failed," said he. + +"Of that you must judge," she answered; and drawing near she +whispered in his ear. + +"No!" he cried in his amazement. + +"Think," she murmured, "think. Only so can all the facts be +accounted for." + +"I will look into it; I will certainly look into it," was his +earnest reply. "If you are right-- But never mind that. Go home +and take a horseback ride in the Park. When I have news in regard +to this I will let you know. Till then forget it all. Hear me, I +charge you to forget everything but your balls and your parties." + +And Violet obeyed him. + +Some few days after this, the following statement appeared in +all the papers: + +"Owing to some remarkable work done by the firm of -- & --, +the well-known private detective agency, the claim made by Mrs. +George Hammond against the Shuler Life Insurance Company is +likely to be allowed without further litigation. As our readers +will remember, the contestant has insisted from the first that +the bullet causing her husband's death came from another pistol +than the one found clutched in his own hand. But while reasons +were not lacking to substantiate this assertion, the failure to +discover more than the disputed track of a second bullet led to +a verdict of suicide, and a refusal of the company to pay. + +"But now that bullet has been found. And where? In the most +startling place in the world, viz.: in the larynx of the child +found lying dead upon the floor beside his father, strangled as +was supposed by the weight of that father's arm. The theory is, +and there seems to be none other, that the father, hearing a +suspicious noise at the window, set down the child he was +endeavouring to soothe and made for the bed and his own pistol, +and, mistaking a reflection of the assassin for the assassin +himself, sent his shot sidewise at a mirror just as the other let +go the trigger which drove a similar bullet into his breast. The +course of the one was straight and fatal and that of the other +deflected. Striking the mirror at an oblique angle, the bullet +fell to the floor where it was picked up by the crawling child, +and, as was most natural, thrust at once into his mouth. Perhaps +it felt hot to the little tongue; perhaps the child was simply +frightened by some convulsive movement of the father who +evidently spent his last moment in an endeavour to reach the +child, but, whatever the cause, in the quick gasp it gave, the +bullet was drawn into the larynx, strangling him. + +"That the father's arm, in his last struggle, should have fallen +directly across the little throat is one of those anomalies +which confounds reason and misleads justice by stopping +investigation at the very point where truth lies and mystery +disappears. + +"Mrs. Hammond is to be congratulated that there are detectives +who do not give too much credence to outward appearances." + +We expect soon to hear of the capture of the man who sped home +the death-dealing bullet. + +END OF PROBLEM II + + + +PROBLEM III + +AN INTANGIBLE CLUE + +"Have you studied the case?" + +"Not I." + +"Not studied the case which for the last few days has provided +the papers with such conspicuous headlines?" + +"I do not read the papers. I have not looked at one in a whole +week." + +"Miss Strange, your social engagements must be of a very +pressing nature just now?" + +"They are." + +"And your business sense in abeyance?" + +"How so?" + +"You would not ask if you had read the papers." + +To this she made no reply save by a slight toss of her pretty +head. If her employer felt nettled by this show of indifference, +he did not betray it save by the rapidity of his tones as, +without further preamble and possibly without real excuse, he +proceeded to lay before her the case in question. "Last Tuesday +night a woman was murdered in this city; an old woman, in a +lonely house where she has lived for years. Perhaps you remember +this house? It occupies a not inconspicuous site in Seventeenth +Street--a house of the olden time?" + +"No, I do not remember." + +The extreme carelessness of Miss Strange's tone would have been +fatal to her socially; but then, she would never have used it +socially. This they both knew, yet he smiled with his customary +indulgence. + +"Then I will describe it." + +She looked around for a chair and sank into it. He did the same. + +"It has a fanlight over the front door." + +She remained impassive. + +"And two old-fashioned strips of parti-coloured glass on either +side." + +"And a knocker between its panels which may bring money some +day." + +"Oh, you do remember! I thought you would, Miss Strange." + +"Yes. Fanlights over doors are becoming very rare in New York." + +"Very well, then. That house was the scene of Tuesday's tragedy. +The woman who has lived there in solitude for years was foully +murdered. I have since heard that the people who knew her best +have always anticipated some such violent end for her. She never +allowed maid or friend to remain with her after five in the +afternoon; yet she had money--some think a great deal--always in +the house." + +"I am interested in the house, not in her." + +"Yet, she was a character--as full of whims and crotchets as a +nut is of meat. Her death was horrible. She fought--her dress was +torn from her body in rags. This happened, you see, before her +hour for retiring; some think as early as six in the afternoon. +And"--here he made a rapid gesture to catch Violet's wandering +attention--"in spite of this struggle; in spite of the fact that +she was dragged from room to room--that her person was searched-- +and everything in the house searched--that drawers were pulled +out of bureaus--doors wrenched off of cupboards--china smashed +upon the floor--whole shelves denuded and not a spot from cellar +to garret left unransacked, no direct clue to the perpetrator has +been found--nothing that gives any idea of his personality save +his display of strength and great cupidity. The police have even +deigned to consult me,--an unusual procedure--but I could find +nothing, either. Evidences of fiendish purpose abound--of +relentless search--but no clue to the man himself. It's uncommon, +isn't it, not to have any clue?" + +"I suppose so." Miss Strange hated murders and it was with +difficulty she could be brought to discuss them. But she was not +going to be let off; not this time. + +"You see," he proceeded insistently, "it's not only mortifying +to the police but disappointing to the press, especially as few +reporters believe in the No-thoroughfare business. They say, and +we cannot but agree with them, that no such struggle could take +place and no such repeated goings to and fro through the house +without some vestige being left by which to connect this crime +with its daring perpetrator." + +Still she stared down at her hands--those little hands so white +and fluttering, so seemingly helpless under the weight of their +many rings, and yet so slyly capable. + +"She must have queer neighbours," came at last, from Miss +Strange's reluctant lips. "Didn't they hear or see anything of +all this?" + +"She has no neighbours--that is, after half-past five o'clock. +There's a printing establishment on one side of her, a deserted +mansion on the other side, and nothing but warehouses back and +front. There was no one to notice what took place in her small +dwelling after the printing house was closed. She was the most +courageous or the most foolish of women to remain there as she +did. But nothing except death could budge her. She was born in +the room where she died; was married in the one where she worked; +saw husband, father, mother, and five sisters carried out in turn +to their graves through the door with the fanlight over the top-- +and these memories held her." + +"You are trying to interest me in the woman. Don't." + +"No, I'm not trying to interest you in her, only trying to +explain her. There was another reason for her remaining where +she did so long after all residents had left the block. She had +a business." + +"Oh!" + +"She embroidered monograms for fine ladies." + +"She did? But you needn't look at me like that. She never +embroidered any for me." + +"No? She did first-class work. I saw some of it. Miss Strange, +if I could get you into that house for ten minutes--not to see +her but to pick up the loose intangible thread which I am sure +is floating around in it somewhere--wouldn't you go?" + +Violet slowly rose--a movement which he followed to the letter. + +"Must I express in words the limit I have set for myself in our +affair?" she asked. "When, for reasons I have never thought +myself called upon to explain, I consented to help you a little +now and then with some matter where a woman's tact and knowledge +of the social world might tell without offence to herself or +others, I never thought it would be necessary for me to state +that temptation must stop with such cases, or that I should not +be asked to touch the sordid or the bloody. But it seems I was +mistaken, and that I must stoop to be explicit. The woman who was +killed on Tuesday might have interested me greatly as an +embroiderer, but as a victim, not at all. What do you see in me, +or miss in me, that you should drag me into an atmosphere of low- +down crime?" + +"Nothing, Miss Strange. You are by nature, as well as by +breeding, very far removed from everything of the kind. But you +will allow me to suggest that no crime is low-down which makes +imperative demand upon the intellect and intuitive sense of its +investigator. Only the most delicate touch can feel and hold the +thread I've just spoken of, and you have the most delicate touch +I know." + +"Do not attempt to flatter me. I have no fancy for handling +befouled spider webs. Besides, if I had--if such elusive +filaments fascinated me--how could I, well-known in person and +name, enter upon such a scene without prejudice to our mutual +compact?" + +"Miss Strange"--she had reseated herself, but so far he had +failed to follow her example (an ignoring of the subtle hint +that her interest might yet be caught, which seemed to annoy her +a trifle), "I should not even have suggested such a possibility +had I not seen a way of introducing you there without risk to +your position or mine. Among the boxes piled upon Mrs. +Doolittle's table--boxes of finished work, most of them +addressed and ready for delivery--was one on which could be seen +the name of--shall I mention it?" + +"Not mine? You don't mean mine? That would be too odd--too +ridiculously odd. I should not understand a coincidence of that +kind; no, I should not, notwithstanding the fact that I have +lately sent out such work to be done." + +"Yet it was your name, very clearly and precisely written--your +whole name, Miss Strange. I saw and read it myself." + +"But I gave the order to Madame Pirot on Fifth Avenue. How came +my things to be found in the house of this woman of whose +horrible death we have been talking?" + +"Did you suppose that Madame Pirot did such work with her own +hands?--or even had it done in her own establishment? Mrs. +Doolittle was universally employed. She worked for a dozen firms. +You will find the biggest names on most of her packages. But on +this one--I allude to the one addressed to you--there was more to +be seen than the name. These words were written on it in another +hand. Send without opening. This struck the police as suspicious; +sufficiently so, at least, for them to desire your presence at +the house as soon as you can make it convenient." + +"To open the box?" + +"Exactly." + +The curl of Miss Strange's disdainful lip was a sight to see. + +"You wrote those words yourself," she coolly observed. "While +someone's back was turned, you whipped out your pencil and--" + +"Resorted to a very pardonable subterfuge highly conducive to +the public's good. But never mind that. Will you go?" + +Miss Strange became suddenly demure. + +"I suppose I must," she grudgingly conceded. "However obtained, +a summons from the police cannot be ignored even by Peter +Strange's daughter." + +Another man might have displayed his triumph by smile or gesture; +but this one had learned his role too well. He simply said: + +"Very good. Shall it be at once? I have a taxi at the door." + +But she failed to see the necessity of any such hurry. With +sudden dignity she replied: + +"That won't do. If I go to this house it must be under suitable +conditions. I shall have to ask my brother to accompany me." + +"Your brother!" + +"Oh, he's safe. He--he knows." + +"Your brother knows?" Her visitor, with less control than usual, +betrayed very openly his uneasiness. + +"He does and--approves. But that's not what interests us now, +only so far as it makes it possible for me to go with propriety +to that dreadful house." + +A formal bow from the other and the words: + +"They may expect you, then. Can you say when?" + +"Within the next hour. But it will be a useless concession on my +part," she pettishly complained. "A place that has been gone +over by a dozen detectives is apt to be brushed clean of its +cobwebs, even if such ever existed." + +"That's the difficulty," he acknowledged; and did not dare to add +another word; she was at that particular moment so very much the +great lady, and so little his confidential agent. + +He might have been less impressed, however, by this sudden +assumption of manner, had he been so fortunate as to have seen +how she employed the three quarters of an hour's delay for which +she had asked. + +She read those neglected newspapers, especially the one +containing the following highly coloured narration of this +ghastly crime: + +"A door ajar--an empty hall--a line of sinister looking blotches +marking a guilty step diagonally across the flagging--silence-- +and an unmistakable odour repugnant to all humanity,--such were +the indications which met the eyes of Officer O'Leary on his +first round last night, and led to the discovery of a murder +which will long thrill the city by its mystery and horror. + +"Both the house and the victim are well known." Here followed a +description of the same and of Mrs. Doolittle's manner of life in +her ancient home, which Violet hurriedly passed over to come to +the following: + +"As far as one can judge from appearances, the crime happened in +this wise: Mrs. Doolittle had been in her kitchen, as the tea- +kettle found singing on the stove goes to prove, and was coming +back through her bedroom, when the wretch, who had stolen in by +the front door which, to save steps, she was unfortunately in the +habit of leaving on the latch till all possibility of customers +for the day was over, sprang upon her from behind and dealt her a +swinging blow with the poker he had caught up from the +hearthstone. + +"Whether the struggle which ensued followed immediately upon this +first attack or came later, it will take medical experts to +determine. But, whenever it did occur, the fierceness of its +character is shown by the grip taken upon her throat and the +traces of blood which are to be seen all over the house. If the +wretch had lugged her into her workroom and thence to the +kitchen, and thence back to the spot of first assault, the +evidences could not have been more ghastly. Bits of her clothing +torn off by a ruthless hand, lay scattered over all these floors. +In her bedroom, where she finally breathed her last, there could +be seen mingled with these a number of large but worthless glass +beads; and close against one of the base-boards, the string which +had held them, as shown by the few remaining beads still clinging +to it. If in pulling the string from her neck he had hoped to +light upon some valuable booty, his fury at his disappointment is +evident. You can almost see the frenzy with which he flung the +would-be necklace at the wall, and kicked about and stamped upon +its rapidly rolling beads. + +"Booty! That was what he was after; to find and carry away the +poor needlewoman's supposed hoardings. If the scene baffles +description--if, as some believe, he dragged her yet living from +spot to spot, demanding information as to her places of +concealment under threat of repeated blows, and, finally baffled, +dealt the finishing stroke and proceeded on the search alone, no +greater devastation could have taken place in this poor woman's +house or effects. Yet such was his precaution and care for +himself that he left no finger-print behind him nor any other +token which could lead to personal identification. Even though +his footsteps could be traced in much the order I have mentioned, +they were of so indeterminate and shapeless a character as to +convey little to the intelligence of the investigator. + +"That these smears (they could not be called footprints) not only +crossed the hall but appeared in more than one place on the +staircase proves that he did not confine his search to the lower +storey; and perhaps one of the most interesting features of the +case lies in the indications given by these marks of the raging +course he took through these upper rooms. As the accompanying +diagram will show [we omit the diagram] he went first into the +large front chamber, thence to the rear where we find two rooms, +one unfinished and filled with accumulated stuff most of which he +left lying loose upon the floor, and the other plastered, and +containing a window opening upon an alley-way at the side, but +empty of all furniture and without even a carpet on the bare +boards. + +"Why he should have entered the latter place, and why, having +entered he should have crossed to the window, will be plain to +those who have studied the conditions. The front chamber windows +were tightly shuttered, the attic ones cumbered with boxes and +shielded from approach by old bureaus and discarded chairs. This +one only was free and, although darkened by the proximity of the +house neighbouring it across the alley, was the only spot on the +storey where sufficient light could be had at this late hour for +the examination of any object of whose value he was doubtful. +That he had come across such an object and had brought it to this +window for some such purpose is very satisfactorily demonstrated +by the discovery of a worn out wallet of ancient make lying on +the floor directly in front of this window--a proof of his +cupidity but also proof of his ill-luck. For this wallet, when +lifted and opened, was found to contain two hundred or more +dollars in old bills, which, if not the full hoard of their +industrious owner, was certainly worth the taking by one who had +risked his neck for the sole purpose of theft. + +"This wallet, and the flight of the murderer without it, give to +this affair, otherwise simply brutal, a dramatic interest which +will be appreciated not only by the very able detectives already +hot upon the chase, but by all other inquiring minds anxious to +solve a mystery of which so estimable a woman has been the +unfortunate victim. A problem is presented to the police--" + +There Violet stopped. + +When, not long after, the superb limousine of Peter Strange +stopped before the little house in Seventeenth Street, it caused +a veritable sensation, not only in the curiosity-mongers +lingering on the sidewalk, but to the two persons within--the +officer on guard and a belated reporter. + +Though dressed in her plainest suit, Violet Strange looked much +too fashionable and far too young and thoughtless to be observed, +without emotion, entering a scene of hideous and brutal crime. +Even the young man who accompanied her promised to bring a most +incongruous element into this atmosphere of guilt and horror, +and, as the detective on guard whispered to the man beside him, +might much better have been left behind in the car. + +But Violet was great for the proprieties and young Arthur +followed her in. + +Her entrance was a coup du theatre. She had lifted her veil in +crossing the sidewalk and her interesting features and general +air of timidity were very fetching. As the man holding open the +door noted the impression made upon his companion, he muttered +with sly facetiousness: + +"You think you'll show her nothing; but I'm ready to bet a fiver +that she'll want to see it all and that you'll show it to her." + +The detective's grin was expressive, notwithstanding the shrug +with which he tried to carry it off. + +And Violet? The hall into which she now stepped from the most +vivid sunlight had never been considered even in its palmiest +days as possessing cheer even of the stately kind. The ghastly +green light infused through it by the coloured glass on either +side of the doorway seemed to promise yet more dismal things +beyond. + +"Must I go in there?" she asked, pointing, with an admirable +simulation of nervous excitement, to a half-shut door at her +left. "Is there where it happened? Arthur, do you suppose that +there is where it happened?" + +"No, no, Miss," the officer made haste to assure her. "If you are +Miss Strange" (Violet bowed), "I need hardly say that the woman +was struck in her bedroom. The door beside you leads into the +parlour, or as she would have called it, her work-room. You +needn't be afraid of going in there. You will see nothing but the +disorder of her boxes. They were pretty well pulled about. Not +all of them though," he added, watching her as closely as the dim +light permitted. "There is one which gives no sign of having been +tampered with. It was done up in wrapping paper and is addressed +to you, which in itself would not have seemed worthy of our +attention had not these lines been scribbled on it in a man's +handwriting: 'Send without opening.'" + +"How odd!" exclaimed the little minx with widely opened eyes and +an air of guileless innocence. "Whatever can it mean? Nothing +serious I am sure, for the woman did not even know me. She was +employed to do this work by Madame Pirot." + +"Didn't you know that it was to be done here?" + +"No. I thought Madame Pirot's own girls did her embroidery for +her." + +"So that you were surprised--" + +"Wasn't I!" + +"To get our message." + +"I didn't know what to make of it." + +The earnest, half-injured look with which she uttered this +disclaimer, did its appointed work. The detective accepted her +for what she seemed and, oblivious to the reporter's satirical +gesture, crossed to the work-room door, which he threw wide open +with the remark: + +"I should be glad to have you open that box in our presence. It +is undoubtedly all right, but we wish to be sure. You know what +the box should contain?" + +"Oh, yes, indeed; pillow-cases and sheets, with a big S +embroidered on them." + +"Very well. Shall I undo the string for you?" + +"I shall be much obliged," said she, her eye flashing quickly +about the room before settling down upon the knot he was deftly +loosening. + +Her brother, gazing indifferently in from the doorway, hardly +noticed this look; but the reporter at his back did, though he +failed to detect its penetrating quality. + +"Your name is on the other side," observed the detective as he +drew away the string and turned the package over. + +The smile which just lifted the corner of her lips was not in +answer to this remark, but to her recognition of her employer's +handwriting in the words under her name: Send without opening. +She had not misjudged him. + +"The cover you may like to take off yourself," suggested the +officer, as he lifted the box out of its wrapper. + +"Oh, I don't mind. There's nothing to be ashamed of in +embroidered linen. Or perhaps that is not what you are looking +for?" + +No one answered. All were busy watching her whip off the lid and +lift out the pile of sheets and pillow-cases with which the box +was closely packed. + +"Shall I unfold them?" she asked. + +The detective nodded. + +Taking out the topmost sheet, she shook it open. Then the next +and the next till she reached the bottom of the box. Nothing of +a criminating nature came to light. The box as well as its +contents was without mystery of any kind. This was not an +unexpected result of course, but the smile with which she began +to refold the pieces and throw them back into the box, revealed +one of her dimples which was almost as dangerous to the casual +observer as when it revealed both. + +"There," she exclaimed, "you see! Household linen exactly as I +said. Now may I go home?" + +"Certainly, Miss Strange." + +The detective stole a sly glance at the reporter. She was not +going in for the horrors then after all. + +But the reporter abated nothing of his knowing air, for while she +spoke of going, she made no move towards doing so, but continued +to look about the room till her glances finally settled on a long +dark curtain shutting off an adjoining room. + +"There's where she lies, I suppose," she feelingly exclaimed. +"And not one of you knows who killed her. Somehow, I cannot +understand that. Why don't you know when that's what you're +hired for?" The innocence with which she uttered this was +astonishing. The detective began to look sheepish and the +reporter turned aside to hide his smile. Whether in another +moment either would have spoken no one can say, for, with a mock +consciousness of having said something foolish, she caught up her +parasol from the table and made a start for the door. + +But of course she looked back. + +"I was wondering," she recommenced, with a half wistful, half +speculative air, "whether I should ask to have a peep at the +place where it all happened." + +The reporter chuckled behind the pencil-end he was chewing, but +the officer maintained his solemn air, for which act of self- +restraint he was undoubtedly grateful when in another minute she +gave a quick impulsive shudder not altogether assumed, and +vehemently added: "But I couldn't stand the sight; no, I +couldn't! I'm an awful coward when it comes to things like that. +Nothing in all the world would induce me to look at the woman or +her room. But I should like--" here both her dimples came into +play though she could not be said exactly to smile--"just one +little look upstairs, where he went poking about so long without +any fear it seems of being interrupted. Ever since I've read +about it I have seen, in my mind, a picture of his wicked figure +sneaking from room to room, tearing open drawers and flinging out +the contents of closets just to find a little money--a little, +little money! I shall not sleep to-night just for wondering how +those high up attic rooms really look." + +Who could dream that back of this display of mingled childishness +and audacity there lay hidden purpose, intellect, and a keen +knowledge of human nature. Not the two men who listened to this +seemingly irresponsible chatter. To them she was a child to be +humoured and humour her they did. The dainty feet which had +already found their way to that gloomy staircase were allowed to +ascend, followed it is true by those of the officer who did not +dare to smile back at the reporter because of the brother's +watchful and none too conciliatory eye. + +At the stair head she paused to look back. + +"I don't see those horrible marks which the papers describe as +running all along the lower hall and up these stairs." + +"No, Miss Strange; they have gradually been rubbed out, but you +will find some still showing on these upper floors." + +"Oh! oh! where? You frighten me--frighten me horribly! But--but-- +if you don't mind, I should like to see." + +Why should not a man on a tedious job amuse himself? Piloting her +over to the small room in the rear, he pointed down at the +boards. She gave one look and then stepped gingerly in. + +"Just look!" she cried; "a whole string of marks going straight +from door to window. They have no shape, have they,--just +blotches? I wonder why one of them is so much larger than the +rest?" + +This was no new question. It was one which everybody who went +into the room was sure to ask, there was such a difference in the +size and appearance of the mark nearest the window. The reason-- +well, minds were divided about that, and no one had a +satisfactory theory. The detective therefore kept discreetly +silent. + +This did not seem to offend Miss Strange. On the contrary it gave +her an opportunity to babble away to her heart's content. + +"One, two, three, four, five, six," she counted, with a shudder +at every count. "And one of them bigger than the others." She +might have added, "It is the trail of one foot, and strangely, +intermingled at that," but she did not, though we may be quite +sure that she noted the fact. "And where, just where did the old +wallet fall? Here? or here?" + +She had moved as she spoke, so that in uttering the last "here," +she stood directly before the window. The surprise she received +there nearly made her forget the part she was playing. From the +character of the light in the room, she had expected, on looking +out, to confront a near-by wall, but not a window in that wall. +Yet that was what she saw directly facing her from across the old- +fashioned alley separating this house from its neighbour; twelve +unshuttered and uncurtained panes through which she caught a +darkened view of a room almost as forlorn and devoid of furniture +as the one in which she then stood. + +When quite sure of herself, she let a certain portion of her +surprise appear. + +"Why, look!" she cried, "if you can't see right in next door! +What a lonesome-looking place! From its desolate appearance I +should think the house quite empty." + +"And it is. That's the old Shaffer homestead. It's been empty for +a year." + +"Oh, empty!" And she turned away, with the most inconsequent air +in the world, crying out as her name rang up the stair, "There's +Arthur calling. I suppose he thinks I've been here long enough. +I'm sure I'm very much obliged to you, officer. I really +shouldn't have slept a wink to-night, if I hadn't been given a +peep at these rooms, which I had imagined so different." And with +one additional glance over her shoulder, that seemed to penetrate +both windows and the desolate space beyond, she ran quickly out +and down in response to her brother's reiterated call. + +"Drive quickly!--as quickly as the law allows, to Hiram Brown's +office in Duane Street." + +Arrived at the address named, she went in alone to see Mr. Brown. +He was her father's lawyer and a family friend. + +Hardly waiting for his affectionate greeting, she cried out +quickly. "Tell me how I can learn anything about the old Shaffer +house in Seventeenth Street. Now, don't look so surprised. I +have very good reasons for my request and--and--I'm in an awful +hurry." + +"But--" + +"I know, I know; there's been a dreadful tragedy next door to +it; but it's about the Shaffer house itself I want some +information. Has it an agent, a--" + +"Of course it has an agent, and here is his name." + +Mr. Brown presented her with a card on which he had hastily +written both name and address. + +She thanked him, dropped him a mocking curtsey full of charm, +whispered "Don't tell father," and was gone. + +Her manner to the man she next interviewed was very different. As +soon as she saw him she subsided into her usual society manner. +With just a touch of the conceit of the successful debutante, she +announced herself as Miss Strange of Seventy-second Street. Her +business with him was in regard to the possible renting of the +Shaffer house. She had an old lady friend who was desirous of +living downtown. + +In passing through Seventeenth Street, she had noticed that the +old Shaffer house was standing empty and had been immediately +struck with the advantages it possessed for her elderly friend's +occupancy. Could it be that the house was for rent? There was no +sign on it to that effect, but--etc. + +His answer left her nothing to hope for. + +"It is going to be torn down," he said. + +"Oh, what a pity!" she exclaimed. "Real colonial, isn't it! I +wish I could see the rooms inside before it is disturbed. Such +doors and such dear old-fashioned mantelpieces as it must have! +I just dote on the Colonial. It brings up such pictures of the +old days; weddings, you know, and parties;--all so different +from ours and so much more interesting." + +Is it the chance shot that tells? Sometimes. Violet had no +especial intention in what she said save as a prelude to a +pending request, but nothing could have served her purpose better +than that one word, wedding. The agent laughed and giving her his +first indulgent look, remarked genially: + +"Romance is not confined to those ancient times. If you were to +enter that house to-day you would come across evidences of a +wedding as romantic as any which ever took place in all the +seventy odd years of its existence. A man and a woman were +married there day before yesterday who did their first courting +under its roof forty years ago. He has been married twice and she +once in the interval; but the old love held firm and now at the +age of sixty and over they have come together to finish their +days in peace and happiness. Or so we will hope." + +"Married! married in that house and on the day that--" + +She caught herself up in time. He did not notice the break. + +"Yes, in memory of those old days of courtship, I suppose. They +came here about five, got the keys, drove off, went through the +ceremony in that empty house, returned the keys to me in my own +apartment, took the steamer for Naples, and were on the sea +before midnight. Do you not call that quick work as well as +highly romantic?" + +"Very." Miss Strange's cheek had paled. It was apt to when she +was greatly excited. "But I don't understand," she added, the +moment after. "How could they do this and nobody know about it? I +should have thought it would have got into the papers." + +"They are quiet people. I don't think they told their best +friends. A simple announcement in the next day's journals +testified to the fact of their marriage, but that was all. I +would not have felt at liberty to mention the circumstances +myself, if the parties were not well on their way to Europe." + +"Oh, how glad I am that you did tell me! Such a story of +constancy and the hold which old associations have upon sensitive +minds! But--" + +"Why, Miss? What's the matter? You look very much disturbed." + +"Don't you remember? Haven't you thought? Something else +happened that very day and almost at the same time on that +block. Something very dreadful--" + +"Mrs. Doolittle's murder?" + +"Yes. It was as near as next door, wasn't it? Oh, if this happy +couple had known--" + +"But fortunately they didn't. Nor are they likely to, till they +reach the other side. You needn't fear that their honeymoon will +be spoiled that way." + +"But they may have heard something or seen something before +leaving the street. Did you notice how the gentleman looked when +he returned you the keys?" + +"I did, and there was no cloud on his satisfaction." + +"Oh, how you relieve me!" One--two dimples made their appearance +in Miss Strange's fresh, young cheeks. "Well! I wish them joy. Do +you mind telling me their names? I cannot think of them as actual +persons without knowing their names." + +"The gentleman was Constantin Amidon; the lady, Marian Shaffer. +You will have to think of them now as Mr. and Mrs. Amidon." + +"And I will. Thank you, Mr. Hutton, thank you very much. Next to +the pleasure of getting the house for my friend, is that of +hearing this charming bit of news its connection. + +She held out her hand and, as he took it, remarked: + +"They must have had a clergyman and witnesses." + +"Undoubtedly." + +"I wish I had been one of the witnesses," she sighed +sentimentally. + +"They were two old men." + +"Oh, no! Don't tell me that." + +"Fogies; nothing less." + +"But the clergyman? He must have been young. Surely there was +some one there capable of appreciating the situation?" + +"I can't say about that; I did not see the clergyman." + +"Oh, well! it doesn't matter." Miss Strange's manner was as +nonchalant as it was charming. "We will think of him as being +very young." + +And with a merry toss of her head she flitted away. + +But she sobered very rapidly upon entering her limousine. + +"Hello!" + +"Ah, is that you?" + +"Yes, I want a Marconi sent." + +"A Marconi?" + +"Yes, to the Cretic, which left dock the very night in which we +are so deeply interested." + +"Good. Whom to? The Captain?" + +"No, to a Mrs. Constantin Amidon. But first be sure there is such +a passenger." + +"Mrs.! What idea have you there?" + +"Excuse my not stating over the telephone. The message is to be +to this effect. Did she at any time immediately before or after +her marriage to Mr. Amidon get a glimpse of any one in the +adjoining house? No remarks, please. I use the telephone because +I am not ready to explain myself. If she did, let her send a +written description to you of that person as soon as she reaches +the Azores." + +"You surprise me. May I not call or hope for a line from you +early to-morrow?" + +"I shall be busy till you get your answer." + +He hung up the receiver. He recognized the resolute tone. + +But the time came when the pending explanation was fully given to +him. An answer had been returned from the steamer, favourable to +Violet's hopes. Mrs. Amidon had seen such a person and would send +a full description of the same at the first opportunity. It was +news to fill Violet's heart with pride; the filament of a clue +which had led to this great result had been so nearly invisible +and had felt so like nothing in her grasp. + +To her employer she described it as follows: + +"When I hear or read of a case which contains any baffling +features, I am apt to feel some hidden chord in my nature thrill +to one fact in it and not to any of the others. In this case the +single fact which appealed to my imagination was the dropping of +the stolen wallet in that upstairs room. Why did the guilty man +drop it? and why, having dropped it, did he not pick it up again? +but one answer seemed possible. He had heard or seen something at +the spot where it fell which not only alarmed him but sent him in +flight from the house." + +"Very good; and did you settle to your own mind the nature of +that sound or that sight?" + +"I did." Her manner was strangely businesslike. No show of +dimples now. "Satisfied that if any possibility remained of my +ever doing this, it would have to be on the exact place of this +occurrence or not at all, I embraced your suggestion and visited +the house." + +"And that room no doubt." + +"And that room. Women, somehow, seem to manage such things." + +"So I've noticed, Miss Strange. And what was the result of your +visit? What did you discover there?" + +"This: that one of the blood spots marking the criminal's steps +through the room was decidedly more pronounced than the rest; +and, what was even more important, that the window out of which I +was looking had its counterpart in the house on the opposite side +of the alley. In gazing through the one I was gazing through the +other; and not only that, but into the darkened area of the room +beyond. Instantly I saw how the latter fact might be made to +explain the former one. But before I say how, let me ask if it is +quite settled among you that the smears on the floor and stairs +mark the passage of the criminal's footsteps!" + +"Certainly; and very bloody feet they must have been too. His +shoes--or rather his one shoe--for the proof is plain that only +the right one left its mark--must have become thoroughly +saturated to carry its traces so far." + +"Do you think that any amount of saturation would have done this? +Or, if you are not ready to agree to that, that a shoe so covered +with blood could have failed to leave behind it some hint of its +shape, some imprint, however faint, of heel or toe? But nowhere +did it do this. We see a smear--and that is all." + +"You are right, Miss Strange; you are always right. And what do +you gather from this?" + +She looked to see how much he expected from her, and, meeting an +eye not quite as free from ironic suggestion as his words had +led her to expect, faltered a little as she proceeded to say: + +"My opinion is a girl's opinion, but such as it is you have the +right to have it. From the indications mentioned I could draw but +this conclusion: that the blood which accompanied the criminal's +footsteps was not carried through the house by his shoes;--he +wore no shoes; he did not even wear stockings; probably he had +none. For reasons which appealed to his judgment, he went about +his wicked work barefoot; and it was the blood from his own veins +and not from those of his victim which made the trail we have +followed with so much interest. Do you forget those broken beads;-- +how he kicked them about and stamped upon them in his fury? One +of them pierced the ball of his foot, and that so sharply that it +not only spurted blood but kept on bleeding with every step he +took. Otherwise, the trail would have been lost after his passage +up the stairs." + +"Fine!" There was no irony in the bureau-chief's eye now. "You +are progressing, Miss Strange. Allow me, I pray, to kiss your +hand. It is a liberty I have never taken, but one which would +greatly relieve my present stress of feeling." + +She lifted her hand toward him, but it was in gesture, not in +recognition of his homage. + +"Thank you," said she, "but I claim no monopoly on deductions so +simple as these. I have not the least doubt that not only +yourself but every member of the force has made the same. But +there is a little matter which may have escaped the police, may +even have escaped you. To that I would now call your attention +since through it I have been enabled, after a little necessary +groping, to reach the open. You remember the one large blotch on +the upper floor where the man dropped the wallet? That blotch, +more or less commingled with a fainter one, possessed great +significance for me from the first moment I saw it. How came his +foot to bleed so much more profusely at that one spot than at any +other? There could be but one answer: because here a surprise met +him--a surprise so startling to him in his present state of mind, +that he gave a quick spring backward, with the result that his +wounded foot came down suddenly and forcibly instead of easily as +in his previous wary tread. And what was the surprise? I made it +my business to find out, and now I can tell you that it was the +sight of a woman's face staring upon him from the neighbouring +house which he had probably been told was empty. The shock +disturbed his judgment. He saw his crime discovered--his guilty +secret read, and fled in unreasoning panic. He might better have +held on to his wits. It was this display of fear which led me to +search after its cause, and consequently to discover that at this +especial hour more than one person had been in the Shaffer house; +that, in fact, a marriage had been celebrated there under +circumstances as romantic as any we read of in books, and that +this marriage, privately carried out, had been followed by an +immediate voyage of the happy couple on one of the White Star +steamers. With the rest you are conversant. I do not need to say +anything about what has followed the sending of that Marconi." + +"But I am going to say something about your work in this matter, +Miss Strange. The big detectives about here will have to look +sharp if--" + +"Don't, please! Not yet." A smile softened the asperity of this +interruption. "The man has yet to be caught and identified. Till +that is done I cannot enjoy any one's congratulations. And you +will see that all this may not be so easy. If no one happened to +meet the desperate wretch before he had an opportunity to retie +his shoe-laces, there will be little for you or even for the +police to go upon but his wounded foot, his undoubtedly carefully +prepared alibi, and later, a woman's confused description of a +face seen but for a moment only and that under a personal +excitement precluding minute attention. I should not be surprised +if the whole thing came to nothing." + +But it did not. As soon as the description was received from Mrs. +Amidon (a description, by the way, which was unusually clear and +precise, owing to the peculiar and contradictory features of the +man), the police were able to recognize him among the many +suspects always under their eye. Arrested, he pleaded, just as +Miss Strange had foretold, an alibi of a seemingly unimpeachable +character; but neither it, nor the plausible explanation with +which he endeavoured to account for a freshly healed scar amid +the callouses of his right foot, could stand before Mrs. Amidon's +unequivocal testimony that he was the same man she had seen in +Mrs. Doolittle's upper room on the afternoon of her own happiness +and of that poor woman's murder. + +The moment when, at his trial, the two faces again confronted +each other across a space no wider than that which had separated +them on the dread occasion in Seventeenth Street, is said to +have been one of the most dramatic in the annals of that ancient +court room. + +END OF PROBLEM III + + +PROBLEM IV + +THE GROTTO SPECTRE + +Miss Strange was not often pensive--at least not at large +functions or when under the public eye. But she certainly forgot +herself at Mrs. Provost's musicale and that, too, without +apparent reason. Had the music been of a high order one might +have understood her abstraction; but it was of a decidedly +mediocre quality, and Violet's ear was much too fine and her +musical sense too cultivated for her to be beguiled by anything +less than the very best. + +Nor had she the excuse of a dull companion. Her escort for the +evening was a man of unusual conversational powers; but she +seemed to be almost oblivious of his presence; and when, through +some passing courteous impulse, she did turn her ear his way, it +was with just that tinge of preoccupation which betrays the +divided mind. + +Were her thoughts with some secret problem yet unsolved? It would +scarcely seem so from the gay remark with which she had left +home. She was speaking to her brother and her words were: "I am +going out to enjoy myself. I've not a care in the world. The +slate is quite clean." Yet she had never seemed more out of tune +with her surroundings nor shown a mood further removed from +trivial entertainment. What had happened to becloud her gaiety in +the short time which had since elapsed? + +We can answer in a sentence. + +She had seen, among a group of young men in a distant doorway, +one with a face so individual and of an expression so +extraordinary that all interest in the people about her had +stopped as a clock stops when the pendulum is held back. She +could see nothing else, think of nothing else. Not that it was so +very handsome--though no other had ever approached it in its +power over her imagination--but because of its expression of +haunting melancholy,--a melancholy so settled and so evidently +the result of long-continued sorrow that her interest had been +reached and her heartstrings shaken as never before in her whole +life. + +She would never be the same Violet again. + +Yet moved as she undoubtedly was, she was not conscious of the +least desire to know who the young man was, or even to be made +acquainted with his story. She simply wanted to dream her dream +undisturbed. + +It was therefore with a sense of unwelcome shock that, in the +course of the reception following the programme, she perceived +this fine young man approaching herself, with his right hand +touching his left shoulder in the peculiar way which committed +her to an interview with or without a formal introduction. + +Should she fly the ordeal? Be blind and deaf to whatever was +significant in his action, and go her way before he reached her; +thus keeping her dream intact? Impossible. His eye prevented +that. His glance had caught hers and she felt forced to await his +advance and give him her first spare moment. + +It came soon, and when it came she greeted him with a smile. It +was the first she had ever bestowed in welcome of a confidence of +whose tenor she was entirely ignorant. + +To her relief he showed his appreciation of the dazzling gift +though he made no effort to return it. Scorning all +preliminaries in his eagerness to discharge himself of a burden +which was fast becoming intolerable, he addressed her at once in +these words: + +"You are very good, Miss Strange, to receive me in this +unconventional fashion. I am in that desperate state of mind +which precludes etiquette. Will you listen to my petition? I am +told--you know by whom--"(and he again touched his shoulder) +"that you have resources of intelligence which especially fit you +to meet the extraordinary difficulties of my position. May I beg +you to exercise them in my behalf? No man would be more grateful +if-- But I see that you do not recognize me. I am Roger Upjohn. +That I am admitted to this gathering is owing to the fact that +our hostess knew and loved my mother. In my anxiety to meet you +and proffer my plea, I was willing to brave the cold looks you +have probably noticed on the faces of the people about us. But I +have no right to subject you to criticism. I--" + +"Remain." Violet's voice was troubled, her self-possession +disturbed; but there was a command in her tone which he was only +too glad to obey. "I know the name" (who did not!) "and possibly +my duty to myself should make me shun a confidence which may +burden me without relieving you. But you have been sent to me by +one whose behests I feel bound to respect and--" + +Mistrusting her voice, she stopped. The suffering which made +itself apparent in the face before her appealed to her heart in a +way to rob her of her judgment. She did not wish this to be seen, +and so fell silent. + +He was quick to take advantage of her obvious embarrassment. +"Should I have been sent to you if I had not first secured the +confidence of the sender? You know the scandal attached to my +name, some of it just, some of it very unjust. If you will grant +me an interview to-morrow, I will make an endeavour to refute +certain charges which I have hitherto let go unchallenged. Will +you do me this favour? Will you listen in your own house to what +I have to say?" + +Instinct cried out against any such concession on her part, +bidding her beware of one who charmed without excellence and +convinced without reason. But compassion urged compliance and +compassion won the day. Though conscious of weakness,--she, +Violet Strange on whom strong men had come to rely in critical +hours calling for well-balanced judgment,--she did not let this +concern her, or allow herself to indulge in useless regrets even +after the first effect of his presence had passed and she had +succeeded in recalling the facts which had cast a cloud about +his name. + +Roger Upjohn was a widower, and the scandal affecting him was +connected with his wife's death. + +Though a degenerate in some respects, lacking the domineering +presence, the strong mental qualities, and inflexible character +of his progenitors, the wealthy Massachusetts Upjohns whose +great place on the coast had a history as old as the State +itself, he yet had gifts and attractions of his own which would +have made him a worthy representative of his race, if only he +had not fixed his affections on a woman so cold and heedless +that she would have inspired universal aversion instead of love, +had she not been dowered with the beauty and physical +fascination which sometimes accompany a hard heart and a scheming +brain. It was this beauty which had caught the lad; and one day, +just as the careful father had mapped out a course of study +calculated to make a man of his son, that son drove up to the +gates with this lady whom he introduced as his wife. + +The shock, not of her beauty, though that was of the dazzling +quality which catches a man in the throat and makes a slave of +him while the first surprise lasts, but of the overthrow of all +his hopes and plans, nearly prostrated Homer Upjohn. He saw, as +most men did the moment judgment returned, that for all her satin +skin and rosy flush, the wonder of her hair and the smile which +pierced like arrows and warmed like wine, she was more likely to +bring a curse into the house than a blessing. + +And so it proved. In less than a year the young husband had lost +all his ambitions and many of his best impulses. No longer +inclined to study, he spent his days in satisfying his wife's +whims and his evenings in carousing with the friends with which +she had provided him. This in Boston whither they had fled from +the old gentleman's displeasure; but after their little son came +the father insisted upon their returning home, which led to great +deceptions, and precipitated a tragedy no one ever understood. +They were natural gamblers--this couple--as all Boston society +knew; and as Homer Upjohn loathed cards, they found life slow in +the great house and grew correspondingly restless till they made +a discovery--or shall I say a rediscovery--of the once famous +grotto hidden in the rocks lining their portion of the coast. +Here they found a retreat where they could hide themselves (often +when they were thought to be abed and asleep) and play together +for money or for a supper in the city or for anything else that +foolish fancy suggested. This was while their little son remained +an infant; later, they were less easily satisfied. Both craved +company, excitement, and gambling on a large scale; so they took +to inviting friends to meet them in this grotto which, through +the agency of one old servant devoted to Roger to the point of +folly, had been fitted up and lighted in a manner not only +comfortable but luxurious. A small but sheltered haven hidden in +the curve of the rocks made an approach by boat feasible at high +tide; and at low the connection could be made by means of a path +over the promontory in which this grotto lay concealed. The +fortune which Roger had inherited from his mother made these +excesses possible, but many thousands, let alone the few he could +call his, soon disappeared under the witchery of an irresponsible +woman, and the half-dozen friends who knew his secret had to +stand by and see his ruin, without daring to utter a word to the +one who alone could stay it. For Homer Upjohn was not a man to be +approached lightly, nor was he one to listen to charges without +ocular proof to support them; and this called for courage, more +courage than was possessed by any one who knew them both. + +He was a hard man was Homer Upjohn, but with a heart of gold for +those he loved. This, even his wary daughter-in-law was wise +enough to detect, and for a long while after the birth of her +child she besieged him with her coaxing ways and bewitching +graces. But he never changed his first opinion of her, and once +she became fully convinced of the folly of her efforts, she gave +up all attempt to please him and showed an open indifference. +This in time gradually extended till it embraced not only her +child but her husband as well. Yes, it had come to that. His love +no longer contented her. Her vanity had grown by what it daily +fed on, and now called for the admiration of the fast men who +sometimes came up from Boston to play with them in their unholy +retreat. To win this, she dressed like some demon queen or witch, +though it drove her husband into deeper play and threatened an +exposure which would mean disaster not only to herself but to the +whole family. + +In all this, as any one could see, Roger had been her slave and +the willing victim of all her caprices. What was it, then, which +so completely changed him that a separation began to be talked of +and even its terms discussed? One rumour had it that the father +had discovered the secret of the grotto and exacted this as a +penalty from the son who had dishonoured him. Another, that Roger +himself was the one to take the initiative in this matter: That, +on returning unexpectedly from New York one evening and finding +her missing from the house, he had traced her to the grotto where +he came upon her playing a desperate game with the one man he had +the greatest reason to distrust. + +But whatever the explanation of this sudden change in their +relations, there is but little doubt that a legal separation +between this ill-assorted couple was pending, when one bleak +autumn morning she was discovered dead in her bed under +circumstances peculiarly open to comment. + +The physicians who made out the certificate ascribed her death to +heart-disease, symptoms of which had lately much alarmed the +family doctor; but that a personal struggle of some kind had +preceded the fatal attack was evident from the bruises which +blackened her wrists. Had there been the like upon her throat it +might have gone hard with the young husband who was known to be +contemplating her dismissal from the house. But the +discoloration of her wrists was all, and as bruised wrists do +not kill and there was besides no evidence forthcoming of the +two having spent one moment together for at least ten hours +preceding the tragedy but rather full and satisfactory testimony +to the contrary, the matter lapsed and all criminal proceedings +were avoided. + +But not the scandal which always follows the unexplained. As time +passed and the peculiar look which betrays the haunted soul +gradually became visible in the young widower's eyes, doubts +arose and reports circulated which cast strange reflections upon +the tragic end of his mistaken marriage. Stories of the +disreputable use to which the old grotto had been put were +mingled with vague hints of conjugal violence never properly +investigated. The result was his general avoidance not only by +the social set dominated by his high-minded father, but by his +own less reputable coterie, which, however lax in its moral code, +had very little use for a coward. + +Such was the gossip which had reached Violet's ears in connection +with this new client, prejudicing her altogether against him till +she caught that beam of deep and concentrated suffering in his +eye and recognized an innocence which ensured her sympathy and +led her to grant him the interview for which he so earnestly +entreated. + +He came prompt to the hour, and when she saw him again with the +marks of a sleepless night upon him and all the signs of +suffering intensified in his unusual countenance, she felt her +heart sink within her in a way she failed to understand. A dread +of what she was about to hear robbed her of all semblance of self- +possession, and she stood like one in a dream as he uttered his +first greetings and then paused to gather up his own moral +strength before he began his story. When he did speak it was to +say: + +"I find myself obliged to break a vow I have made to myself. You +cannot understand my need unless I show you my heart. My trouble +is not the one with which men have credited me. It has another +source and is infinitely harder to bear. Personal dishonour I +have deserved in a greater or less degree, but the trial which +has come to me now involves a person more dear to me than myself, +and is totally without alleviation unless you--" He paused, +choked, then recommenced abruptly: "My wife"--Violet held her +breath--"was supposed to have died from heart-disease or--or some +strange species of suicide. There were reasons for this +conclusion--reasons which I accepted without serious question +till some five weeks ago when I made a discovery which led me to +fear--" + +The broken sentence hung suspended. Violet, notwithstanding his +hurried gesture, could not restrain herself from stealing a look +at his face. It was set in horror and, though partially turned +aside, made an appeal to her compassion to fill the void made by +his silence, without further suggestion from him. + +She did this by saying tentatively and with as little show of +emotion as possible: + +"You feared that the event called for vengeance and that +vengeance would mean increased suffering to yourself as well as +to another?" + +"Yes; great suffering. But I may be under a most lamentable +mistake. I am not sure of my conclusions. If my doubts have no +real foundation--if they are simply the offspring of my own +diseased imagination, what an insult to one I revere! What a +horror of ingratitude and misunderstanding--" + +"Relate the facts," came in startled tones from Violet. "They may +enlighten us." + +He gave one quick shudder, buried his face for one moment in his +hands, then lifted it and spoke up quickly and with unexpected +firmness: + +"I came here to do so and do so I will. But where begin? Miss +Strange, you cannot be ignorant of the circumstances, open and +avowed, which attended my wife's death. But there were other and +secret events in its connection which happily have been kept from +the world, but which I must now disclose to you at any cost to my +pride and so-called honour. This is the first one: On the morning +preceding the day of Mrs. Upjohn's death, an interview took place +between us at which my father was present. You do not know my +father, Miss Strange. A strong man and a stern one, with a hold +upon old traditions which nothing can shake. If he has a weakness +it is for my little boy Roger in whose promising traits he sees +the one hope which has survived the shipwreck of all for which +our name has stood. Knowing this, and realizing what the child's +presence in the house meant to his old age, I felt my heart turn +sick with apprehension, when in the midst of the discussion as to +the terms on which my wife would consent to a permanent +separation, the little fellow came dancing into the room, his +curls atoss and his whole face beaming with life and joy. + +"She had not mentioned the child, but I knew her well enough to +be sure that at the first show of preference on his part for +either his grandfather or myself, she would raise a claim to him +which she would never relinquish. I dared not speak, but I met +his eager looks with my most forbidding frown and hoped by this +show of severity to hold him back. But his little heart was full +and, ignoring her outstretched arms, he bounded towards mine with +his most affectionate cry. She saw and uttered her ultimatum. The +child should go with her or she would not consent to a +separation. It was useless for us to talk; she had said her last +word. The blow struck me hard, or so I thought, till I looked at +my father. Never had I beheld such a change as that one moment +had made in him. He stood as before; he faced us with the same +silent reprobation; but his heart had run from him like water. + +"It was a sight to call up all my resources. To allow her to +remain now, with my feelings towards her all changed and my +father's eyes fully opened to her stony nature, was impossible. +Nor could I appeal to law. An open scandal was my father's +greatest dread and divorce proceedings his horror. The child +would have to go unless I could find a way to influence her +through her own nature. I knew of but one--do not look at me, +Miss Strange. It was dishonouring to us both, and I'm horrified +now when I think of it. But to me at that time it was natural +enough as a last resort. There was but one debt which my wife +ever paid, but one promise she ever kept. It was that made at the +gaming-table. I offered, as soon as my father, realizing the +hopelessness of the situation, had gone tottering from the room, +to gamble with her for the child. + +"And she accepted." + +The shame and humiliation expressed in this final whisper; the +sudden darkness--for a storm was coming up--shook Violet to the +soul. With strained gaze fixed on the man before her, now little +more than a shadow in the prevailing gloom, she waited for him to +resume, and waited in vain. The minutes passed, the darkness +became intolerable, and instinctively her hand crept towards the +electric button beneath which she was sitting. But she failed to +press it. A tale so dark called for an atmosphere of its own +kind. She would cast no light upon it. Yet she shivered as the +silence continued, and started in uncontrollable dismay when at +length her strange visitor rose, and still, without speaking, +walked away from her to the other end of the room. Only so could +he go on with the shameful tale; and presently she heard his +voice once more in these words: + +"Our house is large and its rooms many; but for such work as we +two contemplated there was but one spot where we could command +absolute seclusion. You may have heard of it, a famous natural +grotto hidden in our own portion of the coast and so fitted up as +to form a retreat for our miserable selves when escape from my +father's eye seemed desirable. It was not easy of access, and no +one, so far as we knew, had ever followed us there. + +"But to ensure ourselves against any possible interruption, we +waited till the whole house was abed before we left it for the +grotto. We went by boat and oh! the dip of those oars! I hear +them yet. And the witchery of her face in the moonlight; and the +mockery of her low fitful laugh! As I caught the sinister note in +its silvery rise and fall, I knew what was before me if I failed +to retain my composure. And I strove to hold it and to meet her +calmness with stoicism and the taunt of her expression with a +mask of immobility. But the effort was hopeless, and when the +time came for dealing out the cards, my eyes were burning in +their sockets and my hands shivering like leaves in a rising +gale. + +"We played one game--and my wife lost. We played another--and my +wife won. We played the third--and the fate I had foreseen from +the first became mine. The luck was with her, and I had lost my +boy!" + +A gasp--a pause, during which the thunder spoke and the lightning +flashed,--then a hurried catching of his breath and the tale went +on. + +"A burst of laughter, rising gaily above the boom of the sea, +announced her victory--her laugh and the taunting words: 'You +play badly, Roger. The child is mine. Never fear that I shall +fail to teach him to revere his father.' Had I a word to throw +back? No. When I realized anything but my dishonoured manhood, I +found myself in the grotto's mouth staring helplessly out upon +the sea. The boat which had floated us in at high tide lay +stranded but a few feet away, but I did not reach for it. Escape +was quicker over the rocks, and I made for the rocks. + +"That it was a cowardly act to leave her there to find her way +back alone at midnight by the same rough road I was taking, did +not strike my mind for an instant. I was in flight from my own +past; in flight from myself and the haunting dread of madness. +When I awoke to reality again it was to find the small door, by +which we had left the house, standing slightly ajar. I was +troubled by this, for I was sure of having closed it. But the +impression was brief, and entering, I went stumbling up to my +room, leaving the way open behind me more from sheer inability to +exercise my will than from any thought of her. + +"Miss Strange" (he had come out of the shadows and was standing +now directly before her), "I must ask you to trust implicitly in +what I tell you of my further experiences that fatal night. It +was not necessary for me to pass my little son's door in order to +reach the room I was making for; but anguish took me there and +held me glued to the panels for what seemed a long, long time. +When I finally crept away it was to go to the room I had chosen +in the top of the house, where I had my hour of hell and faced my +desolated future. Did I hear anything meantime in the halls +below? No. Did I even listen for the sound of her return? No. I +was callous to everything, dead to everything but my own misery. +I did not even heed the approach of morning, till suddenly, with +a shrillness no ear could ignore, there rose, tearing through the +silence of the house, that great scream from my wife's room which +announced the discovery of her body lying stark and cold in her +bed. + +"They said I showed little feeling." He had moved off again and +spoke from somewhere in the shadows. "Do you wonder at this after +such a manifest stroke by a benevolent Providence? My wife being +dead, Roger was saved to us! It was the one song of my still +undisciplined soul, and I had to assume coldness lest they should +see the greatness of my joy. A wicked and guilty rejoicing you +will say, and you are right. But I had no memory then of the part +I had played in this fatality. I had forgotten my reckless flight +from the grotto, which left her with no aid but that of her own +triumphant spirit to help her over those treacherous rocks. The +necessity for keeping secret this part of our disgraceful story +led me to exert myself to keep it out of my own mind. It has only +come back to me in all its force since a new horror, a new +suspicion, has driven me to review carefully every incident of +that awful night. + +"I was never a man of much logic, and when they came to me on +that morning of which I have just spoken and took me in where she +lay and pointed to her beautiful cold body stretched out in +seeming peace under the satin coverlet, and then to the pile of +dainty clothes lying neatly folded on a chair with just one fairy +slipper on top, I shuddered at her fate but asked no questions, +not even when one of the women of the house mentioned the +circumstance of the single slipper and said that a search should +be made for its mate. Nor was I as much impressed as one would +naturally expect by the whisper dropped in my ear that something +was the matter with her wrists. It is true that I lifted the lace +they had carefully spread over them and examined the +discoloration which extended like a ring about each pearly arm; +but having no memories of any violence offered her (I had not so +much as laid hand upon her in the grotto), these marks failed to +rouse my interest. But--and now I must leap a year in my story-- +there came a time when both of these facts recurred to my mind +with startling distinctness and clamoured for explanation. + +"I had risen above the shock which such a death following such +events would naturally occasion even in one of my blunted +sensibilities, and was striving to live a new life under the +encouragement of my now fully reconciled father, when accident +forced me to re-enter the grotto where I had never stepped foot +since that night. A favourite dog in chase of some innocent prey +had escaped the leash and run into its dim recesses and would not +come out at my call. As I needed him immediately for the hunt, I +followed him over the promontory and, swallowing my repugnance, +slid into the grotto to get him. Better a plunge to my death from +the height of the rocks towering above it. For there in a remote +corner, lighted up by a reflection from the sea, I beheld my +setter crouched above an object which in another moment I +recognized as my dead wife's missing slipper. Here! Not in the +waters of the sea or in the interstices of the rocks outside, but +here! Proof that she had never walked back to the house where she +was found lying quietly in her bed; proof positive; for I knew +the path too well and the more than usual +tenderness of her feet. + +"How then, did she get there; and by whose agency? Was she living +when she went, or was she already dead? A year had passed since +that delicate shoe had borne her from the boat into these dim +recesses; but it might have been only a day, so vividly did I +live over in this moment of awful enlightenment all the events of +the hour in which we sat there playing for the possession of our +child. Again I saw her gleaming eyes, her rosy, working mouth, +her slim, white hand, loaded with diamonds, clutching the cards. +Again I heard the lap of the sea on the pebbles outside and smelt +the odour of the wine she had poured out for us both. The bottle +which had held it; the glass from which she had drunk lay now in +pieces on the rocky floor. The whole scene was mine again and as +I followed the event to its despairing close, I seemed to see my +own wild figure springing away from her to the grotto's mouth and +so over the rocks. But here fancy faltered, caught by a quick +recollection to which I had never given a thought till now. As I +made my way along those rocks, a sound had struck my ear from +where some stunted bushes made a shadow in the moonlight. The +wind might have caused it or some small night creature hustling +away at my approach; and to some such cause I must at the time +have attributed it. But now, with brain fired by suspicion, it +seemed more like the quick intake of a human breath. Some one had +been lying there in wait, listening at the one loophole in the +rocks where it was possible to hear what was said and done in the +heart of the grotto. But who? who? and for what purpose this +listening; and to what end did it lead? + +"Though I no longer loved even the memory of my wife, I felt my +hair lift, as I asked myself these questions. There seemed to be +but one logical answer to the last, and it was this: A struggle +followed by death. The shoe fallen from her foot, the clothes +found folded in her room (my wife was never orderly), and the +dimly blackened wrists which were snow-white when she dealt the +cards--all seemed to point to such a conclusion. She may have +died from heart-failure, but a struggle had preceded her death, +during which some man's strong fingers had been locked about her +wrists. And again the question rose, Whose? + +"If any place was ever hated by mortal man that grotto was hated +by me. I loathed its walls, its floor, its every visible and +invisible corner. To linger there--to look--almost tore my soul +from my body; yet I did linger and did look and this is what I +found by way of reward. + +"Behind a projecting ledge of stone from which a tattered rug +still hung, I came upon two nails driven a few feet apart into a +fissure of the rock. I had driven those nails myself long before +for a certain gymnastic attachment much in vogue at the time, and +on looking closer, I discovered hanging from them the rope-ends +by which I was wont to pull myself about. So far there was +nothing to rouse any but innocent reminiscences. But when I heard +the dog's low moan and saw him leap at the curled-up ends, and +nose them with an eager look my way, I remembered the dark marks +circling the wrists about which I had so often clasped my +mother's bracelets, and the world went black before me. + +"When consciousness returned--when I could once more move and see +and think, I noted another fact. Cards were strewn about the +floor, face up and in a fixed order as if laid in a mocking mood +to be looked upon by reluctant eyes; and near the ominous half- +circle they made, a cushion from the lounge, stained horribly +with what I then thought to be blood, but which I afterwards +found to be wine. Vengeance spoke in those ropes and in the +carefully spread-out cards, and murder in the smothering pillow. +The vengeance of one who had watched her corroding influence eat +the life out of my honour and whose love for our little Roger was +such that any deed which ensured his continued presence in the +home appeared not only warrantable but obligatory. Alas! I knew +of but one person in the whole world who could cherish feeling to +this extent or possess sufficient will power to carry her +lifeless body back to the house and lay it in her bed and give no +sign of the abominable act from that day on to this. + +"Miss Strange, there are men who have a peculiar conception of +duty. My father--" + +"You need not go on." How gently, how tenderly our Violet spoke. +"I understand your trouble--" + +Did she? She paused to ask herself if this were so, and he, deaf +perhaps to her words, caught up his broken sentence and went on: + +"My father was in the hall the day I came staggering in from my +visit to the grotto. No words passed, but our eyes met and from +that hour I have seen death in his countenance and he has seen it +in mine, like two opponents, each struck to the heart, who stand +facing each other with simulated smiles till they fall. My father +will drop first. He is old--very old since that day five weeks +ago; and to see him die and not be sure--to see the grave close +over a possible innocence, and I left here in ignorance of the +blissful fact till my own eyes close forever, is more than I can +hold up under; more than any son could. Cannot you help me then +to a positive knowledge? Think! think! A woman's mind is +strangely penetrating, and yours, I am told, has an intuitive +faculty more to be relied upon than the reasoning of men. It must +suggest some means of confirming my doubts or of definitely +ending them." + +Then Violet stirred and looked about at him and finally found +voice. + +"Tell me something about your father's ways. What are his habits? +Does he sleep well or is he wakeful at night?" + +"He has poor nights. I do not know how poor because I am not +often with him. His valet, who has always been in our family, +shares his room and acts as his constant nurse. He can watch over +him better than I can; he has no distracting trouble on his +mind." + +"And little Roger? Does your father see much of little Roger? +Does he fondle him and seem happy in his presence?" + +"Yes; yes. I have often wondered at it, but he does. They are +great chums. It is a pleasure to see them together." + +"And the child clings to him--shows no fear--sits on his lap or +on the bed and plays as children do play with his beard or with +his watch-chain?" + +"Yes. Only once have I seen my little chap shrink, and that was +when my father gave him a look of unusual intensity,--looking for +his mother in him perhaps." + +"Mr. Upjohn, forgive me the question; it seems necessary. Does +your father--or rather did your father before he fell ill--ever +walk in the direction of the grotto or haunt in any way the rocks +which surround it?" + +"I cannot say. The sea is there; he naturally loves the sea. But +I have never seen him standing on the promontory." + +"Which way do his windows look?" + +"Towards the sea." + +"Therefore towards the promontory?" + +"Yes." + +"Can he see it from his bed?" + +"No. Perhaps that is the cause of a peculiar habit he has." + +"What habit?" + +"Every night before he retires (he is not yet confined to his +bed) he stands for a few minutes in his front window looking out. +He says it's his good-night to the ocean. When he no longer +does this, we shall know that his end is very near." + +The face of Violet began to clear. Rising, she turned on the +electric light, and then, reseating herself, remarked with an +aspect of quiet cheer: + +"I have two ideas; but they necessitate my presence at your +place. You will not mind a visit? My brother will accompany me." + +Roger Upjohn did not need to speak, hardly to make a gesture; his +expression was so eloquent. + +She thanked him as if he had answered in words, adding with an +air of gentle reserve: "Providence assists us in this matter. I +am invited to Beverly next week to attend a wedding. I was +intending to stay two days, but I will make it three and spend +the extra one with you." + +"What are your requirements, Miss Strange? I presume you have +some." + +Violet turned from the imposing portrait of Mr. Upjohn which she +had been gravely contemplating, and met the troubled eye of her +young host with an enigmatical flash of her own. But she made no +answer in words. Instead, she lifted her right hand and ran one +slender finger thoughtfully up the casing of the door near which +they stood till it struck a nick in the old mahogany almost on a +level with her head. + +"Is your son Roger old enough to reach so far?" she asked with +another short look at him as she let her finger rest where it had +struck the roughened wood. "I thought +he was a little fellow." + +"He is. That cut was made by--by my wife; a sample of her +capricious willfulness. She wished to leave a record of herself +in the substance of our house as well as in our lives. That nick +marks her height. She laughed when she made it. 'Till the walls +cave in or burn,' is what she said. And I thought her laugh and +smile captivating." + +Cutting short his own laugh which was much too sardonic for a +lady's ears, he made a move as if to lead the way into another +portion of the room. But Violet failed to notice this, and +lingering in quiet contemplation of this suggestive little nick,-- +the only blemish in a room of ancient colonial magnificence,-- +she thoughtfully remarked: + +"Then she was a small woman?" adding with seeming irrelevance-- +"like myself." + +Roger winced. Something in the suggestion hurt him, and in the +nod he gave there was an air of coldness which under ordinary +circumstances would have deterred her from pursuing this subject +further. But the circumstances were not ordinary, and she allowed +herself to say: + +"Was she so very different from me,--in figure, I mean?" + +"No. Why do you ask? Shall we not join your brother on the +terrace?" + +"Not till I have answered the question you put me a moment ago. +You wished to know my requirements. One of the most important you +have already fulfilled. You have given your servants a half- +holiday and by so doing ensured to us full liberty of action. +What else I need in the attempt I propose to make, you will find +listed in this memorandum." And taking a slip of paper from her +bag, she offered it to him with a hand, the trembling of which he +would have noted had he been freer in mind. + +As he read, she watched him, her fingers nervously clutching her +throat. + +"Can you supply what I ask?" she faltered, as he failed to raise +his eyes or make any move or even to utter the groan she saw +surging up to his lips. "Will you?" she impetuously urged, as his +fingers closed spasmodically on the paper, in evidence that he +understood at last the trend of her daring purpose. + +The answer came slowly, but it came. "I will. But what--" + +Her hand rose in a pleading gesture. + +"Do not ask me, but take Arthur and myself into the garden and +show us the flowers. Afterwards, I should like a glimpse of the +sea." + +He bowed and they joined Arthur who had already begun to stroll +through the grounds. + +Violet was seldom at a loss for talk even at the most critical +moments. But she was strangely tongue-tied on this occasion, as +was Roger himself. Save for a few observations casually thrown +out by Arthur, the three passed in a disquieting silence through +pergola after pergola, and around beds gorgeous with every +variety of fall flowers, till they turned a sharp corner and came +in full view of the sea. + +"Ah!" fell in an admiring murmur from Violet's lips as her eyes +swept the horizon. Then as they settled on a mass of rock jutting +out from the shore in a great curve, she leaned towards her host +and softly whispered: + +"The promontory?" + +He nodded, and Violet ventured no farther, but stood for a little +while gazing at the tumbled rocks. Then, with a quick look back +at the house, she asked him to point out his father's window. + +He did so, and as she noted how openly it faced the sea, her +expression relaxed and her manner lost some of its constraint. As +they turned to re-enter the house, she noticed an old man picking +flowers from a vine clambering over one end of the piazza. + +"Who is that?" she asked. + +"Our oldest servant, and my father's own man," was Roger's reply. +"He is picking my father's favourite flowers, a few late +honeysuckles." + +"How fortunate! Speak to him, Mr. Upjohn. Ask him how your father +is this evening." + +"Accompany me and I will; and do not be afraid to enter into +conversation with him. He is the mildest of creatures and devoted +to his patient. He likes nothing better than to talk about him." + +Violet, with a meaning look at her brother, ran up the steps at +Roger's side. As she did so, the old man turned and Violet was +astonished at the wistfulness with which he viewed her. + +"What a dear old creature!" she murmured. "See how he stares this +way. You would think he knew me." + +"He is glad to see a woman about the place. He has felt our +isolation--Good evening, Abram. Let this young lady have a spray +of your sweetest honeysuckle. And, Abram, before you go, how is +Father to-night? Still sitting up?" + +"Yes, sir. He is very regular in his ways. Nine is his hour; not +a minute before and not a minute later. I don't have to look at +the clock when he says: 'There, Abram, I've sat up long enough.'" + +"When my father retires before his time or goes to bed without a +final look at the sea, he will be a very sick man, Abram." + +"That he will, Mr. Roger; that he will. But he's very feeble to- +night, very feeble. I noticed that he gave the boy fewer kisses +than usual. Perhaps he was put out because the child was brought +in a half-hour earlier than the stated time. He don't like +changes; you know that, Mr. Roger; he don't like changes. I +hardly dared to tell him that the servants were all going out in +a bunch to-night." + +"I'm sorry," muttered Roger. "But he'll forget it by to-morrow. I +couldn't bear to keep a single one from the concert. They'll be +back in good season and meantime we have you. Abram is worth half +a dozen of them, Miss Strange. We shall miss nothing." + +"Thank you, Mr. Roger, thank you," faltered the old man. "I try +to do my duty." And with another wistful glance at Violet, who +looked very sweet and youthful in the half-light, he pottered +away. + +The silence which followed his departure was as painful to her as +to Roger Upjohn. When she broke it it was with this decisive +remark: + +"That man must not speak of me to your father. He must not even +mention that you have a guest to-night. Run after him and tell +him so. It is necessary that your father's mind should not be +taken up with present happenings. Run." + +Roger made haste to obey her. When he came back she was on the +point of joining her brother but stopped to utter a final +injunction: + +"I shall leave the library, or wherever we may be sitting, just +as the clock strikes half-past eight. Arthur will do the same, as +by that time he will feel like smoking on the terrace. Do not +follow either him or myself, but take your stand here on the +piazza where you can get a full view of the right-hand wing +without attracting any attention to yourself. When you hear the +big clock in the hall strike nine, look up quickly at your +father's window. What you see may determine--oh, Arthur! still +admiring the prospect? I do not wonder. But I find it chilly. +Let us go in." + +Roger Upjohn, sitting by himself in the library, was watching +the hands of the mantel clock slowly approaching the hour of +nine. + +Never had silence seemed more oppressive nor his sense of +loneliness greater. Yet the boom of the ocean was distinct to the +ear, and human presence no farther away than the terrace where +Arthur Strange could be seen smoking out his cigar in solitude. +The silence and the loneliness were in Roger's own soul; and, in +face of the expected revelation which would make or unmake his +future, the desolation they wrought was measureless. + +To cut his suspense short, he rose at length and hurried out to +the spot designated by Miss Strange as the best point from which +to keep watch upon his father's window. It was at the end of the +piazza where the honeysuckle hung, and the odour of the blossoms, +so pleasing to his father, well-nigh overpowered him not only by +its sweetness but by the many memories it called up. Visions of +that father as he looked at all stages of their relationship +passed in a bewildering maze before him. He saw him as he +appeared to his childish eyes in those early days of confidence +when the loss of the mother cast them in mutual dependence upon +each other. Then a sterner picture of the relentless parent who +sees but one straight course to success in this world and the +next. Then the teacher and the matured adviser; and then--oh, +bitter change! the man whose hopes he had crossed--whose life he +had undone, and all for her who now came stealing upon the scene +with her slim, white, jewelled hand forever lifted up between +them. And she! Had he ever seen her more clearly? Once more the +dainty figure stepped from fairy-land, beauteous with every +grace that can allure and finally destroy a man. And as he saw, +he trembled and wished that these moments of awful waiting might +pass and the test be over which would lay bare his father's heart +and justify his fears or dispel them forever. + +But the crisis, if crisis it was, was one of his own making and +not to be hastened or evaded. With one quick glance at his +father's window, he turned in his impatience towards the sea +whose restless and continuous moaning had at length struck his +ear. What was in its call to-night that he should thus sway +towards it as though drawn by some dread magnetic force? He had +been born to the dashing of its waves and knew its every mood and +all the passion of its song from frolicsome ripple to melancholy +dirge. But there was something odd and inexplicable in its effect +upon his spirit as he faced it at this hour. Grim and implacable-- +a sound rather than a sight--it seemed to hold within its +invisible distances the image of his future fate. What this image +was and why he should seek for it in this impenetrable void, he +did not know. He felt himself held and was struggling with this +influence as with an unknown enemy when there rang out, from the +hall within, the preparatory chimes for which his ear was +waiting, and then the nine slow strokes which signalized the +moment when he was to look for his father's presence at the +window. + +Had he wished, he could not have forborne that look. Had his eyes +been closing in death, or so he felt, the trembling lids would +have burst apart at this call and the revelations it promised. + +And what did he see? What did that window hold for him? + +Nothing that he might not have seen there any night at this hour. +His father's figure drawn up behind the panes in wistful +contemplation of the night. No visible change in his attitude, +nothing forced or unusual in his manner. Even the hand, lifted to +pull down the shade, moves with its familiar hesitation. In a +moment more that shade will be down and-- But no! the lifted hand +falls back; the easy attitude becomes strained, fixed. He is +staring now--not merely gazing out upon the wastes of sky and +sea; and Roger, following the direction of his glance, stares +also in breathless emotion at what those distances, but now so +impenetrable, are giving to the eye. + +A spectre floating in the air above the promontory! The spectre +of a woman--of his wife, clad, as she had been clad that fatal +night! Outlined in supernatural light, it faces them with lifted +arms showing the ends of rope dangling from either wrist. A sight +awful to any eye, but to the man of guilty heart-- + +Ah! it comes--the cry for which the agonized son had been +listening! An old man's shriek, hoarse with the remorse of +sleepless nights and days of unimaginable regret and foreboding! +It cuts the night. It cuts its way into his heart. He feels his +senses failing him, yet he must glance once more at the window +and see with his last conscious look-- But what is this! a change +has taken place in the picture and he beholds, not the distorted +form of his father sinking back in shame and terror before this +visible image of his secret sin, but that of another weak, old +man falling to the floor behind his back! Abram! the attentive, +seemingly harmless, guardian of the household! Abram! who had +never spoken a word or given a look in any way suggestive of his +having played any other part in the hideous drama of their lives +than that of the humble and sympathetic servant! + +The shock was too great, the relief too absolute for credence. +He, the listener at the grotto? He, the avenger of the family's +honour? He, the insurer of little Roger's continuance with the +family at a cost the one who loved him best would rather have +died himself than pay? Yes! there is no misdoubting this old +servitor's attitude of abject appeal, or the meaning of Homer +Upjohn's joyfully uplifted countenance and outspreading arms. The +servant begs for mercy from man, and the master is giving thanks +to Heaven. Why giving thanks? Has he been the prey of cankering +doubts also? Has the father dreaded to discover that in the son +which the son has dreaded to discover in the father? + +It might easily be; and as Roger recognizes this truth and the +full tragedy of their mutual lives, he drops to his knees amid +the honeysuckles. + +"Violet, you are a wonder. But how did you dare?" + +This from Arthur as the two rode to the train in the early +morning. + +The answer came a bit waveringly. + +"I do not know. I am astonished yet, at my own daring. Look at my +hands. They have not ceased trembling since the moment you threw +the light upon me on the rocks. The figure of old Mr. Upjohn in +the window looked so august." + +Arthur, with a short glance at the little hands she held out, +shrugged his shoulders imperceptibly. It struck him that the +tremulousness she complained of was due more to some parting word +from their young host, than from prolonged awe at her own daring. +But he made no remark to this effect, only observed: + +"Abram has confessed his guilt, I hear." + +"Yes, and will die of it. The master will bury the man, and not +the man the master." + +"And Roger? Not the little fellow, but the father?" + +"We will not talk of him," said she, her eyes seeking the sea +where the sun in its rising was battling with a troop of +lowering clouds and slowly gaining the victory. + +END OF PROBLEM IV + + +PROBLEM V + +THE DREAMING LADY + +"And this is all you mean to tell me?" + +"I think you will find it quite enough, Miss Strange." + +"Just the address--" + +"And this advice: that your call be speedy. Distracted nerves +cannot wait." + +Violet, across whose wonted piquancy there lay an indefinable +shadow, eyed her employer with a doubtful air before turning away +toward the door. She had asked him for a case to investigate +(something she had never done before), and she had even gone so +far as to particularize the sort of case she desired: "It must be +an interesting one," she had stipulated, "but different, quite +different from the last one. It must not involve death or any +kind of horror. If you have a case of subtlety without crime, one +to engage my powers without depressing my spirits, I beg you to +let me have it. I--I have not felt quite like myself since I came +from Massachusetts." Whereupon, without further comment, but with +a smile she did not understand, he had handed her a small slip of +paper on which he had scribbled an address. She should have felt +satisfied, but for some reason she did not. She regarded him as +capable of plunging her into an affair quite the reverse of what +she felt herself in a condition to undertake. + +"I should like to know a little more," she pursued, making a move +to unfold the slip he had given her. + +But he stopped her with a gesture. + +"Read it in your limousine," said he. "If you are disappointed +then, let me know. But I think you will find yourself quite ready +for your task." + +"And my father?" + +"Would approve if he could be got to approve the business at all. +You do not even need to take your brother with you." + +"Oh, then, it's with women only I have to deal?" + +"Read the address after you are headed up Fifth Avenue." + +But when, with her doubts not yet entirely removed, she opened +the small slip he had given her, the number inside suggested +nothing but the fact that her destination lay somewhere near +Eightieth Street. It was therefore with the keenest surprise she +beheld her motor stop before the conspicuous house of the great +financier whose late death had so affected the money-market. She +had not had any acquaintance with this man herself, but she knew +his house. Everyone knew that. It was one of the most princely in +the whole city. C. Dudley Brooks had known how to spend his +millions. Indeed, he had known how to do this so well that it was +of him her father, also a financier of some note, had once said +he was the only successful American he envied. + +She was expected; that she saw the instant the door was opened. +This made her entrance easy--an entrance further brightened by +the delightful glimpse of a child's cherubic face looking at her +from a distant doorway. It was an instantaneous vision, gone as +soon as seen; but its effect was to rob the pillared spaces of +the wonderful hallway of some of their chill, and to modify in +some slight degree the formality of a service which demanded +three men to usher her into a small reception-room not twenty +feet from the door of entrance. + +Left in this secluded spot, she had time to ask herself what +member of the household she would be called upon to meet, and was +surprised to find that she did not even know of whom the +household consisted. She was sure of the fact that Mr. Brooks had +been a widower for many years before his death, but beyond that +she knew nothing of his domestic life. His son--but was there a +son? She had never heard any mention made of a younger Mr. +Brooks, yet there was certainly some one of his connection who +enjoyed the rights of an heir. Him she must be prepared to meet +with a due composure, whatever astonishment he might show at the +sight of a slip of a girl instead of the experienced detective he +had every right to expect. + +But when the door opened to admit the person she was awaiting, +the surprise was hers. It was a woman who stood before her, a +woman and an oddity. Yet, in just what her oddity lay, Violet +found it difficult to decide. Was it in the smoothness of her +white locks drawn carefully down over her ears, or in the +contrast afforded by her eager eyes and her weak and tremulous +mouth? She was dressed in the heaviest of mourning and very +expensively, but there was that in her bearing and expression +which made it impossible to believe that she took any interest in +her garments or even knew in which of her dresses she had been +attired. + +"I am the person you have come here to see," she said. "Your name +is not unfamiliar to me, but you may not know mine. It is +Quintard; Mrs. Quintard. I am in difficulty. I need assistance-- +secret assistance. I did not know where to go for it except to a +detective agency; so I telephoned to the first one I saw +advertised; and--and I was told to expect Miss Strange. But I +didn't think it would be you though I suppose it's all right. You +have come here for this purpose, haven't you, though it does seem +a little queer?" + +"Certainly, Mrs. Quintard; and if you will tell me--" + +"My dear, it's just this--yes, I will sit down. Last week my +brother died. You have heard of him no doubt, C. Dudley Brooks?" + +"Oh, yes; my father knew him--we all knew him by reputation. Do +not hurry, Mrs. Quintard. I have sent my car away. You can take +all the time you wish." + +"No, no, I cannot. I'm in desperate haste. He--but let me go on +with my story. My brother was a widower, with no children to +inherit. That everybody knows. But his wife left behind her a son +by a former husband, and this son of hers my brother had in a +measure adopted, and even made his sole heir in a will he drew up +during the lifetime of his wife. But when he found, as he very +soon did, that this young man was not developing in a way to meet +such great responsibilities, he made a new will--though unhappily +without the knowledge of the family, or even of his most intimate +friends--in which he gave the bulk of his great estate to his +nephew Clement, who has bettered the promise of his youth and who +besides has children of great beauty whom my brother had learned +to love. And this will--this hoarded scrap of paper which means +so much to us all, is lost! lost! and I--" here her voice which +had risen almost to a scream, sank to a horrified whisper, "am +the one who lost it." + +"But there's a copy of it somewhere--there is always a copy--" + +"Oh, but you haven't heard all. My nephew is an invalid; has been +an invalid for years--that's why so little is known about him. +He's dying of consumption. The doctors hold out no hope for him, +and now, with the fear preying upon him of leaving his wife and +children penniless, he is wearing away so fast that any hour may +see his end. And I have to meet his eyes--such pitiful eyes--and +the look in them is killing me. Yet, I was not to blame. I could +not help--Oh, Miss Strange," she suddenly broke in with the +inconsequence of extreme feeling, "the will is in the house! I +never carried it off the floor where I sleep. Find it; find it, I +pray, or--" + +The moment had come for Violet's soft touch, for Violet's +encouraging word. + +"I will try," she answered her. + +Mrs. Quintard grew calmer. + +"But, first," the young girl continued, "I must know more about +the conditions. Where is this nephew of yours--the man who is +ill?" + +"In this house, where he has been for the last eight months." + +"Was the child his of whom I caught a glimpse in the hall as I +came in?" + +"Yes, and--" + +"I will fight for that child!" Violet cried out impulsively. "I +am sure his father's cause is good. Where is the other claimant-- +the one you designate as Carlos?" + +"Oh, there's where the trouble is! Carlos is on the Mauretania, +and she is due here in a couple of days. He comes from the East +where he has been touring with his wife. Miss Strange, the lost +will must be found before then, or the other will be opened and +read and Carlos made master of this house, which would mean our +quick departure and Clement's certain death." + +"Move a sick man?--a relative as low as you say he is? Oh no, +Mrs. Quintard; no one would do that, were the house a cabin and +its owners paupers." + +"You do not know Carlos; you do not know his wife. We should not +be given a week in which to pack. They have no children and they +envy Clement who has. Our only hope lies in discovering the paper +which gives us the right to remain here in face of all +opposition. That or penury. Now you know my trouble." + +"And it is trouble; one from which I shall make every effort to +relieve you. But first let me ask if you are not worrying +unnecessarily about this missing document? If it was drawn up by +Mr. Brooks's lawyer--" + +"But it was not," that lady impetuously interrupted. "His lawyer +is Carlos's near relative, and has never been told of the change +in my brother's intentions. Clement (I am speaking now of my +brother and not of my nephew) was a great money-getter, but when +it came to standing up for his rights in domestic matters, he was +more timid than a child. He was subject to his wife while she +lived, and when she was gone, to her relatives, who are all of a +dominating character. When he finally made up his mind to do us +justice and eliminate Carlos, he went out of town--I wish I could +remember where--and had this will drawn up by a stranger, whose +name I cannot recall." + +Her shaking tones, her nervous manner betrayed a weakness +equalling, if not surpassing, that of the brother who dared in +secret what he had not strength to acknowledge openly, and it was +with some hesitation Violet prepared to ask those definite +questions which would elucidate the cause and manner of a loss +seemingly so important. She dreaded to hear some commonplace tale +of inexcusable carelessness. Something subtler than this--the +presence of some unsuspected agency opposed to young Clement's +interest; some partisan of Carlos; some secret undermining force +in a house full of servants and dependants, seemed necessary for +the development of so ordinary a situation into a drama +justifying the exercise of her special powers. + +"I think I understand now your exact position in the house, as +well as the value of the paper which you say you have lost. The +next thing for me to hear is how you came to have charge of this +paper, and under what circumstances you were led to mislay it. Do +you not feel quite ready to tell me?" + +"Is--is that necessary?" Mrs. Quintard faltered. + +"Very," replied Violet, watching her curiously. + +"I didn't expect--that is, I hoped you would be able to point +out, by some power we cannot of course explain, just the spot +where the paper lies, without having to tell all that. Some +people can, you know." + +"Ah, I understand. You regarded me as unfit for practical work, +and so credited me with occult powers. But that is where you made +a mistake, Mrs. Quintard; I'm nothing if not practical. And let +me add, that I'm as secret as the grave concerning what my +clients tell me. If I am to be of any help to you, I must be made +acquainted with every fact involved in the loss of this valuable +paper. Relate the whole circumstance or dismiss me from the +case. You can have done nothing more foolish or wrong than many--" + +"Oh, don't say things like that!" broke in the poor woman in a +tone of great indignation. "I have done nothing anyone could call +either foolish or wicked. I am simply very unfortunate, and being +sensitive--But this isn't telling the story. I'll try to make it +all clear; but if I do not, and show any confusion, stop me and +help me out with questions. I--I--oh, where shall I begin?" + +"With your first knowledge of this second will." + +"Thank you, thank you; now I can go on. One night, shortly after +my brother had been given up by the physicians, I was called to +his bedside for a confidential talk. As he had received that day +a very large amount of money from the bank, I thought he was +going to hand it over to me for Clement, but it was for something +much more serious than this he had summoned me. When he was quite +sure that we were alone and nobody anywhere within hearing, he +told me that he had changed his mind as to the disposal of his +property and that it was to Clement and his children, and not to +Carlos, he was going to leave this house and the bulk of his +money. That he had had a new will drawn up which he showed me--" + +"Showed you?" + +"Yes; he made me bring it to him from the safe where he kept it; +and, feeble as he was, he was so interested in pointing out +certain portions of it that he lifted himself in bed and was so +strong and animated that I thought he was getting better. But it +was a false strength due to the excitement of the moment, as I +saw next day when he suddenly died." + +"You were saying that you brought the will to him from his safe. +Where was the safe?" + +"In the wall over his head. He gave me the key to open it. This +key he took from under his pillow. I had no trouble in fitting it +or in turning the lock." + +"And what happened after you looked at the will?" + +"I put it back. He told me to. But the key I kept. He said I was +not to part with it again till the time came for me to produce +the will." + +"And when was that to be?" + +"Immediately after the funeral, if it so happened that Carlos had +arrived in time to attend it. But if for any reason he failed to +be here, I was to let it lie till within three days of his +return, when I was to take it out in the presence of a Mr. +Delahunt who was to have full charge of it from that time. Oh, I +remember all that well enough! and I meant most earnestly to +carry out his wishes, but--" + +"Go on, Mrs. Quintard, pray go on. What happened? Why couldn't +you do what he asked?" + +"Because the will was gone when I went to take it out. There was +nothing to show Mr. Delahunt but the empty shelf." + +"Oh, a theft! just a common theft! Someone overheard the talk +you had with your brother. But how about the key? You had that?" + +"Yes, I had that." + +"Then it was taken from you and returned? You must have been +careless as to where you kept it--" + +"No, I wore it on a chain about my neck. Though I had no reason +to mistrust any one in the house, I felt that I could not guard +this key too carefully. I even kept it on at night. In fact it +never left me. It was still on my person when I went into the +room with Mr. Delahunt. But the safe had been opened for all +that." + +"There were two keys to it, then?" + +"No; in giving me the key, my brother had strictly warned me not +to lose it, as it had no duplicate." + +"Mrs. Quintard, have you a special confidant or maid?" + +"Yes, my Hetty." + +"How much did she know about this key?" + +"Nothing, but that it didn't help the fit of my dress. Hetty has +cared for me for years. There's no more devoted woman in all New +York, nor one who can be more relied upon to tell the truth. She +is so honest with her tongue that I am bound to believe her even +when she says--" + +"What?" + +"That it was I and nobody else who took the will out of the safe +last night. That she saw me come from my brother's room with a +folded paper in my hand, pass with it into the library, and come +out again without it. If this is so, then that will is somewhere +in that great room. But we've looked in every conceivable place +except the shelves, where it is useless to search. It would take +days to go through them all, and meanwhile Carlos--" + +"We will not wait for Carlos. We will begin work at once. But +just one other question. How came Hetty to see you in your walk +through the rooms? Did she follow you?" + +"Yes. It's--it's not the first time I have walked in my sleep. +Last night--but she will tell you. It's a painful subject to me. +I will send for her to meet us in the library." + +"Where you believe this document to lie hidden?" + +"Yes." + +"I am anxious to see the room. It is upstairs, I believe." + +"Yes." + +She had risen and was moving rapidly toward the door. Violet +eagerly followed her. + +Let us accompany her in her passage up the palatial stairway, and +realize the effect upon her of a splendour whose future ownership +possibly depended entirely upon herself. + +It was a cold splendour. The merry voices of children were +lacking in these great halls. Death past and to come infused the +air with solemnity and mocked the pomp which yet appeared so much +a part of the life here that one could hardly imagine the huge +pillared spaces without it. + +To Violet, more or less accustomed to fine interiors, the chief +interest of this one lay in its connection with the mystery then +occupying her. Stopping for a moment on the stair, she inquired +of Mrs. Quintard if the loss she so deplored had been made known +to the servants, and was much relieved to find that, with the +exception of Mr. Delahunt, she had not spoken of it to any one +but Clement. "And he will never mention it," she declared, "not +even to his wife. She has troubles enough to bear without knowing +how near she stood to a fortune." + +"Oh, she will have her fortune!" Violet confidently replied. "In +time, the lawyer who drew up the will will appear. But what you +want is an immediate triumph over the cold Carlos, and I hope you +may have it. Ah!" + +This expletive was a sigh of sheer surprise. + +Mrs. Quintard had unlocked the library door and Violet had been +given her first glimpse of this, the finest room in New York. + +She remembered now that she had often heard it so characterized, +and, indeed, had it been taken bodily from some historic abbey of +the old world, it could not have expressed more fully, in +structure and ornamentation, the Gothic idea at its best. All +that it lacked were the associations of vanished centuries, and +these, in a measure, were supplied to the imagination by the +studied mellowness of its tints and the suggestion of age in its +carvings. + +So much for the room itself, which was but a shell for holding +the great treasure of valuable books ranged along every shelf. As +Violet's eyes sped over their ranks and thence to the five +windows of deeply stained glass which faced her from the southern +end, Mrs. Quintard indignantly exclaimed: + +"And Carlos would turn this into a billiard room!" + +"I do not like Carlos," Violet returned hotly; then remembering +herself, hastened to ask whether Mrs. Quintard was quite positive +as to this room being the one in which she had hidden the +precious document. + +"You had better talk to Hetty," said that lady, as a stout woman +of most prepossessing appearance entered their presence and +paused respectfully just inside the doorway. "Hetty, you will +answer any questions this young lady may put. If anyone can help +us, she can. But first, what news from the sick-room?" + +"Nothing good. The doctor has just come for the third time today. +Mrs. Brooks is crying and even the children are dumb with fear." + +"I will go. I must see the doctor. I must tell him to keep +Clement alive by any means till--" + +She did not wait to say what; but Violet understood and felt her +heart grow heavy. Could it be that her employer considered this +the gay and easy task she had asked for? + +The next minute she was putting her first question: + +"Hetty, what did you see in Mrs. Quintard's action last night, to +make you infer that she left the missing document in this room?" + +The woman's eyes, which had been respectfully studying her face, +brightened with a relief which made her communicative. With the +self-possession of a perfectly candid nature, she inquiringly +remarked: + +"My mistress has spoken of her infirmity?" + +"Yes, and very frankly." + +"She walks in her sleep." + +"So she said." + +"And sometimes when others are asleep, and she is not." + +"She did not tell me that." + +"She is a very nervous woman and cannot always keep still when +she rouses up at night. When I hear her rise, I get up too; but, +never being quite sure whether she is sleeping or not, I am +careful to follow her at a certain distance. Last night I was so +far behind her that she had been to her brother's room and left +it before I saw her face." + +"Where is his room and where is hers?" + +"Hers is in front on this same floor. Mr. Brooks's is in the +rear, and can be reached either by the hall or by passing through +this room into a small one beyond, which we called his den.." + +"Describe your encounter. Where were you standing when you saw +her first?" + +"In the den I have just mentioned. There was a bright light in +the hall behind me and I could see her figure quite plainly. She +was holding a folded paper clenched against her breast, and her +movement was so mechanical that I was sure she was asleep. She +was coming this way, and in another moment she entered this room. +The door, which had been open, remained so, and in my anxiety I +crept to it and looked in after her. There was no light burning +here at that hour, but the moon was shining in in long rays of +variously coloured light. If I had followed her--but I did not. I +just stood and watched her long enough to see her pass through a +blue ray, then through a green one, and then into, if not +through, a red one. Expecting her to walk straight on, and having +some fears of the staircase once she got into the hall, I hurried +around to the door behind you there to head her off. But she had +not yet left this room. I waited and waited and still she did not +come. Fearing some accident, I finally ventured to approach the +door and try it. It was locked. This alarmed me. She had never +locked herself in anywhere before and I did not know what to make +of it. Some persons would have shouted her name, but I had been +warned against doing that, so I simply stood where I was, and +eventually I heard the key turn in the lock and saw her come out. +She was still walking stiffly, but her hands were empty and +hanging at her side." + +"And then?" + +"She went straight to her room and I after her. I was sure she +was dead asleep by this time." + +"And she was?" + +"Yes, Miss; but still full of what was on her mind. I know this +because she stopped when she reached the bedside and began +fumbling with the waist of her wrapper. It was for the key she +was searching, and when her fingers encountered it hanging on the +outside, she opened her wrapper and thrust it in on her bare +skin." + +"You saw her do all that?" + +"As plainly as I see you now. The light in her room was burning +brightly." + +"And after that?" + +"She got into bed. It was I who turned off the light." + +"Has that wrapper of hers a pocket?" + +"No, Miss." + +"Nor her gown?" + +"No, Miss." + +"So she could not have brought the paper into her room concealed +about her person?" + +"No, Miss; she left it here. It never passed beyond this +doorway." + +"But might she not have carried it back to some place of +concealment in the rooms she had left?" + +The woman's face changed and a slight flush showed through the +natural brown of her cheeks. + +"No," she disclaimed; "she could not have done that. I was +careful to lock the library door behind her before I ran out into +the hall." + +"Then," concluded Violet, with all the emphasis of conviction, +"it is here, and nowhere else we must look for that document +till we find it." + +Thus assured of the first step in the task she had before her, +Miss Strange settled down to business. + +The room, which towered to the height of two stories, was in the +shape of a huge oval. This oval, separated into narrow divisions +for the purpose of accommodating the shelves with which it was +lined, narrowed as it rose above the great Gothic chimney-piece +and the five gorgeous windows looking towards the south, till it +met and was lost in the tracery of the ceiling, which was of that +exquisite and soul-satisfying order which we see in the Henry VII +chapel in Westminster Abbey. What break otherwise occurred in the +circling round of books reaching thus thirty feet or more above +the head was made by the two doors already spoken of and a narrow +strip of wall at either end of the space occupied by the windows. +No furniture was to be seen there except a couple of stalls taken +from some old cathedral, which stood in the two bare places just +mentioned. + +But within, on the extensive floor-space, several articles were +grouped, and Violet, recognizing the possibilities which any one +of them afforded for the concealment of so small an object as a +folded document, decided to use method in her search, and to that +end, mentally divided the space before her into four segments. + +The first took in the door, communicating with the suite ending +in Mr. Brooks's bedroom. A diagram of this segment will show that +the only article of furniture in it was a cabinet. + +It was at this cabinet Miss Strange made her first stop. + +"You have looked this well through?" she asked as she bent over +the glass case on top to examine the row of mediaeval missals +displayed within in a manner to show their wonderful +illuminations. + +"Not the case," explained Hetty. "It is locked you see and no one +has as yet succeeded in finding the key. But we searched the +drawers underneath with the greatest care. Had we sifted the +whole contents through our fingers, I could not be more certain +that the paper is not there." + +Violet stepped into the next segment. + +This was the one dominated by the huge fire-place. A rug lay +before the hearth. To this Violet pointed. + +Quickly the woman answered: "We not only lifted it, but turned it +over." + +"And that box at the right?" + +"Is full of wood and wood only." + +"Did you take out this wood?" + +"Every stick." + +"And those ashes in the fire-place? Something has been burned +there." + +"Yes; but not lately. Besides, those ashes are all wood ashes. If +the least bit of charred paper had been mixed with them, we +should have considered the matter settled. But you can see for +yourself that no such particle can be found." While saying this, +she had put the poker into Violet's hand. "Rake them about, Miss, +and make sure." + +Violet did so, with the result that the poker was soon put back +into place, and she herself down on her knees looking up the +chimney. + +"Had she thrust it up there," Hetty made haste to remark, "there +would have been some signs of soot on her sleeves. They are white +and very long and are always getting in her way when she tries to +do anything." + +Violet left the fire-place after a glance at the mantel-shelf on +which nothing stood but a casket of open fretwork, and two +coloured photographs mounted on small easels. The casket was too +open to conceal anything and the photographs lifted too high +above the shelf for even the smallest paper, let alone a document +of any size, to hide behind them. + +The chairs, of which there were several in this part of the room, +she passed with just an inquiring look. They were all of solid +oak, without any attempt at upholstery, and although carved to +match the stalls on the other side of the room, offered no place +for search. + +Her delay in the third segment was brief. Here there was +absolutely nothing but the door by which she had entered, and the +books. As she flitted on, following the oval of the wall, a small +frown appeared on her usually smooth forehead. She felt the +oppression of the books--the countless books. If indeed, she +should find herself obliged to go through them. What a hopeless +outlook! + +But she had still a segment to consider, and after that the +immense table occupying the centre of the room, a table which in +its double capacity (for it was as much desk as table) gave more +promise of holding the solution of the mystery than anything to +which she had hitherto given her attention. + +The quarter in which she now stood was the most beautiful, and, +possibly, the most precious of them all. In it blazed the five +great windows which were the glory of the room; but there are no +hiding-places in windows, and much as she revelled in colour, she +dared not waste a moment on them. There was more hope for her in +the towering stalls, with their possible drawers for books. + +But Hetty was before her in the attempt she made to lift the lids +of the two great seats. + +"Nothing in either," said she; and Violet, with a sigh, turned +towards the table. + +This was an immense affair, made to accommodate itself to the +shape of the room, but with a hollowed-out space on the window- +side large enough to hold a chair for the sitter who would use +its top as a desk. On it were various articles suitable to its +double use. Without being crowded, it displayed a pile of +magazines and pamphlets, boxes for stationery, a writing pad with +its accompaniments, a lamp, and some few ornaments, among which +was a large box, richly inlaid with pearl and ivory, the lid of +which stood wide open. + +"Don't touch," admonished Violet, as Hetty stretched out her hand +to move some little object aside. "You have already worked here +busily in the search you made this morning." + +"We handled everything." + +"Did you go through these pamphlets?" + +"We shook open each one. We were especially particular here, +since it was at this table I saw Mrs. Quintard stop." + +"With head level or drooped?" + +"Drooped." + +"Like one looking down, rather than up, or around?" + +"Yes. A ray of red light shone on her sleeve. It seemed to me the +sleeve moved as though she were reaching out." + +"Will you try to stand as she did and as nearly in the same place +as possible?" + +Hetty glanced down at the table edge, marked where the gules +dominated the blue and green, and moved to that spot, and paused +with her head sinking slowly towards her breast. + +"Very good," exclaimed Violet. "But the moon was probably in a +very different position from what the sun is now." + +"You are right; it was higher up; I chanced to notice it." + +"Let me come," said Violet. + +Hetty moved, and Violet took her place but in a spot a step or +two farther front. This brought her very near to the centre of +the table. Hanging her head, just as Hetty had done, she reached +out her right hand. + +"Have you looked under this blotter?" she asked, pointing towards +the pad she touched. "I mean, between the blotter and the frame +which holds it?" + +"I certainly did," answered Hetty, with some pride. + +Violet remained staring down. "Then you took off everything that +was lying on it?" + +"Oh, yes." + +Violet continued to stare down at the blotter. Then impetuously: + +"Put them back in their accustomed places." + +Hetty obeyed. + +Violet continued to look at them, then slowly stretched out her +hand, but soon let it fall again with an air of discouragement. +Certainly the missing document was not in the ink-pot or the +mucilage bottle. Yet something made her stoop again over the pad +and subject it to the closest scrutiny. + +"If only nothing had been touched!" she inwardly sighed. But she +let no sign of her discontent escape her lips, simply exclaiming +as she glanced up at the towering spaces overhead: "The books! +the books! Nothing remains but for you to call up all the +servants, or get men from the outside and, beginning at one end-- +I should say the upper one--take down every book standing within +reach of a woman of Mrs. Quintard's height." + +"Hear first what Mrs. Quintard has to say about that," +interrupted the woman as that lady entered in a flutter of +emotion springing from more than one cause. + +"The young lady thinks that we should remove the books," Hetty +observed, as her mistress's eye wandered to hers from Violet's +abstracted countenance. + +"Useless. If we were to undertake to do that, Carlos would be +here before half the job was finished. Besides, Hetty must have +told you my extreme aversion to nicely bound books. I will not +say that when awake I never place my hand on one, but once in a +state of somnambulism, when every natural whim has full control, +I am sure that I never would. There is a reason for my prejudice. +I was not always rich. I once was very poor. It was when I was +first married and long before Clement had begun to make his +fortune. I was so poor then that frequently I went hungry, and +what was worse saw my little daughter cry for food. And why? +Because my husband was a bibliomaniac. He would spend on fine +editions what would have kept the family comfortable. It is hard +to believe, isn't it? I have seen him bring home a Grolier when +the larder was as empty as that box; and it made me hate books +so, especially those of extra fine binding, that I have to tear +the covers off before I can find courage to read them." + +O life! life! how fast Violet was learning it! + +"I can understand your idea, Mrs. Quintard, but as everything +else has failed, I should make a mistake not to examine these +shelves. It is just possible that we may be able to shorten the +task very materially; that we may not have to call in help, even. +To what extent have they been approached, or the books handled, +since you discovered the loss of the paper we are looking for?" + +"Not at all. Neither of us went near them." This from Hetty. + +"Nor any one else?" + +"No one else has been admitted to the room. We locked both doors +the moment we felt satisfied that the will had been left here." + +"That's a relief. Now I may be able to do something. Hetty, you +look like a very strong woman, and I, as you see, am very little. +Would you mind lifting me up to these shelves? I want to look at +them. Not at the books, but at the shelves themselves." + +The wondering woman stooped and raised her to the level of the +shelf she had pointed out. Violet peered closely at it and then +at the ones just beneath. + +"Am I heavy?" she asked; "if not, let me see those on the other +side of the door." + +Hetty carried her over. + +Violet inspected each shelf as high as a woman of Mrs. +Quintard's stature could reach, and when on her feet again, +knelt to inspect the ones below. + +"No one has touched or drawn anything from these shelves in +twenty-four hours," she declared. "The small accumulation of dust +along their edges has not been disturbed at any point. It was +very different with the table-top. That shows very plainly where +you had moved things and where you had not." + +"Was that what you were looking for? Well, I never!" + +Violet paid no heed; she was thinking and thinking very deeply. + +Hetty turned towards her mistress, then quickly back to Violet, +whom she seized by the arm. + +"What's the matter with Mrs. Quintard?" she hurriedly asked. "If +it were night, I should think that she was in one of her spells." + +Violet started and glanced where Hetty pointed. Mrs. Quintard was +within a few feet of them, but as oblivious of their +presence as though she stood alone in the room. Possibly, she +thought she did. With fixed eyes and mechanical step she began +to move straight towards the table, her whole appearance of a +nature to make Hetty's blood run cold, but to cause that of +Violet's to bound through her veins with renewed hope. + +"The one thing I could have wished!" she murmured under her +breath. "She has fallen into a trance. She is again under the +dominion of her idea. If we watch and do not disturb her she may +repeat her action of last night, and herself show where she has +put this precious document." + +Meanwhile Mrs. Quintard continued to advance. A moment more, and +her smooth white locks caught the ruddy glow centred upon the +chair standing in the hollow of the table. Words were leaving her +lips, and her hand, reaching out over the blotter, groped among +the articles scattered there till it settled on a large pair of +shears. + +"Listen," muttered Violet to the woman pressing close to her +side. "You are acquainted with her voice; catch what she says if +you can." + +Hetty could not; an undistinguishable murmur was all that came to +her ears. + +Violet took a step nearer. Mrs. Quintard's hand had left the +shears and was hovering uncertainly in the air. Her distress was +evident. Her head, no longer steady on her shoulders, was turning +this way and that, and her tones becoming inarticulate. + +"Paper! I want paper" burst from her lips in a shrill unnatural +cry. + +But when they listened for more and watched to see the uncertain +hand settle somewhere, she suddenly came to herself and turned +upon them a startled glance, which speedily changed into one of +the utmost perplexity. + +"What am I doing here?" she asked. "I have a feeling as if I had +almost seen--almost touched--oh, it's gone! and all is blank +again. Why couldn't I keep it till I knew--" Then she came wholly +to herself and, forgetting even the doubts of a moment since, +remarked to Violet in her old tremulous fashion: + +"You asked us to pull down the books? But you've evidently +thought better of it." + +"Yes, I have thought better of it." Then, with a last desperate +hope of re-arousing the visions lying somewhere back in Mrs. +Quintard's troubled brain, Violet ventured to observe: "This is +likely to resolve itself into a psychological problem, Mrs. +Quintard. Do you suppose that if you fell again into the +condition of last night, you would repeat your action and so lead +us yourself to where the will lies hidden?" + +"Possibly; but it may be weeks before I walk again in my sleep, +and meanwhile Carlos will have arrived, and Clement, possibly, +died. My nephew is so low that the doctor is coming back at +midnight. Miss Strange, Clement is a man in a thousand. He says +he wants to see you. Would you be willing to accompany me to his +room for a moment? He will not make many more requests and I will +take care that the interview is not prolonged." + +"I will go willingly. But would it not be better to wait--" + +"Then you may never see him at all." + +"Very well; but I wish I had some better news to give." + +"That will come later. This house was never meant for Carlos. +Hetty, you will stay here. Miss Strange, let us go now." + +"You need not speak; just let him see you." + +Violet nodded and followed Mrs. Quintard into the sick-room. + +The sight which met her eyes tried her young emotions deeply. +Staring at her from the bed, she saw two piercing eyes over whose +brilliance death as yet had gained no control. Clements's soul +was in that gaze; Clement halting at the brink of dissolution to +sound the depths behind him for the hope which would make +departure easy. Would he see in her, a mere slip of a girl +dressed in fashionable clothes and bearing about her all the +marks of social distinction, the sort of person needed for the +task upon the success of which depended his darlings' future? She +could hardly expect it. Yet as she continued to meet his gaze +with all the seriousness the moment demanded, she beheld those +burning orbs lose some of their demand and the fingers, which had +lain inert upon the bedspread, flutter gently and move as if to +draw attention to his wife and the three beautiful children +clustered at the foot-board. + +He had not spoken nor could she speak, but the solemnity with +which she raised her right hand as to a listening Heaven called +forth upon his lips what was possibly his last smile, and with +the memory of this faint expression of confidence on his part, +she left the room, to make her final attempt to solve the mystery +of the missing document. + +Facing the elderly lady in the hall, she addressed her with the +force and soberness of one leading a forlorn hope: + +"I want you to concentrate your mind upon what I have to say to +you. Do you think you can do this?" + +"I will try," replied the poor woman with a backward glance at +the door which had just been closed upon her. + +"What we want," said she, "is, as I stated before, an insight +into the workings of your brain at the time you took the will +from the safe. Try and follow what I have to say, Mrs. Quintard. +Dreams are no longer regarded by scientists as prophecies of the +future or even as spontaneous and irrelevant conditions of +thought, but as reflections of a near past, which can almost +without exception be traced back to the occurrences which caused +them. Your action with the will had its birth in some previous +line of thought afterwards forgotten. Let us try and find that +thought. Recall, if you can, just what you did or read yesterday." + +Mrs. Quintard looked frightened. + +"But, I have no memory," she objected. "I forget quickly, so +quickly that in order to fulfill my engagements I have to keep a +memorandum of every day's events. Yesterday? yesterday? What did +I do yesterday? I went downtown for one thing, but I hardly know +where." + +"Perhaps your memorandum of yesterday's doings will help you." + +"I will get it. But it won't give you the least help. I keep it +only for my own eye, and--" + +"Never mind; let me see it." + +And she waited impatiently for it to be put in her hands. + +But when she came to read the record of the last two days, this +was all she found: + +Saturday: Mauretania nearly due. I must let Mr. Delahunt know +today that he's wanted here to-morrow. Hetty will try on my +dresses. Says she has to alter them. Mrs. Peabody came to lunch, +and we in such trouble! Had to go down street. Errand for +Clement. The will, the will! I think of nothing else. Is it safe +where it is? No peace of mind till to-morrow. Clement better this +afternoon. Says he must live till Carlos gets back; not to +triumph over him, but to do what he can to lessen his +disappointment. My good Clement! + +So nervous, I went to pasting photographs, and was forgetting all +my troubles when Hetty brought in another dress to try on. + +Quiet in the great house, during which the clock on the staircase +sent forth seven musical peals. To Violet waiting alone in the +library, they acted as a summons. She was just leaving the room, +when the sound of hubbub in the hall below held her motionless in +the doorway. An automobile had stopped in front, and several +persons were entering the house, in a gay and unseemly fashion. +As she stood listening, uncertain of her duty, she perceived the +frenzied figure of Mrs. Quintard approaching. As she passed by, +she dropped one word: "Carlos!" Then she went staggering on, to +disappear a moment later down the stairway. + +This vision lost, another came. This time it was that of +Clements's wife leaning from the marble balustrade above, the +shadow of approaching grief battling with the present terror in +her perfect features. Then she too withdrew from view and Violet, +left for the moment alone in the great hall, stepped back into +the library and began to put on her hat. + +The lights had been turned up in the grand salon and it was in +this scene of gorgeous colour that Mrs. Quintard came face to +face with Carlos Pelacios. Those who were witness to her entrance +say that she presented a noble appearance, as with the resolution +of extreme desperation she stood waiting for his first angry +attack. + +He, a short, thick-set, dark man, showing both in features and +expression the Spanish blood of his paternal ancestors, started +to address her in tones of violence, but changed his note, as he +met her eye, to one simply sardonic. + +"You here!" he began. "I assure you, madame, that it is a +pleasure which is not without its inconveniences. Did you not +receive my cable-gram requesting this house to be made ready for +my occupancy?" + +"I did." + +"Then why do I find guests here? They do not usually precede the +arrival of their host." + +"Clement is very ill--" + +"So much the greater reason that he should have been removed--" + +"You were not expected for two days yet. You cabled that you were +coming on the Mauretania." + +"Yes, I cabled that. Elisabetta,"--this to his wife standing +silently in the background--"we will go to the Plaza for tonight. +At three o'clock tomorrow we shall expect to find this house in +readiness for our return. Later, if Mrs. Quintard desires to +visit us we shall be pleased to receive her. But"--this to Mrs. +Quintard herself--"you must come without Clement and the kids." + +Mrs. Quintard's rigid hand stole up to her throat. + +"Clement is dying. He is failing hourly," she murmured. "He may +not live till morning." + +Even Carlos was taken aback by this. "Oh, well!" said he, "we +will give you two days." + +Mrs. Quintard gasped, then she walked straight up to him. "You +will give us all the time his condition requires and more, much +more. He is the real owner of this house, not you. My brother +left a will bequeathing it to him. You are my nephew's guests, +and not he yours. As his representative I entreat you and your +wife to remain here until you can find a home to your mind." + +The silence seethed. Carlos had a temper of fire and so had his +wife. But neither spoke, till he had gained sufficient control +over himself to remark without undue rancour: + +"I did not think you had the wit to influence your brother to +this extent; otherwise, I should have cut my travels short." Then +harshly: "Where is this will?" + +"It will be produced." But the words faltered. + +Carlos glanced at the man standing behind his wife; then back at +Mrs. Quintard. + +"Wills are not scribbled off on deathbeds; or if they are, it +needs something more than a signature to legalize them. I don't +believe in this trick of a later will. Mr. Cavanagh"--here he +indicated the gentleman accompanying them--"has done my father's +business for years, and he assured me that the paper he holds in +his pocket is the first, last, and only expression of your +brother's wishes. If you are in a position to deny this, show us +the document you mention; show us it at once, or inform us where +and in whose hands it can be found." + +"That, for--for reasons I cannot give, I must refuse to do at +present. But I am ready to swear--" + +A mocking laugh cut her short. Did it issue from his lips or from +those of his highstrung and unfeeling wife? It might have come +from either; there was cause enough. + +"Oh!" she faltered, "may God have mercy!" and was sinking before +their eyes, when she heard her name, called from the threshold, +and, looking that way, saw Hetty beaming upon her, backed by a +little figure with a face so radiant that instinctively her hand +went out to grasp the folded sheet of paper Hetty was seeking to +thrust upon her. + +"Ah!" she cried, in a great voice, "you will not have to wait, +nor Clement either. Here is the will! The children have come into +their own." And she fell at their feet in a dead faint. + +"Where did you find it? Oh! where did you find it? I have waited +a week to know. When, after Carlos's sudden departure, I stood +beside Clement's death-bed and saw from the look he gave me that +he could still feel and understand, I told him that you had +succeeded in your task and that all was well with us. But I was +not able to tell him how you had succeeded or in what place the +will had been found; and he died, unknowing. But we may know, may +we not, now that he is laid away and there is no more talk of our +leaving this house?" + +Violet smiled, but very tenderly, and in a way not to offend the +mourner. They were sitting in the library--the great library +which was to remain in Clement's family after all--and it amused +her to follow the dreaming lady's glances as they ran in +irrepressible curiosity over the walls. Had Violet wished, she +could have kept her secret forever. These eyes would never have +discovered it. + +But she was of a sympathetic temperament, our Violet, so after a +moment's delay, during which she satisfied herself that little, +if anything, had been touched in the room since her departure +from it a week before, she quietly observed: + +"You were right in persisting that you hid it in this room. It +was here I found it. Do you notice that photograph on the mantel +which does not stand exactly straight on its easel?" + +"Yes." + +"Supposing you take it down. You can reach it, can you not?" + +"Oh, yes. But what--" + +"Lift it down, dear Mrs. Quintard; and then turn it round and +look at its back." + +Agitated and questioning, the lady did as she was bid, and at the +first glance gave a cry of surprise, if not of understanding. The +square of brown paper, acting as a backing to the picture, was +slit across, disclosing a similar one behind it which was still +intact. + +"Oh! was it hidden in here?" she asked. + +"Very completely," assented Violet. "Pasted in out of sight by a +lady who amuses herself with mounting and framing photographs. +Usually, she is conscious of her work, but this time she +performed her task in a dream." + +Mrs. Quintard was all amazement. + +"I don't remember touching these pictures," she declared. "I +never should have remembered. You are a wonderful person, Miss +Strange. How came you to think these photographs might have two +backings? There was nothing to show that this was so." + +"I will tell you, Mrs. Quintard. You helped me." + +"I helped you?" + +"Yes. You remember the memorandum you gave me? In it you +mentioned pasting photographs. But this was not enough in itself +to lead me to examine those on the mantel, if you had not given +me another suggestion a little while before. We did not tell you +this, Mrs. Quintard, at the time, but during the search we were +making here that day, you had a lapse into that peculiar state +which induces you to walk in your sleep. It was a short one, +lasting but a moment, but in a moment one can speak, and, this +you did--" + +"Spoke? I spoke?" + +"Yes, you uttered the word 'paper!' not the paper, but 'paper!' +and reached out towards the shears. Though I had not much time to +think of it then, afterwards upon reading your memorandum I +recalled your words, and asked myself if it was not paper to cut, +rather than to hide, you wanted. If it was to cut, and you were +but repeating the experience of the night before, then the room +should contain some remnants of cut paper. Had we seen any? Yes, +in the basket, under the desk we had taken out and thrown back +again a strip or so of wrapping paper, which, if my memory did +not fail me, showed a clean-cut edge. To pull this strip out +again and spread it flat upon the desk was the work of a minute, +and what I saw led me to look all over the room, not now for the +folded document, but for a square of brown paper, such as had +been taken out of this larger sheet. Was I successful? Not for a +long while, but when I came to the photographs on the mantel and +saw how nearly they corresponded in shape and size to what I was +looking for, I recalled again your fancy for mounting photographs +and felt that the mystery was solved. + +"A glance at the back of one of them brought disappointment, but +when I turned about its mate-- You know what I found underneath +the outer paper. You had laid the will against the original +backing and simply pasted another one over it. + +"That the discovery came in time to cut short a very painful +interview has made me joyful for a week. + +"And now may I see the children?" + +END OF PROBLEM V + + +PROBLEM VI + +THE HOUSE OF CLOCKS + +Miss Strange was not in a responsive mood. This her employer had +observed on first entering; yet he showed no hesitation in laying +on the table behind which she had ensconced herself in the +attitude of one besieged, an envelope thick with enclosed papers. + +"There," said he. "Telephone me when you have read them." + +"I shall not read them." + +"No?" he smiled; and, repossessing himself of the envelope, he +tore off one end, extracted the sheets with which it was filled, +and laid them down still unfolded, in their former place on the +table-top. + +The suggestiveness of the action caused the corners of Miss +Srange's delicate lips to twitch wistfully, before settling into +an ironic smile. + +Calmly the other watched her. + +"I am on a vacation," she loftily explained, as she finally met +his studiously non-quizzical glance. "Oh, I know that I am in my +own home!" she petulantly acknowledged, as his gaze took in the +room; "and that the automobile is at the door; and that I'm +dressed for shopping. But for all that I'm on a vacation--a +mental one," she emphasized; "and business must wait. I haven't +got over the last affair," she protested, as he maintained a +discreet silence, "and the season is so gay just now--so many +balls, so many--But that isn't the worst. Father is beginning to +wake up--and if he ever suspects--" A significant gesture ended +this appeal. + +The personage knew her father--everyone did--and the wonder had +always been that she dared run the risk of displeasing one so +implacable. Though she was his favourite child, Peter Strange was +known to be quite capable of cutting her off with a shilling, +once his close, prejudiced mind conceived it to be his duty. And +that he would so interpret the situation, if he ever came to +learn the secret of his daughter's fits of abstraction and the +sly bank account she was slowly accumulating, the personage +holding out this dangerous lure had no doubt at all. Yet he only +smiled at her words and remarked in casual suggestion: + +"It's out of town this time--'way out. Your health certainly +demands a change of air." + +"My health is good. Fortunately, or unfortunately, as one may +choose to look at it, it furnishes me with no excuse for an +outing," she steadily retorted, turning her back on the table. + +"Ah, excuse me!" the insidious voice apologized, "your paleness +misled me. Surely a night or two's change might be beneficial." + +She gave him a quick side look, and began to adjust her boa. + +To this hint he paid no attention. + +"The affair is quite out of the ordinary," he pursued in the tone +of one rehearsing a part. But there he stopped. For some reason, +not altogether apparent to the masculine mind, the pin of +flashing stones (real stones) which held her hat in place had to +be taken out and thrust back again, not once, but twice. It was +to watch this performance he had paused. When he was ready to +proceed, he took the musing tone of one marshalling facts for +another's enlightenment: + +"A woman of unknown instincts--" + +"Pshaw!" The end of the pin would strike against the comb holding +Violet's chestnut-coloured locks. + +"Living in a house as mysterious as the secret it contains. But--" +here he allowed his patience apparently to forsake him, "I will +bore you no longer. Go to your teas and balls; I will struggle +with my dark affairs alone." + +His hand went to the packet of papers she affected so +ostentatiously to despise. He could be as nonchalant as she. But +he did not lift them; he let them lie. Yet the young heiress had +not made a movement or even turned the slightest glance his way. + +"A woman difficult to understand! A mysterious house--possibly a +mysterious crime!" + +Thus Violet kept repeating in silent self-communion, as flushed +with dancing she sat that evening in a highly-scented +conservatory, dividing her attention between the compliments of +her partner and the splash of a fountain bubbling in the heart of +this mass of tropical foliage; and when some hours later she sat +down in her chintz-furnished bedroom for a few minutes' thought +before retiring, it was to draw from a little oak box at her +elbow the half-dozen or so folded sheets of closely written paper +which had been left for her perusal by her persistent employer. + +Glancing first at the signature and finding it to be one already +favourably known at the bar, she read with avidity the statement +of events thus vouched for, finding them curious enough in all +conscience to keep her awake for another full hour. + +We here subscribe it: + +I am a lawyer with an office in the Times Square Building. My +business is mainly local, but sometimes I am called out of town, +as witness the following summons received by me on the fifth of +last October. + +DEAR SIR,-- + +I wish to make my will. I am an invalid and cannot leave my room. +Will you come to me? The enclosed reference will answer for my +respectability. If it satisfies you and you decide to accommodate +me, please hasten your visit; I have not many days to live. A +carriage will meet you at Highland Station at any hour you +designate. Telegraph reply. + +A. Postlethwaite, Gloom Cottage, -- N. J. + +The reference given was a Mr. Weed of Eighty-sixth Street--a well- +known man of unimpeachable reputation. + +Calling him up at his business office, I asked him what he could +tell me about Mr. Postlethwaite of Gloom Cottage, --, N. J. +The answer astonished me: + +"There is no Mr. Postlethwaite to be found at that address. He +died years ago. There is a Mrs. Postlethwaite--a confirmed +paralytic. Do you mean her?" + +I glanced at the letter still lying open at the side of the +telephone: + +"The signature reads A. Postlethwaite." + +"Then it's she. Her name is Arabella. She hates the name, being a +woman of no sentiment. Uses her initials even on her cheques. +What does she want of you?" + +"To draw her will." + +"Oblige her. It'll be experience for you." And he slammed home +the receiver. + +I decided to follow the suggestion so forcibly emphasized; and +the next day saw me at Highland Station. A superannuated horse +and a still more superannuated carriage awaited me--both too old +to serve a busy man in these days of swift conveyance. Could this +be a sample of the establishment I was about to enter? Then I +remembered that the woman who had sent for me was a helpless +invalid, and probably had no use for any sort of turnout. + +The driver was in keeping with the vehicle, and as noncommittal +as the plodding beast he drove. If I ventured upon a remark, he +gave me a long and curious look; if I went so far as to attack +him with a direct question, he responded with a hitch of the +shoulder or a dubious smile which conveyed nothing. Was he deaf +or just unpleasant? I soon learned that he was not deaf; for +suddenly, after a jog-trot of a mile or so through a wooded road +which we had entered from the main highway, he drew in his horse, +and, without glancing my way, spoke his first word: + +"This is where you get out. The house is back there in the +bushes." + +As no house was visible and the bushes rose in an unbroken +barrier along the road, I stared at him in some doubt of his +sanity. + +"But--" I began; a protest into which he at once broke, with the +sharp direction: + +"Take the path. It'll lead you straight to the front door." + +"I don't see any path." + +For this he had no answer; and confident from his expression that +it would be useless to expect anything further from him, I +dropped a coin into his hand, and jumped to the ground. He was +off before I could turn myself about. + +"'Something is rotten in the State of Denmark,'" I quoted in +startled comment to myself; and not knowing what else to do, +stared down at the turf at my feet. + +A bit of flagging met my eye, protruding from a layer of thick +moss. Farther on I espied another--the second, probably, of many. +This, no doubt, was the path I had been bidden to follow, and +without further thought on the subject, I plunged into the bushes +which with difficulty I made give way before me. + +For a moment all further advance looked hopeless. A more tangled, +uninviting approach to a so-called home, I had never seen outside +of the tropics; and the complete neglect thus displayed should +have prepared me for the appearance of the house I unexpectedly +came upon, just as, the way seemed on the point of closing up +before me. + +But nothing could well prepare one for a first view of Gloom +Cottage. Its location in a hollow which had gradually filled +itself up with trees and some kind of prickly brush, its deeply +stained walls, once picturesque enough in their grouping but too +deeply hidden now amid rotting boughs to produce any other effect +than that of shrouded desolation, the sough of these same boughs +as they rapped a devil's tattoo against each other, and the +absence of even the rising column of smoke which bespeaks +domestic life wherever seen--all gave to one who remembered the +cognomen Cottage and forgot the pre-cognomen of Gloom, a sense of +buried life as sepulchral as that which emanates from the mouth +of some freshly opened tomb. + +But these impressions, natural enough to my youth, were +necessarily transient, and soon gave way to others more business- +like. Perceiving the curve of an arch rising above the +undergrowth still blocking my approach, I pushed my way +resolutely through, and presently found myself stumbling upon the +steps of an unexpectedly spacious domicile, built not of wood, as +its name of Cottage had led me to expect, but of carefully cut +stone which, while showing every mark of time, proclaimed itself +one of those early, carefully erected Colonial residences which +it takes more than a century to destroy, or even to wear to the +point of dilapidation. + +Somewhat encouraged, though failing to detect any signs of active +life in the heavily shuttered windows frowning upon me from +either side, I ran up the steps and rang the bell which pulled as +hard as if no hand had touched it in years. + +Then I waited. + +But not to ring again; for just as my hand was approaching the +bell a second time, the door fell back and I beheld in the black +gap before me the oldest man I had ever come upon in my whole +life. He was so old I was astonished when his drawn lips opened +and he asked if I was the lawyer from New York. I would as soon +have expected a mummy to wag its tongue and utter English, he +looked so thin and dried and removed from this life and all +worldly concerns. + +But when I had answered his question and he had turned to marshal +me down the hall towards a door I could dimly see standing open +in the twilight of an absolutely sunless interior, I noticed that +his step was not without some vigour, despite the feeble bend of +his withered body and the incessant swaying of his head, which +seemed to be continually saying No! + +"I will prepare madam," he admonished me, after drawing a +ponderous curtain two inches or less aside from one of the +windows. "She is very ill, but she will see you." + +The tone was senile, but it was the senility of an educated man, +and as the cultivated accents wavered forth, my mind changed in, +regard to the position he held in the house. Interested anew, I +sought to give him another look, but he had already vanished +through the doorway, and so noiselessly, it was more like a +shadow's flitting than a man's withdrawal. + +The darkness in which I sat was absolute; but gradually, as I +continued to look about me, the spaces lightened and certain +details came out, which to my astonishment were of a character to +show that the plain if substantial exterior of this house with +its choked-up approaches and weedy gardens was no sample of what +was to be found inside. Though the walls surrounding me were +dismal because unlighted, they betrayed a splendour unusual in +any country house. The frescoes and paintings were of an ancient +order, dating from days when life and not death reigned in this +isolated dwelling; but in them high art reigned supreme, an art +so high and so finished that only great wealth, combined with the +most cultivated taste, could have produced such effects. I was +still absorbed in the wonder of it all, when the quiet voice of +the old gentleman who had let me in reached me again from the +doorway, and I heard: + +"Madam is ready for you. May I trouble you to accompany me to her +room." + +I rose with alacrity. I was anxious to see madam, if only to +satisfy myself that she was as interesting as the house in which +she was self-immured. + +I found her a great deal more so. But before I enter upon our +interview, let me mention a fact which had attracted my attention +in my passage to her room. During his absence my guide evidently +had pulled aside other curtains than those of the room in which +he had left me. The hall, no longer a tunnel of darkness, gave me +a glimpse as we went by, of various secluded corners, and it +seemed as if everywhere I looked I saw--a clock. I counted four +before I reached the staircase, all standing on the floor and all +of ancient make, though differing much in appearance and value. A +fifth one rose grim and tall at the stair foot, and under an +impulse I have never understood I stopped, when I reached it, to +note the time. But it had paused in its task, and faced me with +motionless hands and silent works--a fact which somehow startled +me; perhaps, because just then I encountered the old man's eye +watching me with an expression as challenging as it was +unintelligible. + +I had expected to see a woman in bed. I saw instead, a woman +sitting up. You felt her influence the moment you entered her +presence. She was not young; she was not beautiful;--never had +been I should judge,--she had not even the usual marks about her +of an ultra strong personality; but that her will was law, had +always been, and would continue to be law so long as she lived, +was patent to any eye at the first glance. She exacted obedience +consciously and unconsciously, and she exacted it with charm. +Some few people in the world possess this power. They frown, and +the opposing will weakens; they smile, and all hearts succumb. I +was hers from the moment I crossed the threshold till--But I will +relate the happenings of that instant when it comes. + +She was alone, or so I thought, when I made my first bow to her +stern but not unpleasing presence. Seated in a great chair, with +a silver tray before her containing such little matters as she +stood in hourly need of, she confronted me with a piercing gaze +startling to behold in eyes so colourless. Then she smiled, and +in obedience to that smile I seated myself in a chair placed very +near her own. Was she too paralysed to express herself clearly? I +waited in some anxiety till she spoke, when this fear vanished. +Her voice betrayed the character her features failed to express. +It was firm, resonant, and instinct with command. Not loud, but +penetrating, and of a quality which made one listen with his +heart as well as with his ears. What she said is immaterial. I +was there for a certain purpose and we entered immediately upon +the business of that purpose. She talked and I listened, mostly +without comment. Only once did I interrupt her with a suggestion; +and as this led to definite results, I will proceed to relate the +occurrence in full. + +In the few hours remaining to me before leaving New York, I had +learned (no matter how) some additional particulars concerning +herself and family; and when after some minor bequests, she +proceeded to name the parties to whom she desired to leave the +bulk of her fortune, I ventured, with some astonishment at my own +temerity, to remark: + +"But you have a young relative! Is she not to be included in this +partition of your property?" + +A hush. Then a smile came to life on her stiff lips, such as is +seldom seen, thank God, on the face of any woman, and I heard: + +"The young relative of whom you speak, is in the room. She has +known for some time that I have no intention of leaving anything +to her. There is, in fact, small chance of her ever needing it." + +The latter sentence was a muttered one, but that it was loud +enough to be heard in all parts of the room I was soon assured. +For a quick sigh, which was almost a gasp, followed from a corner +I had hitherto ignored, and upon glancing that way, I perceived, +peering upon us from the shadows, the white face of a young girl +in whose drawn features and wide, staring eyes I beheld such +evidences of terror, that in an instant, whatever predilection I +had hitherto felt for my client, vanished in distrust, if not +positive aversion. + +I was still under the sway of this new impression, when Mrs. +Postlethwaite's voice rose again, this time addressing the young +girl: + +"You may go," she said, with such force in the command for all +its honeyed modulation, that I expected to see its object fly the +room in frightened obedience. + +But though the startled girl had lost none of the terror which +had made her face like a mask, no power of movement remained to +her. A picture of hopeless misery, she stood for one breathless +moment, with her eyes fixed in unmistakable appeal on mine; then +she began to sway so helplessly that I leaped with bounding heart +to catch her. As she fell into my arms I heard her sigh as +before. No common anguish spoke in that sigh. I had stumbled +unwittingly upon a tragedy, to the meaning of which I held but a +doubtful key. + +"She seems very ill," I observed with some emphasis, as I turned +to lay my helpless burden on a near-by sofa. + +"She's doomed." + +The words were spoken with gloom and with an attempt at +commiseration which no longer rang true in my ears. + +"She is as sick a woman as I am myself"; continued Mrs. +Postlethwaite. "That is why I made the remark I did, never +imagining she would hear me at that distance. Do not put her +down. My nurse will be here in a moment to relieve you of your +burden." + +A tinkle accompanied these words. The resolute woman had +stretched out a finger, of whose use she was not quite deprived, +and touched a little bell standing on the tray before her, an +inch or two from her hand. + +Pleased to obey her command, I paused at the sofa's edge, and +taking advantage of the momentary delay, studied the youthful +countenance pressed unconsciously to my breast. + +It was one whose appeal lay less in its beauty, though that was +of a touching quality, than in the story it told,--a story, which +for some unaccountable reason--I did not pause to determine what +one--I felt it to be my immediate duty to know. But I asked no +questions then; I did not even venture a comment; and yielded her +up with seeming readiness when a strong but none too intelligent +woman came running in with arms outstretched to carry her off. +When the door had closed upon these two, the silence of my client +drew my attention back to herself. + +"I am waiting," was her quiet observation, and without any +further reference to what had just taken place under our eyes, +she went on with the business previously occupying us. + +I was able to do my part without any too great display of my own +disturbance. The clearness of my remarkable client's +instructions, the definiteness with which her mind was made up as +to the disposal of every dollar of her vast property, made it +easy for me to master each detail and make careful note of every +wish. But this did not prevent the ebb and flow within me of an +undercurrent of thought full of question and uneasiness. What had +been the real purport of the scene to which I had just been made +a surprised witness? The few, but certainly unusual, facts which +had been given me in regard to the extraordinary relations +existing between these two closely connected women will explain +the intensity of my interest. Those facts shall be yours. + +Arabella Merwin, when young, was gifted with a peculiar +fascination which, as we have seen, had not altogether vanished +with age. Consequently she had many lovers, among them two +brothers, Frank and Andrew Postlethwaite. The latter was the +older, the handsomer, and the most prosperous (his name is +remembered yet in connection with South American schemes of large +importance), but it was Frank she married. + +That real love, ardent if unreasonable, lay at the bottom of her +choice, is evident enough to those who followed the career of the +young couple. But it was a jealous love which brooked no rival, +and as Frank Postlethwaite was of an impulsive and erratic +nature, scenes soon occurred between them which, while revealing +the extraordinary force of the young wife's character, led to no +serious break till after her son was born, and this, +notwithstanding the fact that Frank had long given up making a +living, and that they were openly dependent on their wealthy +brother, now fast approaching the millionaire status. + +This brother--the Peruvian King, as some called him--must have +been an extraordinary man. Though cherishing his affection for +the spirited Arabella to the point of remaining a bachelor for +her sake, he betrayed none of the usual signs of disappointed +love; but on the contrary made every effort to advance her +happiness, not only by assuring to herself and husband an +adequate income, but by doing all he could in other and less open +ways to lessen any sense she might entertain of her mistake in +preferring for her lifemate his self-centred and unstable +brother. She should have adored him; but though she evinced +gratitude enough, there is nothing to prove that she ever gave +Frank Postlethwaite the least cause to cherish any other +sentiment towards his brother than that of honest love and +unqualified respect. Perhaps he never did cherish any other. +Perhaps the change which everyone saw in the young couple +immediately after the birth of their only child was due to +another cause. Gossip is silent on this point. All that it +insists upon is that from this time evidences of a growing +estrangement between them became so obvious that even the +indulgent Andrew could not blind himself to it; showing his sense +of trouble, not by lessening their income, for that he doubled, +but by spending more time in Peru and less in New York where the +two were living. + +However,--and here we enter upon those details which I have +ventured to characterize as uncommon, he was in this country and +in the actual company of his brother when the accident occurred +which terminated both their lives. It was the old story of a +skidding motor, and Mrs. Postlethwaite, having been sent for in +great haste to the small inn into which the two injured men had +been carried, arrived only in time to witness their last moments. +Frank died first and Andrew some few minutes later--an important +fact, as was afterwards shown when the latter's will came to be +read. + +This will was a peculiar one. By its provisions the bulk of the +King's great property was left to his brother Frank, but with +this especial stipulation that in case his brother failed to +survive him, the full legacy as bequeathed to him should be given +unconditionally to his widow. Frank's demise, as I have already +stated, preceded his brother's by several minutes and +consequently Arabella became the chief legatee; and that is how +she obtained her millions. But--and here a startling feature +comes in--when the will came to be administered, the secret +underlying the break between Frank and his wife was brought to +light by a revelation of the fact that he had practised a great +deception upon her at the time of his marriage. Instead of being +a bachelor as was currently believed, he was in reality a +widower, and the father of a child. This fact, so long held +secret, had become hers when her own child was born; and +constituted as she was, she not only never forgave the father, +but conceived such a hatred for the innocent object of their +quarrel that she refused to admit its claims or even to +acknowledge its existence. + +But later--after his death, in fact--she showed some sense of +obligation towards one who under ordinary conditions would have +shared her wealth. When the whole story became heard, and she +discovered that this secret had been kept from his brother as +well as from herself, and that consequently no provision had been +made in any way for the child thus thrown directly upon her +mercy, she did the generous thing and took the forsaken girl into +her own home. But she never betrayed the least love for her, her +whole heart being bound up in her boy, who was, as all agree, a +prodigy of talent. + +But this boy, for all his promise and seeming strength of +constitution, died when barely seven years old, and the desolate +mother was left with nothing to fill her heart but the +uncongenial daughter of her husband's first wife. The fact that +this child, slighted as it had hitherto been, would, in the event +of her uncle having passed away before her father, have been the +undisputed heiress of a large portion of the wealth now at the +disposal of her arrogant step-mother, led many to expect, now +that the boy was no more, that Mrs. Postlethwaite would proceed +to acknowledge the little Helena as her heir, and give her that +place in the household to which her natural claims entitled her. + +But no such result followed. The passion of grief into which the +mother was thrown by the shipwreck of all her hopes left her hard +and implacable, and when, as very soon happened, she fell a +victim to the disease which tied her to her chair and made the +wealth which had come to her by such a peculiar ordering of +circumstances little else than a mockery even in her own eyes, it +was upon this child she expended the full fund of her secret +bitterness. + +And the child? What of her? How did she bear her unhappy fate +when she grew old enough to realize it? With a resignation which +was the wonder of all who knew her. No murmurs escaped her lips, +nor was the devotion she invariably displayed to the exacting +invalid who ruled her as well as all the rest of her household +with a rod of iron ever disturbed by the least sign of reproach. +Though the riches, which in those early days poured into the home +in a measure far beyond the needs of its mistress, were expended +in making the house beautiful rather than in making the one young +life within it happy, she never was heard to utter so much as a +wish to leave the walls within which fate had immured her. +Content, or seemingly content, with the only home she knew, she +never asked for change or demanded friends or amusements. +Visitors ceased coming; desolation followed neglect. The garden, +once a glory, succumbed to a riot of weeds and undesirable brush, +till a towering wall seemed to be drawn about the house cutting +it off from the activities of the world as it cut it off from the +approach of sunshine by day, and the comfort of a star-lit heaven +by night. And yet the young girl continued to smile, though with +a pitifulness of late, which some thought betokened secret terror +and others the wasting of a body too sensitive for such +unwholesome seclusion. + +These were the facts, known if not consciously specialized, which +gave to the latter part of my interview with Mrs. Postlethwaite a +poignancy of interest which had never attended any of my former +experiences. The peculiar attitude of Miss Postlethwaite towards +her indurate tormentor awakened in my agitated mind something +much deeper than curiosity, but when I strove to speak her name +with the intent of inquiring more particularly into her +condition, such a look confronted me from the steady eye +immovably fixed upon my own, that my courage--or was it my +natural precaution--bade me subdue the impulse and risk no +attempt which might betray the depth of my interest in one so +completely outside the scope of the present moment's business. +Perhaps Mrs. Postlethwaite appreciated my struggle; perhaps she +was wholly blind to it. There was no reading the mind of this +woman of sentimental name but inflexible nature, and realizing +the fact more fully with every word she uttered I left her at +last with no further betrayal of my feelings than might be +evinced by the earnestness with which I promised to return for +her signature at the earliest possible moment. + +This she had herself requested, saying as I rose: + +"I can still write my name if the paper is pushed carefully along +under my hand. See to it that you come while the power remains to +me." + +I had hoped that in my passage downstairs I might run upon +someone who would give me news of Miss Postlethwaite, but the +woman who approached to conduct me downstairs was not of an +appearance to invite confidence, and I felt forced to leave the +house with my doubts unsatisfied. + +Two memories, equally distinct, followed me. One was a picture of +Mrs. Postlethwaite's fingers groping among her belongings on the +little tray perched upon her lap, and another of the intent and +strangely bent figure of the old man who had acted as my usher, +listening to the ticking of one of the great clocks. So absorbed +was he in this occupation that he not only failed to notice me +when I went by, but he did not even lift his head at my cheery +greeting. Such mysteries were too much for me, and led me to +postpone my departure from town till I had sought out Mrs. +Postlethwaite's doctor and propounded to him one or two leading +questions. First, would Mrs. Postlethwaite's present condition be +likely to hold good till Monday; and secondly, was the young lady +living with her as ill as her step-mother said. + +He was a mild old man of the easy-going type, and the answers I +got from him were far from satisfactory. Yet he showed some +surprise when I mentioned the extent of Mrs. Postlethwaite's +anxiety about her step-daughter, and paused, in the dubious +shaking of his head, to give me a short stare in which I read as +much determination as perplexity. + +"I will look into Miss Postlethwaite's case more particularly," +were his parting words. And with this one gleam of comfort I had +to be content. + +Monday's interview was a brief one and contained nothing worth +repeating. Mrs. Postlethwaite listened with stoical satisfaction +to the reading of the will I had drawn up, and upon its +completion rang her bell for the two witnesses awaiting her +summons, in an adjoining room. They were not of her household, +but to all appearance honest villagers with but one noticeable +characteristic, an overweening idea of Mrs. Postlethwaite's +importance. Perhaps the spell she had so liberally woven for +others in other and happier days was felt by them at this hour. +It would not be strange; I had almost fallen under it myself, so +great was the fascination of her manner even in this wreck of her +bodily powers, when triumph assured, she faced us all in a state +of complete satisfaction. + +But before I was again quit of the place, all my doubts returned +and in fuller force than ever. I had lingered in my going as much +as decency would permit, hoping to hear a step on the stair or +see a face in some doorway which would contradict Mrs. +Postlethwaite's cold assurance that Miss Postlethwaite was no +better. But no such step did I hear, and no face did I see save +the old, old one of the ancient friend or relative, whose bent +frame seemed continually to haunt the halls. As before, he stood +listening to the monotonous ticking of one of the clocks, +muttering to himself and quite oblivious of my presence. + +However, this time I decided not to pass him without a more +persistent attempt to gain his notice. Pausing at his side, I +asked him in the friendly tone I thought best calculated to +attract his attention, how Miss Postlethwaite was to-day. He was +so intent upon his task, whatever that was, that while he turned +my way, it was with a glance as blank as that of a stone image. + +"Listen!" he admonished me. "It still says No! No! I don't think +it will ever say anything else." + +I stared at him in some consternation, then at the clock itself +which was the tall one I had found run down at my first visit. +There was nothing unusual in its quiet tick, so far as I could +hear, and with a compassionate glance at the old man who had +turned breathlessly again to listen, proceeded on my way without +another word. + +The old fellow was daft. A century old, and daft. + +I had worked my way out through the vines which still encumbered +the porch, and was taking my first steps down the walk, when some +impulse made me turn and glance up at one of the windows. + +Did I bless the impulse? I thought I had every reason for doing +so, when through a network of interlacing branches I beheld the +young girl with whom my mind was wholly occupied, standing with +her head thrust forward, watching the descent of something small +and white which she had just released from her hand. + +A note! A note written by her and meant for me! With a grateful +look in her direction (which was probably lost upon her as she +had already drawn back out of sight), I sprang for it only to +meet with disappointment. For it was no billet-doux I received +from amid the clustering brush where it had fallen; but a small +square of white cloth showing a line of fantastic embroidery. +Annoyed beyond measure, I was about to fling it down again, when +the thought that it had come from her hand deterred me, and I +thrust it into my vest pocket. When I took it out again--which +was soon after I had taken my seat in the car--I discovered what +a mistake I should have made if I had followed my first impulse. +For, upon examining the stitches more carefully, I perceived that +what I had considered a mere decorative pattern was in fact a +string of letters, and that these letters made words, and that +these words were: + +IDONOTWANTTODIEBUTISURELYWILLIF + +Or, in plain writing: + +"I do not want to die, but I surely will if--" + +Finish the sentence for me. That is the problem I offer you. It +is not a case for the police but one well worth your attention, +if you succeed in reaching the heart of this mystery and saving +this young girl. + +Only, let no delay occur. The doom, if doom it is, is immanent. +Remember that the will is signed. + +"She is too small; I did not ask you to send me a midget." + +Thus spoke Mrs. Postlethwaite to her doctor, as he introduced +into her presence a little figure in nurse's cap and apron. "You +said I needed care,--more care than I was receiving. I answered +that my old nurse could give it, and you objected that she or +someone else must look after Miss Postlethwaite. I did not see +the necessity, but I never contradict a doctor. So I yielded to +your wishes, but not without the proviso (you remember that I +made a proviso) that whatever sort of young woman you chose to +introduce into this room, she should not be fresh from the +training schools, and that she should be strong, silent, and +capable. And you bring me this mite of a woman--is she a woman? +she looks more like a child, of pleasing countenance enough, but +who can no more lift me--" + +"Pardon me!" Little Miss Strange had advanced. "I think, if you +will allow me the privilege, madam, that I can shift you into a +much more comfortable position." And with a deftness and ease +certainly not to be expected from one of her slight physique, +Violet raised the helpless invalid a trifle more upon her pillow. + +The act, its manner, and the smile accompanying it, could not +fail to please, and undoubtedly did, though no word rewarded her +from lips not much given to speech save when the occasion was +imperative. But Mrs. Postlethwaite made no further objection to +her presence, and, seeing this, the doctor's countenance relaxed +and he left the room with a much lighter step than that with +which he had entered it. + +And thus it was that Violet Strange--an adept in more ways than +one--became installed at the bedside of this mysterious woman, +whose days, if numbered, still held possibilities of action which +those interested in young Helena Postlethwaite's fate would do +well to recognize. + +Miss Strange had been at her post for two days, and had gathered +up the following: + +That Mrs. Postlethwaite must be obeyed. + +That her step-daughter (who did not wish to die) would die if she +knew it to be the wish of this domineering but apparently +idolized woman. + +That the old man of the clocks, while senile in some regards, was +very alert and quite youthful in others. If a century old--which +she began greatly to doubt--he had the language and manner of one +in his prime, when unaffected by the neighbourhood of the clocks, +which seemed in some non-understandable way to exercise an occult +influence over him. At table he was an entertaining host; but +neither there nor elsewhere would he discuss the family, or +dilate in any way upon the peculiarities of a household of which +he manifestly regarded himself as the least important member. Yet +no one knew them better, and when Violet became quite assured of +this, as well as of the futility of looking for explanation of +any kind from either of her two patients, she resolved upon an +effort to surprise one from him. + +She went about it in this way. Noting his custom of making a +complete round of the clocks each night after dinner, she took +advantage of Mrs. Postlethwaite's inclination to sleep at this +hour, to follow him from clock to clock in the hope of +overhearing some portion of the monologue with which he bent his +head to the swinging pendulum, or put his ear to the hidden +works. Soft-footed and discreet, she tripped along at his back, +and at each pause he made, paused herself and turned her ear his +way. The extreme darkness of the halls, which were more sombre by +night than by day, favoured this attempt, and she was able, after +a failure or two, to catch the No! no! no! no! which fell from +his lips in seeming repetition of what he heard the most of them +say. + +The satisfaction in his tone proved that the denial to which he +listened, chimed in with his hopes and gave ease to his mind. But +he looked his oldest when, after pausing at another of the many +time-pieces, he echoed in answer to its special refrain, Yes! +yes! yes! yes! and fled the spot with shaking body and a +distracted air. + +The same fear and the same shrinking were observable in him as he +returned from listening to the least conspicuous one, standing in +a short corridor, where Violet could not follow him. But when, +after a hesitation which enabled her to slip behind the curtain +hiding the drawing-room door, he approached and laid his ear +against the great one standing, as if on guard, at the foot of +the stairs, she saw by the renewed vigour he displayed that there +was comfort for him in its message, even before she caught the +whisper with which he left it and proceeded to mount the stairs: + +"It says No! It always says No! I will heed it as the voice of +Heaven." + +But one conclusion could be the result of such an experiment to a +mind like Violet's. This partly touched old man not only held the +key to the secret of this house, but was in a mood to divulge it +if once he could be induced to hear command instead of dissuasion +in the tick of this one large clock. But how could he be induced? +Violet returned to Mrs. Postlethwaite's bedside in a mood of +extreme thoughtfulness. + +Another day passed, and she had not yet seen Miss Postlethwaite. +She was hoping each hour to be sent on some errand to that young +lady's room, but no such opportunity was granted her. Once she +ventured to ask the doctor, whose visits were now very frequent, +what he thought of the young lady's condition. But as this +question was necessarily put in Mrs. Postlethwaite's presence, +the answer was naturally guarded, and possibly not altogether +frank. + +"Our young lady is weaker," he acknowledged. "Much weaker," he +added with marked emphasis and his most professional air, "or she +would be here instead of in her own room. It grieves her not to +be able to wait upon her generous benefactress." + +The word fell heavily. Had it been used as a test? Violet gave +him a look, though she had much rather have turned her +discriminating eye upon the face staring up at them from the +pillow. Had the alarm expressed by others communicated itself at +last to the physician? Was the charm which had held him +subservient to the mother, dissolving under the pitiable state of +the child, and was he trying to aid the little detective-nurse +in her effort to sound the mystery of her condition? + +His look expressed benevolence, but he took care not to meet the +gaze of the woman he had just lauded, possibly because that gaze +was fixed upon him in a way to tax his moral courage. The silence +which ensued was broken by Mrs. Postlethwaite: + +"She will live--this poor Helena--how long?" she asked, with no +break in her voice's wonted music. + +The doctor hesitated, then with a candour hardly to be expected +from him, answered: + +"I do not understand Miss Postlethwaite's case. I should like, +with your permission, to consult some New York physician." + +"Indeed!" + +A single word, but as it left this woman's thin lips Violet +recoiled, and, perhaps, the doctor did. Rage can speak in one +word as well as in a dozen, and the rage which spoke in this one +was of no common order, though it was quickly suppressed, as was +all other show of feeling when she added, with a touch of her old +charm: + +"Of course you will do what you think best, as you know I never +interfere with a doctor's decisions. But" and here her natural +ascendancy of tone and manner returned in all its potency, "it +would kill me to know that a stranger was approaching Helena's +bedside. It would kill her. She's too sensitive to survive such a +shock." + +Violet recalled the words worked with so much care by this young +girl on a minute piece of linen, I do not want to die, and +watched the doctor's face for some sign of resolution. But +embarrassment was all she saw there, and all she heard him say +was the conventional reply: + +"I am doing all I can for her. We will wait another day and note +the effect of my latest prescription." + +Another day! + +The deathly calm which overspread Mrs. Postlethwaite's features +as this word left the physician's lips warned Violet not to let +another day go by without some action. But she made no remark, +and, indeed, betrayed but little interest in anything beyond her +own patient's condition. That seemed to occupy her wholly. With +consummate art she gave the appearance of being under Mrs. +Postlethwaite's complete thrall, and watched with fascinated eyes +every movement of the one unstricken finger which could do so +much. + +This little detective of ours could be an excellent actor when +she chose. + +III + +To make the old man speak! To force this conscience-stricken but +rebellious soul to reveal what the clock forbade! How could it be +done? + +This continued to be Violet's great problem. She pondered it so +deeply during all the remainder of the day that a little pucker +settled on her brow, which someone (I will not mention who) would +have been pained to see. Mrs. Postlethwaite, if she noticed it at +all, probably ascribed it to her anxieties as nurse, for never +had Violet been more assiduous in her attentions. But Mrs. +Postlethwaite was no longer the woman she had been, and possibly +never noted it at all. + +At five o'clock Violet suddenly left the room. Slipping down into +the lower hall, she went the round of the clocks herself, +listening to every one. There was no perceptible difference in +their tick. Satisfied of this and that it was simply the old +man's imagination which had supplied them each with separate +speech, she paused before the huge one at the foot of the stairs, +--the one whose dictate he had promised himself to follow,--and +with an eye upon its broad, staring dial, muttered wistfully: + +"Oh! for an idea! For an idea!" + +Did this cumbrous relic of old-time precision turn traitor at +this ingenuous plea? The dial continued to stare, the works to +sing, but Violet's face suddenly lost its perplexity. With a wary +look about her and a listening ear turned towards the stair top, +she stretched out her hand and pulled open the door guarding the +pendulum, and peered in at the works, smiling slyly to herself as +she pushed it back into place and retreated upstairs to the sick +room. + +When the doctor came that night she had a quiet word with him +outside Mrs. Postlethwaite's door. Was that why he was on hand +when old Mr. Dunbar stole from his room to make his nightly +circuit of the halls below? Something quite beyond the ordinary +was in the good physician's mind, for the look he cast at the old +man was quite unlike any he had ever bestowed upon him before, +and when he spoke it was to say with marked urgency: + +"Our beautiful young lady will not live a week unless I get at +the seat of her malady. Pray that I may be enabled to do so, Mr. +Dunbar." + +A blow to the aged man's heart which called forth a feeble "Yes, +yes," followed by a wild stare which imprinted itself upon the +doctor's memory as the look of one hopelessly old, who hears for +the first time a distinct call from the grave which has long been +awaiting him! + +A solitary lamp stood in the lower hall. As the old man picked +his slow way down, its small, hesitating flame flared up as in a +sudden gust, then sank down flickering and faint as if it, too, +had heard a call which summoned it to extinction. + +No other sign of life was visible anywhere. Sunk in twilight +shadows, the corridors branched away on either side to no place +in particular and serving, to all appearance (as many must have +thought in days gone by), as a mere hiding-place for clocks. + +To listen to their united hum, the old man paused, looking at +first a little distraught, but settling at last into his usual +self as he started forward upon his course. Did some whisper, +hitherto unheard, warn him that it was the last time he would +tread that weary round? Who can tell? He was trembling very much +when with his task nearly completed, he stepped out again into +the main hall and crept rather than walked back to the one great +clock to whose dictum he made it a practice to listen last. + +Chattering the accustomed words, "They say Yes! They are all +saying Yes! now; but this one will say No!" he bent his stiff old +back and laid his ear to the unresponsive wood. But the time for +no had passed. It was Yes! yes! yes! yes! now, and as his +straining ears took in the word, he appeared to shrink where he +stood and after a moment of anguished silence, broke forth into a +low wail, amid whose lamentations one could hear: + +"The time has come! Even the clock she loves best bids me speak. +Oh! Arabella, Arabella!" + +In his despair he had not noticed that the pendulum hung +motionless, or that the hands stood at rest on the dial. If he +had, he might have waited long enough to have seen the careful +opening of the great clock's tall door and the stepping forth of +the little lady who had played so deftly upon his superstition. + +He was wandering the corridors like a helpless child, when a +gentle hand fell on his arm and a soft voice whispered in his +ear: + +"You have a story to tell. Will you tell it to me? It may save +Miss Postlethwaite's life." + +Did he understand? Would he respond if he did; or would the shock +of her appeal restore him to a sense of the danger attending +disloyalty? For a moment she doubted the wisdom of this startling +measure, then she saw that he had passed the point of surprise +and that, stranger as she was, she had but to lead the way for +him to follow, tell his story, and die. + +There was no light in the drawing-room when they entered. But old +Mr. Dunbar did not seem to mind that. Indeed, he seemed to have +lost all consciousness of present surroundings; he was even +oblivious of her. This became quite evident when the lamp, in +flaring up again in the hall, gave a momentary glimpse, of his +crouching, half-kneeling figure. In the pleading gesture of his +trembling, outreaching arms, Violet beheld an appeal, not to +herself, but to some phantom of his imagination; and when he +spoke, as he presently did, it was with the freedom of one to +whom speech is life's last boon, and the ear of the listener +quite forgotten in the passion of confession long suppressed. + +"She has never loved me," he began, "but I have always loved her. +For me no other woman has ever existed, though I was sixty-five +years of age when I first saw her, and had long given up the idea +that there lived a woman who could sway me from my even life and +fixed lines of duty. Sixty-five! and she a youthful bride! Was +there ever such folly! Happily I realized it from the first, and +piled ashes on my hidden flame. Perhaps that is why I adore her +to this day and only give her over to reprobation because Fate is +stronger than my age--stronger even than my love. + +"She is not a good woman, but I might have been a good man if I +had never known the sin which drew a line of isolation about her, +and within which I, and only I, have stood with her in silent +companionship. What was this sin, and in what did it have its +beginning? I think its beginning was in the passion she had for +her husband. It was not the every-day passion of her sex in this +land of equable affections, but one of foreign fierceness, +jealousy, and insatiable demand. Yet he was a very ordinary man. +I was once his tutor and I know. She came to know it too, when-- +but I am rushing on too fast, I have much to tell before I reach +that point. + +"From the first, I was in their confidence. Not that either he or +she put me there, but that I lived with them and was always +around, and could not help seeing and hearing what went on +between them. Why he continued to want me in the house and at his +table, when I could no longer be of service to him, I have never +known. Possibly habit explains all. He was accustomed to my +presence and so was she; so accustomed they hardly noticed it, as +happened one night, when after a little attempt at conversation, +he threw down the book he had caught up and, addressing her by +name, said without a glance my way, and quite as if he were alone +with her: + +"'Arabella, there is something I ought to tell you. I have tried +to find the courage to do so many times before now but have +always failed. Tonight I must.' And then he made his great +disclosure,--how, unknown to, his friends and the world, he was a +widower when he married her, and the father of a living child. + +"With some women this might have passed with a measure of regret, +and some possible contempt for his silence, but not so with her. +She rose to her feet--I can see her yet--and for a moment stood +facing him in the still, overpowering manner of one who feels the +icy pang of hate enter where love has been. Never was moment more +charged. I could not breathe while it lasted; and when at last +she spoke, it was with an impetuosity of concentrated passion, +hardly less dreadful than her silence had been. + +"'You a father! A father already!' she cried, all her sweetness +swallowed up in ungovernable wrath. 'You whom I expected to make +so happy with a child? I curse you and your brat. I--' + +"He strove to placate her, to explain. But rage has no ears, and +before I realized my own position, the scene became openly +tempestuous. That her child should be second to another woman's +seemed to awaken demon instincts within her. When he ventured to +hint that his little girl needed a mother's care, her irony bit +like corroding acid. He became speechless before it and had not a +protest to raise when she declared that the secret he had kept so +long and so successfully he must continue to keep to his dying +day. That the child he had failed to own in his first wife's +lifetime should remain disowned in hers, and if possible be +forgotten. She should never give the girl a thought nor +acknowledge her in any way. + +"She was Fury embodied; but the fury was of that grand order +which allures rather than repels. As I felt myself succumbing to +its fascination and beheld how he was weakening under it even +more perceptibly than myself, I started from my chair, and sought +to glide away before I should hear him utter a fatal +acquiescence. + +"But the movement I made unfortunately drew their attention to +me, and after an instant of silent contemplation of my distracted +countenance, Frank said, as though he were the elder by the forty +years which separated us: + +"'You have listened to Mrs. Postlethwaite's wishes. You will +respect them of course.'" + +That was all. He knew and she knew that I was to be trusted; but +neither of them has ever known why. + +A month later her child came, and was welcomed as though it were +the first to bear his name. It was a boy, and their satisfaction +was so great that I looked to see their old affection revive. But +it had been cleft at the root, and nothing could restore it to +life. They loved the child; I have never seen evidence of greater +parental passion than they both displayed, but there their +feelings stopped. Towards each other they were cold. They did not +even unite in worship of their treasure. They gloated over him +and planned for him, but always apart. He was a child in a +thousand, and as he developed, the mother especially, nursed all +her energies for the purpose of ensuring for him a future +commensurate with his talents. Never a very conscientious woman, +and alive to the advantages of wealth as demonstrated by the +power wielded by her rich brother-in-law, she associated all the +boy's prospects with money, great money, such money as Andrew had +accumulated, and now had at his disposal for his natural heirs. + +"Hence came her great temptation,--a temptation to which she +yielded, to the lasting trouble of us all. Of this I must now +make confession though it kills me to do so, and will soon kill +her. The deeds of the past do not remain buried, however deep we +dig their graves, but rise in an awful resurrection when we are +old--old--" + +Silence. Then a tremulous renewal of his painful speech. + +Violet held her breath to listen. Possibly the doctor, hidden in +the darkest corner of the room, did so also. + +"I never knew how she became acquainted with the terms of her +brother-in-law's will. He certainly never confided them to her, +and as certainly the lawyer who drew up the document never did. +But that she was well aware of its tenor is as positive a fact as +that I am the most wretched man alive tonight. Otherwise, why the +darksome deed into which she was betrayed when both the brothers +lay dying among strangers, of a dreadful accident?" + +"I was witness to that deed. I had accompanied her on her hurried +ride and was at her side when she entered the inn where the two +Postlethwaites lay. I was always at her side in great joy or in +great trouble, though she professed no affection for me and gave +me but scanty thanks." + +"During our ride she had been silent and I had not disturbed that +silence. I had much to think of. Should we find him living, or +should we find him dead? If dead, would it sever the relations +between us two? Would I ever ride with her again?" + +"When I was not dwelling on this theme, I was thinking of the +parting look she gave her boy; a look which had some strange +promise in it. What had that look meant and why did my flesh +creep and my mind hover between dread and a fearsome curiosity +when I recalled it? Alas! There was reason for all these +sensations as I was soon to learn. + +"We found the inn seething with terror and the facts worse than +had been represented in the telegram. Her husband was dying. She +had come just in time to witness the end. This they told her +before she had taken off her veil. If they had waited--if I had +been given a full glimpse of her face--But it was hidden, and I +could only judge of the nature of her emotions by the stern way +in which she held herself. + +"'Take me to him,' was the quiet command, with which she met this +disclosure. Then, before any of them could move: + +"'And his brother, Mr. Andrew Postlethwaite? Is he fatally +injured too?' + +"The reply was unequivocal. The doctors were uncertain which of +the two would pass away first. + +"You must remember that at this time I was ignorant of the rich +man's will, and consequently of how the fate of a poor child of +whom I had heard only one mention, hung in the balance at that +awful moment. But in the breathlessness which seized Mrs. +Postlethwaite at this sentence of double death, I realized from +my knowledge of her that something more than grief was at prey +upon her impenetrable heart, and shuddered to the core of my +being when she repeated in that voice which was so terrible +because so expressionless: + +"'Take me to them.'" + +They were lying in one room, her husband nearest the door, the +other in a small alcove some ten feet away. Both were +unconscious; both were surrounded by groups of frightened +attendants who fell back as she approached. A doctor stood at the +bed-head of her husband, but as her eye met his he stepped aside +with a shake of the head and left the place empty for her. + +"The action was significant. I saw that she understood what it +meant, and with constricted heart watched her as she bent over +the dying man and gazed into his wide-open eyes, already +sightless and staring. Calculation was in her look and +calculation only; and calculation, or something equally +unintelligible, sent her next glance in the direction of his +brother. What was in her mind? I could understand her +indifference to Frank even at the crisis of his fate, but not the +interest she showed in Andrew. It was an absorbing one, altering +her whole expression. I no longer knew her for my dear young +madam, and the jealousy I had never felt towards Frank rose to +frantic resentment in my breast as I beheld what very likely +might be a tardy recognition of the other's well-known passion, +forced into disclosure by the exigencies of the moment. + +"Alarmed by the strength of my feelings, and fearing an equal +disclosure on my own part, I sought for a refuge from all eyes +and found it in a little balcony opening out at my right. On to +this balcony I stepped and found myself face to face with a star- +lit heaven. Had I only been content with my isolation and the +splendour of the spectacle spread out before me! But no, I must +look back upon that bed and the solitary woman standing beside +it! I must watch the settling of her body into rigidity as a +voice rose from beside the other Postlethwaite saying, 'It is a +matter of minutes now,' and then--and then--the slow creeping of +her hand to her husband's mouth, the outspreading of her palm +across the livid lips--its steady clinging there, smothering the +feeble gasps of one already moribund, till the quivering form +grew still, and Frank Postlethwaite lay dead before my eyes! + +"I saw, and made no outcry, but she did, bringing the doctor back +to her side with the startled exclamation: + +"'Dead? I thought he had an hour's life left in him, and he has +passed before his brother.' + +"I thought it hate--the murderous impulse of a woman who sees her +enemy at her mercy and can no longer restrain the passion of her +long-cherished antagonism; and while something within me rebelled +at the act, I could not betray her, though silence made a +murderer of me too. I could not. Her spell was upon me as in +another instant it was upon everyone else in the room. No +suspicion of one so self-repressed in her sadness disturbed the +universal sympathy; and encouraged by this blindness of the +crowd, I vowed within myself never to reveal her secret. The man +was dead, or as good as dead, when she touched him; and now that +her hate was expended she would grow gentle and good. + +"But I knew the worthlessness of this hope as well as my +misconception of her motive, when Frank's child by another wife +returned to my memory, and Bella's sin stood exposed." + +"But only to myself. I alone knew that the fortune now wholly +hers, and in consequence her boy's, had been won by a crime. That +if her hand had fallen in comfort on her husband's forehead +instead of in pressure on his mouth, he would have outlived his +brother long enough to have become owner of his millions; in +which case a rightful portion would have been insured to his +daughter, now left a penniless waif. The thought made my hair +rise, as the proceedings over, I faced her and made my first and +last effort to rid my conscience of its new and intolerable +burden. + +"But the woman I had known and loved was no longer before me. The +crown had touched her brows, and her charm which had been mainly +sexual up to this hour had merged into an intellectual force, +with which few men's mentality could cope. Mine yielded at once +to it. From the first instant, I knew that a slavery of spirit, +as well as of heart, was henceforth to be mine. + +"She did not wait for me to speak; she had assumed the dictator's +attitude at once. + +"'I know of what you are thinking,"' said she, 'and it is a +subject you may dismiss at once from your mind. Mr. +Postlethwaite's child by his first wife is coming to live with +us. I have expressed my wishes in this regard to my lawyer, and +there is nothing left to be said. You, with your close mouth and +dependable nature, are to remain here as before, and occupy the +same position towards my boy that you did towards his father. We +shall move soon into a larger house, and the nature of our duties +will be changed and their scope greatly increased; but I know +that you can be trusted to enlarge with them and meet every +requirement I shall see fit to make. Do not try to express your +thanks. I see them in your face.' + +"Did she, or just the last feeble struggle my conscience was +making to break the bonds in which she held me, and win back my +own respect? I shall never know, for she left me on completion of +this speech, not to resume the subject, then or ever. + +"But though I succumbed outwardly to her demands, I had not +passed the point where inner conflict ends and peace begins. Her +recognition of Helena and her reception into the family calmed me +for a while, and gave me hope that all would yet be well. But I +had never sounded the full bitterness of madam's morbid heart, +well as I thought I knew it. The hatred she had felt from the +first for her husband's child ripened into frenzied dislike when +she found her a living image of the mother whose picture she had +come across among Frank's personal effects. To win a tear from +those meek eyes instead of a smile to the sensitive lips was her +daily play. She seemed to exult in the joy of impressing upon the +girl by how little she had missed a great fortune, and I have +often thought, much as I tried to keep my mind free from all +extravagant and unnecessary fancies, that half of the money she +spent in beautifying this house and maintaining art industries +and even great charitable institutions was spent with the base +purpose of demonstrating to this child the power of immense +wealth, and in what ways she might expect to see her little +brother expend the millions in which she had been denied all +share. + +"I was so sure of this that one night while I was winding up the +clocks with which Mrs. Postlethwaite in her fondness for old +timepieces has filled the house, I stopped to look at the little +figure toiling so wearily upstairs, to bed, without a mother's +kiss. There was an appeal in the small wistful face which smote +my hard old heart, and possibly a tear welled up in my own eye +when I turned back to my duty." + +"Was that why I felt the hand of Providence upon me, when in my +halt before the one clock to which any superstitious interest was +attached--the great one at the foot of the stairs--I saw that it +had stopped and at the one minute of all minutes in our wretched +lives: Four minutes past two? The hour, the minute in which Frank +Postlethwaite had gasped his last under the pressure of his +wife's hand! I knew it--the exact minute I mean--because +Providence meant that I should know it. There had been a clock on +the mantelpiece of the hotel room where he and his brother had +died and I had seen her glance steal towards it at the instant +she withdrew her palm from her husband's lips. The stare of that +dial and the position of its hands had lived still in my mind as +I believed it did in hers. + +"Four minutes past two! How came our old timepiece here to stop +at that exact moment on a day when Duty was making its last +demand upon me to remember Frank's unhappy child? There was no +one to answer; but as I looked and looked, I felt the impulse of +the moment strengthen into purpose to leave those hands +undisturbed in their silent accusation. She might see, and, moved +by the coincidence, tremble at her treatment of Helena. + +"But if this happened--if she saw and trembled--she gave no sign. +The works were started up by some other hand, and the incident +passed. But it left me with an idea. That clock soon had a way of +stopping and always at that one instant of time. She was forced +at length to notice it, and I remember, an occasion when she +stood stock-still with her eyes on those hands, and failed to +find the banister with her hand, though she groped for it in her +frantic need for support. + +"But no command came from her to remove the worn-out piece, and +soon its tricks, and every lesser thing, were forgotten in the +crushing calamity which befell us in the sickness and death of +little Richard. + +"Oh, those days and nights! And oh, the face of the mother when +the doctors told her that the case was hopeless! I asked myself +then, and I have asked myself a hundred times since, which of all +the emotions I saw pictured there bit the deepest, and made the +most lasting impression on her guilty heart? Was it remorse? If +so, she showed no change in her attitude towards Helena, unless +it was by an added bitterness. The sweet looks and gentle ways of +Frank's young daughter could not win against a hate sharpened by +disappointment. Useless for me to hope for it. Release from the +remorse of years was not to come in that way. As I realized this, +I grew desperate and resorted again to the old trick of stopping +the clock at the fatal hour. This time her guilty heart +responded. She acknowledged the stab and let all her miseries +appear. But how? In a way to wring my heart almost to madness, +and not benefit the child at all. She had her first stroke that +night. I had made her a helpless invalid. + +"That was eight years ago, and since then what? Stagnation. She +lived with her memories, and I with mine. Helena only had a right +to hope, and hope perhaps she did, till--Is that the great clock +talking? Listen! They all talk, but I heed only the one. What +does it say? Tell! tell! tell! Does it think I will be silent now +when I come to my own guilt? That I will seek to hide my weakness +when I could not hide her sin?" + +"Explain!" It was Violet speaking, and her tone was stern in its +command. "Of what guilt do you speak? Not of guilt towards +Helena; you pitied her too much--" + +"But I pitied my dear madam more. It was that which affected me +and drew me into crime against my will. Besides, I did not know-- +not at first--what was in the little bowl of curds and cream I +carried to the girl each day. She had eaten them in her step- +mother's room, and under her step-mother's eye as long as she had +strength to pass from room to room, and how was I to guess that +it was not wholesome? Because she failed in health from day to +day? Was not my dear madam failing in health also; and was there +poison in her cup? Innocent at that time, why am I not innocent +now? Because--Oh, I will tell it all; as though at the bar of +God. I will tell all the secrets of that day. + +"She was sitting with her hand trembling on the tray from which I +had just lifted the bowl she had bid me carry to Helena. I had +seen her so a hundred times before, but not with just that look +in her eyes, or just that air of desolation in her stony figure. +Something made me speak; something made me ask if she were not +quite so well as usual, and something made her reply with the +dreadful truth that the doctor had given her just two months more +to live. My fright and mad anguish stupefied me; for I was not +prepared for this, no, not at all;--and unconsciously I stared +down at the bowl I held, unable to breathe or move or even to +meet her look." + +As usual she misinterpreted my emotion. + +"'Why do you stand like that?' I heard her say in a tone of great +irritation. 'And why do you stare into that bowl? Do you think I +mean to leave that child to walk these halls after I am carried +out of them forever? Do you measure my hate by such a petty yard- +stick as that? I tell you that I would rot above ground rather +than enter it before she did?' + +"I had believed I knew this woman; but what soul ever knows +another's? What soul ever knows itself? + +"'Bella!' I cried; the first time I had ever presumed to address +her so intimately. 'Would you poison the girl?' And from sheer +weakness my fingers lost their clutch, and the bowl fell to the +floor, breaking into a dozen pieces. + +"For a minute she stared down at these from over her tray, and +then she remarked very low and very quietly: + +"'Another bowl, Humphrey, and fresh curds from the kitchen. I +will do the seasoning. The doses are too small to be skipped. You +won't?'--I had shaken my head--'But you will! It will not be the +first time you have gone down the hall with this mixture.' + +"'But that was before I knew--' I began. + +"'And now that you do, you will go just the same.' Then as I +stood hesitating, a thousand memories overwhelming me in an +instant, she added in a voice to tear the heart, 'Do not make me +hate the only being left in this world who understands and loves +me.' + +"She was a helpless invalid, and I a broken man, but when that +word 'love' fell from her lips, I felt the blood start burning in +my veins, and all the crust of habit and years of self-control +loosen about my heart, and make me young again. What if her +thoughts were dark and her wishes murderous! She was born to rule +and sway men to her will even to their own undoing." + +"'I wish I might kiss your hand,' was what I murmured, gazing at +her white fingers groping over her tray. + +"'You may,' she answered, and hell became heaven to me for a +brief instant. Then I lifted myself and went obediently about my +task. + +"But puppet though I was, I was not utterly without sympathy. +When I entered Helena's room and saw how her startled eyes fell +shrinkingly on the bowl I set down before her, my conscience +leaped to life and I could not help saying: + +"'Don't you like the curds, Helena? Your brother used to love them +very much.' + +"'His were--' + +"'What, Helena?' + +"'What these are not,' she murmured. + +"I stared at her, terror-stricken. So she knew, and yet did not +seize the bowl and empty it out of the window! Instead, her hand +moved slowly towards it and drew it into place before her. + +"'Yet I must eat,' she said, lifting her eyes to mine in a sort +of patient despair, which yet was without accusation. + +"But my hand had instinctively gone to hers and grasped it. + +"'Why must you eat it?' I asked. 'If--if you do not find it +wholesome, why do you touch it?' + +"'Because my step-mother expects me to,' she cried, 'and I have +no other will than hers. When I was a little, little child, my +father made me promise that if I ever came to live with her I +would obey her simplest wish. And I always have. I will not +disappoint the trust he put in me.' + +"'Even if you die of it?' + +"I do not know whether I whispered these words or only thought +them. She answered as though I had spoken. + +"'I am not afraid to die. I am more afraid to live. She may ask +me some day to do something I feel to be wrong.' + +"When I fled down the hall that night, I heard one of the small +clocks speak to me. Tell! it cried, tell! tell! tell! tell! I +rushed away from it with beaded forehead and rising hair. + +"Then another's note piped up. No it droned. No! no! no! no! I +stopped and took heart. Disgrace the woman I loved, on the brink +of the grave? I--, who asked no other boon from heaven than to +see her happy, gracious, and good? Impossible. I would obey the +great clock's voice; the others were mere chatterboxes. + +"But it has at last changed its tune, for some reason, quite +changed its tune. Now, it is Yes! Yes! instead of No! and in +obeying it I save Helena. But what of Bella? and O God, what of +myself?" + +A sigh, a groan, then a long and heavy silence, into which there +finally broke the pealing of the various clocks striking the +hour. When all were still again and Violet had drawn aside the +portiere, it was to see the old man on his knees, and between her +and the thin streak of light entering from the hall, the figure +of the doctor hastening to Helena's bedside. + +When with inducements needless to name, they finally persuaded +the young girl to leave her unholy habitation, it was in the arms +which had upheld her once before, and to a life which promised to +compensate her for her twenty years of loneliness and unsatisfied +longing. + +But a black shadow yet remained which she must cross before +reaching the sunshine! + +It lay at her step-mother's door. + +In the plans made for Helena's release, Mrs. Postlethwaite's +consent had not been obtained nor was she supposed to be +acquainted with the doctor's intentions towards the child whose +death she was hourly awaiting. + +It was therefore with an astonishment, bordering on awe, that on +their way downstairs, they saw the door of her room open and +herself standing alone and upright on the threshold--she who had +not been seen to take a step in years. In the wonder of this +miracle of suddenly restored power, the little procession +stopped,--the doctor with his hand upon the rail, the lover with +his burden clasped yet more protectingly to his breast. That a +little speech awaited them could be seen from the force and fury +of the gaze which the indomitable woman bent upon the lax and +half-unconscious figure she beheld thus sheltered and conveyed. +Having but one arrow left in her exhausted quiver, she launched +it straight at the innocent breast which had never harboured +against her a defiant thought. + +"Ingrate!" was the word she hurled in a voice from which all its +seductive music had gone forever. "Where are you going? Are they +carrying you alive to your grave?" + +A moan from Helena's pale lips, then silence. She had fainted at +that barbed attack. But there was one there who dared to answer +for her and he spoke relentlessly. It was the man who loved her. + +"No, madam. We are carrying her to safety. You must know what I +mean by that. Let her go quietly and you may die in peace. +Otherwise--" + +She interrupted him with a loud call, startling into life the +echoes of that haunted hall: + +"Humphrey! Come to me, Humphrey!" + +But no Humphrey appeared. + +Another call, louder and more peremptory than before: + +"Humphrey! I say, Humphrey!" + +But the answer was the same--silence, and only silence. As the +horror of this grew, the doctor spoke: + +"Mr. Humphrey Dunbar's ears are closed to all earthly summons. He +died last night at the very hour he said he would--four minutes +after two." + +"Four minutes after two!" It came from her lips in a whisper, but +with a revelation of her broken heart and life. "Four minutes +after two!" And defiant to the last, her head rose, and for an +instant, for a mere breath of time, they saw her as she had +looked in her prime, regal in form, attitude, and expression; +then the will which had sustained her through so much, faltered +and succumbed, and with a final reiteration of the words "Four +minutes after two!" she broke into a rattling laugh, and fell +back into the arms of her old nurse. + +And below, one clock struck the hour and then another. But not +the big one at the foot of the stairs. That still stood silent, +with its hands pointing to the hour and minute of Frank +Postlethwaite's hastened death. + +END OF PROBLEM VI + + +PROBLEM VII + +THE DOCTOR, HIS WIFE, AND THE CLOCK + +Violet had gone to her room. She had a task before her. That +afternoon, a packet had been left at the door, which, from a +certain letter scribbled in one corner, she knew to be from her +employer. The contents of that packet must be read, and she had +made herself comfortable with the intention of setting to work at +once. But ten o'clock struck and then eleven before she could +bring herself to give any attention to the manuscript awaiting +her perusal. In her present mood, a quiet sitting by the fire, +with her eyes upon the changeful flame, was preferable to the +study of any affair her employer might send her. Yet, because she +was conscious of the duty she thus openly neglected, she sat +crouched over her desk with her hand on the mysterious packet, +the string of which, however, she made no effort to loosen. + +What was she thinking of? + +We are not alone in our curiosity on this subject. Her brother +Arthur, coming unperceived into the room, gives tokens of a +similar interest. Never before had he seen her oblivious to an +approaching step; and after a momentary contemplation of her +absorbed figure, so girlishly sweet and yet so deeply intent, he +advances to her side, and peering earnestly into her face, +observes with a seriousness quite unusual to him: + +"Puss, you are looking worried,--not like yourself at all. I've +noticed it for some time. What's up. Getting tired of the +business?" + +"No--not altogether--that is, it's not that, if it's anything. +I'm not sure that it's anything. I--" + +She had turned back to her desk and was pushing about the various +articles with which it was plentifully bespread; but this did not +hide the flush which had crept into her cheeks and even dyed the +snowy whiteness of her neck. Arthur's astonishment at this +evidence of emotion was very great; but he said nothing, only +watched her still more closely, as with a light laugh she +regained her self-possession, and with the practical air of a +philosopher uttered this trite remark: + +"Everyone has his sober moments. I was only thinking--" + +"Of some new case?" + +"Not exactly." The words came softly but with a touch of mingled +humour and gravity which made Arthur stare again. + +"See here, Puss!" he cried. His tone had changed. "I've just come +up from the den. Father and I have had a row--a beastly row." + +"A row? You and father? Oh, Arthur, I don't like that. Don't +quarrel with father. Don't, don't. Some day he and I may have a +serious difference about what I am doing. Don't let him feel that +he has lost us all." + +"That's all right, Puss; but I've got to think of you a bit. I +can't see you spoil all your good times with these police horrors +and not do something to help. To-morrow I begin life as a +salesman in Clarke & Stebbin's. The salary is not great, but +every little helps and I don't dislike the business. But father +does. He had rather see me loafing about town setting the +fashions for fellows as idle as myself than soil my hands with +handling merchandise. That's why we quarreled. But don't worry. +Your name didn't come up, or--or--you know whose. He hasn't an +idea of why I want to work--There, Violet there!" + +Two soft arms were around his neck and Violet was letting her +heart out in a succession of sisterly kisses. + +"O, Arthur, you good, good boy! Together we'll soon make up the +amount, and then--" + +"Then what?" + +A sweet soft look robbed her face of its piquancy, but gave it an +aspect of indescribable beauty quite new to Arthur's eyes. + +Tapping his lips with a thoughtful forefinger, he asked: + +"Who was that sombre-looking chap I saw bowing to you as we came +out of church last Sunday?" + +She awoke from her dreamy state with an astonishing quickness. + +"He? Surely you remember him. Have you forgotten that evening in +Massachusetts--the grotto--and--" + +"Oh, it's Upjohn, is it? Yes, I remember him. He's fond of +church, isn't he? That is, when he's in New York." + +Her lips took a roguish curve then a very serious one; but she +made no answer. + +"I have noticed that he's always in his seat and always looking +your way." + +"That's very odd of him," she declared, her dimples coming and +going in a most bewildering fashion. "I can't imagine why he +should do that." + +"Nor I,--" retorted Arthur with a smile. "But he's human, I +suppose. Only do be careful, Violet. A man so melancholy will +need a deal of cheering." + +He was gone before he had fully finished this daring remark, and +Violet, left again with her thoughts, lost her glowing colour but +not her preoccupation. The hand which lay upon the packet already +alluded to did not move for many minutes, and when she roused at +last to the demands of her employer, it was with a start and a +guilty look at the small gold clock ticking out its inexorable +reminder. + +"He will want an answer the first thing in the morning," she +complained to herself. And opening the packet, she took out first +a letter, and then a mass of typewritten manuscript. + +She began with the letter which was as characteristic of the +writer as all the others she had had from his hand; as witness: + +You probably remember the Hasbrouck murder,--or, perhaps, you +don't; it being one of a time previous to your interest in such +matters. But whether you remember it or not, I beg you to read +the accompanying summary with due care and attention to business. +When you have well mastered it with all its details, please +communicate with me in any manner most convenient to yourself, +for I shall have a word to say to you then, which you may be glad +to hear, if as you have lately intimated you need to earn but one +or two more substantial rewards in order to cry halt to the +pursuit for which you have proved yourself so well qualified. + +The story, in deference to yourself as a young and much +preoccupied woman, has been written in a way to interest. Though +the work of an everyday police detective, you will find in it no +lack of mystery or romance; and if at the end you perceive that +it runs, as such cases frequently do, up against a perfectly +blank wall, you must remember that openings can be made in walls, +and that the loosening of one weak stone from its appointed +place, sometimes leads to the downfall of all. + +So much for the letter. + +Laying it aside, with a shrug of her expressive shoulders, +Violet took up the manuscript. + +Let us take it up too. It runs thus: + +On the 17th of July, 19--, a tragedy of no little interest +occurred in one of the residences of the Colonnade in Lafayette +Place. + +Mr. Hasbrouck, a well known and highly respected citizen, was +attacked in his room by an unknown assailant, and shot dead +before assistance could reach him. His murderer escaped, and the +problem offered to the police was how to identify this person +who, by some happy chance or by the exercise of the most +remarkable forethought, had left no traces behind him, or any +clue by which he could be followed. + +The details of the investigation which ended so unsatisfactorily +are here given by the man sent from headquarters at the first +alarm. + +When, some time after midnight on the date above mentioned, I +reached Lafayette Place, I found the block lighted from end to +end. Groups of excited men and women peered from the open +doorways, and mingled their shadows with those of the huge +pillars which adorn the front of this picturesque block of +dwellings. + +The house in which the crime had been committed was near the +centre of the row, and, long before I reached it, I had learned +from more than one source that the alarm was first given to the +street by a woman's shriek, and secondly by the shouts of an old +man-servant who had appeared, in a half-dressed condition, at the +window of Mr. Hasbrouck's room, crying "Murder! murder!" + +But when I had crossed the threshold, I was astonished at the +paucity of facts to be gleaned from the inmates themselves. The +old servant, who was the first to talk, had only this account of +the crime to give: + +The family, which consisted of Mr. Hasbrouck, his wife, and three +servants, had retired for the night at the usual hour and under +the usual auspices. At eleven o'clock the lights were all +extinguished, and the whole household asleep, with the possible +exception of Mr. Hasbrouck himself, who, being a man of large +business responsibilities, was frequently troubled with insomnia. + +Suddenly Mrs. Hasbrouck woke with a start. Had she dreamed the +words that were ringing in her ears, or had they been actually +uttered in her hearing? They were short, sharp words, full of +terror and menace, and she had nearly satisfied herself that she +had imagined them, when there came, from somewhere near the door, +a sound she neither understood nor could interpret, but which +filled her with inexplicable terror, and made her afraid to +breathe, or even to stretch forth her hand towards her husband, +whom she supposed to be sleeping at her side. At length another +strange sound, which she was sure was not due to her imagination, +drove her to make an attempt to rouse him, when she was horrified +to find that she was alone in bed, and her husband nowhere within +reach. + +Filled now with something more than nervous apprehension, she +flung herself to the floor, and tried to penetrate with frenzied +glances, the surrounding darkness. But the blinds and shutters +both having been carefully closed by Mr. Hasbrouck before +retiring, she found this impossible, and she was about to sink in +terror to the floor, when she heard a low gasp on the other side +of the room followed by a suppressed cry. + +"God! what have I done!" + +The voice was a strange one, but before the fear aroused by this +fact could culminate in a shriek of dismay, she caught the sound +of retreating footsteps, and, eagerly listening, she heard them +descend the stairs and depart by the front door. + +Had she known what had occurred--had there been no doubt in her +mind as to what lay in the darkness on the other side of the room +--it is likely that, at the noise caused by the closing front +door, she would have made at once for the balcony that opened out +from the window before which she was standing, and taken one look +at the flying figure below. But her uncertainty as to what lay +hidden from her by the darkness chained her feet to the floor, +and there is no knowing when she would have moved, if a carriage +had not at that moment passed down Astor Place, bringing with it +a sense of companionship which broke the spell holding her, and +gave her strength to light the gas which was in ready reach of +her hand. + +As the sudden blaze illuminated the room, revealing in a burst +the old familiar walls and well-known pieces of furniture, she +felt for a moment as if released from some heavy nightmare and +restored to the common experiences of life. But in another +instant her former dread returned, and she found herself quaking +at the prospect of passing around the foot of the bed into that +part of the room which was as yet hidden from her eyes. + +But the desperation which comes with great crises finally drove +her from her retreat; and, creeping slowly forward, she cast one +glance at the floor before her, when she found her worst fears +realized by the sight of the dead body of her husband lying prone +before the open doorway, with a bullet-hole in his forehead. + +Her first impulse was to shriek, but, by a powerful exercise of +will, she checked herself, and ringing frantically for the +servants who slept on the top floor of the house, flew to the +nearest window and endeavoured to open it. But the shutters had +been bolted so securely by Mr. Hasbrouck, in his endeavour to +shut out all light and sound, that by the time she had succeeded +in unfastening them, all trace of the flying murderer had +vanished from the street. + +Sick with grief and terror, she stepped back into the room just +as the three frightened servants descended the stairs. As they +appeared in the open doorway, she pointed at her husband's +inanimate form, and then, as if suddenly realizing in its full +force the calamity which had befallen her, she threw up her arms, +and sank forward to the floor in a dead faint. + +The two women rushed to her assistance, but the old butler, +bounding over the bed, sprang to the window, and shrieked his +alarm to the street. + +In the interim that followed, Mrs. Hasbrouck was revived, and the +master's body laid decently on the bed; but no pursuit was made, +nor any inquiries started likely to assist me in establishing the +identity of the assailant. + +Indeed, everyone both in the house and out, seemed dazed by the +unexpected catastrophe, and as no one had any suspicions to offer +as to the probable murderer, I had a difficult task before me. + +I began in the usual way, by inspecting the scene of the murder. +I found nothing in the room, or in the condition of the body +itself, which added an iota to the knowledge already obtained. +That Mr. Hasbrouck had been in bed; that he had risen upon +hearing a noise; and that he had been shot before reaching the +door, were self-evident facts. But there was nothing to guide me +further. The very simplicity of the circumstances caused a dearth +of clues, which made the difficulty of procedure as great as any +I had ever encountered. + +My search through the hall and down the stairs elicited nothing; +and an investigation of the bolts and bars by which the house was +secured, assured me that the assassin had either entered by the +front door, or had already been secreted in the house when it was +locked up for the night. + +"I shall have to trouble Mrs. Hasbrouck for a short interview," I +hereupon announced to the trembling old servant, who had followed +me like a dog about the house. + +He made no demur, and in a few minutes I was ushered into the +presence of the newly made widow, who sat quite alone, in a large +chamber in the rear. As I crossed the threshold she looked up, +and I encountered a good, plain face, without the shadow of guile +in it. + +"Madam," said I, "I have not come to disturb you. I will ask two +or three questions only, and then leave you to your grief. I am +told that some words came from the assassin before he delivered +his fatal shot. Did you hear these distinctly enough to tell me +what they were?" + +"I was sound asleep," said she, "and dreamt, as I thought, that a +fierce, strange voice cried somewhere to some one: 'Ah! you did +not expect me!' But I dare not say that these words were really +uttered to my husband, for he was not the man to call forth hate, +and only a man in the extremity of passion could address such an +exclamation in such a tone as rings in my memory in connection +with the fatal shot which woke me." + +"But that shot was not the work of a friend," I argued. "If, as +these words seem to prove, the assassin had some other motive +than plunder in his assault, then your husband had an enemy, +though you never suspected it." + +"Impossible!" was her steady reply, uttered in the most +convincing tone. "The man who shot him was a common burglar, and +frightened at having been betrayed into murder, fled without +looking for booty. I am sure I heard him cry out in terror and +remorse: 'God! what have I done!'" + +"Was that before you left the side of the bed?" + +"Yes; I did not move from my place till I heard the front door +close. I was paralysed by fear and dread." + +"Are you in the habit of trusting to the security of a latch- +lock only in the fastening of your front door at night? I am told +that the big key was not in the lock, and that the bolt at the +bottom of the door was not drawn." + +"The bolt at the bottom of the door is never drawn. Mr. Hasbrouck +was so good a man that he never mistrusted any one. That is why +the big lock was not fastened. The key, not working well, he took +it some days ago to the locksmith, and when the latter failed to +return it, he laughed, and said he thought no one would ever +think of meddling with his front door." + +"Is there more than one night-key to your house?" I now asked. + +She shook her head. + +"And when did Mr. Hasbrouck last use his?" + +"To-night, when he came home from prayer meeting," she answered, +and burst into tears. + +Her grief was so real and her loss so recent that I hesitated to +afflict her by further questions. So returning to the scene of +the tragedy, I stepped out upon the balcony which ran in front. +Soft voices instantly struck my ears. The neighbours on either +side were grouped in front of their own windows, and were +exchanging the remarks natural under the circumstances. I paused, +as in duty bound, and listened. But I heard nothing worth +recording, and would have instantly reentered the house, if I had +not been impressed by the appearance of a very graceful woman who +stood at my right. She was clinging to her husband, who was +gazing at one of the pillars before him in a strange fixed way +which astonished me till he attempted to move, and then I saw +that he was blind. I remembered that there lived in this row a +blind doctor, equally celebrated for his skill and for his +uncommon personal attractions, and greatly interested not only by +his affliction, but in the sympathy evinced by his young and +affectionate wife, I stood still, till I heard her say in the +soft and appealing tones of love: + +"Come in, Constant; you have heavy duties for to-morrow, and you +should get a few hours' rest if possible." + +He came from the shadow of the pillar, and for one minute I saw +his face with the lamplight shining full upon it. It was as +regular of feature as a sculptured Adonis, and it was as white. + +"Sleep!" he repeated, in the measured tones of deep but +suppressed feeling. "Sleep! with murder on the other side of the +wall!" And he stretched out his arms in a dazed way that +insensibly accentuated the horror I myself felt of the crime +which had so lately taken place in the room behind me. + +She, noting the movement, took one of the groping hands in her +own and drew him gently towards her. + +"This way," she urged; and, guiding him into the house, she +closed the window and drew down the shades. + +I have no excuse to offer for my curiosity, but the interest +excited in me by this totally irrelevant episode was so great +that I did not leave the neighbourhood till I had learned +something of this remarkable couple. + +The story told me was very simple. Dr. Zabriskie had not been +born blind, but had become so after a grievous illness which had +stricken him down soon after he received his diploma. Instead of +succumbing to an affliction which would have daunted most men, he +expressed his intention of practising his profession, and soon +became so successful in it that he found no difficulty in +establishing himself in one of the best paying quarters of the +city. Indeed, his intuition seemed to have developed in a +remarkable degree after the loss of his sight, and he seldom, if +ever, made a mistake in diagnosis. Considering this fact, and the +personal attractions which gave him distinction, it was no wonder +that he soon became a popular physician whose presence was a +benefaction and whose word law. + +He had been engaged to be married at the time of his illness, and +when he learned what was likely to be its result, had offered to +release the young lady from all obligation to him. But she would +not be released, and they were married. This had taken place some +five years previous to Mr. Hasbrouck's death, three of which had +been spent by them in Lafayette Place. + +So much for the beautiful woman next door. + +There being absolutely no clue to the assailant of Mr. Hasbrouck, +I naturally looked forward to the inquest for some evidence upon +which to work. But there seemed to be no underlying facts to this +tragedy. The most careful study into the habits and conduct of +the deceased brought nothing to light save his general +beneficence and rectitude, nor was there in his history or in +that of his wife, any secret or hidden obligation calculated to +provoke any such act of revenge as murder. Mrs. Hasbrouck's +surmise that the intruder was simply a burglar, and that she had +rather imagined than heard the words which pointed to the +shooting as a deed of vengeance, soon gained general credence. + +But though the police worked long and arduously in this new +direction their efforts were without fruit and the case bids fair +to remain an unsolvable mystery. + +That was all. As Violet dropped the last page from her hand, she +recalled a certain phrase in her employer's letter. "If at the +end you come upon a perfectly blank wall--" Well, she had come +upon this wall. Did he expect her to make an opening in it? Or +had he already done so himself, and was merely testing her much +vaunted discernment. + +Piqued by the thought, she carefully reread the manuscript, and +when she had again reached its uncompromising end, she gave +herself up to a few minutes of concentrated thought, then, taking +a sheet of paper from the rack before her, she wrote upon it a +single sentence, and folding the sheet, put it in an envelope +which she left unaddressed. This done, she went to bed and slept +like the child she really was. + +At an early hour the next morning she entered her employer's +office. Acknowledging with a nod his somewhat ceremonious bow, +she handed him the envelope in which she had enclosed that one +mysterious sentence. + +He took it with a smile, opened it offhand, glanced at what she +had written, and flushed a vivid red. + +"You are a--brick," he was going to say, but changed the last +word to one more in keeping with her character and appearance. +"Look here. I expected this from you and so prepared myself." +Taking out a similar piece of paper from his own pocket-book, he +laid it down beside hers on the desk before him. It also held a +single sentence and, barring a slight difference of expression, +the one was the counterpart of the other. "The one loose stone," +he murmured. + +"Seen and noted by both." + +"Why not?" he asked. Then as she glanced expectantly his way, he +earnestly added: "Together we may be able to do something. The +reward offered by Mrs. Hasbrouck for the detection of the +murderer was a very large one. She is a woman of means. I have +never heard of its being withdrawn." + +"Then it never has been," was Violet's emphatic conclusion, her +dimples enforcing the statement as only such dimples can. "But-- +what do you want of me in an affair of this kind? Something more +than to help you locate the one possible clue to further +enlightenment. You would not have mentioned the big reward just +for that." + +"Perhaps not. There is a sequel to the story I sent you. I have +written it out, with my own hand. Take it home and read it at +your leisure. When you see into what an unhappy maze my own +inquiries have led me, possibly you will be glad to assist me in +clearing up a situation which is inflicting great suffering on +one whom you will be the first to pity. If so, a line mentioning +the fact will be much appreciated by me." And disregarding her +startled look and the impetuous shaking of her head, he bowed her +out with something more than his accustomed suavity but also with +a seriousness which affected her in spite of herself and +effectually held back the protest it was in her heart to make. +She was glad of this when she read his story; but later on-- + +However, it is not for me to intrude Violet, or Violet's feelings +into an affair which she is so anxious to forget. I shall +therefore from this moment on, leave her as completely out of +this tale of crime and retribution as is possible and keep a full +record of her work. When she is necessary to the story, you will +see her again. Meanwhile, read with her, this relation of her +employer's unhappy attempt to pursue an investigation so openly +dropped by the police. You will perceive, from its general style +and the accentuation put upon the human side of this sombre +story, a likeness to the former manuscript which may prove to +you, as it certainly did to Violet, to whose consideration she +was indebted for the readableness of the policeman's report, +which in all probability had been a simple statement of facts. + +But there, I am speaking of Violet again. To prevent a further +mischance of this nature, I will introduce at once the above +mentioned account. + +II + +No man in all New York was ever more interested than myself in +the Hasbrouck affair, when it was the one and only topic of +interest at a period when news was unusually scarce. But, +together with many such inexplicable mysteries, it had passed +almost completely from my mind, when it was forcibly brought +back, one day, by a walk I took through Lafayette Place. + +At sight of the long row of uniform buildings, with their +pillared fronts and connecting balconies every detail of the +crime which had filled the papers at the time with innumerable +conjectures returned to me with extraordinary clearness, and, +before I knew it, I found myself standing stockstill in the +middle of the block with my eye raised to the Hasbrouck house and +my ears--or rather my inner consciousness, for no one spoke I am +sure--ringing with a question which, whether the echo of some old +thought or the expression of a new one, so affected me by the +promise it held of some hitherto unsuspected clue, that I +hesitated whether to push this new inquiry then or there by an +attempted interview with Mrs. Hasbrouck, or to wait till I had +given it the thought which such a stirring of dead bones +rightfully demanded. + +You know what that question was. I shall have communicated it to +you, if you have not already guessed it, before perusing these +lines: + +"Who uttered the scream which gave the first alarm of Mr. +Hasbrouck's violent death?" + +I was in a state of such excitement as I walked away--for I +listened to my better judgment as to the inadvisability of my +disturbing Mrs. Hasbrouck with these new inquiries--that the +perspiration stood out on my forehead. The testimony she had +given at the inquest recurred to me, and I remembered as +distinctly as if she were then speaking, that she had expressly +stated that she did not scream when confronted by the sight of +her husband's dead body. But someone had screamed and that very +loudly. Who was it, then? One of the maids, startled by the +sudden summons from below, or someone else--some involuntary +witness of the crime, whose testimony had been suppressed at the +inquest, by fear or influence? + +The possibility of having come upon a clue even at this late day +so fired my ambition that I took the first opportunity of +revisiting Lafayette Place. Choosing such persons as I thought +most open to my questions, I learned that there were many who +could testify to having heard a woman's shrill scream on that +memorable night, just prior to the alarm given by old Cyrus, but +no one who could tell from whose lips it had come. One fact, +however, was immediately settled. It had not been the result of +the servant-women's fears. Both of the girls were positive that +they had uttered no sound, nor had they themselves heard any till +Cyrus rushed to the window with his wild cries. As the scream, by +whomever given, was uttered before they descended the stairs, I +was convinced by these assurances that it had issued from one of +the front windows, and not from the rear of the house, where +their own rooms lay. Could it be that it had sprung from the +adjoining dwelling, and that-- + +I remembered who had lived there and was for ringing the bell at +once. But, missing the doctor's sign, I made inquiries and found +that he had moved from the block. However, a doctor is soon +found, and in less than fifteen, minutes I was at the door of his +new home, where I asked, not for him, but for Mrs. Zabriskie. + +It required some courage to do this, for I had taken particular +notice of the doctor's wife at the inquest, and her beauty, at +that time, had worn such an aspect of mingled sweetness and +dignity that I hesitated to encounter it under any circumstances +likely to disturb its pure serenity. But a clue once grasped +cannot be lightly set aside by a true detective, and it would +have taken more than a woman's frowns to stop me at this point. + +However, it was not with frowns she received me, but with a +display of emotion for which I was even less prepared. I had sent +up my card and I saw it trembling in her hand as she entered the +room. As she neared me, she glanced at it, and with a show of +gentle indifference which did not in the least disguise her +extreme anxiety, she courteously remarked: + +"Your name is an unfamiliar one to me. But you told my maid that +your business was one of extreme importance, and so I have +consented to see you. What can an agent from a private detective +office have to say to me?" + +Startled by this evidence of the existence of some hidden +skeleton in her own closet, I made an immediate attempt to +reassure her. + +"Nothing which concerns you personally," said I. "I simply wish +to ask you a question in regard to a small matter connected with +Mr. Hasbrouck's violent death in Lafayette Place, a couple of +years ago. You were living in the adjoining house at the time I +believe, and it has occurred to me that you might on that account +be able to settle a point which has never been fully cleared up." + +Instead of showing the relief I expected, her pallor increased +and her fine eyes, which had been fixed curiously upon me, sank +in confusion to the floor. + +"Great heaven!" thought I. "She looks as if at one more word from +me, she would fall at my feet in a faint. What is this I have +stumbled upon!" + +"I do not see how you can have any question to ask me on that +subject," she began with an effort at composure which for some +reason disturbed me more than her previous open display of fear. +"Yet if you have," she continued, with a rapid change of manner +that touched my heart in spite of myself, "I shall, of course, do +my best to answer you." + +There are women whose sweetest tones and most charming smiles +only serve to awaken distrust in men of my calling; but Mrs. +Zabriskie was not of this number. Her face was beautiful, but it +was also candid in its expression, and beneath the agitation +which palpably disturbed her, I was sure there lurked nothing +either wicked or false. Yet I held fast by the clue which I had +grasped as it were in the dark, and without knowing whither I was +tending, much less whither I was leading her, I proceeded to say: + +"The question which I presume to put to you as the next door +neighbour of Mr. Hasbrouck is this: Who was the woman who on the +night of that gentleman's assassination screamed out so loudly +that the whole neighbourhood heard her?" + +The gasp she gave answered my question in a way she little +realized, and struck as I was by the impalpable links that had +led me to the threshold of this hitherto unsolvable mystery, I +was about to press my advantage and ask another question, when +she quickly started forward and laid her hand on my lips. + +Astonished, I looked at her inquiringly, but her head was turned +aside, and her eyes, fixed upon the door, showed the greatest +anxiety. Instantly I realized what she feared. Her husband was +entering the house, and she dreaded lest his ears should catch a +word of our conversation. + +Not knowing what was in her mind, and unable to realize the +importance of the moment to her, I yet listened to the advance of +her blind husband with an almost painful interest. Would he enter +the room where we were, or would he pass immediately to his +office in the rear? She seemed to wonder too, and almost held her +breath as he neared the door, paused, and stood in the open +doorway, with his ear turned towards us. + +As for myself, I remained perfectly still, gazing at his face in +mingled surprise and apprehension. For besides its beauty, which +was of a marked order, as I have already observed, it had a +touching expression which irresistibly aroused both pity and +interest in the spectator. This may have been the result of his +affliction, or it may have sprung from some deeper cause; but, +whatever its source, this look in his face produced a strong +impression upon me and interested me at once in his personality. +Would he enter; or would he pass on? Her look of silent appeal +showed me in which direction her wishes lay, but while I answered +her glance by complete silence, I was conscious in some +indistinct way that the business I had undertaken would be better +furthered by his entrance. + +The blind have often been said to possess a sixth sense in place +of the one they have lost. Though I am sure we made no noise, I +soon perceived that he was aware of our presence. Stepping +hastily forward he said, in the high and vibrating tone of +restrained passion: + +"Zulma, are you there?" + +For a moment I thought she did not mean to answer, but knowing +doubtless from experience the impossibility of deceiving him, she +answered with a cheerful assent, dropping her hand as she did so +from before my lips. + +He heard the slight rustle which accompanied the movement, and a +look I found it hard to comprehend flashed over his features, +altering his expression so completely that he seemed another man. + +"You have someone with you," he declared, advancing another step, +but with none of the uncertainty which usually accompanies the +movements of the blind. "Some dear friend," he went on, with an +almost sarcastic emphasis and a forced smile that had little of +gaiety in it. + +The agitated and distressed blush which answered him could have +but one interpretation. He suspected that her hand had been +clasped in mine, and she perceived his thought and knew that I +perceived it also. + +Drawing herself up, she moved towards him, saying in a sweet +womanly tone: + +"It is no friend, Constant, not even an acquaintance. The person +whom I now present to you is a representative from some detective +agency. He is here upon a trivial errand which will soon be +finished, when I will join you in the office." + +I knew she was but taking a choice between two evils, that she +would have saved her husband the knowledge of my calling as well +as of my presence in the house, if her self-respect would have +allowed it; but neither she nor I anticipated the effect which +this introduction of myself in my business capacity would produce +upon him. + +"A detective," he repeated, staring with his sightless eyes, as +if, in his eagerness to see, he half hoped his lost sense would +return. "He can have no trivial errand here; he has been sent by +God Himself to--" + +"Let me speak for you," hastily interposed his wife, springing to +his side and clasping his arm with a fervour that was equally +expressive of appeal and command. Then turning to me, she +explained: "Since Mr. Hasbrouck's unaccountable death, my husband +has been labouring under an hallucination which I have only to +mention, for you to recognize its perfect absurdity. He thinks-- +oh! do not look like that, Constant; you know it is an +hallucination which must vanish the moment we drag it into broad +daylight--that he--he, the best man in all the world, was himself +the assailant of Mr. Hasbrouck." + +"Good God!" + +"I say nothing of the impossibility of this being so," she went +on in a fever of expostulation. "He is blind, and could not have +delivered such a shot even if he had desired to; besides, he had +no weapon. But the inconsistency of the thing speaks for itself, +and should assure him that his mind is unbalanced and that he is +merely suffering from a shock that was greater than we realized. +He is a physician and has had many such instances in his own +practice. Why, he was very much attached to Mr. Hasbrouck! They +were the best of friends, and though he insists that he killed +him, he cannot give any reason for the deed." + +At these words the doctor's face grew stern, and he spoke like an +automaton repeating some fearful lesson: + +"I killed him. I went to his room and deliberately shot him. I +had nothing against him, and my remorse is extreme. Arrest me and +let me pay the penalty of my crime. It is the only way in which I +can obtain peace." + +Shocked beyond all power of self-control by this repetition of +what she evidently considered the unhappy ravings of a madman, +she let go his arm and turned upon me in frenzy. + +"Convince him!" she cried. "Convince him by your questions that +he never could have done this fearful thing." + +I was labouring under great excitement myself, for as a private +agent with no official authority such as he evidently attributed +to me in the blindness of his passion, I felt the incongruity of +my position in the face of a matter of such tragic consequence. +Besides, I agreed with her that he was in a distempered state of +mind, and I hardly knew how to deal with one so fixed in his +hallucination and with so much intelligence to support it. But +the emergency was great, for he was holding out his wrists in the +evident expectation of my taking him into instant custody; and +the sight was killing his wife, who had sunk on the floor between +us, in terror and anguish. + +"You say you killed Mr. Hasbrouck," I began. "Where did you get +your pistol, and what did you do with it after you left his +house?" + +"My husband had no pistol; never had any pistol," put in Mrs. +Zabriskie, with vehement assertion. "If I had seen him with such +a weapon--" + +"I threw it away. When I left the house, I cast it as far from me +as possible, for I was frightened at what I had done, horribly +frightened." + +"No pistol was ever found," I answered with a smile, forgetting +for the moment that he could not see. "If such an instrument had +been found in the street after a murder of such consequence, it +certainly would have been brought to the police." + +"You forget that a good pistol is valuable property," he went on +stolidly. "Someone came along before the general alarm was given; +and seeing such a treasure lying on the sidewalk, picked it up +and carried it off. Not being an honest man, he preferred to keep +it to drawing the attention of the police upon himself." + +"Hum, perhaps," said I; "but where did you get it. Surely you can +tell where you procured such a weapon, if, as your wife +intimates, you did not own one." + +"I bought it that selfsame night of a friend; a friend whom I +will not name, since he resides no longer in this country. I--" +He paused; intense passion was in his face; he turned towards his +wife, and a low cry escaped him, which made her look up in fear. + +"I do not wish to go into any particulars," said he. "God forsook +me and I committed a horrible crime. When I am punished, perhaps +peace will return to me and happiness to her. I would not wish +her to suffer too long or too bitterly for my sin." + +"Constant!" What love was in the cry! It seemed to move him and +turn his thoughts for a moment into a different channel. + +"Poor child!" he murmured, stretching out his hands by an +irresistible impulse towards her. But the change was but +momentary, and he was soon again the stem and determined self- +accuser. "Are you going to take me before a magistrate?" he +asked. "If so, I have a few duties to perform which you are +welcome to witness." + +This was too much; I felt that the time had come for me to +disabuse his mind of the impression he had unwittingly formed of +me. I therefore said as considerately as I could: + +"You mistake my position, Dr. Zabriskie. Though a detective of +some experience, I have no connection with the police and no +right to intrude myself in a matter of such tragic importance. +If, however, you are as anxious as you say to subject yourself to +police examination, I will mention the same to the proper +authorities, and leave them to take such action as they think +best." + +"That will be still more satisfactory to me," said he; "for +though I have many times contemplated giving myself up, I have +still much to do before I can leave my home and practice without +injury to others. Good-day; when you want me you will find me +here." + +He was gone, and the poor young wife was left crouching on the +floor alone. Pitying her shame and terror, I ventured to remark +that it was not an uncommon thing for a man to confess to a crime +he had never committed, and assured her that the matter would be +inquired into very carefully before any attempt was made upon his +liberty. + +She thanked me, and slowly rising, tried to regain her +equanimity; but the manner as well as the matter of her husband's +self-condemnation was too overwhelming in its nature for her to +recover readily from her emotions. + +"I have long dreaded this," she acknowledged. "For months I have +foreseen that he would make some rash communication or insane +avowal. If I had dared, I would have consulted some physician +about this hallucination of his; but he was so sane on other +points that I hesitated to give my dreadful secret to the world. +I kept hoping that time and his daily pursuits would have their +effect and restore him to himself. But his illusion grows, and +now I fear that nothing will ever convince him that he did not +commit the deed of which he accuses himself. If he were not blind +I would have more hope, but the blind have so much time for +brooding." + +"I think he had better be indulged in his fancies for the +present," I ventured. "If he is labouring under an illusion it +might be dangerous to cross him." + +"If?" she echoed in an indescribable tone of amazement and dread. +"Can you for a moment harbour the idea that he has spoken the +truth?" + +"Madam," I returned, with something of the cynicism of my +calling, "what caused you to give such an unearthly scream just +before this murder was made known to the neighbourhood?" + +She stared, paled, and finally began to tremble, not, as I now +believe, at the insinuation latent in my words, but at the doubts +which my question aroused in her own breast. + +"Did I?" she asked; then with a burst of candour which seemed +inseparable from her nature, she continued: "Why do I try to +mislead you or deceive myself? I did give a shriek just before +the alarm was raised next door; but it was not from any knowledge +I had of a crime having been committed, but because I +unexpectedly saw before me my husband whom I supposed to be on +his way to Poughkeepsie. He was looking very pale and strange, +and for a moment I thought I stood face to face with his ghost. +But he soon explained his appearance by saying that he had fallen +from the train and had only been saved by a miracle from being +dismembered; and I was just bemoaning his mishap and trying to +calm him and myself, when that terrible shout was heard next door +of 'Murder! murder!' Coming so soon after the shock he had +himself experienced, it quite unnerved him, and I think we can +date his mental disturbance from that moment. For he began +immediately to take a morbid interest in the affair next door, +though it was weeks, if not months, before he let a word fall of +the nature of those you have just heard. Indeed it was not till I +repeated to him some of the expressions he was continually +letting fall in his sleep, that he commenced to accuse himself of +crime and talk of retribution." + +"You say that your husband frightened you on that night by +appearing suddenly at the door when you thought him on his way to +Poughkeepsie. Is Dr. Zabriskie in the habit of thus going and +coming alone at an hour so late as this must have been?" + +"You forget that to the blind, night is less full of perils than +the day. Often and often has my husband found his way to his +patients' houses alone after midnight; but on this especial +evening he had Leonard with him. Leonard was his chauffeur, and +always accompanied him when he went any distance." + +"Well, then," said I, "all we have to do is to summon Leonard and +hear what he has to say concerning this affair. He will surely +know whether or not his master went into the house next door." + +"Leonard has left us," she said. "Dr. Zabriskie has another +chauffeur now. Besides (I have nothing to conceal from you), +Leonard was not with him when he returned to the house that +evening or the doctor would not have been without his portmanteau +till the next day. Something--I have never known what--caused +them to separate, and that is why I have no answer to give the +doctor when he accuses himself of committing a deed that night so +wholly out of keeping with every other act of his life." + +"And have you never asked Leonard why they separated and why he +allowed his master to come home alone after the shock he had +received at the station?" + +"I did not know there was any reason for my doing so till long +after he had left us." + +"And when did he leave?" + +"That I do not remember. A few weeks or possibly a few days after +that dreadful night." + +"And where is he now?" + +"Ah, that I have not the least means of knowing. But," she +objected, in sudden distrust, "what do you want of Leonard? If he +did not follow Dr. Zabriskie to his own door, he could tell us +nothing that would convince my husband that he is labouring under +an illusion." + +"But he might tell us something which would convince us that Dr. +Zabriskie was not himself after the accident; that he--" + +"Hush!" came from her lips in imperious tones. "I will not +believe that he shot Mr. Hasbrouck even if you prove him to have +been insane at the time. How could he? My husband is blind. It +would take a man of very keen sight to force himself into a house +closed for the night, and kill a man in the dark at one shot." + +"On the contrary, it is only a blind man who could do this," +cried a voice from the doorway. "Those who trust to eyesight must +be able to catch a glimpse of the mark they aim at, and this +room, as I have been told, was without a glimmer of light. But +the blind trust to sound, and as Mr. Hasbrouck spoke--" + +"Oh!" burst from the horrified wife, "is there no one to stop him +when he speaks like that?" + +III + +As you will see, this matter, so recklessly entered into, had +proved to be of too serious a nature for me to pursue it farther +without the cognizance of the police. Having a friend on the +force in whose discretion I could rely, I took him into my +confidence and asked for his advice. He pooh-poohed the doctor's +statements, but said that he would bring the matter to the +attention of the superintendent and let me know the result. I +agreed to this, and we parted with the mutual understanding that +mum was the word till some official decision had been arrived at. +I had not long to wait. At an early day he came in with the +information that there had been, as might be expected, a division +of opinion among his superiors as to the importance of Dr. +Zabriskie's so-called confession, but in one point they had been +unanimous and that was the desirability of his appearing before +them at Headquarters for a personal examination. As, however, in +the mind of two out of three of them his condition was attributed +entirely to acute mania, it had been thought best to employ as +their emissary one in whom he had already confided and submitted +his case to,--in other words, myself. The time was set for the +next afternoon at the close of his usual office hours. + +He went without reluctance, his wife accompanying him. In the +short time which elapsed between their leaving home and entering +Headquarters, I embraced the opportunity of observing them, and I +found the study equally exciting and interesting. His face was +calm but hopeless, and his eye, dark and unfathomable, but +neither frenzied nor uncertain. He spoke but once and listened to +nothing, though now and then his wife moved as if to attract his +attention, and once even stole her hand towards his, in the +tender hope that he would feel its approach and accept her +sympathy. But he was deaf as well as blind; and sat wrapped up in +thoughts which she, I know, would have given worlds to penetrate. + +Her countenance was not without its mystery also. She showed in +every lineament passionate concern and misery, and a deep +tenderness from which the element of fear was not absent. But +she, as well as he, betrayed that some misunderstanding deeper +than any I had previously suspected drew its intangible veil +between them and made the near proximity in which they sat at +once a heart-piercing delight and an unspeakable pain. What was +the misunderstanding; and what was the character of the fear that +modified her every look of love in his direction? Her perfect +indifference to my presence proved that it was not connected with +the position in which he had placed himself towards the police by +his voluntary confession of crime, nor could I thus interpret the +expression, of frantic question which now and then contracted her +features, as she raised her eyes towards his sightless orbs, and +strove to read in his firm set lips the meaning of those +assertions she could only ascribe to loss of reason. + +The stopping of the carriage seemed to awaken both from thoughts +that separated rather than united them. He turned his face in her +direction, and she stretching forth her hand, prepared to lead +him from the carriage, without any of that display of timidity +which had previously been evident in her manner. + +As his guide she seemed to fear nothing; as his lover, +everything. + +"There is another and a deeper tragedy underlying the outward and +obvious one," was my inward conclusion, as I followed them into +the presence of the gentlemen awaiting them. + +Dr. Zabriskie's quiet appearance was in itself a shock to those +who had anticipated the feverish unrest of a madman; so was his +speech, which was calm, straightforward, and quietly determined. + +"I shot Mr. Hasbrouck," was his steady affirmation, given without +any show of frenzy or desperation. "If you ask me why I did it, I +cannot answer; if you ask me how, I am ready to state all that I +know concerning the matter." + +"But, Dr. Zabriskie," interposed one of the inspectors, "the why +is the most important thing for us to consider just now. If you +really desire to convince us that you committed this dreadful +crime of killing a totally inoffensive man, you should give us +some reason for an act so opposed to all your instincts and +general conduct." + +But the doctor continued unmoved: + +"I had no reason for murdering Mr. Hasbrouck. A hundred questions +can elicit no other reply; you had better keep to the how." + +A deep-drawn breath from the wife answered the looks of the three +gentlemen to whom this suggestion was offered. "You see," that +breath seemed to protest, "that he is not in his right mind." + +I began to waver in my own opinion, and yet the intuition which +has served me in cases seemingly as impenetrable as this bade me +beware of following the general judgment. + +"Ask him to inform you how he got into the house," I whispered to +Inspector D--, who sat nearest me. + +Immediately the inspector put the question which I had suggested: + +"By what means did you enter Mr. Hasbrouck's house at so late an +hour as this murder occurred?" + +The blind doctor's head fell forward on his breast, and he +hesitated for the first and only time. + +"You will not believe me," said he; "but the door was ajar when I +came to it. Such things make crime easy; it is the only excuse I +have to offer for this dreadful deed." + +The front door of a respectable citizen's house ajar at half- +past eleven at night! It was a statement that fixed in all minds +the conviction of the speaker's irresponsibility. Mrs. +Zabriskie's brow cleared, and her beauty became for a moment +dazzling as she held out her hands in irrepressible relief +towards those who were interrogating her husband. I alone kept my +impassibility. A possible explanation of this crime had flashed +like lightning across my mind; an explanation from which I +inwardly recoiled, even while I felt forced to consider it. + +"Dr. Zabriskie," remarked the inspector formerly mentioned as +friendly to him, "such old servants as those kept by Mr. +Hasbrouck do not leave the front door ajar at twelve o'clock at +night." + +"Yet ajar it was," repeated the blind doctor, with quiet +emphasis; "and finding it so, I went in. When I came out again, I +closed it. Do you wish me to swear to what I say? If so, I am +ready." + +What reply could they give? To see this splendid-looking man, +hallowed by an affliction so great that in itself it called forth +the compassion of the most indifferent, accusing himself of a +cold-blooded crime, in tones which sounded dispassionate because +of the will forcing their utterance, was too painful in itself +for any one to indulge in unnecessary words. Compassion took the +place of curiosity, and each and all of us turned involuntary +looks of pity upon the young wife pressing so eagerly to his +side. + +"For a blind man," ventured one, "the assault was both deft and +certain. Are you accustomed to Mr. Hasbrouck's house, that you +found your way with so little difficulty to his bedroom?" + +"I am accustomed--" he began. + +But here his wife broke in with irrepressible passion: + +"He is not accustomed to that house. He has never been beyond the +first floor. Why, why do you question him? Do you not see--" + +His hand was on her lips. + +"Hush!" he commanded. "You know my skill in moving about a house; +how I sometimes deceive those who do not know me into believing +that I can see, by the readiness with which I avoid obstacles and +find my way even in strange and untried scenes. Do not try to +make them think I am not in my right mind, or you will drive me +into the very condition you attribute to me." + +His face, rigid, cold, and set, looked like that of a mask. Hers, +drawn with horror and filled with question that was fast taking +the form of doubt, bespoke an awful tragedy from which more than +one of us recoiled. + +"Can you shoot a man dead without seeing him?" asked the +Superintendent, with painful effort. + +"Give me a pistol and I will show you," was the quick reply. + +A low cry came from the wife. In a drawer near to every one of us +there lay a pistol, but no one moved to take it out. There was a +look in the doctor's eye which made us fear to trust him with a +pistol just then. + +"We will accept your assurance that you possess a skill beyond +that of most men," returned the Superintendent. And beckoning me +forward, he whispered: "This is a case for the doctors and not +for the police. Remove him quietly, and notify Dr. Southyard of +what I say." + +But Dr. Zabriskie, who seemed to have an almost supernatural +acuteness of hearing, gave a violent start at this, and spoke up +for the first time with real passion in his voice: + +"No, no, I pray you. I can bear anything but that. Remember, +gentlemen, that I am blind; that I cannot see who is about me; +that my life would be a torture if I felt myself surrounded by +spies watching to catch some evidence of madness in me. Rather +conviction at once, death, dishonour, and obloquy. These I have +incurred. These I have brought upon myself by crime, but not this +worse fate--oh! not this worse fate." + +His passion was so intense and yet so confined within the bounds +of decorum, that we felt strangely impressed by it. Only the wife +stood transfixed, with the dread growing in her heart, till her +white, waxen visage seemed even more terrible to contemplate than +his passion-distorted one. + +"It is not strange that my wife thinks me demented," the doctor +continued, as if afraid of the silence that answered him. "But it +is your business to discriminate, and you should know a sane man +when you see him." + +Inspector D-- no longer hesitated. + +"Very well," said he, "give me the least proof that your +assertions are true, and we will lay your case before the +prosecuting attorney." + +"Proof? Is not a man's word--" + +"No man's confession is worth much without some evidence to +support it. In your case there is none. You cannot even produce +the pistol with which you assert yourself to have committed the +deed." + +"True, true. I was frightened by what I had done, and the +instinct of self-preservation led me to rid myself of the weapon +in any way I could. But someone found this pistol; someone picked +it up from the sidewalk of Lafayette Place on that fatal night. +Advertise for it. Offer a reward. I will give you the money." +Suddenly he appeared to realize how all this sounded. "Alas!" +cried he, "I know the story seems improbable; but it is not the +probable things that happen in this life, as, you should know, +who every day dig deep into the heart of human affairs." + +Were these the ravings of insanity? I began to understand the +wife's terror. + +"I bought the pistol," he went on, "of--alas! I cannot tell you +his name. Everything is against me. I cannot adduce one proof; +yet even she is beginning to fear that my story is true. I know +it by her silence, a silence that yawns between us like a deep +and unfathomable gulf." + +But at these words her voice rang out with passionate vehemence. + +"No, no, it is false! I will never believe that your hands have +been plunged in blood. You are my own pure-hearted Constant, +cold, perhaps, and stern, but with no guilt upon your conscience +save in your own wild imagination." + +"Zulma, you are no friend to me," he declared, pushing her gently +aside. "Believe me innocent, but say nothing to lead these others +to doubt my word." + +And she said no more, but her looks spoke volumes. + +The result was that he was not detained, though he prayed for +instant commitment. He seemed to dread his own home, and the +surveillance to which he instinctively knew he would henceforth +be subjected. To see him shrink from his wife's hand as she +strove to lead him from the room was sufficiently painful; but +the feeling thus aroused was nothing to that with which we +observed the keen and agonized expectancy of his look as he +turned and listened for the steps of the officer who followed +him. + +"From this time on I shall never know whether or not I am alone," +was his final observation as he left the building. + +Here is where the matter rests and here, Miss Strange, is where +you come in. The police were for sending an expert alienist into +the house; but agreeing with me, and, in fact, with the doctor +himself, that if he were not already out of his mind, this would +certainly make them so, they, at my earnest intercession, have +left the next move to me. + +That move as you must by this time understand involves you. You +have advantages for making Mrs. Zabriskie's acquaintance of which +I beg you to avail yourself. As friend or patient, you must win +your way into that home? You must sound to its depths one or both +of these two wretched hearts. Not so much now for any possible +reward which may follow the elucidation of this mystery which has +come so near being shelved, but for pity's sake and the possible +settlement of a question which is fast driving a lovely member of +your sex distracted. + +May I rely on you? If so-- + +Various instructions followed, over which Violet mused with a +deprecatory shaking of her head till the little clock struck two. +Why should she, already in a state of secret despondency, intrude +herself into an affair at once so painful and so hopeless? + +IV + +But by morning her mood changed. The pathos of the situation had +seized upon her in her dreams, and before the day was over, she +was to be seen, as a prospective patient, in Dr. Zabriskie's +office. She had a slight complaint as her excuse, and she made +the most of it. That is, at first, but as the personality of this +extraordinary man began to make its usual impression, she found +herself forgetting her own condition in the intensity of interest +she felt in his. Indeed, she had to pull herself together more +than once lest he should suspect the double nature of her errand, +and she actually caught herself at times rejoicing in his +affliction since it left her with only her voice to think of, in +her hated but necessary task of deception. + +That she succeeded in this effort, even with one of his nice ear, +was evident from the interested way in which he dilated upon her +malady, and the minute instructions he was careful to give her-- +the physician being always uppermost in his strange dual nature, +when he was in his office or at the bedside of the sick;--and had +she not been a deep reader of the human soul she would have left +his presence in simple wonder at his skill and entire absorption +in an exacting profession. + +But as it was, she carried with her an image of subdued +suffering, which drove her, from that moment on, to ask herself +what she could do to aid him in his fight against his own +illusion; for to associate such a man with a senseless and cruel +murder was preposterous. + +What this wish, helped by no common determination, led her into, +it was not in her mind to conceive. She was making her one great +mistake, but as yet she was in happy ignorance of it, and pursued +the course laid out for her without a doubt of the ultimate +result. + +Having seen and made up her mind about the husband, she next +sought to see and gauge the wife. That she succeeded in doing +this by means of one of her sly little tricks is not to the +point; but what followed in natural consequence is very much so. +A mutual interest sprang up between them which led very speedily +to actual friendship. Mrs. Zabriskie's hungry heart opened to the +sympathetic little being who clung to her in such evident +admiration; while Violet, brought face to face with a real woman, +succumbed to feelings which made it no imposition on her part to +spend much of her leisure in Zulma Zabriskie's company. + +The result were the following naive reports which drifted into +her employer's office from day to day, as this intimacy deepened. + +The doctor is settling into a deep melancholy, from which he +tries to rise at times, but with only indifferent success. +Yesterday he rode around to all his patients for the purpose of +withdrawing his services on the plea of illness. But he still +keeps his office open, and today I had the opportunity of +witnessing his reception and treatment of the many sufferers who +came to him for aid. I think he was conscious of my presence, +though an attempt had been made to conceal it. For the listening +look never left his face from the moment he entered the room, and +once he rose and passed quickly from wall to wall, groping with +out-stretched hands into every nook and corner, and barely +escaping contact with the curtain behind which I was hidden. But +if he suspected my presence, he showed no displeasure at it, +wishing perhaps for a witness to his skill in the treatment of +disease. + +And truly I never beheld a finer manifestation of practical +insight in cases of a more or less baffling nature. He is +certainly a most wonderful physician, and I feel bound to record +that his mind is as clear for business as if no shadow had fallen +upon it. + +Dr. Zabriskie loves his wife, but in a way torturing to himself +and to her. If she is gone from the house he is wretched, and yet +when she returns he often forbears to speak to her, or if he does +speak it is with a constraint that hurts her more than his +silence. I was present when she came in today. Her step, which +had been eager on the stairway, flagged as she approached the +room, and he naturally noted the change and gave his own +interpretation to it. His face, which had been very pale, flushed +suddenly, and a nervous trembling seized him which he sought in +vain to hide. But by the time her tall and beautiful figure stood +in the doorway, he was his usual self again in all but the +expression of his eyes, which stared straight before him in an +agony of longing only to be observed in those who have once seen. + +"Where have you been, Zulma?" he asked, as contrary to his wont, +he moved to meet her. + +"To my mother's, to Arnold & Constable's, and to the hospital, as +you requested," was her quick answer, made without faltering or +embarrassment. + +He stepped still nearer and took her hand, and as he did so my +eye fell on his and I noted that his finger lay over her pulse in +seeming unconsciousness. + +"Nowhere else?" he queried. + +She smiled the saddest kind of smile and shook her head; then, +remembering that he could not see this movement, she cried in a +wistful tone: + +"Nowhere else, Constant; I was too anxious to get back." + +I expected him to drop her hand at this, but he did not; and his +finger still rested on her pulse. + +"And whom did you see while you were gone?" he continued. + +She told him, naming over several names. + +"You must have enjoyed yourself," was his cold comment, as he let +go her hand and turned away. But his manner showed relief, and I +could not but sympathize with the pitiable situation of a man who +found himself forced into means like this for probing the heart +of his young wife. + +Yet when I turned towards her, I realized that her position was +but little happier than his. Tears are no strangers to her eyes, +but those which welled up at this moment seemed to possess a +bitterness that promised but little peace for her future. Yet she +quickly dried them and busied herself with ministrations for his +comfort. + +If I am any judge of woman, Zulma Zabriskie is superior to most +of her sex. That her husband mistrusts her is evident, but +whether this is the result of the stand she has taken in his +regard, or only a manifestation of dementia, I have as yet been +unable to determine. I dread to leave them alone together, and +yet when I presume to suggest that she should be on her guard in +her interviews with him, she smiles very placidly and tells me +that nothing would give her greater joy than to see him lift his +hand against her, for that would argue that he is not accountable +for his deeds or assertions. + +Yet it would be a grief to see her injured by this passionate and +unhappy man. + +You have said that you wanted all the details I could give; so I +feel bound to say that Dr. Zabriskie tries to be considerate of +his wife, though he often fails in the attempt. When she offers +herself as his guide, or assists him with his mail or performs +any of the many acts of kindness by which she continually +manifests her sense of his affliction, he thanks her with +courtesy and often with kindness, yet I know she would willingly +exchange all his set phrases for one fond embrace or impulsive +smile of affection. It would be too much to say that he is not in +the full possession of his faculties, and yet upon what other +hypothesis can we account for the inconsistencies of his conduct? + +I have before me two visions of mental suffering. At noon I +passed the office door, and looking within, saw the figure of Dr. +Zabriskie seated in his great chair, lost in thought or deep in +those memories which make an abyss in one's consciousness. His +hands, which were clenched, rested upon the arms of his chair, +and in one of them I detected a woman's glove, which I had no +difficulty in recognizing as one of the pair worn by his wife +this morning. He held it as a tiger might hold his prey or a +miser his gold, but his set features and sightless eyes betrayed +that a conflict of emotions was being waged within him, among +which tenderness had but little share. Though alive as he usually +is to every sound, he was too absorbed at this moment to notice +my presence, though I had taken no pains to approach quietly. I +therefore stood for a full minute watching him, till an +irresistible sense of the shame at thus spying upon a blind man +in his moments of secret anguish compelled me to withdraw. But +not before I saw his features relax in a storm of passionate +feeling, as he rained kisses after kisses on the senseless kid he +had so long held in his motionless grasp. Yet when an hour later +he entered the dining-room on his wife's arm, there was nothing +in his manner to show that he had in any way changed in his +attitude towards her. + +The other picture was more tragic still. I was seeking Mrs. +Zabriskie in her own room, when I caught a fleeting vision of her +tall form, with her arms thrown up over her head in a paroxysm of +feeling which made her as oblivious to my presence as her husband +had been several hours before. Were the words that escaped her +lips "Thank God we have no children!" or was this exclamation +suggested to me by the passion and unrestrained impulse of her +action? + +So much up to date. Interesting enough, or so her employer seemed +to think, as he went hurriedly through the whole story, one +special afternoon in his office, tapping each sheet as he laid it +aside with his sagacious forefinger, as though he would say, +"Enough! My theory still holds good; nothing contradictory here; +on the contrary complete and undisputable confirmation of the one +and only explanation of this astounding crime." + +What was that theory; and in what way and through whose efforts +had he been enabled to form one? The following notes may +enlighten us. Though written in his own hand, and undoubtedly a +memorandum of his own activities, he evidently thinks it worth +while to reperuse them in connection with those he had just laid +aside. + +We can do no better than read them also. + +We omit dates. + +Watched the Zabriskie mansion for five hours this morning, from +the second story window of an adjoining hotel. Saw the doctor +when he drove away on his round of visits, and saw him when he +returned. A coloured man accompanied him. + +Today I followed Mrs. Zabriskie. She went first to a house in +Washington Place where I am told her mother lives. Here she +stayed some time, after which she drove down to Canal Street, +where she did some shopping, and later stopped at the hospital, +into which I took the liberty of following her. She seemed to +know many there, and passed from cot to cot with a smile in which +I alone discerned the sadness of a broken heart. When she left, I +left also, without having learned anything beyond the fact that +Mrs. Zabriskie is one who does her duty in sorrow as in joy. A +rare, and trustworthy woman I should say, and yet her husband +does not trust her. Why? + +I have spent this day in accumulating details in regard to Dr. +and Mrs. Zabriskie's life previous to the death of Mr. Hasbrouck. +I learned from sources it would be unwise to quote just here, +that Mrs. Zabriskie had not lacked enemies to charge her with +coquetry; that while she had never sacrificed her dignity in +public, more than one person had been heard to declare that Dr. +Zabriskie was fortunate in being blind, since the sight of his +wife's beauty would have but poorly compensated him for the pain +he would have suffered in seeing how that beauty was admired. + +That all gossip is more or less tinged with exaggeration I have +no doubt, yet when a name is mentioned in connection with such +stories, there is usually some truth at the bottom of them. And a +name is mentioned in this case, though I do not think it worth my +while to repeat it here; and loth as I am to recognize the fact, +it is a name that carries with it doubts that might easily +account for the husband's jealousy. True, I have found no one who +dares hint that she still continues to attract attention or to +bestow smiles in any direction save where they legally belong. +For since a certain memorable night which we all know, neither +Dr. Zabriskie nor his wife have been seen save in their own +domestic circle, and it is not into such scenes that this +serpent, to whom I have just alluded, ever intrudes, nor is it in +places of sorrow or suffering that his smile shines, or his +fascinations flourish. + +And so one portion of my theory is proved to be sound. Dr. +Zabriskie is jealous of his wife; whether with good cause or bad +I am not prepared to decide; since her present attitude, clouded +as it is by the tragedy in which she and her husband are both +involved, must differ very much from that which she held when her +life was unshadowed by doubt, and her admirers could be counted +by the score. + +I have just found out where Leonard is. As he is in service some +miles up the river, I shall have to be absent from my post for +several hours, but I consider the game well worth the candle. + +Light at last. I have not only seen Leonard, but succeeded in +making him talk. His story is substantially this: That on the +night so often mentioned, he packed his master's portmanteau at +eight o'clock and at ten called a taxi and rode with the doctor +to the Central station. He was told to buy tickets to +Poughkeepsie where his master had been called in consultation, +and having done this, hurried back to join Dr. Zabriskie on the +platform. They had walked together as far as the cars, and Dr. +Zabriskie was just stepping on to the train, when a man pushed +himself hurriedly between them and whispered something into his +master's ear, which caused him to fall back and lose his footing. +Dr. Zabriskie's body slid half under the car, but he was +withdrawn before any harm was done, though the cars gave a lurch +at that moment which must have frightened him exceedingly, for +his face was white when he rose to his feet, and when Leonard +offered to assist him again on the train, he refused to go and +said he would return home and not attempt to ride to Poughkeepsie +that night. + +The gentleman, whom Leonard now saw to be Mr. Stanton, an +intimate friend of Dr. Zabriskie, smiled very queerly at this, +and taking the doctor's arm led him back to his own auto. Leonard +naturally followed them, but the doctor, hearing his steps, +turned and bade him, in a very peremptory tone, to take the cars +home, and then, as if on second thought, told him to go to +Poughkeepsie in his stead and explain to the people there that he +was too shaken up by his misstep to do his duty, and that he +would be with them next morning. This seemed strange to Leonard, +but he had no reasons for disobeying his master's orders, and so +rode to Poughkeepsie. But the doctor did not follow him the next +day; on the contrary he telegraphed for him to return, and when +he got back dismissed him with a month's wages. This ended +Leonard's connection with the Zabriskie family. + +A simple story bearing out what the wife has already told us; but +it furnishes a link which may prove invaluable. Mr. Stanton, +whose first name is Theodore, knows the real reason why Dr. +Zabriskie returned home on the night of the seventeenth of July, +19--. Mr. Stanton, consequently, is the man to see, and this +shall be my business tomorrow. + +Checkmate! Theodore Stanton is not in this country. Though this +points him out as the man from whom Dr. Zabriskie bought the +pistol, it does not facilitate my work, which is becoming more +and more difficult. + +Mr. Stanton's whereabouts are not even known to his most intimate +friends. He sailed from this country most unexpectedly on the +eighteenth of July a year ago, which was the day after the murder +of Mr. Hasbrouck. It looks like a flight, especially as he has +failed to maintain open communication even with his relatives. +Was he the man who shot Mr. Hasbrouck? No; but he was the man who +put the pistol in Dr. Zabriskie's hand that night, and whether he +did this with purpose or not, was evidently so alarmed at the +catastrophe which followed that he took the first outgoing +steamer to Europe. So far, all is clear, but there are mysteries +yet to be solved, which will require my utmost tact. What if I +should seek out the gentleman with whose name that of Mrs. +Zabriskie has been linked, and see if I can in any way connect +him with Mr. Stanton or the events of that night. + +Eureka! I have discovered that Mr. Stanton cherished a mortal +hatred for the gentleman above mentioned. It was a covert +feeling, but no less deadly on that account; and while it never +led him into any extravagances, it was of force sufficient to +account for many a secret misfortune occurring to that gentleman. +Now if I can prove that he is the Mephistopheles who whispered +insinuations into the ear of our blind Faust, I may strike a fact +that will lead me out of this maze. + +But how can I approach secrets so delicate without compromising +the woman I feel bound to respect if only for the devoted love +she manifests for her unhappy husband! + +I shall have to appeal to Joe Smithers. This is something which I +always hate to do, but as long as he will take money, and as long +as he is fertile in resources for obtaining the truth from people +I am myself unable to reach, I must make use of his cupidity and +his genius. He is an honourable fellow in one way, and never +retails as gossip what he acquires for our use. How will he +proceed in this case, and by what tactics will he gain the very +delicate information which we need? I own that I am curious to +see. + +I shall really have to put down at length the incidents of this +night. I always knew that Joe Smithers was invaluable not only to +myself but to the police, but I really did not know he possessed +talents of so high an order. He wrote me this morning that he had +succeeded in getting Mr. T--'s promise to spend the evening with +him, and advised me that if I desired to be present as well, his +own servant would not be at home, and that an opener of bottles +would be required. + +As I was very anxious to see Mr. T-- with my own eyes, I accepted +this invitation to play the spy, and went at the proper hour to +Mr. Smithers's rooms. I found them picturesque in the extreme. +Piles of books stacked here and there to the ceiling made nooks +and corners which could be quite shut off by a couple of old +pictures set into movable frames capable of swinging out or in at +the whim or convenience of the owner. + +As I had use for the dark shadows cast by these pictures, I +pulled them both out, and made such other arrangements as +appeared likely to facilitate the purpose I had in view; then I +sat down and waited for the two gentlemen who were expected to +come in together. + +They arrived almost immediately, whereupon I rose and played my +part with all necessary discretion. While ridding Mr. T-- of his +overcoat, I stole a look at his face. It is not a handsome one, +but it boasts of a gay, devil-may-care expression which doubtless +makes it dangerous to many women, while his manners are +especially attractive, and his voice the richest and most +persuasive that I ever heard. I contrasted him, almost against my +will, with Dr. Zabriskie, and decided that with most women the +former's undoubted fascinations of speech and bearing would +outweigh the latter's great beauty and mental endowments; but I +doubted if they would with her. + +The conversation which immediately began was brilliant but +desultory, for Mr. Smithers, with an airy lightness for which he +is remarkable, introduced topic after topic, perhaps for the +purpose of showing off Mr. T-'s versatility, and perhaps for the +deeper and more sinister purpose of shaking the kaleidoscope of +talk so thoroughly, that the real topic which we were met to +discuss should not make an undue impression on the mind of his +guest. + +Meanwhile one, two, three bottles passed, and I had the pleasure +of seeing Joe Smithers's eye grow calmer and that of Mr. T-- more +brilliant and more uncertain. As the last bottle was being +passed, Joe cast me a meaning glance, and the real business of +the evening began. + +I shall not attempt to relate the half dozen failures which Joe +made in endeavouring to elicit the facts we were in search of, +without arousing the suspicion of his visitor. I am only going to +relate the successful attempt. They had been talking now for some +hours, and I, who had long before been waved aside from their +immediate presence, was hiding my curiosity and growing +excitement behind one of the pictures, when I suddenly heard Joe +say: + +"He has the most remarkable memory I ever met. He can tell to a +day when any notable event occurred." + +"Pshaw!" answered his companion, who, by the way, was known to +pride himself upon his own memory for dates, "I can state where I +went and what I did on every day in the year. That may not +embrace what you call 'notable events,' but the memory required +is all the more remarkable, is it not?" + +"Pooh!" was his friend's provoking reply, "you are bluffing, Ben; +I will never believe that." + +Mr. T-, who had passed by this time into that stage of +intoxication which makes persistence in an assertion a duty as +well as a pleasure, threw back his head, and as the wreaths of +smoke rose in airy spirals from his lips, reiterated his +statement, and offered to submit to any test of his vaunted +powers which the other might dictate. + +"You keep a diary--" began Joe. + +"Which at the present moment is at home," completed the other. + +"Will you allow me to refer to it tomorrow, if I am suspicious of +the accuracy of your recollections?" + +"Undoubtedly," returned the other. + +"Very well, then, I will wager you a cool fifty that you cannot +tell where you were between the hours of ten and eleven on a +certain night which I will name." + +"Done!" cried the other, bringing out his pocket-book and laying +it on the table before him. + +Joe followed his example and then summoned me. + +"Write a date down here," he commanded, pushing a piece of paper +towards me, with a look keen as the flash of a blade. "Any date, +man," he added, as I appeared to hesitate in the embarrassment I +thought natural under the circumstances. "Put down day, month, +and year, only don't go too far back; not farther than two +years." + +Smiling with the air of a flunkey admitted to the sports of his +superiors, I wrote a line and laid it before Mr. Smithers, who at +once pushed it with a careless gesture towards his companion. You +can of course guess the date I made use of: July 17, 19--. Mr. T--, +who had evidently looked upon this matter as mere play, flushed +scarlet as he read these words, and for one instant looked as if +he had rather fly the house than answer Joe Smithers's nonchalant +glance of inquiry. + +"I have given my word and will keep it," he said at last, but +with a look in my direction that sent me reluctantly back to my +retreat. "I don't suppose you want names," he went on; "that is, +if anything I have to tell is of a delicate nature?" + +"Oh, no," answered the other, "only facts and places." + +"I don't think places are necessary either," he returned. "I will +tell you what I did and that must serve you. I did not promise to +give number and street." + +"Well, well," Joe exclaimed; "earn your fifty, that is all. Show +that you remember where you were on the night of"--and with an +admirable show of indifference he pretended to consult the paper +between them--"the seventeenth of July, two years ago, and I +shall be satisfied." + +"I was at the club for one thing," said Mr. T-; "then I went to +see a lady friend, where I stayed until eleven. She wore a blue +muslin--What is that?" + +I had betrayed myself by a quick movement which sent a glass +tumbler crashing to the floor. Zulma Zabriskie had worn a blue +muslin on that same night. You will find it noted in the report +given me by the policeman who saw her on their balcony. + +"That noise?" It was Joe who was speaking. "You don't know Reuben +as well as I do or you wouldn't ask. It is his practice, I am +sorry to say, to accentuate his pleasure in draining my bottles +by dropping a glass at every third one." + +Mr. T-- went on. + +"She was a married woman and I thought she loved me; but--and +this is the greatest proof I can offer you that I am giving you a +true account of that night--she had not the slightest idea of the +extent of my passion, and only consented to see me at all because +she thought, poor thing, that a word from her would set me +straight, and rid her of attentions she evidently failed to +appreciate. A sorry figure for a fellow like me to cut; but you +caught me on the most detestable date in my calendar and--" + +There he ceased being interesting and I anxious. The secret of a +crime for which there seemed to be no reasonable explanation is +no longer a mystery to me. I have but to warn Miss Strange-- + +He had got thus far when a sound in the room behind him led him +to look up. A lady had entered; a lady heavily veiled and +trembling with what appeared to be an intense excitement. + +He thought he knew the figure, but the person, whoever it was, +stood so still and remained so silent, he hesitated to address +her; which seeing, she pushed up her veil and all doubt vanished. + +It was Violet herself. In disregard of her usual practice she had +come alone to the office. This meant urgency of some kind. Had +she too sounded this mystery? No, or her aspect would not have +worn this look of triumph. What had happened then? He made an +instant endeavour to find out. + +"You have news," he quietly remarked. "Good news, I should judge, +by your very cheery smile." + +"Yes; I think I have found the way of bringing Dr. Zabriskie to +himself." + +Astonished beyond measure, so little did these words harmonize +with the impressions and conclusions at which he had just +arrived, something very like doubt spoke in his voice as he +answered with the simple exclamation: + +"You do!" + +"Yes. He is obsessed by a fixed idea, and must be given an +opportunity to test the truth of that idea. The shock of finding +it a false one may restore him to his normal condition. He +believes that he shot Mr. Hasbrouck with no other guidance than +his sense of hearing. Now if it can be proved that his hearing is +an insufficient guide for such an act (as of course it is) the +shock of the discovery may clear his brain of its cobwebs. Mrs. +Zabriskie thinks so, and the police--" + +"What's that? The police?" + +"Yes, Dr. Zabriskie would be taken before them again this +morning. No entreaties on the part of his wife would prevail; he +insisted upon his guilt and asked her to accompany him there; and +the poor woman found herself forced to go. Of course he +encountered again the same division of opinion among the men he +talked with. Three out of the four judged him insane, which +observing, he betrayed great agitation and reiterated his former +wish to be allowed an opportunity to prove his sanity by showing +his skill in shooting. This made an impression; and a disposition +was shown to grant his request then and there. But Mrs. Zabriskie +would not listen to this. She approved of the experiment but +begged that it might be deferred till another day and then take +place in some spot remote from the city. For some reason they +heeded her, and she has just telephoned me that this attempt of +his is to take place tomorrow in the New Jersey woods. I am sorry +that this should have been put through without you; and when I +tell you that the idea originated with me--that from some word I +purposely let fall one day, they both conceived this plan of +ending the uncertainty that was devouring their lives, you will +understand my excitement and the need I have of your support. +Tell me that I have done well. Do not show me such a face--you +frighten me--" + +"I do not wish to frighten you. I merely wish to know just who +are going on this expedition." + +"Some members of the police, Dr. Zabriskie, his wife, and--and +myself. She begged--" + +"You must not go." + +"Why? The affair is to be kept secret. The doctor will shoot, +fail--Oh!" she suddenly broke in, alarmed by his expression, "you +think he will not fail--" + +"I think that you had better heed my advice and stay out of it. +The affair is now in the hands of the police, and your place is +anywhere but where they are." + +"But I go as her particular friend. They have given her the +privilege of taking with her one of her own sex and she has +chosen me. I shall not fail her. Father is away, and if the awful +disappointment you suggest awaits her, there is all the more +reason why she should have some sympathetic support?" + +This was so true, that the fresh protest he was about to utter +died on his lips. Instead, he simply remarked as he bowed her +out: + +"I foresee that we shall not work much longer together. You are +nearing the end of your endurance." + +He never forgot the smile she threw back at him. + +V + +There are some events which impress the human mind so deeply that +their memory mingles with all after-experiences. Though Violet +had made it a rule to forget as soon as possible the tragic +episodes incident to the strange career upon which she had so +mysteriously embarked, there was destined to be one scene, if not +more, which she has never been able to dismiss at will. + +This was the sight which met her eyes from the bow of the small +boat in which Dr. Zabriskie and his wife were rowed over to +Jersey on the afternoon which saw the end of this most sombre +drama. + +Though it was by no means late in the day, the sun was already +sinking, and the bright red glare which filled the west and shone +full upon the faces of the half dozen people before her added +much to the tragic nature of the scene, though she was far from +comprehending its full significance. + +The doctor sat with his wife in the stern and it was upon their +faces Violet's glance was fixed. The glare shone luridly on his +sightless eyeballs, and as she noticed his unwinking lids, she +realized as never before what it was to be blind in the midst of +sunshine. His wife's eyes, on the contrary, were lowered, but +there was a look of hopeless misery in her colourless face which +made her appearance infinitely pathetic, and Violet felt +confident that if he could only have seen her, he would not have +maintained the cold and unresponsive manner which chilled the +words on his poor wife's lips and made all advance on her part +impossible. + +On the seat in front of them sat an inspector and from some +quarter, possibly from under the inspector's coat, there came the +monotonous ticking of the small clock, which was to serve as a +target for the blind man's aim. + +This ticking was all Violet heard, though the river was alive +with traffic and large and small boats were steaming by them on +every side. And I am sure it was all that Mrs. Zabriskie heard +also, as with hand pressed to her heart, and eyes fixed on the +opposite shore, she waited for the event which was to determine +whether the man she loved was a criminal or only a being +afflicted of God and worthy of her unceasing care and devotion. + +As the sun cast its last scarlet gleam over the water, the boat +grounded, and Violet was enabled to have one passing word with +Mrs. Zabriskie. She hardly knew what she said but the look she +received in return was like that of a frightened child. + +But there was always to be seen in Mrs. Zabriskie's countenance +this characteristic blending of the severe and the childlike, and +beyond an added pang of pity for this beautiful but afflicted +woman, Violet let the moment pass without giving it the weight it +perhaps demanded. + +"The doctor and his wife had a long talk last night," was +whispered in her ear as she wound her way with the rest into the +heart of the woods. With a start she turned and perceived her +employer following close behind her. He had come by another boat. + +"But it did not seem to heal whatever breach lies between them," +he proceeded. Then, in a quick, anxious tone, he whispered: +"Whatever happens, do not lift your veil. I thought I saw a +reporter skulking in the rear." + +"I will be careful," Violet assured him, and could say no more, +as they had already reached the ground which had been selected +for this trial at arms, and the various members of the party were +being placed in their several positions. + +The doctor, to whom light and darkness were alike, stood with his +face towards the western glow, and at his side were grouped the +inspector and the two physicians. On the arm of one of the latter +hung Dr. Zabriskie's overcoat, which he had taken off as soon as +he reached the field. + +Mrs. Zabriskie stood at the other end of the opening near a tall +stump, upon which it had been decided that the clock should be +placed when the moment came for the doctor to show his skill. She +had been accorded the privilege of setting the clock on this +stump, and Violet saw it shining in her hand as she paused for a +moment to glance back at the circle of gentlemen who were +awaiting her movements. The hands of the clock stood at five +minutes to five, though Violet scarcely noted it at the time, for +Mrs. Zabriskie was passing her and had stopped to say: + +"If he is not himself, he cannot be trusted. Watch him carefully +and see that he does no mischief to himself or others. Ask one of +the inspectors to stand at his right hand, and stop him if he +does not handle his pistol properly." + +Violet promised, and she passed on, setting the clock upon the +stump and immediately drawing back to a suitable distance at the +right, where she stood, wrapped in her long dark cloak. Her face +shone ghastly white, even in its environment of snow-covered +boughs, and noting this, Violet wished the minutes fewer between +the present moment and the hour of five, at which time he was to +draw the trigger. + +"Dr. Zabriskie," quoth the inspector, "we have endeavoured to +make this trial a perfectly fair one. You are to have a shot at a +small clock which has been placed within a suitable distance, and +which you are expected to hit, guided only by the sound which it +will make in striking the hour of five. Are you satisfied with +the arrangement?" + +"Perfectly. Where is my wife?" + +"On the other side of the field some ten paces from the stump +upon which the clock is fixed." He bowed, and his face showed +satisfaction. + +"May I expect the clock to strike soon?" + +"In less than five minutes," was the answer. + +"Then let me have the pistol; I wish to become acquainted with +its size and weight." + +We glanced at each other, then across at her. + +She made a gesture; it was one of acquiescence. + +Immediately the inspector placed the weapon in the blind man's +hand. It was at once apparent that he understood the instrument, +and Violet's hopes which had been strong up to this moment, sank +at his air of confidence. + +"Thank God I am blind this hour and cannot see her," fell from +his lips, then, before the echo of these words had died away, he +raised his voice and observed calmly enough, considering that he +was about to prove himself a criminal in order to save himself +from being thought a madman: + +"Let no one move. I must have my ears free for catching the first +stroke of the clock." And he raised the pistol before him. + +There was a moment of torturing suspense and deep, unbroken +silence. Violet's eyes were on him so she did not watch the +clock, but she was suddenly moved by some irresistible impulse to +note how Mrs. Zabriskie was bearing herself at this critical +moment, and casting a hurried glance in her direction she +perceived her tall figure swaying from side to side, as if under +an intolerable strain of feeling. Her eyes were on the clock, the +hands of which seemed to creep with snail-like pace along the +dial, when unexpectedly, and a full minute before the minute hand +had reached the stroke of five, Violet caught a movement on her +part, saw the flash of something round and white show for an +instant against the darkness of her cloak, and was about to +shriek warning to the doctor, when the shrill, quick stroke of a +clock rang out on the frosty air, followed by the ping and flash +of a pistol. + +A sound of shattered glass, followed by a suppressed cry, told +the bystanders that the bullet had struck the mark, but before +any one could move, or they could rid their eyes of the smoke +which the wind had blown into their faces, there came another +sound which made their hair stand on end and sent the blood back +in terror to their hearts. Another clock was striking, which they +now perceived was still standing upright on the stump where Mrs. +Zabriskie had placed it. + +Whence came the clock, then, which had struck before the time and +been shattered for its pains? One quick look told them. On the +ground, ten paces to the right, lay Zulma Zabriskie, a broken +clock at her side, and in her breast a bullet which was fast +sapping the life from her sweet eyes. + +They had to tell him, there was such pleading in her looks; and +never will any of the hearers forget the scream which rang from +his lips as he realized the truth. Breaking from their midst, he +rushed forward, and fell at her feet as if guided by some +supernatural instinct. + +"Zulma," he shrieked, "what is this? Were not my hands dyed deep +enough in blood that you should make me answerable for your life +also?" + +Her eyes were closed but she opened them. Looking long and +steadily at his agonized face, she faltered forth: + +"It is not you who have killed me; it is your crime. Had you been +innocent of Mr. Hasbrouck's death your bullet would never have +found my heart. Did you think I could survive the proof that you +had killed that good man?" + +"I did it unwittingly. I--" + +"Hush!" she commanded, with an awful look, which happily he could +not see. "I had another motive. I wished to prove to you, even at +the cost of my life, that I loved you, had always loved you, and +not--" + +It was now his turn to silence her. His hand crept to her lips, +and his despairing face turned itself blindly towards those about +them. + +"Go!" he cried; "leave us! Let me take a last farewell of my +dying wife, without listeners or spectators." + +Consulting the eye of her employer who stood close beside her, +and seeing no hope in it, Violet fell slowly back. The others, +followed, and the doctor was left alone with his wife. From the +distant position they took, they saw her arms creep round his +neck, saw her head fall confidingly on his breast, then silence +settled upon them, and upon all nature, the gathering twilight +deepening, till the last glow disappeared from the heavens above +and from the circle of leafless trees which enclosed this tragedy +from the outside world. + +But at last there came a stir, and Dr. Zabriskie, rising up +before them with the dead body of his wife held closely to his +breast, confronted them with a countenance so rapturous that he +looked like a man transfigured. + +"I will carry her to the boat," said he. "Not another hand shall +touch her. She was my true wife, my true wife!" And he towered +into an attitude of such dignity and passion that for a moment he +took on heroic proportions and they forgot that he had just +proved himself to have committed a cold-blooded and ghastly +crime. + +The stars were shining when the party again took their seats in +the boat; and if the scene of their crossing to Jersey was +impressive, what shall be said of the return? + +The doctor, as before, sat in the stern, an awesome figure, upon +which the moon shone with a white radiance that seemed to lift +his face out of the surrounding darkness and set it like an image +of frozen horror before their eyes. Against his breast he held +the form of his dead wife, and now and then Violet saw him stoop +as if he were listening for some token of life from her set lips. +Then he would lift himself again with hopelessness stamped upon +his features, only to lean forward in renewed hope that was again +destined to disappointment. + +Violet had been so overcome by this tragic end to all her hopes, +that her employer had been allowed to enter the boat with her. +Seated at her side in the seat directly in front of the doctor, +he watched with her these simple tokens of a breaking heart, +saying nothing till they reached midstream, when true to his +instincts for all his awe and compassion, he suddenly bent +towards him and said: + +"Dr. Zabriskie, the mystery of your crime is no longer a mystery +to me. Listen and see if I do not understand your temptation, and +how you, a conscientious and God-fearing man, came to slay your +innocent neighbour. + +"A friend of yours, or so he called himself, had for a long time +filled your ears with tales tending to make you suspicious of +your wife and jealous of a certain man whom I will not name. You +knew that your friend had a grudge against this man, and so for +many months turned a deaf ear to his insinuations. But finally +some change which you detected in your wife's bearing or +conversation roused your own suspicions, and you began to doubt +her truth and to curse your blindness, which in a measure +rendered you helpless. The jealous fever grew and had risen to a +high point when one night--a memorable night--this friend met you +just as you were leaving town, and with cruel craft whispered in +your ear that the man you hated was even then with your wife and +that if you would return at once to your home you would find him +in her company. + +"The demon that lurks at the heart of all men, good or bad, +thereupon took complete possession, of you, and you answered +this false friend by saying that you would not return without a +pistol. Whereupon he offered to take you to his house and give +you his. You consented, and getting rid of your servant by +sending him to Poughkeepsie with your excuses, you entered your +friend's automobile. + +"You say you bought the pistol, and perhaps you did, but, however +that may be, you left his house with it in your pocket, and +declining companionship, walked home, arriving at the Colonnade a +little before midnight. + +"Ordinarily you have no difficulty in recognizing your own +doorstep. But, being in a heated frame of mind, you walked faster +than usual and so passed your own house and stopped at that of +Mr. Hasbrouck, one door beyond. As the entrances of these houses +are all alike, there was but one way by which you could have made +yourself sure that you had reached your own dwelling, and that +was by feeling for the doctor's sign at the side of the door. But +you never thought of that. Absorbed in dreams of vengeance, your +sole impulse was to enter by the quickest means possible. Taking +out your night key, you thrust it into the lock. It fitted, but +it took strength to turn it, so much strength that the key was +twisted and bent by the effort. But this incident, which would +have attracted your attention at another time, was lost upon you +at this moment. An entrance had been effected, and you were in +too excited a frame of mind to notice at what cost, or to detect +the small differences apparent in the atmosphere and furnishings +of the two houses, trifles which would have arrested your +attention under other circumstances, and made you pause before +the upper floor had been reached. + +"It was while going up the stairs that you took out your pistol, +so that by the time you arrived at the front room door you held +it already drawn and cocked in your hand. For, being blind, you +feared escape on the part of your victim, and so waited for +nothing but the sound of a man's voice before firing. When, +therefore, the unfortunate Mr. Hasbrouck, roused by this sudden +intrusion, advanced with an exclamation of astonishment, you +pulled the trigger, and killed him on the spot. It must have been +immediately upon his fall that you recognized from some word he +uttered, or from some contact you may have had with your +surroundings, that you were in the wrong house and had killed the +wrong man; for you cried out, in evident remorse, 'God! what have +I done!' and fled without approaching your victim. + +"Descending the stairs, you rushed from the house, closing the +front door behind you and regaining your own without being seen. +But here you found yourself baffled in your attempted escape, by +two things. First, by the pistol you still held in your hand, and +secondly, by the fact that the key upon which you depended for +entering your own door was so twisted out of shape that you knew +it would be useless for you to attempt to use it. What did you do +in this emergency? You have already told us, though the story +seemed so improbable at the time, you found nobody to believe it +but myself. The pistol you flung far away from you down the +pavement, from which, by one of those rare chances which +sometimes happen in this world, it was presently picked up by +some late passer-by of more or less doubtful character. The door +offered less of an obstacle than you had anticipated; for when +you turned again you found it, if I am not greatly mistaken, +ajar, left so, as we have reason to believe, by one who had gone +out of it but a few minutes before in a state which left him but +little master of his actions. It was this fact which provided you +with an answer when you were asked how you succeeded in getting +into Mr. Hasbrouck's house after the family had retired for the +night. + +"Astonished at the coincidence, but hailing with gladness the +deliverance which it offered, you went in and ascended at once +into your wife's presence; and it was from her lips, and not from +those of Mrs. Hasbrouck, that the cry arose which startled the +neighbourhood and prepared men's minds for the tragic words which +were shouted a moment later from the next house. + +"But she who uttered the scream knew of no tragedy save that +which was taking place in her own breast. She had just repulsed a +dastardly suitor, and seeing you enter so unexpectedly in a state +of unaccountable horror and agitation, was naturally stricken +with dismay, and thought she saw your ghost, or what was worse, a +possible avenger; while you, having failed to kill the man you +sought, and having killed a man you esteemed, let no surprise on +her part lure you into any dangerous self-betrayal. You strove +instead to soothe her, and even attempted to explain the +excitement under which you laboured, by an account of your narrow +escape at the station, till the sudden alarm from next door +distracted her attention, and sent both your thoughts and hers in +a different direction. Not till conscience had fully awakened and +the horror of your act had had time to tell upon your sensitive +nature, did you breathe forth those vague confessions, which, not +being supported by the only explanations which would have made +them credible, led her, as well as the police, to consider you +affected in your mind. Your pride as a man and your consideration +for her as a woman kept you silent, but did not keep the worm +from preying upon your heart. + +"Am I not correct in my surmises, Dr. Zabriskie, and is not this +the true explanation of your crime?" + +With a strange look, he lifted up his face. + +"Hush!" said he; "you will waken her. See how peacefully she +sleeps! I should not like to have her wakened now, she is so +tired, and I--I have not watched over her as I should." + +Appalled at his gesture, his look, his tone, Violet drew back, +and for a few minutes no sound was to be heard but the steady dip- +dip of the oars and the lap-lap of the waters against the boat. +Then there came a quick uprising, the swaying before her of +something dark and tall and threatening, and before she could +speak or move, or even stretch forth her hands to stay him, the +seat before her was empty and darkness had filled the place where +but an instant previous he had sat, a fearsome figure, erect and +rigid as a sphinx. + +What little moonlight there was, only served to show a few rising +bubbles, marking the spot where the unfortunate man had sunk with +his much-loved burden. As the widening circles fled farther and +farther out, the tide drifted the boat away, and the spot was +lost which had seen the termination of one of earth's saddest +tragedies. + +END OF PROBLEM VII + + +PROBLEM VIII + +MISSING: PAGE THIRTEEN + +"One more! just one more well paying affair, and I promise to +stop; really and truly to stop." + +"But, Puss, why one more? You have earned the amount you set for +yourself,--or very nearly,--and though my help is not great, in +three months I can add enough--" + +"No, you cannot, Arthur. You are doing well; I appreciate it; in +fact, I am just delighted to have you work for me in the way you +do, but you cannot, in your present position, make enough in +three months, or in six, to meet the situation as I see it. +Enough does not satisfy me. The measure must be full, heaped up, +and running over. Possible failure following promise must be +provided for. Never must I feel myself called upon to do this +kind of thing again. Besides, I have never got over the Zabriskie +tragedy. It haunts me continually. Something new may help to put +it out of my head. I feel guilty. I was responsible--" + +"No, Puss. I will not have it that you were responsible. Some +such end was bound to follow a complication like that. Sooner or +later he would have been driven to shoot himself--" + +"But not her." + +"No, not her. But do you think she would have given those few +minutes of perfect understanding with her blind husband for a few +years more of miserable life?" + +Violet made no answer; she was too absorbed in her surprise. Was +this Arthur? Had a few weeks' work and a close connection with +the really serious things of life made this change in him? Her +face beamed at the thought, which seeing, but not understanding +what underlay this evidence of joy, he bent and kissed her, +saying with some of his old nonchalance: + +"Forget it, Violet; only don't let any one or anything lead you +to interest yourself in another affair of the kind. If you do, I +shall have to consult a certain friend of yours as to the best +way of stopping this folly. I mention no names. Oh! you need not +look so frightened. Only behave; that's all." + +"He's right," she acknowledged to herself, as he sauntered away; +"altogether right." + +Yet because she wanted the extra money-- + +The scene invited alarm,--that is, for so young a girl as Violet, +surveying it from an automobile some time after the stroke of +midnight. An unknown house at the end of a heavily shaded walk, +in the open doorway of which could be seen the silhouette of a +woman's form leaning eagerly forward with arms outstretched in an +appeal for help! It vanished while she looked, but the effect +remained, holding her to her seat for one startled moment. This +seemed strange, for she had anticipated adventure. One is not +summoned from a private ball to ride a dozen miles into the +country on an errand of investigation, without some expectation +of encountering the mysterious and the tragic. But Violet +Strange, for all her many experiences, was of a most susceptible +nature, and for the instant in which that door stood open, with +only the memory of that expectant figure to disturb the faintly +lit vista of the hall beyond, she felt that grip upon the throat +which comes from an indefinable fear which no words can explain +and no plummet sound. + +But this soon passed. With the setting of her foot to ground, +conditions changed and her emotions took on a more normal +character. The figure of a man now stood in the place held by the +vanished woman; and it was not only that of one she knew but that +of one whom she trusted--a friend whose very presence gave her +courage. With this recognition came a better understanding of the +situation, and it was with a beaming eye and unclouded features +that she tripped up the walk to meet the expectant figure and +outstretched hand of Roger Upjohn. + +"You here!" she exclaimed, amid smiles and blushes, as he drew +her into the hall. + +He at once launched forth into explanations mingled with +apologies for the presumption he had shown in putting her to this +inconvenience. There was trouble in the house--great trouble. +Something had occurred for which an explanation must be found +before morning, or the happiness and honour of more than one +person now under this unhappy roof would be wrecked. He knew it +was late--that she had been obliged to take a long and dreary +ride alone, but her success with the problem which had once come +near wrecking his own life had emboldened him to telephone to the +office and--"But you are in ball-dress," he cried in amazement. +"Did you think--" + +"I came from a ball. Word reached me between the dances. I did +not go home. I had been bidden to hurry." + +He looked his appreciation, but when he spoke it was to say: + +"This is the situation. Miss Digby--" + +"The lady who is to be married tomorrow?" + +"Who hopes to be married tomorrow." + +"How, hopes?" + +"Who will be married tomorrow, if a certain article lost in this +house tonight can be found before any of the persons who have +been dining here leave for their homes." + +Violet uttered an exclamation. + +"Then, Mr. Cornell," she began-- + +"Mr. Cornell has our utmost confidence," Roger hastened to +interpose. "But the article missing is one which he might +reasonably desire to possess and which he alone of all present +had the opportunity of securing. You can therefore see why he, +with his pride--the pride off a man not rich, engaged to marry a +woman who is--should declare that unless his innocence is +established before daybreak, the doors of St. Bartholomew will +remain shut to-morrow." + +"But the article lost--what is it?" + +"Miss Digby will give you the particulars. She is waiting to +receive you," he added with a gesture towards a half-open door at +their right. + +Violet glanced that way, then cast her looks up and down the hall +in which they stood. + +"Do you know that you have not told me in whose house I am? Not +hers, I know. She lives in the city." + +"And you are twelve miles from Harlem. Miss Strange, you are in +the Van Broecklyn mansion, famous enough you will acknowledge. +Have you never been here before?" + +"I have been by here, but I recognized nothing in the dark. What +an exciting place for an investigation!" + +"And Mr. Van Broecklyn? Have you never met him?" + +"Once, when a child. He frightened me then." + +"And may frighten you now; though I doubt it. Time has mellowed +him. Besides, I have prepared him for what might otherwise +occasion him some astonishment. Naturally he would not look for +just the sort of lady investigator I am about to introduce to +him." + +She smiled. Violet Strange was a very charming young woman, as +well as a keen prober of odd mysteries. + +The meeting between herself and Miss Digby was a sympathetic one. +After the first inevitable shock which the latter felt at sight +of the beauty and fashionable appearance of the mysterious little +being who was to solve her difficulties, her glance, which, under +other circumstances, might have lingered unduly upon the piquant +features and exquisite dressing of the fairy-like figure before +her, passed at once to Violet's eyes, in whose steady depths +beamed an intelligence quite at odds with the coquettish dimples +which so often misled the casual observer in his estimation of a +character singularly subtle and well-poised. + +As for the impression she herself made upon Violet, it was the +same she made upon everyone. No one could look long at Florence +Digby and not recognize the loftiness of her spirit and the +generous nature of her impulses. In person she was tall and as +she leaned to take Violet's hand, the difference between them +brought out the salient points in each, to the great admiration +of the one onlooker. + +Meantime, for all her interest in the case in hand, Violet could +not help casting a hurried look about her, in gratification of +the curiosity incited by her entrance into a house signalized +from its foundation by such a series of tragic events. The result +was disappointing. The walls were plain, the furniture simple. +Nothing suggestive in either, unless it was the fact that nothing +was new, nothing modern. As it looked in the days of Burr and +Hamilton so it looked to-day, even to the rather startling detail +of candles which did duty on every side in place of gas. + +As Violet recalled the reason for this, the fascination of the +past seized upon her imagination. There was no knowing where this +might have carried her, had not the feverish gleam in Miss +Digby's eyes warned her that the present held its own excitement. +Instantly, she was all attention and listening with undivided +mind to that lady's disclosures. + +They were brief and to the following effect: + +The dinner which had brought some half-dozen people together in +this house had been given in celebration of her impending +marriage. But it was also in a way meant as a compliment to one +of the other guests, a Mr. Spielhagen, who, during the week, had +succeeded in demonstrating to a few experts the value of a +discovery he had made which would transform a great industry. + +In speaking of this discovery, Miss Digby did not go into +particulars, the whole matter being far beyond her understanding; +but in stating its value she openly acknowledged that it was in +the line of Mr. Cornell's own work, and one which involved +calculations and a formula which, if prematurely disclosed, would +invalidate the contract Mr. Spielhagen hoped to make, and thus +destroy his present hopes. + +Of this formula but two copies existed. One was locked up in a +safe deposit vault in Boston, the other he had brought into the +house on his person, and it was the latter which was now missing, +having been abstracted during the evening from a manuscript of +sixteen or more sheets, under circumstances which she would now +endeavour to relate. + +Mr. Van Broecklyn, their host, had in his melancholy life but one +interest which could be at all absorbing. This was for +explosives. As consequence, much of the talk at the dinner-table +had been on Mr. Spielhagen's discovery, and possible changes it +might introduce into this especial industry. As these, worked out +from a formula kept secret from the trade, could not but affect +greatly Mr. Cornell's interests, she found herself listening +intently, when Mr. Van Broecklyn, with an apology for his +interference, ventured to remark that if Mr. Spielhagen had made +a valuable discovery in this line, so had he, and one which he +had substantiated by many experiments. It was not a marketable +one, such as Mr. Spielhagen's was, but in his work upon the same, +and in the tests which he had been led to make, he had discovered +certain instances he would gladly name, which demanded +exceptional procedure to be successful. If Mr. Spielhagen's +method did not allow for these exceptions, nor make suitable +provision for them, then Mr. Spielhagen's method would fail more +times than it would succeed. Did it so allow and so provide? It +would relieve him greatly to learn that it did. + +The answer came quickly. Yes, it did. But later and after some +further conversation, Mr. Spielhagen's confidence seemed to wane, +and before they left the dinner-table, he openly declared his +intention of looking over his manuscript again that very night, +in order to be sure that the formula therein contained duly +covered all the exceptions mentioned by Mr. Van Broecklyn. + +If Mr. Cornell's countenance showed any change at this moment, +she for one had not noticed it; but the bitterness with which he +remarked upon the other's good fortune in having discovered this +formula of whose entire success he had no doubt, was apparent to +everybody, and naturally gave point to the circumstances which a +short time afterward associated him with the disappearance of +the same. + +The ladies (there were two others besides herself) having +withdrawn in a body to the music-room, the gentlemen all +proceeded to the library to smoke. Here, conversation loosed from +the one topic which had hitherto engrossed it, was proceeding +briskly, when Mr. Spielhagen, with nervous gesture, impulsively +looked about him and said: + +"I cannot rest till I have run through my thesis again. Where can +I find a quiet spot? I won't be long; I read very rapidly." + +It was for Mr. Van Broecklyn to answer, but no word coming from +him, every eye turned his way, only to find him sunk in one of +those fits of abstraction so well known to his friends, and from +which no one who has this strange man's peace of mind at heart +ever presumes to rouse him. + +What was to be done? These moods of their singular host sometimes +lasted half an hour, and Mr. Spielhagen had not the appearance of +a man of patience. Indeed he presently gave proof of the great +uneasiness he was labouring under, for noticing a door standing +ajar on the other side of the room, he remarked to those around +him: + +"A den! and lighted! Do you see any objection to my shutting +myself in there for a few minutes?" + +No one venturing to reply, he rose, and giving a slight push to +the door, disclosed a small room exquisitely panelled and +brightly lighted, but without one article of furniture in it, not +even a chair. + +"The very place," quoth Mr. Spielhagen, and lifting a light cane- +bottomed chair from the many standing about, he carried it inside +and shut the door behind him. + +Several minutes passed during which the man who had served at +table entered with a tray on which were several small glasses +evidently containing some choice liqueur. Finding his master +fixed in one of his strange moods, he set the tray down and, +pointing to one of the glasses, said: + +"That is for Mr. Van Broecklyn. It contains his usual quieting +powder." And urging the gentlemen to help themselves, he quietly +left the room. Mr. Upjohn lifted the glass nearest him, and Mr. +Cornell seemed about to do the same when he suddenly reached +forward and catching up one farther off started for the room in +which Mr. Spielhagen had so deliberately secluded himself. + +Why he did all this--why, above all things, he should reach +across the tray for a glass instead of taking the one under his +hand, he can no more explain than why he has followed many +another unhappy impulse. Nor did he understand the nervous start +given by Mr. Spielhagen at his entrance, or the stare with which +that gentleman took the glass from his hand and mechanically +drank its contents, till he saw how his hand had stretched itself +across the sheet of paper he was reading, in an open attempt to +hide the lines visible between his fingers. Then indeed the +intruder flushed and withdrew in great embarrassment, fully +conscious of his indiscretion but not deeply disturbed till Mr. +Van Broecklyn, suddenly arousing and glancing down at the tray +placed very near his hand remarked in some surprise: "Dobbs seems +to have forgotten me." Then indeed, the unfortunate Mr. Cornell +realized what he had done. It was the glass intended for his host +which he had caught up and carried into the other room--the glass +which he had been told contained a drug. Of what folly he had +been guilty, and how tame would be any effort at excuse! + +Attempting none, he rose and with a hurried glance at Mr. Upjohn +who flushed in sympathy at his distress, he crossed to the door +he had lately closed upon Mr. Spielhagen. But feeling his +shoulder touched as his hand pressed the knob, he turned to meet +the eye of Mr. Van Broecklyn fixed upon him with an expression +which utterly confounded him. + +"Where are you going?" that gentleman asked. + +The questioning tone, the severe look, expressive at once of +displeasure and astonishment, were most disconcerting, but Mr. +Cornell managed to stammer forth: + +"Mr. Spielhagen is in here consulting his thesis. When your man +brought in the cordial, I was awkward enough to catch up your +glass and carry it in to. Mr. Spielhagen. He drank it and I--I am +anxious to see if it did him any harm." + +As he uttered the last word he felt Mr. Van Broecklyn's hand slip +from his shoulder, but no word accompanied the action, nor did +his host make the least move to follow him into the room. + +This was a matter of great regret to him later, as it left him +for a moment out of the range of every eye, during which he says +he simply stood in a state of shock at seeing Mr. Spielhagen +still sitting there, manuscript in hand, but with head fallen +forward and eyes closed; dead, asleep or--he hardly knew what; +the sight so paralysed him. + +Whether or not this was the exact truth and the whole truth, Mr. +Cornell certainly looked very unlike himself as he stepped back +into Mr. Van Broecklyn's presence; and he was only partially +reassured when that gentleman protested that there was no real +harm in the drug, and that Mr. Spielhagen would be all right if +left to wake naturally and without shock. However, as his present +attitude was one of great discomfort, they decided to carry him +back and lay him on the library lounge. But before doing this, +Mr. Upjohn drew from his flaccid grasp, the precious manuscript, +and carrying it into the larger room placed it on a remote table, +where it remained undisturbed till Mr. Spielhagen, suddenly +coming to himself at the end of some fifteen minutes, missed the +sheets from his hand, and bounding up, crossed the room to +repossess himself of them. + +His face, as he lifted them up and rapidly ran through them with +ever-accumulating anxiety, told them what they had to expect. + +The page containing the formula was gone! + +Violet now saw her problem. + +II + +There was no doubt about the loss I have mentioned; all could see +that page 13 was not there. In vain a second handling of every +sheet, the one so numbered was not to be found. Page 14 met the +eye on the top of the pile, and page 12 finished it off at the +bottom, but no page 13 in between, or anywhere else. + +Where had it vanished, and through whose agency had this +misadventure occurred? No one could say, or, at least, no one +there made any attempt to do so, though everybody started to look +for it. + +But where look? The adjoining small room offered no facilities +for hiding a cigar-end, much less a square of shining white +paper. Bare walls, a bare floor, and a single chair for +furniture, comprised all that was to be seen in this direction. +Nor could the room in which they then stood be thought to hold +it, unless it was on the person of some one of them. Could this +be the explanation of the mystery? No man looked his doubts; but +Mr. Cornell, possibly divining the general feeling, stepped up to +Mr. Van Broecklyn and in a cool voice, but with the red burning +hotly on either cheek, said, so as to be heard by everyone +present: + +"I demand to be searched--at once and thoroughly." + +A moment's silence, then the common cry: + +"We will all be searched." + +"Is Mr. Spielhagen sure that the missing page was with the others +when he sat down in the adjoining room to read his thesis?" asked +their perturbed host. + +"Very sure," came the emphatic reply. "Indeed, I was just going +through the formula itself when I fell asleep." + +"You are ready to assert this?" + +"I am ready to swear it." + +Mr. Cornell repeated his request. + +"I demand that you make a thorough search of my person. I must be +cleared, and instantly, of every suspicion," he gravely asserted, +"or how can I marry Miss Digby to-morrow." + +After that there was no further hesitation. One and all subjected +themselves to the ordeal suggested; even Mr. Spielhagen. But this +effort was as futile as the rest. The lost page was not found. + +What were they to think? What were they to do? + +There seemed to be nothing left to do, and yet some further +attempt must be made towards the recovery of this important +formula. Mr. Cornell's marriage and Mr. Spielhagen's business +success both depended upon its being in the latter's hands before +six in the morning, when he was engaged to hand it over to a +certain manufacturer sailing for Europe on an early steamer. + +Five hours! + +Had Mr. Van Broecklyn a suggestion to offer? No, he was as much +at sea as the rest. + +Simultaneously look crossed look. Blankness was on every face. + +"Let us call the ladies," suggested one. + +It was done, and however great the tension had been before, it +was even greater when Miss Digby stepped upon the scene. But she +was not a woman to be shaken from her poise even by a crisis of +this importance. When the dilemma had been presented to her and +the full situation grasped, she looked first at Mr. Cornell and +then at Mr. Spielhagen, and quietly said: + +"There is but one explanation possible of this matter. Mr. +Spielhagen will excuse me, but he is evidently mistaken in +thinking that he saw the lost page among the rest. The condition +into which he was thrown by the unaccustomed drug he had drank, +made him liable to hallucinations. I have not the least doubt he +thought he had been studying the formula at the time he dropped +off to sleep. I have every confidence in the gentleman's candour. +But so have I in that of Mr. Cornell," she supplemented, with a +smile. + +An exclamation from Mr. Van Broecklyn and a subdued murmur from +all but Mr. Spielhagen testified to the effect of this +suggestion, and there is no saying what might have been the +result if Mr. Cornell had not hurriedly put in this extraordinary +and most unexpected protest: + +"Miss Digby has my gratitude," said he, "for a confidence which I +hope to prove to be deserved. But I must say this for Mr. +Spielhagen. He was correct in stating that he was engaged in +looking over his formula when I stepped into his presence with +the glass of cordial. If you were not in a position to see the +hurried way in which his hand instinctively spread itself over +the page he was reading, I was; and if that does not seem +conclusive to you, then I feel bound to state that in +unconsciously following this movement of his, I plainly saw the +number written on the top of the page, and that number was--13." + +A loud exclamation, this time from Spielhagen himself, announced +his gratitude and corresponding change of attitude toward the +speaker. + +"Wherever that damned page has gone," he protested, advancing +towards Cornell with outstretched hand, "you have nothing to do +with its disappearance." + +Instantly all constraint fled, and every countenance took on a +relieved expression. But the problem remained. + +Suddenly those very words passed some one's lips, and with their +utterance Mr. Upjohn remembered how at an extraordinary crisis in +his own life he had been helped and an equally difficult problem +settled, by a little lady secretly attached to a private +detective agency. If she could only be found and hurried here +before morning, all might yet be well. He would make the effort. +Such wild schemes sometimes work. He telephoned to the office and-- + +Was there anything else Miss Strange would like to know? + +III + +Miss Strange, thus appealed to, asked where the gentlemen were +now. + +She was told that they were still all together in the library; +the ladies had been sent home. + +"Then let us go to them," said Violet, hiding under a smile her +great fear that here was an affair which might very easily spell +for her that dismal word, failure. + +So great was that fear that under all ordinary circumstances she +would have had no thought for anything else in the short interim +between this stating of the problem and her speedy entrance among +the persons involved. But the circumstances of this case were so +far from ordinary, or rather let me put it in this way, the +setting of the case was so very extraordinary, that she scarcely +thought of the problem before her, in her great interest in the +house through whose rambling halls she was being so carefully +guided. So much that was tragic and heartrending had occurred +here. The Van Broecklyn name, the Van Broecklyn history, above +all the Van Broecklyn tradition, which made the house unique in +the country's annals (of which more hereafter), all made an +appeal to her imagination, and centred her thoughts on what she +saw about her. There was door which no man ever opened--had never +opened since Revolutionary times--should she see it? Should she +know it if she did see it? Then Mr. Van Broecklyn himself! just +to meet him, under any conditions and in any place, was an event. +But to meet him here, under the pall of his own mystery! No +wonder she had no words for her companions, or that her thoughts +clung to this anticipation in wonder and almost fearsome delight. + +His story was a well-known one. A bachelor and a misanthrope, he +lived absolutely alone save for a large entourage of servants, +all men and elderly ones at that. He never visited. Though he now +and then, as on this occasion, entertained certain persons under +his roof, he declined every invitation for himself, avoiding +even, with equal strictness, all evening amusements of whatever +kind, which would detain him in the city after ten at night. +Perhaps this was to ensure no break in his rule of life never to +sleep out of his own bed. Though he was a man well over fifty he +had not spent, according to his own statement, but two nights out +of his own bed since his return from Europe in early boyhood, and +those were in obedience to a judicial summons which took him to +Boston. + +This was his main eccentricity, but he had another which is +apparent enough from what has already been said. He avoided +women. If thrown in with them during his short visits into town, +he was invariably polite and at times companionable, but he never +sought them out, nor had gossip, contrary to its usual habit, +ever linked his name with one of the sex. + +Yet he was a man of more than ordinary attraction. His features +were fine and his figure impressive. He might have been the +cynosure of all eyes had he chosen to enter crowded drawing- +rooms, or even to frequent public assemblages, but having turned +his back upon everything of the kind in his youth, he had found +it impossible to alter his habits with advancing years; nor was +he now expected to. The position he had taken was respected. +Leonard Van Broecklyn was no longer criticized. + +Was there any explanation for this strangely self-centred life? +Those who knew him best seemed to think so. In the first place he +had sprung from an unfortunate stock. Events of unusual and +tragic nature had marked the family of both parents. Nor had his +parents themselves been exempt from this seeming fatality. +Antagonistic in tastes and temperament, they had dragged on an +unhappy existence in the old home, till both natures rebelled, +and a separation ensued which not only disunited their lives but +sent them to opposite sides of the globe never to return again, +At least, that was the inference drawn from the peculiar +circumstances attending the event. On the morning of one never- +to-be-forgotten day, John Van Broecklyn, the grandfather of the +present representative of the family, found the following note +from his son lying on the library table: + +"FATHER: + +"Life in this house, or any house, with her is no longer +endurable. One of us must go. The mother should not be separated +from her child. Therefore it is I whom you will never see again. +Forget me, but be considerate of her and the boy. + +"WILLIAM." + +Six hours later another note was found, this time from the wife: + +"FATHER: + +"Tied to a rotting corpse what does one do? Lop off one's arm if +necessary to rid one of the contact. As all love between your +son and myself is dead, I can no longer live within the sound of +his voice. As this is his home, he is the one to remain in it. +May our child reap the benefit of his mother's loss and his +father's affection. + +"RHODA." + +Both were gone, and gone forever. Simultaneous in their +departure, they preserved each his own silence and sent no word +back. If the one went east and the other west, they may have met +on the other side of the globe, but never again in the home which +sheltered their boy. For him and for his grandfather they had +sunk from sight in the great sea of humanity, leaving them +stranded on an isolated and mournful shore. The grand-father +steeled himself to the double loss, for the child's sake; but the +boy of eleven succumbed. Few of the world's great sufferers, of +whatever age or condition, have mourned as this child mourned, or +shown the effects of his grief so deeply or so long. Not till he +had passed his majority did the line, carved in one day in his +baby forehead, lose any of its intensity; and there are those who +declare that even later than that, the midnight stillness of the +house was disturbed from time to time by his muffled shriek of +"Mother! Mother!", sending the servants from the house, and +adding one more horror to the many which clung about this +accursed mansion. + +Of this cry Violet had heard, and it was that and the door--But I +have already told you about the door which she was still looking +for, when her two companions suddenly halted, and she found +herself on the threshold of the library, in full view of Mr. Van +Broecklyn and his two guests. + +Slight and fairy-like in figure, with an air of modest reserve +more in keeping with her youth and dainty dimpling beauty than +with her errand, her appearance produced an astonishment none of +which the gentlemen were able to disguise. This the clever +detective, with a genius for social problems and odd elusive +cases! This darling of the ball-room in satin and pearls! Mr. +Spielhagen glanced at Mr. Cornell, and Mr. Cornell at Mr. +Spielhagen, and both at Mr. Upjohn, in very evident distrust. As +for Violet, she had eyes only for Mr. Van Broecklyn who stood +before her in a surprise equal to that of the others but with +more restraint in its expression. + +She was not disappointed in him. She had expected to see a man, +reserved almost to the point of austerity. And she found his +first look even more awe-compelling than her imagination had +pictured; so much so indeed, that her resolution faltered, and +she took a quick step backward; which seeing, he smiled and her +heart and hopes grew warm again. That he could smile, and smile +with absolute sweetness, was her great comfort when later--But I +am introducing you too hurriedly to the catastrophe. There is +much to be told first. + +I pass over the preliminaries, and come at once to the moment +when Violet, having listened to a repetition of the full facts, +stood with downcast eyes before these gentlemen, complaining in +some alarm to herself: "They expect me to tell them now and +without further search or parley just where this missing page is. +I shall have to balk that expectation without losing their +confidence. But how?" + +Summoning up her courage and meeting each inquiring eye with a +look which seemed to carry a different message to each, she +remarked very quietly: + +"This is not a matter to guess at. I must have time and I must +look a little deeper into the facts just given me. I presume that +the table I see over there is the one upon which Mr. Upjohn laid +the manuscript during Mr. Spielhagen's unconsciousness." + +All nodded. + +"Is it--I mean the table--in the same condition it was then? Has +nothing been taken from it except the manuscript?" + +"Nothing." + +"Then the missing page is not there," she smiled, pointing to its +bare top. A pause, during which she stood with her gaze fixed on +the floor before her. She was thinking and thinking hard. + +Suddenly she came to a decision. Addressing Mr. Upjohn she asked +if he were quite sure that in taking the manuscript from Mr. +Spielhagen's hand he had neither disarranged nor dropped one of +its pages. + +The answer was unequivocal. + +"Then," she declared, with quiet assurance and a steady meeting +with her own of every eye, "as the thirteenth page was not found +among the others when they were taken from this table, nor on the +persons of either Mr. Cornell or Mr. Spielhagen, it is still in +that inner room." + +"Impossible!" came from every lip, each in a different tone. +"That room is absolutely empty." + +"May I have a look at its emptiness?" she asked, with a naive +glance at Mr. Van Broecklyn. + +"There is positively nothing in the room but the chair Mr. +Spielhagen sat on," objected that gentleman with a noticeable air +of reluctance. + +"Still, may I not have a look at it?" she persisted, with that +disarming smile she kept for great occasions. + +Mr. Van Broecklyn bowed. He could not refuse a request so urged, +but his step was slow and his manner next to ungracious as he led +the way to the door of the adjoining room and threw it open. + +Just what she had been told to expect! Bare walls and floors and +an empty chair! Yet she did not instantly withdraw, but stood +silently contemplating the panelled wainscoting surrounding her, +as though she suspected it of containing some secret hiding- +place not apparent to the eye. + +Mr. Van Broecklyn, noting this, hastened to say: + +"The walls are sound, Miss Strange. They contain no hidden +cupboards." + +"And that door?" she asked, pointing to a portion of the +wainscoting so exactly like the rest that only the most +experienced eye could detect the line of deeper colour which +marked an opening. + +For an instant Mr. Van Broecklyn stood rigid, then the immovable +pallor, which was one of his chief characteristics, gave way to a +deep flush as he explained: + +"There was a door there once; but it has been permanently closed. +With cement," he forced himself to add, his countenance losing +its evanescent colour till it shone ghastly again in the strong +light. + +With difficulty Violet preserved her show of composure. "The +door!" she murmured to herself. "I have found it. The great +historic door!" But her tone was light as she ventured to say: + +"Then it can no longer be opened by your hand or any other?" + +"It could not be opened with an axe." + +Violet sighed in the midst of her triumph. Her curiosity had been +satisfied, but the problem she had been set to solve looked +inexplicable. But she was not one to yield easily to +discouragement. Marking the disappointment approaching to disdain +in every eye but Mr. Upjohn's, she drew herself up--(she had not +far to draw) and made this final proposal. + +"A sheet of paper," she remarked, "of the size of this one cannot +be spirited away, or dissolved into thin air. It exists; it is +here; and all we want is some happy thought in order to find it. +I acknowledge that that happy thought has not come to me yet, but +sometimes I get it in what may seem to you a very odd way. +Forgetting myself, I try to assume the individuality of the +person who has worked the mystery. If I can think with his +thoughts, I possibly may follow him in his actions. In this case +I should like to make believe for a few moments that I am Mr. +Spielhagen" (with what a delicious smile she said this) "I should +like to hold his thesis in my hand and be interrupted in my +reading by Mr. Cornell offering his glass of cordial; then I +should like to nod and slip off mentally into a deep sleep. +Possibly in that sleep the dream may come which will clarify the +whole situation. Will you humour me so far?" + +A ridiculous concession, but finally she had her way; the farce +was enacted and they left her as she had requested them to do, +alone with her dreams in the small room. + +Suddenly they heard her cry out, and in another moment she +appeared before them, the picture of excitement. + +"Is this chair standing exactly as it did when Mr. Spielhagen +occupied it?" she asked. + +"No," said Mr. Upjohn, "it faced the other way." + +She stepped back and twirled the chair about with her disengaged +hand. + +"So?" + +Mr. Upjohn and Mr. Spielhagen both nodded, so did the others when +she glanced at them. + +With a sign of ill-concealed satisfaction, she drew their +attention to herself; then eagerly cried: + +"Gentlemen, look here!" + +Seating herself, she allowed her whole body to relax till she +presented the picture of one calmly asleep. Then, as they +continued to gaze at with fascinated eyes, not knowing what to +expect, they saw something white escape from her lap and slide +across the floor till it touched and was stayed by the wainscot. +It was the top page of the manuscript she held, and as some +inkling of the truth reached their astonished minds, she sprang +impetuously to her feet and, pointing to the fallen sheet, cried: + +"Do you understand now? Look where it lies and then look here!" + +She had bounded towards the wall and was now on her knees +pointing to the bottom of the wainscot, just a few inches to the +left of the fallen page. + +"A crack!" she cried, "under what was once the door. It's a very +thin one, hardly perceptible to the eye. But see!" Here she laid +her finger on the fallen paper and drawing it towards her, pushed +it carefully against the lower edge of the wainscot. Half of it +at once disappeared. + +"I could easily slip it all through," she assured them, +withdrawing the sheet and leaping to her feet in triumph. "You +know now where the missing page lies, Mr. Spielhagen. All that +remains is for Mr. Van Broecklyn to get it for you." + +IV + +The cries of mingled astonishment and relief which greeted this +simple elucidation of the mystery were broken by a curiously +choked, almost unintelligible, cry. It came from the man thus +appealed to, who, unnoticed by them all, had started at her first +word and gradually, as action followed action, withdrawn himself +till he now stood alone and in an attitude almost of defiance +behind the large table in the centre of the library. + +"I am sorry," he began, with a brusqueness which gradually toned +down into a forced urbanity as he beheld every eye fixed upon him +in amazement, "that circumstances forbid my being of assistance +to you in this unfortunate matter. If the paper lies where you +say, and I see no other explanation of its loss, I am afraid it +will have to remain there for this night at least. The cement in +which that door is embedded is thick as any wall; it would take +men with pickaxes, possibly with dynamite, to make a breach there +wide enough for any one to reach in. And we are far from any such +help." + +In the midst of the consternation caused by these words, the +clock on the mantel behind his back rang out the hour. It was but +a double stroke, but that meant two hours after midnight and had +the effect of a knell in the hearts of those most interested. + +"But I am expected to give that formula into the hands of our +manager before six o'clock in the morning. The steamer sails at a +quarter after." + +"Can't you reproduce a copy of it from memory?" some one asked; +"and insert it in its proper place among the pages you hold +there?" + +"The paper would not be the same. That would lead to questions +and the truth would come out. As the chief value of the process +contained in that formula lies in its secrecy, no explanation I +could give would relieve me from the suspicions which an +acknowledgment of the existence of a third copy, however well +hidden, would entail. I should lose my great opportunity." + +Mr. Cornell's state of mind can be imagined. In an access of +mingled regret and despair, he cast a glance at Violet, who, with +a nod of understanding, left the little room in which they still +stood, and approached Mr. Van Broecklyn. + +Lifting up her head,--for he was very tall,--and instinctively +rising on her toes the nearer to reach his ear, she asked in a +cautious whisper: + +"Is there no other way of reaching that place?" + +She acknowledged afterwards, that for one moment her heart stood +still from fear, such a change took place in his face, though she +says he did not move a muscle. Then, just when she was expecting +from him some harsh or forbidding word, he wheeled abruptly away +from her and crossing to a window at his side, lifted the shade +and looked out. When he returned, he was his usual self so far as +she could see. + +"There is a way," he now confided to her in a tone as low as her +own, "but it can only be taken by a child." + +"Not by me?" she asked, smiling down at her own childish +proportions. + +For an instant he seemed taken aback, then she saw his hand begin +to tremble and his lips twitch. Somehow--she knew not why--she +began to pity him, and asked herself as she felt rather than saw +the struggle in his mind, that here was a trouble which if once +understood would greatly dwarf that of the two men in the room +behind them. + +"I am discreet," she whisperingly declared. "I have heard the +history of that door--how it was against the tradition of the +family to have it opened. There must have been some very dreadful +reason. But old superstitions do not affect me, and if you will +allow me to take the way you mention, I will follow your bidding +exactly, and will not trouble myself about anything but the +recovery of this paper, which must lie only a little way inside +that blocked-up door." + +Was his look one of rebuke at her presumption, or just the +constrained expression of a perturbed mind? Probably, the latter, +for while she watched him for some understanding of his mood, he +reached out his hand and touched one of the satin folds crossing +her shoulder. + +"You would soil this irretrievably," said he. + +"There is stuff in the stores for another," she smiled. Slowly +his touch deepened into pressure. Watching him she saw the crust +of some old fear or dominant superstition melt under her eyes, +and was quite prepared, when he remarked, with what for him was +a lightsome air: + +"I will buy the stuff, if you will dare the darkness and +intricacies of our old cellar. I can give you no light. You will +have to feel your way according to my direction." + +"I am ready to dare anything." + +He left her abruptly. + +"I will warn Miss Digby," he called back. "She shall go with you +as far as the cellar." + +V + +Violet in her short career as an investigator of mysteries had +been in many a situation calling for more than womanly nerve and +courage. But never--or so it seemed to her at the time--had she +experienced a greater depression of spirit than when she stood +with Miss Digby before a small door at the extreme end of the +cellar, and understood that here was her road--a road which once +entered, she must take alone. + +First, it was such a small door! No child older than eleven could +possibly squeeze through it. But she was of the size of a +child of eleven and might possibly manage that difficulty. + +Secondly: there are always some unforeseen possibilities in every +situation, and though she had listened carefully to Mr. Van +Broecklyn's directions and was sure that she knew them by heart, +she wished she had kissed her father more tenderly in leaving him +that night for the ball, and that she had not pouted so +undutifully at some harsh stricture he had made. Did this mean +fear? She despised the feeling if it did. + +Thirdly: She hated darkness. She knew this when she offered +herself for this undertaking; but she was in a bright room at the +moment and only imagined what she must now face as a reality. But +one jet had been lit in the cellar and that near the entrance. +Mr. Van Broecklyn seemed not to need light, even in his +unfastening of the small door which Violet was sure had been +protected by more than one lock. + +Doubt, shadow, and a solitary climb between unknown walls, with +only a streak of light for her goal, and the clinging pressure of +Florence Digby's hand on her own for solace--surely the prospect +was one to tax the courage of her young heart to its limit. But +she had promised, and she would fulfill. So with a brave smile +she stooped to the little door, and in another moment had started +her journey. + +For journey the shortest distance may seem when every inch means +a heart-throb and one grows old in traversing a foot. At first +the way was easy; she had but to crawl up a slight incline with +the comforting consciousness that two people were within reach of +her voice, almost within sound of her beating heart. But +presently she came to a turn, beyond which her fingers failed to +reach any wall on her left. Then came a step up which she +stumbled, and farther on a short flight, each tread of which she +had been told to test before she ventured to climb it, lest the +decay of innumerable years should have weakened the wood too much +to bear her weight. One, two, three, four, five steps! Then a +landing with an open space beyond. Half of her journey was done. +Here she felt she could give a minute to drawing her breath +naturally, if the air, unchanged in years, would allow her to do +so. Besides, here she had been enjoined to do a certain thing and +to do it according to instructions. Three matches had been given +her and a little night candle. Denied all light up to now, it was +at this point she was to light her candle and place it on the +floor, so that in returning she should not miss the staircase and +get a fall. She had promised to do this, and was only too happy +to see a spark of light scintillate into life in the immeasurable +darkness. + +She was now in a great room long closed to the world, where once +officers in Colonial wars had feasted, and more than one council +had been held. A room, too, which had seen more than one tragic +happening, as its almost unparalleled isolation proclaimed. So +much Mr. Van Broecklyn had told her; but she was warned to be +careful in traversing it and not upon any pretext to swerve aside +from the right-hand wall till she came to a huge mantelpiece. +This passed, and a sharp corner turned, she ought to see +somewhere in the dim spaces before her a streak of vivid light +shining through the crack at the bottom of the blocked-up door. +The paper should be somewhere near this streak. + +All simple, all easy of accomplishment, if only that streak of +light were all she was likely to see or think of. If the horror +which was gripping her throat should not take shape! If things +would remain shrouded in impenetrable darkness, and not force +themselves in shadowy suggestion upon her excited fancy! But the +blackness of the passage-way through which she had just struggled +was not to be found here. Whether it was the effect of that small +flame flickering at the top of the staircase behind her, or of +some change in her own powers of seeing, surely there was a +difference in her present outlook. Tall shapes were becoming +visible--the air was no longer blank--she could see--Then +suddenly she saw why. In the wall high up on her right was a +window. It was small and all but invisible, being covered on the +outside with vines, and on the inside with the cobwebs of a +century. But some small gleams from the star-light night came +through, making phantasms out of ordinary things, which unseen +were horrible enough, and half seen choked her heart with terror. + +"I cannot bear it," she whispered to herself even while creeping +forward, her hand upon the wall. "I will close my eyes" was her +next thought. "I will make my own darkness," and with a spasmodic +forcing of her lids together, she continued to creep on, passing +the mantelpiece, where she knocked against something which fell +with an awful clatter. + +This sound, followed as it was by that of smothered voices from +the excited group awaiting the result of her experiment from +behind the impenetrable wall she should be nearing now if she had +followed her instructions aright, freed her instantly from her +fancies; and opening her eyes once more, she cast a look ahead, +and to her delight, saw but a few steps away, the thin streak of +bright light which marked the end of her journey. + +It took her but a moment after that to find the missing page, and +picking it up in haste from the dusty floor, she turned herself +quickly about and joyfully began to retrace her steps. Why then, +was it that in the course of a few minutes more her voice +suddenly broke into a wild, unearthly shriek, which ringing with +terror burst the bounds of that dungeon-like room, and sank, a +barbed shaft, into the breasts of those awaiting the result of +her doubtful adventure, at either end of this dread no- +thoroughfare. + +What had happened? + +If they had thought to look out, they would have seen that the +moon--held in check by a bank of cloud occupying half the heavens +--had suddenly burst its bounds and was sending long bars of +revealing light into every uncurtained window. + +VI + +Florence Digby, in her short and sheltered life, had possibly +never known any very great or deep emotion. But she touched the +bottom of extreme terror at that moment, as with her ears still +thrilling with Violet's piercing cry, she turned to look at Mr. +Van Broecklyn, and beheld the instantaneous wreck it had made of +this seemingly strong man. Not till he came to lie in his coffin +would he show a more ghastly countenance; and trembling herself +almost to the point of falling, caught him by the arm and sought +to read his face what had happened. Something disastrous she was +sure; something which he had feared and was partially prepared +for, yet which in happening had crushed him. Was it a pitfall +into which the poor little lady had fallen? If so--But he is +speaking--mumbling low words to himself. Some of them she can +hear. He is reproaching himself--repeating over and over that he +should never have taken such a chance; that he should have +remembered her youth--the weakness of a young girl's nerve. He +had been mad, and now--and now-- + +With the repetition of this word his murmuring ceased. All his +energies were now absorbed in listening at the low door +separating him from what he was agonizing to know--a door +impossible to enter, impossible to enlarge--a barrier to all help +--an opening whereby sound might pass but nothing else, save her +own small body, now lying--where? + +"Is she hurt?" faltered Florence, stooping, herself, to listen. +"Can you hear anything--anything?" + +For an instant he did not answer; every faculty was absorbed in +the one sense; then slowly and in gasps he began to mutter: + +"I think--I hear--something. Her step--no, no, no step. All is as +quiet as death; not a sound, not a breath--she has fainted. O +God! O God! Why this calamity on top of all!" + +He had sprung to his feet at the utterance this invocation, but +next moment was down on knees again, listening--listening. + +Never was silence more profound; they were hearkening for murmurs +from a tomb. Florence began to sense the full horror of it all, +and was swaying helplessly when Mr. Van Broecklyn impulsively +lifted his hand in an admonitory Hush! and through the daze of +her faculties a small far sound began to make itself heard, +growing louder as she waited, then becoming faint again, then +altogether ceasing only to renew itself once more, till it +resolved into an approaching step, faltering in its course, but +coming ever nearer and nearer. + +"She's safe! She's not hurt!" sprang from Florence's lips in +inexpressible relief; and expecting Mr. Van Broecklyn to show an +equal joy, she turned towards him, with the cheerful cry + +"Now if she has been so fortunate as to that missing page, we +shall all be repaid for our fright." + +A movement on his part, a shifting of position which brought him +finally to his feet, but he gave no other proof of having heard +her, nor did his countenance mirror her relief. "It is as if he +dreaded, instead of hailed, her return," was Florence's inward +comment as she watched him involuntarily recoil at each fresh +token of Violet's advance. + +Yet because this seemed so very unnatural, she persisted in her +efforts to lighten the situation, and when he made no attempt to +encourage Violet in her approach, she herself stooped and called +out a cheerful welcome which must have rung sweetly in the poor +little detective's ears. + +A sorry sight was Violet, when, helped by Florence, she finally +crawled into view through the narrow opening and stood once again +on the cellar floor. Pale, trembling, and soiled with the dust of +years, she presented a helpless figure enough, till the joy in +Florence's face recalled some of her spirit, and, glancing down +at her hand in which a sheet of paper was visible, she asked for +Mr. Spielhagen. + +"I've got the formula," she said. "If you will bring him, I will +hand it over to him here." + +Not a word of her adventure; nor so much as one glance at Mr. Van +Broecklyn, standing far back in the shadows. + +Nor was she more communicative, when, the formula restored and +everything made right with Mr. Spielhagen, they all came together +again in the library for a final word. "I was frightened by the +silence and the darkness, and so cried out," she explained in +answer to their questions. "Any one would have done so who found +himself alone in so musty a place," she added, with an attempt at +lightsomeness which deepened the pallor on Mr. Van Broecklyn's +cheek, already sufficiently noticeable to have been remarked upon +by more than one. + +"No ghosts?" laughed Mr. Cornell, too happy in the return of his +hopes to be fully sensible of the feelings of those about him. +"No whispers from impalpable lips or touches from spectre hands? +Nothing to explain the mystery of that room long shut up that +even Mr. Van Broecklyn declares himself ignorant of its secret?" + +"Nothing," returned Violet, showing her dimples in full force +now. + +"If Miss Strange had any such experiences--if she has anything to +tell worthy of so marked a curiosity, she will tell it now," came +from the gentleman just alluded to, in tones so stern and strange +that all show of frivolity ceased on the instant. "Have you +anything to tell, Miss Strange?" + +Greatly startled, she regarded him with widening eyes for a +moment, then with a move towards the door, remarked, with a +general look about her: + +"Mr. Van Broecklyn knows his own house, and doubtless can relate +its histories if he will. I am a busy little body who having +finished my work am now ready to return home, there to wait for +the next problem which an indulgent fate may offer me." + +She was near the threshold--she was about to take her leave, when +suddenly she felt two hands fall on her shoulder, and turning, +met the eyes of Mr. Van Broecklyn burning into her own. + +"You saw!" dropped in an almost inaudible whisper from his lips. + +The shiver which shook her answered him better than any word. + +With an exclamation of despair, he withdrew his hands, and facing +the others now standing together in a startled group, he said, as +soon as he could recover some of his self-possession: + +"I must ask for another hour of your company. I can no longer +keep my sorrow to myself. A dividing line has just been drawn +across my life, and I must have the sympathy of someone who +knows my past, or I shall go mad in my self-imposed solitude. +Come back, Miss Strange. You of all others have the prior right +to hear." + +VII + +"I shall have to begin," said he, when they were all seated and +ready to listen, "by giving you some idea, not so much of the +family tradition, as of the effect of this tradition upon all +who bore the name of Van Broecklyn. This is not the only house, +even in America, which contains a room shut away from intrusion. +In England there are many. But there is this difference between +most of them and ours. No bars or locks forcibly held shut the +door we were forbidden to open. The command was enough; that and +the superstitious fear which such a command, attended by a long +and unquestioning obedience, was likely to engender. + +"I know no more than you do why some early ancestor laid his ban +upon this room. But from my earliest years I was given to +understand that there was one latch in the house which was never +to be lifted; that any fault would be forgiven sooner than that; +that the honour of the whole family stood in the way of +disobedience, and that I was to preserve that honour to my dying +day. You will say that all this is fantastic, and wonder that +sane people in these modern times should subject themselves to +such a ridiculous restriction, especially when no good reason was +alleged, and the very source of the tradition from which it +sprung forgotten. You are right; but if you look long into human +nature, you will see that the bonds which hold the firmest are +not material ones--that an idea will make a man and mould a +character--that it lies at the source of all heroisms and is to +be courted or feared as the case may be. + +"For me it possessed a power proportionate to my loneliness. I +don't think there was ever a more lonely child. My father and +mother were so unhappy in each other's companionship that one or +other of them was almost always away. But I saw little of either +even when they were at home. The constraint in their attitude +towards each other affected their conduct towards me. I have +asked myself more than once if either of them had any real +affection for me. To my father I spoke of her; to her of him; and +never pleasurably. This I am forced to say, or you cannot +understand my story. Would to God I could tell another tale! +Would to God I had such memories as other men have of a father's +clasp, a mother's kiss--but no! my grief, already profound, might +have become abysmal. Perhaps it is best as it is; only, I might +have been a different child, and made for myself a different fate- +-who knows. + +"As it was, I was thrown almost entirely upon my own resources +for any amusement. This led me to a discovery I made one day. In +a far part of the cellar behind some heavy casks, I found a +little door. It was so low--so exactly fitted to my small body, +that I had the greatest desire to enter it. But I could not get +around the casks. At last an expedient occurred to me. We had an +old servant who came nearer loving me than any one else. One day +when I chanced to be alone in the cellar, I took out my ball and +began throwing it about. Finally it landed behind the casks, and +I ran with a beseeching cry to Michael, to move them. + +"It was a task requiring no little strength and address, but he +managed, after a few herculean efforts, to shift them aside and I +saw with delight, my way opened to that mysterious little door. +But I did not approach it then; some instinct deterred me. But +when the opportunity came for me to venture there alone, I did +so, in the most adventurous spirit, and began my operations by +sliding behind the casks and testing the handle of the little +door. It turned, and after a pull or two the door yielded. With +my heart in my mouth, I stooped and peered in. I could see +nothing--a black hole and nothing more. This caused me a moment's +hesitation. I was afraid of the dark--had always been. But +curiosity and the spirit of adventure triumphed. Saying to myself +that I was Robinson Crusoe exploring the cave, I crawled in, only +to find that I had gained nothing. It was as dark inside as it +had looked to be from without. + +"There was no fun in this, so I crawled back, and when I tried +the experiment again, it was with a bit of candle in my hand, and +a surreptitious match or two. What I saw, when with a very +trembling little hand I had lighted one of the matches, would +have been disappointing to most boys, but not to me. The litter +and old boards I saw in odd corners about me were full of +possibilities, while in the dimness beyond I seemed to perceive a +sort of staircase which might lead--I do not think I made any +attempt to answer that question even in my own mind, but when, +after some hesitation and a sense of great daring, I finally +crept up those steps, I remember very well my sensation at +finding myself in front of a narrow closed door. It suggested too +vividly the one in Grandfather's little room--the door in the +wainscot which we were never to open. I had my first real +trembling fit here, and at once fascinated and repelled by this +obstruction I stumbled and lost my candle, which, going out in +the fall, left me in total darkness and a very frightened state +of mind. For my imagination which had been greatly stirred by my +own vague thoughts of the forbidden room, immediately began to +people the space about me with ghoulish figures. How should I +escape them, how ever reach my own little room again undetected +and in safety? + +But these terrors, deep as they were, were nothing to the real +fright which seized me when, the darkness finally braved, and the +way found back into the bright, wide-open halls of the house, I +became conscious of having dropped something besides the candle. +My match-box was gone--not my match-box, but my grandfather's +which I had found lying on his table and carried off on this +adventure, in all the confidence of irresponsible youth. To make +use of it for a little while, trusting to his not missing it in +the confusion I had noticed about the house that morning, was one +thing; to lose it was another. It was no common box. Made of gold +and cherished for some special reason well known to himself, I +had often hear him say that some day I would appreciate its +value, and be glad to own it. And I had left it in that hole and +at any minute he might miss it--possibly ask for it! The day was +one of torment. My mother was away or shut up in her room. My +father--I don't know just what thoughts I had about him. He was +not to be seen either, and the servants cast strange looks at me +when I spoke his name. But I little realized the blow which had +just fallen upon the house in his definite departure, and only +thought of my own trouble, and of how I should meet my +grandfather's eye when the hour came for him to draw me to his +knee for his usual good-night. + +"That I was spared this ordeal for the first time this very night +first comforted me, then added to my distress. He had discovered +his loss and was angry. On the morrow he would ask me for the box +and I would have to lie, for never could I find the courage to +tell him where I had been. Such an act of presumption he would +never forgive, or so I thought as I lay and shivered in my little +bed. That his coldness, his neglect, sprang from the discovery +just made that my mother as well as my father had just fled the +house forever was as little known to me as the morning calamity. +I had been given my usual tendance and was tucked safely into +bed; but the gloom, the silence which presently settled upon the +house had a very different explanation in my mind from the real +one. My sin (for such it loomed large in my mind by this time) +coloured the whole situation and accounted for every event. + +"At what hour I slipped from my bed on to the cold floor, I shall +never know. To me it seemed to be in the dead of night; but I +doubt if it were more than ten. So slowly creep away the moments +to a wakeful child. I had made a great resolve. Awful as the +prospect seemed to me,--frightened as I was by the very thought,-- +I had determined in my small mind to go down into the cellar, and +into that midnight hole again, in search of the lost box. I would +take a candle and matches, this time from my own mantel-shelf, +and if everyone was asleep, as appeared from the deathly quiet of +the house, I would be able to go and come without anybody ever +being the wiser. + +"Dressing in the dark, I found my matches and my candle and, +putting them in one of my pockets, softly opened my door and +looked out. Nobody was stirring; every light was out except a +solitary one in the lower hall. That this still burned conveyed +no meaning to my mind. How could I know that the house was so +still and the rooms dark because everyone was out searching for +some clue to my mother's flight? If I had looked at the clock-- +but I did not; I was too intent upon my errand, too filled with +the fever of my desperate undertaking, to be affected by anything +not bearing directly upon it. + +"Of the terror caused by my own shadow on the wall as I made the +turn in the hall below, I have as keen a recollection today as +though it happened yesterday. But that did not deter me; nothing +deterred me, till safe in the cellar I crouched down behind the +casks to get my breath again before entering the hole beyond. + +"I had made some noise in feeling my way around these casks, and +I trembled lest these sounds had been heard upstairs! But this +fear soon gave place to one far greater. Other sounds were making +themselves heard. A din of small skurrying feet above, below, on +every side of me! Rats! rats in the wall! rats on the cellar +bottom! How I ever stirred from the spot I do not know, but when +I did stir, it was to go forward, and enter the uncanny hole. + +"I had intended to light my candle when I got inside; but for +some reason I went stumbling along in the dark, following the +wall till I got to the steps where I had dropped the box. Here a +light was necessary, but my hand did not go to my pocket. I +thought it better to climb the steps first, and softly one foot +found the tread and then another. I had only three more to climb +and then my right hand, now feeling its way along the wall, would +be free to strike a match. I climbed the three steps and was +steadying myself against the door for a final plunge, when +something happened--something so strange, so unexpected, and so +incredible that I wonder I did not shriek aloud in my terror. The +door was moving under my hand. It was slowly opening inward. I +could feel the chill made by the widening crack. Moment by moment +this chill increased; the gap was growing--a presence was there-a +presence before which I sank in a small heap upon the landing. +Would it advance? Had it feet--hands? Was it a presence which +could be felt? + +"Whatever it was, it made no attempt to pass, and presently I +lifted my head only to quake anew at the sound of a voice--a +human voice--my mother's voice--so near me that by putting out my +arms I might have touched her. + +"She was speaking to my father. I knew from the tone. She was +saying words which, little understood as they were, made such a +havoc in my youthful mind that I have never forgotten the effect. + +"'I have come!' she said. 'They think I have fled the house and +are looking far and wide for me. We shall not be disturbed. Who +would think looking of here for either you or me.' + +"Here! The word sank like a plummet in my breast. I had known for +some few minutes that I was on the threshold of the forbidden +room; but they were in it. I can scarcely make you understand the +tumult which this awoke in my brain. Somehow, I had never thought +that any such braving of the house's law would be possible. + +"I heard my father's answer, but it conveyed no meaning to me. I +also realized that he spoke from a distance,--that he was at one +end of the room while we were at the other. I was presently to +have this idea confirmed, for while I was striving with all my +might and main to subdue my very heart-throbs so that she would +not hear me or suspect my presence, the darkness--I should rather +say the blackness of the place yielded to a flash of lightning-- +heat lightning, all glare and no sound--and I caught an +instantaneous vision of my father's figure standing with gleaming +things about him, which affected me at the moment as +supernatural, but which, in later years, I decided to have been +weapons hanging on a wall. + +"She saw him too, for she gave a quick laugh and said they would +not need any candles; and then, there was another flash and I saw +something in his hand and something in hers, and though I did not +yet understand, I felt myself turning deathly sick and gave a +choking gasp which was lost in the rush she made into the centre +of the room, and the keenness of her swift low cry. + +"'Garde-toi! for only one of us will ever leave this room alive!' + +"A duel! a duel to the death between this husband and wife--this +father and mother--in this hole of dead tragedies and within the +sight and hearing of their child! Has Satan ever devised a scheme +more hideous for ruining the life of an eleven-year-old boy! + +"Not that I took it all in at once. I was too innocent and much +too dazed to comprehend such hatred, much less the passions which +engender it. I only knew that something horrible--something +beyond the conception of my childish mind--was going to take +place in the darkness before me; and the terror of it made me +speechless; would to God it had made me deaf and blind and dead! + +"She had dashed from her corner and he had slid away from his, as +the next fantastic glare which lit up the room showed me. It also +showed the weapons in their hands, and for a moment I felt +reassured when I saw that these were swords, for I had seen them +before with foils in their hands practising for exercise, as they +said, in the great garret. But the swords had buttons on them, +and this time the tips were sharp and shone in the keen light. + +"An exclamation from her and a growl of rage from him were +followed by movements I could scarcely hear, but which were +terrifying from their very quiet. Then the sound of a clash. The +swords had crossed. + +"Had the lightning flashed forth then, the end of one of them +might have occurred. But the darkness remained undisturbed, and +when the glare relit the great room again, they were already far +apart. This called out a word from him; the one sentence he spoke +--I can never forget it: + +"'Rhoda, there is blood on your sleeve; I have wounded you. Shall +we call it off and fly, as the poor creatures in there think we +have, to the opposite ends of the earth?' + +"I almost spoke; I almost added my childish plea to his for them +to stop--to remember me and stop. But not a muscle in my throat +responded to my agonized effort. Her cold, clear 'No!' fell +before my tongue was loosed or my heart freed from the ponderous +weight crushing it. + +"'I have vowed and I keep my promises,' she went on in a tone +quite strange to me. 'What would either's life be worth with the +other alive and happy in this world.' + +"He made no answer; and those subtle movements--shadows of +movements I might almost call them--recommenced. Then there came +a sudden cry, shrill and poignant--had Grandfather been in his +room he would surely have heard it--and the flash coming almost +simultaneously with its utterance, I saw what has haunted my +sleep from that day to this, my father pinned against the wall, +sword still in hand, and before him my mother, fiercely +triumphant, her staring eyes fixed on his and-- + +Nature could bear no more; the band loosened from my throat; the +oppression lifted from my breast long enough for me to give one +wild wail and she turned, saw (heaven sent its flashes quickly at +this moment) and recognizing my childish form, all the horror of +her deed (or so I have fondly hoped) rose within her, and she +gave a start and fell full upon the point upturned to receive +her. + +"A groan; then a gasping sigh from him, and silence settled upon +the room and upon my heart, and so far as I knew upon the whole +created world. + +"That is my story, friends. Do you wonder that I have never been +or lived like other men?" + +After a few moments of sympathetic silence, Mr. Van Broecklyn +went on, to say: + +"I don't think I ever had a moment's doubt that my parents both +lay dead on the floor of that great room. When I came to myself-- +which may have been soon, and may not have been for a long while-- +the lightning had ceased to flash, leaving the darkness +stretching like a blank pall between me and that spot in which +were concentrated all the terrors of which my imagination was +capable. I dared not enter it. I dared not take one step that +way. My instinct was to fly and hide my trembling body again in +my own bed; and associated with this, in fact dominating it and +making me old before my time, was another--never to tell; never +to let any one, least of all my grandfather--know what that +forbidden room now contained. I felt in an irresistible sort of +way that my father's and mother's honour was at stake. Besides, +terror held me back; I felt that I should die if I spoke. +Childhood has such terrors and such heroisms. Silence often +covers in such, abysses of thought and feeling which astonish us +in later years. There is no suffering like a child's, terrified +by a secret which it dare not for some reason disclose. + +"Events aided me. When, in desperation to see once more the light +and all the things which linked me to life--my little bed, the +toys on the window-sill, my squirrel in its cage--I forced myself +to retraverse the empty house, expecting at every turn to hear my +father's voice or come upon the image of my mother--yes, such was +the confusion of my mind, though I knew well enough even then +that they were dead and that I should never hear the one or see +the other. I was so benumbed with the cold in my half-dressed +condition, that I woke in a fever next morning after a terrible +dream which forced from my lips the cry of 'Mother! Mother!'-- +only that. + +"I was cautious even in delirium. This delirium and my flushed +cheeks and shining eyes led them to be very careful of me. I was +told that my mother was away from home; and when after two days +of search they were quite sure that all effort to find either her +or my father were likely to prove fruitless, that she had gone to +Europe where we would follow her as soon as I was well. This +promise, offering as it did, a prospect of immediate release from +the terrors which were consuming me, had an extraordinary effect +upon me. I got up out of my bed saying that I was well now and +ready to start on the instant. The doctor, finding my pulse +equable, and my whole condition wonder fully improved, and +attributing it, as was natural, to my hope of soon joining my +mother, advised my whim to be humoured and this hope kept active +till travel and intercourse with children should give me strength +and prepare me for the bitter truth ultimately awaiting me. They +listened to him and in twenty-four hours our preparations were +made. We saw the house closed--with what emotions surging in one +small breast, I leave you to imagine--and then started on our +long tour. For five years we wandered over the continent of +Europe, my grandfather finding distraction, as well as myself, in +foreign scenes and associations. + +"But return was inevitable. What I suffered on reentering this +house, God and my sleepless pillow alone know. Had any discovery +been made in our absence; or would it be made now that renovation +and repairs of all kinds were necessary? Time finally answered +me. My secret was safe and likely to continue so, and this fact +once settled, life became endurable, if not cheerful. Since then +I have spent only two nights out of this house, and they were +unavoidable. When my grandfather died I had the wainscot door +cemented in. It was done from this side and the cement painted to +match the wood. No one opened the door nor have I ever crossed +its threshold. Sometimes I think I have been foolish; and +sometimes I know that I have been very wise. My reason has stood +firm; how do I know that it would have done so if I had subjected +myself to the possible discovery that one of both of them might +have been saved if I had disclosed instead of concealed my +adventure." + +A pause during which white horror had shone on every face; then +with a final glance at Violet, he said: + +"What sequel do you see to this story, Miss Strange? I can tell +the past, I leave you to picture the future." + +Rising, she let her eye travel from face to face till it rested +on the one awaiting it, when she answered dreamily: + +"If some morning in the news column there should appear an +account of the ancient and historic home of the Van Broecklyns +having burned to the ground in the night, the whole country would +mourn, and the city feel defrauded of one of its treasures. But +there are five persons who would see in it the sequel which you +ask for." + +When this happened, as it did happen, some few weeks later, the +astonishing discovery was made that no insurance had been put +upon this house. Why was it that after such a loss Mr. Van +Broecklyn seemed to renew his youth? It was a constant source of +comment among his friends. + +END OF PROBLEM VIII + +PROBLEM IX VIOLET'S OWN + +"It has been too much for you?" + +"I am afraid so." + +It was Roger Upjohn who had asked the question; it was Violet who +answered. They had withdrawn from a crowd of dancers to a +balcony, half-shaded, half open to the moon,--a balcony made, it +would seem, for just such stolen interviews between waltzes. + +Now, as it happened, Roger's face was in the shadow, but Violet's +in the full light. Very sweet it looked, very ethereal, but also +a little wan. He noticed this and impetuously cried: + +"You are pale; and your hand! see, how it trembles!" + +Slowly withdrawing it from the rail where it had rested, she sent +one quick glance his way and, in a low voice, said: + +"I have not slept since that night." + +"Four days!" he murmured. Then, after a moment of silence, "You +bore yourself so bravely at the time, I thought, or rather, I +hoped, that success had made you forget the horror. I could not +have slept myself, if I had known--" + +"It is part of the price I pay," she broke in gently. "All good +things have to be paid for. But I see--I realize that you do not +consider what I am doing good. Though it helps other people--has +helped you--you wonder why, with all the advantages I possess, I +should meddle with matters so repugnant to a woman's natural +instincts." + +Yes, he wondered. That was evident from his silence. Seeing her +as she stood there, so quaintly pretty, so feminine in look and +manner--in short, such a flower--it was but natural that he +should marvel at the incongruity she had mentioned. + +"It has a strange, odd look," she admitted, after a moment of +troubled hesitation. "The most considerate person cannot but +regard it as a display of egotism or of a most mercenary spirit. +The cheque you sent me for what I was enabled to do for you in +Massachusetts (the only one I have ever received which I have +been tempted to refuse) shows to what extent you rated my help +and my--my expectations. Had I been a poor girl struggling for +subsistence, this generosity would have warmed my heart as a +token of your desire to cut that struggle short. But taken with +your knowledge of my home and its luxuries, it has often made me +wonder what you thought." + +"Shall I tell you?" + +He had stepped forward at this question and his countenance, +hitherto concealed, became visible in the moonlight. She no +longer recognized it. Transformed by feeling, it shone down upon +her, instinct with all that is finest and best in masculine +nature. Was she ready for this revelation of what she had +nevertheless dreamed of for many more nights than four? She did +not know, and instinctively drew herself back till it was she who +now stood in the semi-obscurity made by the drooping vines. From +this retreat, she faltered forth a very tremulous No, which in +another moment was disavowed by a Yes so faint it was little more +than a murmur, followed by a still fainter, Tell me. + +But he did not seem in any haste to obey, sweetly as her low- +toned injunction must have sounded in his ears. On the contrary, +he hesitated to speak, growing paler every minute as he sought to +catch a glimpse of her downcast face so tantalizingly hidden from +him. Did she recognize the nature of the feelings which held him +back, or was she simply gathering up sufficient courage to plead +her own cause? Whatever her reason, it was she, not he, who +presently spoke saying as if no time had elapsed: + +"But first, I feel obliged to admit that it was money I wanted, +that I had to have. Not for myself. I lack nothing and could have +more if I wished. Father has never limited his generosity in any +matter affecting myself, but--" She drew a deep breath and, +coming out of the shadow, lifted a face to him so changed from +its usual expression as to make him start. "I have a cause at +heart--one which should appeal to my father and does not; and for +that purpose I have sacrificed myself, in many ways, though-- +though I have not disliked my work up to this last attempt. Not +really. I want to be honest and so must admit that much. I have +even gloried (quietly and all by myself, of course) over the +solution of a mystery which no one else seemed able to penetrate. +I am made that way. I have known it ever since--but that is a +story all by itself. Some day I may tell it to you, but not now." + +"No, not now." The emphasis sent the colour into her cheek but +did not relieve his pallor. "Miss Strange, I have always felt, +even in my worst days, that the man who for selfish ends brought +a woman under the shadow of his own unhappy reputation was a man +to be despised. And I think so still, and yet--and yet--nothing +in the world but your own word or look can hold me back now from +telling you that I love you--love you notwithstanding my unworthy +past, my scarring memories, my all but blasted hopes. I do not +expect any response; you are young; you are beautiful; you are +gifted with every grace; but to speak,--to say over and over +again, 'I love you, I love you!' eases my heart and makes my +future more endurable. Oh, do not look at me like that unless-- +unless--" + +But the bright head did not fall, nor the tender gaze falter; and +driven out of himself, Roger Upjohn was about to step +passionately forward, when, seized by fresh compunction, he +hoarsely cried: + +"It is not right. The balance dips too much my way. You bring me +everything. I can give you nothing but what you already possess +abundance--love, and money. Besides, your father--" + +She interrupted him with a glance at once arch and earnest. + +"I had a talk with Father this morning. He came to my room, and-- +and it was very near being serious. Someone had told him I was +doing things on the sly which he had better look into; and of +course he asked questions and--and I answered them. He wasn't +pleased--in fact he was very displeased,--I don't think we can +blame him for that--but we had no open break for I love him +dearly, for all my opposing ways, and he saw that, and it helped, +though he did say after I had given my promise to stop where I +was and never to take up such work again, that--" here she stole +a shy look at the face bent so eagerly towards her--"that I had +lost my social status and need never hope now for the attentions +of--of--well, of such men as he admires and puts faith in. So you +see," her dimples all showing, "that I am not such a very good +match for an Upjohn of Massachusetts, even if he has a reputation +to recover and an honourable name to achieve. The scale hangs +more evenly than you think." + +"Violet!" + +A mutual look, a moment of perfect silence, then a low whisper, +airy as the breath of flowers rising from the garden below: "I +have never known what happiness was till this moment. If you will +take me with my story untold--" + +"Take you! take you!" The man's whole yearning heart, the loss +and bitterness of years, the hope and promise of the future, all +spoke in that low, half-smothered exclamation. Violet's blushes +faded under its fervency, and only her spirit spoke, as leaning +towards him, she laid her two hands in his, and said with all a +woman's earnestness: + +"I do not forget little Roger, or the father who I hope may have +many more days before him in which to bid good-night to the sea. +Such union as ours must be hallowed, because we have so many +persons to make happy besides ourselves." + + +The evening before their marriage, Violet put a dozen folded +sheets of closely written paper in his hand. They contained her +story; let us read it with him. + +DEAR ROGER,-- + +I could not have been more than seven years old, when one night I +woke up shivering, at the sound of angry voices. A conversation +which no child should ever have heard, was going on in the room +where I lay. My father was talking to my sister--perhaps, you do +not know that I have a sister; few of my personal friends do,-- +and the terror she evinced I could well understand but not his +words nor the real cause of his displeasure. + +There are times even yet when the picture, forced upon my +infantile consciousness at that moment of first awakening, comes +back to me with all its original vividness. There was no light in +the room save such as the moon made; but that was enough to +reveal the passion burningly alive in either face, as, bending +towards each other, she in supplication and he in a tempest of +wrath which knew no bounds, he uttered and she listened to what I +now know to have been a terrible arraignment. + +I may have an interesting countenance; you have told me so +sometimes; but she--she was beautiful. My elder by ten years, she +had stood in my mother's stead to me for almost as long as I +could remember, and as I saw her lovely features contorted with +pain and her hands extended in a desperate plea to one who had +never shown me anything but love, my throat closed sharply and I +could not cry out though I wanted to, nor move head or foot +though I longed with all my heart to bury myself in the pillows. + +For the words I heard were terrifying, little as I comprehended +their full purport. He had surprised her talking from her window +to someone down below, and after saying cruel things about that, +he shouted out: "You have disgraced me, you have disgraced +yourself, you have disgraced your brother and your little sister. +Was it not enough that you should refuse to marry the good man I +had picked out for you, that you should stoop to this low-down +scoundrel--this--" I did not hear what else he called him, I was +wondering so to whom she had been stooping; I had never seen her +stoop except to tie my little shoes. + +But when she cried out as she did after an interval, "I love him! +I love him!" then I listened again, for she spoke as though she +were in dreadful pain, and I did not know that loving made one +ill and unhappy. "And I am going to marry him," I heard her add, +standing up, as she said it, very straight and tall. + +Marry! I knew what that meant. A long aisle in a church; women in +white and big music in the air behind. I had been flower-girl at +a wedding once and had not forgotten. We had had ice cream and +cake and-- + +But my childish thoughts stopped short at the answer she received +and all the words which followed--words which burned their way +into my infantile brain and left scorched places in my memory +which will never be eradicated. He spoke them--spoke them all; +she never answered again after that once, and when he was gone +did not move for a long time and when she did it was to lie down, +stiff and straight, just as she had stood, on her bed alongside +mine. + +I was frightened; so frightened, my little brass bed rattled +under me. I wonder she did not hear it. But she heard nothing; +and after awhile she was so still I fell asleep. But I woke +again. Something hot had fallen on my cheek. I put up my hand to +brush it away and did not know even when I felt my fingers wet +that it was a tear from my sister-mother's eye. + +For she was kneeling then; kneeling close beside me and her arm +was over my small body; and the bed was shaking again but not +this time with my tremors only. And I was sorry and cried too +until I dropped off to sleep again with her arm still +passionately embracing me. + +In the morning, she was gone. + +It must have been that very afternoon that Father came in where +Arthur and I were trying to play,--trying, but not quite +succeeding, for I had been telling Arthur, for whom I had a great +respect in those days, what had happened the night before, and we +had been wondering in our childish way if there would be a +wedding after all, and a church full of people, and flowers, and +kissing, and lots of good things to eat, and Arthur had said No, +it was too expensive; that that was why Father was so angry; and +comforted by the assertion, I was taking up my doll again, when +the door opened and Father stepped in. + +It was a great event--any visit from him to the nursery--and we +both dropped our toys and stood staring, not knowing whether he +was going to be nice and kind as he sometimes was, or scold us as +I had heard him scold our beautiful sister. + +Arthur showed at once what he thought, for without the least +hesitation he took the one step which placed him in front of me, +where he stood waiting with his two little fists hanging straight +at his sides but manfully clenched in full readiness for attack. +That this display of pigmy chivalry was not quite without its +warrant is evident to me now, for Father did not look like +himself or act like himself any more than he had the night +before. + +However, we had no cause for fear. Having no suspicion of my +having been awake during his terrible interview with Theresa, he +saw only two lonely and forsaken children, interrupted in their +play. + +Can I remember what he said to us? Not exactly, though Arthur and +I often went over it choked whispers in some secret nook of the +dreary old house; but his meaning--that we took in well enough. +Theresa had left us. She would never come back. We were not to +look out of the window for her, or run to the door when the bell +rang. Our mother had left us too, a long time ago, and she lay in +the cemetery where we sometimes carried flowers. Theresa was not +in the cemetery, but we must think of her as there; though not as +if she had any need of flowers. Having said this, he looked at +us quietly for a minute. Arthur was trying very hard not to cry, +but I was sobbing like the lost child I was, with my cheek +against the floor where I had thrown myself when he said that +awful thing about the cemetery. She there! my sister-mother +there! I think he felt a little sorry for me; for he half stooped +as if to lift me up. But he straightened again and said very +sternly: + +"Now, children, listen to me. When God takes people to heaven and +leaves us only their cold, dead bodies we carry flowers to their +graves and talk about them some if not very much. But when people +die because they love dark ways better than light, then we do not +remember them with gifts and we do not talk about them. Your +sister's name has been spoken for the last time in this house. +You, Arthur, are old enough to know what I mean when I say that I +will never listen to another word about her from either you or +Violet as long as you and I live. She is gone and nothing that is +mine shall she ever touch again. + +"You hear me, Arthur; you hear me, Violet. Heed me, or you go +too." + +His aspect was terrible, so was his purpose; much more terrible +than we realized at the time with our limited understanding and +experience. Later, we came to know the full meaning of this black +drop which had been infused into our lives. When we saw every +picture of her destroyed which had been in the house; her name +cut out from the leaves of books; the little tokens she had given +us surreptitiously taken away, till not a vestige of her once +beloved presence remained, we began to realize that we had indeed +lost her. + +But children as young as we were then do not long retain the +poignancy of their first griefs. Gradually my memories of that +awful night ceased to disturb my dreams and I was sixteen before +they were again recalled to me with any vividness, and then it +was by accident. I had been strolling through a picture gallery +and had stopped short to study more particularly one which had +especially taken my fancy. There were two ladies sitting on a +bench behind me and one of them was evidently very deaf, for +their talk was loud, though I am sure they did not mean for me to +hear, for they were discussing my family. That is, one of them +had said: + +"That's Violet Strange. She will never be the beauty her sister +was; but perhaps that's not to be deplored. Theresa made a great +mess of it." + +"That's true. I hear that she and the Signor have been seen +lately here in town. In poverty, of course. He hadn't even as +much go in him as the ordinary singing-master." + +I suppose I should have hurried away, and left this barbed arrow +to rankle where it fell. But I could not. I had never learned a +word of Theresa's fate and that word poverty, proving that she +was alive and suffering, held me to my place to hear what more +they might say of her who for years had been for me an indistinct +figure bathed in cruel moonlight. + +"I have never approved of Peter Strange's conduct at that time," +one of the voices now went on. "He didn't handle her right. She +had a lovely disposition and would have listened to him had he +been more gentle with her. But it isn't in him. I hope this one--" + +I didn't hear the end of that. I had no interest in anything they +might say about myself. It was of her I wanted to hear, of her. +Weren't they going to say anything more about my poor sister? +Yes; it was a topic which interested both and presently I heard: + +"He'll never do anything for her, no matter what happens; I've +heard him say so. And Laura has vowed the same." (Laura is our +aunt.) "Besides, Theresa has a pride of her own quite equal to +her father's. She wouldn't take anything from him now. She'd +rather struggle on. I'm told--I don't know how true it is--that +she's working in a department store; one of the Sixth Avenue +ones. Oh, there's Mrs. Vandegraff! Don't you want to speak to +her?" + +They moved off, leaving me still gazing with unseeing eyes at +the picture before which I stood planted, and saying over and +over in monotonous iteration, "One of the department stores in +Sixth Avenue! One of the department stores in Sixth Avenue!" + +Which department store? + +I meant to find out. + +I do not know whether up till then I had had the least +consciousness of possessing what is called the detective +instinct. But, at the prospect of this quest, so much like that +of the proverbial needle in a haystack, as I did not even know my +sister's married name and something within me forbade my asking +it, I experienced an odd sense of elation followed by a certainty +of success which in five minutes changed me from an irresponsible +girl to a woman with a deliberate purpose in life. + +I am not going to write down here all the details of that search. +Some day I may relate them to you, but not now. I looked first +for a beautiful woman, for the straight, slim, and exquisite +creature I remembered. I did not find her. Then I tried another +course. Her figure might have changed in the ten years which had +elapsed; so might her expression. I would look for a woman with +beautiful dark eyes; time could not have altered them. I had +forgotten the effect of constant weeping. And I saw many eyes, +but not hers; not the ones I had seen smiling upon me as I lay in +my crib before the days I was lifted to the dignity of the little +brass bed. So I gave that up too and listened to the inner voice +which said, "You must wait for her to recognize you. You can +never hope to recognize her." And it was by following this plan +that I found her. I had arranged to have my name spoken aloud at +every counter where I bargained; and oh, the bargains I sought, +and the garments I had tried on! But I made little progress until +one day, after my name had been uttered a little louder than +usual I saw a woman turn from rearranging gowns on a hanger, and +give me one look. + +I uttered a low cry and sprang impetuously, forward. Instantly +she turned her back and went on hanging, or trying to hang up, +gowns on the rack before her. Had I been mistaken? She was not +the sister of my dreams, but there was something fine in her +outline; something distinguished in the way she carried her head +which-- + +Next minute my last doubt fled! She had fallen her length on the +floor and lay with her face buried in her hands in a dead faint. + +Oh, Roger, Roger, Roger! I had that dear head on my breast in a +moment. I talked to her, I whispered prayers in her unconscious +ear. I did everything I should not have done till they all +thought me demented. When she came to, as she did under other +ministrations than mine, I was for carrying her off in my +limousine. But she shook her head with a gesture of such +disapproval, that I realized I could not do that. The limousine +was my father's, and nothing of his was ever to be used for her +again. I would call a cab; but she told me that she had not the +money to pay for it and she would not take mine. Carfare she had; +five cents would take her home. I need not worry. + +She smiled as she said this and for an instant I saw my dream- +sister again in this weary half-disheartened woman. But the smile +was a fleeting one, for this was to be her last day in the store; +she had no talent as a saleswoman and was merely working out her +week. + +I felt my heart sink heavily at this, for the evidences of +poverty were plainly to be seen in her clothes and the thinness +of her face and figure. How could I help? What could I do? I took +her to a restaurant for food and talk, and before she would +order, she looked into her purse, with the result that we had +only a little toast and tea. It was all she could afford and I, +with a hundred dollars in bills at that moment in my bag, could +not offer her anything more though she was needing nourishment +and dishes piled with savoury meats were going by us every +moment. + +I think, if she had let me, I would have dared my father's +displeasure and been disobedient to his wishes by giving her one +wholesome meal. But she was as resolute of mind as he, and, as +she said afterwards, had chosen her course in life and must abide +by it. My love she would accept. It took nothing from Father and +gave her what her heart was pining for--had pined for for years. +But nothing more--not another thing more. She would not even let +me go home with her; and I knew why when her eyes fell at the +searching look I gave her. Something would turn up, and when her +husband's health was better and she had found another position +she would send me her address and then I could come and see her. +As we walked out of the restaurant we ran against a gentleman I +knew. He stopped me for a passing word and in that minute she +disappeared. I did not try to follow her. I could get her street +and number from the store where she had worked. + +But when I had done this and embraced the first opportunity which +offered to visit her, I found that she had moved away in the +interim, leaving everything behind in payment of her rent, except +such small things as she and her husband could carry. This was +discouraging as it left me without any clue by which to follow +them. But I was determined not to yield to her desire for +concealment in the difficult and disheartening task I now saw +before me. + +Seeking advice from the man who has since become my employer, I +entered upon this second search with a quiet resolution which +admitted of no defeat. It took me six months, but I finally found +her, and satisfied with knowing where she was, desisted from +rushing in upon her, till I had caught one glimpse of her husband +whom, in the last six months, I had heard described but had never +seen. To understand her, it was perhaps necessary to understand +him, and if I could not hope to do this offhand, I could not fail +to get some idea of the man from even the most casual look. + +He was, as I soon learned, the fetcher and carrier of the small +ménage; and the day came when I met him face to face in the +street where they lived. Did he disappoint me; or did I see +something in his appearance to justify her desertion of her +father's home and her present life of poverty? If I say Yes to +the first question, I must also say it to the last. If handsome +once, he was not handsome now; but with a personality such as +his, this did not matter. He had that better thing--that greatest +gift of the gods--charm. It was in his bearing, his movement, the +regard of his weary eye; more than that it was in his very nature +or it would have vanished long ago under disappointment and +privation. + +But that was all there was to the man,--a golden net in which my +sister's youthful fancy had been caught and no doubt held meshed +to this very day. I felt less like blaming her for her folly, +after that instant's view of him as we passed each other in the +street. But, as I took time to think, I found myself growing +sorrier and sorrier for her and yet, in a way, gladder and +gladder, for the man was a physical wreck and would soon pass out +of her life leaving her to my love and possibly to our father's +forgiveness. + +But I did not know Theresa. After her husband's death, which +occurred very soon, she let me come to her and we had a long talk-- +Shall I ever forget it or the sight of her beauty in that sordid +room? For, account for it as you will, the loveliness which had +fled under her sense of complete isolation had slowly regained +its own with the recognition that she still had a place in the +heart of her little sister. Not even the sorrow she felt for the +loss of her suffering husband--and she did mourn him; this I am +glad to say--could more than temporarily stay this. Six months of +ease and wholesome food would make her--I hardly dared to think +what. For I knew, without asking her, or she telling me, that she +would accept neither; that she was as determined now, as ever +that nothing which came directly or indirectly from Father should +go to the rebuilding of her life. That she intended to start anew +and work her way up to a place where I should be glad to see her +she did say. But nothing more. She was still the sister-mother, +loving, but sufficient to herself, though she had but ten dollars +left in the world, as she showed me with a smile that made her +beautiful as an angel. + +I can see that shabby little purse yet with its one poor greasy +bill;--a sum to her but to me the price of a luncheon or a gift +of flowers. How I longed, as I looked at it to tear every jewel +from my poor, bedecked body and fling them one and all into her +lap. I had worn them in profusion, though carefully hidden under +my coat, in the hope that she would accept one of them at least, +But she refused all, even such as had been gifts of friends and +schoolmates, only humouring me this far, that she let me hang +them for a few minutes about her neck and in her hair and then +pull them all off again. But this one vision of her in the +splendour she was born to comforted me. Henceforth in wearing +them it would be of her and not of myself I should think. + +Well, I had to leave her and go home to my French and Italian +lessons, my music-masters and all the luxuries of our father's +house. Should I ever see her again? I did not know; she had not +promised. I could not go often into the quarter where she lived, +without rousing suspicion; and she had bidden me not to come +again for a month. So I waited, half fearing she would flit again +before the month was up. But she did not. She was still there +when-- + +But I am going too fast. The meeting I was about to mention was a +very memorable one to me, and I must describe it from the +beginning. I had ridden in my own car as near as I dared to the +street where she lived; the rest of the way I went on foot with +one of the servants--a new one--following close behind me. I was +not exactly afraid, but the actions of some of the people I had +encountered at my former visit warned me to be a little careful +for my father's sake if not for my own. Her room--she had but one +--was high up in a triangular court it was no pleasure to enter. +But love and loyalty heed nothing but the object sought, and I +was hunting about for the dark doorway which opened upon the +staircase leading to her room when--and this was the great moment +of my life--a sudden stream of melody floated down into that +noisome court, which from its clearness, its accuracy, its +richness, and its feeling startled me as I had never before been +startled even by the first notes of the world's greatest singers. +What a voice for a place like this! What a voice for any place! +Whose could it be? With a start, I stopped short, in the middle +of that court, heedless of the crowd of pushing, shouting +children who at once gathered about me. I had been struck by an +old recollection. My sister used to sing. I remembered where her +piano had stood in the great drawing-room. It had been carted +away during those dreadful weeks and her music all burned; but +the vision of her graceful figure bending over the keyboard was +one not to be forgotten even by a thoughtless child. Could it be-- +oh, heaven! if this voice were hers! Her future was certain; she +had but to sing. + +In a transport of hope I rushed for the dim entrance the children +had pointed out and flew up to her room. As I reached it, I heard +a trill as perfect as Tetrazzini's. The singer was Theresa; there +could be no more doubt. Theresa! exercising a grand voice as only +a great artist would or could. + +The joy of it made me almost faint. I leaned against her door and +sobbed. Then when I thought I could speak quite calmly, I went +in. + +Roger, you must understand me now,--my desire for money and the +means I have taken to obtain it. My sister had the makings of a +prima-donna. Her husband, of whose ability I had formed so low an +estimate, had trained her with consummate skill and judgment. All +she needed was a year with some great maestro in the foreign +atmosphere of art. But this meant money--not hundreds but +thousands, and the one sure source to which we might rightfully +look for any such amount was effectually closed to us. It is true +we had relatives--an aunt on our mother's side, and I mentioned +her to Theresa. But she would not listen to the suggestion. She +would take nothing from any one whom she would find it hard to +face in case of failure. Love must go with an advance involving +so much risk; love deep enough and strong enough to feel no loss +save that of a defeated hope. In short, to be acceptable, the +money must come from me, and as this was manifestly impossible, +she considered the matter closed and began to talk of a position +she had been offered in some choir. I let her talk, listening and +not listening; for the idea had come to me that if in some way I +could earn money, she might be induced to take it. Finally, I +asked her. She laughed, letting her kisses answer me. But I did +not laugh. If she had capabilities in one way, I had them in +another. + +I went home to think. + +Two weeks later, I began, in a very quiet way to do certain work +for the man who had helped me in my second search for Theresa. +The money I have earned has been immense; since it was troubles +of the rich I was given to settle, and I was almost always +successful. Every cent has gone to her. She has been in Europe +for a year and last week she made her debut. You read about it in +the papers, but neither you nor any one else in this country but +myself knew that under the name she chosen to assume, Theresa +Strange, the long forgotten beauty, has recovered that place in +the world, to which her love and genius entitle her. + +This is my story and hers. From now on, you are the third in the +secret. Some day, my father will be the fourth. I think then, a +new dawn of love will arise for us all, which will stay the +whitening of his dear head--for I believe in him after all. +Yesterday when he passed the wall where her picture once hung-- +no other has ever hung there--I saw him stop and look up, and, +Roger, when he passed me a minute later, there was a tear in his +hard eye. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Golden Slipper, by Anna Katharine Green + |