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| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-04-20 20:21:19 -0700 |
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| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-04-20 20:21:19 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/75922-0.txt b/75922-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de45755 --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6722 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75922 *** + + +[Illustration] + + + + + _The_ AMAZING + ADVENTURES OF + LETITIA CARBERRY + + _By_ + MARY ROBERTS RINEHART + + _Author of_ + WHEN A MAN MARRIES + THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE + THE MAN IN LOWER TEN + THE WINDOW AT THE WHITE CAT, ETC. + + ILLUSTRATIONS BY + HOWARD CHANDLER CHRISTY + + INDIANAPOLIS + THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + PUBLISHERS + + + + + COPYRIGHT 1911 + THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + + PRESS OF + BRAUNWORTH & CO. + BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS + BROOKLYN, N. Y. + + + + +THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF LETITIA CARBERRY + + + + +THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF LETITIA CARBERRY + +Part One + + + + +CHAPTER I + +WHAT HAPPENED TO JOHNSON + + +Strictly speaking, this is Tish’s story, but Tish is unable to write +it, being laid up, as you probably know from the newspapers. But we all +three felt that a record of the affair ought to be kept while it was +fresh in our minds, although goodness knows we’re not likely to forget +any of it. A good many people wondered, when the story came out, how +Tish had come to be mixed up with it at all, but as Tish herself says, +it was very simple. The people at the hospital had become demoralized, +and some firm hand had to take hold. Besides, Tish was a member of the +Ladies’ Committee, and felt responsible. + +Tish says the first thing she knew about it was a piercing scream, just +outside her room. This was followed by a number of short, sharp cries, +feminine, and steps running past her bedroom door. Now, as Tish also +remarks with truth, one hears a variety of strange sounds in a hospital +at night, and at first she thought it was the woman across the hall, +who had had her appendix removed that afternoon, and who had been very +unpleasant as a neighbor all evening. But when the noise kept up, and +only died away to be followed by somebody crying hysterically down the +hall, Tish was roused. She sat up in bed and threw her small traveling +clock at Miss Lewis. + +(Miss Lewis was Tish’s nurse, a splendid woman, but a heavy sleeper. +She slept on a cot in the room, and until Tish learned that it did not +hurt the clock to throw it, she had been obliged to ring for one of the +night nurses to come in and waken her. So now she threw the clock.) + +Miss Lewis picked the clock from off her chest and sat up, yawning, to +look at it. + +“Twenty minutes after one, Miss Carberry,” she said. “Would you like +some buttermilk?” + +Now Tish was not really ill. She was taking a rest cure last autumn +while her apartment was being painted and papered, and while she +recovered from a twisted knee. She’d bought a second-hand automobile +some months before, and learned to run it herself, and the knee was the +result of her being thrown out over the steering wheel and ten feet +beyond the potato wagon she had collided with. Although, as Tish says, +it is a strange thing that her _knee_ was twisted, when she brought up +standing on her head in three inches of muddy water and a family of +tadpoles. + +Both Aggie and I went to see her daily, the three of us being old +friends, although not related, and she was always glad to see us, +although she grew sarcastic when Aggie casually remarked that except +for the meeting of the anti-vivisection society, we might also have +been flung over the potato wagon. Well-- + +“Would you like some buttermilk?” asked Miss Lewis again, beginning to +draw on her kimono. Tish says that provoked her and she reached for the +clock again, but of course Miss Lewis had it in her hand. + +“No,” she snapped. “Go out in the hall and see what has happened.” + +Miss Lewis yawned again and groped around in the half light for her +slippers. It was more than Tish could stand. She hopped out of bed in +her bare feet and limped to the door. + +The hall was almost dark and across it the woman with the appendix--or +with_out_--was groaning. But half way along, where the night nurse +has her desk and keeps her papers and where the annunciator for the +patients’ bells is fastened to the wall, Tish saw a group of five +or six nurses, gathered about somebody in a chair. One of them came +running past with a glass of something, and the crowd opened to admit +the girl and the glass and closed again. Miss Lewis came and looked +over Tish’s shoulder. + +“Gee!” she said, and ran down the hall with her slippers flapping and +her braid switching from side to side. Just then the woman across gave +another groan, and it being dark and the scream still echoing in her +ears, Tish reached inside the door for her cane and hobbled out in her +nightgown. + +The girl in the chair, she said, was as white as milk, and her lips +were blue. She was half-lying, with her head against the back of the +chair, and a violent shudder now and then was the only sign of life +about her. One of the other nurses was stroking her hands and talking +to her in a soothing tone. + +“Now listen, Miss Blake,” she said. “It _couldn’t_ be. We all have +these queer feelings here. It’s the nervous strain and loss of sleep. +I’ll never forget the first time _I_ had to do it.” + +“Nor I,” said another girl, “I went with you. Do you remember? It was +that dwarf that died in J. We’d forgotten something, and you had to go +and leave me alone.” + +“Hush!” another nurse broke in, and Miss Blake began to shudder again. +“If we had some hot coffee for her--will you drink some coffee if we +make it, Miss Blake?” + +The girl in the chair shook her head and Miss Lewis dragged one of the +nurses from the group and whispered to her. Tish heard part of the +answer. + +“Went up with Linda Smith and as usual Linda forgot something--she’s +been over-working; went to raise the window for fresh air--she says she +heard a sound, but didn’t notice it--when she turned around”--then more +whispering that Tish couldn’t catch. + +“_No!_” Miss Lewis said, and looked queer herself. “Then, if it’s true, +_it_ is still--?” + +[Illustration] + +“Yes.” + +Miss Blake sat up just then and tried to wipe her blue lips with her +handkerchief, but her hands shook so that one of the nurses did it for +her. She mopped the girl’s pallid forehead, too, and put her arm over +her shoulders protectingly. + +“You’re going off duty, girl,” she said. “About all the hard work in +the place has been falling to you lately, and if we don’t take care we +will be minus the class flower.” + +Tish says the girl tried to smile at that and was very pretty. I can +answer for her looks myself, having seen her often enough later. She +had soft, wavy, black hair and Irish-blue eyes, and she was rather +small. Partly for that and partly because she was so young, we fell +into the way of calling her the Little Nurse. But to go back to Tish’s +story. + +“You’re sure you didn’t doze off?” one of the girls asked, pressing +forward. But the Little Nurse shook her head. + +“Asleep! There?” she said, in a low voice. “Could you?” + +“What enrages me,” Miss Lewis burst out, glaring at the group through +her glasses, “is _why_ Linda Smith left her there alone.” + +“She forgot something,” said Miss Blake. + +“She usually forgets something!” Miss Lewis began. “When she dies, +Linda’ll forget--” + +“Hush!” somebody whispered. “Here she is.” + +Miss Smith came quickly along the hall, her arms full of bundles. She +stopped when she saw the group and ran her eye over it. + +“Well!” she said, “what is it? Fudge?” + +One of the girls detached herself from the group and started for her. +Miss Smith was a tall, raw-boned woman, with short, curly hair and a +rugged but good-natured face, and Tish says she stood smiling at them. + +“I suppose you know,” she said. “The spiritualist from K has ‘passed +over.’ Didn’t want to go, poor old man. Said he had three wives +waiting in the spirit world.” + +The other girl came up to her then and caught her by the elbow and +whispered to her. Tish was standing in the shadow, leaning on her cane, +and she didn’t know from Adam what was the matter, but she was covered +with goose flesh. + +“Nonsense!” said Miss Linda Smith suddenly. “She’s been dozing.” + +Miss Blake got up and steadied herself by the back of the chair, +looking across at the other woman. + +“I’m afraid not, Miss Smith,” she said. “You--remember when--when the +orderlies carried up poor old--Johnson. They--laid him on the table in +the mortuary, didn’t they?” + +“Yes,” said Miss Smith, half smiling. “They usually do. They don’t +generally throw ’em out the window.” + +Miss Blake clutched the chair tighter, Tish says, and her lips +trembled. + +“I want you to come with me and see,” she said. “We--covered the body +with a sheet, didn’t we?” + +“Yes,” Miss Smith stopped smiling. + +“And then you left, and I was alone. I--I tried not to mind. I haven’t +been here very long. But I was afraid, after a minute or two, that I +was--getting faint. I--seemed to feel eyes on me.” + +Some of the girls nodded as if they understood. + +“So I went to the window and threw it up to get air. Then I thought I +heard something moving behind me. I--I felt it, like the eyes, rather +than heard it. And--I didn’t look around at once; I couldn’t. It was so +far from the rest of the house, and--I was alone with _it_. And when I +turned--” She stopped and moistened her lips with her tongue, and her +face was ghastly--“_it_ was gone, Miss Smith. Gone!” + +Now Tish isn’t easy to frighten, but at that moment the appendix woman +gave a deep groan and she says her heart jumped once or twice and +turned over in her chest. The nurses were all standing huddled together +in a little group, and one of them kept looking over her shoulder. + +“Gone!” said Miss Smith, and sat down in a chair suddenly, as if her +legs had given way. “Wha--what have you done?” + +“Sent for Jacobs, the night watchman,” one of the nurses explained. +“Doctor Grimm and Doctor Sands are in the operating room--a night case, +and the medical internes had a row with Mr. Harrison and left last +night. We’ll be in nice shape if G ward gets busy.” + +“What’s G ward?” Tish asked, edging over to Miss Lewis. + +“G ward,” said Miss Lewis coolly, “G ward is where the stork drops that +part of the population that has only half the legal number of parents. +You’ll have to go back to bed, Miss Carberry.” + +“I’ll do nothing of the sort,” said Tish, and glared at her. + +Tish told us the rest of the story the next morning, sitting propped +up in bed with Aggie on one side and me on the other. We’d brought her +some creamed sweetbreads, but she was so excited she could not eat. The +change in her was horrible; she had passed through a crisis, and she +showed it. + +“You’d better let us take you home, Tish,” Aggie pleaded, when Tish had +finished. “This is no place for a nervous woman.” + +Tish took a mouthful of the sweetbread and made a face over it. + +“Heavens,” she said, “it’s easy seen salt’s cheap. No, I am not going +home. I shall stay to see the end of this if it’s the end of me.” + +“Listen, Tish,” Aggie said miserably. “Hasn’t my advice always been +good? Didn’t I beg you on my bended knees not to buy that automobile? +Didn’t both Lizzie and I protest with tears against the motor-boat, +and you’ll carry _that_ scar till your dying day. And now--now it’s +spirits, Tish. Don’t tell me it wasn’t.” + +“Where’s that Lewis woman?” was all Tish would say. “Speaking of +spirits reminds me I haven’t been rubbed with alcohol yet.” + +But I’d better tell Tish’s story in her own words: + +“Once for all, before I begin, Aggie,” she ordered--Tish is a masterful +woman--“you open the collar of your waist and put a pillow behind you. +I’m not going to be broken in on in the middle of this by your fainting +away. Faint if you want, but get ready beforehand. Lewis is not usually +around when she’s wanted.” + +“I don’t want to hear it if it’s as bad as that,” Aggie protested, +opening the neck of her waist. “Lizzie, reach me that pillow.” + +“I don’t know that _I_ want to hear it myself, Tish,” I said. “You’d +better do as Aggie says and come home. You’re a wreck this morning, +and I’ve telephoned for Tommy Andrews.” + +Tommy is Tish’s doctor, the son of her cousin, Eliza Peabody Andrews, +a nice enough boy, but frivolous. He is on the visiting staff at the +hospital, and makes rounds once a day, I believe, with an attentive +interne at his elbow and the prettiest nurse he can find carrying the +order book. + +Tish set the sweetbread on the bedside table with a bang and looked at +me for an instant over her glasses. + +“Don’t be a fool, Lizzie,” she said. “Do you think Tommy Andrews can +make me do anything I don’t want to? Do you think the entire connection +could move me one foot if I didn’t want to go?” + +“You can’t spend another night here,” I put in, somewhat feebly. + +“Can’t I?” she said grimly. “Not only I can, and will, but you and +Aggie are going to take turns here with me, night and night about, +until this is cleared up. Mark my words, last night was not the end.” + +She turned over on her side then, and proceeded to have her back rubbed +with alcohol. And while Miss Lewis rubbed, she told us the story. + +“Miss Lewis wanted me to go back to bed,” she said, when she had +reached that point, “but I refused to go. (You needn’t take the skin +off, Miss Lewis.) I stood there in my gown, and I watched them making +up their minds to go to the mortuary. That’s up a narrow flight of +stairs from this end of the hall, not far from this very room. Nobody +was anxious to lead off, but Miss Blake seemed determined to go back +and prove she hadn’t been asleep, and at last they moved off huddled in +a group and left me there. (You haven’t got a spite against my right +shoulder, have you?) Miss Lewis followed them.” + +“I didn’t,” said Miss Lewis sourly. Tish turned and looked up at her +over her shoulder. + +“You looked as if you were going to, and you know it,” she asserted. +“And don’t interrupt me. Miss Lewis followed, and seeing I was going to +be left alone, and feeling somewhat creepy along the back, I followed +her.” + +“Really--!” Miss Lewis began. + +“We went up the staircase, and if you and Aggie go out and look, you’ll +see how it leads. There’s a hall up there, with a few private rooms +along one side, and a small ward across. The mortuary is up a flight of +about eight steps, at the far end. + +“The hall was dark, and all the light came from the mortuary. The door +was open, and it seemed bright and cheerful enough. I was feeling +pretty sure the black-haired girl had dozed and had a dream, when I saw +Miss Smith, who was in the lead, stoop and pick something up, and hold +it out to the other nurses. + +“‘That’s queer!’ she said, and her eyes were fairly starting out of her +head. + +“‘What is it?’ said I, limping forward. + +“The nurses were staring at the thing she held. + +“‘It’s impossible,’ she muttered, ‘but--that’s the bandage I tied +Johnson’s hands together with!’ Miss Lewis, will you let Miss +Pilkington sniff that alcohol for a moment?” + +“Fiddle!” Aggie protested feebly. “I’m not at all upset.” Then she put +her head back on her pillow and fainted, as Tish had arranged, with +decency and order. + +Well, to go on, it seemed that Tish began to lose her courage about +that time, and when one of the braver nurses came running back, after +a hasty look, and said that Miss Blake was right, and there was no +body in the mortuary, there was almost a stampede. And then it was, I +believe, that heavy steps were heard on the staircase, and it proved to +be Jacobs, the night watchman. + +Now, Tish was in her nightgown, and I fancy, although she never +confessed it, that she fell into some sort of a panic and darted into +one of the empty rooms. She herself says Miss Lewis pushed her in, out +of sight, and closed the door, but Miss Lewis indignantly denies this. + +“I stood inside the door, in the darkness,” Tish said. “The night +watchman was just outside, and I could hear everything that was said, +plainly. He didn’t believe the body was gone, and said so. I heard him +go toward the mortuary door, and the young women followed him. I could +feel a chair just beside me, and my knee was jumping again, so I sat +down. + +“That was when I saw I’d stepped into an occupied room. There was a man +in his night clothes standing not ten feet away, in the middle of the +room, and I jumped up in a hurry. + +“‘Good heavens!’ I said, ‘I didn’t know there was anybody here! You’ll +have to excuse me.’” + +Tish is an extraordinary woman. She was apparently quite cool, but I +happened to glance at Miss Lewis, and she was pouring a small stream +of alcohol into the lap of Aggie’s black broadcloth tailor-made. She +was a pasty yellow-white. + +“The man didn’t say anything, although I could see him moving,” Tish +went on, “I thought he was rude. I got the door open and stepped into +the hall, almost into the arms of the Blake girl. + +“‘Well, were you right?’ I asked her. + +“She nodded. + +“‘Absolutely gone, without a trace!’ she said with a catch in her voice. + +“‘Maybe he wasn’t dead,’ I suggested. ‘There’s a lot of catalepsy +around just now.’ + +“‘He was dead,’ she insisted. ‘Quite dead. He’s been dying for a week.’ + +“Well, what with the watchman and lights moving around, I wasn’t so +nervous as I had been, and I was pretty much interested. + +“‘There’s one thing sure, my dear,’ I said, ‘he won’t go far in that +state. I’ll just hobble down and get my wrapper on and we’ll have a +search. I stepped into that room in my nightgown and I daresay the man +in there nearly died himself--of the shock.’ + +“‘The man in _there_!’ she said. ‘Why, all these rooms are empty, Miss +Carberry!’ + +“We stood staring at each other. + +“‘There’s a man in there,’ I repeated. ‘He stood up and stared at me +when I went in.’ + +“She got very white, but she walked right over to the door and pushed +it open. I saw her throw up her hands, and the next minute she had +fallen flat on her face in the doorway, and the night watchman was +running toward us with a lighted candle.” + +Tish leaned over and took a drink of water. + +“This bed’s full of crumbs, Miss Lewis,” she grumbled. “It’s queer to +me that the only part of this hospital toast that is crisp is the part +I get in the bed!” + +“For heaven’s sake, Tish,” I said impatiently, “I suppose she didn’t +faint because there were crumbs in your bed!” + +“No,” Tish said, hitching herself over to the other side of the +mattress. “She fainted because the body of the missing spiritualist was +hanging by its neck to the chandelier, fastened up with a roller towel.” + +“Dead?” Aggie asked, opening her eyes for the first time. + +“Still dead,” Tish replied grimly. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE LITTLE NURSE + + +Aggie was really frightfully upset. Aggie is rather emotional at any +time, and although she herself is a Methodist, her mother’s only sister +had been a believer in Spiritualism. (They dug her up ten years after +she died, to make room for somebody else, and Aggie’s mother said her +hair had grown to be fully ten feet long, and was curly, whereas in +life it had always been straight. We may sneer at Spiritualism all we +want, but things like that are hard to account for.) + +Well, of course, Aggie declared that no human hand had strung poor +old Johnson to the chandelier by a roller towel around his neck, and +although Tish ridiculed the idea, she had to admit that the fourth +dimension had never been accounted for, and that table levitation was +an accepted fact, and even known to the ancients. + +We sat there gloomily enough while Miss Lewis fixed Tish’s hair and +massaged her knee. In the middle of the massage Tommy Andrews came in, +whistling. + +“Morning, Aunt Tish,” he said. “Morning, Miss Aggie, morning, Miss +Lizzie. How’s the knee? Looks as handsome as ever.” + +“She’s been walking on it,” said Miss Lewis sourly, and giving the knee +an extra jab. + +Tommy gave Tish a ferocious frown over his glasses. + +“Humph!” he said. “I told you to keep off it! Miss Lewis, if she is +obstreperous again, just tie her down with a half-dozen roller towels.” + +“Roller towels!” Tish ejaculated. “Why, it was a roller towel +that--that--” + +“So you said,” Aggie said somberly, and we stared at each other, we +hardly knew why. + +Tish told Tommy the whole story as he strapped her knee with adhesive +plaster. He hadn’t heard it, and he was as much puzzled as we were. +It was Aggie who remarked afterward how his face changed when Tish +mentioned Miss Blake. + +“Blake!” he said, glancing up quickly, “not the little nurse with the +dark hair?” + +“Yes,” Tish said. + +“Damn!” said Tommy. “To have left her alone, like that!” And to Miss +Lewis: “Is she ill to-day?” + +“She’s in bed, but she’s not sleeping,” said Miss Lewis, with more +feeling than I’d have expected. “I was going to ask you if you would +see her, Doctor. Since the shake-up yesterday, we have no medical +internes, and the surgical side is full up.” + +“She--she didn’t ask for me!” said Tommy, with his brown eyes kindling. +But Miss Lewis shook her head. + +“She’s hardly spoken at all. She just lies there with her eyes wide +open and her face white, watching the door. An hour ago one of the +nurses pushed it open quietly, for fear she was asleep. Miss Blake lay +and watched it moving, and when Linda--Miss Smith went in, she fainted +again.” + +Tommy took a turn up and down the room. “She’s had a profound shock,” +he said. “I’m not afraid of it, unless--” He stopped at the window and +stood looking out. + +“Unless what?” said Tish, but he didn’t answer. Instead, he stalked +over and rang the bell. + +“I’ll have the hall nurse relieve you, Miss Lewis,” he said. “We can’t +leave my aunt alone, and somebody must see to Miss Blake. There’s some +natural explanation for what happened last night, and we must find it +and tell her.” + +Aggie began to tell about the aunt with the hair, but before she had +even buried her, the door opened and Miss Blake herself came in. + +“Did you ring?” she asked. She was dead white, lips and all, with deep +circles around her eyes, but her step was brisk and her voice cheerful. +As Tish said, if you could only have heard her and not seen her, nobody +would have believed what had happened. + +Tommy gave her one look, and hauled a chair forward. + +“Sit down,” he ordered. “You are not fit to be on duty.” + +“Thank you, but--I am all right again,” she said, hesitating. + +“Please sit down,” said Tommy, with a note in his voice which I never +heard him use to Tish. And she took the chair, glancing around at all +three of us and then at him. + +“Miss Blake,” he said, “I have decided to become your medical adviser!” + +“Thanks very much!” she said, with the ghost of a smile. + +“On one condition,” he went off, polishing his glasses very hard with +his handkerchief. “You will have to obey orders.” + +“That’s the first lesson in the training school,” she assented, the +smile deepening. “Always obey the doctor’s orders.” + +“Stuff!” said Tommy sternly. “If I order you to bed this minute, +you’ll not go! The trouble is, Aunt Tish and Honorary Aunts Lizzie and +Aggie,” he said, addressing us each in turn, “the trouble is that in a +hospital medicine is a drug on the market. It’s too accessible. So are +doctors. They’re always on tap, like city water, plentiful and free and +therefore subject, like the said water, to the scorn and contumely of +the beneficiaries.” + +“Indeed, Doctor,” Miss Blake began, but he interrupted her. + +“Now, Miss Blake,” he said, “at your earnest solicitation I am about to +undertake your case, and the first condition is--” + +“Obedience?” She shot a glance at him from under her long, dark +lashes, and Aggie raised her eyebrows across the bed at me. + +“Exactly,” he said. “The three aunts, actual and honorary, are +witnesses. You have promised obedience. The first condition is--you are +to leave the hospital immediately and go to a place I know just out of +town, a nice place, with a dog and kittens--no, Aunt Tish, _not_ a cat +and kittens, a--” + +But Miss Blake stood up suddenly, she was paler than before. + +“Not _that_!” she said almost wildly. + +Tommy came over and put his hand on her shoulder. “We can dispose of +the animals,” he said gently. “Can’t you see yourself, little girl, +that you are about at the end of your string? Quiet nights, sleep, +fresh milk--you won’t know yourself in a week.” + +“I can not go,” she said, and stood looking straight ahead with such +misery in her face that Aggie’s eyes filled up. + +“You can take your vacation,” Tommy persisted, gently. “I’ll take you +out myself in my machine.” + +“I don’t want to go, Doctor; I--I can’t be spared just now. _Don’t_ +send me away! Don’t!” + +She began to cry, wildly, hysterically, with her shoulders quivering +and her whole body tense. I was considerably upset, and Tommy looked +dumbfounded. After all, it was Miss Lewis who knew what to do. She is +a large woman, and she simply took the little nurse into her arms and +petted her into quiet. Finally, she coaxed her into the hall, and as +the door closed behind them, the four of us sat silent. + +Aggie was sniveling, and wiping her eyes, and Tish turned on her in a +rage. + +“What in the name of sense are you bleating about?” she demanded. + +“The child’s in trouble,” said Aggie. “I--I never _could_ see anybody +cry, and you know it, Tish.” + +“I know something else, too,” said Tish grimly, sliding her feet out of +bed carefully and reaching for her cane. “That young woman knows more +than she’s telling, Tommy Andrews. We’re not through with this yet.” + +Now Tommy will always have his joke with Tish, and they differ on a +good many subjects, politics, for one thing, and religion, Tommy not +believing very much in a future existence, and maintaining that no +medical man ought to--it made them more saving of life in this. But he +has a great respect for Tish’s opinion. + +“You may be right,” he said. “There must be some reason--, but whatever +it is--it’s not to her discredit. I’ll swear to that.” + +“Listen to the boy!” Tish sneered, picking up the traveling clock and +putting it back on the bedside table again. “That’s what a pretty face +will do. Suppose it had been Lewis, who stood there, crying into a +starched apron and saying she couldn’t leave--don’t, don’t ask her?” + +“Why should she leave when she has _you_, dear Aunt Letitia?” asked +Tommy, and Tish reached for the clock again. + +Well, we talked the thing over, but we couldn’t come to any conclusion. +There didn’t seem to be any matter of doubt that Johnson, having died +peaceably and in order, had been carried to the mortuary and laid on +the table, there to await the final preparations for burial. And the +fact was incontestable that shortly after, the said Johnson, as Tommy +put it, was hanging by the neck to the chandelier in a room fifty feet +away and down eight steps. We all agreed up to that point. As Tommy +said, the question then became simply, did he do it himself or was it +done for him? + +Aggie was confident that he had done it himself. + +“Why not?” she demanded. “Isn’t it the constant endeavor of the people +who have--passed over, to come back and prove their continued existence +on a spirit plane? Shall I ever forget that the third night after Mr. +Wiggins died--” Aggie was once engaged to a roofer, who ‘passed over’ +by falling off a roof--“can I ever forget that a light like a flame of +a candle rose in one corner of the bedroom, crossed the ceiling and +disappeared in my sewing basket, where I kept Mr. Wiggins’ photograph? +Why should not Mr. Johnson, before deserting the earth plane for the +spirit world, have come back and _proved_ his continued existence? Why?” + +Tommy lighted a cigarette and puffed at it. “Well,” he said, “I should +call it indecent of him if he did, and bad taste, too. Maybe he didn’t +think much of his body, but it had lasted pretty well and carried him +around a good many years. And to have his spirit cast off its outer +garment and hang it to a chandelier--it was heartless! Heartless!” + + + + +CHAPTER III + +ANOTHER ROLLER TOWEL + + +Now Tish is a peculiar woman. Once she starts a thing, whether it is +house-cleaning or learning to roller skate, she keeps right on at it. +She learned to skate backwards, you may remember, although she nearly +died learning, and lay once twenty minutes insensible on the back of +her head. And as Tish acknowledged later, she had made up her mind to +find out _who_ or _what_ had hung Johnson by the neck to the chandelier. + +So after Tommy had gone, she got into her roller chair and asked me to +ring for Miss Lewis. + +“What time do you go to your lunch?” she asked her sharply, when she +came. + +“I don’t eat lunch,” said Miss Lewis. + +“Why?” + +“It’s making me stout. Besides, there’s never anything fit to eat.” + +“Humph!” said Tish, “I guess the meals provided in this training school +are above the average. I myself engaged the housekeeper. You’d better +have lunch to-day.” + +“But--” + +“At twelve o’clock,” said Tish firmly. “Any nurse who takes care of me +eats three meals a day.” + +Miss Lewis stood in the doorway, with her cap over one ear, and stared +at Tish, and Tish glared back. + +“I prefer not,” she said defiantly, giving her apron belt a twitch. + +“At twelve o’clock!” Tish repeated, and then Miss Lewis gave it up. + +“Very well,” she said unpleasantly. “Does it make any difference _what_ +I eat?” + +“None whatever. And now send me the Smith woman,” said Tish calmly. +“And shut the door. There’s a draught.” + +Miss Lewis slammed out. And whatever reason Tish had for wanting to get +rid of her at noon, she deigned no explanation. In ten minutes Miss +Smith knocked at the door and came in. She looked tired, but cheerful. + +“Do you want me, Miss Carberry?” she asked. + +“If you are not busy,” said Tish in her pleasantest manner. “Sit down, +Miss Smith. Lizzie, Aggie, this is the Miss Smith I told you about. You +will pardon the curiosity of three old women, won’t you, Miss Smith, +and answer a question or two about last night?” + +“Certainly.” She looked surprised, and I fancied amused. + +“In the first place,” Tish asked, getting a pencil and sheet of letter +paper from the table, “has any investigation been begun?” + +“I think not,” said Miss Smith. “There are always queer goings-on in a +hospital, and besides, there has been a stir-up in the management, and +things are at sixes and sevens. Two internes left last night, and the +superintendent is pretty busy this morning.” + +“Indeed,” said Tish, and wrote something down. “Where is the--er--body +now?” + +“It went to the anatomical board this morning. He had no relatives and +no money. If he isn’t claimed in a certain time, he’ll be sent to the +college dissecting room.” + +Aggie shuddered. + +“And now, Miss Smith,” said Tish, leaning back in her roller chair, +“would you mind telling me _exactly_ what happened last night?” + +“Not at all!” said Miss Smith, smiling. “We have a rule here that when +a patient dies in one of the wards at night, the day nurses for that +ward go with the body to the mortuary and prepare it for burial. The +night nurse, having charge of several wards, can not easily leave. I am +in charge of K ward, and Miss Blake is my assistant.” + +“She’s not in K ward to-day,” said Tish. + +“No, she is relieving the hall nurse here for her off duty. Miss Blake +is not well, and this is lighter.” + +“One moment,” said Tish, “what is the K ward’s night nurse’s name?” + +“Miss Durand.” + +“What time did Mr. Johnson die?” + +“Shortly after midnight. It was marked twelve-ten on the record.” + +“And you were called at once?” + +“I--think not,” Miss Smith said slowly. “It was nearly one o’clock.” + +“Is that customary?” Tish demanded. + +“Not usually,” said Miss Smith, “but it is not extraordinary, either. +The night nurse may have been giving a fever bath, or something else +she could not leave.” + +“You are very indulgent to the curiosity of three old women,” Tish said +with her pleasantest smile. “Will you be amiable a little longer, and +tell us what happened in the mortuary?” + +“Well, really, _nothing_ happened to me. Doctor Grimm had seen Johnson +and pronounced him dead; he had been called from the operating room to +do it, although Johnson was a medical case. The night orderlies, Briggs +and Marshall, took the body to the mortuary and waited with it until +Miss Blake and I arrived.” + +“Briggs and Marshall,” Tish put down. + +“The lights were on, and Briggs was smoking. We had a few words over +that, because the orderlies are not allowed to smoke on duty, and +tobacco makes my head ache.” + +Tish leaned forward in her chair and looked at Miss Smith. + +“Do you often have words with the orderlies, Miss Smith?” + +Miss Smith smiled cheerfully. + +“Quite often,” she said. “They’re such a stupid lot.” + +“You don’t think it possible that these men may have retaliated by +playing a practical joke on you?” + +Miss Smith considered. + +“No,” she said, “I don’t. When I found the linen closet up there +locked and went down-stairs for sheets, they were both at work in the +wards. Anyhow, they might be willing to play a ghastly trick on _me_, +but I don’t think they would try to frighten Miss Blake. She’s very +well liked.” + +“And after you went for the sheets?” + +“That’s all I know, Miss Carberry. The rest you heard Miss Blake tell.” + +“Are you sure,” Aggie broke in suddenly, leaning forward, “are you +sure, Miss Smith, that he didn’t do it himself?” + +Miss Smith stared. “Why, he was dead, Miss Pilkington,” she said. “He’d +been sick for months, and if he was alive as I am this minute, he +couldn’t hang himself by the neck, the way he was hanging, with nothing +to stand on near, or any chair kicked away. The center of the room was +clear when we found him, and the nearest thing was the foot of the bed, +a good eight feet away.” + +“He was a--Spiritualist, I think?” + +“Yes--yes, indeed,” Miss Smith laughed. “It would have made you creepy +to hear him, lying there carrying on whole conversations with nobody +near, and raps on his bed until the nurses balked at changing the +sheets!” + +Aggie shivered. “Gracious!” she said, “I hope they don’t send him back +here for the dissecting room. I shan’t be easy until he is safely +buried.” + +“Oh, you needn’t worry about that,” Miss Smith said cheerfully, getting +up to go. “We wouldn’t be likely to get _all_ of him anyhow.” + +Well, as Tish said, she hadn’t learned much she hadn’t known before, +except that Johnson had been left in the ward fifty minutes after he +died, instead of ten. But although the people in the hospital seemed +disposed to let the affair alone after sending the body away, and to +get back to its business, which, as Miss Smith said, is full of curious +things anyhow, Tish, as I say, having taken hold, was not going to let +go. + +Promptly at noon by the traveling clock, Miss Lewis having taken +herself off, Tish lifted herself out of her wheel chair and reached for +her cane. + +“You can stay here, Aggie,” she said, “and if Lewis comes back, I’m +seeing Lizzie to the elevator.” + +“She won’t believe a word of it,” Aggie objected. + +“Then think up something she will believe. Lizzie is coming with me.” + +I wasn’t surprised when Tish turned to the left, in the corridor, and +hobbled to the foot of a flight of stairs. She stopped there and turned. + +“We’re going up to see that room in daylight, Lizzie,” she said, “but +I want you to read this first. You’re a practical woman, and if any +of your family ever grew a head of hair after they died, at least you +don’t brag about it.” + +She took a page of the morning paper, folded small, from the sleeve of +her dressing-gown, and pointed to a paragraph. + +“Amos Johnson, once a well-known local medium, died last night at the +Dunkirk hospital, after a long illness. Johnson was sixty-seven years +of age, and had lived in retirement and poverty since the murder of his +wife some years ago, a crime for which he was tried and exonerated. The +woman’s body was found in the parlor of the Johnson home, hanging to a +chandelier by a roller towel knotted about the neck.” + +Tish was watching me. + +“Well, what do you make of that, Lizzie?” she asked. + +“Coincidence,” I said, with affected calmness. “Many a man’s hung his +wife to something when he got tired of her, and when you come to think +of it, a roller towel is usually handy.” + +We didn’t look at each other. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE FOOTPRINT ON THE WALL + + +Well, Tish and I examined the room, and I must say at first sight it +was disappointing. It was an ordinary hospital room, with two windows, +and a bureau between them, a washstand, a single brass bed, set high +and not made up, the pillows being piled in the center of the mattress +and all covered with a sheet, and two chairs, a straight one and a +rocker. Except that the heavy chandelier was bent somewhat from the +perpendicular, there was no sign of what had happened there. + +Tish sat down in the rocker and looked thoughtfully about the room. + +“Under ordinary circumstances,” she said, “if you hang a broadcloth +skirt on a chandelier to brush it, you’ll have the whole business and +half the ceiling about your head in a minute. And yet, look at that, +hardly bent!” + +The room had evidently not been disturbed since Johnson had been found +there. The straight chair had been drawn beneath the chandelier, and +Tish pointed out the scratches made by the feet of whoever had cut +down the body. Over the back of the chair still hung the roller towel, +twisted into a grisly rope. + +Tish picked it up and examined it. + +“Pretty extravagant of material, aren’t they?” she said. “No Ladies’ +Aid that I ever saw would put more than two yards of twelve-cent stuff +in a roller towel. Look at the weight of that, and the length!” + +“There’s something on it,” I said, and we looked together. What we +found were only three letters, stamped in blue ink. + +“S. P. T.?” said Tish. “What in creation is S. P. T.?” + +She sat down with the towel in her hand, and we puzzled over it +together. + +“It’s the initials of the sewing circle that sent it in,” I asserted. +“That S. stands for Society.” + +“I’ve got it,” said Tish. “Society for the Prevention of Tetanus.” + +“That doesn’t help much,” I said. “We could find out by asking; I +daresay the nurses know.” + +But Tish wouldn’t hear of it. She said the towel was the only clue we +had, and she wasn’t going to give it to a hospital full of people who +didn’t seem to care whether their corpses walked around at night or not. + +She rolled up the towel under her arm, and in the doorway she turned to +take a final survey of the room. + +“Well,” she said, “we haven’t examined the dust with the microscope, +but I think it’s been worth while. It would be curious, Lizzie, if his +murdered wife’s initials were S. P. T.” + +“They couldn’t be,” I said. “Her last name was Johnson, wasn’t it?” + +But Tish wasn’t looking at me. She was staring intently at the wall +over the head of the bed, and I followed her eyes. + +The wall was gray, a dull gray below, and a frieze of paler gray above. +The dividing line between the two colors was not a picture molding--the +room had no pictures--but a narrow iron pipe, perhaps an inch in +thickness, and painted the color of the frieze. Why a pipe, I never +asked, but I fancy its roundness, its lack of angles and lines, had +been thought, like the gray walls, to be restful to the eyes. + +Directly over the head of the bed, the pipe-molding was loosened from +the wall, as if by a powerful wrench, and sagged at least four inches. + +“Look at that!” said Tish, pointing her cane. “Lizzie, I want you to +help me up on the bureau.” + +“I’ll do nothing of the sort, Tish,” I snapped. “You ought to be +ashamed with that leg.” + +But she had pulled out the lowest drawer and was standing on it by +that time, and there wasn’t anything for it but to help her up. She +caught hold of the pipe-molding between the windows, and jerked at it. + +“I thought so,” she said. “It doesn’t give a hair’s breadth! Lizzie, no +picture ever pulled that molding down like that.” + +Well, it was curious, when you think about it. It’s easy enough to read +Mr. Conan Doyle’s stories, knowing that no matter how puzzling the +different clues seem to be, Mr. Doyle knows exactly what made them, +and at the right time he’ll let you into his secret, and you’ll wonder +why you never thought of the right explanation at the time. But it is +different to have to work them out yourself, and to save my life I +couldn’t see anything to that bended pipe but a bended pipe. + +Tish’s next move was to crawl upon the bed, and that time I helped her +willingly. She stood for quite a while, gazing at the pipe, with her +nostrils twitching, steadying herself with one hand against the wall +to put on her glasses with the other. + +“Humph!” she said. “I can’t quite make it out. There are prints against +the wall just underneath, but it doesn’t seem to be a hand.” + +I got up beside her and we both looked. It was a hand, and it wasn’t. +It seemed like a long hand with short fingers. Tish leaned down and +rubbed her hand on the headboard of the bed, which was dusty, as she +expected, and then pressed its imprint against the wall beside the +other. They were alike, and they were different, and suddenly it came +to me, and it made me dizzy. + +“I know what it is now, Tish,” I said as calmly as I could. “That’s the +mark of a foot!” + +Tish nodded. She’d seen it almost as soon as I had. + +“A foot,” she repeated gravely, and we climbed off the bed in a hurry +and went out into the hall. + +Tish had left her cane in her excitement, and she refused to go back +for it alone. I went with her, finally, and we stood at the bottom of +the bed and looked at the foot, with its toes pointed up toward the +ceiling, and Tish’s hand beside it. + +“You know, Lizzie,” she said, clutching my arm, “if there _were_ a +fourth dimension, we could walk up walls easily.” + +And we went down to her room again. + +It was careless of us to forget Tish’s hand-print on the wall, for when +things got worse, and they discovered the two marks, somebody suggested +that no two hands make exactly the same print, and they had an expert +take an impression of it. As Tish said, she expected to be discovered +every time she had her pulse counted, and the strain was awful. They +might have accused _her_, you know, of carrying off old Johnson +and stringing him up, for they reached a state when they suspected +everybody. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WHEN AGGIE SCREAMED + + +Now Aggie has hay fever, and the slightest excitement, any time in the +year, starts her off. So when we heard her sneezing as we went down +the stairs, we were not surprised to find Tommy Andrews in front of +her with an order book on his knee, and Aggie trying to hold a glass +thermometer in her mouth. + +“I can’t,” she was protesting around the thermometer. “Justh try +sneething yourthelf with a--a--choo.” + +Her teeth came down on it just then with a snap and her face grew +agonized. + +“There!” she said. “What did I tell you?” And pulled the thermometer +out minus an end. + +“Where’s the rest?” Tommy demanded. + +“I--I swallowed it!” + +Tommy jumped up and looked frightened. + +“Great heavens, it’s glass!” he said. “What in thunder--why, there it +is in your lap!” + +“I swallowed the inside,” Aggie said stiffly. “I should think that’s +bad enough. It’s poison, isn’t it?” + +Tommy laughed. “It won’t hurt you,” he said. “It’s only quicksilver.” + +But Aggie was only partly reassured. “I daresay I’ll be coated inside +like the back of a mirror,” she snapped. “Between being frightened +to death until I’m in a fever, and then swallowing the contents of a +thermometer, and having it expand with the heat of my body, and maybe +blow up, I feel as though I’m on the border of the spirit land myself.” + +In spite of Tommy’s reassurances, she refused to be comforted, and sat +the rest of the afternoon waiting for something to happen. She ate no +luncheon, and she absolutely refused to go home. Aggie is like most +soft-mannered people, trying to make her do something she doesn’t want +is like pounding a pillow. It seems to give way, and the next minute +it’s back where it was at first, and you can pound till your hands +ache. So when she said she was going to stay at the hospital until she +felt sure the mercury wasn’t going to blow up or poison her, we had to +yield. + +We got the room next to Tish’s and put her to bed, and she lay there +alternately sneezing and sleeping the rest of the day. I went out +during the afternoon and brought a nightgown for her and one for +myself, and the mentholated cotton wool for her nose. The walk did me +good, and by the time I got back I was ready to sneer at footprints +that go up a wall and Johnson hanging to a chandelier. + +As I left the elevator at Tish’s door, I met Miss Linda Smith and +stopped her. “Is there anything new?” I asked. + +“Nothing, except that Miss Blake has been sent back to bed,” she said. +“She’s a nervous little thing anyhow, and she has not been here very +long. When she has had almost three years, as I have, she’ll learn +to let each day take care of itself--not to worry about yesterday or +expect anything of to-morrow.” + +“And how about to-day?” I asked, smiling at the contradiction of her +pessimistic speech and her cheerful face. + +“And to work like the deuce to-day,” she said, and went smiling down +the hall. + +I had brought in some pink roses, and when I’d put Aggie’s nightgown on +her and the wool in her nose, I had Miss Lewis take me to Miss Blake’s +room. + +It was close at hand. If you know the Dunkirk Hospital, you know +that the nurses’ dormitory is directly beside the main building, and +connected with it by doors on every floor. One of these doors was at +the end of Tish’s corridor, and Miss Blake’s room was the first on the +other side. + +Miss Lewis knocked and tried the door, but it was bolted. + +“Who’s there?” asked a startled voice, quite close, as if its owner +had been standing just inside. + +“Miss Lewis, dear.” + +“Just a moment.” + +She opened the door almost immediately and admitted us. She had on only +her nightgown and slippers, and her hair was down in a thick braid. I +have reached the time of life when I brush most of my hair by holding +one end of it in my teeth, so I always notice hair. + +“You’re up,” said Miss Lewis accusingly. + +“Only to be sure the door was fastened,” she protested, and got into +her single bed again obediently. + +“Now don’t be silly!” Miss Lewis said. “Why should you lock that door +in the middle of the afternoon? I thought you were the girl who rescued +the kitten from the ridge pole of the roof!” + +“That was different,” said Miss Blake, and shut her eyes. + +“I don’t want to disturb you,” I said. “Only--my friend and I felt +sorry that she caused you such a shock last night. And I want you to +have these flowers.” + +She seemed much pleased and Miss Lewis put them on the table by the +bed, beside another bouquet already there, a huge bunch of violets and +lilies of the valley. Violets and lilies of the valley are Tommy’s +favorite combination! + +“Doctor Andrews been here this afternoon?” Miss Lewis asked, looking up +from arranging the roses. + +“Once--twice,” said the little nurse, with heightened color. + +“I see,” said Miss Lewis. “And the husband of thirty-six telephoning +all over the city for him.” + +“The husband of thirty-six!” I repeated, astounded. They both laughed, +and Miss Blake looked for a moment almost gay. + +“He is not a Mormon,” she said. “It’s a case of ‘container for the +thing contained.’ Thirty-six is a room.” + +I think the laugh did the little nurse good, but when we left, a few +minutes later, Miss Lewis halted me a few steps from the door. We heard +her cross the room quickly and the bolt of the door slip into place. + +“Queer, isn’t it?” asked Miss Lewis. And I thought it was. + +Tommy Andrews came back late that night to see Aggie, but she had +stopped sneezing and dropped into a doze. He beckoned me out into the +hall. + +“How is she?” he asked. “Having been quick-silvered inside, I daresay +she’s been reflecting! Never mind, Miss Lizzie--I couldn’t help that.” + +“Tish wants to see you, Tommy,” I said. “She--we found something this +afternoon and I don’t mind saying we are puzzled.” + +“More mystery?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. “Don’t tell me somebody +else has shed his fleshy garment and hung it up--” + +“Please _don’t_,” I said, looking over my shoulder nervously. The hall +was almost dark. + +“Look here,” Tommy suggested in a whisper, “I’ll make a bargain with +you. I’ll go in and listen to Aunt Tish without levity--I give you my +word, no frivolity--if you’ll come over and play propriety while I see +Miss Blake.” + +Seeing me eye him, he went on guiltily: “She’s--sick, you know, and +I’ve been there two or three times to-day already. If it gets out among +the nurses--_please_, dear, good Aunt Lizzie!” + +Now, I’m not his aunt. For that matter, I’m a good ten years younger +than Tish, but he’s a handsome young rascal, and when a woman gets too +old to be influenced by good looks, it’s because she’s gone blind with +age, so I agreed on one condition. + +“Yes, if you’ll see Tish first,” I said, and he agreed. + +That was how we happened to be in Tish’s room when Aggie screamed. +Tish had just got to the footprint-on-the-wall part of her story, +and even Tommy was looking rather queer, when Aggie sneezed. Then +almost immediately she shrieked and the three of us were on our feet +and starting for the door before she stopped. As we reached the hall, +a nurse was running toward us, and the stillness in Aggie’s room was +horrible. + +It was dark. Which was strange, for I’d left the night light on at +Aggie’s request. Tommy pushed into the room first. + +“Where’s the light switch?” he demanded. “Are you there, Miss Aggie?” + +There was no answer, but in the darkness every one heard a peculiar +rustling sound, such as might be made by rubbing a hand over a piece of +stiff silk. It was the nurse who found the switch almost instantly, and +I think we expected nothing less than Aggie hanging by her neck to the +chandelier. But she was lying quietly in bed, in a dead faint. + +When she came to, she muttered something about a dead foot and fainted +again. By eleven o’clock she seemed pretty much herself once more and +even smiled sheepishly when Tommy suggested that it had been the fault +of the thermometer. She thought herself that she had dreamed it, and +Tish and I let her think so. But both of us had seen the same thing. + +Just over the head of Aggie’s bed the pipe-molding was wrenched loose +and pulled down out of line! + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CANDLE AND SKYLIGHT + + +Tish sent Miss Lewis in to sit with Aggie, and the three of us, +including Tommy, met in Tish’s room. She had brought her alcohol +teakettle with her, and she insisted on making a cup of tea all around +before we talked things over. + +“Besides,” she remarked, measuring out the tea, “it’s about a quarter +of twelve now, and we may need a little tea-courage by midnight.” + +“If that’s the way you feel,” Tommy said, from the bed, holding his +empty cup ready for the tea. “I can get something from the medicine +cupboard outside that has tea knocked out in the first round.” + +“Not whiskey, Tommy!” Tish said with the teapot in the air. + +“Certainly _not_! _Spiritus frumenti_,” Tommy said with dignity, and +Tish was reassured. But I knew what he meant, my great uncle having +conducted a country pharmacy and done a large business among the +farmers in that very remedy. + +When we’d had our tea and some salted wafers, Tish drew up a chair and +faced Tommy and myself. + +“Now,” she said, “what did Aggie see?” + +“Personally,” Tommy remarked, balancing his teaspoon across the bridge +of his nose, and holding his head far back to do it, “personally, I’m +glad she only saw--or felt--a foot. It proves her really remarkable +quality of mind. The ordinary woman, in a stew like that, would have +seen an entire corpse, not to mention smelling sulphur.” + +Tish took the spoon off his nose and gave him a smart slap on the ear. + +“Thomas!” she said, “you will either be serious or go home. Do you +remember what we told you about the room up-stairs, a _foot_-mark on +the wall not three feet from the ceiling?” + +Tommy nodded, with both hands covering his ears. + +“Do you realize,” Tish went on, “that _that_ room is directly over the +one Aggie is occupying?” + +“Hadn’t thought of it,” said Tommy. “Is it?” + +“Yes. Tommy Andrews, Aggie may or may not have dreamed of that ice-cold +foot, but one thing she did _not_ dream; Lizzie and I both saw it. The +pipe-molding over Aggie’s bed is pulled loose from the wall and bent +down.” + +Tommy stared at us both. Then he whistled. + +“No!” he said, and fell into a deep study, with his hands in his heavy +thatch of hair. After a minute he got off the bed and sauntered toward +the door. + +“I’ll just wander in and have a look at it,” he said, and disappeared. + +It was Tish’s suggestion that we put the light out and sit in the +dark. Probably Tommy’s nearness gave us courage. As Tish said, in five +minutes it would be midnight, and almost anything might happen under +the circumstances. + +“And as honest investigators,” she said, “we owe it to the world and to +science to put ourselves _en rapport_. These things _never_ happen in +the light.” + +We could hear Tommy speaking in a low tone to Miss Lewis, but soon +that stopped, although he did not come back. Even with the door open, +a dimly-outlined rectangle, I wasn’t any too comfortable. Tish sat +without moving. Once she leaned over and touched my elbow. + +“I’ve got a tingle in both legs to the knee,” she whispered. “Do you +feel anything?” + +“Nothing but the slat across the back of this chair,” I replied, and +we sat silent again. I must have dozed almost immediately, for when I +roused, the traveling clock was striking midnight, and Tish was shaking +my arm. + +“What’s that light?” she quavered. + +I looked toward the hall, and sure enough the outline of the door was a +pale and quavering yellow. + +“The door frame is moving!” gasped Tish. + +“Fiddle!” I snapped, wide awake. “Somebody’s out there with a moving +light. Where’s Tommy?” + +“He hasn’t come back. Lizzie, go and look out. I can’t find my cane.” + +“Go yourself!” I said sourly. + +Well, we went together, finally, tiptoeing to the door and peering out. +The light was gone; only a faint gleam remained, and that came down the +staircase to the upper floor. + +“Damnation!” said Tommy’s voice, just at our elbow. And with that he +darted along the hall and up the stairs, after the light. + +Now Tish is essentially a woman of action. She’s only timid when she +can’t do anything. And now she hobbled across to the foot of the +stairs, with me at her heels. + +“That was no earthly light, Lizzie!” she said in a subdued tone. “Do +you remember what Aggie said, about the light when Mr. Wiggins died?” + +I’d been thinking about it myself that very moment. + +“I’d feel better with some sort of weapon, Tish,” I protested, as we +started up, but Tish only looked at me in the darkness and shook her +head. I knew perfectly well what she meant: that no earthly weapon +would be of any avail. Considering what we thought, I think that we got +up the staircase at all is very creditable. + +The light was there, coming from one of the empty rooms, and streaming +out into the dark hall. There was somebody moving in the room. We heard +a window closing, and then the footsteps coming toward the door. The +next moment the light itself came into the hall. It was a candle, and +Miss Blake was carrying it! + +I made out Tommy’s figure flattened in a doorway, and then the light +disappeared again as Miss Blake went into the next room, the one where +Johnson had been found. She was there a long time, and once we heard +her exclaim something and the light from the doorway wavered, as if the +candle had almost gone out. + +She went into each private room, then into the ward, and finally there +remained only the mortuary. Tish clutched my arm. Would this bit of a +girl, in her long white wrapper, her childish braid, her small bare +feet thrust into bedroom slippers, would she dare that grisly place? + +She did not keep us in doubt long. She went directly to the foot of the +mortuary steps and stood, her candle held high, looking up. Then she +began to mount them, slowly, as if every atom of her will were required +to urge her frightened muscles. Tommy stirred uneasily in his doorway. + +The large double doors to the mortuary stood partly open. She pushed +them back quietly and hesitated, candle still high. Then she went in, +and by the paling light we knew she had gone to the far end of the +room. Tommy came out from the doorway and tiptoed down the hall. We +could see his outline against the gleam. + +The stillness was terrible. We could hear her moving around that +awful place, could hear, even at that distance, the soft swish of her +negligée on the floor. And then, without any warning, she spoke. It was +uncanny beyond description, although we heard nothing she said. + +“My God!” said Tish, forgetting herself. + +There was a sound immediately after. Tish said it was a thud, as if a +chair had been upset, but I insisted that it sounded more like a window +thrown up with terrific force. The light went out immediately, and we +heard footsteps running away from us. + +“Tommy!” Tish called. But nobody answered. We were left there alone in +the darkness, shivering with fright. + +I am very shaky about what happened next. I remember Tish fumbling for +her cane, and saying she was going to follow Tommy, and my holding her +back and telling her not to be a fool--that the boy was safe enough. +And I remember seeing a light behind us and the old night watchman +coming up the staircase with his electric flash, and trying to tell him +something was wrong in the mortuary. + +And then, as my voice gave way, we heard a shout overhead, and +immediately the crash of broken glass and a thud into the hall just +ahead of us. The watchman pushed us aside and ran. + +Tommy was lying unconscious on the floor with the pieces of a broken +skylight all around him. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +INSINUATIONS AND RECRIMINATIONS + + +Miss Lewis had heard the crash and came running, with the hall nurse +from the floor below. Tish was sitting on the floor among the pieces of +glass, with Tommy’s head on her knee, crying over him, when they got +there. He opened his eyes just then, and lay staring up at the hole in +the skylight above, as if he was puzzled. Then he turned his head and +saw who was holding him, and made an effort to sit up. + +“You--needn’t look so tragic, Aunt Tish,” he said. “I’m--I’m all +right,” and fell back on her lap again. + +Miss Lewis got down and began to feel him for broken bones. + +“Skull’s whole, thank goodness!” she muttered. “Can you move your legs, +Doctor?” + +Tommy lifted them in turn, making grimaces of pain. Then he lifted his +right arm. It fell as if he couldn’t support its weight. + +“I’ve bruised my shoulder,” he said, and lay back with his eyes closed. + +“Get his coat off,” ordered Miss Lewis, and I knelt to help her. But +Tommy resisted. + +“I’m all right,” he said crossly. “I’ll look after it later myself.” + +“Tommy!” said Tish. “Let them take your coat off.” + +“I won’t have it off,” he insisted, and when she persisted he was +almost vicious. + +Miss Lewis sat back on her heels and shook her head at me. + +“He’s a little dazed,” she said. “How in the world did it happen?” + +“I was walking on the roof,” said Tommy more agreeably, “and I stepped +on the skylight by mistake. It was dark underneath. It was a darn fool +thing to do!” + +The hall nurse and Miss Lewis exchanged glances, and the hall nurse +looked at me and smiled. + +“He is still dazed,” she said, smiling. “How could he step on the +skylight? It has a four-foot fence around it!” + +We waited for him to explain further, but he let it go at that, and +lay for a little while with his mouth shut hard and a queer thoughtful +look on his face. He roused pretty soon, however, and grunted as if his +shoulder pained him. Then he made Tish get up, and after a minute or so +he sat up himself. He sat there gazing at the skylight, and a few drops +of rain came down through the opening. Tish and I shivered. We were +only partly dressed. + +He saw it and was on his feet at once, pretty much himself. + +“Now don’t let’s have any fuss about this, please,” he said, addressing +us all. “I forgot the skylight. That’s all. I’m not hurt, Aunt Tish, +and you and Miss Lizzie must go to bed this instant.” + +“What are _you_ going to do?” Tish demanded sharply. “Going up on the +roof again?” + +“I’ll be down pretty soon,” he evaded. “Jacobs and I will just +straighten this mess a bit.” + +I caught a look of intelligence between the two of them, and Jacobs +spoke up. + +“If the doctor’ll lend a hand--” + +“Tommy,” Tish said suddenly, “the shoulder of your coat is soaked with +blood!” + +Tommy put his hand up and felt it. + +“I’ve got a scratch somewhere up there,” he said coolly. “It isn’t +going to be touched until the two ladies in negligée and curl papers +are safe in bed with hot-water bottles at their feet. Miss Lewis, Miss +Carberry is using her knee again!” + +“I’d use a switch if I had one,” said Tish, almost with tears in her +eyes. But Tommy has the same will that she has herself, and we were +down-stairs between blankets, I on the couch in Tish’s room and Tish +in bed, with our feet against hot-water bottles, and drinking cups of +hot milk, almost before we knew it. + +But Tommy and the watchman did not clean up the broken glass in the +upper hall. Whatever they did, that glass was still there the next +morning, and none of us disturbed the general belief that it had been +broken by the hail-storm that came just before dawn. + +I was so hoarse the next morning that I could hardly speak, and Tish +kept me on her couch. Her knee was stiff again, too. Including Aggie, +although she had slept through the skylight incident, we were pretty +well used up, and Tish would not let us go home. It was just as well. +She should hardly have faced the events of the next two days without us. + +Aggie had her breakfast in bed, but Tish and I had Briggs, the orderly +who carried in our trays, set out a table for us, and were really very +snug. Tish was as cross as two sticks until she’d had her tea, when +she grew more companionable. + +“I want to ask you something, Lizzie,” she said as she poured her +second cup. “How, when we saw Tommy go into the mortuary, as plain as +day, could he fall down from the roof?” + +“Well,” I said, buttering my toast, “you know about the what-you-call-’ems +in India. They send up a rope into the sky and then a boy up the rope, +and after he has disappeared they give the rope a jerk and he falls, +apparently from nowhere. It’s some sort of optical illusion.” + +“Don’t be a fool,” Tish observed sharply. “I’ve been thinking it over +in bed. There must be a fire-escape there somewhere.” + +“Oh!” I hadn’t thought of a fire-escape. + +“Now, then,” said Tish, “suppose there is a fire-escape, and the Blake +girl went up by it to the roof, and Tommy followed her. Which is what +happened, Lizzie. I’m nobody’s fool; I’ve got eyes in my head. If that +young woman had jumped off the window sill, Tommy Andrews would have +jumped too. Now, then, _why_ did the Blake girl go to the roof?” + +“Maybe she wanted air,” I suggested. Tish waved her napkin at me. + +“Air!” she snapped. “When you want air, do you generally climb a +fire-escape to a roof, when there’s a staircase up to it, and entice +young men to fall down through skylights and break their shoulders? +Lizzie,”--she leaned over--“Lizzie, that young vixen pushed him through +that skylight and I can prove it!” + +“No!” + +“Yes.” She got up and, going to the cupboard, lifted down her best hat. + +“Look here!” she said, and took from its crown a brass candlestick, the +base bent almost double. + +“I was sitting on that when I held Tommy’s head last night. It came +down with the skylight,” she said. “That’s the candlestick the Blake +girl was carrying. What do you make of it?” + +I was speechless. Tish unlocked the lower bureau drawer and put +the candlestick in it, beside the roller towel marked S. P. T. and +something else, which I learned later was the bandage Linda Smith +had found in the upper hall, and identified as the one that had tied +Johnson’s hands. + +“Now,” she said, locking the drawer again, “I’m going to have a little +chat with Miss Blake. It’s my belief that she let old Johnson die from +neglect, or gave him poison by mistake. And now he’s haunting her--or +she’s haunting him, which is what it looks like.” + +But we had no chat with Miss Blake that day. The day nurse, taking her +a tray of breakfast, found her delirious in bed, with a raging fever. +Miss Lewis went over to see her. + +“She’s been preparing for this for some time,” she said when she came +back. “She was queer yesterday--you remember, Miss Lizzie--and last +night she did a funny thing. She got the night nurse to give her a +bottle of morphine--enough to kill a horse. And I found it under her +pillow this morning, almost half of it gone!” + +“Great heavens!” Tish said. “Why, the girl’s a potential murderess!” + +Miss Lewis turned, with a pillow in her arms. “Not a bit of it,” she +said. “There’s something queer about this place lately, and I don’t +care who hears me say it. But folks will have to make insinuations +against Ruth Blake over my dead body!” + +She glared at Tish, and Tish at her. + +“I have reasons to doubt that Miss Blake is all you think her,” said +Tish stiffly. But Miss Lewis came and stood over her unpleasantly. + +“I’m not for making any trouble, Miss Carberry,” she said, “but this +house was calm enough until two days ago, and Ruth Blake has been here +six months, and what’s more, I notice one thing. The most of the +excitement has been around where you are. Maybe you’re psychic, as they +call it, and don’t know it. Maybe it’s--something else. But it wasn’t +Miss Blake who first saw Johnson hanging by his neck, and it wasn’t +Miss Blake the skylight all but fell on, and it wasn’t Miss Blake’s +nephew that fell through the skylight, and it wasn’t in the room of +Miss Blake’s best friend next door that a death-cold foot--” + +But Tish put her fingers in her ears and fled to Aggie. + +Nevertheless, Miss Lewis had set me to thinking. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +OVERHEARD IN THE DORMITORY + + +Aggie’s hay fever was bad that morning, and she stayed in bed. Tish +and I went in and sat with her after breakfast, and she was very +disagreeable. + +“I shall certaidly tell Tobby whad I thig of hib,” she grumbled. “I +told hib I could dot hold that therbobeter. _That_ is what gave be that +dreab. If it _was_ a dreab!” + +“Certainly it was a dream,” said Tish. + +“I’b dot so sure!” Aggie retorted. + +Well, relieved of the hay fever, Aggie’s story was something like this: + +She had been asleep, and was dreaming she had turned into a thermometer +herself, and as she got hotter, having too many blankets on, she said +she felt herself expanding until her head touched something that she +thought was the head of the bed. But she said in her dream she kept on +expanding, and she was just saying to Tommy Andrews, in a fury, that +if it grew any hotter she’d burst, when something gave way at the head +of the bed with a sort of tearing sound, and she wakened. She said it +was a full minute before she was certain she _wasn’t_ a thermometer and +hadn’t expanded right up through the top. Then she reached up to turn +over her pillow, and just beside her was a dead foot. She had thought +she was still dreaming and had actually caught hold of it. But it +disappeared under her fingers, dissolved, as you might say, and there +was no body. Aggie was positive about that. It was then she sat up and +screamed. + +Well, we kept the knowledge of what had happened to Tommy from her, and +left her sitting up in bed using a nasal spray. Tish was wonderfully +better after breakfast, and we walked up and down the corridor, she +without the cane and hardly a limp. + +It was Tish who suggested that we go into the nurses’ dormitory and ask +how Miss Blake was, and after we had located Miss Lewis, gossiping with +the day nurse in a corner, we slipped in. Patients are forbidden in the +dormitory. + +The door to Miss Blake’s room was closed, but somebody was inside, +talking. Tish and I waited outside, and we could hardly help hearing +what was said. It was a woman’s voice, familiar enough, but I couldn’t +place it. + +“You must stay in bed, Ruth,” she was pleading. “Oh, my dear, how can I +forgive myself!” + +“Let me up!” Ruth Blake’s voice, insistent and querulous. “They are +hanging him up by the neck--” her voice died away in a groan. + +The other woman broke into frightened sobbing, and Tish put her hand on +the knob. But I held her back. + +“I have killed her!” said the voice. “Always thinking of myself! Ruth! +Listen to me!” + +“Through the skylight!” babbled Ruth. “I tell you, he is dead!” + +“Ruth!” begged the voice, and more sobbing, growing gradually quieter. +Then silence, as if the sick girl had dropped asleep. + +Tish and I slipped away, and back through the connecting door to our +room. Once there, by common mute consent we left the door into the +corridor open and took up such positions as enabled us to watch the +people who passed along the hall. Ten minutes brought nobody. Then we +heard the door open, and brisk steps coming along the hall. + +“Well,” said Miss Linda Smith, in her cheerful way, “well, how’s the +knee this morning, Miss Carberry?” + +“Better,” Tish replied genially. + +“That’s fine,” said Miss Smith and hurried along, humming a bit of a +song. Tish and I looked at each other. In spite of the cheerfulness, +of the eyes bathed in cold water and carefully powdered, it was Miss +Smith’s voice we had heard in the Blake girl’s room. + +But when we got to talking it over we couldn’t see that what we had +heard had really any importance. Miss Smith had left the girl alone +in the mortuary, and was reproaching herself for having done it. That +was all. But as Tish said, what did she mean by saying she was always +thinking of herself? It was hardly, as Tish pointed out, an act of +supreme selfishness to go down and get an armful of sheets to cover a +corpse! + +Tommy came in at eleven o’clock, freshly shaved and linened, and +apparently as well as ever. He had been over to see Miss Blake first, +but found her sleeping, which he considered a good sign. I noticed that +he kept his right hand in his pocket, and did not use the arm at all. +He said the shoulder was stiff, naturally, and that he must have been +sleep-walking himself to get over that fence and through the skylight +the way he had. + +“Sleep-walking!” said Tish sharply. “Do you think that that girl was +sleep-walking?” + +“I certainly do,” said Tommy. + +“Then you’re a fool,” said Tish. “If she _was_ sleep-walking, so was +the burglar who took my disciple spoons last fall. Sleep-walking!” + +“I wish you--” + +“You’re wishing me bad luck if you feel the way you look!” said Tish +shrewdly. “Now, Tommy, I’m going to get to the bottom of all this, +and so are you. It will take twice the amount of effort separated as +united. Don’t try any evasions with me--half a truth is worse than +a good lie. Now--out with it. What really happened on the roof last +night?” + +“I wish I knew!” said Tommy, and looked at us gravely. “You saw what +there was to see up-stairs. I happened to see Miss Blake going up +the stairs with the candle, and I noticed something strange in her +expression. I followed her and you followed me. She went into each +room and then to the mortuary. That’s proof, isn’t it, that she was +sleep-walking? I’ve worried over it all night, and I’m sure of it. +Anyhow, why would she take a candle, when there is electric light +everywhere? I tell you, the shock of the night before was on the girl’s +mind while she slept.” + +Tish had got out her sheet of letter paper. + +“Well?” she said, putting something down. + +“I saw her go into the mortuary, and I heard her talking; I couldn’t +make out what she said. Then there was a crash, and I ran. When I got +there one of the stained-glass windows was wide open, and she was +climbing up the fire-escape outside. The candle had gone out. Aunt +Tish, that fire-escape up there is the merest skeleton, and it is five +high stories from the ground. Awake, she couldn’t have done it.” + +“Humph!” said Tish. “It isn’t hard at night, when you can’t see how far +it is to the ground.” Then, seeing that Tommy was looking sulky, she +added: “Still, you may be right.” + +“Up to that point,” said Tommy, “I’m perfectly clear. I was out on the +escape by the time she got to the roof, and I lost her there. I saw her +again, however, when I climbed on the roof, and went toward her. I’ve +heard a lot about the danger of waking sleep-walkers suddenly, and I +spoke to her quietly. I said ‘Miss Blake.’” + +“Yes?” + +“Well,” he confessed, “that’s about all I remember. Or no, it isn’t. +The girl was asleep, and not responsible. She turned like a flash when +I spoke, and cried out, and--I think she threw her brass candlestick +at me! Then--I seemed to be falling forward--and when I knew anything +again I was in the hall below.” + +“Having fainted over a four-foot fence!” Tish observed sharply. “Tommy, +that won’t do.” + +“I give you my word, Aunt Tish,” he said, “I haven’t any idea _how_ I +got over that fence and through that skylight.” + +“I have!” Tish said, and put away her note-paper. We both stared at her +and Tommy even smiled. + +“Exactly,” he said. “I’ve thought of that, but how do you account for +the fact that not a patient left his ward or private room last night? +That every servant and nurse was in his proper place? Jacobs and I took +pains to find that out. And that I’ve got as pretty a bite in my right +shoulder as you would care to see?” + +“Bite!” Tish exclaimed, and reached feebly for the note-paper. + +“Bite!” I repeated. “Then it must be an animal--!” + +“Who knows?” Tommy said quietly. “Jacobs and I got it cauterized. +I don’t want the internes to get hold of the story--they’re apt to +talk to the nurses. I hardly know what to do next. Since Mr. Harrison +had the trouble last night with the two medical men, he is too busy +holding down his job to have much time for anything else. If there is +to be anything done, I rather think it’s up to me.” + +“It’s up to _us_!” said Tish firmly. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ORDERLY BRIGGS AND DISORDERLY BATES + + +After all, it was my suggestion that we bring in Briggs, the orderly, +and ask him about the night Johnson’s body was moved. Tish acknowledges +this, and if she does not realize how much poor Briggs helped us in +unraveling the mystery, I am not one to remind her. But Briggs was on +night duty, and went to bed after carrying the breakfast trays on our +floor. + +Tish, however, having approved of my idea, had appropriated it as her +own--which is a way most self-willed people have, and she insisted that +Tommy send for him. + +He came about twelve o’clock, looking rather surly, and presenting a +general appearance of having his coat and trousers on over his night +shirt. + +“Come in, Briggs,” said Tommy, when he knocked. “Sorry to wake you, old +man.” + +“I wasn’t sleeping,” he replied sourly. “The noise in the place is +enough to waken the dead.” + +“Perhaps,” said Tish, “perhaps that’s what ailed Johnson!” + +Briggs turned quickly and looked at her. He was a tall man, with +a heavy black mustache and powerful stooped shoulders. He had one +drooping eyelid, that gave him an unpleasant appearance. Whether it was +consciousness of this, or shiftiness, which was Tish’s theory, he never +looked directly at one. As Tish said, his gaze seemed to stop at your +collar, but if you averted your eyes you were sure to have the feeling +that he’d darted a stealthy glance at you and got away with it before +you could catch him. + +“No,” he said, after a moment, “nothing will waken Johnson but the +trumpet on the last day.” + +“Do you know, Briggs,” Tish said coolly, “I have my own little theory +about that night? You don’t like Miss Smith, and you and Marshall +prepared a little surprise for her. Shame on you, Briggs.” + +He positively looked straight at her. It was so surprising that it +presented him in a new light with a sort of aureole of outraged virtue. + +“No, _mam_,” he said. “You’re right, I don’t get along with Miss Smith, +but as for playing a trick of that sort--!” He took his handkerchief +out and wiped his forehead. “I wouldn’t have done it on anybody,” he +said, “and as for Johnson--” he glanced at Tommy, half ashamed--“I tell +you, the things I’ve seen about that man’s bed would make me respect +him, dead or living. Raps on the foot-board, and his bedside stand with +two legs in the air, beating time like a drum. No, _mam_, if you think +I did that, you think I’m a braver man than I am.” + +“Humph!” said Tish, and put down “Raps and bedside stand. Johnson.” + +“Suppose,” Tommy suggested, “now that you are here, you tell us exactly +what happened the night Johnson died.” + +“He died at ten minutes after twelve on Tuesday night, sir. I was +staying by a delirious patient in the next ward, Doctor. Miss Durand, +the night nurse, was busy and asked me to watch him. It wasn’t until an +hour after he died that I was notified to take Johnson’s body to the +mortuary. I called Marshall from the floor below, and we took the body +up on the elevator. Jacobs runs the elevator after midnight, it being +not used except for emergency, night operations, ambulance cases coming +in, or a death. + +“We put the body on the receiving table, and Marshall uncovered the +face. Maybe we were both nervous, having talked many a time during his +sickness with the old man, and him saying he’d come back and bring us +some sign from the spirit world, after he’d ‘passed over.’ Anyhow, +Marshall uncovered his face and looked at him, and he said, ‘Johnson, +now’s your time to make good. Here _you_ are and here _we_ are. Come +over with the sign!’” + +Briggs looked at Tommy and Tommy nodded. + +“Sign,” wrote Tish. “Then what happened, Briggs?” Neither of us would +have been a bit surprised if he had said the dead man moved a foot, or +that unseen hands pulled the pipe-molding loose and bent it down before +their very eyes. But Briggs shook his head. + +“Nothing--then,” he said, “but when I heard about what happened later, +I had a talk with Marshall. I don’t believe in fooling with things you +don’t know anything about.” + +“Briggs,” Tommy said suddenly, “you say the body lay in the ward almost +an hour before removal. Why was that?” + +“Because,” Briggs replied significantly, “there was no nurse in that +ward when he died, or for nearly an hour after. The ward was in charge +of a convalescent typhoid named Bates.” + +“Why was that?” Tommy demanded. But Briggs only shrugged his shoulders, +with his good eye fixed about four inches below Tommy’s chin. + +When he got no answer, “Bring Bates here,” Tommy said sharply, and +during the interval until the two men appeared he walked somberly up +and down, his face thoughtful. + +Bates was hardly prepossessing. He shuffled in in a pair of +carpet-slippers much too large, a pair of faded trousers, and a garment +that was evidently his nightshirt with the tail tucked in. But Bates +was shrewd if unshaven, as we found out. + +“Bates,” said Tommy, “you are a patient in K ward?” + +“Yes, sir.” + +“You helped to look after Johnson, the man who died night before last?” + +“Sometimes--when the nurses were busy.” + +“Have you heard anything about--of what happened after his death?” + +Bates smiled. + +“There’s been a good bit of talk going around, sir,” he said. “He’d got +the ward worked up some--talking about coming back after he’d chipped +in. One of the men claims to have seen him looking in the window near +his bed last night, and there’s a story about his corpse being found +hanging--but that’s ridiculous, sir.” + +“It’s true, Bates.” + +Bates’ jaw dropped. “Oh, no, sir. Surely not!” he said, and changed +color. + +“Now, Bates,” Tommy said, “we are men of sense, you and I. We know +Johnson didn’t do it himself, don’t we?” + +“Yes, sir.” Not as convinced as he might have been. + +“Then it was done for him.” + +“Yes, sir.” + +“Presumably by somebody in this house.” + +“Yes, sir.” + +“Bates, was any one missing from your ward during either last night or +the night before, that you know of?” + +Bates thought. “No, sir,” he said. “I don’t sleep much; that’s my +trouble, insomnia. I can hear a kitten stir in my ward--not, of course, +that we’re liable to kittens, sir. Night before last I was up and +dressed all night, wandering around, and last night, as you know, I sat +up with that railroad case. The boy was out of his head.” + +“Then, either night, no patient could have stolen out from K ward into +the house and been absent for any length of time without your knowing +it?” + +“It’s hardly possible,” Bates said. “Mr. Briggs or I would know for +sure, sir.” + +“Do you help in the other wards on the men’s floor?” + +“Yes, sir.” + +“Are there any delirious patients?” + +“None able to stand or walk about.” + +“I see,” Tommy said thoughtfully. “And now, Bates, is it correct that +Miss Durand, the night nurse, left her ward for fifty minutes, knowing +that Johnson was dying?” + +“Fifty-five minutes, sir.” Bates’ shrewd eyes said more than his words. + +“It was, possibly, for night supper?” + +“That’s at two o’clock.” Bates knew a good bit about the hospital, and +enjoyed showing his knowledge. + +“You have no idea _why_ she left?” + +“No, sir. Miss Smith came to the door, and they went away together. +Miss Smith looked upset and nervous, as if she’d been crying--if you’ll +excuse my saying so, sir.” + +“Did you notice in which direction they went?” + +“They went down-stairs. When they came back Miss Smith was looking more +cheerful, and she had a bundle in her hand.” + +“What sort of a bundle?” + +“Darkish. It might have been clothing. Miss Durand was frightened when +she found Johnson had died, and she asked me not to say she had been +away.” + +“Thanks, Bates. You’d better go back now,” said Tommy, “and Bates, if +you hear or see anything that strikes you as curious, let me know, will +you?” + +Bates promised and flapped out, with Briggs behind him. Tommy called +Briggs back. “Briggs,” he said, “I have asked the superintendent to let +me put on a few guards to-night. This thing has gone beyond a joke. Mr. +Harrison will give us the scrubbers, Frank, from the elevator and two +assistants from the laundry. The internes have volunteered, also, that +makes eleven; with you and myself, thirteen.” + +“Thirteen!” said Briggs. “Would you mind making it fourteen, Doctor?” + +Tommy looked surprised. + +“Briggs!” he said. “Surely you--” Then he took a good look at Briggs’ +pasty face and nodded. “All right,” he said. “We can have Hicks from +the ambulance. And just a word,” he said, as Briggs made for the door. +“We are not talking, Briggs. Most of these men are watching for a +thief. Do you understand? And I’d be glad to have your help in placing +them where they’ll do the most good.” + + + + +CHAPTER X + +AN APE AND SOME GUINEA-PIGS + + +Miss Lewis came in a few minutes after Briggs had gone, and, closing +the door behind her, looked at Tommy. + +“Miss Blake is conscious,” she said. “Temperature only ninety-nine, +pulse a hundred and forty.” + +“Good!” Tommy said heartily. It was evident to us all how relieved he +was. “But I don’t like the pulse.” He was brushing his hair back with +Tish’s brush. “She’s had a terrific shock of some sort.” + +“Yes, sir,” said Miss Lewis, still with her back to the door. + +Tommy leaned over and kissed Tish’s cheek. He was delighted at the mere +prospect of seeing the Little Nurse, and showed it. “Now, try to be +good until I come back, both of you,” he said. “All right, Miss Lewis, +we’ll have a look at our patient in the dormitory.” + +Miss Lewis looked flushed and uncomfortable. + +“I’m sorry, Doctor,” she said. “Miss--Miss Blake doesn’t--she has asked +for Doctor Willson instead.” + +“What!” said Tommy, and turned a dark red. + +“She’s asked for Doctor Willson,” repeated Miss Lewis. “There’s no +mistake. I’ve been coaxing her for ten minutes.” + +“She’s still delirious,” Tish snapped. “And it is not necessary to coax +people to retain my nephew’s professional services, Miss Lewis.” + +“Why, that’s all right,” Tommy said with affected cheerfulness. +“Willson’s a fine chap--she couldn’t do better.” + +“Fiddle!” Tish was angry. “Who is Willson, anyhow?” + +“Big fellow, dark eyes--very distinguished looking man,” said Tommy +humbly. Tommy is handsome, if being straight and slim and young count +for anything, but I daresay one could hardly call him distinguished. +Tish and I differ about this. “Good gracious, Aunt Tish, the girl ought +to have the privilege of selecting her own medical adviser.” + +“Humph!” + +“Suppose you go back to the dormitory, Miss Lewis,” Tommy said, “and +say to Miss--Miss Blake that she’s made a wise choice, and I’ll send +Willson to her as soon as he comes in. And ask her if she will let me +see her for a moment, not professionally.” + +Miss Lewis looked doubtful, but she went. When she came back, in five +minutes, she was evidently irritated, and her cap was more than ever on +one ear. + +“She’s sitting on the side of the bed, half dressed,” she grumbled, +“and she says she won’t see anybody.” + +“Then she doesn’t want--Willson?” asked Tommy, looking relieved. + +“No. Says she’s all right, and if people don’t stop bothering her +she is going out somewhere in the country where they have a dog and +kittens! That’s what she said! Not _cat_ and kittens--” + +“Sensible girl,” said Tommy, happy again. “She--hasn’t changed her mind +about seeing me?” + +“No, nor about locking the door. And what’s more--” She stopped and +glanced at Tommy. “I’d like to speak to you a moment in the hall, +Doctor.” + +“What sort of shilly-shallying is that?” demanded Tish. “Can’t you +speak to him here?” + +“I can _not_,” said Miss Lewis, glaring back at Tish, her thumbs inside +her apron belt. “It isn’t considered shilly-shallying in this hospital +for a nurse to make a report to a doctor, and if you’ll read the rules +on that door--” + +“I’ll speak to you in the hall,” said Tommy. “Miss Lewis is right, Aunt +Tish. If it’s in line with what we’ve been discussing, I’ll tell you.” + +But Tish isn’t a woman to take chances. Afterward, she justified +her looking through the keyhole on the plea that she was making a +scientific theory to fit the case, and if it were not for keyholes many +a murderer would have gone unhung to his grave. At the time, however, I +was rather horrified. + +She had plenty of time to tell me what she saw, as it happened, +for Tommy did not come back until late in the afternoon, after the +guinea-pig incident. + +Tish says that when she’d got them in focus, as you may say, Miss Lewis +was pulling something out of her sleeve. It was a knife, Tish says, +with a short, thin blade that looked as sharp as a razor. + +“One of the knives from the operating room, Doctor,” Miss Lewis said. +“I thought I’d better not let the old ladies see it.” + +I daresay that was when I saw Tish’s back stiffen. + +“Great Scott!” said Tommy. + +“I found it on the floor under her bed,” Miss Lewis went on. “She +didn’t see me pick it up.” + +Tommy was staring at the blade. + +“It’s been used,” he said. “Look at this!” + +“Exactly,” said Miss Lewis. “It’s from the operating room, Doctor, and +they don’t put away their knives in that condition.” + +“What do you mean by that?” Tommy demanded sharply. But Miss Lewis only +looked at him. + +“I don’t mean anything against Ruth Blake, if that’s what you are +indignant about,” she said. “But I’m glad I found that knife. There’s +enough talk, Doctor.” + +They moved down the hall then, so that was all Tish heard. But she +added, “Knife, blood-stained,” to her sheet of paper. + +Aggie being half drowsy and altogether sulky, we took a little time to +go over the notes Tish had made, and they pointed as many different +ways as a porcupine--Johnson, with his raps and his talk about coming +back, taken from the mortuary and hung by his neck with a roller towel +marked S. P. T.; the coincidence of Johnson’s wife murdered a few years +before and hung up the same way; Miss Blake wandering around at night +with a brass candlestick and a blood-stained knife from the operating +room, and Tommy Andrews falling or being pushed through a skylight and +coming out of the excitement with a _bite_ instead of a fracture! And +then there were smaller things, though strange enough--the twisted +pipe-molding and the footprints on the wall up-stairs in the room where +Johnson’s body was found; the loosened molding in Aggie’s room and her +story about the foot; the fact that Johnson was left to die in the +care of a convalescent typhoid and the ward left alone for fifty-five +minutes; Linda Smith and her speech to Miss Blake, not to mention the +darkish bundle. + +It was Tish who advanced the gigantic ape theory. She’d been reading +_The Murders in the Rue Morgue_, and some of the clues seemed to +fit, especially Tommy’s shoulder. The loosened molding helped out the +theory, and as Tish said, also the stringing up of Johnson’s body, +which, if you left out the supernatural, had apparently been done by +something tremendously strong, but without intelligence. + +Well, the more we thought of it the more certain we felt. The footprint +part of it, too, we considered corroborative evidence, until we got the +encyclopedia and learned that the great apes have the equivalent of +four hands, and not a foot at all. + +But Tish was undaunted. “Mark my words, Lizzie,” she said, “they’ve +lost a chimpanzee or a gorilla from the Zoological Garden--not that +they’ll acknowledge it. You remember when the lion got loose and +ate a colored woman out the Ralston road, and how the papers denied +everything until they found the beast dead of indigestion in a cellar? +But that is what has happened.” + +Well, I thought it likely enough myself, and Tish called up Charlie +Sands, who is on a newspaper and is another of Tish’s nephews. + +“Lizzie and I,” said Tish over the ’phone, “have reason to believe that +there is a great ape--a-p-e--ape! Monkey, _monkey_--yes. A large monkey +loose, and we want you to trace it.” + +There was a long pause. Tish said afterward that Charlie claimed to +have fainted at the other end of the wire, and to have had to be +restored with whisky and soda. However, which is more to the point, +he promised to find out for us what he could, and Tish hung up the +receiver. + +“He’ll do it, too, Lizzie,” she said, “although he spoke to me gently, +as if he thought my reason had entirely gone. But, as he said, it won’t +hurt to scare up the Zoo people anyhow. They’re very casual about their +animals.” + +Now, two things were discovered that afternoon, neither of them to be +explained by anything we knew. The first one was that Tommy Andrews +and Mr. Harrison, the superintendent, making a careful examination of +the roof, found a spattering of dried blood leading from the broken +skylight to the ridge pole, where it ceased abruptly. The second one +was made by Aggie and myself. + +About three o’clock that afternoon Aggie got into her clothes and +insisted on coming into Tish’s room, which was inconvenient, Tish +expecting the message from Charlie Sands at any moment. Aggie was +nervous, but her head was clearer. She’d been thinking things over, and +she knew now that what had happened the night before had been a message +from the roofer. + +“Then the least said about it the better!” Tish snapped. “If he hasn’t +any better sense than to materialize his foot, and you a woman of your +years and respectability, he’d better go back where he came from.” + +“For heaven’s sake, Tish,” Aggie pleaded, looking over her shoulder. +“He may be listening to us now!” + +“I don’t care if he is,” said Tish recklessly. “If he’d materialize a +will, now, leaving you that house in Groveton! But a foot!” + +“I’m not so sure it _was_ a foot,” Aggie said restlessly. “I’ve been +thinking, Tish--he was a large man, you know. It may have been a hand.” + +Now at that moment the telephone bell rang, and Tish signaled to me to +take Aggie out at once. I got up and took her by the arm. + +“I’ll walk up and down the corridor with you, Aggie,” I said. “You need +exercise.” + +“I don’t care to walk,” she objected, trying to sit down. “See who is +at the telephone, Tish. I expect my laundress is through washing and +wants her money.” + +“I’d like you to see the hospital,” I said desperately as the ’phone +rang again. “The--the guinea-pigs, Aggie.” Miss Lewis had told me about +them. + +Now, Aggie loves a guinea-pig. It’s a queer taste, but she says they +neither bark like dogs nor scratch like cats, and they _have_ a nice +way of wiggling their noses. + +“Guinea-pigs!” she said in an ecstasy. “Where?” + +“In the laboratory,” said I, and led her out of the room. + +She put on all her wraps and Miss Lewis took us to the laboratory, +which is a small brick building set off by itself in the hospital yard, +with Aggie cooing in anticipation and wanting to send out and buy a +cabbage for them. Doctor Grimm, who was the surgical interne, met us as +we were crossing the yard, and volunteered to let us in. + +“You know,” he said, feeling in his pocket for the keys, “they’re not as +attractive as some guinea-pigs and rabbits I have known under happier +circumstances. They scratch a good bit--some think it’s fleas; some say +it’s germs.” + +“Germs?” Aggie asked, puzzled. + +“Oh, yes,” he said, opening the door and leading the way into a narrow +hall. “Some of them have been inoculated with several different kinds +of germs. That’s why we keep this place so well locked up, for fear the +germs may escape. You know,”--he unlocked the second door and threw it +open, “you know, suppose you were walking up the street and met a solid +phalanx of say sixteen billion typhoid germs, or measles! It would be +horrible, wouldn’t it?” + +He stepped into the room and looked about him. + +“Come in,” he said. “It’s a little close. We had a tear-up among the +resident staff, and nobody has been here to-day. Hello!” + +He threw open the shutters, and a broad shaft of gray daylight lighted +the room. Aggie gave a cry of dismay. The doors of the small cages +around the walls were all open, and in the center, a pathetic heap of +little brown-and-white and black-and-white bodies, lay the guinea-pigs. + +Doctor Grimm picked one up and examined it closely. + +“I’m damned!” he said, and put it down. “Throats cut, every one of +them! And where are the rabbits?” + +Aggie sat down and began to blubber, but Miss Lewis scolded her +soundly. “There’ll be plenty more where they came from,” she said +sharply. “What _does_ concern us is--how would anybody or anything get +in here with both doors and all the windows locked, and not a chimney.” + +Aggie wiped her eyes and got up. + +“You laughed at me last night, Miss Lewis,” she said with dignity, “but +I wish to remind you that to the fourth dimension there are no locks, +no bars, no doors or walls.” + +“When they invent that,” said Miss Lewis, opening the door to let us +out, “they’ll have to invent something like these X-ray-proof screens, +or a woman won’t dare to change her clothes.” + +“And what’s more,” said Aggie, turning in the doorway, “the hand that +slew those innocent little creatures is the one I touched last night!” + +“Hand!” cried Miss Lewis. “It was a _foot_ then.” + +But Aggie was holding her shoulder over her face and hurrying across +the yard. At the far side she threw back a contemptuous sneeze. + + * * * * * + +Tish’s commission to Charlie Sands had an unexpected result. She was +almost bursting with it when I got back. + +“Listen,” she said while Aggie got her spray, “doesn’t this bear out +what I’ve been saying right along? The Zoo people say positively that +none of their animals has escaped. But they took such an interest in +his inquiry that Charlie grew suspicious and bribed a keeper. He sent +this up by messenger from the office: + +“‘Dear and revered spinster aunt,’” she read--“the young rascal! +‘I couldn’t tell you this over the ’phone, for it’s our exclusive +property, and will be published to-morrow morning, with photographs of +the late deceased, etc. Hero, the biggest ape in captivity, pining for +his keeper, Wesley Barker, who has been away, committed suicide in his +cage last night by hanging himself with a roller towel. He was found +dead when the assistant keeper unlocked the cage at six o’clock this +morning. Nobody knows how he got the roller towel. Charlie.’ + +“‘P. S.--I’ve got the roller towel, a fine long one and marked S. P. T. +Do you think the letters stand for Suicidal Purpose Towel?’” + +Tish looked at me triumphantly over her reading-glasses. + +“You see, Lizzie, what a little logical thinking will do. If it hadn’t +been for me, you and Aggie would have gone to your graves expecting to +be able to come back at any time and hang from chandeliers or do any +of the ridiculous buffoonery that seems to be expected of returned +spirits. We search for a ghost and we find a gorilla.” + +She meant ape, of course, but the other was alliterative. + +“I’m not quite clear about it yet, Tish,” I said, with my head in a +whirl. “If his cage was locked, and the keepers say he hadn’t been +free, and if Miss Blake--” + +“If! If!” said Tish impatiently. “I haven’t had time to figure it all +out, of course. But mark my words, Lizzie, the mystery is solved. We +shall sleep to-night.” + +But, as a matter of fact, we never even went to bed. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR LOVE + + +It is curious to think that if Tish had been able to finish her story +to Tommy Andrews that evening, and to have given him Charlie’s letter +to read, the thing that occurred that night could scarcely have +happened. For with Tommy knowing what he did, he could have put two and +two together and have gone about things in a different way. Aggie, of +course, is a fatalist, and believes it would have happened anyhow. + +In the first place, Tish felt so sure that everything was cleared up +that she told Aggie the whole story, ending with the suicide at the +Zoo. Aggie sat with her mouth open, and didn’t speak except to sneeze +until Tish was through. Then she surprised us. + +“Maybe you are right, Tish,” she said. “I know I hope so. I don’t know +much about gorillas, but I guess they’re mostly hairy, aren’t they?” + +“Mostly,” said Tish grimly. “I haven’t heard of any Mexican hairless +ones.” + +“Well, the hand by my bed--you needn’t sneer, Tish; you can call it a +foot if you prefer foot--” + +“Listen to the woman!” cried Tish. “_I_ haven’t called it anything.” + +“The hand--or foot--was _not_ hairy!” said Aggie, and stuck to it. She +is that kind. Tish says she has a small mind, but I think there are +some large minds that can only hold one idea at a time. + +Well, we told the whole thing again to Tommy, who had heard about the +guinea-pigs from Doctor Grimm, and who listened gravely, and Tish was +just getting out Charlie’s letter to read to him, when Miss Lewis came +in. + +“Drat that woman!” Tish muttered. “She’s never around when she’s +wanted, and always butting in when she isn’t. Well, what is it?” + +“Miss Blake is better, Doctor,” she said. “She is sitting up, dressed, +and--she’s leaving her door unlocked. That’s a good sign.” + +“Thanks, very much,” said Tommy, looking conscious. + +“It’s supper hour now,” remarked Miss Lewis. “If, when I come back, you +would care to go over to the dormitory--” + +“I suppose she hasn’t asked for me?” + +“No. But she asked if you were in the house.” + +“Thanks,” said Tommy again. “When you come back, then. Ah--thanks, very +much.” + +Miss Lewis left and Tish spread out Charlie’s letter. “Dear and revered +spinster aunt,” she began. But Tommy was looking at his watch. + +“How long does she usually take for supper?” he asked. “Excuse me for +interrupting, Aunt Tish.” + +“About an hour,” said Tish grimly. “She says she’s been ordered to chew +her food thoroughly. ‘Dear and revered--’” + +“You know,” said Tommy, “she may get tired and go to sleep, or +something like that.” + +“Not while she’s eating,” said Tish. + +“I mean Miss Blake. I--I think I’ll just run over for a moment _now_, +if you don’t mind.” + +“Not alone!” Tish got up and reached for her cane, but Tommy pushed her +back in her chair. + +“No, indeed, dear Aunt Tish,” he said. “You must not use that knee. Nor +Miss Aggie either--” + +“Aggie has no intention of using my knee,” said Tish crossly. Tommy +was sending me messages with his eyes. I’m notoriously weak as to love +affairs. + +“I’ll go,” I volunteered, obeying Tommy’s signals, and go I did, +leaving Tish clutching her cane with one hand and the letter with the +other! Aggie was, as usual, oblivious and quite calm. + +It was my suggestion that I play propriety from just outside the door. +Tommy went in, and I heard a rustle from the window, as if she had +turned to look at him. + +“I--my aunt is just outside,” he began, hesitating. I am not his aunt, +as I have said. + +“Won’t you ask her in?” She had a low, sweet voice. + +“Certainly, if you wish,” he said, and made no move to do it. “You +dismissed me to-day,” he accused her. + +“I didn’t need a doctor.” + +“I need not have come professionally. I am here now only--well, because +I couldn’t stay away.” + +She said nothing to that, as far as I could hear. + +“I came also,” he said, “to ask you not to stay here alone to-night.” + +“What do you mean?” she asked sharply. + +“Only that you might do the same thing again to-night--walk in your +sleep, you know.” + +I heard her chair move, as if she had turned abruptly and faced him. + +“Why do you say that?” she demanded. “You _know_ I was not asleep last +night.” + +“I assure you--” he began, clearly startled. “I--really thought--” + +“Please!” she said, and there was another silence. Then I realized she +was crying softly. + +“Don’t do that!” pleaded Tommy. “Don’t!” + +“I thought you were killed!” she said, in a smothered tone. “All the +rest of the night I sat and wanted to die. I thought I had killed you!” + +“Where did you sit?” asked Tommy gently. + +“It doesn’t matter, does it?” + +“Very much--to me.” + +“I was--here,” she said, after a hesitation. + +“You were _not_ here,” said Tommy. “Between _that_ and morning, I was +here four times. Where were you?” + +[Illustration] + +“I was safe,” she said. “Why do you question me so?” + +“Because,” he said gently, “I was in the laboratory at two o’clock +this morning. Jacobs helped me with a--wound on my shoulder. I had +looked everywhere for you and failed to find you. I thought I heard +somebody moving across the hall, and we made a casual search. We +found nothing, nobody. But during the fifteen minutes that that door +was unlocked, somebody entered the building, and cut the throats of +eleven guinea-pigs, piling them in the center of the room. And--on the +floor underneath them I picked up this afternoon a small pink rosette, +apparently off the toe of a woman’s bedroom slipper.” + +“Ah!” she said, as if she found it suddenly hard to breathe. And then +she burst out unexpectedly. “After all, was it so terrible? They--they +were only guinea-pigs!” + +“Yes,” said Tommy gravely, “they were only guinea-pigs.” + +He came out the next moment and went back along the hall into the +hospital, having quite forgotten me. His chin was sunk on his breast, +and he walked heavily. He was as bewildered as I had been. We saw +him only once again that evening, and then only for a minute. He was +preparing to station his guards through the house, much to Tish’s +disgust. + +“It’s idiotic,” she confided to Aggie and me that night as Aggie was +getting ready for bed. “Isn’t the creature dead? Do they expect it to +come back from the spirit world and do a materializing seance for them +while they wait?” + +“That’s all very well, Tish,” said Aggie, turning on all the lights and +getting into bed, “but that hand was not hairy.” + +“Foot, you mean,” said Tish. “If that is a footprint on the wall of +that room up-stairs, it was a foot you touched last night.” + +At nine o’clock that night Tommy had a talk with Miss Durand, the +night nurse of K ward. She denied being out of the ward between +twelve-ten and one o’clock, and characterized Bates’ whole story as a +fabrication. + +“He’s always making trouble, Doctor,” she told Tommy. “He brings in +tobacco and morphine and sells it to the men, and you take his word +against mine!” + +And Tommy said that Bates, with Miss Durand’s outraged eyes on him, +reduced the time of her absence to ten minutes, and might have gone +further if Tommy hadn’t turned away in disgust. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE CARBOLIC CASE AND A BROWN COAT + + +Tommy was very gloomy that night. He went about placing guards, with +his mouth set in a grim line and his eyes hard. A few of the nurses +knew what was going on, but with the exception of the three of us, none +of the patients had been told. + +To Tish’s assurance that the trouble was over, that the death of Hero, +the ape, meant the end of the disturbance, Tommy turned a tolerant +smile and a deaf ear. I would have given a good bit to have had Tish’s +conviction, but no theory that was based on Hero at the Zoo could +possibly involve Miss Blake. And Tommy and I knew that Miss Blake was +involved. + +I had not told Tish the particulars of Tommy’s visit to the girl’s +room, or about the rosette he had confronted her with. To be candid, +Tish was disagreeable about my having gone with Tommy, and only relaxed +when, at supper time, a package came from Charlie Sands, and proved to +contain the very towel with which the giant ape had been killed. + +“Thought you might like it,” Charlie wrote. “I snitched it while the +keeper’s back was turned. Gruesome, but interesting, isn’t it? The +beast was almost human, and as far as I know this may be the towel with +which he performed his final ablutions--or do apes ablute?” + +Tish laid it solemnly out on the bed and, going to the dresser drawer, +brought out the one that had, as you may say, suspended Johnson. They +were absolutely alike, even to the position of the S. P. T. which +distinguished them both. + +Tommy came into Aggie’s room about eleven o’clock and sat, as usual, +on the foot of the bed. He had lost his customary air of good-natured +raillery, and looked tired. + +“I’ve placed them all,” he said. “Counting myself, there are fourteen +of us, and I don’t think a germ could escape from any of the wards +without my knowing it.” + +“How about the private rooms?” I asked. “There’s as apt to be mischief +done by pay patients as by charities.” + +“You’re right, there. Well, every corridor is under secret +surveillance. The doors into the nurses’ dormitory are being watched on +every floor, and we have a man on the roof.” + +“Humph!” said Aggie, from the bed. “You’d do better to have a barrel of +holy water. Things that dissolve under your fingers, just as the clock +strikes midnight--it _was_ midnight, Tish. The clock in the hall is +five minutes fast by my watch.” + +“Fiddlesticks!” Tish said tartly. “Then the sun’s too fast; you’d +better have it regulated. No, Tommy, it would have been more to the +point if you’d taken all these precautions last night. You are too +late.” + +“I hope so,” Tommy observed and got off the bed. “I’ll come around now +and then and keep you posted.” He started toward the door and stopped, +looking at me. “You haven’t seen--Miss Blake? She has not come from the +dormitory?” + +“No.” + +He looked relieved at that and went out, and for an hour we saw nothing +of him. + +A little before midnight Miss Lewis brought in on a tray three glasses +of buttermilk and some crackers. + +“I knew none of you were sleeping,” she said. “This will do you good. +I don’t mind saying _my_ nerves are all twittering. This house is +enough to set you crazy. If you go around a corner unexpectedly, you +come across a figure ducking into a doorway. A nurse from L ward just +fell across one of the moppers squatting in a corner by the pantry and +threw a bowl of chicken broth at him, thinking it was Johnson himself.” + +“They might as well calm themselves,” Tish observed, sipping her +buttermilk. “Nothing will happen.” + +“Then why don’t you take off your clothes and go to bed?” Aggie asked, +but Tish scornfully refused to answer. + +“I’m not expecting anything myself,” observed Miss Lewis, straightening +her cap at the mirror. “These things have a way of petering out--and +yet, on the other hand, things in a hospital usually go in threes. If +we have one burned case, we’ll get two more. Shot cases will come in +threes every time, and as for suicides! Well, I’ve seen three carbolic +acids every time I’ve seen one. And that reminds me,” she said, turning +from the mirror and with a dive thrusting a foot-rest under Tish’s leg, +“a carbolic case has just piped out in one of the wards. There are +things I’d rather do than go up and lay it out.” + +And at that instant the hall nurse appeared in the doorway and spoke to +her. + +“Miss Lewis,” she said, “you are to go to the mortuary with that case. +Miss Grimes is having an attack of hysteria.” + +Miss Lewis turned and surveyed us through her spectacles. “Can you beat +that?” she demanded. “Wouldn’t a self-respecting mongrel pup rebel at +a life like this?” She jerked her head--and her cap fell over her ear +with the facility of long practice. “All right,” she said to the nurse, +“I’m coming, but--” she turned in the doorway and waved her hand to us. +“If I am found strung up with an S. P. T.,” she said, “I’ll not hang +alone, believe _me_.” + +An S. P. T.! We all three stared at each other, and Tish tried to call +her back. But she had gone. Could it be, we wondered, that Miss Lewis +knew the meaning of the three letters? And if she did--! + +At five minutes of midnight Tommy stopped in to see us. + +“Nothing yet,” he said. “Heaven knows, I hope there won’t be anything +at all, but there’s an uneasy feeling in the house--I’ve had to make a +few changes. The man on the roof refused to stay.” + +“Naturally,” Tish observed, with the lofty air she’d had all evening. +“If the wind blew he would declare he heard groans.” + +“Exactly what he _did_ say,” replied Tommy. “Says he heard groans and +felt eyes looking at him. But we had the roof searched, and found +nothing. I put Hicks, the ambulance man, there instead. He hasn’t any +nerves.” + +“I beg your pardon, Doctor,” said the hall nurse, from the doorway. +“But--Hicks wants to see you.” + +“Just for a moment,” a voice came from behind the nurse. “I’ll go back +up there, Doctor, if I’ve got to kick myself up, but--” + +“Well?” + +“Doctor, as sure as I’m a living man, something is singing on the +roof.” + +“Singing!” said Tommy. + +“Half singing, half chanting. I--I’m going back, Doctor. Nothing ain’t +ever scared me yet. But--it’s singing ‘Nearer, my God, to Thee’--not +the words. Just the tune.” + +“Did anybody else hear it?” + +“They heard something in the mortuary. They said it didn’t sound +exactly like singing. But I heard it as plain as I hear you, sir. +It--it’s horrible.” + +“Are the nurses still there?” + +“No, sir. Miss Lewis was sent to take Miss Grimes’ place, but she +insisted on having her night supper first. Mr. Briggs is in the +mortuary with the--you know, until she comes.” + +“I’ll go up with you to the roof,” said Tommy, and went at once. + +Aggie had been getting white around the lips during the whole scene, +and when Hicks said “Nearer, my God, to Thee,” she almost keeled over +against her pillows. The moment Tommy had gone, she burst into tears, +declaring that something awful was going to happen, that being the tune +they had sung at the roofer’s funeral. + +Tish, however, was stonily calm, although I could see she was shaken. +She had got out her Irish lace, and sat making picots as if her life +depended on it. + +“I don’t for the life of me see what you are bleating about,” she +snapped. “If you argue from hearing that tune that _he’s_ coming back +to-night, there will be more ghosts walking than this hospital can +hold. It’s been sung at a good many funerals. And another thing, if +he was as good as you think he was, he’s sitting around with a harp, +learning celestial melodies, not coming back to string up innocent +corpses with roller towels, and break skylights. It’s only the bad ones +that aren’t satisfied where they are and come back.” + +It is hard to say just why that line of reasoning made Aggie dry her +tears, but it did, and she sat up and finished her buttermilk. + +[Illustration] + +It was when I was reaching her the crackers that I heard a creak, and +knew that somebody had stealthily opened the door into the nurses’ +dormitory. Tish heard it, too, and put down her crocheting. + +All our lights were on, while the hall was dark. This time we saw no +candlelight, but we each felt who it was. I stepped to the door and +looked out. + +Miss Blake, fully dressed, was on the narrow staircase to the floor +above, and at the top somebody with an electric flash was barring the +way. + +“Sorry, Miss,” said Jacobs, the night watchman. “We have orders not to +let anybody pass here to-night.” + +“But I must!” she pleaded. “I can’t endure the suspense another moment, +Jacobs! Where is Doctor Andrews?” + +“On the roof, Miss Blake.” + +“Oh, no, not on the roof!” she cried. “Let me pass. I _must_ pass.” + +“Sorry,” he said, not moving. “My orders--” + +Suddenly, from somewhere overhead came a woman’s scream, a shrill note +of horror that left my ears aching, my heart beating madly. It rose and +fell and then rose again, and the silence that followed was the silence +of paralysis. + +Immediately after, there was the sound of scurrying feet. Tish and I +never knew afterward how we got up the stairs, or were almost the first +on the scene. + +The hall was dark, as on the floor below, but from the mortuary a +bright light streamed down the short, wide flight of steps that served +as its approach. + +On one side of the receiving table Tommy was standing. On the other, +Miss Lewis stood, as if frozen, with one hand turning down the covering +sheet. But the body on the table was not wrapped in a shroud. It +was the figure of a tall man fully dressed, and with the head and +shoulders tightly wrapped in what looked like a brown coat. + +Tish gripped my arm, shaking so she could scarcely speak. “Johnson!” +she said. “Oh, my God, Lizzie, it’s Johnson!” + +But it was not. When they had untied the sleeves, tightly knotted about +the neck, Tommy himself gave a cry of horror. + +It was Briggs, the orderly, dead about ten minutes, and with his ribs +crushed in like a broken barrel. + +The “carbolic case” was lying in placid peace under the table, its +bandaged hands folded, its jaw relaxed, its half-shut eyes looking +calmly up at the horror overhead. + +Tish and I put Miss Lewis to bed that night and Tish sat with her until +morning. It was dawn when Tommy came in. They had found nothing--except +one curious fact: + +The brown coat that had covered poor Briggs’ head had belonged to +Johnson. The pockets were full of his private papers. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +JACOBS’ ELEVATOR + + +As I have said, Tommy came in about dawn. Miss Lewis had dropped into +an uneasy sleep, and Tish was dozing in the chair beside her; Aggie was +stretched out on the couch, with a cubeb cigarette burning in a saucer +beside her, and was resurrecting her mother’s sister again when he came +in. He beckoned me out into the hall after he had told us about the +coat. + +“Miss Blake is ill again,” he said. “The second shock, after the first, +you know.” + +“Not seriously, Tommy?” I asked, putting my hand on his arm. + +“I don’t know,” he said miserably. “People don’t go from one fainting +attack into another without--I guess you’ve seen how it is, Miss +Lizzie. I--it would kill me if any harm came to her!” + +“No harm is coming to her,” I reassured him. “If the strain has had +this effect on Miss Lewis, who has about the same nervous system as a +cow, of course it would go hard with a finely organized girl like Miss +Blake. And--don’t be foolish, Tommy. No finding of surgical knives in +that girl’s room, or of rosettes where they don’t happen to belong, is +going to make her guilty of anything wrong. If she’s in trouble, it’s +not of her own making.” + +He fairly put his arm around me and hugged me, to the horror of a +passing nurse. + +“Blessed are the spinsters!” he cried, “for they are the salt of the +earth! Do you really think that?” + +“I do,” I said firmly. “And shame on you, Tommy Andrews, for having +thought anything else. I shall stay with her for an hour or two.” + +“If you will,” he said gratefully, and we started toward the dormitory. + +On the way over, Tommy told me more clearly what had happened. The body +of the “carbolic case” had been taken to the mortuary by Jacobs and +Briggs, Marshall, the other night orderly, having refused to go. On the +way up, Jacobs, who was running the elevator, complained that it was +out of order. It was an old-fashioned lift, moving always very slowly, +and built on the familiar cable and wheel principle. Twice during the +ascent the cage stopped entirely. + +Near the top floor the cage began to vibrate wildly and Briggs had been +obliged to steady the wheeled table containing the corpse. + +Jacobs, who had told Tommy the story, said that both he and Briggs were +alarmed, fearing that one of the cables had broken; while he worked +with the lever in the cage, Briggs looked up apprehensively through the +metal grill in the center of the cage. The car was still shaking from +side to side, and refused to obey the lever. Jacobs turned to Briggs +and threw up his hands. + +“It’s stuck!” he said. “Either it’s going to drop, when it gets ready, +or--” + +He said Briggs wasn’t listening, but was standing looking up at the +grill with his face blue-white. Jacobs looked up, too, but he was a +second too late. He had a sense of something white moving just out of +his range of vision, and then the car ceased vibrating. + +Briggs was still staring up and the car was moving again as if nothing +had happened to it. At the mortuary floor he had touched Briggs on the +arm, and he shivered and helped him wheel the table out of the cage. +Then Briggs asked him to lower the cage until he could see the top, but +there was nothing there. After that they took the body to the mortuary. + +“What did Briggs think he saw?” I asked nervously, holding to Tommy’s +arm. The hall was dark. + +“It’s rather fantastic,” Tommy said, “but--he declared there was a bare +foot planted directly on the grill of the cage.” + +“A foot!” I gasped. + +“A foot,” said Tommy soberly. “And I’m going to tell you what I +wouldn’t care to tell Aunt Tish or Miss Aggie. I’ve been on top of the +cage myself, just now, with a candle. There are innumerable footprints +in the dust, distinct marks of a naked foot. But it is always the right +foot!” + +I shivered. “Tommy!” I quavered. “The mark on the wall where Johnson +was found was--the print of a _naked right_ foot.” + +“I know,” he replied, and fell to thinking. “Well,” he said, after a +moment, “I’d better go on. Jacobs moved the cage down, but there was +nothing on it, or in the shaft over their heads. It ends just above +that floor, and as the doors to the shaft were all locked, if anything +had been above the cage, it could hardly have got away. Briggs himself +said that he thought it was an optical illusion, and was apparently +not nervous when Jacobs went down to get Miss Lewis. He was gone some +time, Miss Lewis, as I have said, having insisted on being fortified +with food before she went up.” + +Finally, as we knew, he had got Miss Lewis and they went back to the +mortuary. Briggs was sitting there quietly, with his pipe lighted and +a newspaper on his knee. But he was neither reading nor smoking and +Jacobs said he was staring overhead, with a queer expression on his +face, as if he were listening to something. + +He started to say something to Jacobs, but Jacobs signaled him to be +cautious and pointed to Miss Lewis. Briggs had nodded and resumed his +pipe. Everything was quiet and peaceful, Jacobs insisted. Tommy and +Hicks had appeared sometime before and had gone up the stairs to the +roof. The man who had been sent to guard that corridor, one of the +laundry men, was dozing in a chair half way down. Jacobs, not being +needed in the mortuary, went down to him and roused him by shaking. He +and the laundry man were talking when Miss Lewis came down to the empty +ward across from them, and turning on the lights, went in search of +something she needed. + +Jacobs was positive there had not been a sound from the mortuary, +except that a gust of air from its open windows had swept along the +hall, and the glass-topped doors slammed shut. There had been no +outcry, no struggle. When Miss Lewis went back briskly, and opened the +doors, she found Briggs apparently gone, and the sheeted figure on the +table as before. + +It was only when she turned down the sheet that she discovered the +truth--the body of the murdered orderly on the table and the corpse not +to be seen. It was then she screamed. + +“We have sent for the police,” Tommy finished. “We didn’t want any +publicity, but now it has to come. It’s beyond us. The strange thing +is,” he said, “at the time it happened, every corridor, every ward, +every possible means of access to the mortuary was guarded.” + +“Yes, and with the one nearest it sound asleep!” I commented +scornfully. “And goodness knows how many of the others!” + +“Jacobs was in the upper hall,” he contended, “and whoever was asleep +beforehand, none of them was asleep after Miss Lewis shrieked, Miss +Lizzie. There are only two means of access to the mortuary, one is the +fire-escape and the other the steps. Jacobs was just beyond the steps +all the time, and Hicks and I were on the roof near the fire-escape. +Nobody left by those two exits. That’s positive.” + +“There is another door in the mortuary,” I said. “What is that?” + +“Mortuary linen closet,” said Tommy. “Always kept locked, and still +locked.” + +“You haven’t examined it?” + +“The linen room woman carries the key, and she is away over night.” + +“Nobody was missing in the house?” + +“We made a tally immediately, with the guards all watching every door +and window. Two internes and I made the count ourselves, not a soul was +missing.” + +“He was--strangled?” + +“No. That’s one of the queerest things about it. He had been +_squeezed_--his chest is caved in, and I think the autopsy will show +that a point of one of the ribs entered the heart. Death was almost +instantaneous.” + +“And the brown coat?” I asked. “How did it get there?” + +“God knows,” said Tommy, and rapped at Miss Blake’s door. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +BAG AND BAGGAGE + + +Tish stared at me the next morning when I told her the story Tommy had +told me, and laid the key of the mortuary linen closet on her breakfast +tray. + +“The Blake girl is still out of her head,” I finished up, “and I found +the key, as I tell you, on her dresser, labeled as you see it. I don’t +want you to show it to Tommy, Tish.” + +“Tommy!” said Tish scornfully, and pushed away her breakfast untasted. +“I tell you, Lizzie, if _I_ had had charge of things last night, that +poor wretch would have carried in this tray this morning, with the tea +slopped over everything as usual. Tommy is a nice boy, but he’s stupid.” + +“But I don’t understand,” said Aggie from the bed. “If you think, Tish +Carberry, that finding the key to a linen closet is going to prove +anything against that pretty little nurse, I’ll tell Tommy about it +myself.” + +“Exactly,” said Tish, coldly. “And if you do, I wash my hands of the +whole affair. As far as I’m concerned in that case, she can go under +suspicion the rest of her life.” + +“Suspicion of what?” Aggie demanded tartly. “She didn’t kill Briggs, +I suppose. Even if she could have broken his ribs, as Tish says, and +she’s a perfectly respectable girl--you can see _that_ in her face--she +was right on the stairs here when it happened, wasn’t she?” + +Tish got up and put the key of the linen closet in the lower bureau +drawer. + +“Don’t be any more of a fool than you can help, Aggie,” she said, and +shut the drawer. “I _don’t_ think Miss Blake killed Briggs, or got +up on the wall and made a footprint a foot and a half long near the +ceiling, or hung Johnson by the neck to a chandelier. And if my nephew +chooses to be so head over ears in love with the young woman that he’s +no more capable of logical thought than a guinea-pig, _I_ shall look +into the thing myself.” + +“Guinea-pig,” said Aggie. “Now then, that’s another thing, Tish. The +rabbits--” + +“Lizzie,” Tish said, snubbing her completely. “Will you see if Miss +Durand is off duty yet? I want to talk to her. Lewis won’t be back from +breakfast for an hour. She can’t Fletcherize and tell that story at the +same time.” + +The hall nurse promised me to find Miss Durand and send her to Tish’s +room, and started at once in the search for her. She turned to say, +over her shoulder and with bated breath, that detectives were in the +building now, that Tommy was with them, and that there was a story +that they’d found some curious prints on the wall in the room where +Johnson’s body had hung. + +“A foot, and just beside it a woman’s hand,” she said. “I hear they are +going to take impressions of all the hands in the hospital to-day!” + +I carried this to Tish, and she affected indifference. But she was +visibly uneasy and at different times I caught her staring fixedly at +her palm. + +At eight o’clock Miss Durand came in looking tired and white, Tish +asked her to sit down and offered her a little port wine, but she +refused. + +“No, thanks,” she said. “I’m off to bed soon, and if I can only +sleep--I didn’t sleep much yesterday.” + +“Too noisy, I daresay,” said Tish. “Poor Briggs complained of the same +thing in this very room yesterday.” + +“Oh, it wasn’t the noise. I--I got to thinking.” She tried to smile. +“There have been so many strange things happening!” + +“I should think so,” said Aggie. “That poor Miss Blake! Do you think--” + +Tish fixed her with a cold eye, and Aggie’s voice trailed off to +nothing. She looked frightened. + +“Miss Durand,” said Tish, suddenly hitching her chair forward, “I +should like you to tell me why you left Johnson to die alone and why +you absented yourself from your ward for fifty minutes.” + +Miss Durand turned even paler, and got up. “I didn’t understand that +you--” + +“Sit down,” said Tish. “I guess you know I’m chairman of the Ladies’ +Committee here, and you’d better tell me than tell the police. I don’t +start with the belief that half the hospital’s guilty and the other +half accessories to the crime, and that’s what the police will do, +according to my experience.” + +“You may ask Bates--” she began. + +“So I may,” said Tish cheerfully. “And if you are around he’ll say you +were away a scant ten minutes and if he’s alone, he’ll swear to an hour +or more.” + +“It was less than an hour, I’d swear to that anywhere,” said Miss +Durand. “It couldn’t have taken so long!” + +“What couldn’t have taken so long?” Tish demanded. + +Miss Durand looked around at the three of us and seemed to be thinking. + +“What do you mean by saying I’d better tell you than tell the police?” +she asked. + +“Just this,” Tish said briskly getting out her sheet of note-paper. “I +flatter myself I can see as far through a stone wall as most people, +especially if there’s a crack to look through. I’ve been looking at +this particular stone wall off and on since four o’clock this morning, +and--well, I think I begin to see daylight.” + +“Humph!” said Aggie. “Then the least I can say, Tish--” + +“Now, Miss Durand,” Tish began, biting a point on her pencil, “we’ll +get at this systematically. Did Briggs have any enemies in K Ward?” + +“He wasn’t popular. I guess old Johnson hated him about the most.” + +“Ah!” said Tish, and put that down. “Did you know Johnson was dying +when you left the ward?” + +“He’d been dying for twenty-four hours and had been unconscious for +six,” she defended herself. “Nobody can tell when that sort will make a +clean get-away.” + +“Good gracious!” Aggie ejaculated, and even Tish looked shocked. Miss +Durand was clearly not in Miss Blake’s class: seen in the morning +light, her face looked hard as well as tired. + +“I see,” said Tish, and put down “clean get-away.” “Now, Miss Durand, +why had Linda Smith been crying when she came to you at midnight that +night?” + +“She said she had had some words with the head nurse. She had missed a +lecture that evening.” + +“Why did she miss the lecture?” + +“I don’t know.” + +“Don’t know or won’t tell?” asked Tish, over her note-paper. + +“Don’t know,” snapped Miss Durand, and for all I didn’t like her, I +thought she was telling the truth. + +“Now, Miss Durand,” Tish observed, sitting back and fixing her lame leg +on its hassock, “I’d be glad to hear why Miss Linda Smith took you away +from your ward that night, and where you went.” + +“She had forgotten to attend to something, and she came back to fix it.” + +“What?” + +Miss Durand stared at Tish and Tish leaned back, with her pencil stuck +through the knob of her hair, and stared at Miss Durand. As I have said +somewhere else, Tish is a masterful woman, and Miss Durand felt it. + +“She had forgotten to turn in Johnson’s clothes,” she said. “That is +always done after a death: the clothes are held in the office for the +friends to get. We went to the basement clothes room.” + +“But Johnson was not dead!” + +“The chances were he would die that night. The clothes should have been +ready in case relatives had wished to remove the body at once.” + +“The trip to the clothes room would take about ten minutes, I daresay,” +Tish said dryly. “Why didn’t she go alone?” + +“I--I hardly know. She was nervous and upset. You see, her three years +is almost up, and she and the superintendent are on bad terms. She has +always said that he would make use of any small mistake she made, to +keep her from getting her diploma.” + +“When would she get it, everything going well?” + +“Next week.” + +“Very good,” said Tish, and put something down. “Now then, what +happened in the clothes room?” + +“I didn’t go in.” + +“Where were you?” + +“The morning milk cans were being delivered. I went to the other end +of the basement, past the engine room, and got a glass of milk. I was +thirsty.” + +“I see. And that took forty minutes?” + +“No,” said Miss Durand. “When I got back to the clothes room, I +couldn’t find Miss Smith. The cellar man, sitting on the stairs, said +she had not gone up. I was worried, and we both searched for her. We +couldn’t find her.” + +“But you did find her. You went back to K ward together.” + +“I didn’t find her,” said Miss Durand. “When I came back to the stairs, +she was sitting there, with a bundle in her lap. She was white. The +cellar man asked her if she felt sick.” + +“How did she explain her absence?” + +“She didn’t,” said Miss Durand with her curious smile. “She’s a very +queer woman, Miss Smith is.” + +“Humph!” Tish said, and put down a line or two. “Well, I reckon the +next thing to do is to see Miss Smith. She looks pleasant enough, but +you can’t tell by looking at a toad how far it can hop.” + +Miss Durand got up and prepared to go. She still wore her curious smile. + +“I think it has hopped a good ways, Miss Carberry,” she said. “Linda +Smith has gone, bag and baggage, nobody knows where!” + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +TO THE ZOO + + +Aggie being better, and having declared that no power on earth would +make her spend another night in the place, we planned to leave about +noon that day. But Tish’s astonishing conduct drove all idea of going +from our minds. + +In the first place, Miss Lewis came in from breakfast looking a little +bit better, and insisted on giving Tish’s knee its massage, as usual. +But Tish was sitting poring over the notes she had made, and wouldn’t +even so much as look up. + +“Get away,” she snarled, with her pencil in her teeth. “There’s nothing +wrong with my knee.” + +Miss Lewis looked at me. + +“There was something wrong with it yesterday,” she said, with her +thumbs tucked inside her belt and her spectacles flashing. “It’s got +cured pretty quick, I think.” + +“I don’t employ you to think,” said Tish, hopping past her and opening +the lower bureau drawer. + +“You needn’t employ me at all.” + +“That’s a fact,” Tish said. “It hadn’t occurred to me. You go in and +take care of Miss Pilkington to-day, Miss Lewis. There’s nothing +pleases her like being taken care of.” + +“There’s nothing the matter with Miss Pilkington, either,” snapped Miss +Lewis, but Tish was getting down on her knees by the drawer, groaning +as she did it, and she only threw an absent reply over her shoulder. +“Oh, well,” she said, “you know what I mean. I didn’t mean to offend +you. You’re a good nurse, but I’ve got something else on hand. Give +Miss Pilkington a bath and put talcum on; she’ll take to it like a +baby.” + +Miss Lewis opened her mouth to refuse, thought better of it, and went +to Aggie’s room. Tish drew a long sigh. + +“Thank heaven!” she said. “They’ll keep each other busy for the rest of +the day.” + +Which they did. Aggie emerged from her room when Tish and I, breathless +and dirty, got back late that morning. She was powdered and manicured, +curled and French-puffed, and she knew the history of every private +case on the floor; name, age, family scandal and operation. She was +primed to talk, but by that time Tish and I had no time to stop. Things +were approaching a climax. + +Well, Miss Lewis and Aggie off our hands, Tish emptied the lower drawer +and spread its contents on the floor in front of her. First of all, +she laid out the two roller towels, with the S. P. T. showing. Then +followed the brown tweed coat, secured by a dollar to Jacobs, the small +surgeon’s knife, the dented brass candlestick, the bandage Linda Smith +had picked up in the upper hall, the linen room key, and Charlie +Sands’ letter about Hero at the Zoo. Then with the sheet of note-paper +in her hand, she began to play a sort of checkers with the different +things. The two S. P. T. towels she put together and using this +combination as a king, she proceeded to jump the other articles, one by +one, moving them around aimlessly in the intervals and consulting her +notes. + +At the end of the game, as well as I could make out, the king had +it. At least, the two towels seemed to have Charlie Sands’ letter +checkmated in a corner, and the other articles lay in a humiliated heap +on Tish’s lap. + +“Well,” I said, “I see the towels win, although I think you cheated +once.” + +Tish stuffed the notes into the bosom of her dress and tumbled the +other things back in the drawer. Then she got up, making horrible faces +as she straightened her knee. + +“I’m sorry it’s raining, Lizzie,” she said. “We’ll have to go out.” + +“Where!” I asked sarcastically. “To the matinée?” + +“To the Zoo,” she replied, and hauling down her bonnet from the +cupboard, stuck it on her head. “Shall we need a taxicab?” + +“Probably, if you intend to go out in your nightgown,” I said coldly. + +But if I expected Tish to be confused, I was disappointed. With +her bonnet still on, she put on her shoes and stockings, her black +broadcloth skirt, a lamb’s wool vest and her long fur coat. It wasn’t +until she was finished that she remembered her nightgown underneath +everything. + +“It’s a little long, isn’t it?” she said, when she’d started for the +door, with six inches of white trailing all around her. “Pin it up, +Lizzie; that’s a good girl.” + +“I’ll do nothing of the sort,” I said. “If you want to make a goose of +yourself with a knee that you are forbidden to step on, and maybe a +taxicab accident with you fixed like that underneath, I’m not going to +be a party to it.” + +“Very well!” said Tish, and getting a pair of scissors, she was about +to cut off eight inches of her best French gown, when I weakened +and got the safety pins. It was plain, Tish was in no mood to stop +at trifles. I made her as respectable as possible, at least on the +surface, and by that time, seeing she was determined to go, I got ready +and went with her. + +Now, a patient can’t leave a hospital without a card being sent down, +signed by the interne and countersigned by the superintendent, and +brought back by the elevator boy for the signatures of his family, his +friends and the police bureau, or something almost as complicated. But +not knowing anything of this, Tish and I went down in the elevator, +past the door-man and out the front door, called a taxicab and drove +away with perfect ease and calmness. + +We went to the Zoo. That is generally known now, although that Tish +went in her nightgown is here for the first time set forth. But what we +did at the Zoo I do not know exactly. I might as well have been back +with Aggie, being bathed and talcumed. Tish let me pay the taxicab, +pointed to a chair in the ante-room, and spent twenty minutes in the +private office of the superintendent. + +I was rather bitter about it. In the first place, I don’t like Zoos, +and in the second place, after I had been there ten minutes, a man in +uniform came in and examined all the corners of the room and turned +over every chair. When he came to the one I was in, he said, “Excuse +me, ma’am, but you haven’t noticed a small green snake with red and +yellow markings anywhere around here, have you?” + +I was frozen in my chair. + +“No,” I replied as calmly as I possibly could, “unless I +absent-mindedly put him in my hand-bag!” + +“Oh, I didn’t mean that, lady,” he hastened to explain, “I meant--he +may be curled on the rungs of your chair.” + +I got up at that almost instantaneously and he turned the chair over. +“Not here,” he said, disappointed. “Little devil, this is the third +time this week!” + +“Is he--is he poisonous?” I asked. + +“Well,” he said thoughtfully, “personally, I shouldn’t care to sit down +on him in the dark.” + +He went out and closed the door, and when Tish came back, she declares +I was standing in the middle of the room with my skirts held up, and +turning slowly around in a circle. + +There was a glitter in Tish’s eye that I had never seen there before, +as we drove back to the hospital. I attempted to explain a little of +how I felt at being left in a place like that, where at any moment +something might break loose for the third time that week, and why I was +turning around, but she told me tartly not to bother her. + +We returned to the hospital in silence, and I paid for the taxicab. It +was not until we were back in Tish’s room, and had put her into her +chair and got a hot-water bottle under her knee, which had gone on a +strike about that time and refused to bend at all, that I spoke. + +“Well?” I asked. + +“Well--what?” + +“Have they lost anything? Any animals?” + +“No,” said Tish calmly. “I knew that before I went there. Aggie, what +day was it the two medical internes left?” + +“This is Friday,” I said. “It was Tuesday evening, Tish.” + +“I thought so,” she observed. “Now reach me my notes, Lizzie, and go +call Bates.” + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +TOMMY TELLS WHY + + +Bates came unwillingly. His shrewd face was pale and twitching, and he +insisted on knowing why he was wanted. + +“I can not tell you, because I do not know, Mr. Bates,” I said. “Miss +Carberry wants to speak to you. That is all.” + +“I haven’t time,” he said. “I’m helping out in the wards to-day. One of +the day orderlies has to take Mr. Briggs’ place to-night, and he has +gone to bed to get some sleep.” + +But I got him to go finally, and we went together along the hall, his +carpet-slippers flapping loosely as he walked, his shirt open at the +throat and showing his lean brown neck. I thought to myself uneasily +that the man looked like, at least, a potential criminal himself. But +just as we reached Tish’s door Tommy came out. + +I sent Bates in, for Tommy had put his hand on my arm. + +“What has she been up to?” he asked, as the door closed. “She’s sitting +in there in a kimono, with her foot on a stool, and she’s got her +bonnet on.” + +“We’ve been out,” I said tartly. “Or she’s been out. I only went along. +We went to the Zoo, Tommy, and she left me to sit on snakes with green +and red markings--” + +“What!” + +“Well, it only happened that I didn’t. And she’s got hold of something: +I never saw her in such a state.” + +“The Zoo!” cried Tommy and whistled. Then he smiled. “I see,” he said; +“_The Murders in the Rue Morgue_, eh? Well, what happened?” + +“I haven’t any idea. She’s got some sort of a scent, and she’s got her +nose to the ground and running like mad. If she’s interfered with +to-day, she’ll bite.” + +“I see,” said Tommy again thoughtfully. “Well, good luck to her.” + +“How is Miss Blake?” + +He lowered his voice. “She’s conscious, but don’t tell Aunt Tish, +please. She wants to ask her some questions, and I don’t want her +disturbed. She’s very weak.” He looked down at a little case he had +in his hand, and then at me. “I’m going to give her a hypodermic,” he +said, “and the nurse is doing something else. Would you mind coming +over with me?” + +Well, of course, I’d wanted to hear what Tish asked Bates, but as I’ve +admitted before, I’m a good bit of a fool where there’s a love affair +on hand, and I’m fond of Tommy. + +“All right,” I said, and we went. I thought I heard Tish’s voice raised +angrily as we left the door, but the next moment there was only the +quiet hum of Bates speaking. + +The little nurse was lying in bed with her eyes closed. She looked +white, but her lips had more color than the day before. She opened her +eyes as we came in, and put out her hand to me. + +“You’re very good,” she said. “You see I am better.” Tommy beamed. + +“And just in time!” said I. “One more fainting fit, and Doctor Tommy +Andrews would have been tied up in a strait-jacket.” + +She colored a little and looked at him. + +“I’ve been telling her,” said Tommy, catching my eye, “about Miss Lewis +and the mouse last night. A girl with a set of lungs like that is lost +in a hospital. She ought to be in a garage blowing up auto tires.” + +“And--everything was quiet last night?” + +“Not a sound--except the aforesaid yell. Never knew the house quieter.” +He reached over and caught her wrist. “Nerves as tight as a string!” he +said. “You’re going to have a hypodermic and relax a bit.” + +“Since you _will_ be my medical adviser--” she said, half shyly, and +held out her right arm. + +Tommy fixed the hypodermic and came over to the bed. “Ready!” he said, +but instead of the right arm, he leaned across and drew up the short +white sleeve of the left. She made a quick movement, but was too late. + +“Good heavens!” Tommy said, and we both stared. The arm was covered +with bruises from elbow to shoulder! + + * * * * * + +Tommy walked back with me to Tish’s room, but at first he said nothing, +and neither did I. The girl had offered no explanation, and he had +asked none. The poor little arm had been too pathetic. + +Just before we reached Tish’s door, however, he stopped. + +“The sheer brutality of it!” he said. “She’s only a bit of a girl, +and she’s been through something horrible. But I’m not going to ask +her about it, and I won’t have her questioned by anybody else. If I’m +satisfied, it’s nobody else’s affair.” + +“Listen to the egoist!” said I. “And why is it your affair only?” + +“Because I’m going to marry her, if she’ll have me,” he said hotly. +“And after I have her, and can protect her, I’m going to kill whoever +put those finger-prints on her arm.” + +“Finger-prints!” I cried. + +“Yes, finger-prints,” he said, and opened the door. + +Bates had gone, and Aggie and Tish were together. Tish still wore her +bonnet, and she had a crimson spot on each cheek. + +“Tommy,” she said, the moment we entered. “I’ve sent for the linen +woman, and I want you to stay by. As soon as I’ve seen her, we’re going +to the Blake girl’s room.” + +“Oh, no; you’re not,” said Tommy calmly. “You’ll go there over my dead +body.” + +“That wouldn’t be much of an obstacle!” + +“She’s very ill. I won’t have her disturbed,” said Tommy, and set his +jaw. They both have the Carberry jaw. Tish made an impatient movement. +“Oh, well, I can manage without her. Is the top of the elevator flat?” +she added. + +“The center is, I believe,” Tommy was doubtful. “What on earth--” + +“Never mind!” said Tish grandly, and the linen woman knocked. + +“Mrs. Jenkins?” asked Tish. + +“Yes’m,” said Mrs. Jenkins. She was a tall woman, in black, with a +white apron and a thimble as badges of office. + +“I wanted to ask you for the key to the mortuary linen closet, Mrs. +Jenkins,” said Tish. + +Mrs. Jenkins fidgeted, and glanced at Tommy. + +“I’m sorry,” she said. “I--haven’t got it just now.” + +“Indeed!” Tish raised her eyebrows. “Aren’t you responsible for that +closet? I have a particular reason for asking.” + +Mrs. Jenkins turned to Tommy. “Since you’re here, Doctor Andrews,” she +said, “I suppose it’s all right, but we don’t give the keys to any of +the closets to patients usually.” + +“Since you haven’t got it, that needn’t disturb you,” Tish said +sharply. “If you wish a reason, however, I’m a member of the Ladies’ +Committee of this hospital, and as I am undertaking a special inquiry +into things that have happened here lately, _I want that key_.” + +Mrs. Jenkins looked dazed. She had never seen a female detective, +I daresay, and to see one sitting before her in a kimono over a +nightgown, with a black bonnet with jet bugles over one ear, and her +foot out on a stool, clearly bewildered her. + +“I’m sorry,” she said respectfully, when she’d recovered, “but the key +that usually hangs in the mortuary is lost, and I gave Miss Linda Smith +the other one.” + +“Hah!” cried Tish. “When?” + +“Yesterday, I think. I’m not sure.” + +“Thank you very much, Mrs. Jenkins. I’ll not keep you any longer.” And +as the linen woman went out, Tish got up and reached for her cane. + +“Now then, Tommy,” she said, “I’ll trouble you to take Lizzie and Aggie +somewhere and keep them, so I can think. Take them out and get them +some soda water.” + +“Soda water! Perhaps you would like me to go back to the Zoo,” I +observed with biting sarcasm. But it was lost on Tish. + +“I shouldn’t advise it,” she said. “It’s raining again. Just get +out--go anywhere, so you go. And come back in an hour.” + +“I’ve half a mind--” Aggie began nastily. + +“Why, so you have!” said Tish. “Shut the door behind you.” And as +Aggie, who was the last, slammed out, we heard Tish opening the lower +bureau drawer. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +ON THE ROOF AND ELSEWHERE + + +We came back in an hour to find Tish waiting with her bonnet still on, +and in a more agreeable frame of mind. She asked Tommy and me to go +around the hospital with her, but refused to take Aggie, who retired +sulking to her room. Tish rolled up the S. P. T. towels and led the way +herself, a strange gleam in her eye. Considering what she had in mind, +it was a courageous thing she was doing, but I don’t mind admitting now +that there were moments that day when I thought she had lost her reason. + +She led the way to the mortuary first, with her bundle under her arm, +and Tommy and I trailing at her heels, like two bewildered lambs after +a wild-eyed sheep. Seen in daylight, there was nothing horrible about +the mortuary. There were no bodies there, and the daylight came in +in churchly fashion through the two large stained-glass windows in +the end. Indeed, the room looked like a small chapel, being finished +in dark wood, with pale walls, chairs in a row around the edge of the +floor, and only the row of tables in the center instead of pews, to +spoil its ecclesiastical appearance. + +At the far end, to the left, and near the windows, was the door to the +linen closet. Tish gave the room only a casual glance, and stalked +across to the linen closet. She hesitated a moment and grasped her +stick closely. Then she inserted the key she had carried up with her, +and slowly turned it. + +The door flew open immediately and I took a hasty step back. But it had +been pushed only by the draft of air from a small window at the side, +which was open, and except for piles of neatly folded linen, the closet +was empty. Tish looked slightly disappointed, but not discouraged. +She went in and stuck her head out through the open window, looking in +every direction. + +“Exactly,” she said and prepared to close and lock the closet again. +But she waited to close the small window first, and when she turned, +Tommy had stooped over something lying on the floor just inside the +door. + +“Look!” he said, holding it out on his palm. “Briggs’ old pipe, with +the stem gone! The one he was smoking when--!” + +If he expected Tish to be impressed he was disappointed. + +“There’s nothing astonishing about that!” she said calmly, and +proceeding to climb out one of the stained-glass windows on to the +fire-escape--although it was the fifth floor and Tish had always +declared she’d rather burn up than put a foot on one of the things--she +ran nimbly up and over the cornice to the roof. + +It was a very ordinary roof. One part was flat, and evidently used +occasionally as a breathing spot. There were benches around and a +flower pot or two, and directly in the center was a four-foot iron +fence, enclosing a skylight. Two men at work there showed where Tommy +had gone through, and when I glanced at him he was staring at it with a +rueful smile. + +“When you remember,” he said, “that I weigh a hundred and seventy +pounds, and that I went over that fence head first, it makes you wonder +what grudge old Johnson had against me. _I_ was decent enough to him, +if Briggs wasn’t.” + +“Do you mean that--that Briggs was _cruel_ to him?” I asked Tommy. + +“With a refined form of cruelty, yes. The sort that lets an old man go +without sugar in his tea, and won’t hear him begging for ice-water.” + +“Then I’m glad he’s dead,” I snapped, “and if I’d been Johnson, I’d +have--” + +Tish had wandered across the roof, and was standing on a part of it +about two feet higher than the rest, looking at a second and smaller +skylight. + +“What’s this, Tommy?” she called. + +“Elevator, I think,” said Tommy, and we went over. Tish was looking +around her with speculative eyes. + +“I guess this is about right,” she said. “I miss my guess, +unless--Tommy, get down with your ear to the roof and see if you hear +anything.” + +“It’s dirty,” said Tommy. + +“I guess you’ll wash without spoiling,” Tish snapped. “It ain’t a +Carberry trait to be afraid of dirt. Get down.” + +Tommy pulled up his trousers legs and got down gingerly, and I followed +suit. I daresay we looked queer, both kneeling, and each with an eager +ear to the tin. The two men at the other skylight stared at us over the +railing nervously. + +We didn’t hear anything, and Tish looked disappointed. But she didn’t +stop her half hop, half run, over the roof. At the end of fifteen +minutes she was back at the top of the fire-escape, ready to descend. +But going down was different from going up, and I guess we were both +relieved when Tommy said there was a staircase. + +When we got to the bottom, I was clear out of breath, and even Tommy +was panting. But Tish hadn’t turned a hair. Some sort of inward +excitement was stimulating her like a fever, and knowing Tish, I felt +she would cave in like a pricked balloon when it was over. + +The next thing she demanded was to be put on the top of the elevator +cage. But Tommy absolutely balked at that and Tish seemed to realize +herself that it wouldn’t do. + +“I’ll go for you,” Tommy said. “I’m willing to sacrifice myself +for you any time, Aunt Tish, but you can see for yourself that a +self-respecting woman in her prime can’t ride on top of an elevator +without causing comment. It isn’t being done in our set this winter, +Aunt Tish.” + +Tish gave in, or pretended to, and we went back to her room. Aggie +was there, dressed but sulky, and we had tea all around and tried to +talk about indifferent things. We told Aggie we had been up to see the +mortuary, whereon she insisted on seeing it, too, and Miss Lewis and I +took her. + +We left Tish still working over her notes, with a cup of tea in one +hand, which she was absently stirring with her lead pencil, and went +up-stairs. Tommy had gone to see Miss Blake again. + +We showed Aggie the mortuary and she got weak in the knees and had to +sit a few minutes. It must have been fifteen minutes, therefore, when, +supporting her between us, we led her down the steps and rang for the +elevator. It travels, as I say, very quietly, and when it came into +view, all we could do was to stare, our mouths open. + +Riding majestically on top of it, one hand in a dignified manner +holding to the cable, the other clutching her stick, and with her head +thrown back and staring up, was Tish! She went past us without seeing +us, and a moment later we heard her say calmly: + +“Stop now, Frank. Stop!” + +Almost immediately on that she said, “Go down! _Go down_, I tell you! +_Go down!_” + +The cage went down past us, with Tish still holding on, still looking +up. But on her face there was the most terrible expression of mingled +fright and satisfaction I ever saw. + +The next moment there began, from above, a shower of sticks, pieces of +plaster, and finally, a small creature that looked like, and proved to +be, a dead rabbit. Aggie began to scream and to tear at the elevator +doors, but luckily they held. + +Well, as the newspapers have told, the idiot of an elevator man kept +on to the first floor in his excitement, and it’s a great wonder Tish +was not brained. But nothing hit her, and she got to the lower floor in +safety. If she had waited until the cage was lowered sufficiently, she +would not have been hurt, but just as the top was still four feet from +the floor, the rabbit landed, and Tish jumped and broke her arm. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +COMMON SENSE + + +Well, that’s all there was to it. As I said at the beginning, this is +really Tish’s story. She told us the whole thing that night sitting up +in bed, with the Chief of Police and the hospital superintendent on one +side of the bed, and Miss Lewis and I on the other. Aggie lay on the +couch with a cubeb cigarette burning beside her, and stared at Tish +with admiration mixed with awe. + +“In the first place,” said Tish, to the Chief of Police, “here are the +two towels that figure in the case. One of them is the one that hung +Mr. Johnson’s body three nights ago to the chandelier, the other is the +one with which the ape, Hero, is supposed to have committed suicide at +the Zoo the following night. As you see, the two towels are alike. Do +you know what S. P. T. stands for?” she asked. + +“I can’t say I do,” said the Chief of Police, and picked up one of the +towels. + +“Humph!” said Tish. “Well, it means ‘Sick Patient Towel,’ and they are +used in hospitals for tying up delirious patients. The trouble was, +there wasn’t a delirious patient in the hospital strong enough to walk, +let alone tie up a body to a chandelier. + +“But before I learned from Bates what S. P. T. meant, I’d been to the +Zoo. That was yesterday morning. Maybe you believe that a lonely monkey +will commit suicide; maybe he will, I don’t know. But when he hangs +himself with a roller towel from the Dunkirk hospital, I want to know +how he got that towel.” + +“Oho!” said the Chief of Police, “so the little rascal got loose, did +he?” + +“He did not,” said Tish tartly. “They said he was lonely for his +keeper. Very well, said I, where is his keeper? Where is this man +he was so fond of that he couldn’t live without him? The answer, +gentlemen, was that this keeper was a patient in the Dunkirk hospital, +as the result of being crushed almost to death by the beast that was +supposed to be pining for him! The keeper’s name was Wesley Barker!” + +“Barker!” said Tommy. “Why, that was the big Englishman--! Go on, Aunt +Tish.” + +“I came back to the hospital with a strong desire to talk to Wesley +Barker, but Wesley Barker was not in the hospital. He had been +dismissed three days ago. Bates recalled taking his dismissal card to +the elevator man, about seven o’clock Tuesday evening. That put Barker +out of the case, apparently, but I sent for Jacobs and asked him how +easily a man could get into the building at night. He said it was +impossible. The doors are always locked, the basement entrances and +fire-escapes lead from the courtyard, and the courtyard is locked and +in charge of a gate man. That seemed to cut out Wesley Barker, as I +say. If he was out, he could hardly get back without using dynamite. + +“I got out my notes again, and went over them. I couldn’t see how Miss +Blake and Miss Linda Smith were mixed up in it. They were the day +nurses in K ward, Miss Smith in charge and Miss Blake assisting. I had +several notes on them: Tuesday at midnight Miss Smith coaxed the night +nurse to go to the basement with her, where the patients’ clothes are +kept in lockers: she was missing for a time, and when Bates saw her +later she carried a ‘darkish bundle,’ possibly clothing. Why?” + +The Chief of Police looked wise; he had a way of wriggling his nose +like a rabbit. + +“The next morning, Miss Blake being ill, we heard Miss Smith crying in +her room and blaming herself for the girl’s condition,” Tish went on. +“Again, why? + +“On Wednesday night Miss Blake, still weak and ill, made a complete +search of the third floor. Not another nurse in the house would have +gone there, or to the mortuary and later to the roof, as she did. Some +strong purpose sent the girl, of course--but what? + +“That night, following Miss Blake to the roof, my nephew was thrown +through a skylight. Later he confessed to a bite on the shoulder. The +same night, apparently in a spirit of wanton mischief, the guinea-pigs +in the laboratory were killed and three rabbits were taken away. Miss +Blake had been there. My nephew confessed later to finding a rosette +from her slipper there. Again--why?” + +Tish stopped and looked at the Chief of Police, who sat stroking his +chin. + +“How would you have gone about the case, Mr. Chief of Police?” Tish +demanded. + +“Probably much as you did,” he said, looking at her with a patronizing +smile. “It’s a simple matter when we know the answer, to say that two +and two make four, but you are giving me the four, and asking me +whether you reached that conclusion by adding three and one, or two and +two, or four and nothing. Given a certain number of clues, the logical +mind often achieves remarkable results, but it is usually the trained +mind. That you succeeded so well, my dear lady, I consider remarkable. +Remarkable!” + +“Given the same clues,” Tish persisted, “you’d have reached the same +result?” + +“Undoubtedly.” + +“Well,” said Tish, mildly. “It’s strange that I couldn’t. There were a +few gaps my mind wouldn’t jump. And I noticed your men here seemed to +feel the same way. It seemed like some distance from a roller towel in +the Zoo to Johnson’s brown tweed coat.” + +The Chief of Police looked uneasy. + +“By exactly _what_ mental process did you connect the two?” he asked, +wriggling his nose. + +“I didn’t,” said Tish calmly. “While you and your men were measuring +finger-prints and reassembling Mr. Johnson from where he’d been +scattered to, I did what any person with common sense would have done, +_I went to Miss Blake and asked her_!” + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +NOTE BY DOCTOR THOMAS ANDREWS, LATE VISITING PHYSICIAN AT THE DUNKIRK +HOSPITAL, AND NOW ON THE ORTHOPÆDIC STAFF OF THE SAME INSTITUTION, +DATED THREE WEEKS LATER, FROM BERMUDA + + +Miss Lizzie’s narrative stops here. My Aunt Letitia, during her +convalescence in the hospital, having been discovered poring over books +of aerial navigation, and having written to the Wrights, offering to +turn over a second-hand automobile of standard make, a thirty-foot +motor-launch, and an equity in money, for one of their model biplanes, +Miss Lizzie and Miss Aggie hurriedly took her to Mount Clemens for a +series of baths. + +“I shall take up Miss Lizzie’s narrative with the story told to my +Aunt Letitia by Miss Blake, now my wife. Miss Blake was young, only +nineteen, and had been in the hospital only six months. Miss Smith was +the head day nurse in K ward, with Miss Blake as her assistant. Miss +Smith had almost completed her three years’ course, and was not popular +with the officers. She was, however, a good nurse, and unlike Miss +Blake, was dependent on her earnings for her support. + +“On Tuesday evening, trouble between the two medical _internes_ and the +hospital superintendent, Mr. Harrison, reached a climax. The three men +had a wordy argument on the staircase near K ward, and Linda Smith (who +was not over-scrupulous) had shut herself in a small supply room near +to listen. The ward was in charge of Miss Blake, who was serving the +patients’ suppers from a table in the center of the long room. Behind +a screen, in the second bed from the far end of the ward lay Amos +Johnson, peacefully dying. Beyond him, in the end bed, lay a delirious +patient named Wesley Barker, an Englishman, who had been sent in from +the Zoological Garden, badly injured by the great ape, Hero, since dead. + +“Barker was tied down. Two long towels, one over his arms and one over +his legs, were knotted beyond his reach under the edge of the bed. His +fractured ribs had healed, but he was still delirious. His delirium +in the last day or two had taken on an acuter form, and was mania. +Articulate speech had changed to noisy ape-like chatterings. He made +strange facial grimaces, and being tied, had more than once tried to +bite his nurses. + +“Miss Blake filled a feeding cup with broth, and having attended to the +other patients, went behind Johnson’s screen to feed the maniac in the +last bed. To her horror, the bed was empty! + +“Nervous, but not excessively alarmed, Miss Blake called Linda Smith, +and they searched the ward. Barker had gone, perhaps by creeping +behind the heads of the beds to the doorway, and there, watching his +chance, escaping to the fire-escape by a hall window near. Although +only late September, it was cold, and he wore only the clothing he had +worn in bed, a hospital nightshirt. + +“Miss Blake wished to raise an immediate alarm, but Linda Smith +refused. She was responsible: an investigation would show she had been +absent from her ward without reason, and for some time. She was in +disfavor already, and she could not risk losing her diploma. She had +an invalid sister dependent on her. By threats and tears she made Miss +Blake promise to say nothing of Barker’s escape and to help her find +him. + +“It was almost dark by that time, and the girls were in despair. Linda +Smith went down the fire-escape to the courtyard, and found the gate +man staring through the bars at the river. + +“‘I dropped a rubber sheet out the window,’ she said, ‘but I don’t see +it. What are you looking at?’ + +“The gate man pointed to the Center Street bridge, which crosses the +river near the hospital. ‘There’s a woman out there in white,’ he said, +‘and she looks as if she might be thinking--there, look at that!’ + +“The bridge was practically deserted. She and the gate man saw the +figure move back a step or two, run forward and dive over the rail. The +gate man unlocked the gate and ran out, but the toll house is at the +east end of the bridge, and by the time he had raised the alarm there +was nothing to be seen. Linda Smith went back to Miss Blake, and had +hysteria in the K ward linen room. + +“Discovery meant disgrace to her, so she made up her mind not to +be discovered. Barker had had no family and no friends. No one had +visited him except the assistant keeper, and he had not shown any +particular solicitude. Linda Smith thought she saw a way out, and half +frightened, half coaxed Miss Blake into helping her. Remember, they +both thought Barker was dead, and Linda Smith threatened in case of +discovery, to throw herself off the roof. Miss Blake’s part, therefore, +was the acquiescence of a young and terrified girl, in a situation that +would have shaken older and stronger nerves. + +“The two medical _internes_ left at seven o’clock, as a result of the +dispute with the superintendent. At ten minutes past seven, Linda Smith +sent down a dismissal card for one Wesley Barker, with the forged +signature of one of the departed _internes_. At twenty minutes past, +the yellow ticket came back from the office, the ticket which would +permit Wesley Barker to pass the door-man and leave the hospital for +good. Linda Smith destroyed it. + +“At seventy-thirty the night nurse, Miss Durand, was told that one +of the heaviest burdens had been taken from her, and went to work +cheerfully. But at ten o’clock that night Linda Smith, lying awake +in bed in her room in the dormitory, saw Wesley Barker climb up the +fire-escape outside her window, stopping now and then, monkey fashion, +to swing out over the dizzy height by his hands. + +“The girl was almost frenzied. She got up and dressed and went to the +roof. To her horror she found the superintendent, Mr. Harrison, smoking +there and she almost fainted when she got back to her room. But the +superintendent was not molested. There was no alarm. + +“At midnight she formed the resolution of getting Barker’s clothes from +the basement clothes room and putting them on the roof, in the hope +that he would put them on and go away. Properly dressed, even if he +went back to the Zoo, she could claim that he had been taken away by +somebody in a carriage, and might still put through the deception. In +any event, his clothes could not be left there. Their discovery meant +her disgrace. + +“She had forgotten, however, that Barker had been brought in in the +ambulance, and had no clothes. Afraid to go to the basement alone, she +asked Miss Durand to go to the clothes room with her, giving as an +excuse that she had forgotten to send Johnson’s clothes to the office, +a rule in case of death, and on finding nothing there in Barker’s +name, she did the only thing she could think of--took Johnson’s old +brown suit, which, with his worn shoes and not very clean linen, was +tied in a bundle with a piece of bandage and marked with the dying +spiritualist’s name. + +“Miss Durand had disappeared, carrying the bundle. Miss Smith searched +the far corners of the basement, but found nothing. Finally, she and +Miss Durand went up-stairs again, to find that Johnson had been dead +for some time. Bates, the convalescent, had seen them go and saw +them return. He had, however, been detected a day or so before by +Miss Durand selling cocaine to a colored man in one of the wards, +and later, under Miss Durand’s eye, he said she had been absent ten +minutes. As a matter of fact, it had been fifty. + +“Linda Smith went back to her room at once. She knew she and Miss Blake +would be called to attend to Johnson in the mortuary, and she waited +for the summons. The ghastly trick of hanging the poor old body to the +chandelier followed in due course. + +“Thinking Barker still dead, it had been as great a shock to Ruth Blake +as to the others. It was not until the next morning that Linda Smith +told her Barker was still alive, and somewhere in the building. There +was only one comfort: Linda had put the bundle of clothing on the roof, +and it had disappeared. + +“The other things followed in quick succession. Miss Blake, half +frenzied, conceived the idea of putting food heavily doped with +morphia, on the roof, along the fire-escape, anywhere that the maniac +might find it. She hardly knew what she hoped to do by this: she was +in an abnormal frame of mind by this time: ill, sleepless and unable to +eat. The food disappeared, but if the morphia had any effect, it was in +daylight, when he probably slept, hidden away under the roof or in the +linen closet. + +“The following night she searched the fifth, or mortuary floor, +carrying a candle. She had suspected, from the night before, that +Barker was hiding in the linen closet, and Linda Smith got the key. The +plan had been that Miss Smith should go with her, but she was given +a special case that night, and Miss Blake, courageously enough, went +alone. + +“Barker was in the closet, and when she opened the door he seized +her arm in a murderous grip that left it blue and swollen. She tried +speaking to him, and releasing his hold, he darted out through the +closet window and leaped to the fire-escape. Miss Blake pluckily +followed him to the roof, but he had disappeared. As Miss Lizzie has +told, I followed Miss Blake. Just before I reached her, she cried +out and flung her brass candlestick at something behind me. The next +instant I was grasped from behind and thrown head first through the +skylight. + +“I did not know I had been bitten in the shoulder. I thought I had been +stabbed, until Jacobs and I together cauterized the wound that night in +the laboratory. Probably during the time we were there, the door being +unlocked, Barker entered and hid in the building. Miss Blake was there +at the same time, having watched Jacobs and myself enter, and being +fearful of further harm. She did not see anything of Barker, however, +and went back to the roof, where she sat huddled until dawn, waiting +for Barker to appear again. But he did not come, and at daylight, +shaking with cold, she went back to her room. There she had a chill, +followed by violent fever and delirium, and there I believe Linda Smith +came, bringing a surgical knife stained with blood, that she had found +on the roof, and which Miss Lewis subsequently found in Miss Blake’s +room. + +“The condition of the two girls by that time was pitiable. Miss Blake, +younger and more nervous, had entirely succumbed: Miss Smith, sleepless +and unable to eat, was still making a fight to cover the whole thing +and to drive Barker away from the building. They could not discover +where he hid in the daytime, but at night evidences of his ape-like +mischief were everywhere apparent. He swung by his feet from the +pipe-molding of the walls, squatted on the foot-board of the bed in +private room thirty-six, making hideous grimaces--a story which caused +the nurse in charge to mark ‘delirious’ on the record of a perfectly +rational woman--leaped at giddy heights about the fire-escape and the +roof, and alarmed Miss Aggie into her story of a ghostly foot. The +man’s strength was almost super-human. + +“Johnson died on Tuesday night, and it was on Wednesday night that +I was thrown through the skylight. Toward dawn of Thursday morning, +Barker went to the Zoo, distant about a mile from the hospital. By that +time he had donned Johnson’s trousers, but remained in his bare feet. +Access to the monkey house proved easy. The assistant keeper, sleeping +in a small room just inside the entrance, was not aroused until too +late. The key to Hero’s cage hung over his bed, it being his habit to +go in to see the ape several times during the night. On that night, +he opened the cage at one o’clock, and spoke to the ape, who had been +sulky all day. He locked the door and went back to bed, hanging the key +up again on its nail. It was still there in the morning at six o’clock, +but the ape was dead. In spite of his tremendous strength and length of +arm, he had been literally crushed to death, and then hung to the top +of the cage by a roller towel which did not belong to the Zoo. + +“The police were put on the case, and had already arrested the +assistant keeper, who had been heard to say that either the ape would +get him or he would get the ape. + +“On Wednesday night, Briggs, who had been most unpopular with Barker, +met his death in an almost similar manner, his ribs being crushed +in. In this case, however, Barker’s ingenuity utilized the useless +brown coat, the two towels being gone. Previous to that time, he had +rocked the elevator in impish mischief, or possibly wrath. It was this +incident which caused my Aunt Letitia to suspect a space under the roof +at the top of the elevator shaft, as a hiding place. + +“The result of her courageous investigation is well known: mounted on +top of the cage, she was taken to the upper position of the shaft, and +there found what she had been looking for, an unboarded spot behind the +elevator wheel. She was disappointed, however, in finding the space +too dark for inspection, and in hearing or seeing nothing suspicious. + +“Being a courageous woman and convinced that what she sought was there +in the cave-like recess, my Aunt Letitia threw her slipper with all the +strength she could summon, and was answered by a growl. + + * * * * * + +“My wife has just read this and confirms most of it. She suggests, +however, that I have omitted our theory of how Briggs was murdered +without discovery, while Jacobs was in the hall nearby and I myself +guarded the only other means of exit, the fire-escape. + +“Barker probably took refuge in the linen closet, arriving at the +mortuary floor ahead of the slow progress of the cage, by scurrying +up the cable. He hid in the closet, and by throwing the coat over +Briggs and squeezing him in his muscular arms, he prevented any outcry. +Immediately after, he locked himself in the closet again, where he +smoked Briggs’ pipe, perhaps in itself the object of the attack. + +“On the alarm being raised, Hicks and I came in through the window, +and Jacobs through the door. This left the fire-escape and the roof +unwatched, and he climbed out the window of the linen closet, swinging +himself easily to the fire-escape. + +“The rest of the story we know. Barker was found, exhausted and half +starving, and was promptly put in a padded cell, where, a week later, +he died, probably from an infection, having cut his left foot badly, +possibly with the very knife that killed the laboratory guinea-pigs. +The injured foot, which he had crudely bandaged, probably explains +why only prints of a right foot were discovered. With the removal of +suspense Miss Blake recovered, and is now with me, enjoying the lilies +and onion fields of Bermuda. My Aunt Letitia is at Mount Clemens, +taking a series of baths and--I am informed by Miss Lizzie--carrying +on what she believes is a clandestine correspondence with the Wright +brothers. Miss Aggie’s hay fever left with the first frost. I am sorry +to say that Miss Linda Smith has never been heard from.” + + + + +THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF LETITIA CARBERRY + +PART TWO + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A CIGARETTE CASE, A SHOE, AND A MENU CARD + + +It was three o’clock in the morning when we got back to the lake, and +it was twenty minutes before Carpenter heard us and started the ferry +across. Tish had lost her glasses in the excitement at the Sherman +House, and she did not see that Carpenter had forgotten to put the bar +across the end of the boat. Aggie and I screamed, but it was too late: +she drove the car down the bank in the moonlight and she did not stop +in time. The first we knew we were sitting waist-deep in Lake Penzance, +with Tish still holding the steering wheel and the stars making little +twinkles in our laps. + +As Tish said afterward, it was a fit ending to a sensational night, +but, what with the wetting aggravating Aggie’s hay fever, and my having +bitten through the side of my tongue when the machine struck the bottom +of the lake, it more nearly finished us. The engine drowned with a +gurgle, and after Carpenter’s first yell there wasn’t a sound. Then we +heard him come to the end of the ferry-boat and look down at us, and +the next moment he had dropped the lantern and was doubled up on the +dock, laughing like the fool he is. + +“Are you both there?” said Tish, without turning her head. + +Aggie sneezed, as she always does after a shock, and a wave moved +slowly in and raised the water level with my breastbone. + +“We are both here,” I said, with a bitterness that was natural under +the circumstances. “No thanks to you, Tish Carberry. There’s no fool +like an old fool.” + +“What do you mean?” Tish demanded fiercely, twisting around in the +water with her dust cap over her eye. “Who was it said I ought to +buy the dratted thing? Drive it yourself if you think you can do any +better.” + +“Row it,” I corrected. “It’s finished for good as a touring car, but by +putting an awning over it we might make it into a tolerable gasoline +launch.” + +Aggie was crying. + +“I told you something would happen,” she sniffled. “You’ll kill us all +yet, Tish Carberry--and me in my _foulard_ silk that spots with a drop +of rain!” + +But Tish wasn’t paying any attention. She picked up the wrench that she +had kept by her as a sort of weapon and stood up on the seat. Tish is a +large woman. + +“Abraham Carpenter,” she snapped, with as much dignity as she could +with her clothes glued to her, “if you do not stop that noise I will +brain you.” + +Carpenter eased down gradually, and, holding his sides, he leaned over +the end of the ferry. + +“What’ll I do, Miss Tish?” he asked, beginning to jerk again, but with +an eye on the wrench. “I can go around to the other dock and get a +rowboat, but it’ll take time.” + +“Don’t bother about the other dock,” Tish snapped. “Get that board +there on the ferry and put one end of it down to the automobile. Then +turn your back.” + +That’s the way we got out. I went up the board first, on my hands +and knees, and barring a few splinters I got up very nicely. Aggie +came next, and as the board was getting wet she had more trouble. But +Tish had the worst, for by that time the board was as slippery as a +toboggan; twice she got as far as the middle, only to slide back on +her stomach, and the last time she refused to try again. She sat down +on one of the seats, with the water up to her waist, and said that +she was skinned alive, and that she wished there was a tide to come +up and drown her and the miserable machine. We got her up finally by +throwing her a rope to put under her arms, and once up she collapsed +on the ferry-bench. It was then that Aggie missed the money. Carpenter +had slid down the board and was preparing to salvage the cushions when +Aggie clutched at her stocking and yelled. + +“It’s gone!” she screeched, and then she sat plump down on the floor of +the ferry-boat and began to cry. + +“What’s gone?” Tish demanded. + +“The money,” Aggie said, feeling frantically around the tops of her +shoes. “When we went over the edge something broke--I felt it--and the +money’s gone.” + +Tish had both her arms in the air and the rope over her shoulder, but +she stopped struggling and stared at Aggie. + +“Gone!” she said in an awful voice. “Aggie Pilkington, every dollar of +that money was graft money. Only the prospect of stuffing it between +that red-haired man’s teeth has kept me alive through this terrible +night. Don’t tell me you’ve lost it.” + +“We can give him a check,” said Aggie feebly. + +“We can!” Tish snorted, and not another word did she say until +Carpenter had taken us across the lake and we stood dripping on the +front porch of the cottage, while Aggie got the key from under a flower +pot. Then Tish looked across the moonlit lake to where the cushions of +the machine floated in a nest of stars at the end of the ferry-dock. +“We averaged thirty miles an hour coming home,” she said triumphantly, +“and for the first time I feel that I have mastered the machine.” + +Wet as we were, we remembered to put the lantern in the window as we +had promised, and we thought we saw a skiff shoot out in the starlight +from the other side of the lake. Tish and I took some hot milk, and +Aggie had a raw egg and some more baking soda, and we went to bed. The +stars were fading by that time, but after I got into bed I distinctly +heard footsteps on the gravel below my window. + +“Are you sure you said the first house on the left?” Tish called to me. +And then we heard Mr. Ostermaier’s voice from the upper window next +door, and we knew it was all right. I crawled out and tried to see into +the preacher’s parlor, but the shade was partly down. I could only make +out a sleeve of Mrs. Ostermaier’s kimono. I was disappointed after all +we had gone through. + +She--Mrs. Ostermaier--came over the next morning after breakfast, while +Aggie’s _foulard_ silk was hanging on the clothes-line. She had been +down with the other cottagers, looking across to where the red leather +of Tish’s machine stuck up above water-level. + +“Be careful,” Tish said under her breath when she saw her; “she’s got +something in her hand!” + +“What a terrible accident, and how lucky nobody was hurt!” Mrs. +Ostermaier began, holding the thing she was carrying against her skirt +and staring from the three of us to Aggie’s _foulard_. “The spots did +run, didn’t they? I told Mr. Ostermaier they would. He thinks you are +wonderful women, to go around the country as the three of you do at all +hours of the night.” + +Just then the sunlight caught the thing she held in her hand, and I +knew in a moment what it was--it was Mr. Lewis’ silver cigarette case. +Tish saw it too, and ran her needle into her finger. + +“We had an exciting night too,” Mrs. Ostermaier went on. “Dear me, Miss +Carberry, you’ve jabbed your finger!” + +“An exciting night?” I asked, to keep her attention from Aggie. Aggie +had just seen the cigarette case and she had gone blue around the nose. + +“Most exciting. About three o’clock this morning--about the time you +three ladies were having such a dreadful experience--a young couple +came to our cottage and wakened Mr. Ostermaier. I think they threw +gravel through the window. They wanted to be married.” + +Tish sat up and tried to look scandalized. + +“I hope your husband didn’t do it,” she said. I had to pinch Aggie; she +was leaning forward with her eyes bulging. + +That put Mrs. Ostermaier on the defensive. “Why not?” she demanded. +“They had a license, and they were of age. I believe in encouraging +young love; Mr. Ostermaier says it is the most beautiful thing in the +world. Cousin Maggie and I were witnesses, and we threw rice after +them. It was barley, really, but we didn’t discover that until this +morning.” + +Aggie gave a sigh of relief; we had guessed, but it was the first time +we had really known. + +“I told Mr. Ostermaier that it gave me quite a thrill the way he +looked at her as Harold pronounced them man and wife. ‘All the world +loves a lover,’ and Cousin Maggie has been reading Ella Wheeler Wilcox +diligently all morning.” + +She turned to go and we breathed easier. Now that we knew they were +safely married--Mrs. Ostermaier turned and started back. + +“I nearly forgot what brought me,” she called. “My Willie found this in +the bed of your automobile, Miss Tish.” She held out the cigarette case +and Tish took it and dropped it into her work-basket. + +“It belongs to my nephew, Charlie Sands,” she said, looking Mrs. +Ostermaier in the eye. Tish has plenty of courage, but I felt calamity +coming. + +“So I told Mr. Ostermaier,” the creature said, with a smile. “But he +insists on remarking the coincidence that the initials on the cigarette +case are W. L. and that the young man’s name on the license was Walter +Lewis.” + +I have always thanked Heaven that at that moment her Willie fell off +the dock, and although the child was not drowned, still, as Tish +wrote to Maria Lee, her niece, “he had swallowed enough water to wash +the initials off the tablets of his mother’s memory.” And so far as +we know, although the papers came out with great headlines about +the marriage, and another article about the post-office having been +robbed--we had nothing whatever to do with that--and about three +men disguised as women making their escape toward Canada in a red +automobile and having run over a pig at Dorchester Junction--I told +Tish at the time it was a pig, but she insisted it was a cow--although +the papers came out with all this, nobody ever suspected the truth +except Carpenter. He happened to find a menu from the Sherman House at +Noblestown floating in the body of the car, and the good-for-nothing +took a trip to the city and traced us. + +He did not say anything, but about a week later he came to the cottage +and put a package on the table in the kitchen. + +“It’s been puzzlin’ me for four days, Miss Lizzie,” he said, fumbling +with the string of the bundle. “I sez to Mrs. C., sez I, ‘It ain’t +possible,’ I sez. ‘She sez she lost her shoe when the automobile went +into the water, and she’s a truthful woman; and yet, two days after, +the chambermaid at the Sherman House finds it high and dry under a +bureau, forty miles away. It’s spooky,’ I sez.” + +Aggie was pouring hot water into the teapot, and she kept on pouring +till it went all over the place. + +“Nonsense,” said Tish. “That shoe doesn’t belong to Miss Lizzie.” + +But I looked at Carpenter’s face and I knew it was hopeless. + +“You’ve been a good friend to us, Mr. Carpenter,” I said. “We’ve always +felt we’ve owed you something. Here’s a little present, and thank you +for the shoe.” + +He took the money and we looked each other straight in the eye. Then he +grinned. + +“For twenty dollars, Miss Lizzie,” he said, “I’d be willing to swallow +my tongue backward. And the shoe ain’t the tongue kind.” + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A BLUE RUNABOUT AND A BAD BRIDGE + + +Both Aggie and I had objected when Tish talked of buying an automobile. +But the more you talk against a thing to Tish the more she wants it. It +was just the same the time her niece, Maria Lee, went to Europe for the +whole summer and offered Tish her motor-boat. Aggie and I protested, +but the boat came, and Tish had a lesson or two and sent to town for a +yachting cap. Then, one day when we were making elderberry jelly and +ran out of sugar, Tish offered to take me to the mainland in the boat. +That was the time, you remember, when the stopping lever got jammed, +and Tish and I circled around Lake Penzance for seven hours, with +people on different docks trying to lasso us with ropes as we flew +past, and Aggie in hysterics on the beach below the cottage. + +People of Penzance still speak of that day, for we figured out that we +had enough gasoline to run one hundred and sixty miles, and after Peter +Miller, at Point Lena, had lassoed us and was dragged for a quarter of +a mile before he caught hold of a buoy and could let go of the rope, +we got desperate. I was at the wheel and Tish was trying to stop the +engine, pouring water over it and attempting to stick an iron rod in +the wheels. And just as she succeeded, and the rod shot through the +awning on the top of the launch like a sky-rocket, I turned the thing +toward shore where it looked fairly flat. + +“I’m going to get to land,” I said with my teeth clenched. “I don’t +care if it crawls up and dies in a plowed field; I’m going to get my +feet on dry land again.” + +I had not expected it to stop so suddenly, but it did, and Tish and I +and the granulated sugar landed some distance ahead of the boat and +well above high-water mark; in fact, Tish broke her collar-bone, and +that entire summer, whenever the doctor had to peel off the adhesive +plaster, Tish would get ugly and turn on me. + +Well, we should have known about the automobile. I had a queer feeling +when I started out that morning. Tish had had the car out the day +before by herself for the first time--both Aggie and I had had the +good judgment to refuse--and she got home safely, although she had a +queer-looking mark on her right cheek, and one of the mud-guards didn’t +look exactly right. She said she had had a lovely ride, and we helped +her push the machine into the wash-house, where we had had Carpenter +knock out a side, and then she went to bed and had a cup of tea. Aggie +heard something moving that night, and she found Tish sitting up on the +side of her bed, holding like death to the back of a chair and turning +it around like a wheel. Aggie got her back to bed, but Tish only +looked up at her and said, “Four chickens!” and went to sleep again. + +The next morning her left leg was quite stiff from what she called the +clutch, and she sat on the porch peacefully and rocked. But at noon +she went to the wash-house, and when she came back she was pale but +determined. + +“I’m going to take it out,” she said solemnly. “If I don’t I’ll forget +everything I’ve learned. Besides, we’ve been coming here every summer +for ten years, and there are plenty of places we have never seen.” + +Aggie looked at me, but we knew it would have to come some time, and so +we all went in and tied up our heads. + +“We needn’t go fast,” Aggie said when she was putting on her bonnet. +“We have all afternoon, and one doesn’t really enjoy the scenery unless +one goes very slowly.” + +Tish’s face was pallid but resolved. + +“It’s a great deal easier to go fast than slow,” she remarked. “I +haven’t quite got the hang of going slow. But there’s one comfort +about going fast: you get around much quicker.” + +At the foot of the stairs she stopped and called up. + +“I’m going to take a tablespoonful of blackberry wine,” she said. “I +feel chilly in the small of my back.” + +Aggie and I didn’t say anything, but we each took a tablespoonful of +blackberry wine also. + +Tish had written out a list of things to do to start the car, such as +“Turn A,” “Push forward B,” and so on. And she had pasted bits of paper +marked A and B on the levers and plugs. So I read: + +“Turn A; push up B; crank, and release C.” + +It started nicely. + +“Just one thing,” Tish said over her shoulder as we passed the +Ostermaier cottage, and they waved to us from the porch: “Don’t scream +in my ears; don’t lean over and clutch me around the neck; and if we +run over anything, try to look as if you didn’t know we had.” + +Luckily she had not noticed my traveling bag. After the affair of +the launch I was prepared for anything, and I had packed up three +nightgowns, a balsam pillow, a roll of bandage, a bottle of arnica, +a cake of soap, my sewing box and a prayer-book. Aggie had some +sandwiches; so we felt we were prepared for everything, from sudden +death to losing a button. + +We got on to the ferry safely enough. Carpenter, who runs the cable +drum of the ferry with a gas engine, examined the machine with a great +deal of interest on the way over. + +“It’s a pretty hot day, Miss Tish,” he called as we were starting off +the boat. “You’ll have to watch her; she’ll boil.” + +Tish looked worried, but she said nothing. + +“What is there to boil?” Aggie whispered to me. + +“The gasoline,” I told her; “and if it boils it’ll explode. I’m no +mechanic, but I know that much.” + +After a few moments’ silence Aggie leaned forward. + +“Tish,” she said. + +“Don’t take my mind off this machine!” Tish shouted back. “Isn’t that a +buggy coming?” + +“It’s too far off to see. It’s either a buggy or a wagon,” I said. +“Tish, where’s the gasoline tank?” + +But Tish wasn’t listening. “Why doesn’t that man turn out? Does he want +the whole road?” she snapped. There was a silence while we neared the +buggy ahead. Then Tish leaned over and began jerking at levers. + +“I can’t stop the thing,” she gasped, “and there isn’t room to pass!” + +There wasn’t time to pray. I saw Aggie shut her eyes, and the next +moment there was a terrific jar. Aggie and I were flung together in a +corner of the seat, a man yelled, and the next minute we had leaped +out of the ditch again and were going smoothly along the road. I +glanced behind. The man had halted his horse and was standing up in the +buggy, staring after us. + +“I didn’t think I could do it,” said Tish complacently. + +“Only the grace of God took you into that ditch and out again, Tish +Carberry,” I snapped. “And if you are going to do any more circus +performances I want to get out.” + +She could stop the car well enough when there was no crying need to, +and now, to our alarm, she stopped every now and then and got out and +held her hand over the front of the machine, like testing the oven for +cake. Finally she said: + +“It’s boiling!” + +Aggie got ready to jump. + +“It’ll explode, won’t it?” she quavered. + +“I don’t see why it should explode,” Tish replied, wetting her finger +to see if it sizzled when she touched it. “But it’s hot enough, in all +conscience. A good rain would cool it.” + +The sun was blazing down on us, however, and there was no sign of rain. +I said I would just as soon be blown up as melted down, and we got in +again. The machine would not start. We all took a turn at the handle in +front, but it was like winding a clock with a broken spring. + +That is where the man and the girl and the little Pomeranian dog enter +the story. For they came along in a blue runabout car just as Tish +threw her book called _Automobile Troubles_ over the fence and said she +was going to walk home. The book said: “Beginners having trouble with +their engines should look under the headings Ignition, Carburation, +Lubrication, Compression, Circulation and Timing.” As Tish remarked, +the only one that was understandable was Circulation, and anybody could +tell without a book that the car wasn’t circulating to any extent. + +Just as Tish threw the book away the young man in the blue runabout +stopped and got out. + +“In trouble?” he asked. “Can I do anything for you?” + +“It was boiling,” said Tish. “I suppose something has melted inside.” + +“Oh, I think not.” He looked at the car, pushed something, went round +and turned the handle--crank, Tish called it, and it’s a good name--and +the engine started. + +“You didn’t have your gas on,” said the young man. “And don’t worry; +you’re sure to heat up on a day like this, but nothing will melt.” + +“Or explode?” asked Aggie. + +“Or explode.” + +He looked at the girl and smiled, and when we started off they were +still there, watching us. The dog yelped, and the girl smiled and waved +her hand. Aggie, who is far-sighted, turned around a second time. “He +reminds me of Mr. Wiggins,” she said with a sigh, still looking back. +Aggie was engaged years ago to a young man in the roofing business, who +fell off a roof. + +After a minute, “He’s kissing her!” she gasped. After that she nearly +broke her neck watching them out of sight. Aggie is romantic. I turned +around, but I had on my near glasses. + +I don’t know how we lost the Noblestown Pike. Tish blamed it on having +to drive with one eye shut, on account of something getting into the +other. Aggie’s nose was sunburned and swelling, and I would have given +a good bit for something heavy in my lap to anchor me. When I was a +girl I rode horseback, and with any kind of a steady horse you can tell +when the next jolt is coming; but Tish’s machine has a way of coming up +and hitting you when you are off guard, so to speak. + +To go back, after an hour or so we found we were on the wrong road. It +kept growing narrower, and when at last it became only a dusty country +lane Tish realized it herself. There was a rickety farmhouse about two +hundred feet from the road, with a woman bending over a washtub outside +the door. I stood up and made a megaphone of my hands. + +“Which way to the Noblestown Pike?” I yelled, while Tish got out and +stuck a wet finger on the hood over the engine. + +The woman looked up and pointed sullenly in the direction from which +we had come. We looked at the road. There wasn’t a spot to turn--not +another road in sight to back into. It was hotter than ever. The engine +hummed like a teakettle on a hot stove, and there were little clouds +of blue smoke coming from somewhere or other about it. Aggie said she +thought the gasoline tank was on fire. + +“If it is you’ll soon know it,” said Tish grimly. “It’s under the seat. +I’m going to back up on to this bridge business over the gutter. I +think I can make it.” + +“Do you know how to back up?” I asked; and just at that minute the +woman left her tub and started to run down the walk. + +Tish backed. With an awful grinding of wheels she got the right lever +finally; the machine gave a jerk that would have decapitated a chicken, +and we backed slowly on to the timbers that bridged the gutter and made +a road toward the house. When it gave the first crack we shouted--Aggie +and I. It might not have been too late, but Tish put on the emergency +brake by mistake and for a minute we hung on the verge. Then we began +to settle. We went down slowly, with Tish above us and rising; and when +we stopped, there we were, Aggie and I and the rear of the machine, a +good four feet below Tish and the engine, with something grinding like +mad and clouds of smoke everywhere. + +When we crawled out the woman who owned the bridge was standing on the +bank looking down at us, and her face was something awful. + +“You’ll fix that bridge before you leave!” she said, shutting her mouth +hard on the last word. + +“You’ll fix that automobile before I’m through with you!” said Tish, +pointing at the thing, which looked like a horse sitting down in a +gutter. + +“Oh, rats!” the woman said rudely. “That’s four of them things that’s +gone through that bridge this week, and I’m good and sick of it. Ain’t +there any other bridges in Chester county?” + +“Not like that,” retorted Tish, eying the ruins. “You don’t call that a +bridge, do you?” + +“It was,” said the woman. + +She came forward and a ferocious-looking dog stepped from behind her. + +Tish looked at the dog. + +“It wasn’t much of a bridge,” she said, more politely. “If you’ve got +any men on the place I’ll give them a dollar apiece to get my machine +out of there.” + +“No men around,” said the woman shortly. “Theodore,”--to the +dog--“don’t you go around bitin’ until I give you the word. Sit down.” + +The dog sat down. + +“Before you leave,” she said to Tish, “you’ll mend that bridge or I’ll +know the reason why. Meantime your automobile is trespassin’, and the +fine is twenty dollars.” + +Then she sat down on the bank and began to tickle the dog’s ears with a +blade of grass. + +“Theodore,” she said, “if them three old maids think they can bluff us, +they don’t know us, do they?” + +I had stood about as much as I could, so I walked around in front of +her and glared at her. + +“I wouldn’t sit so close to the automobile if I were you,” I remarked +emphatically. “Something is likely to explode.” + +“I feel like it,” she said. “When I get mad I’m good an’ mad. Anyhow, I +own this place, and I’ll sit where I please. Theodore, let’s put the +washing-machine on wheels and go round the country bustin’ down folks’ +bridges and playin’ hell generally!” + +An oath always rouses Tish. She got the engine stopped. Then she came +around beside me with her goggles shoved up on her forehead. + +“Woman,” she said sternly, “how dare you mention the place of +punishment so lightly!” Tish had been superintendent of a Sunday-school +for thirty years. + +The woman stared at her. Then she got up slowly. + +“I wasn’t alludin’ to the next world,” she said bitterly. “Ninety-five +degrees of heat, seven inches of dust, five miles to a telephone and +ten miles to town, with an automobile sittin’ down in your front +yard--that’s all the hell I want.” + +Then she walked up the path. We stared after her; between her +shoulder-blades her blue wrapper was wet through with sweat, and the +dog trailed at her heels. Aggie, who is always sentimental, took a step +after her. + +“I say,” she called. “If we come back for you some nice afternoon, will +you let us take you for a ride?” + +But she got no answer. To our amazement, the woman turned around at the +top of the path and put her thumb to her nose! + +We did not see her again for some time, but after Tish had climbed in +twice and started the engine, to see if the car couldn’t climb out--the +only result being that it almost turned over--the woman appeared +again. She carried a board that looked like a breadboard nailed to a +broom-handle, and on it, in fresh ink, as if she had done it with her +finger, were the words: + +“Trespassing--fifty dollars.” + +“You said twenty before,” I protested. + +“That was for those little dinky, one-seated affairs,” she said, +jabbing the broom-handle into the dirt beside the road. “Two seats, +forty dollars; two seats and a folded back buggy-top, fifty.” She +adjusted the sign carefully, looked up and down the road, and then went +back to the house. + +So we sat down on the bank and Tish explained how she happened to do +it. I am a Christian woman, and Aggie is so gentle that she has to +scratch twice to light a match, but I must say we were bitter. We told +Tish we didn’t care how she happened to do it, and that some day she +would be punished for a temper that made her throw away books that she +would be sure to need some time; and that, anyhow, an unmarried woman +of fifty has no business with an automobile. + +“It’s my belief,” Tish retorted, “that she keeps her old bridge for +this very purpose. She could make a good living off it, and all the +work she’d have to do would be to build it up after every accident.” + +“Oh, no,” Aggie said bitterly. “We are going to repair it, I believe.” + +The back of my neck began to smart from the sun, and the dust eddied +around us. A white hen came down the path, hopped on to the sloping +step of the machine, perked its head at us, and then, with a squawk, +flew up into Tish’s seat behind the wheel. I was thirsty and my neck +prickled. + +Early in the afternoon we had a difference of opinion about who should +walk the five miles to telephone for help, and after that we did not +speak to each other. Tish talked to the machine and Aggie to the +chicken. Every now and then Tish, after staring at the machine for a +while, would get up and pick up the soundest of the bridge timbers, put +it under the dropped end of the car and push with all her might. + +“Call this a bridge?”--push--“Why, this is nothing”--push--“but a +rotten old fence-rail!”--bang!--the timber broke. Tish stood with her +back to us and kicked the pieces; then she turned on us. “As far as +I’m concerned,” she snapped, “the thing can sit there till it takes +root. You’re very much mistaken if you think I’m going to walk to that +telephone, after bringing you out on a pleasure trip.” + +“Pleasure trip!” Aggie retorted. “I can get more pleasure out of +a three-dollar rocking-chair. The next time you ask me to go on a +pleasure trip, Tish Carberry, just push me off the porch backward. It’s +a good bit quicker.” + +By four o’clock I had a rash out all over my shoulders and chest, and +my mouth was so full of dust that my teeth felt gritty. I had not cared +particularly about going up to the house, but every few minutes between +three and four the woman had come out, pumped some water, making a +mighty splash, and gone back into the house again. It was more than +human nature could stand. At a quarter after four o’clock I got up from +the baked earth, glared at Tish, looked through Aggie, and walked with +as much dignity as I could muster up the path to the well. There was +a sign hung on it by a string around the nail in the top. It read: +“Water, one dollar a tin. For automobiles, five dollars a bucket.” + +The woman came out and pumped some. The water ran cool and clear into +a trough and then spread over the ground in dreadful waste. I could +have lapped it up out of the trough; every bit of skin on me and lining +membrane in me yelled “Water!” and--I had no money with me! The woman +stood and waited, Theodore beside her. + +“That’s an outrage,” I fumed. “How dare you put up such a sign! I--I +shall report you!” + +“Who to?” she inquired. “I ain’t askin’ you to drink it, am I? It’s my +well, ain’t it?” + +“I’ll send the money to you by mail.” I had lost all my pride. “I’ll +come back and pay you.” + +“Cash in advance,” said the creature; and, pumping enough into a tin +basin to have cooled me inside and out, she put it down for the dog to +drink! + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION AND A BARGAIN + + +I have always felt that we did the right thing that night. It was all +very well for Charlie Sands, Tish’s nephew, when he heard the story, +to say: “And they talk about giving women the vote! Why, for sense +they would substitute sentiment; they would buy their opinions at the +department stores along with their bargains, and a little two-penny +love affair could upset the Government!” + +Tish was raging. + +“It does not matter whether you approve or not, Charlie,” she said +loftily, “as long as our consciences approve.” + +“Approve!” He nearly fell back out of his chair. “My dear ladies, +you should every one have been jailed! As for conscience, I’d give a +thousand dollars to have a conscience that would set the seal of its +approval on assault and battery, highway robbery and abduction.” + +“The end justifies the means,” I retorted; “and when did you get a +conscience, Charlie Sands?” + +“I think I got one Aunt Tish used to have,” he said, and I got up and +went into the house. + +Well, I left the dog drinking, to go back, and at that instant I +happened to look at Tish, who was standing on the bank waving her +handkerchief at something in the road. I stepped to the corner of the +house and saw what it was--creeping along a lane we had not noticed was +the blue runabout car. Creeping is the word. It would crawl forward +a dozen feet and stop, and it kept on repeating the performance. But +what puzzled me was a spot of pink, just in front of the car and moving +slowly forward. + +At the end of the lane the pink spot hesitated and then turned our way. +Once beyond the hedge, it proved to be the girl with her pink motor +veil. She was walking with her hands in the pockets of her ulster, and +she was limping. About a dozen feet behind her, and stopping every now +and then so as not to overtake her, came the runabout. It was very +peculiar. The young man had his jaws set tight, and as he was staring +at the girl, and as she was staring straight ahead, neither of them saw +us on the bank just above their heads. + +The girl--she was a very pretty girl, although streaky just then--had +a tight grip on the Pomeranian. She had it tucked under her arm and it +was wriggling and yelping to be free. Just after the blue machine had +turned the corner the little beast got loose, and with a yelp he dashed +to the car and into the empty seat. + +The girl stopped. So did the car. She faced about and the young man +gazed over her head. + +Suddenly the girl looked up and saw us, and with a quick glance she +spied the lamps of Tish’s machine around a curve. No one would have +guessed from the front end of the thing that the rear had died in a +gutter. + +“Oh!” she said. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re here! Are you going back to +town?” + +“We are not going anywhere,” Tish replied shortly, “unless your young +man can help us.” + +“He is not my young man,” the girl retorted, with distinctness; “but if +there isn’t very much the matter I daresay he can do something.” + +“I am not an automobile expert,” he said, “but I probably can help +a little, as, for instance, stuffing a puncture with rags until we +get back to the city.” The girl flushed. It was evidently a personal +allusion. + +“We haven’t any rags,” said Aggie, “and it isn’t a puncture.” + +“There are two things we might do,” said the young gentleman as he +eyed our machine critically. “I might go to the nearest telephone and +have help sent out from town, but as it’s almost sunset it’s pretty +late for that; or, with a jack and a little help, we might fix it +ourselves.” + +[Illustration] + +“A jack!” Tish said with scorn. “What kind of a jack--a bootjack or a +jackass? I daresay they have them both at that farmhouse; I know they +have one.” + +“A jack--a lever,” explained the young man, beginning to work at the +lock of the tool-box. “Where are you going--to Noblestown?” + +“To the lake,” I replied. Tish was fumbling for the keys to the machine +which she kept in a pocket in her petticoat. “We have a summer cottage +there.” + +“I’ll make a bargain with you,” he suggested. “The--the--er--young lady +refuses to go back in my car. We--the fact is, we have had a small +difference of opinion, and--she insists on walking home. If I get your +machine in shape, will you take her to the city?” + +We would have taken her anywhere short of a planet to get away +ourselves, and that was how it began; for the young gentleman took off +his coat and fell to work immediately. Once, when he had raised the car +on the jack and Tish was holding the ends of the boards that he shoved +under, while Aggie and I pushed, something gave way and the whole thing +settled back with a jerk. Mr. Lewis--that was his name--lifted the +broken fence-rails off Tish and helped her to her feet. + +“There’s something almost alive about automobiles occasionally,” he +said. “They are so blamed vicious.” + +“If it was alive,” Tish gasped, hunting for her glasses, “I’d kill it.” +But it never occurred to her that she was going to drown it that very +night! + +By seven o’clock we had lifted the thing on five fence-rails and the +breadboard sign, and Mr. Lewis announced it was now or never. The girl +had not come near us. She had taken off her veil and smoothed up her +hair, and was busy with a bit of a silver mirror. She was very pretty. + +Mr. Lewis got into the car and put on the power. There was a terrible +grinding, but nothing moved. From behind, the three of us shoved, and +Aggie said between gasps that if anything gave way her niece was to +have her amethyst pin. + +“Anne!” cried the young gentleman. But Miss Anne was powdering her nose +and we all saw her turn it up. + +“Anne!” called the young man who was not her young man, “you’ll have to +help here.” + +“Help yourself,” said Anne coolly, and, moistening her finger, she +proceeded to wipe the powder off her eyebrows. + +Mr. Lewis shut off the engine, got out of the car and put on his +coat. The girl did not turn her head, but she was watching through +the mirror, for as he picked up his cap she rose lazily, put away her +toilet things and started in our direction. + +“What shall I do?” she asked Tish, ignoring him. + +“Push,” said Tish sharply--“unless you are too lame.” + +“My being lame won’t matter, unless you wish me to kick the machine +out,” retorted the girl sweetly; and with that, the power being on, +she put her brown arms against the car and her shoulder-muscles leaped +up under her thin dress, and before I had planted my feet in the ditch +the car rose, clung for a minute to the edge, and was over into the +road. The girl said nothing. She looked at her hands, stepped out of +the ditch, patronizingly helped Aggie out of it, and swung up the path +with her head in the air. When I saw her again she had taken the sign +off the pump and thrown it in the grass, and was washing her hands +unconcernedly while the woman stood in the door and yapped at her. + +If she had a mite of sense she would have gone back to the city in +the blue car and let us go home to bed. But when she had come back +to the road and the young man suggested it--not to her, of course, +but casually to us--she whistled to her dog and started to limp down +the road. You can’t do anything with a girl in that state of mind. +I took her in the tonneau with me, and Aggie, who prefers a love +affair to a scandal and always reads the marriage licenses with the +obituaries--Aggie went in the blue car to keep Mr. Lewis from being +lonely. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE APPETIZERS AND THE HOTEL BUREAU + + +We didn’t talk very much. Tish was anxious to show she could drive, for +all she had sat us down in a ditch, and after she took a wrong turning +and stampeded a herd that was being milked in a barnyard, I could not +keep my mind off the road. Once I looked at the girl, and there were +tears running down her nose and dropping into her lap. I gave her my +smelling salts, which I always carry in Tish’s machine, and after a +while she reached over and slid her hand into mine. + +“I shouldn’t care if the car went to pieces,” she said. “I’d be happier +dead.” + +“If you are always as unpleasant to that young man as you were this +evening, I doubt it,” I snapped. + +“Didn’t you ever quarrel with your husband before you were married?” +she demanded, looking at me sideways. + +“I thank Heaven I never had a husband,” I replied, and with that she +looked uncomfortable and drew her hand away. + +“Is your--friend married?” she inquired. And it took me a moment to +realize that she meant Aggie and that the minx was jealous. Aggie is +fifty, and so thin that when she wears a tailor-made suit she has +to build out with pneumatics. You remember, at the Woman’s Suffrage +Convention, how Mrs. Bailey pinned a badge to Aggie, and how there was +a slow hissing immediately, and Aggie caved in before our very eyes? + +Mr. Lewis checked our wild career after a few miles by getting ahead of +us, and we got into town about eight. But after we had left the girl at +her house--an imposing place, with a man at the door and a limousine at +the curb--it was too late to go back home. Aggie and the blue car were +waiting down the street, and they piloted us to the hotel. + +Now, Tish belongs to the Ladies’ Relief Corps of the G. A. R., and when +Mr. Lewis said we looked tired and that he was going to order supper +for us all, and three Martinis, Tish said it was all right, although +she didn’t see why we needed guns. It looked like a safe place. But +they were not guns--that’s part of the story. + +While we were washing for supper Aggie told us what the quarrel was +about. + +“They are--were--engaged,” she said, “and the girl’s father is +Robertson--the boss of the city, Mr. Lewis called him. And Mr. Lewis +is the youngest councilman--they call him ‘Baby’ Lewis, and he hates +it--and there’s something to be voted for to-morrow; and if Mr. Lewis +is for it he is to get the girl.” + +“And the girl refuses to be sold!” Tish said triumphantly. “Quite +right, too. I admire her strength. That’s the typical womanly attitude +these days--right before anything, honor above all.” Tish waved the +hairbrush and then she turned on the maid. “Girl,” she snapped, “why is +this brush chained?” + +“The ladies steal them,” said the girl. Tish stared at the chain. + +“You are so quick, Letitia,” Aggie protested. “It was the other way +round. The girl was angry because he wouldn’t sell his vote, even for +her.” + +Tish sat down in a chair, speechless; but just then Mr. Lewis came to +the door and said that supper and the Martinis were ready. The Martinis +proved to be something to drink, and after Mr. Lewis had raised his +hand and sworn there was no whisky in them we drank them. He said they +were appetizers, and the other day Tish said she was going to write to +the Sherman House for the recipe before she has the minister to dinner +next week. + +Never did I eat so delightful a meal. Tish forgot her sprained shoulder +and the splinter under her nail, and Aggie talked about the roofer. +And the food! I recall distinctly shaking hands with Tish and agreeing +to come to the hotel to live, and asking the waiter to find out from +the cook how something or other was made. And when Aggie had buried the +roofer, and Tish said it was funny, but Mr. Lewis had four brown eyes +instead of two, he suggested that we must be tired, and a boy took us +to our room. Room, not rooms. We could only get one. The last things I +remember are our shaking hands with Mr. Lewis, and that Tish tried to +get into the elevator before the door was opened. + +About eleven o’clock I heard some one groaning and I sat up in bed. It +was Aggie, whom, being the thinnest, we had put on the cot. She said +her nose was smarting from the sunburn and she had heartburn something +awful. We rang for some baking soda, and she drank some in water and +made a plaster for her nose with the rest. After a while she felt +better, but we were all wide awake and the heat was terrible. We could +look out the window and see there was a breeze, but not a breath came +in. + +We sent for the bell-boy again, and he said there wasn’t another room +and nobody he could move around to give us a room on the breezy side of +the house. + +We took the rules and regulations card off the door and fanned with it, +but it did not help much. After half an hour or so Tish got up, pushed +the washstand in front of a door that connected with the next room and +crawled up on it. + +“If I had a chair,” she said, measuring the distance with her eye, “I +could see if that corner room next door is occupied. I could tell by +that boy’s face that he was lying.” + +Aggie was trying to hold down the baking soda, so, although I didn’t +feel any too well myself, I held the chair and Tish climbed up on it. + +“What did I tell you?” she demanded when she got down. “That room’s +empty, and what’s more there’s nobody belonging there. There’s nothing +on the dresser but the towel; and there’s a breeze coming in that sends +the curtains straight into the room.” + +The connecting door was locked, and Tish put a bed sheet around her and +tried the hall door. That was locked, too. And all the time we were +getting hotter and hotter, and by putting our ears to the keyhole we +could hear the breeze blowing on the other side. It was too much for +Tish. + +“I’m going over the transom,” she announced, after we had tried the +dresser key in the door without any effect. And go over she did, after +putting on her stockings to keep her legs from being scraped. + +It was much cooler. We brought in our clothes and Aggie’s cot, +and spread up the bed in the room we had left. Then we locked the +connecting door again, and after Aggie had had some more baking soda, +in and out, we went to bed. + +Well, as I was saying, I went to sleep. I was awakened by Tish sitting +up in bed and clutching me somewhere about the diaphragm. By the light +from the hall over the transom I could see Aggie sound asleep, with her +mouth opened, and Tish’s arm stretched out and pointed at the yellow +hotel bureau. I sat straight up and looked. I couldn’t see anything, +and at first I thought Tish was dreaming. Then I saw it too. The front +of that bureau on the left side moved out a good six inches, stayed +that way while I could count ten, and then closed up again without a +sound. + +Tish had put a leg out of bed, but she jerked it in again, and just at +that awful moment a clock outside boomed twelve. And then, over in her +corner, Aggie began to talk in her sleep. + +“Turn around and run over it again,” she said, with startling +distinctness. “It isn’t quite dead.” + +Tish put her hand up and held her shaking lower jaw. + +“I--it’s those dr-dratted Martinis,” she quavered. “I’ve--no--d-doubt +Mr. Lewis meant well, Lizzie, but I’ve b-been feeling very strange all +evening.” + +“Your stomach being upset needn’t affect my eyes,” I retorted in a +whisper. “I saw it move.” + +“Are you sure?” she insisted. “I didn’t say anything, Lizzie, but while +we were eating supper down-stairs I distinctly saw the piano move out +six feet from the wall and go back again.” + +I didn’t say anything to Tish, but the fact was that I distrusted +my own vision--not that I had seen anything so ridiculous as pianos +walking, but I had had a peculiar feeling in the dining-room that my +eyes were looking in different directions, and when I focused them on +anything I saw double at once. It had got so bad that when I wanted +my fork I had to shut my eyes and feel for it. And so, neither of us +being certain the bureau had moved, and nothing more occurring, we +lay back again. The next minute Tish clutched me and I looked over. +Something had happened to the bureau. + +It looked phosphorescent, or as though it was on fire inside. There was +a glow all around it. The keyholes stood out like dots of flame, and +every crack gleamed. It was the most awful thing I have ever seen. + +“Look!” gasped Tish, and, reaching over the side of the bed, she picked +up a shoe and flung it with all her might at the thing. The thump was +followed by a thud inside the bureau. Aggie stirred. + +“The milkman’s knocking,” she said thickly, and sat up and yawned with +her eyes shut. Tish and I leaped out of bed and I turned on the light. +That gave us new courage, and the dresser stood there, just like any +other dresser, with a towel on its yellow-pine top and fly-specks on +the mirror. Tish and I looked at each other and smiled in a sickly +way. We felt foolish. But Tish wasn’t satisfied. She picked up a +hairbrush and banged it on the top. + +“Coming, Mr. Gibbs,” bawled Aggie, still with her eyes shut, and she +began to fumble around on the floor for her slippers. + +“Wake her!” Tish commanded. “There’s something moving in this thing. +Lizzie, give me that pitcher of scalding water.” + +Of course there wasn’t any hot water nearer than the bath-room, which +was three turns to the right, one to the left and down a flight of +stairs. + +And at that minute the bureau spoke. + +“Don’t, for God’s sake, ladies!” it said. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE REPORTER AND THE RED-HAIRED MAN + + +I screamed, and, as was perfectly natural, I backed away from the +thing. My foot tripped over Tish’s water-pitcher, and my sitting down +was what wakened Aggie. She says she never will forget how she felt +when she saw me prostrate and Tish holding a chair aloft and begging +the bureau to come out so she could brain it. Of course she thought +Tish had gone crazy, what with the sun and excitement of the day. + +“Tish!” she screeched. + +“Come out!” said Tish to the bureau. “Make no resistance; we are armed!” + +As Aggie says, when she saw the left-hand side of that bureau move +slowly forward like a door when Tish spoke to it, she thought she had +a touch of sun herself. But when she saw a human figure crawl out of +that place on its hands and knees, and opened her mouth to scream, her +breath was gone as completely as if she had been hit in the stomach. + +The figure got to its feet, and it had neither horns nor tail. It had +curly, light-brown hair and blue eyes, and it was purplish red as +to face. We stood paralyzed while it stood erect and blinked. Tish +lowered her chair slowly and the apparition dropped down on it. It was +masculine and shaking. Also young. + +“Ladies,” it said, “could I--could I thank you for a drink of water? I +have been almost stifled.” + +When the haze cleared away from my eyes I saw that the young man had on +a light gray suit, and that in his hand he carried his collar and an +electric flashlight. Perspiration was pouring off his face and we could +see that he was as scared as we were. + +“Give him a drink, Lizzie,” Tish said firmly, “and then press that +button.” + +But the young man jumped to his feet at that and looked at us squarely. + +“Ladies,” he said earnestly, “please do not raise an alarm. I am not a +thief. The manager of the hotel put me in that bureau himself.” + +“The hotel must be crowded,” Tish scoffed. “I hope they don’t charge +you much for it.” + +From the street below came a sudden confusion of men’s voices and the +sound of feet on the pavement. The young man threw up his hands. + +“Madam,” he said to Tish, “you look like a woman of large mind.” +Tish stopped putting the bedspread around her and stared at him. “By +your unfortunate--er--invasion here to-night you are preventing the +discovery of a crime against civic morality. The councilmanic banquet +down-stairs is over; in a few minutes Robertson--well, probably you +don’t understand, but I represent the _Morning Star_. The Civic Purity +League has learned that in this room, after the banquet, a bribe is +going to be offered. That bureau has been ready for a month. Ladies, I +implore you, go back to the other room!” + +It was too late. At that moment there were voices in the hall and +somebody put a key into the lock of the door. There was no time to put +the light out. The young man dropped behind the foot of the bed, the +door swung open and a red-haired man stepped into the room. + +“Suffering cats!” he exclaimed. + +“Go out immediately!” I said, pointing to the door. Tish was unwinding +herself from the counterpane. She took it off airily and flung it +over the foot of the bed, so that it covered the young man. It looked +abandoned, but the necessity was terrible. As Tish said afterward, +fifty years of respectable living would not have prevented the tongue +of scandal licking up such a spicy morsel as that compromising +situation. + +The red-haired man retreated a step or two, opened the door part way, +and went out and looked at the number. Then he came in again. + +“Madam--ladies,” he said, “this room belongs to me. There must be some +mistake.” + +“I don’t believe it belongs to you,” Tish snapped. “Why haven’t you got +some brushes on the dresser?” + +“If you were a gentleman,” Aggie wailed from the cot, “you would go out +and let us get to sleep. I never put in such a night. First the other +room is too hot, and we crawl over the transom to get a cool place, and +then--” + +“Over the transom,” said the red-haired gentleman. “Do you mean to +say--” Then he laughed a little and spoke over his shoulder. + +“I’m sorry, Lewis,” he said, “but my room’s taken.” + +“Kismet,” said our Mr. Lewis’ voice, but it sounded reckless and +strained. “Fate has crooked her finger; I’m going home.” + +“Don’t be an ass,” said the red-haired gentleman. “These women in here +came over the transom from the next room. It’s empty.” + +“Good gracious!” Aggie gasped. “I left my forms hanging to the gas-jet!” + +The red-haired man backed into the hall, but he still held the door. + +“I’m going home,” said our Mr. Lewis again. “I’m sick of things around +here, anyhow. I’ve got a chance to get an orange grove cheap in +California.” + +“Fiddlesticks!” retorted the red-haired man. “Why don’t you stick by +the plum tree here at home?” + +On that the door closed, and we could hear them talking guardedly in +the hall. + +“The wretches!” Tish fumed. “Oh, why haven’t women the vote? I tell +you”--she fixed Aggie and me with a gesture--“the day of conscience is +coming. Women stand for civic purity, for the home, for right against +might!” + +It was the “right against might” that we repeated to her afterward, +when we had stolen--but that is coming soon. + +“But he loves the girl,” said Aggie, beginning to sniffle. “I--I think +as much of ci--civic purity as you do, Tish Carberry, but I th--think +he is just p--pig-headed.” + +“The girl’s a fool and so are you,” said Tish, beginning to take the +counterpane off the reporter. And at that second there was a knock and +the red-haired man opened the door again. + +“I beg your pardon,” he apologized, “but will you give me the key to +the other room?” + +We did. Aggie unlocked the connecting door and brought back the key +to our old room and the things she had left on the gas-jet. In the +excitement she threw the key on the dresser and was just about to reach +the other articles through the crack in the door when Tish caught her +arm. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A BRIBE AND A BRIDE AND IT’S ALL OVER + + +Now I am not defending what followed. But the Lewis man had been nice +to us, and, as Tish said tartly to Charlie Sands, women who had lived +in single blessedness as long as we had, learned to think quick and +act quicker. As to the law, we sent a check to the farmer whose pig we +killed--and with pork at its present price it was ruinous, although +we were glad it had not been a cow; and as to using our missionary +money to make up for the packet Aggie lost--as we said, we considered +that it had been used in missionary work. It was hardest, of course, +on the _Morning Star_ reporter. Only a week or so ago we had to go to +Noblestown to get a new handle for the meat-chopper. We were in the +machine outside the store, and when we saw him it was too late. Tish +was wearing his necktie--having gathered it up with her clothes that +awful night, and not knowing his name she could not send it back to +him--and she clapped her hand over it. But he saw it. + +“Good afternoon,” he said, grinning. + +“What do you mean by addressing us?” Tish demanded, trying to pull the +collar of her duster over the tie. + +“You don’t mean to say you’ve forgotten me already!” he exclaimed, +looking grieved. “Don’t you remember--your--our room at the Sherman +House?” + +“Certainly not,” Tish said haughtily. + +He pulled out a card and scribbled something on it. “My card,” he said. +He leaned over from the curb and gave it to Tish. + +“Don’t bother about the tie,” he said. “I never liked it anyhow. But--I +lost a scarfpin that night. I--I suppose you don’t know anything about +it?” + +Out of the corner of her eye Tish saw Aggie make a clutch at her neck, +and she threw her a warning glance. + +“I am afraid you have made a mistake,” she said stiffly, and just then +the hardware man brought out the handle. Tish was so excited that she +started the car without paying for it, and when we looked back he and +the reporter were staring after us; and the reporter distinctly said, +“Those women will be wealthy some day.” + +“Why didn’t you let me give him his pin?” Aggie demanded when we were +safely out of sight. “I--I feel like a thief.” + +“Fiddle! And confess?” said Tish. “We’ll send it to him. I’ve got his +card.” + +But all he had written on it, after all, was, “A. Dresser. Private +Bureau.” Charlie Sands has promised to return the pin. + +Well, all this time I have left the three of us huddled in our +nightgowns on the side of the bed, with sheets draped over us, and +the _Morning Star_ gentleman with his ear to the connecting door and +taking down every word that was said, in shorthand. Robertson was +offering the girl, and enough money for Mr. Lewis to marry on, for his +vote on something or other. I reckon the balance between a man’s honor +and his cupidity hangs pretty even anyhow, and when you throw a girl to +one side or the other it swings the scale. The Lewis man was yielding +and Tish was breathing hard. + +“The hussy!” she muttered. + +“Did you notice how pretty her hair was in the sunlight?” whispered +Aggie. + +Somehow it came over me then how young the girl was, and what kind of +moral sense could one expect of a girl with that red-headed scamp for a +father? + +Strangely enough, the plot was gentle Aggie’s. Aggie is like baking +powder--she rises when she gets heated up. And she was mad clear +through. We had no trouble gathering our clothes in our arms, although +I could not find my shoe, which Tish had thrown at the bureau. Then we +sat and waited. At the last minute Aggie got a little weak and wanted +blackberry wine, but I had nothing in the satchel but arnica. + +All we intended to do was to get the yellow notebook--to meet strategy +with strategy. The rest, while unexpected, followed naturally. But when +I look out the window from my desk and see Aggie’s placid face, and +Tish’s austere Methodist profile, it is difficult to associate them or +myself with the three partly dressed creatures who-- But to go back. + +We had locked the door into the hall and each of us had her clothes. +When the two men in the next room went out Mr. _Morning Star_ turned to +us with a chuckle. + +“Thanks for your forbearance, ladies,” he said, “we’ve got that villain +Robertson where he ought to have been a dozen years ago. And as for +Lewis--” He shut his notebook with a bang, and there was something in +his face besides exultation. “To buy a girl like that!” he said--and I +knew. He wanted the girl himself. + +Aggie was to ask to see the notebook and then toss it over the transom +into the corridor. While the reporter was trying to get out the locked +door into the hall we could escape into the adjoining room, lock the +connecting door, walk around easily and get the notebook, and then make +our escape comfortably. + +It would have been all right, but Aggie can not throw. The first +attempt failed by seven feet. The young man was so astonished, however, +that he stood with his mouth open, and the second trial sent it through. + +“What in the name of Heaven did you do that for?” he demanded, thinking +Aggie had suddenly gone mad. Then he rushed to the door. It was locked +and I had the key! We were all in the next room and a bolted door +between us before he realized what had happened. + +We had expected, of course, to get the notebook, to dress, and to leave +in the machine quietly, but from that time on there was no time to +think of the conventions. The young man began to hammer on the door +and other doors opened along the hall. Then a bell-boy came up and ran +off in a hurry for a key. I saw Tish putting on her ulster over her +petticoat, and Aggie and I did the same. The next thing we knew we were +down in the empty lobby, and Tish had forgotten the spark plugs! + +We got started finally with a steel hairpin for a plug, and as we moved +away I heard the chase coming down the stairs after us. They were +howling “Stop thief!” We were hardly well under way when the bell-boy +came in sight with the bureau man at his heels and a collection of +people in all sorts of costumes following. + +Tish says we did forty miles an hour going down the main street. I +should have guessed more than that. I had a fearful exaltation: Aggie +had advanced her speed limit since morning from four miles an hour to +the capacity of the engine, and kept bawling to Tish a phrase she had +caught from Charlie Sands. + +“Letter out!” she cried, over and over. “Letter out!” + +We stopped on a quiet side street and listened, but there was no noise +of pursuit. Tish got out and stuck her wet finger on the hood, but it +wasn’t boiling. + +“There’s nothing coming,” she said. “I’m going to stop long enough to +put on my stockings.” + +“I don’t see why you couldn’t have flung your own shoe, Tish,” I +snapped. “What use is one shoe?--unless I lose a leg, and that’s as +like as not before this night’s over.” + +“Do you see where we are?” Aggie asked. “Isn’t this where we brought +Miss Anne?” + +It was, for Anne opened the door just then and peered down at the car. + +“Is that you, father?” she called. She came down the steps, and +the light from the hall fell full on us. We must have looked rather +strange, with Tish putting on her stocking in the driving seat and the +most of our clothing in our laps instead of on us. + +“Something has happened!” she said, catching her breath. “Ted!” + +“Something _has_ happened,” Tish retorted grimly, and held up the +notebook. “Here’s the _Morning Star’s_ shorthand report of the +interview in which your Ted sold his honor for a mess of pottage--you +being the pottage.” + +“Oh, no,” said Miss Anne, going wobbly. “Oh, he wouldn’t--he didn’t do +such a thing!” + +“Upon my soul!” I broke in. “Weren’t you fighting him all day to do it?” + +“You couldn’t understand,” she said, looking at me with the eyes of a +baby. “I didn’t want him to do it; I wanted him to want to do it.” + +“Well, if that’s being in love, thank Heaven for the mind of a +spinster,” I retorted angrily. + +“You’ve won,” Tish said. “You’ve got him kneeling at your feet, as +you wanted. But he went down in the mud to do it. And the only reason +the newspapers won’t be slinging some of that very mire to-morrow +is because three elderly women, who ought to have more sense, have +resorted to thievery and lost their reputations and parts of their +garments to save him!” + +“I hate him,” said the young woman, with her chin quivering. “I knew +all along I should hate him if he did it. I--I’ll never marry him.” + +And with that she turned and started up the steps. Half way up she +turned. + +“I’m sorry you went to so much trouble,” she said. “I don’t think he is +worth saving.” + +Aggie’s early experience with the roofer stood her in good stead then. +She understood; Tish and I never would have. She got out of the +machine and went up into the vestibule, and a minute later, against the +hall light, we saw the girl’s head on Aggie’s shoulder. Then they both +came down again with their arms wrapped around each other, and Aggie +asked me to move over. + +“We’re going to Mr. Lewis’ apartment,” she announced, with a thrill in +her voice. She was maudlin with romance. “It will be proper enough, I +think, with three chaperons. She wants to see him.” + +“Not until I put on my other stocking,” Tish put in grimly. “And we +don’t get out of the machine; I’ve been compromised once to-night.” + +“They are both young,” Aggie rebuked her gently. “I think, having begun +this thing, we ought to see it through. We will have to be mothers to +her, for she has none.” + +Well, we passed Mr. Robertson at the corner of the next street, and +the girl shrank back and covered her face. And then she directed us, +and we overtook the other one as he was going into his doorway. The +girl jumped out and ran after him. We distinctly heard him say, “Anne! +Darling!” And then, what with anxiety and excitement, Aggie took the +worst sneezing spell of the summer, and the rest was lost. + +He was terribly ashamed and humiliated, and he said he would take the +girl away and be married right off, only he had that wretched package +of bribe money that made him think, every time he saw it, how unworthy +he was of her! He was going to put it down a sewer drop, but Tish +suggested that they be married and go on a honeymoon, and let us return +the bribe to Mr. Robertson. + +So he gave us the package; and, as you know, Aggie lost it later. Then +he asked us if there was a minister in the summer colony at Penzance, +and Tish mentioned Mr. Ostermaier. “I don’t like him,” she remarked, +“and his wife is a dowdy, but I suppose you don’t expect an organ +prelude and floral decorations. Get in.” + +I did not mind their sitting back with me, and his kissing her hand +whenever he thought I was not looking. But the thing I objected to was +this: I distinctly overheard him say: + +“I was desperate to-night, sweetheart; and, oh, my love, you saved me!” + +She saved him! + +At a crossroads near Penzance, Tish made them get out, and we directed +them to a landing where they would find a rowboat. We all kissed the +bride; and Mr. Lewis said he had nobody to cheer him on his way, +and wouldn’t we kiss him, too. So we did, and after they had gone +we prepared for Carpenter’s sharp eyes by going into the bushes and +putting on the rest of our clothes. + +It was the first thing Carpenter said that caused the accident. He +brought in the ferry-boat and came up the bank to us. + +“I’ve been expectin’ you,” he said, with a grin. “I was thinkin’ you +might come over by the Carrick Ferry, and the folks there wouldn’t know +you.” + +“I guess they’d take my money without knowing me,” Tish said sharply. + +“Well,” he drawled, with a sharp eye on the three of us, “I didn’t want +you to have any trouble. We got a telephone message from Noblestown not +very long ago to look out for an automobile containing three female +desperadoes. The police wants them.” + +That was when Tish sent the car over the end of the ferry. + +Well, as I said early in the narrative, after Tish and Aggie had +dried off and gone to bed I stood at my window and tried to see into +Ostermaier’s parlor, but all I could see was the sleeve of Mrs. +Ostermaier’s kimono. + +As I stood there shivering, the door opened and two shadowy figures +came out of the house and crossed the lawn. Just under my window they +stopped and the tall shadow held open its arms. The smaller one went +into them with a little cry, and they stood there a disgraceful time. +Then they lifted their heads and looked up at our cottage. + +“Bless their dear, romantic hearts!” said the girl. I was glad Tish was +asleep. + +“They should have been pirates!” said the man. “They are true old +sports. I suppose they’ve had their catnip tea by now and are sound +asleep. Beloved!” he said, and held out his arms again. + +Pirates! I went back to bed in a rage, but I couldn’t sleep. Somehow I +kept seeing that young idiot holding out his arms, and I felt lonely. +Finally I filled the hot-water bottle and put it at my back. + +“It’s all over, Aggie!” I called--but the only response was a snore +that turned into a sneeze. + + + + +THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF LETITIA CARBERRY + +PART THREE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE GREEN KIMONO + + +Nothing would have induced me to tell the scandalous story had it +not been for Letitia’s green kimono. But when it was found at the +Watermelon Camp, two miles from our cottage, hanging to the branch of a +tree, instead of the corduroy trousers and blue flannel shirt that one +of the campers said he had hung there overnight, it seemed to require +explanation. For _one of the men at the Watermelon Camp knew the +kimono_. + +He brought it up the next morning, hanging over his arm, and asked +Letitia for the trousers and shirt! He said that the young man who +owned them had to wear a blanket until we returned them, not having +any other clothes in camp. Also, he said there was a particular kind +of bass hook in one of the pockets, and if there was any reason why we +could not return the trousers, would we be kind enough to send back the +hook. + +Now Tish is a teacher in the Sunday-School and has been for thirty-five +years. But she looked up from the bowl she was wiping--we had made a +pretense at breakfast, although nobody could eat--and she _lied_. + +“I don’t know what you mean by coming here for your corduroy trousers +and flannel shirt,” she said, with a three-cornered red spot in each +cheek. “As for that kimono, I _never saw it before_!” + +Then she dropped the bowl. She had to pay twenty cents into the cottage +exchequer for it afterward, and she explained that she felt the bowl +going, and the falsehood slipped out before she knew what she was +saying. Anyhow, it did no good, for the young man in knickerbockers +and a bathing shirt held up the kimono, grinning and pointing to the +laundry tag. It said “Letitia Carberry,” as plain as ink could make it. + +Aggie weakened at once. It is always Aggie that weakens. She sat down +on the porch step and began to cry. She had been crying off and on all +morning, having lost her upper teeth when the boat--but that brings me +to the boat. + +Just as Aggie threw her apron over her face, we saw old Carpenter, the +boatman, coming up the path. I caught Tish’s arm as she was escaping +into the house. “Not a step,” I whispered sternly. “If they arrest one +of us, they take us all.” + +“You see, it was like this,” the young man was saying, “Carleton, one +of our fellows, was out in his motor canoe last night, and it upset. +When he came in, he says he hung his trousers and shirt out on a branch +to dry. Anyhow, when he got up an hour or so ago, his clothes were +gone, and this--er--garment was there instead.” He was staring very +hard at Tish. “He didn’t notice the change, being half asleep, and he +got his feet in the sleeves all right, but when it came to drawing it +up, he noticed something strange about it.” + +At the name “Carleton” Aggie threw me an agonized glance from her +apron. She would not speak without her teeth, and Tish was stooping +over the pieces of the bowl. I am a Christian woman, but seeing Aggie +weak-kneed and Tish as shaky as gelatine, I hoped that Carpenter, +the boatman, would have apoplexy or fall and break his leg before he +reached the porch. I turned on the young man at the foot of the steps. + +“If you think,” I said indignantly, “that three ladies, past their +youth and with affairs of their own to look after, have nothing better +to do than to wander around at night stealing clothing that they +could not possibly wear, and leaving in exchange articles that they +er--cherish, go in and examine the house.” + +Carpenter had come up and stood respectfully by, listening, and to my +horror I saw that he held the other half of Aggie’s broken oar. + +“He won’t go into _my_ room!” Aggie said suddenly, and with amazing +clearness, considering her teeth. + +“Nonsense,” I snapped. “This young man has seen an unmade bed before.” +But Aggie had gone pale, and suddenly I remembered. The handle of the +very oar Carpenter carried was lying on a chair beside her bed. All +that terrible night she had held on to it as a weapon. + +The young man in the bathing shirt only smiled, however, and shifted +Tish’s kimono to the other shoulder. + +“Certainly, if you say you haven’t seen Carleton’s clothes,” he said +easily, “the matter is settled. No doubt the same breeze last night +that blew the kimono down to the camp and hung it on the branch of +a tree took the trousers to make a sensation on one of the nearby +islands. I am sorry Carleton didn’t know they were going traveling, he +would at least have had them brushed.” + +While I was glaring at him Carpenter stepped forward and placed the oar +blade on the porch. When Aggie saw the name “Witch Hazel” she opened +her mouth like a fish, and I daresay if I had not pinched her she would +have told the whole miserable story then and there. Not that I am +ashamed of it--I am not too old, thank the Lord, to know real love when +I see it--but Aggie has no sense of proportion, and in her telling, +what was pure romance would have become merely assault and battery, +with intent to compound a felony. + +“I reckon, Miss Lizzie,” Carpenter said, addressing me, “that you and +Miss Tish and Miss Aggie didn’t take the _Witch Hazel_ out last night +and forget to bring her back, did you?” + +Aggie shut her mouth and swallowed. + +“Certainly,” I retorted sarcastically. “We decided to take a midnight +row yesterday evening, but the boat leaked. In the middle of the lake +it filled and sank under our feet.” + +Tish gave me an awful look, and snapped: + +“I suppose if we’d taken your boat out, we’d have brought it back, not +being mermaids.” + +“That’s what I argued down at the camp,” he meditated. “I said to them, +‘you boys have been up to some devilment or other, and I’ll git you +yet. It ain’t likely that them three old--them three ladies that can’t +row a stroke or swim a yard would take the _Witch Hazel_ out in the +middle of the night in a storm, sink the boat, and swim home four miles +in time to put up their crimps and get breakfast.’” + +“Thirtainly not,” Aggie said with injured dignity, “I can’t thwim a +thtroke.” + +Carpenter spat on one of our whitewashed cobblestones. “It’s what +you might call _ree_markable,” he observed. “Not another soul on the +island, and won’t be ’til the Methodist camp meeting next week; one of +the boys at the Watermelon Camp with a blanket on instead of his pants +and a bandage on his head, and the _Witch Hazel_ stole last night by +somebody who cut through her painter with a pair of scissors and takes +her out with two oars that ain’t mates.” + +The young man with the kimono dropped it carelessly into Aggie’s lap +and straightened with a glance at her stricken face. + +“Scissors!” he repeated. “Oh, come, Abe, you’re no detective. How the +mischief do you know whether the rope was cut with scissors or chewed +off?” + +Abe dived into his pocket and brought up two articles on the palm of +his hand. + +“Scissored off or chewed off,” he said triumphantly. “Take your choice.” + +There, gleaming in the sunlight, were _Tish’s buttonhole scissors and +Aggie’s upper teeth_! + +“Found them in four feet of water at the end of the boat dock,” he +said, “where I left the _Witch Hazel_ last night. If them teeth ever +belonged in a fish, then I’m a dentist.” + +I remember the next ten minutes through a red haze; I knew in a dim way +that Aggie had clutched at her teeth and disappeared; I heard from far +off Tish’s voice, explaining that Aggie had dropped the scissors in the +water the previous afternoon, and had lost her teeth while lying on the +dock trying to fish them up--the scissors, of course--with a hairpin +on the end of a string. And finally, with the line of the waterfront +undulating before my dizzy eyes like a marcel wave--which is a figure +of speech and not a pun--I realized that Carpenter and the sleeveless +and neckless young man from the camp were retreating down the path, and +I knew that the ordeal was over. + +I believe I fainted, for when I opened my eyes again Tish was standing +in front of me with a cup of tea, and she had been crying. + +“You needn’t feel so badly about it,” I said, when I had taken a sip of +the tea. “There are times when to lie is humanity.” + +“It isn’t that,” Tish whimpered, breaking down again, “but--but the +wretches didn’t believe me!” + +“No,” I echoed sadly, “they didn’t believe you.” + +“I could think of so many better ones now,” she wailed. + +“Never mind,” I said, with a feeble attempt to console her, “they won’t +jail us for lying, anyhow. We are reasonably safe, Tish, unless Mr. +Carleton has Aggie arrested for assault and battery.” + +But he did not. The only court concerned was the marriage license +court, from which you will know that this is a love story. Even if it +does begin with a mangy dog. + +At least Aggie said it was mange; her parrot had the same moth-eaten +look before it died. But Tish has always maintained that it was fleas. +She says they breed in the grass, and attack dogs in swarms in hot +weather. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +IT WAS THE DOG + + +The dog was put ashore under our very noses, by the crew of a passing +launch. We were knitting on our veranda that afternoon, looking across +at Sunset Island, which is four miles away. Carpenter was not in sight, +and from down the beach came the yells and splashes that told that the +college boys at the Watermelon Camp were bathing. We were sitting with +our backs to them, when Tish said suddenly: + +“There is a launch coming in.” + +There was, a very fine one, although handsome is as handsome does, as +the colored man said about the hippopotamus. For as the launch steamed +past, a man in a white uniform threw something with a thud on to the +dock. It was a dog. The next moment they headed out into the lake +again, paying no attention to Tish, who ran down the path and tried to +signal them with the raffia basket she was making. + +The dog came up and sniffed at her. + +Now we never had any dogs on the island, even in the season. Tish’s +uncle had been bitten by a dog once, and although he never had +hydrophobia, he was always strange afterward. They say that when he +coughed it was exactly like a bark, and the very sight of a cat upset +him terribly. Also, although the family never said much about this, I +have heard that after he died they found quite a collection of bones +in his upper washstand drawer. And my grandmother saw him once eating +raw meat mixed with onion, between slices of bread! So when we bought +the island, and sold parts of it for cottages, we always put in the +agreement of sale: “No intoxicants, no phonographs and no dogs.” + +You may imagine how we felt, therefore, when we saw the dog following +Tish up the path, and biting at her heels. (When a dog bites at your +heels, and isn’t wagging his tail, he is not playing; he is in earnest. +It is much like that line in _The Virginian_--“When you say that, +smile!” But this dog did not smile.) + +Tish shouted to us, as she came, to run and shut Paulina, her cat, in +the spare room, and to give her her catnip ball (the cat, not Tish). +And then she came up and dropped on the porch step and covered up her +feet, and the creature sat down before her and dared her to move. + +That was the most terrible afternoon of my life. He sat there and +drooled over the step, and growled now and then, and Tish told about +her uncle, and Aggie said she knew a man who had been attacked by a +bulldog, and the only way they got him loose was to give him--the +dog--a hypodermic of poison and pry him off after he died. + +To make matters worse, there did not seem to be a soul on the island. +The boys from the camp had disappeared; Carpenter’s cabin was closed +and locked. At tea time the dog heard Paulina wailing up-stairs and he +made a hole in the screen door and went after her. He had chewed almost +through the guest room door before Aggie called him off with the chops +for supper. + +That decided us. + +About eight o’clock that evening, while the creature was gnawing +at a leg of the dining-room table, we held a whispered conference, +and Tish came forward with a plan. It was very daring, and Aggie +immediately objected. “It’s all very well,” she said, “to sit here in a +rocking-chair and talk about rowing four miles to Sunset Island, with +not one of us knowing anything about a boat, and Lizzie told by that +fortune teller last spring that she would die by drowning. Not only +that. _How are you going to get the dog into the boat?_” + +Tish leaned forward cautiously. The Dog was still gnawing in the next +room. + +“Chloroform him!” she whispered. “Wait until he gets sleepy. Then take +Lizzie’s bath sponge, soak it with your chloroform liniment, Aggie, and +when he’s stupefied, carry him down and dump him in the boat.” + +“Why not let Carpenter do it, in the morning?” Aggie objected. She was +green with nervousness. + +“Carpenter!” Tish snorted. “If he ever sees that flea-bitten creature +he will keep him.” + +(Carpenter, being an original settler, had never subscribed to the +liquor, phonograph and dog clause.) + +At eleven o’clock the Dog turned over on his side and went to sleep. We +were ready. My sponge, saturated with Aggie’s liniment and impaled on +the end of Tish’s umbrella, was held to his nostrils, and we each drew +a long breath. But we had counted without Aggie’s hay fever. Just as +the creature seemed about settled and was growing limp, Aggie began to +sneeze, and by the time the paroxysm was over the dog was awake and +had eaten part of the sponge. It was a terrible disappointment. As Tish +said afterward, we should have anæsthetized Aggie first. + +However, perhaps it was for the best, after all, for it made him very +ill, and when, after Tish had washed the floor, she prodded him with +the wooden handle of the mop and he only groaned, he had ceased to be +formidable. + +“It’s now or never,” Tish said, with determination, and put on her +overshoes. It had been raining, and luckily Aggie put her plaid shawl +around her shoulders. What we should have done later without that shawl +I shudder to think. Tish put on a knitted cape and I tied a scarf over +my head. Then, with the dog--no longer a capital D--wobbling at the end +of a clothes-line, we started. + +At the last minute Tish had a spell of conscience and hunted up a +bottle of cleaning fluid to put in the boat. + +[Illustration] + +“It’s mostly gasoline,” she said. “If it’s mange it won’t do any +harm, and if it’s fleas it will kill them. We can put it on just before +we leave him on Sunset Island. You start pouring it at his nose and +work along his back. The fleas will drop off his tail. Every creature +deserves a chance.” + +None of us thought of the ether in the stuff, although, as it turned +out, it did not hurt the dog. _It was never used on the dog._ + +We got to the dock without incident, Aggie ahead with the dog, and Tish +and I feeling for the rope of Carpenter’s skiff. Tish had the scissors, +in case we couldn’t untie it. Just as we found it and stooped, +something splashed. Tish straightened and gripped me by the arm. + +“Did you throw anything in?” she demanded in an awful tone. + +“Stop pinching me, Tish Carberry!” I snapped, “or I will.” + +There was silence for a minute; then there was a swirling whitish +appearance at our very feet, and something dark raised itself up in +the water and stood waving its arms. Then it gave a gurgle or two, +choked, coughed and finally sneezed. We knew the sneeze; it was Aggie! + +It was when she got her breath that she said the incredible thing, the +thing she flatly denied afterward, but for which she was obliged to pay +five dollars into the fine box. + +“That damned dog pulled me in!” she gurgled. “I’ve thwallowed--” She +clapped her hands to her mouth, and we knew at once. Her teeth! + +We pulled them both out grimly--Aggie and the dog, and Tish ordered +Aggie to the house for dry clothes at once. “And it might be as well, +Agatha,” she added coldly, “if you would wash your mouth out with soap. +You can buy new teeth, but you can not buy another immortal soul.” + +Agatha sloshed a half-dozen steps up the dock. Then she turned on us +both in the darkness. + +“If _you_ had thwallowed two gallonth of dirty water, tho that you can +feel it thaking in you when you walk, and had lotht your thell back +comb and your betht upper teeth, you wouldn’t care, Tith Carberry, +whether you had an immortal thoul or not.” + +Then she thtalked--stalked, I mean, up to the house. Tish was furious, +but luckily, I have a sense of humor. With Aggie’s soul hanging fire, +so to speak, I sat down on the dock in the rain and laughed. That was +the beginning of my deterioration; from that instant, when I braved +rheumatism and Tish’s displeasure, to that later moment just at dawn, +when we came back to the dock again, draggled, dirty and guilty, I was +forty-nine years young, reckless, disdainful of consequences, unmindful +of wet feet and the proprieties, forgetful even of law and order. That +awful, glorious night, when young Love--but that’s the story. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A WET YOUNG MAN + + +Well, Tish and I got the boat loose, and Tish dropped the scissors into +the water. Then when we got in, Tish insisted on rowing with her face +to the bow of the boat. She said she couldn’t see where she was going +if she didn’t, which, of course, was true enough. We dragged the dog in +by his tail and then sat and waited for Aggie. When she did come she +was sulky, and almost the only words she said that entire night were +“Kill him!” And that was under stress of great excitement, at three +o’clock in the morning. + +The night was very black, but a light on the boat-landing at Sunset +Island gave us our direction. Tish and I rowed, I behind her, and as +she had an unexpected habit of scooping the top off a wave with her +oar and throwing it over my face and chest, finally, in desperation I +turned my back to her. It was really easier rowing that way, although +we did not keep very good time. But, as I explained when Tish objected, +it was really safer, for by rowing back to back we could see in both +directions at once. + +When we were about a mile from shore, Aggie spoke for the first time. + +“The boat’th leaking!” she said. + +“Gracious!” I exclaimed, and felt my petticoats. They were sopping. + +“Nonsense!” Tish sneered. “It’s the water Lizzie’s been ladling in with +her oars.” Then she caught a wave with her oar, and poured it down my +back. At that minute the dog moved uneasily in the bottom of the boat +and crawled up on the seat in the bow, where he sat and wailed. + +We should have gone back. I said so then, but Tish is like all the +Carberrys--immovably obstinate. When I tried to row back to the +landing, _she_ was rowing for Sunset Island, and all we did was to +make as much splash as a paddle-wheel steamer, and not move an inch in +either direction. And just then Tish broke an oar. + +“There!” she snapped, turning on me, of course. “Just look what your +pig-headedness--” + +She never finished. She was staring, petrified, at the rim of the +boat, which was just visible. There were two white splotches on it +that looked like hands. The more I looked, the more I knew they _were_ +hands! And then the boat tilted to that side until we all screamed, +and a head and shoulders appeared, fell back out of sight, upreared +themselves with a mighty heave, and--dropped into the boat. + +It was a man--a young man. Even in the darkness he gleamed white from +head to foot. We shut our eyes and screamed. When we stopped he had +sat down on the dog, discovered him, slid him with a splash into the +bottom of the boat and had settled himself comfortably in the bow. + +“I’m sorry I frightened you,” he was saying, “but--I’d been swimming +for a good while, and your boat was an oasis in the dusty desert.” + +“Get back into the water instantly!” Tish commanded, turning her +profile to him. “Have you no shame?” + +“Oh, as to _that_,” he said aggrieved, “I--I have something on, you +know. Of course, they are wet, and they stick to me, but--” + +“Give him thith,” Aggie broke in, and unwound herself from her shawl. I +passed it to Letitia over my shoulder, and Letitia averted her face and +held it out to him. + +“Thanks, awfully,” he said. “After all that exercise, the night air is +cold on a fellow’s back.” + +At that Letitia turned on him in a rage. + +“_Will_ you open that shawl out and cover yourself?” she asked +furiously. “_Cover_ yourself. Your _back_! Look at your _legs_!” + +“As long as you sit quiet and behave yourself, you may stay in the +boat,” I added with as much composure as I could get over my trembling +lips. “Otherwise, I warn you, we have a dog.” + +At that I think he prodded the dog with his foot, for he set up a +nauseated whine--the dog, of course--and the young gentleman laughed. + +“Your dog is quite safe, madam,” he said. “I wouldn’t bite him for +anything.” Then he leaned forward in the darkness and stared at Tish +and myself. + +“Upon my soul!” he muttered, and then aloud: “How in the name of all +that is nautical did you ladies get as far from shore as this, when you +are rowing in different directions?” + +Tish refused to answer, and fell to rowing madly with her one oar, so +that we turned around and around in a circle. Aggie had not said a +word since she gave the young man her shawl. She was sitting in the +stern with the jug in her lap and her handkerchief over her mouth. + +“This is a wonderful piece of luck,” he said finally. “I must have been +blown up the lake. I hope I didn’t startle you?” + +“Not at all,” I said, as coolly as I could. At least he didn’t have a +revolver: there was no place to hide one, or a knife either. “Are you +out for a pleasure trip? Or did you have any definite objective point?” +This scathingly. + +“Just land,” he said. “Any old land will do. Near a boat-house, if +possible.” + +“We are going to Thunthet Island,” Aggie lisped, encouraged by his good +humor. + +This seemed to surprise him, but after a minute he threw back his head +and laughed: it was almost a chuckle. Certainly, if he was a lunatic, +he was a cheerful one. + +“To Sunset Island, then!” he exclaimed. “Forward, and God with us!” + +The rain was over, and by the starlight we could make out a little +more about our intruder. He seemed large and not bad looking, and he +had a nice voice. (It was a disappointment, when we finally saw him in +the daylight, to find that his hair was red, but it was offset by an +attractive smile and exceedingly good teeth. Next to a nice nose, I +like a man to have good teeth.) But, of course, some of the greatest +rascals have all the physical attributes at the expense of the moral +ones. As to his good humor, every one knows that a man can smile and +smile and be a villain still. He wanted to take the oars, but an oar +is a mighty effective weapon: neither Tish nor I would give ours up. +Finally-- + +“I suppose you haven’t any gasoline with you?” he inquired, leaning +forward and hugging the shawl under his chin. + +“There’th a quart bottle of cleaning fluid--” Aggie began, but Tish +interrupted her. + +“Agatha!” she said. + +“I suppose you don’t know of a boat-house near where we could steal +some, do you?” he reflected. + +“_We!_” + +Tish lifted her oar out of the water and leaned on it. There is no +space here to set down what she said, but she did it thoroughly. She +told him what she thought of his going around in his present costume; +she told him that two of us were Methodist Protestants and one an +Episcopalian, and that we would not assist him to steal anybody’s +gasoline, or his wife or his silver spoons: and she ended up by +demanding that he go back where he came from immediately: that we +could not compromise ourselves by landing him anywhere in his existing +undress--only Tish called it negligée. + +He listened meekly. + +“If that’s the way you feel,” he said finally, “of course I’ll drop +back into the water. Drowning’s an easy death. But if during your +excursion you happen to come across a motor-boat containing a girl, I +wish you would tell her that I did the best I could.” + +He stood up and began to take off the shawl. Tish poked at him with her +oar. + +“Don’t be a young idiot,” she snapped. “We’re not making you walk the +plank. What about the young lady?” + +“It’s rather a story,” he said, drawing the shawl around him again and +sitting down. “But the idea is this: when a fellow starts to elope +with a girl, and then funks it, by getting drowned or running out of +gasoline or anything of that sort, and leaves her sitting in a dead +motor-boat in the middle of the night, she’s--she’s apt to be touchy +about it.” + +“Lord have mercy!” said Tish. “You were abducting a young woman!” + +“Penitentiary offense,” he confirmed coolly. + +“When she didn’t want to be eloped with!” I added. I confess I had a +queer thrill up and down my back. + +“Well,” he considered, “hardly that. She only thought she didn’t. +She has been told so many times that she mustn’t like me that now she +thinks she doesn’t. Pure power of suggestion. If she hadn’t pitched a +can of gasoline overboard in a temper, we’d have been miles away by +this time,” he finished, with his first suggestion of gloom. + +In the darkness I heard Aggie draw a long breath. Aggie is romantic, +having been engaged a long time ago to a young man in the roofing +business, who fell off a roof. + +“How you mutht love her!” she said, and one could imagine her clasping +her hands. “And how alarmed _the_ mutht be for you.” + +“She said she hoped I would drown,” he said, more cheerfully, “but +that’s only girl’s talk. When she gets over thinking she doesn’t like +me, she’s going to be crazy about me. When a girl hates a fellow, she’s +next door to loving him.” + +“‘Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,’” Tish snorted with scorn, +and just then the dog began to whine again and tried to crawl up into +Aggie’s lap. The young man in the shawl started to say something about +having a minister waiting at Telusah, and stopped suddenly. + +“It isn’t raining now,” he said, “and yet this boat is filling. Does +she leak?” + +She did: we knew it then. The water that had been sloshing around in +the bottom was almost to the top of our overshoes, and an instant later +Aggie, with a fine disregard of the proprieties, had her feet up on the +thwarts. We are all vague about the next few minutes, but after a great +deal of screeching and tipping of the boat, our young man, with the +shawl belted around him as a petticoat, was in Tish’s seat, rowing like +mad, and we were all bailing like mad with our rubber shoes. + +We headed the boat straight for Sunset Island, which was as near as +any place, but in spite of us it kept on getting fuller. And just when +Aggie had lifted her jug into her lap to lighten her end of the boat, +and the water was well above our shoe tops, and climbing, and Tish was +muttering the alphabet under the impression that she was praying, the +boat stopped suddenly and the young man said: + +“Why don’t you women bail? What are you doing? Tickling the ribs of the +boat? We’ll never get to shore at this rate!” + +Aggie began to sniffle, and the man in the shawl stood up and peered +over the water. + +“Lillian!” he shouted. “Wave the lantern! Coo--ee!” + +We all heard it. From far down the lake came a distant “coo--ee” that +was not an echo. The shawl man muttered something and lurched where he +stood: the boat tipped, of course, and more water came over the edge. + +Aggie began fervently, “For what we are about to receive, O Lord, make +us duly thankful,” when the boat bumped without warning into something. + +It was just in time. As I, the last, was hauled into the motor-launch, +the _Witch Hazel_ slid greasily under the surface, to rise no more. + +(The loss of the _Witch Hazel_ was deplorable, and later on we sent +Carpenter, anonymously, money to buy a new boat. He has one, which he +calls the _Urticaria_, but the ghost of the _Witch Hazel_ still walks, +a sort of Pond’s Extract in his memory.) + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +CLEANING FLUID TO THE RESCUE + + +It was some time before we could realize that eternity had ceased +staring us in the face and had taken a back seat, so to speak. The +first thing Tish said was that, man or no man, her shoes were going to +come off, and while Aggie was wringing alternately her hands and her +petticoats, I happened to notice the Shawl Man. He was standing holding +his garment around him and staring over the dark water ahead. + +“You needn’t feel so badly,” I said to him. “We’re only glad Aggie had +the shawl, and now, if you can run the launch, why don’t you hunt up +your own, with the young lady in it?” + +“_This_ is the boat!” he said heavily, and, sitting down, he dropped +his chin in his hands. + +Well, there was no girl. Dark as it was, we could all see that. Tish +looked up suspiciously from where she was stuffing her wet shoes with +her stockings to keep them in shape. + +“I don’t see any clothes either,” she said tartly. “I suspect your lady +friend tied them into a bundle and swam ashore with them in her teeth!” + +“I left her there in that chair!” he affirmed. He looked dazed. +“She--she didn’t want to--to go, you know, and she threw the extra +gasoline can overboard. When we stalled there was nothing to do +but swim ashore, borrow a skiff, and steal some gasoline from the +boat-house on one of the islands. I wasn’t going to sit out there in a +dead motor-boat and let her people stand on the bank in the morning and +pot at me with a target rifle.” + +“Thirtainly not!” said Aggie, who had shamelessly allied herself with +him. + +“Not only that,” he went on defiantly, “but when a man cares for a girl +the way I care for--her, he either carries her off and marries her or +he dies trying.” + +“And quite right, I’m thure.” Thus Aggie. She was still clutching her +jug; the dog, the first to be saved, had sniffed the cork, got a whiff +of the ether, and retired with a moan to the corner. + +“If she tried to swim to shore,” began the Shawl Man, and groaned. But +Aggie had forgotten her lisp in her rôle of comforter. + +“Nonthenth!” she said. “Probably Mithther Carleton came along with hith +motor canoe and took her home. He’th alwayth mooning around the lake +late at night.” + +The Shawl Man jumped to his feet and the boat rocked. + +“Denby Carleton!” he said. “Hell!” + +Then he went to pieces. As Tish wrote to her niece, Martha Ann Lee, +afterward, “his composure went to pieces on the rocks of adversity, +and sank in a sea of woe.” He raged up and down the launch, muttering +strange and awful things, and every now and then he stooped over the +engine in the middle of the boat and gritted his teeth and turned +something. And the engine would draw a quick breath and turn over +on its other side and settle down to sleep again. And then, when he +finally gave up, he declared he was going to swim after the canoe and +kill Carleton for stealing the girl and throwing his clothes overboard. + +(Yes, we found a soft hat floating, and the rest were gone.) + +He stood up on the front peak of the launch and began to untie the +shawl, but Tish pulled him back and told him if the girl wanted Mr. +Carleton instead of him he was well rid of her. And she asked him his +name. This brought him around a little. He said, “Mansfield, Donald +Mansfield,” and stalked back and sat down in the stern squarely on the +dog. + +“Keep away from that dog!” Aggie exclaimed. “He hath mange.” + +“Fleas!” Tish snapped. + +“Mange!” said Aggie. + +“Upon my word, Aggie Pilkington,” Tish sniffed, “if the creature has +mange, why on earth are you still hugging that jar of gasoline?” + +Then, of course, the Shawl Man, who shall be Mansfield now, gave a +whoop and seized the jug. + +“Ith cleaning fluid,” Aggie protested. “Thereth ether and alcohol--” + +“Never mind what’s in it,” he said excitedly. “I know this engine. +It’ll run on the gas out of a bottle of Apollinaris.” And while he +poured the stuff into the tank he explained his plan. If the engine ran +on the mixture, and didn’t get something that he called a “bun on,” +we could get back to Sunset Island, which I gathered belonged to the +girl’s father, get into somebody’s boat-house (preferably the father’s) +and obtain some gasoline. Also, he would try to find some clothes. It +shows how thoroughly demoralized we were that not one of us objected +to his stealing anything he needed, and that Tish asked him to bring +her a blanket if he happened on one! + +The engine would not start at once. And after he had explained that +he had only one hand to crank with, having to hold on the shawl with +the other, we turned our backs, and almost immediately there was an +explosion. The boat jumped out of the water and dropped back with a +thud. I could not scream. Then there came a series of reports, and +I sat waiting for the floor to separate and drop me into sixty feet +of water and mud and crawly things with the family burial lot full, +provided my body was ever found, unless they moved Cousin James beside +his first wife, where he ought to be anyhow. And then I realized that +we were moving. + +We did not float. We got to shore by a distinct species of leaps; once +or twice I am quite sure we left the surface of the lake. If that stuff +had ever been put on the dog, the fleas would have killed themselves +jumping. And all the time there was a combination of odors that as Tish +said afterward reminded one individually of burnt brandy sauce and an +operating room, and collectively of something that has died in the +alley. And whenever we stopped Mr. Mansfield would do something that he +called “spinner again.” + +When we got near enough to shore we could see that the big white Lovell +house was lighted up, late as it was, and there were people on the boat +dock with lanterns. Mr. Mansfield saw it too, and changed the course of +the launch, so we stopped at a smaller landing, half a mile or so down +the beach, and tied up there. + +“You are perfectly safe here,” he said, “and I’ll be back in ten +minutes. The only way Major Lovell could recognize this boat in the +dark would be by the sound of the engine, and if he heard this racket +he’ll take us for a battle in a moving picture show. Just sit tight and +keep warm.” + +He threw the shawl to us and dived into the darkness. Somebody +was shouting at the Lovell dock, but we sat in safe obscurity and +listened to the wash of the water against the piles. The absurdity of +the situation began to dawn on me, and the sight of Tish and Aggie, +luminous in the starlight--it had stopped raining--trying to get into +their wet shoes, made me fairly hysterical. To add to it all, the +patter of Mr. Mansfield’s bare feet on the boards of the dock waked our +sleeping dog, and with a series of staccato barks he was at our unlucky +young man’s heels. He seemed to have a fondness for feet. + +“If you could see yourself, Lizzie, I might understand your mirth,” +Tish said scathingly. “But I fail to see anything funny.” + +“Then for goodness sake, Tish,” I cried, “stop dangling that shoe on +your toe and see what is the matter with your figure. It has slipped up +under your chin.” + +“Good heaventh!” said Aggie. “They are coming down the beach after uth!” + +It was true. The lanterns had left the Lovell dock and were bobbing +wildly along the waterfront in our direction, guided by the barking +of the dog. Of all the hours of that awful night, that was the most +terrible. We sat there shivering and helpless and watched Nemesis +chasing and bobbing down on us. About half way to us the first lantern +stopped and fired a gun, and back along the beach new lanterns kept +adding themselves to the line that stretched out like the tail of a +comet. + +Tish thought she was very cool, but both Aggie and I distinctly heard +her say that the stars had stopped raining. And once she said that she +had always been a respected member of the community, and that nobody in +his sober senses would believe her if she told the true story. And when +the first lantern was so close that we could see a vague outline of +the man behind it, desperation gave me a courage that has appalled me +since. + +I went over to the engine and tried to “spinner.” + +What is more to the point, I did it. The wheels began to revolve with +a sickening speed: the whole frame of the boat jarred and quivered. I +sank back on my knees and closed my eyes. + +“We’re not moving,” Tish said with awful calmness. + +And at that a white figure hurled itself from the darkness at the end +of the landing and flew down the dock to us. It had a can in one hand +and a lantern in the other. It hesitated a second to throw off the +rope, which was why we hadn’t moved, of course, and, as the engine was +going full, he had only time to catch one of the awning supports as it +flew past. It went as if it had been shot out of a gun, and when Aggie +and Tish and I had assorted ourselves from a heap on the floor, we +were well out from shore. + +It was lucky that Aggie took one of her awful sneezing spells just +then, as she always does when she is excited, for by the time she was +breathing easily again the shore was well behind and Mr. Mansfield had +put on the shawl again. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE CAVE-MAN AND HIS WOMAN + + +It is a little difficult, looking back, to explain our state of mind +that night. It was only our second taste of romance--Aggie’s roofer +being too far back to count. Now, with six months of perspective, I +think we were intoxicated with adventure to the point of abandon. For +when Mr. Mansfield offered to take us home, before starting on his +pursuit of the motor canoe, we refused to go. As Tish said: + +“No doubt when you do overtake them, Mr. Mansfield, the young woman +will feel the need of some of her own sex, women of--er--maturity and +experience, to advise her. I consider it our duty to go.” + +“Oh, leth go!” said Aggie. “Mr. Carletonth a large man. Do you think +you will have to fight him for your lady?” Aggie’s tone was cheerfully +bloodthirsty, and she clutched the end of the broken oar like a club. +Aggie, the apostle of peace! + +“Frankly, I should like to see the end of the affair myself,” I +admitted. “I should like to see the young lady’s face when she finds +you eloping with three maiden ladies, and--I am curious to know how +your cave-man theory works out.” + +He was working over the engine, and we were headed down the lake. While +I was speaking he moved to the other side of the launch, and it tilted +villainously. He loomed very large in the darkness, and the strength of +his bare arms and heavy chest, his sinewy legs, made him not unlike his +prototype. + +He did not answer me at once. He had found some cigarettes in the boat, +and he lighted one. Only when it was well aglow did he show that he had +heard me. + +“The original cave-man was no fool,” he observed, calmly looking ahead. +“A man doesn’t carry a woman off unless he’s crazy about her, in the +first place. If he’s got sufficient force of character to dare her +daddy’s stone club--jail, in this case--and enough physical strength to +hold her to him with one arm and fight off pursuit and rivals with the +other, it--well, it doesn’t matter much what the girl thinks of him in +the beginning: she’ll die for him, in the end.” + +Aggie positively thrilled in the darkness beside me, and even Tish was +silenced by the vision of this masculine point of view. As for me, just +at that instant I quite agreed with the young savage! + +“Ith--ith the very pretty?” Aggie ventured, after swallowing hard. + +“I don’t know,” he said indifferently, straining his eyes ahead. +“Oh--yes, I suppose she is. I never thought about it. I haven’t thought +of anybody else--_anything_ else, for the week I’ve known her.” + +“The week!” we all repeated faintly. + +“When her groom lifts her off her horse, I want to kill him. If that +ass Carleton gets her to Telusah first and marries her, I’ll take her +from him. She’s my woman.” + +Tish stood right up in the boat and pointed her finger at him. “You +d-don’t know what you are talking about,” she stuttered. “How--how dare +you speak of taking a married woman from her husband!” + +“Figs!” he said disrespectfully. “In the first place, if the engine +holds out, we’ll run them down at least a mile from Telusah, and in +the second place, while I judge you are talking by the book and not by +experience--a few words said over a man and a woman don’t make them +husband and wife. It gives the woman the man’s name, but--the man don’t +necessarily get the woman. Mine--or nobody’s,” he added under his +breath. + +Tish collapsed into her chair. I admit I felt queer all over, and +Aggie’s heart had fluttered back to the thin young man with the +curled-up mustache and a dimple in his chin, who had fallen off a roof. + +“Mister Wigginth usthed to talk exactly that way!” she said softly. + +That is the way we went down toward Telusah: the prehistoric gentleman +in the bow steering and watching the engine, now and then stopping +it dead to listen for the throb of the motor canoe ahead. Aggie +twitteringly in the past, with her bare feet tucked under her for +warmth and the broken oar in her lap. Tish blazing with indignation and +excitement, and I saved by my sense of humor from going into violent +hysteria and embracing the hot-headed, mad, ridiculous and altogether +satisfactory young animal at the wheel. I merely said: + +“I wish somebody had wooed me like that thirty years ago. I wouldn’t be +earning my own living, young man.” + +“That’s what she wants to do--stay single and work for a livelihood,” +he said with disgust. “I told her it was all fool nonsense; that the +place for her kind of woman was in some man’s home--” + +“Cave,” I suggested. + +“Bearing his children--” + +“Silence!” Tish shouted, and even Aggie was roused out of a dream. + +He shut down the engine just then, and we all heard it: a faint +throbbing that one felt in the ears, rather than heard. He leaped up on +the peak of the boat and stared into the darkness ahead. + +“Better than I expected,” he said with suppressed excitement. “They’re +not a mile ahead. I wish I had a stick of some sort: I may have to +knock that chump on the head.” + +Luckily he did not see Aggie’s oar, and to his everlasting honor be it +said, he went dauntlessly into the battle with his bare hands. “And +bare arms and legs,” Tish ironically suggests that I add. + +For battle it was. + +We overtook the canoe somewhere about Long Point, and our lantern +showed two people, as we expected. It was Mr. Carleton, who evidently +hadn’t dressed to elope, and who wore the shirt of a bathing suit and a +pair of corduroy trousers, and the Girl. She was in a white party frock +of some sort. She stopped paddling and stared up at us defiantly as we +must have loomed black behind our lantern. She was very pretty, and she +had two triangular red spots in her cheeks. Our gentleman pulled the +shawl around him and stepped on the thwarts, and even at that distance +we could see the angry fear in the girl’s eyes. + +“Lillian,” Mr. Mansfield said cheerfully, “I am not going to do that +puppy with you the honor of asking you to choose between us. I give you +your choice--either get into the launch comfortably, or stay where you +are--in which case I shall run you down and pick you out of the water.” + +[Illustration] + +“You coward!” said Mr. Carleton from the stern of the canoe. “You can’t +try your high-handed methods with me. Run us down if you like. It’s +a penitentiary offense to kidnap a girl and marry her.” + +“Oh, piffle!” said Mr. Mansfield rudely. “I suppose you didn’t intend +to marry her yourself at Telusah!” + +“I intended to return her to her parents in safety, by way of the +trolley,” retorted Carleton stiffly. + +The Mansfield man threw back his head and laughed. + +“Did you hear that, Lillian?” he called. “That’s love for you! Why, the +idiot didn’t even intend to marry you! He was going to take you home to +your people!” He laughed again in pure delight. + +But the girl had plenty of spirit. + +“I don’t intend to be married at all,” she flared at him. “Certainly +not to you, Donald Mansfield. Run us down if you like. I would rather +die than marry you.” + +“You hear what she says,” said Carleton, from the darkness. “If you +are a gentleman you will take your boat and your ruffianly accomplices +back to where you came from--or to hell, as far as I’m concerned.” + +“Ruffian yourself,” Tish said furiously, but I pulled her down. There +was silence, then-- + +“Lillian,” Mr. Mansfield said very gently, “‘Lady’ Carleton is right. +If it’s as bad as that I’ll take you home. I had a sort of fool idea +that you would know it was inevitable--that you were my woman. If I’ve +been a bit raw about it, it’s because the thing seemed so clear to me. +Give me your hand.” + +“I shall not get into the launch,” the girl said haughtily. + +“Your hand.” + +“Confound you, Mansfield, can’t you see she hates you?” This was +Carleton, of course. + +“The girlth a fool,” Aggie muttered angrily, behind me. In the instant +that I turned my head, something happened--I don’t know just what. For +the girl was alone in the canoe, we were alone in the launch, and just +below me the water was boiling into white spray. Now and then an arm +shot into the air, or a leg, and occasionally, not often, both heads +were above water at the same time. And it was then that Aggie, the +president of the Civic Club and corresponding secretary of the Working +Girls’ Home, with her draggled skirts pinned up above her bare feet, +stood up suddenly and banged Mr. Carleton on the head with what was +left of her oar! + +But if that was amazing, the most surprising thing followed. The Girl +stood up in the canoe and-- + +“Oh, you’ve killed him!” she screeched. “Oh, Don! Don!” _Donald being +the Mansfield man!_ + +Then, of course, the canoe turned over, and the rest of what she was +saying ended in a gurgle. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +“I WILL GO WITH YOU” + + +We got them all into the launch finally, for there was only five feet of +water, which explained much that we had not understood about the fight, +and they were as disconsolate looking a lot of lovers as I ever wish +to see. Mr. Carleton sat in the stern and held his head, which Aggie’s +oar had almost broken, and the girl dripped and shivered in a corner by +herself and stared at the Mansfield man, who was coaxing Tish for one +of her petticoats so he could give the girl his shawl. + +Aggie was for trying to explain to the girl how we came to be there +at all, and without our shoes at that. But it was such a long story, +beginning with the dog that had fleas (“mange,” says Aggie) and +extending through robbery to attempted murder (“I only meant to stun +him,” says Aggie), that I advised her not to begin it. + +The launch would not start after all, and it developed that the +propeller shaft was choked with weeds. This meant that the Mansfield +man must crawl overboard, get on his back under the launch (which +is much more unpleasant, I should think, than getting under an +automobile), and clear off the shaft. And while he was holding his +breath under the boat, and while Tish had turned her back on everybody +and with the aid of the lantern was trying to take a splinter out of +the sole of her foot, the Carleton man got up dizzily and went over to +the girl. + +“Surely, Lillian,” he said, steadying himself by the awning frame, +“you--you don’t intend to let that--” + +“Please go away,” she said. “I don’t want to talk. How funny you look +with that bandage around your head.” And then, to me (she had accepted +the presence of three bare-footed maiden ladies in the launch without +comment): “Oh, do you think he might be caught in the weeds and--and +_drown_?” + +But he did not drown. He came magnificently over the edge of the boat +in a few minutes, with a string of green water-weeds clinging to his +head. Aggie, who, as you have seen, is romantic, muttered something +about “grape leaves in his hair,” which she said afterward was Ibsen, +although the only use I have ever known for grape leaves was to wrap +pats of butter in, in the country. + +He turned the launch around and we started for home. I do not recall +that any one spoke on the way back, except Tish, who asked me if I had +any castor oil at the house: she wanted it to soften her shoes if they +dried stiff. The Girl sat by herself and watched the big fellow in +the shawl-toga. And once or twice, when he glanced up and saw her, he +smiled over at her, but he did not go near her or speak to her. + +[Illustration] + +It was pale dawn when we stopped at the dock of the Watermelon Camp. +We, who had been sodden shadows in the night, were now damp and +shivering outlines. Mr. Mansfield, having given the girl the shawl, +drew around him still closer the awning curtain with which he had +draped himself, and Aggie, still clutching the oar, held up one hand in +the gray light to hide the deficiencies of her mouth. No one stirred in +the camp. + +Mr. Carleton got up stiffly and glanced around at all of us. Then +he stalked over to the man at the wheel, who was staring ahead and +whistling under his breath. + +“Will you give me your word to take her home?” he said. + +“Ask her if she _wants_ to go home.” He threw this over his shoulder, +between whistles, as it were. Then the girl, looking very pretty, but +slim and slinky in her wet things, went over to the Mansfield man and +put her hand on his shoulder. + +“I--I think I will go with you, Don!” she said. And that practically +ends the story. + +We left Mr. Carleton on the dock, staring after us through the mist, +and we all went back to the cottage and put the girl to bed. We gave +Mr. Mansfield a pillow by the sitting-room wood fire, and _Tish’s +green kimono_ to sleep in. And after that we all three took a mustard +foot-bath and some camphor sprinkled on sugar and went to bed. + +Aggie wakened me at nine o’clock the next morning by hunting in my +bureau for her second best teeth, and it was then that we found our +lovers had gone. In the girl’s room there was a letter of thanks. She +said she did not wish to disturb us after that awful night, but that +she could not sleep, and that she and Mr. Mansfield were going down to +Telusah to be married. + +Tish read the letter aloud and stared at us, while Paulina whined for +her breakfast. + +“Upon my soul,” Tish gasped, when she could speak. “Instead of clapping +him into jail, she’s going to marry him!” + +“Do you thuppoth he went to Telutha in that kimono?” Aggie said in a +husky whisper. She had taken a terrible cold. + +But Mr. Mansfield did not go to Telusah in Tish’s kimono. + +After all, the beginning of this story is also the end. For now you +can understand why Tish dropped the bowl when the young man brought +her kimono back from the Watermelon Camp and asked for Mr. Carleton’s +trousers! + +I have told the story in defense of Tish and the rest of us. I wish to +brand as false the story told by the man from the hotel who happened to +be fishing for muskalunge early that morning. He said, you remember, +that he saw Miss Carberry _in her green kimono_ leave our cottage just +after dawn and go stealthily along the beach through the mist to the +Watermelon Camp. When she got there, he said, to his horror he saw her +strip off the green kimono and hang it to a tree. Just then the mist +shut down and he saw nothing more. + +In his anxiety for Miss Carberry’s sanity he was on the point of +landing to investigate, when he hooked the largest ’lunge of the season +(registered weight at the hatcheries, thirty-seven pounds four ounces), +and when he looked again at the shore all he saw was a red-haired man +hurrying along the beach in a pair of corduroy trousers and a bathing +shirt! + +Tish closed the incident with one comment. + +“Young millionaire!” she snapped when she saw the newspapers. “Young +scamp, _I_ say, stealing poor Mr. Carleton’s sweetheart and then his +trousers. As for my green kimono, after all we did for him, he might at +least have had the grace to roll it up and stick it under a barrel. I +shall burn it.” + +But she did not. Aggie saw it only the other day, put away in +a lavender silk sachet, with a bundle of newspaper clippings, a +half-eaten bath sponge, and a particular kind of bass hook, which we +had found on the sitting-room floor. + + +THE END + + + + +TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: + + + Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. + + Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. + + Archaic or variant spelling has been retained. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75922 *** diff --git a/75922-h/75922-h.htm b/75922-h/75922-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..07ee8d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-h/75922-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9177 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + The amazing adventures of Letitia Carberry | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} +h3.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.ph1 {text-align: center; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;} +.ph2 {text-align: center; font-size: xx-large; font-weight: bold;} + +div.titlepage {text-align: center; page-break-before: always; page-break-after: always;} +div.titlepage p {text-align: center; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 2em;} + +.xlarge {font-size: 150%;} +.large {font-size: 125%;} + +.x-ebookmaker .hide {display: none; visibility: hidden;} + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +p.drop-cap { + text-indent: -0.35em; +} +p.drop-cap2 { + text-indent: -0.75em; +} +p.drop-cap:first-letter, p.drop-cap2:first-letter +{ + float: left; + margin: 0em 0.15em 0em 0em; + font-size: 250%; + line-height:0.85em; + text-indent: 0em; +} +.x-ebookmaker p.drop-cap, .x-ebookmaker p.drop-cap2 { + text-indent: 0em; +} +.x-ebookmaker p.drop-cap:first-letter, .x-ebookmaker p.drop-cap2:first-letter +{ + float: none; + margin: 0; + font-size: 100%; +} + +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:smaller; + margin-left: 17.5%; + margin-right: 17.5%; + padding: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; } + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75922 ***</div> + +<div class="figcenter hide"><img src="images/coversmall.jpg" width="450" alt=""></div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_frontispiece.jpg" alt="Miss Blake was carrying a candle"></div> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_title.jpg" alt="title page"></div> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="titlepage"> +<h1><i>The</i> AMAZING<br> +ADVENTURES OF<br> +LETITIA CARBERRY</h1> + +<p><i>By</i><br> +<span class="xlarge">MARY ROBERTS RINEHART</span></p> + +<p><i>Author of</i><br> +WHEN A MAN MARRIES<br> +THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE<br> +THE MAN IN LOWER TEN<br> +THE WINDOW AT THE WHITE CAT, ETC.</p> + +<p>ILLUSTRATIONS BY<br> +<span class="large">HOWARD CHANDLER CHRISTY</span></p> + + +<p>INDIANAPOLIS<br> +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY<br> +PUBLISHERS</p> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright 1911<br> +The Bobbs-Merrill Company</span><br> +<br> +PRESS OF<br> +BRAUNWORTH & CO.<br> +BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS<br> +BROOKLYN, N. Y.</p> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="ph2">THE<br> +AMAZING ADVENTURES OF<br> +LETITIA CARBERRY</p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span> +<p class="ph2">THE<br> +AMAZING ADVENTURES OF<br> +LETITIA CARBERRY</p> + +<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Part One</span></h2> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER I<br> + +<small>WHAT HAPPENED TO JOHNSON</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">STRICTLY speaking, this is Tish’s story, +but Tish is unable to write it, being laid +up, as you probably know from the newspapers. +But we all three felt that a record of the +affair ought to be kept while it was fresh in +our minds, although goodness knows we’re +not likely to forget any of it. A good many +people wondered, when the story came out, +how Tish had come to be mixed up with it at +all, but as Tish herself says, it was very simple. +The people at the hospital had become demoralized, +and some firm hand had to take<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span> +hold. Besides, Tish was a member of the +Ladies’ Committee, and felt responsible.</p> + +<p>Tish says the first thing she knew about it +was a piercing scream, just outside her room. +This was followed by a number of short, sharp +cries, feminine, and steps running past her bedroom +door. Now, as Tish also remarks with +truth, one hears a variety of strange sounds in +a hospital at night, and at first she thought it +was the woman across the hall, who had had +her appendix removed that afternoon, and who +had been very unpleasant as a neighbor all +evening. But when the noise kept up, and +only died away to be followed by somebody +crying hysterically down the hall, Tish was +roused. She sat up in bed and threw her +small traveling clock at Miss Lewis.</p> + +<p>(Miss Lewis was Tish’s nurse, a splendid +woman, but a heavy sleeper. She slept on a +cot in the room, and until Tish learned that it +did not hurt the clock to throw it, she had +been obliged to ring for one of the night<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span> +nurses to come in and waken her. So now she +threw the clock.)</p> + +<p>Miss Lewis picked the clock from off her +chest and sat up, yawning, to look at it.</p> + +<p>“Twenty minutes after one, Miss Carberry,” +she said. “Would you like some buttermilk?”</p> + +<p>Now Tish was not really ill. She was taking +a rest cure last autumn while her apartment +was being painted and papered, and while +she recovered from a twisted knee. She’d +bought a second-hand automobile some months +before, and learned to run it herself, and the +knee was the result of her being thrown out +over the steering wheel and ten feet beyond +the potato wagon she had collided with. Although, +as Tish says, it is a strange thing that +her <i>knee</i> was twisted, when she brought up +standing on her head in three inches of muddy +water and a family of tadpoles.</p> + +<p>Both Aggie and I went to see her daily, +the three of us being old friends, although not +related, and she was always glad to see us, although<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span> +she grew sarcastic when Aggie casually +remarked that except for the meeting +of the anti-vivisection society, we might +also have been flung over the potato wagon. +Well—</p> + +<p>“Would you like some buttermilk?” asked +Miss Lewis again, beginning to draw on her +kimono. Tish says that provoked her and she +reached for the clock again, but of course Miss +Lewis had it in her hand.</p> + +<p>“No,” she snapped. “Go out in the hall and +see what has happened.”</p> + +<p>Miss Lewis yawned again and groped around +in the half light for her slippers. It was more +than Tish could stand. She hopped out of bed +in her bare feet and limped to the door.</p> + +<p>The hall was almost dark and across it the +woman with the appendix—or with<i>out</i>—was +groaning. But half way along, where the +night nurse has her desk and keeps her papers +and where the annunciator for the patients’ +bells is fastened to the wall, Tish saw a group<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span> +of five or six nurses, gathered about somebody +in a chair. One of them came running past +with a glass of something, and the crowd +opened to admit the girl and the glass and +closed again. Miss Lewis came and looked +over Tish’s shoulder.</p> + +<p>“Gee!” she said, and ran down the hall with +her slippers flapping and her braid switching +from side to side. Just then the woman across +gave another groan, and it being dark and the +scream still echoing in her ears, Tish reached +inside the door for her cane and hobbled out in +her nightgown.</p> + +<p>The girl in the chair, she said, was as white +as milk, and her lips were blue. She was half-lying, +with her head against the back of the +chair, and a violent shudder now and then was +the only sign of life about her. One of the +other nurses was stroking her hands and talking +to her in a soothing tone.</p> + +<p>“Now listen, Miss Blake,” she said. “It +<i>couldn’t</i> be. We all have these queer feelings<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span> +here. It’s the nervous strain and loss of sleep. +I’ll never forget the first time <i>I</i> had to do it.”</p> + +<p>“Nor I,” said another girl, “I went with +you. Do you remember? It was that dwarf +that died in J. We’d forgotten something, and +you had to go and leave me alone.”</p> + +<p>“Hush!” another nurse broke in, and Miss +Blake began to shudder again. “If we had +some hot coffee for her—will you drink some +coffee if we make it, Miss Blake?”</p> + +<p>The girl in the chair shook her head and +Miss Lewis dragged one of the nurses from +the group and whispered to her. Tish heard +part of the answer.</p> + +<p>“Went up with Linda Smith and as usual +Linda forgot something—she’s been over-working; +went to raise the window for fresh +air—she says she heard a sound, but didn’t +notice it—when she turned around”—then +more whispering that Tish couldn’t catch.</p> + +<p>“<i>No!</i>” Miss Lewis said, and looked queer +herself. “Then, if it’s true, <i>it</i> is still—?”</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_006.jpg" alt="Miss Blake in the chair"></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>Miss Blake sat up just then and tried to wipe +her blue lips with her handkerchief, but her +hands shook so that one of the nurses did it +for her. She mopped the girl’s pallid forehead, +too, and put her arm over her shoulders +protectingly.</p> + +<p>“You’re going off duty, girl,” she said. +“About all the hard work in the place has been +falling to you lately, and if we don’t take care +we will be minus the class flower.”</p> + +<p>Tish says the girl tried to smile at that and +was very pretty. I can answer for her looks +myself, having seen her often enough later. +She had soft, wavy, black hair and Irish-blue +eyes, and she was rather small. Partly for +that and partly because she was so young, we +fell into the way of calling her the Little +Nurse. But to go back to Tish’s story.</p> + +<p>“You’re sure you didn’t doze off?” one of +the girls asked, pressing forward. But the +Little Nurse shook her head.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span>“Asleep! There?” she said, in a low voice. +“Could you?”</p> + +<p>“What enrages me,” Miss Lewis burst out, +glaring at the group through her glasses, “is +<i>why</i> Linda Smith left her there alone.”</p> + +<p>“She forgot something,” said Miss Blake.</p> + +<p>“She usually forgets something!” Miss +Lewis began. “When she dies, Linda’ll forget—”</p> + +<p>“Hush!” somebody whispered. “Here she +is.”</p> + +<p>Miss Smith came quickly along the hall, her +arms full of bundles. She stopped when she +saw the group and ran her eye over it.</p> + +<p>“Well!” she said, “what is it? Fudge?”</p> + +<p>One of the girls detached herself from the +group and started for her. Miss Smith was +a tall, raw-boned woman, with short, curly +hair and a rugged but good-natured face, and +Tish says she stood smiling at them.</p> + +<p>“I suppose you know,” she said. “The spiritualist +from K has ‘passed over.’ Didn’t want<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span> +to go, poor old man. Said he had three wives +waiting in the spirit world.”</p> + +<p>The other girl came up to her then and +caught her by the elbow and whispered to her. +Tish was standing in the shadow, leaning on +her cane, and she didn’t know from Adam +what was the matter, but she was covered with +goose flesh.</p> + +<p>“Nonsense!” said Miss Linda Smith suddenly. +“She’s been dozing.”</p> + +<p>Miss Blake got up and steadied herself by +the back of the chair, looking across at the +other woman.</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid not, Miss Smith,” she said. +“You—remember when—when the orderlies +carried up poor old—Johnson. They—laid +him on the table in the mortuary, didn’t they?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Miss Smith, half smiling. “They +usually do. They don’t generally throw ’em +out the window.”</p> + +<p>Miss Blake clutched the chair tighter, Tish +says, and her lips trembled.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>“I want you to come with me and see,” she +said. “We—covered the body with a sheet, +didn’t we?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” Miss Smith stopped smiling.</p> + +<p>“And then you left, and I was alone. I—I +tried not to mind. I haven’t been here very +long. But I was afraid, after a minute or two, +that I was—getting faint. I—seemed to feel +eyes on me.”</p> + +<p>Some of the girls nodded as if they understood.</p> + +<p>“So I went to the window and threw it up +to get air. Then I thought I heard something +moving behind me. I—I felt it, like the eyes, +rather than heard it. And—I didn’t look +around at once; I couldn’t. It was so far from +the rest of the house, and—I was alone with +<i>it</i>. And when I turned—” She stopped and +moistened her lips with her tongue, and her +face was ghastly—“<i>it</i> was gone, Miss Smith. +Gone!”</p> + +<p>Now Tish isn’t easy to frighten, but at that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span> +moment the appendix woman gave a deep +groan and she says her heart jumped once +or twice and turned over in her chest. The +nurses were all standing huddled together in +a little group, and one of them kept looking +over her shoulder.</p> + +<p>“Gone!” said Miss Smith, and sat down in a +chair suddenly, as if her legs had given way. +“Wha—what have you done?”</p> + +<p>“Sent for Jacobs, the night watchman,” one +of the nurses explained. “Doctor Grimm and +Doctor Sands are in the operating room—a +night case, and the medical internes had a row +with Mr. Harrison and left last night. We’ll +be in nice shape if G ward gets busy.”</p> + +<p>“What’s G ward?” Tish asked, edging over +to Miss Lewis.</p> + +<p>“G ward,” said Miss Lewis coolly, “G ward +is where the stork drops that part of the population +that has only half the legal number of +parents. You’ll have to go back to bed, Miss +Carberry.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>“I’ll do nothing of the sort,” said Tish, and +glared at her.</p> + +<p>Tish told us the rest of the story the next +morning, sitting propped up in bed with Aggie +on one side and me on the other. We’d brought +her some creamed sweetbreads, but she was +so excited she could not eat. The change in +her was horrible; she had passed through a +crisis, and she showed it.</p> + +<p>“You’d better let us take you home, Tish,” +Aggie pleaded, when Tish had finished. “This +is no place for a nervous woman.”</p> + +<p>Tish took a mouthful of the sweetbread and +made a face over it.</p> + +<p>“Heavens,” she said, “it’s easy seen salt’s +cheap. No, I am not going home. I shall stay +to see the end of this if it’s the end of me.”</p> + +<p>“Listen, Tish,” Aggie said miserably. +“Hasn’t my advice always been good? Didn’t +I beg you on my bended knees not to buy that +automobile? Didn’t both Lizzie and I protest +with tears against the motor-boat, and you’ll<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span> +carry <i>that</i> scar till your dying day. And +now—now it’s spirits, Tish. Don’t tell me +it wasn’t.”</p> + +<p>“Where’s that Lewis woman?” was all Tish +would say. “Speaking of spirits reminds me +I haven’t been rubbed with alcohol yet.”</p> + +<p>But I’d better tell Tish’s story in her own +words:</p> + +<p>“Once for all, before I begin, Aggie,” she +ordered—Tish is a masterful woman—“you +open the collar of your waist and put a pillow +behind you. I’m not going to be broken in on +in the middle of this by your fainting away. +Faint if you want, but get ready beforehand. +Lewis is not usually around when she’s +wanted.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t want to hear it if it’s as bad as +that,” Aggie protested, opening the neck of her +waist. “Lizzie, reach me that pillow.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know that <i>I</i> want to hear it myself, +Tish,” I said. “You’d better do as Aggie says +and come home. You’re a wreck this morning,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span> +and I’ve telephoned for Tommy Andrews.”</p> + +<p>Tommy is Tish’s doctor, the son of her +cousin, Eliza Peabody Andrews, a nice enough +boy, but frivolous. He is on the visiting staff +at the hospital, and makes rounds once a day, +I believe, with an attentive interne at his elbow +and the prettiest nurse he can find carrying the +order book.</p> + +<p>Tish set the sweetbread on the bedside table +with a bang and looked at me for an instant +over her glasses.</p> + +<p>“Don’t be a fool, Lizzie,” she said. “Do +you think Tommy Andrews can make me do +anything I don’t want to? Do you think the +entire connection could move me one foot if I +didn’t want to go?”</p> + +<p>“You can’t spend another night here,” I put +in, somewhat feebly.</p> + +<p>“Can’t I?” she said grimly. “Not only I +can, and will, but you and Aggie are going to +take turns here with me, night and night about,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span> +until this is cleared up. Mark my words, last +night was not the end.”</p> + +<p>She turned over on her side then, and proceeded +to have her back rubbed with alcohol. +And while Miss Lewis rubbed, she told us the +story.</p> + +<p>“Miss Lewis wanted me to go back to bed,” +she said, when she had reached that point, “but +I refused to go. (You needn’t take the skin +off, Miss Lewis.) I stood there in my gown, +and I watched them making up their minds to +go to the mortuary. That’s up a narrow flight +of stairs from this end of the hall, not far +from this very room. Nobody was anxious to +lead off, but Miss Blake seemed determined to +go back and prove she hadn’t been asleep, and +at last they moved off huddled in a group and +left me there. (You haven’t got a spite against +my right shoulder, have you?) Miss Lewis +followed them.”</p> + +<p>“I didn’t,” said Miss Lewis sourly. Tish +turned and looked up at her over her shoulder.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>“You looked as if you were going to, and +you know it,” she asserted. “And don’t interrupt +me. Miss Lewis followed, and seeing I +was going to be left alone, and feeling somewhat +creepy along the back, I followed her.”</p> + +<p>“Really—!” Miss Lewis began.</p> + +<p>“We went up the staircase, and if you and +Aggie go out and look, you’ll see how it leads. +There’s a hall up there, with a few private +rooms along one side, and a small ward across. +The mortuary is up a flight of about eight +steps, at the far end.</p> + +<p>“The hall was dark, and all the light came +from the mortuary. The door was open, and +it seemed bright and cheerful enough. I was +feeling pretty sure the black-haired girl had +dozed and had a dream, when I saw Miss +Smith, who was in the lead, stoop and pick +something up, and hold it out to the other +nurses.</p> + +<p>“‘That’s queer!’ she said, and her eyes were +fairly starting out of her head.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>“‘What is it?’ said I, limping forward.</p> + +<p>“The nurses were staring at the thing she +held.</p> + +<p>“‘It’s impossible,’ she muttered, ‘but—that’s +the bandage I tied Johnson’s hands together +with!’ Miss Lewis, will you let Miss Pilkington +sniff that alcohol for a moment?”</p> + +<p>“Fiddle!” Aggie protested feebly. “I’m not +at all upset.” Then she put her head back on +her pillow and fainted, as Tish had arranged, +with decency and order.</p> + +<p>Well, to go on, it seemed that Tish began to +lose her courage about that time, and when +one of the braver nurses came running back, +after a hasty look, and said that Miss Blake +was right, and there was no body in the mortuary, +there was almost a stampede. And then +it was, I believe, that heavy steps were heard +on the staircase, and it proved to be Jacobs, the +night watchman.</p> + +<p>Now, Tish was in her nightgown, and I +fancy, although she never confessed it, that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span> +she fell into some sort of a panic and darted +into one of the empty rooms. She herself says +Miss Lewis pushed her in, out of sight, and +closed the door, but Miss Lewis indignantly +denies this.</p> + +<p>“I stood inside the door, in the darkness,” +Tish said. “The night watchman was just +outside, and I could hear everything that was +said, plainly. He didn’t believe the body was +gone, and said so. I heard him go toward the +mortuary door, and the young women followed +him. I could feel a chair just beside me, and +my knee was jumping again, so I sat down.</p> + +<p>“That was when I saw I’d stepped into an +occupied room. There was a man in his night +clothes standing not ten feet away, in the middle +of the room, and I jumped up in a hurry.</p> + +<p>“‘Good heavens!’ I said, ‘I didn’t know +there was anybody here! You’ll have to excuse +me.’”</p> + +<p>Tish is an extraordinary woman. She was +apparently quite cool, but I happened to glance<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span> +at Miss Lewis, and she was pouring a small +stream of alcohol into the lap of Aggie’s black +broadcloth tailor-made. She was a pasty yellow-white.</p> + +<p>“The man didn’t say anything, although I +could see him moving,” Tish went on, “I +thought he was rude. I got the door open and +stepped into the hall, almost into the arms of +the Blake girl.</p> + +<p>“‘Well, were you right?’ I asked her.</p> + +<p>“She nodded.</p> + +<p>“‘Absolutely gone, without a trace!’ she said +with a catch in her voice.</p> + +<p>“‘Maybe he wasn’t dead,’ I suggested. +‘There’s a lot of catalepsy around just now.’</p> + +<p>“‘He was dead,’ she insisted. ‘Quite dead. +He’s been dying for a week.’</p> + +<p>“Well, what with the watchman and lights +moving around, I wasn’t so nervous as I had +been, and I was pretty much interested.</p> + +<p>“‘There’s one thing sure, my dear,’ I said, +‘he won’t go far in that state. I’ll just hobble<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span> +down and get my wrapper on and we’ll have a +search. I stepped into that room in my nightgown +and I daresay the man in there nearly +died himself—of the shock.’</p> + +<p>“‘The man in <i>there</i>!’ she said. ‘Why, all +these rooms are empty, Miss Carberry!’</p> + +<p>“We stood staring at each other.</p> + +<p>“‘There’s a man in there,’ I repeated. ‘He +stood up and stared at me when I went in.’</p> + +<p>“She got very white, but she walked right +over to the door and pushed it open. I saw +her throw up her hands, and the next minute +she had fallen flat on her face in the doorway, +and the night watchman was running toward +us with a lighted candle.”</p> + +<p>Tish leaned over and took a drink of water.</p> + +<p>“This bed’s full of crumbs, Miss Lewis,” +she grumbled. “It’s queer to me that the only +part of this hospital toast that is crisp is the +part I get in the bed!”</p> + +<p>“For heaven’s sake, Tish,” I said impatiently,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span> +“I suppose she didn’t faint because +there were crumbs in your bed!”</p> + +<p>“No,” Tish said, hitching herself over to the +other side of the mattress. “She fainted because +the body of the missing spiritualist was +hanging by its neck to the chandelier, fastened +up with a roller towel.”</p> + +<p>“Dead?” Aggie asked, opening her eyes for +the first time.</p> + +<p>“Still dead,” Tish replied grimly.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II<br> + +<small>THE LITTLE NURSE</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap2">AGGIE was really frightfully upset. Aggie +is rather emotional at any time, and although +she herself is a Methodist, her mother’s +only sister had been a believer in Spiritualism. +(They dug her up ten years after she died, to +make room for somebody else, and Aggie’s +mother said her hair had grown to be fully +ten feet long, and was curly, whereas in life it +had always been straight. We may sneer at +Spiritualism all we want, but things like that +are hard to account for.)</p> + +<p>Well, of course, Aggie declared that no human +hand had strung poor old Johnson to the +chandelier by a roller towel around his neck, +and although Tish ridiculed the idea, she had +to admit that the fourth dimension had never<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span> +been accounted for, and that table levitation +was an accepted fact, and even known to the +ancients.</p> + +<p>We sat there gloomily enough while Miss +Lewis fixed Tish’s hair and massaged her knee. +In the middle of the massage Tommy Andrews +came in, whistling.</p> + +<p>“Morning, Aunt Tish,” he said. “Morning, +Miss Aggie, morning, Miss Lizzie. How’s the +knee? Looks as handsome as ever.”</p> + +<p>“She’s been walking on it,” said Miss Lewis +sourly, and giving the knee an extra jab.</p> + +<p>Tommy gave Tish a ferocious frown over +his glasses.</p> + +<p>“Humph!” he said. “I told you to keep off +it! Miss Lewis, if she is obstreperous again, +just tie her down with a half-dozen roller +towels.”</p> + +<p>“Roller towels!” Tish ejaculated. “Why, it +was a roller towel that—that—”</p> + +<p>“So you said,” Aggie said somberly, and we +stared at each other, we hardly knew why.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>Tish told Tommy the whole story as he +strapped her knee with adhesive plaster. He +hadn’t heard it, and he was as much puzzled +as we were. It was Aggie who remarked +afterward how his face changed when Tish +mentioned Miss Blake.</p> + +<p>“Blake!” he said, glancing up quickly, “not +the little nurse with the dark hair?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” Tish said.</p> + +<p>“Damn!” said Tommy. “To have left her +alone, like that!” And to Miss Lewis: “Is +she ill to-day?”</p> + +<p>“She’s in bed, but she’s not sleeping,” said +Miss Lewis, with more feeling than I’d have +expected. “I was going to ask you if you +would see her, Doctor. Since the shake-up yesterday, +we have no medical internes, and the +surgical side is full up.”</p> + +<p>“She—she didn’t ask for me!” said Tommy, +with his brown eyes kindling. But Miss Lewis +shook her head.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>“She’s hardly spoken at all. She just lies +there with her eyes wide open and her face +white, watching the door. An hour ago one +of the nurses pushed it open quietly, for fear +she was asleep. Miss Blake lay and watched +it moving, and when Linda—Miss Smith went +in, she fainted again.”</p> + +<p>Tommy took a turn up and down the room. +“She’s had a profound shock,” he said. “I’m +not afraid of it, unless—” He stopped at the +window and stood looking out.</p> + +<p>“Unless what?” said Tish, but he didn’t answer. +Instead, he stalked over and rang the +bell.</p> + +<p>“I’ll have the hall nurse relieve you, Miss +Lewis,” he said. “We can’t leave my aunt +alone, and somebody must see to Miss Blake. +There’s some natural explanation for what +happened last night, and we must find it and +tell her.”</p> + +<p>Aggie began to tell about the aunt with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span> +hair, but before she had even buried her, the +door opened and Miss Blake herself came in.</p> + +<p>“Did you ring?” she asked. She was dead +white, lips and all, with deep circles around her +eyes, but her step was brisk and her voice +cheerful. As Tish said, if you could only have +heard her and not seen her, nobody would have +believed what had happened.</p> + +<p>Tommy gave her one look, and hauled a +chair forward.</p> + +<p>“Sit down,” he ordered. “You are not fit to +be on duty.”</p> + +<p>“Thank you, but—I am all right again,” she +said, hesitating.</p> + +<p>“Please sit down,” said Tommy, with a note +in his voice which I never heard him use to +Tish. And she took the chair, glancing around +at all three of us and then at him.</p> + +<p>“Miss Blake,” he said, “I have decided to +become your medical adviser!”</p> + +<p>“Thanks very much!” she said, with the +ghost of a smile.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span>“On one condition,” he went off, polishing +his glasses very hard with his handkerchief. +“You will have to obey orders.”</p> + +<p>“That’s the first lesson in the training +school,” she assented, the smile deepening. +“Always obey the doctor’s orders.”</p> + +<p>“Stuff!” said Tommy sternly. “If I order +you to bed this minute, you’ll not go! The +trouble is, Aunt Tish and Honorary Aunts +Lizzie and Aggie,” he said, addressing us each +in turn, “the trouble is that in a hospital medicine +is a drug on the market. It’s too accessible. +So are doctors. They’re always on +tap, like city water, plentiful and free and +therefore subject, like the said water, to the +scorn and contumely of the beneficiaries.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed, Doctor,” Miss Blake began, but he +interrupted her.</p> + +<p>“Now, Miss Blake,” he said, “at your earnest +solicitation I am about to undertake your +case, and the first condition is—”</p> + +<p>“Obedience?” She shot a glance at him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span> +from under her long, dark lashes, and Aggie +raised her eyebrows across the bed at me.</p> + +<p>“Exactly,” he said. “The three aunts, actual +and honorary, are witnesses. You have +promised obedience. The first condition is—you +are to leave the hospital immediately and +go to a place I know just out of town, a nice +place, with a dog and kittens—no, Aunt Tish, +<i>not</i> a cat and kittens, a—”</p> + +<p>But Miss Blake stood up suddenly, she was +paler than before.</p> + +<p>“Not <i>that</i>!” she said almost wildly.</p> + +<p>Tommy came over and put his hand on her +shoulder. “We can dispose of the animals,” +he said gently. “Can’t you see yourself, little +girl, that you are about at the end of your +string? Quiet nights, sleep, fresh milk—you +won’t know yourself in a week.”</p> + +<p>“I can not go,” she said, and stood looking +straight ahead with such misery in her face +that Aggie’s eyes filled up.</p> + +<p>“You can take your vacation,” Tommy persisted,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span> +gently. “I’ll take you out myself in my +machine.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t want to go, Doctor; I—I can’t be +spared just now. <i>Don’t</i> send me away! +Don’t!”</p> + +<p>She began to cry, wildly, hysterically, with +her shoulders quivering and her whole body +tense. I was considerably upset, and Tommy +looked dumbfounded. After all, it was Miss +Lewis who knew what to do. She is a large +woman, and she simply took the little nurse +into her arms and petted her into quiet. +Finally, she coaxed her into the hall, and as +the door closed behind them, the four of us +sat silent.</p> + +<p>Aggie was sniveling, and wiping her eyes, +and Tish turned on her in a rage.</p> + +<p>“What in the name of sense are you bleating +about?” she demanded.</p> + +<p>“The child’s in trouble,” said Aggie. “I—I +never <i>could</i> see anybody cry, and you know it, +Tish.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>“I know something else, too,” said Tish +grimly, sliding her feet out of bed carefully +and reaching for her cane. “That young +woman knows more than she’s telling, Tommy +Andrews. We’re not through with this yet.”</p> + +<p>Now Tommy will always have his joke with +Tish, and they differ on a good many subjects, +politics, for one thing, and religion, Tommy +not believing very much in a future existence, +and maintaining that no medical man ought +to—it made them more saving of life in this. +But he has a great respect for Tish’s opinion.</p> + +<p>“You may be right,” he said. “There must +be some reason—, but whatever it is—it’s not +to her discredit. I’ll swear to that.”</p> + +<p>“Listen to the boy!” Tish sneered, picking +up the traveling clock and putting it back on +the bedside table again. “That’s what a pretty +face will do. Suppose it had been Lewis, who +stood there, crying into a starched apron and +saying she couldn’t leave—don’t, don’t ask +her?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span>“Why should she leave when she has <i>you</i>, +dear Aunt Letitia?” asked Tommy, and Tish +reached for the clock again.</p> + +<p>Well, we talked the thing over, but we +couldn’t come to any conclusion. There didn’t +seem to be any matter of doubt that Johnson, +having died peaceably and in order, had been +carried to the mortuary and laid on the table, +there to await the final preparations for burial. +And the fact was incontestable that shortly +after, the said Johnson, as Tommy put it, was +hanging by the neck to the chandelier in a room +fifty feet away and down eight steps. We all +agreed up to that point. As Tommy said, the +question then became simply, did he do it himself +or was it done for him?</p> + +<p>Aggie was confident that he had done it himself.</p> + +<p>“Why not?” she demanded. “Isn’t it the +constant endeavor of the people who have—passed +over, to come back and prove their continued +existence on a spirit plane? Shall I ever<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span> +forget that the third night after Mr. Wiggins +died—” Aggie was once engaged to a roofer, +who ‘passed over’ by falling off a roof—“can +I ever forget that a light like a flame of a +candle rose in one corner of the bedroom, +crossed the ceiling and disappeared in my sewing +basket, where I kept Mr. Wiggins’ photograph? +Why should not Mr. Johnson, before +deserting the earth plane for the spirit world, +have come back and <i>proved</i> his continued existence? +Why?”</p> + +<p>Tommy lighted a cigarette and puffed at it. +“Well,” he said, “I should call it indecent of +him if he did, and bad taste, too. Maybe he +didn’t think much of his body, but it had lasted +pretty well and carried him around a good +many years. And to have his spirit cast off +its outer garment and hang it to a chandelier—it +was heartless! Heartless!”</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER III<br> + +<small>ANOTHER ROLLER TOWEL</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">NOW Tish is a peculiar woman. Once +she starts a thing, whether it is house-cleaning +or learning to roller skate, she keeps +right on at it. She learned to skate backwards, +you may remember, although she nearly died +learning, and lay once twenty minutes insensible +on the back of her head. And as Tish +acknowledged later, she had made up her mind +to find out <i>who</i> or <i>what</i> had hung Johnson by +the neck to the chandelier.</p> + +<p>So after Tommy had gone, she got into her +roller chair and asked me to ring for Miss +Lewis.</p> + +<p>“What time do you go to your lunch?” she +asked her sharply, when she came.</p> + +<p>“I don’t eat lunch,” said Miss Lewis.</p> + +<p>“Why?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>“It’s making me stout. Besides, there’s +never anything fit to eat.”</p> + +<p>“Humph!” said Tish, “I guess the meals +provided in this training school are above the +average. I myself engaged the housekeeper. +You’d better have lunch to-day.”</p> + +<p>“But—”</p> + +<p>“At twelve o’clock,” said Tish firmly. “Any +nurse who takes care of me eats three meals a +day.”</p> + +<p>Miss Lewis stood in the doorway, with her +cap over one ear, and stared at Tish, and Tish +glared back.</p> + +<p>“I prefer not,” she said defiantly, giving her +apron belt a twitch.</p> + +<p>“At twelve o’clock!” Tish repeated, and then +Miss Lewis gave it up.</p> + +<p>“Very well,” she said unpleasantly. “Does +it make any difference <i>what</i> I eat?”</p> + +<p>“None whatever. And now send me the +Smith woman,” said Tish calmly. “And shut +the door. There’s a draught.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span>Miss Lewis slammed out. And whatever +reason Tish had for wanting to get rid of her +at noon, she deigned no explanation. In ten +minutes Miss Smith knocked at the door and +came in. She looked tired, but cheerful.</p> + +<p>“Do you want me, Miss Carberry?” she +asked.</p> + +<p>“If you are not busy,” said Tish in her pleasantest +manner. “Sit down, Miss Smith. Lizzie, +Aggie, this is the Miss Smith I told you +about. You will pardon the curiosity of three +old women, won’t you, Miss Smith, and answer +a question or two about last night?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly.” She looked surprised, and I +fancied amused.</p> + +<p>“In the first place,” Tish asked, getting a +pencil and sheet of letter paper from the table, +“has any investigation been begun?”</p> + +<p>“I think not,” said Miss Smith. “There are +always queer goings-on in a hospital, and besides, +there has been a stir-up in the management, +and things are at sixes and sevens. Two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span> +internes left last night, and the superintendent +is pretty busy this morning.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed,” said Tish, and wrote something +down. “Where is the—er—body now?”</p> + +<p>“It went to the anatomical board this morning. +He had no relatives and no money. If +he isn’t claimed in a certain time, he’ll be sent +to the college dissecting room.”</p> + +<p>Aggie shuddered.</p> + +<p>“And now, Miss Smith,” said Tish, leaning +back in her roller chair, “would you mind telling +me <i>exactly</i> what happened last night?”</p> + +<p>“Not at all!” said Miss Smith, smiling. “We +have a rule here that when a patient dies in +one of the wards at night, the day nurses for +that ward go with the body to the mortuary +and prepare it for burial. The night nurse, +having charge of several wards, can not easily +leave. I am in charge of K ward, and Miss +Blake is my assistant.”</p> + +<p>“She’s not in K ward to-day,” said Tish.</p> + +<p>“No, she is relieving the hall nurse here for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span> +her off duty. Miss Blake is not well, and this +is lighter.”</p> + +<p>“One moment,” said Tish, “what is the K +ward’s night nurse’s name?”</p> + +<p>“Miss Durand.”</p> + +<p>“What time did Mr. Johnson die?”</p> + +<p>“Shortly after midnight. It was marked +twelve-ten on the record.”</p> + +<p>“And you were called at once?”</p> + +<p>“I—think not,” Miss Smith said slowly. “It +was nearly one o’clock.”</p> + +<p>“Is that customary?” Tish demanded.</p> + +<p>“Not usually,” said Miss Smith, “but it is +not extraordinary, either. The night nurse +may have been giving a fever bath, or something +else she could not leave.”</p> + +<p>“You are very indulgent to the curiosity of +three old women,” Tish said with her pleasantest +smile. “Will you be amiable a little longer, +and tell us what happened in the mortuary?”</p> + +<p>“Well, really, <i>nothing</i> happened to me. Doctor +Grimm had seen Johnson and pronounced<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span> +him dead; he had been called from the operating +room to do it, although Johnson was a +medical case. The night orderlies, Briggs and +Marshall, took the body to the mortuary and +waited with it until Miss Blake and I arrived.”</p> + +<p>“Briggs and Marshall,” Tish put down.</p> + +<p>“The lights were on, and Briggs was smoking. +We had a few words over that, because +the orderlies are not allowed to smoke on duty, +and tobacco makes my head ache.”</p> + +<p>Tish leaned forward in her chair and looked +at Miss Smith.</p> + +<p>“Do you often have words with the orderlies, +Miss Smith?”</p> + +<p>Miss Smith smiled cheerfully.</p> + +<p>“Quite often,” she said. “They’re such a +stupid lot.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t think it possible that these men +may have retaliated by playing a practical joke +on you?”</p> + +<p>Miss Smith considered.</p> + +<p>“No,” she said, “I don’t. When I found<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span> +the linen closet up there locked and went down-stairs +for sheets, they were both at work in +the wards. Anyhow, they might be willing to +play a ghastly trick on <i>me</i>, but I don’t think +they would try to frighten Miss Blake. She’s +very well liked.”</p> + +<p>“And after you went for the sheets?”</p> + +<p>“That’s all I know, Miss Carberry. The +rest you heard Miss Blake tell.”</p> + +<p>“Are you sure,” Aggie broke in suddenly, +leaning forward, “are you sure, Miss Smith, +that he didn’t do it himself?”</p> + +<p>Miss Smith stared. “Why, he was dead, +Miss Pilkington,” she said. “He’d been sick +for months, and if he was alive as I am this +minute, he couldn’t hang himself by the neck, +the way he was hanging, with nothing to stand +on near, or any chair kicked away. The center +of the room was clear when we found him, and +the nearest thing was the foot of the bed, a +good eight feet away.”</p> + +<p>“He was a—Spiritualist, I think?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>“Yes—yes, indeed,” Miss Smith laughed. +“It would have made you creepy to hear him, +lying there carrying on whole conversations +with nobody near, and raps on his bed until +the nurses balked at changing the sheets!”</p> + +<p>Aggie shivered. “Gracious!” she said, “I +hope they don’t send him back here for the dissecting +room. I shan’t be easy until he is +safely buried.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, you needn’t worry about that,” Miss +Smith said cheerfully, getting up to go. “We +wouldn’t be likely to get <i>all</i> of him anyhow.”</p> + +<p>Well, as Tish said, she hadn’t learned much +she hadn’t known before, except that Johnson +had been left in the ward fifty minutes after +he died, instead of ten. But although the people +in the hospital seemed disposed to let the +affair alone after sending the body away, and +to get back to its business, which, as Miss +Smith said, is full of curious things anyhow, +Tish, as I say, having taken hold, was not going +to let go.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>Promptly at noon by the traveling clock, +Miss Lewis having taken herself off, Tish +lifted herself out of her wheel chair and +reached for her cane.</p> + +<p>“You can stay here, Aggie,” she said, “and +if Lewis comes back, I’m seeing Lizzie to the +elevator.”</p> + +<p>“She won’t believe a word of it,” Aggie +objected.</p> + +<p>“Then think up something she will believe. +Lizzie is coming with me.”</p> + +<p>I wasn’t surprised when Tish turned to the +left, in the corridor, and hobbled to the foot +of a flight of stairs. She stopped there and +turned.</p> + +<p>“We’re going up to see that room in daylight, +Lizzie,” she said, “but I want you to +read this first. You’re a practical woman, and +if any of your family ever grew a head of +hair after they died, at least you don’t brag +about it.”</p> + +<p>She took a page of the morning paper,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span> +folded small, from the sleeve of her dressing-gown, +and pointed to a paragraph.</p> + +<p>“Amos Johnson, once a well-known local +medium, died last night at the Dunkirk hospital, +after a long illness. Johnson was sixty-seven +years of age, and had lived in retirement +and poverty since the murder of his wife some +years ago, a crime for which he was tried and +exonerated. The woman’s body was found in +the parlor of the Johnson home, hanging to a +chandelier by a roller towel knotted about the +neck.”</p> + +<p>Tish was watching me.</p> + +<p>“Well, what do you make of that, Lizzie?” +she asked.</p> + +<p>“Coincidence,” I said, with affected calmness. +“Many a man’s hung his wife to something +when he got tired of her, and when you +come to think of it, a roller towel is usually +handy.”</p> + +<p>We didn’t look at each other.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER IV<br> + +<small>THE FOOTPRINT ON THE WALL</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">WELL, Tish and I examined the room, +and I must say at first sight it was +disappointing. It was an ordinary hospital +room, with two windows, and a bureau between +them, a washstand, a single brass bed, +set high and not made up, the pillows being +piled in the center of the mattress and all covered +with a sheet, and two chairs, a straight +one and a rocker. Except that the heavy chandelier +was bent somewhat from the perpendicular, +there was no sign of what had happened +there.</p> + +<p>Tish sat down in the rocker and looked +thoughtfully about the room.</p> + +<p>“Under ordinary circumstances,” she said, +“if you hang a broadcloth skirt on a chandelier +to brush it, you’ll have the whole business and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span> +half the ceiling about your head in a minute. +And yet, look at that, hardly bent!”</p> + +<p>The room had evidently not been disturbed +since Johnson had been found there. The +straight chair had been drawn beneath the +chandelier, and Tish pointed out the scratches +made by the feet of whoever had cut down the +body. Over the back of the chair still hung +the roller towel, twisted into a grisly rope.</p> + +<p>Tish picked it up and examined it.</p> + +<p>“Pretty extravagant of material, aren’t +they?” she said. “No Ladies’ Aid that I ever +saw would put more than two yards of twelve-cent +stuff in a roller towel. Look at the weight +of that, and the length!”</p> + +<p>“There’s something on it,” I said, and we +looked together. What we found were only +three letters, stamped in blue ink.</p> + +<p>“S. P. T.?” said Tish. “What in creation is +S. P. T.?”</p> + +<p>She sat down with the towel in her hand, +and we puzzled over it together.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>“It’s the initials of the sewing circle that sent +it in,” I asserted. “That S. stands for Society.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve got it,” said Tish. “Society for the +Prevention of Tetanus.”</p> + +<p>“That doesn’t help much,” I said. “We +could find out by asking; I daresay the nurses +know.”</p> + +<p>But Tish wouldn’t hear of it. She said the +towel was the only clue we had, and she wasn’t +going to give it to a hospital full of people who +didn’t seem to care whether their corpses +walked around at night or not.</p> + +<p>She rolled up the towel under her arm, and +in the doorway she turned to take a final survey +of the room.</p> + +<p>“Well,” she said, “we haven’t examined the +dust with the microscope, but I think it’s been +worth while. It would be curious, Lizzie, if +his murdered wife’s initials were S. P. T.”</p> + +<p>“They couldn’t be,” I said. “Her last name +was Johnson, wasn’t it?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>But Tish wasn’t looking at me. She was +staring intently at the wall over the head of +the bed, and I followed her eyes.</p> + +<p>The wall was gray, a dull gray below, and +a frieze of paler gray above. The dividing +line between the two colors was not a picture +molding—the room had no pictures—but a +narrow iron pipe, perhaps an inch in thickness, +and painted the color of the frieze. Why a +pipe, I never asked, but I fancy its roundness, +its lack of angles and lines, had been thought, +like the gray walls, to be restful to the eyes.</p> + +<p>Directly over the head of the bed, the pipe-molding +was loosened from the wall, as if by a +powerful wrench, and sagged at least four +inches.</p> + +<p>“Look at that!” said Tish, pointing her cane. +“Lizzie, I want you to help me up on the bureau.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll do nothing of the sort, Tish,” I snapped. +“You ought to be ashamed with that leg.”</p> + +<p>But she had pulled out the lowest drawer<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span> +and was standing on it by that time, and there +wasn’t anything for it but to help her up. She +caught hold of the pipe-molding between the +windows, and jerked at it.</p> + +<p>“I thought so,” she said. “It doesn’t give a +hair’s breadth! Lizzie, no picture ever pulled +that molding down like that.”</p> + +<p>Well, it was curious, when you think about +it. It’s easy enough to read Mr. Conan +Doyle’s stories, knowing that no matter how +puzzling the different clues seem to be, Mr. +Doyle knows exactly what made them, and at +the right time he’ll let you into his secret, and +you’ll wonder why you never thought of the +right explanation at the time. But it is different +to have to work them out yourself, and to +save my life I couldn’t see anything to that +bended pipe but a bended pipe.</p> + +<p>Tish’s next move was to crawl upon the +bed, and that time I helped her willingly. She +stood for quite a while, gazing at the pipe, with +her nostrils twitching, steadying herself with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span> +one hand against the wall to put on her glasses +with the other.</p> + +<p>“Humph!” she said. “I can’t quite make it +out. There are prints against the wall just +underneath, but it doesn’t seem to be a hand.”</p> + +<p>I got up beside her and we both looked. It +was a hand, and it wasn’t. It seemed like a +long hand with short fingers. Tish leaned +down and rubbed her hand on the headboard +of the bed, which was dusty, as she expected, +and then pressed its imprint against the wall +beside the other. They were alike, and they +were different, and suddenly it came to me, and +it made me dizzy.</p> + +<p>“I know what it is now, Tish,” I said as +calmly as I could. “That’s the mark of a +foot!”</p> + +<p>Tish nodded. She’d seen it almost as soon +as I had.</p> + +<p>“A foot,” she repeated gravely, and we +climbed off the bed in a hurry and went out +into the hall.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span>Tish had left her cane in her excitement, +and she refused to go back for it alone. I went +with her, finally, and we stood at the bottom +of the bed and looked at the foot, with its toes +pointed up toward the ceiling, and Tish’s hand +beside it.</p> + +<p>“You know, Lizzie,” she said, clutching my +arm, “if there <i>were</i> a fourth dimension, we +could walk up walls easily.”</p> + +<p>And we went down to her room again.</p> + +<p>It was careless of us to forget Tish’s hand-print +on the wall, for when things got worse, +and they discovered the two marks, somebody +suggested that no two hands make exactly the +same print, and they had an expert take an impression +of it. As Tish said, she expected to +be discovered every time she had her pulse +counted, and the strain was awful. They +might have accused <i>her</i>, you know, of carrying +off old Johnson and stringing him up, for they +reached a state when they suspected everybody.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER V<br> + +<small>WHEN AGGIE SCREAMED</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">NOW Aggie has hay fever, and the slightest +excitement, any time in the year, +starts her off. So when we heard her sneezing +as we went down the stairs, we were not surprised +to find Tommy Andrews in front of her +with an order book on his knee, and Aggie trying +to hold a glass thermometer in her mouth.</p> + +<p>“I can’t,” she was protesting around the +thermometer. “Justh try sneething yourthelf +with a—a—choo.”</p> + +<p>Her teeth came down on it just then with a +snap and her face grew agonized.</p> + +<p>“There!” she said. “What did I tell you?” +And pulled the thermometer out minus an end.</p> + +<p>“Where’s the rest?” Tommy demanded.</p> + +<p>“I—I swallowed it!”</p> + +<p>Tommy jumped up and looked frightened.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>“Great heavens, it’s glass!” he said. “What +in thunder—why, there it is in your lap!”</p> + +<p>“I swallowed the inside,” Aggie said stiffly. +“I should think that’s bad enough. It’s poison, +isn’t it?”</p> + +<p>Tommy laughed. “It won’t hurt you,” he +said. “It’s only quicksilver.”</p> + +<p>But Aggie was only partly reassured. “I +daresay I’ll be coated inside like the back of a +mirror,” she snapped. “Between being frightened +to death until I’m in a fever, and then +swallowing the contents of a thermometer, and +having it expand with the heat of my body, and +maybe blow up, I feel as though I’m on the +border of the spirit land myself.”</p> + +<p>In spite of Tommy’s reassurances, she refused +to be comforted, and sat the rest of the +afternoon waiting for something to happen. +She ate no luncheon, and she absolutely refused +to go home. Aggie is like most soft-mannered +people, trying to make her do something she +doesn’t want is like pounding a pillow. It<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span> +seems to give way, and the next minute it’s +back where it was at first, and you can pound +till your hands ache. So when she said she +was going to stay at the hospital until she felt +sure the mercury wasn’t going to blow up or +poison her, we had to yield.</p> + +<p>We got the room next to Tish’s and put her +to bed, and she lay there alternately sneezing +and sleeping the rest of the day. I went out +during the afternoon and brought a nightgown +for her and one for myself, and the +mentholated cotton wool for her nose. The +walk did me good, and by the time I got back +I was ready to sneer at footprints that go up a +wall and Johnson hanging to a chandelier.</p> + +<p>As I left the elevator at Tish’s door, I met +Miss Linda Smith and stopped her. “Is there +anything new?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“Nothing, except that Miss Blake has been +sent back to bed,” she said. “She’s a nervous +little thing anyhow, and she has not been here +very long. When she has had almost three<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span> +years, as I have, she’ll learn to let each day take +care of itself—not to worry about yesterday +or expect anything of to-morrow.”</p> + +<p>“And how about to-day?” I asked, smiling +at the contradiction of her pessimistic speech +and her cheerful face.</p> + +<p>“And to work like the deuce to-day,” she +said, and went smiling down the hall.</p> + +<p>I had brought in some pink roses, and when +I’d put Aggie’s nightgown on her and the wool +in her nose, I had Miss Lewis take me to Miss +Blake’s room.</p> + +<p>It was close at hand. If you know the Dunkirk +Hospital, you know that the nurses’ dormitory +is directly beside the main building, and +connected with it by doors on every floor. One +of these doors was at the end of Tish’s corridor, +and Miss Blake’s room was the first on the +other side.</p> + +<p>Miss Lewis knocked and tried the door, but +it was bolted.</p> + +<p>“Who’s there?” asked a startled voice, quite<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span> +close, as if its owner had been standing just +inside.</p> + +<p>“Miss Lewis, dear.”</p> + +<p>“Just a moment.”</p> + +<p>She opened the door almost immediately +and admitted us. She had on only her nightgown +and slippers, and her hair was down in +a thick braid. I have reached the time of life +when I brush most of my hair by holding one +end of it in my teeth, so I always notice hair.</p> + +<p>“You’re up,” said Miss Lewis accusingly.</p> + +<p>“Only to be sure the door was fastened,” +she protested, and got into her single bed again +obediently.</p> + +<p>“Now don’t be silly!” Miss Lewis said. +“Why should you lock that door in the middle +of the afternoon? I thought you were the girl +who rescued the kitten from the ridge pole of +the roof!”</p> + +<p>“That was different,” said Miss Blake, and +shut her eyes.</p> + +<p>“I don’t want to disturb you,” I said. “Only—my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span> +friend and I felt sorry that she caused +you such a shock last night. And I want you +to have these flowers.”</p> + +<p>She seemed much pleased and Miss Lewis +put them on the table by the bed, beside another +bouquet already there, a huge bunch of violets +and lilies of the valley. Violets and lilies of the +valley are Tommy’s favorite combination!</p> + +<p>“Doctor Andrews been here this afternoon?” +Miss Lewis asked, looking up from arranging +the roses.</p> + +<p>“Once—twice,” said the little nurse, with +heightened color.</p> + +<p>“I see,” said Miss Lewis. “And the husband +of thirty-six telephoning all over the city +for him.”</p> + +<p>“The husband of thirty-six!” I repeated, +astounded. They both laughed, and Miss +Blake looked for a moment almost gay.</p> + +<p>“He is not a Mormon,” she said. “It’s a +case of ‘container for the thing contained.’ +Thirty-six is a room.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>I think the laugh did the little nurse good, +but when we left, a few minutes later, Miss +Lewis halted me a few steps from the door. +We heard her cross the room quickly and the +bolt of the door slip into place.</p> + +<p>“Queer, isn’t it?” asked Miss Lewis. And +I thought it was.</p> + +<p>Tommy Andrews came back late that night +to see Aggie, but she had stopped sneezing and +dropped into a doze. He beckoned me out into +the hall.</p> + +<p>“How is she?” he asked. “Having been +quick-silvered inside, I daresay she’s been reflecting! +Never mind, Miss Lizzie—I couldn’t +help that.”</p> + +<p>“Tish wants to see you, Tommy,” I said. +“She—we found something this afternoon and +I don’t mind saying we are puzzled.”</p> + +<p>“More mystery?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. +“Don’t tell me somebody else has shed +his fleshy garment and hung it up—”</p> + +<p>“Please <i>don’t</i>,” I said, looking over my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span> +shoulder nervously. The hall was almost +dark.</p> + +<p>“Look here,” Tommy suggested in a whisper, +“I’ll make a bargain with you. I’ll go in +and listen to Aunt Tish without levity—I give +you my word, no frivolity—if you’ll come over +and play propriety while I see Miss Blake.”</p> + +<p>Seeing me eye him, he went on guiltily: +“She’s—sick, you know, and I’ve been there +two or three times to-day already. If it gets +out among the nurses—<i>please</i>, dear, good Aunt +Lizzie!”</p> + +<p>Now, I’m not his aunt. For that matter, +I’m a good ten years younger than Tish, but +he’s a handsome young rascal, and when a +woman gets too old to be influenced by good +looks, it’s because she’s gone blind with age, +so I agreed on one condition.</p> + +<p>“Yes, if you’ll see Tish first,” I said, and he +agreed.</p> + +<p>That was how we happened to be in Tish’s +room when Aggie screamed. Tish had just<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span> +got to the footprint-on-the-wall part of her +story, and even Tommy was looking rather +queer, when Aggie sneezed. Then almost immediately +she shrieked and the three of us +were on our feet and starting for the door before +she stopped. As we reached the hall, a +nurse was running toward us, and the stillness +in Aggie’s room was horrible.</p> + +<p>It was dark. Which was strange, for I’d +left the night light on at Aggie’s request. +Tommy pushed into the room first.</p> + +<p>“Where’s the light switch?” he demanded. +“Are you there, Miss Aggie?”</p> + +<p>There was no answer, but in the darkness +every one heard a peculiar rustling sound, such +as might be made by rubbing a hand over a +piece of stiff silk. It was the nurse who found +the switch almost instantly, and I think we expected +nothing less than Aggie hanging by her +neck to the chandelier. But she was lying +quietly in bed, in a dead faint.</p> + +<p>When she came to, she muttered something<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span> +about a dead foot and fainted again. By +eleven o’clock she seemed pretty much herself +once more and even smiled sheepishly when +Tommy suggested that it had been the fault of +the thermometer. She thought herself that +she had dreamed it, and Tish and I let her +think so. But both of us had seen the same +thing.</p> + +<p>Just over the head of Aggie’s bed the pipe-molding +was wrenched loose and pulled down +out of line!</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER VI<br> + +<small>CANDLE AND SKYLIGHT</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">TISH sent Miss Lewis in to sit with Aggie, +and the three of us, including +Tommy, met in Tish’s room. She had brought +her alcohol teakettle with her, and she insisted +on making a cup of tea all around before we +talked things over.</p> + +<p>“Besides,” she remarked, measuring out the +tea, “it’s about a quarter of twelve now, and +we may need a little tea-courage by midnight.”</p> + +<p>“If that’s the way you feel,” Tommy said, +from the bed, holding his empty cup ready for +the tea. “I can get something from the medicine +cupboard outside that has tea knocked out +in the first round.”</p> + +<p>“Not whiskey, Tommy!” Tish said with the +teapot in the air.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>“Certainly <i>not</i>! <i>Spiritus frumenti</i>,” Tommy +said with dignity, and Tish was reassured. But +I knew what he meant, my great uncle having +conducted a country pharmacy and done a large +business among the farmers in that very +remedy.</p> + +<p>When we’d had our tea and some salted +wafers, Tish drew up a chair and faced +Tommy and myself.</p> + +<p>“Now,” she said, “what did Aggie see?”</p> + +<p>“Personally,” Tommy remarked, balancing +his teaspoon across the bridge of his nose, and +holding his head far back to do it, “personally, +I’m glad she only saw—or felt—a foot. It +proves her really remarkable quality of mind. +The ordinary woman, in a stew like that, would +have seen an entire corpse, not to mention +smelling sulphur.”</p> + +<p>Tish took the spoon off his nose and gave +him a smart slap on the ear.</p> + +<p>“Thomas!” she said, “you will either be serious +or go home. Do you remember what we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span> +told you about the room up-stairs, a <i>foot</i>-mark +on the wall not three feet from the ceiling?”</p> + +<p>Tommy nodded, with both hands covering +his ears.</p> + +<p>“Do you realize,” Tish went on, “that <i>that</i> +room is directly over the one Aggie is occupying?”</p> + +<p>“Hadn’t thought of it,” said Tommy. “Is +it?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. Tommy Andrews, Aggie may or may +not have dreamed of that ice-cold foot, but +one thing she did <i>not</i> dream; Lizzie and I both +saw it. The pipe-molding over Aggie’s bed is +pulled loose from the wall and bent down.”</p> + +<p>Tommy stared at us both. Then he whistled.</p> + +<p>“No!” he said, and fell into a deep study, +with his hands in his heavy thatch of hair. +After a minute he got off the bed and sauntered +toward the door.</p> + +<p>“I’ll just wander in and have a look at it,” he +said, and disappeared.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span>It was Tish’s suggestion that we put the light +out and sit in the dark. Probably Tommy’s +nearness gave us courage. As Tish said, in +five minutes it would be midnight, and almost +anything might happen under the circumstances.</p> + +<p>“And as honest investigators,” she said, “we +owe it to the world and to science to put ourselves +<i>en rapport</i>. These things <i>never</i> happen +in the light.”</p> + +<p>We could hear Tommy speaking in a low +tone to Miss Lewis, but soon that stopped, although +he did not come back. Even with the +door open, a dimly-outlined rectangle, I wasn’t +any too comfortable. Tish sat without moving. +Once she leaned over and touched my +elbow.</p> + +<p>“I’ve got a tingle in both legs to the knee,” +she whispered. “Do you feel anything?”</p> + +<p>“Nothing but the slat across the back of this +chair,” I replied, and we sat silent again. I +must have dozed almost immediately, for when<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span> +I roused, the traveling clock was striking midnight, +and Tish was shaking my arm.</p> + +<p>“What’s that light?” she quavered.</p> + +<p>I looked toward the hall, and sure enough +the outline of the door was a pale and quavering +yellow.</p> + +<p>“The door frame is moving!” gasped Tish.</p> + +<p>“Fiddle!” I snapped, wide awake. “Somebody’s +out there with a moving light. Where’s +Tommy?”</p> + +<p>“He hasn’t come back. Lizzie, go and look +out. I can’t find my cane.”</p> + +<p>“Go yourself!” I said sourly.</p> + +<p>Well, we went together, finally, tiptoeing to +the door and peering out. The light was gone; +only a faint gleam remained, and that came +down the staircase to the upper floor.</p> + +<p>“Damnation!” said Tommy’s voice, just at +our elbow. And with that he darted along the +hall and up the stairs, after the light.</p> + +<p>Now Tish is essentially a woman of action. +She’s only timid when she can’t do anything.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span> +And now she hobbled across to the foot of the +stairs, with me at her heels.</p> + +<p>“That was no earthly light, Lizzie!” she said +in a subdued tone. “Do you remember what +Aggie said, about the light when Mr. Wiggins +died?”</p> + +<p>I’d been thinking about it myself that very +moment.</p> + +<p>“I’d feel better with some sort of weapon, +Tish,” I protested, as we started up, but Tish +only looked at me in the darkness and shook +her head. I knew perfectly well what she +meant: that no earthly weapon would be of any +avail. Considering what we thought, I think +that we got up the staircase at all is very creditable.</p> + +<p>The light was there, coming from one of the +empty rooms, and streaming out into the dark +hall. There was somebody moving in the +room. We heard a window closing, and then +the footsteps coming toward the door. The +next moment the light itself came into the hall.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span> +It was a candle, and Miss Blake was carrying +it!</p> + +<p>I made out Tommy’s figure flattened in a +doorway, and then the light disappeared again +as Miss Blake went into the next room, the +one where Johnson had been found. She was +there a long time, and once we heard her exclaim +something and the light from the doorway +wavered, as if the candle had almost gone +out.</p> + +<p>She went into each private room, then into +the ward, and finally there remained only the +mortuary. Tish clutched my arm. Would +this bit of a girl, in her long white wrapper, her +childish braid, her small bare feet thrust into +bedroom slippers, would she dare that grisly +place?</p> + +<p>She did not keep us in doubt long. She went +directly to the foot of the mortuary steps and +stood, her candle held high, looking up. Then +she began to mount them, slowly, as if every +atom of her will were required to urge her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span> +frightened muscles. Tommy stirred uneasily +in his doorway.</p> + +<p>The large double doors to the mortuary +stood partly open. She pushed them back +quietly and hesitated, candle still high. Then +she went in, and by the paling light we knew +she had gone to the far end of the room. +Tommy came out from the doorway and tiptoed +down the hall. We could see his outline +against the gleam.</p> + +<p>The stillness was terrible. We could hear +her moving around that awful place, could +hear, even at that distance, the soft swish of +her negligée on the floor. And then, without +any warning, she spoke. It was uncanny beyond +description, although we heard nothing +she said.</p> + +<p>“My God!” said Tish, forgetting herself.</p> + +<p>There was a sound immediately after. Tish +said it was a thud, as if a chair had been upset, +but I insisted that it sounded more like a window +thrown up with terrific force. The light<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span> +went out immediately, and we heard footsteps +running away from us.</p> + +<p>“Tommy!” Tish called. But nobody answered. +We were left there alone in the darkness, +shivering with fright.</p> + +<p>I am very shaky about what happened next. +I remember Tish fumbling for her cane, and +saying she was going to follow Tommy, and +my holding her back and telling her not to be a +fool—that the boy was safe enough. And I +remember seeing a light behind us and the old +night watchman coming up the staircase with +his electric flash, and trying to tell him something +was wrong in the mortuary.</p> + +<p>And then, as my voice gave way, we heard +a shout overhead, and immediately the crash +of broken glass and a thud into the hall just +ahead of us. The watchman pushed us aside +and ran.</p> + +<p>Tommy was lying unconscious on the floor +with the pieces of a broken skylight all around +him.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_068.jpg" alt="Tommy falling through the skylight"></div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span> +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER VII<br> + +<small>INSINUATIONS AND RECRIMINATIONS</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">MISS LEWIS had heard the crash and +came running, with the hall nurse +from the floor below. Tish was sitting on the +floor among the pieces of glass, with Tommy’s +head on her knee, crying over him, when they +got there. He opened his eyes just then, and +lay staring up at the hole in the skylight above, +as if he was puzzled. Then he turned his +head and saw who was holding him, and made +an effort to sit up.</p> + +<p>“You—needn’t look so tragic, Aunt Tish,” +he said. “I’m—I’m all right,” and fell back +on her lap again.</p> + +<p>Miss Lewis got down and began to feel him +for broken bones.</p> + +<p>“Skull’s whole, thank goodness!” she muttered. +“Can you move your legs, Doctor?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span>Tommy lifted them in turn, making grimaces +of pain. Then he lifted his right arm. +It fell as if he couldn’t support its weight.</p> + +<p>“I’ve bruised my shoulder,” he said, and lay +back with his eyes closed.</p> + +<p>“Get his coat off,” ordered Miss Lewis, and +I knelt to help her. But Tommy resisted.</p> + +<p>“I’m all right,” he said crossly. “I’ll look +after it later myself.”</p> + +<p>“Tommy!” said Tish. “Let them take your +coat off.”</p> + +<p>“I won’t have it off,” he insisted, and when +she persisted he was almost vicious.</p> + +<p>Miss Lewis sat back on her heels and shook +her head at me.</p> + +<p>“He’s a little dazed,” she said. “How in the +world did it happen?”</p> + +<p>“I was walking on the roof,” said Tommy +more agreeably, “and I stepped on the skylight +by mistake. It was dark underneath. It was +a darn fool thing to do!”</p> + +<p>The hall nurse and Miss Lewis exchanged<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span> +glances, and the hall nurse looked at me and +smiled.</p> + +<p>“He is still dazed,” she said, smiling. “How +could he step on the skylight? It has a four-foot +fence around it!”</p> + +<p>We waited for him to explain further, but +he let it go at that, and lay for a little while +with his mouth shut hard and a queer thoughtful +look on his face. He roused pretty soon, +however, and grunted as if his shoulder pained +him. Then he made Tish get up, and after a +minute or so he sat up himself. He sat there +gazing at the skylight, and a few drops of rain +came down through the opening. Tish and I +shivered. We were only partly dressed.</p> + +<p>He saw it and was on his feet at once, pretty +much himself.</p> + +<p>“Now don’t let’s have any fuss about this, +please,” he said, addressing us all. “I forgot +the skylight. That’s all. I’m not hurt, Aunt +Tish, and you and Miss Lizzie must go to bed +this instant.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>“What are <i>you</i> going to do?” Tish demanded +sharply. “Going up on the roof +again?”</p> + +<p>“I’ll be down pretty soon,” he evaded. +“Jacobs and I will just straighten this mess a +bit.”</p> + +<p>I caught a look of intelligence between the +two of them, and Jacobs spoke up.</p> + +<p>“If the doctor’ll lend a hand—”</p> + +<p>“Tommy,” Tish said suddenly, “the shoulder +of your coat is soaked with blood!”</p> + +<p>Tommy put his hand up and felt it.</p> + +<p>“I’ve got a scratch somewhere up there,” he +said coolly. “It isn’t going to be touched until +the two ladies in negligée and curl papers are +safe in bed with hot-water bottles at their feet. +Miss Lewis, Miss Carberry is using her knee +again!”</p> + +<p>“I’d use a switch if I had one,” said Tish, +almost with tears in her eyes. But Tommy +has the same will that she has herself, and we +were down-stairs between blankets, I on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span> +couch in Tish’s room and Tish in bed, with +our feet against hot-water bottles, and drinking +cups of hot milk, almost before we knew it.</p> + +<p>But Tommy and the watchman did not clean +up the broken glass in the upper hall. Whatever +they did, that glass was still there the next +morning, and none of us disturbed the general +belief that it had been broken by the hail-storm +that came just before dawn.</p> + +<p>I was so hoarse the next morning that I +could hardly speak, and Tish kept me on her +couch. Her knee was stiff again, too. Including +Aggie, although she had slept through +the skylight incident, we were pretty well used +up, and Tish would not let us go home. It +was just as well. She should hardly have +faced the events of the next two days without +us.</p> + +<p>Aggie had her breakfast in bed, but Tish +and I had Briggs, the orderly who carried in +our trays, set out a table for us, and were really +very snug. Tish was as cross as two sticks<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span> +until she’d had her tea, when she grew more +companionable.</p> + +<p>“I want to ask you something, Lizzie,” she +said as she poured her second cup. “How, +when we saw Tommy go into the mortuary, +as plain as day, could he fall down from the +roof?”</p> + +<p>“Well,” I said, buttering my toast, “you +know about the what-you-call-’ems in India. +They send up a rope into the sky and then a +boy up the rope, and after he has disappeared +they give the rope a jerk and he falls, apparently +from nowhere. It’s some sort of optical +illusion.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t be a fool,” Tish observed sharply. +“I’ve been thinking it over in bed. There must +be a fire-escape there somewhere.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” I hadn’t thought of a fire-escape.</p> + +<p>“Now, then,” said Tish, “suppose there is a +fire-escape, and the Blake girl went up by it to +the roof, and Tommy followed her. Which is +what happened, Lizzie. I’m nobody’s fool;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span> +I’ve got eyes in my head. If that young +woman had jumped off the window sill, Tommy +Andrews would have jumped too. Now, +then, <i>why</i> did the Blake girl go to the roof?”</p> + +<p>“Maybe she wanted air,” I suggested. Tish +waved her napkin at me.</p> + +<p>“Air!” she snapped. “When you want air, +do you generally climb a fire-escape to a roof, +when there’s a staircase up to it, and entice +young men to fall down through skylights and +break their shoulders? Lizzie,”—she leaned +over—“Lizzie, that young vixen pushed him +through that skylight and I can prove it!”</p> + +<p>“No!”</p> + +<p>“Yes.” She got up and, going to the cupboard, +lifted down her best hat.</p> + +<p>“Look here!” she said, and took from its +crown a brass candlestick, the base bent almost +double.</p> + +<p>“I was sitting on that when I held Tommy’s +head last night. It came down with the skylight,” +she said. “That’s the candlestick the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span> +Blake girl was carrying. What do you make +of it?”</p> + +<p>I was speechless. Tish unlocked the lower +bureau drawer and put the candlestick in it, +beside the roller towel marked S. P. T. and +something else, which I learned later was the +bandage Linda Smith had found in the upper +hall, and identified as the one that had tied +Johnson’s hands.</p> + +<p>“Now,” she said, locking the drawer again, +“I’m going to have a little chat with Miss +Blake. It’s my belief that she let old Johnson +die from neglect, or gave him poison by mistake. +And now he’s haunting her—or she’s +haunting him, which is what it looks like.”</p> + +<p>But we had no chat with Miss Blake that +day. The day nurse, taking her a tray of +breakfast, found her delirious in bed, with a +raging fever. Miss Lewis went over to see +her.</p> + +<p>“She’s been preparing for this for some +time,” she said when she came back. “She was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span> +queer yesterday—you remember, Miss Lizzie—and +last night she did a funny thing. She +got the night nurse to give her a bottle of morphine—enough +to kill a horse. And I found +it under her pillow this morning, almost half +of it gone!”</p> + +<p>“Great heavens!” Tish said. “Why, the +girl’s a potential murderess!”</p> + +<p>Miss Lewis turned, with a pillow in her +arms. “Not a bit of it,” she said. “There’s +something queer about this place lately, and I +don’t care who hears me say it. But folks will +have to make insinuations against Ruth Blake +over my dead body!”</p> + +<p>She glared at Tish, and Tish at her.</p> + +<p>“I have reasons to doubt that Miss Blake is +all you think her,” said Tish stiffly. But Miss +Lewis came and stood over her unpleasantly.</p> + +<p>“I’m not for making any trouble, Miss Carberry,” +she said, “but this house was calm +enough until two days ago, and Ruth Blake has +been here six months, and what’s more, I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span> +notice one thing. The most of the excitement +has been around where you are. Maybe you’re +psychic, as they call it, and don’t know it. +Maybe it’s—something else. But it wasn’t +Miss Blake who first saw Johnson hanging by +his neck, and it wasn’t Miss Blake the skylight +all but fell on, and it wasn’t Miss Blake’s +nephew that fell through the skylight, and it +wasn’t in the room of Miss Blake’s best friend +next door that a death-cold foot—”</p> + +<p>But Tish put her fingers in her ears and fled +to Aggie.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, Miss Lewis had set me to +thinking.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER VIII<br> + +<small>OVERHEARD IN THE DORMITORY</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap2">AGGIE’S hay fever was bad that morning, +and she stayed in bed. Tish and I went +in and sat with her after breakfast, and she +was very disagreeable.</p> + +<p>“I shall certaidly tell Tobby whad I thig of +hib,” she grumbled. “I told hib I could dot +hold that therbobeter. <i>That</i> is what gave be +that dreab. If it <i>was</i> a dreab!”</p> + +<p>“Certainly it was a dream,” said Tish.</p> + +<p>“I’b dot so sure!” Aggie retorted.</p> + +<p>Well, relieved of the hay fever, Aggie’s story +was something like this:</p> + +<p>She had been asleep, and was dreaming +she had turned into a thermometer herself, +and as she got hotter, having too many +blankets on, she said she felt herself expanding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span> +until her head touched something +that she thought was the head of the bed. But +she said in her dream she kept on expanding, +and she was just saying to Tommy Andrews, +in a fury, that if it grew any hotter she’d +burst, when something gave way at the head of +the bed with a sort of tearing sound, and she +wakened. She said it was a full minute before +she was certain she <i>wasn’t</i> a thermometer and +hadn’t expanded right up through the top. +Then she reached up to turn over her pillow, +and just beside her was a dead foot. She had +thought she was still dreaming and had actually +caught hold of it. But it disappeared +under her fingers, dissolved, as you might say, +and there was no body. Aggie was positive +about that. It was then she sat up and +screamed.</p> + +<p>Well, we kept the knowledge of what had +happened to Tommy from her, and left her +sitting up in bed using a nasal spray. Tish +was wonderfully better after breakfast, and we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span> +walked up and down the corridor, she without +the cane and hardly a limp.</p> + +<p>It was Tish who suggested that we go into +the nurses’ dormitory and ask how Miss Blake +was, and after we had located Miss Lewis, +gossiping with the day nurse in a corner, we +slipped in. Patients are forbidden in the dormitory.</p> + +<p>The door to Miss Blake’s room was closed, +but somebody was inside, talking. Tish and I +waited outside, and we could hardly help hearing +what was said. It was a woman’s voice, +familiar enough, but I couldn’t place it.</p> + +<p>“You must stay in bed, Ruth,” she was +pleading. “Oh, my dear, how can I forgive +myself!”</p> + +<p>“Let me up!” Ruth Blake’s voice, insistent +and querulous. “They are hanging him up by +the neck—” her voice died away in a groan.</p> + +<p>The other woman broke into frightened sobbing, +and Tish put her hand on the knob. But +I held her back.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span>“I have killed her!” said the voice. “Always +thinking of myself! Ruth! Listen to +me!”</p> + +<p>“Through the skylight!” babbled Ruth. “I +tell you, he is dead!”</p> + +<p>“Ruth!” begged the voice, and more sobbing, +growing gradually quieter. Then silence, +as if the sick girl had dropped asleep.</p> + +<p>Tish and I slipped away, and back through +the connecting door to our room. Once there, +by common mute consent we left the door into +the corridor open and took up such positions +as enabled us to watch the people who passed +along the hall. Ten minutes brought nobody. +Then we heard the door open, and brisk steps +coming along the hall.</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Miss Linda Smith, in her cheerful +way, “well, how’s the knee this morning, +Miss Carberry?”</p> + +<p>“Better,” Tish replied genially.</p> + +<p>“That’s fine,” said Miss Smith and hurried +along, humming a bit of a song. Tish and I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span> +looked at each other. In spite of the cheerfulness, +of the eyes bathed in cold water and carefully +powdered, it was Miss Smith’s voice we +had heard in the Blake girl’s room.</p> + +<p>But when we got to talking it over we +couldn’t see that what we had heard had really +any importance. Miss Smith had left the girl +alone in the mortuary, and was reproaching +herself for having done it. That was all. But +as Tish said, what did she mean by saying she +was always thinking of herself? It was +hardly, as Tish pointed out, an act of supreme +selfishness to go down and get an armful of +sheets to cover a corpse!</p> + +<p>Tommy came in at eleven o’clock, freshly +shaved and linened, and apparently as well as +ever. He had been over to see Miss Blake +first, but found her sleeping, which he considered +a good sign. I noticed that he kept his +right hand in his pocket, and did not use the +arm at all. He said the shoulder was stiff, +naturally, and that he must have been sleep-walking<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span> +himself to get over that fence and +through the skylight the way he had.</p> + +<p>“Sleep-walking!” said Tish sharply. “Do +you think that that girl was sleep-walking?”</p> + +<p>“I certainly do,” said Tommy.</p> + +<p>“Then you’re a fool,” said Tish. “If she +<i>was</i> sleep-walking, so was the burglar who took +my disciple spoons last fall. Sleep-walking!”</p> + +<p>“I wish you—”</p> + +<p>“You’re wishing me bad luck if you feel the +way you look!” said Tish shrewdly. “Now, +Tommy, I’m going to get to the bottom of all +this, and so are you. It will take twice the +amount of effort separated as united. Don’t +try any evasions with me—half a truth is +worse than a good lie. Now—out with it. +What really happened on the roof last night?”</p> + +<p>“I wish I knew!” said Tommy, and looked +at us gravely. “You saw what there was to +see up-stairs. I happened to see Miss Blake +going up the stairs with the candle, and I noticed +something strange in her expression. I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span> +followed her and you followed me. She went +into each room and then to the mortuary. +That’s proof, isn’t it, that she was sleep-walking? +I’ve worried over it all night, and I’m +sure of it. Anyhow, why would she take a +candle, when there is electric light everywhere? +I tell you, the shock of the night before was on +the girl’s mind while she slept.”</p> + +<p>Tish had got out her sheet of letter paper.</p> + +<p>“Well?” she said, putting something down.</p> + +<p>“I saw her go into the mortuary, and I +heard her talking; I couldn’t make out what +she said. Then there was a crash, and I ran. +When I got there one of the stained-glass windows +was wide open, and she was climbing up +the fire-escape outside. The candle had gone +out. Aunt Tish, that fire-escape up there is the +merest skeleton, and it is five high stories from +the ground. Awake, she couldn’t have done it.”</p> + +<p>“Humph!” said Tish. “It isn’t hard at +night, when you can’t see how far it is to the +ground.” Then, seeing that Tommy was looking<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span> +sulky, she added: “Still, you may be +right.”</p> + +<p>“Up to that point,” said Tommy, “I’m perfectly +clear. I was out on the escape by the +time she got to the roof, and I lost her there. +I saw her again, however, when I climbed on +the roof, and went toward her. I’ve heard a +lot about the danger of waking sleep-walkers +suddenly, and I spoke to her quietly. I said +‘Miss Blake.’”</p> + +<p>“Yes?”</p> + +<p>“Well,” he confessed, “that’s about all I remember. +Or no, it isn’t. The girl was asleep, +and not responsible. She turned like a flash +when I spoke, and cried out, and—I think she +threw her brass candlestick at me! Then—I +seemed to be falling forward—and when I +knew anything again I was in the hall below.”</p> + +<p>“Having fainted over a four-foot fence!” +Tish observed sharply. “Tommy, that won’t +do.”</p> + +<p>“I give you my word, Aunt Tish,” he said,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span> +“I haven’t any idea <i>how</i> I got over that fence +and through that skylight.”</p> + +<p>“I have!” Tish said, and put away her note-paper. +We both stared at her and Tommy +even smiled.</p> + +<p>“Exactly,” he said. “I’ve thought of that, +but how do you account for the fact that not a +patient left his ward or private room last +night? That every servant and nurse was in +his proper place? Jacobs and I took pains to +find that out. And that I’ve got as pretty a +bite in my right shoulder as you would care to +see?”</p> + +<p>“Bite!” Tish exclaimed, and reached feebly +for the note-paper.</p> + +<p>“Bite!” I repeated. “Then it must be an +animal—!”</p> + +<p>“Who knows?” Tommy said quietly. “Jacobs +and I got it cauterized. I don’t want the +internes to get hold of the story—they’re apt +to talk to the nurses. I hardly know what to +do next. Since Mr. Harrison had the trouble<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span> +last night with the two medical men, he is too +busy holding down his job to have much time +for anything else. If there is to be anything +done, I rather think it’s up to me.”</p> + +<p>“It’s up to <i>us</i>!” said Tish firmly.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER IX<br> + +<small>ORDERLY BRIGGS AND DISORDERLY BATES</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap2">AFTER all, it was my suggestion that we +bring in Briggs, the orderly, and ask +him about the night Johnson’s body was moved. +Tish acknowledges this, and if she does not +realize how much poor Briggs helped us in unraveling +the mystery, I am not one to remind +her. But Briggs was on night duty, and went +to bed after carrying the breakfast trays on our +floor.</p> + +<p>Tish, however, having approved of my idea, +had appropriated it as her own—which is a +way most self-willed people have, and she insisted +that Tommy send for him.</p> + +<p>He came about twelve o’clock, looking rather +surly, and presenting a general appearance of +having his coat and trousers on over his night +shirt.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span>“Come in, Briggs,” said Tommy, when he +knocked. “Sorry to wake you, old man.”</p> + +<p>“I wasn’t sleeping,” he replied sourly. “The +noise in the place is enough to waken the dead.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps,” said Tish, “perhaps that’s what +ailed Johnson!”</p> + +<p>Briggs turned quickly and looked at her. He +was a tall man, with a heavy black mustache +and powerful stooped shoulders. He had one +drooping eyelid, that gave him an unpleasant +appearance. Whether it was consciousness of +this, or shiftiness, which was Tish’s theory, he +never looked directly at one. As Tish said, +his gaze seemed to stop at your collar, but if +you averted your eyes you were sure to have +the feeling that he’d darted a stealthy glance at +you and got away with it before you could +catch him.</p> + +<p>“No,” he said, after a moment, “nothing will +waken Johnson but the trumpet on the last +day.”</p> + +<p>“Do you know, Briggs,” Tish said coolly, “I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span> +have my own little theory about that night? +You don’t like Miss Smith, and you and Marshall +prepared a little surprise for her. Shame +on you, Briggs.”</p> + +<p>He positively looked straight at her. It was +so surprising that it presented him in a new +light with a sort of aureole of outraged virtue.</p> + +<p>“No, <i>mam</i>,” he said. “You’re right, I don’t +get along with Miss Smith, but as for playing +a trick of that sort—!” He took his handkerchief +out and wiped his forehead. “I +wouldn’t have done it on anybody,” he said, +“and as for Johnson—” he glanced at Tommy, +half ashamed—“I tell you, the things I’ve seen +about that man’s bed would make me respect +him, dead or living. Raps on the foot-board, +and his bedside stand with two legs in the air, +beating time like a drum. No, <i>mam</i>, if you +think I did that, you think I’m a braver man +than I am.”</p> + +<p>“Humph!” said Tish, and put down “Raps +and bedside stand. Johnson.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span>“Suppose,” Tommy suggested, “now that +you are here, you tell us exactly what happened +the night Johnson died.”</p> + +<p>“He died at ten minutes after twelve on +Tuesday night, sir. I was staying by a delirious +patient in the next ward, Doctor. Miss +Durand, the night nurse, was busy and asked +me to watch him. It wasn’t until an hour +after he died that I was notified to take Johnson’s +body to the mortuary. I called Marshall +from the floor below, and we took the body up +on the elevator. Jacobs runs the elevator after +midnight, it being not used except for emergency, +night operations, ambulance cases coming +in, or a death.</p> + +<p>“We put the body on the receiving table, and +Marshall uncovered the face. Maybe we were +both nervous, having talked many a time during +his sickness with the old man, and him saying +he’d come back and bring us some sign +from the spirit world, after he’d ‘passed over.’ +Anyhow, Marshall uncovered his face and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span> +looked at him, and he said, ‘Johnson, now’s +your time to make good. Here <i>you</i> are and +here <i>we</i> are. Come over with the sign!’”</p> + +<p>Briggs looked at Tommy and Tommy nodded.</p> + +<p>“Sign,” wrote Tish. “Then what happened, +Briggs?” Neither of us would have been a +bit surprised if he had said the dead man moved +a foot, or that unseen hands pulled the pipe-molding +loose and bent it down before their +very eyes. But Briggs shook his head.</p> + +<p>“Nothing—then,” he said, “but when I +heard about what happened later, I had a talk +with Marshall. I don’t believe in fooling with +things you don’t know anything about.”</p> + +<p>“Briggs,” Tommy said suddenly, “you say +the body lay in the ward almost an hour before +removal. Why was that?”</p> + +<p>“Because,” Briggs replied significantly, +“there was no nurse in that ward when he died, +or for nearly an hour after. The ward was in +charge of a convalescent typhoid named Bates.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span>“Why was that?” Tommy demanded. But +Briggs only shrugged his shoulders, with his +good eye fixed about four inches below Tommy’s +chin.</p> + +<p>When he got no answer, “Bring Bates here,” +Tommy said sharply, and during the interval +until the two men appeared he walked somberly +up and down, his face thoughtful.</p> + +<p>Bates was hardly prepossessing. He shuffled +in in a pair of carpet-slippers much too +large, a pair of faded trousers, and a garment +that was evidently his nightshirt with the tail +tucked in. But Bates was shrewd if unshaven, +as we found out.</p> + +<p>“Bates,” said Tommy, “you are a patient in +K ward?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> + +<p>“You helped to look after Johnson, the man +who died night before last?”</p> + +<p>“Sometimes—when the nurses were busy.”</p> + +<p>“Have you heard anything about—of what +happened after his death?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>Bates smiled.</p> + +<p>“There’s been a good bit of talk going +around, sir,” he said. “He’d got the ward +worked up some—talking about coming back +after he’d chipped in. One of the men claims +to have seen him looking in the window near +his bed last night, and there’s a story about his +corpse being found hanging—but that’s ridiculous, +sir.”</p> + +<p>“It’s true, Bates.”</p> + +<p>Bates’ jaw dropped. “Oh, no, sir. Surely +not!” he said, and changed color.</p> + +<p>“Now, Bates,” Tommy said, “we are men of +sense, you and I. We know Johnson didn’t do +it himself, don’t we?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir.” Not as convinced as he might +have been.</p> + +<p>“Then it was done for him.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Presumably by somebody in this house.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Bates, was any one missing from your<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span> +ward during either last night or the night before, +that you know of?”</p> + +<p>Bates thought. “No, sir,” he said. “I don’t +sleep much; that’s my trouble, insomnia. I +can hear a kitten stir in my ward—not, of +course, that we’re liable to kittens, sir. Night +before last I was up and dressed all night, wandering +around, and last night, as you know, I +sat up with that railroad case. The boy was +out of his head.”</p> + +<p>“Then, either night, no patient could have +stolen out from K ward into the house and been +absent for any length of time without your +knowing it?”</p> + +<p>“It’s hardly possible,” Bates said. “Mr. +Briggs or I would know for sure, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Do you help in the other wards on the +men’s floor?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Are there any delirious patients?”</p> + +<p>“None able to stand or walk about.”</p> + +<p>“I see,” Tommy said thoughtfully. “And<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span> +now, Bates, is it correct that Miss Durand, the +night nurse, left her ward for fifty minutes, +knowing that Johnson was dying?”</p> + +<p>“Fifty-five minutes, sir.” Bates’ shrewd +eyes said more than his words.</p> + +<p>“It was, possibly, for night supper?”</p> + +<p>“That’s at two o’clock.” Bates knew a good +bit about the hospital, and enjoyed showing +his knowledge.</p> + +<p>“You have no idea <i>why</i> she left?”</p> + +<p>“No, sir. Miss Smith came to the door, +and they went away together. Miss Smith +looked upset and nervous, as if she’d been crying—if +you’ll excuse my saying so, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Did you notice in which direction they +went?”</p> + +<p>“They went down-stairs. When they came +back Miss Smith was looking more cheerful, +and she had a bundle in her hand.”</p> + +<p>“What sort of a bundle?”</p> + +<p>“Darkish. It might have been clothing. +Miss Durand was frightened when she found<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span> +Johnson had died, and she asked me not to say +she had been away.”</p> + +<p>“Thanks, Bates. You’d better go back +now,” said Tommy, “and Bates, if you hear or +see anything that strikes you as curious, let me +know, will you?”</p> + +<p>Bates promised and flapped out, with Briggs +behind him. Tommy called Briggs back. +“Briggs,” he said, “I have asked the superintendent +to let me put on a few guards to-night. +This thing has gone beyond a joke. Mr. Harrison +will give us the scrubbers, Frank, from +the elevator and two assistants from the +laundry. The internes have volunteered, also, +that makes eleven; with you and myself, thirteen.”</p> + +<p>“Thirteen!” said Briggs. “Would you mind +making it fourteen, Doctor?”</p> + +<p>Tommy looked surprised.</p> + +<p>“Briggs!” he said. “Surely you—” Then +he took a good look at Briggs’ pasty face and +nodded. “All right,” he said. “We can have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span> +Hicks from the ambulance. And just a +word,” he said, as Briggs made for the door. +“We are not talking, Briggs. Most of these +men are watching for a thief. Do you understand? +And I’d be glad to have your help in +placing them where they’ll do the most good.”</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER X<br> + +<small>AN APE AND SOME GUINEA-PIGS</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">MISS LEWIS came in a few minutes +after Briggs had gone, and, closing the +door behind her, looked at Tommy.</p> + +<p>“Miss Blake is conscious,” she said. “Temperature +only ninety-nine, pulse a hundred and +forty.”</p> + +<p>“Good!” Tommy said heartily. It was evident +to us all how relieved he was. “But I +don’t like the pulse.” He was brushing his +hair back with Tish’s brush. “She’s had a +terrific shock of some sort.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir,” said Miss Lewis, still with her +back to the door.</p> + +<p>Tommy leaned over and kissed Tish’s cheek. +He was delighted at the mere prospect of seeing +the Little Nurse, and showed it. “Now, +try to be good until I come back, both of you,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span> +he said. “All right, Miss Lewis, we’ll have a +look at our patient in the dormitory.”</p> + +<p>Miss Lewis looked flushed and uncomfortable.</p> + +<p>“I’m sorry, Doctor,” she said. “Miss—Miss +Blake doesn’t—she has asked for Doctor Willson +instead.”</p> + +<p>“What!” said Tommy, and turned a dark +red.</p> + +<p>“She’s asked for Doctor Willson,” repeated +Miss Lewis. “There’s no mistake. I’ve been +coaxing her for ten minutes.”</p> + +<p>“She’s still delirious,” Tish snapped. “And +it is not necessary to coax people to retain my +nephew’s professional services, Miss Lewis.”</p> + +<p>“Why, that’s all right,” Tommy said with +affected cheerfulness. “Willson’s a fine chap—she +couldn’t do better.”</p> + +<p>“Fiddle!” Tish was angry. “Who is Willson, +anyhow?”</p> + +<p>“Big fellow, dark eyes—very distinguished +looking man,” said Tommy humbly. Tommy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span> +is handsome, if being straight and slim and +young count for anything, but I daresay one +could hardly call him distinguished. Tish and +I differ about this. “Good gracious, Aunt +Tish, the girl ought to have the privilege of +selecting her own medical adviser.”</p> + +<p>“Humph!”</p> + +<p>“Suppose you go back to the dormitory, +Miss Lewis,” Tommy said, “and say to Miss—Miss +Blake that she’s made a wise choice, and +I’ll send Willson to her as soon as he comes in. +And ask her if she will let me see her for a +moment, not professionally.”</p> + +<p>Miss Lewis looked doubtful, but she went. +When she came back, in five minutes, she was +evidently irritated, and her cap was more than +ever on one ear.</p> + +<p>“She’s sitting on the side of the bed, half +dressed,” she grumbled, “and she says she +won’t see anybody.”</p> + +<p>“Then she doesn’t want—Willson?” asked +Tommy, looking relieved.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span>“No. Says she’s all right, and if people +don’t stop bothering her she is going out somewhere +in the country where they have a dog +and kittens! That’s what she said! Not <i>cat</i> +and kittens—”</p> + +<p>“Sensible girl,” said Tommy, happy again. +“She—hasn’t changed her mind about seeing +me?”</p> + +<p>“No, nor about locking the door. And +what’s more—” She stopped and glanced at +Tommy. “I’d like to speak to you a moment +in the hall, Doctor.”</p> + +<p>“What sort of shilly-shallying is that?” demanded +Tish. “Can’t you speak to him here?”</p> + +<p>“I can <i>not</i>,” said Miss Lewis, glaring back at +Tish, her thumbs inside her apron belt. “It +isn’t considered shilly-shallying in this hospital +for a nurse to make a report to a doctor, and +if you’ll read the rules on that door—”</p> + +<p>“I’ll speak to you in the hall,” said Tommy. +“Miss Lewis is right, Aunt Tish. If it’s in line +with what we’ve been discussing, I’ll tell you.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span>But Tish isn’t a woman to take chances. +Afterward, she justified her looking through +the keyhole on the plea that she was making a +scientific theory to fit the case, and if it were +not for keyholes many a murderer would have +gone unhung to his grave. At the time, however, +I was rather horrified.</p> + +<p>She had plenty of time to tell me what she +saw, as it happened, for Tommy did not come +back until late in the afternoon, after the +guinea-pig incident.</p> + +<p>Tish says that when she’d got them in focus, +as you may say, Miss Lewis was pulling something +out of her sleeve. It was a knife, Tish +says, with a short, thin blade that looked as +sharp as a razor.</p> + +<p>“One of the knives from the operating room, +Doctor,” Miss Lewis said. “I thought I’d better +not let the old ladies see it.”</p> + +<p>I daresay that was when I saw Tish’s back +stiffen.</p> + +<p>“Great Scott!” said Tommy.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span>“I found it on the floor under her bed,” Miss +Lewis went on. “She didn’t see me pick it +up.”</p> + +<p>Tommy was staring at the blade.</p> + +<p>“It’s been used,” he said. “Look at this!”</p> + +<p>“Exactly,” said Miss Lewis. “It’s from the +operating room, Doctor, and they don’t put +away their knives in that condition.”</p> + +<p>“What do you mean by that?” Tommy demanded +sharply. But Miss Lewis only looked +at him.</p> + +<p>“I don’t mean anything against Ruth Blake, +if that’s what you are indignant about,” she +said. “But I’m glad I found that knife. +There’s enough talk, Doctor.”</p> + +<p>They moved down the hall then, so that was +all Tish heard. But she added, “Knife, blood-stained,” +to her sheet of paper.</p> + +<p>Aggie being half drowsy and altogether +sulky, we took a little time to go over the notes +Tish had made, and they pointed as many different +ways as a porcupine—Johnson, with his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span> +raps and his talk about coming back, taken +from the mortuary and hung by his neck with +a roller towel marked S. P. T.; the coincidence +of Johnson’s wife murdered a few years before +and hung up the same way; Miss Blake wandering +around at night with a brass candlestick +and a blood-stained knife from the operating +room, and Tommy Andrews falling or being +pushed through a skylight and coming out of +the excitement with a <i>bite</i> instead of a fracture! +And then there were smaller things, though +strange enough—the twisted pipe-molding and +the footprints on the wall up-stairs in the room +where Johnson’s body was found; the loosened +molding in Aggie’s room and her story about +the foot; the fact that Johnson was left to die +in the care of a convalescent typhoid and the +ward left alone for fifty-five minutes; Linda +Smith and her speech to Miss Blake, not to +mention the darkish bundle.</p> + +<p>It was Tish who advanced the gigantic ape +theory. She’d been reading <i>The Murders in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span> +the Rue Morgue</i>, and some of the clues seemed +to fit, especially Tommy’s shoulder. The loosened +molding helped out the theory, and as +Tish said, also the stringing up of Johnson’s +body, which, if you left out the supernatural, +had apparently been done by something tremendously +strong, but without intelligence.</p> + +<p>Well, the more we thought of it the more +certain we felt. The footprint part of it, too, +we considered corroborative evidence, until we +got the encyclopedia and learned that the great +apes have the equivalent of four hands, and not +a foot at all.</p> + +<p>But Tish was undaunted. “Mark my words, +Lizzie,” she said, “they’ve lost a chimpanzee or +a gorilla from the Zoological Garden—not that +they’ll acknowledge it. You remember when +the lion got loose and ate a colored woman out +the Ralston road, and how the papers denied +everything until they found the beast dead of +indigestion in a cellar? But that is what has +happened.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span>Well, I thought it likely enough myself, and +Tish called up Charlie Sands, who is on a +newspaper and is another of Tish’s nephews.</p> + +<p>“Lizzie and I,” said Tish over the ’phone, +“have reason to believe that there is a great +ape—a-p-e—ape! Monkey, <i>monkey</i>—yes. A +large monkey loose, and we want you to +trace it.”</p> + +<p>There was a long pause. Tish said afterward +that Charlie claimed to have fainted at +the other end of the wire, and to have had to +be restored with whisky and soda. However, +which is more to the point, he promised to find +out for us what he could, and Tish hung up the +receiver.</p> + +<p>“He’ll do it, too, Lizzie,” she said, “although +he spoke to me gently, as if he thought my +reason had entirely gone. But, as he said, it +won’t hurt to scare up the Zoo people anyhow. +They’re very casual about their animals.”</p> + +<p>Now, two things were discovered that afternoon, +neither of them to be explained by anything<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span> +we knew. The first one was that +Tommy Andrews and Mr. Harrison, the superintendent, +making a careful examination of +the roof, found a spattering of dried blood +leading from the broken skylight to the ridge +pole, where it ceased abruptly. The second +one was made by Aggie and myself.</p> + +<p>About three o’clock that afternoon Aggie +got into her clothes and insisted on coming +into Tish’s room, which was inconvenient, Tish +expecting the message from Charlie Sands at +any moment. Aggie was nervous, but her +head was clearer. She’d been thinking things +over, and she knew now that what had happened +the night before had been a message +from the roofer.</p> + +<p>“Then the least said about it the better!” +Tish snapped. “If he hasn’t any better sense +than to materialize his foot, and you a woman +of your years and respectability, he’d better +go back where he came from.”</p> + +<p>“For heaven’s sake, Tish,” Aggie pleaded,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span> +looking over her shoulder. “He may be listening +to us now!”</p> + +<p>“I don’t care if he is,” said Tish recklessly. +“If he’d materialize a will, now, leaving you +that house in Groveton! But a foot!”</p> + +<p>“I’m not so sure it <i>was</i> a foot,” Aggie said +restlessly. “I’ve been thinking, Tish—he was +a large man, you know. It may have been a +hand.”</p> + +<p>Now at that moment the telephone bell rang, +and Tish signaled to me to take Aggie out at +once. I got up and took her by the arm.</p> + +<p>“I’ll walk up and down the corridor with +you, Aggie,” I said. “You need exercise.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t care to walk,” she objected, trying +to sit down. “See who is at the telephone, +Tish. I expect my laundress is through washing +and wants her money.”</p> + +<p>“I’d like you to see the hospital,” I said desperately +as the ’phone rang again. “The—the +guinea-pigs, Aggie.” Miss Lewis had told me +about them.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span>Now, Aggie loves a guinea-pig. It’s a queer +taste, but she says they neither bark like dogs +nor scratch like cats, and they <i>have</i> a nice +way of wiggling their noses.</p> + +<p>“Guinea-pigs!” she said in an ecstasy. +“Where?”</p> + +<p>“In the laboratory,” said I, and led her out +of the room.</p> + +<p>She put on all her wraps and Miss Lewis +took us to the laboratory, which is a small +brick building set off by itself in the hospital +yard, with Aggie cooing in anticipation and +wanting to send out and buy a cabbage for +them. Doctor Grimm, who was the surgical interne, +met us as we were crossing the yard, +and volunteered to let us in.</p> + +<p>“You know,” he said, feeling in his pocket +for the keys, “they’re not as attractive as some +guinea-pigs and rabbits I have known under +happier circumstances. They scratch a good +bit—some think it’s fleas; some say it’s germs.”</p> + +<p>“Germs?” Aggie asked, puzzled.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span>“Oh, yes,” he said, opening the door and +leading the way into a narrow hall. “Some of +them have been inoculated with several different +kinds of germs. That’s why we keep this +place so well locked up, for fear the germs may +escape. You know,”—he unlocked the second +door and threw it open, “you know, suppose +you were walking up the street and met a solid +phalanx of say sixteen billion typhoid germs, +or measles! It would be horrible, wouldn’t it?”</p> + +<p>He stepped into the room and looked about +him.</p> + +<p>“Come in,” he said. “It’s a little close. We +had a tear-up among the resident staff, and nobody +has been here to-day. Hello!”</p> + +<p>He threw open the shutters, and a broad +shaft of gray daylight lighted the room. Aggie +gave a cry of dismay. The doors of the small +cages around the walls were all open, and in +the center, a pathetic heap of little brown-and-white +and black-and-white bodies, lay the +guinea-pigs.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span>Doctor Grimm picked one up and examined +it closely.</p> + +<p>“I’m damned!” he said, and put it down. +“Throats cut, every one of them! And where +are the rabbits?”</p> + +<p>Aggie sat down and began to blubber, but +Miss Lewis scolded her soundly. “There’ll be +plenty more where they came from,” she said +sharply. “What <i>does</i> concern us is—how +would anybody or anything get in here with +both doors and all the windows locked, and not +a chimney.”</p> + +<p>Aggie wiped her eyes and got up.</p> + +<p>“You laughed at me last night, Miss Lewis,” +she said with dignity, “but I wish to remind +you that to the fourth dimension there are no +locks, no bars, no doors or walls.”</p> + +<p>“When they invent that,” said Miss Lewis, +opening the door to let us out, “they’ll have +to invent something like these X-ray-proof +screens, or a woman won’t dare to change her +clothes.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span>“And what’s more,” said Aggie, turning in +the doorway, “the hand that slew those innocent +little creatures is the one I touched last +night!”</p> + +<p>“Hand!” cried Miss Lewis. “It was a <i>foot</i> +then.”</p> + +<p>But Aggie was holding her shoulder over her +face and hurrying across the yard. At the far +side she threw back a contemptuous sneeze.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Tish’s commission to Charlie Sands had an +unexpected result. She was almost bursting +with it when I got back.</p> + +<p>“Listen,” she said while Aggie got her spray, +“doesn’t this bear out what I’ve been saying +right along? The Zoo people say positively +that none of their animals has escaped. But +they took such an interest in his inquiry that +Charlie grew suspicious and bribed a keeper. +He sent this up by messenger from the office:</p> + +<p>“‘Dear and revered spinster aunt,’” she +read—“the young rascal! ‘I couldn’t tell you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span> +this over the ’phone, for it’s our exclusive +property, and will be published to-morrow +morning, with photographs of the late deceased, +etc. Hero, the biggest ape in captivity, +pining for his keeper, Wesley Barker, who has +been away, committed suicide in his cage last +night by hanging himself with a roller towel. +He was found dead when the assistant keeper +unlocked the cage at six o’clock this morning. +Nobody knows how he got the roller towel. +Charlie.’</p> + +<p>“‘P. S.—I’ve got the roller towel, a fine +long one and marked S. P. T. Do you think +the letters stand for Suicidal Purpose Towel?’”</p> + +<p>Tish looked at me triumphantly over her +reading-glasses.</p> + +<p>“You see, Lizzie, what a little logical thinking +will do. If it hadn’t been for me, you and +Aggie would have gone to your graves expecting +to be able to come back at any time and +hang from chandeliers or do any of the ridiculous +buffoonery that seems to be expected of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span> +returned spirits. We search for a ghost and +we find a gorilla.”</p> + +<p>She meant ape, of course, but the other was +alliterative.</p> + +<p>“I’m not quite clear about it yet, Tish,” I +said, with my head in a whirl. “If his cage +was locked, and the keepers say he hadn’t been +free, and if Miss Blake—”</p> + +<p>“If! If!” said Tish impatiently. “I haven’t +had time to figure it all out, of course. But +mark my words, Lizzie, the mystery is solved. +We shall sleep to-night.”</p> + +<p>But, as a matter of fact, we never even went +to bed.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XI<br> + +<small>IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR LOVE</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">IT is curious to think that if Tish had been +able to finish her story to Tommy Andrews +that evening, and to have given him +Charlie’s letter to read, the thing that occurred +that night could scarcely have happened. For +with Tommy knowing what he did, he could +have put two and two together and have gone +about things in a different way. Aggie, of +course, is a fatalist, and believes it would have +happened anyhow.</p> + +<p>In the first place, Tish felt so sure that +everything was cleared up that she told Aggie +the whole story, ending with the suicide at the +Zoo. Aggie sat with her mouth open, and +didn’t speak except to sneeze until Tish was +through. Then she surprised us.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span>“Maybe you are right, Tish,” she said. “I +know I hope so. I don’t know much about +gorillas, but I guess they’re mostly hairy, aren’t +they?”</p> + +<p>“Mostly,” said Tish grimly. “I haven’t +heard of any Mexican hairless ones.”</p> + +<p>“Well, the hand by my bed—you needn’t +sneer, Tish; you can call it a foot if you prefer +foot—”</p> + +<p>“Listen to the woman!” cried Tish. “<i>I</i> +haven’t called it anything.”</p> + +<p>“The hand—or foot—was <i>not</i> hairy!” said +Aggie, and stuck to it. She is that kind. +Tish says she has a small mind, but I think +there are some large minds that can only hold +one idea at a time.</p> + +<p>Well, we told the whole thing again to +Tommy, who had heard about the guinea-pigs +from Doctor Grimm, and who listened gravely, +and Tish was just getting out Charlie’s letter to +read to him, when Miss Lewis came in.</p> + +<p>“Drat that woman!” Tish muttered. “She’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span> +never around when she’s wanted, and always +butting in when she isn’t. Well, what is it?”</p> + +<p>“Miss Blake is better, Doctor,” she said. +“She is sitting up, dressed, and—she’s leaving +her door unlocked. That’s a good sign.”</p> + +<p>“Thanks, very much,” said Tommy, looking +conscious.</p> + +<p>“It’s supper hour now,” remarked Miss +Lewis. “If, when I come back, you would +care to go over to the dormitory—”</p> + +<p>“I suppose she hasn’t asked for me?”</p> + +<p>“No. But she asked if you were in the +house.”</p> + +<p>“Thanks,” said Tommy again. “When you +come back, then. Ah—thanks, very much.”</p> + +<p>Miss Lewis left and Tish spread out Charlie’s +letter. “Dear and revered spinster aunt,” +she began. But Tommy was looking at his +watch.</p> + +<p>“How long does she usually take for supper?” +he asked. “Excuse me for interrupting, +Aunt Tish.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span>“About an hour,” said Tish grimly. “She +says she’s been ordered to chew her food thoroughly. +‘Dear and revered—’”</p> + +<p>“You know,” said Tommy, “she may get +tired and go to sleep, or something like that.”</p> + +<p>“Not while she’s eating,” said Tish.</p> + +<p>“I mean Miss Blake. I—I think I’ll just +run over for a moment <i>now</i>, if you don’t +mind.”</p> + +<p>“Not alone!” Tish got up and reached for +her cane, but Tommy pushed her back in her +chair.</p> + +<p>“No, indeed, dear Aunt Tish,” he said. +“You must not use that knee. Nor Miss Aggie +either—”</p> + +<p>“Aggie has no intention of using my knee,” +said Tish crossly. Tommy was sending me +messages with his eyes. I’m notoriously weak +as to love affairs.</p> + +<p>“I’ll go,” I volunteered, obeying Tommy’s +signals, and go I did, leaving Tish clutching +her cane with one hand and the letter with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span> +other! Aggie was, as usual, oblivious and +quite calm.</p> + +<p>It was my suggestion that I play propriety +from just outside the door. Tommy went in, +and I heard a rustle from the window, as if she +had turned to look at him.</p> + +<p>“I—my aunt is just outside,” he began, hesitating. +I am not his aunt, as I have said.</p> + +<p>“Won’t you ask her in?” She had a low, +sweet voice.</p> + +<p>“Certainly, if you wish,” he said, and made +no move to do it. “You dismissed me to-day,” +he accused her.</p> + +<p>“I didn’t need a doctor.”</p> + +<p>“I need not have come professionally. I am +here now only—well, because I couldn’t stay +away.”</p> + +<p>She said nothing to that, as far as I could +hear.</p> + +<p>“I came also,” he said, “to ask you not to +stay here alone to-night.”</p> + +<p>“What do you mean?” she asked sharply.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span>“Only that you might do the same thing +again to-night—walk in your sleep, you know.”</p> + +<p>I heard her chair move, as if she had turned +abruptly and faced him.</p> + +<p>“Why do you say that?” she demanded. +“You <i>know</i> I was not asleep last night.”</p> + +<p>“I assure you—” he began, clearly startled. +“I—really thought—”</p> + +<p>“Please!” she said, and there was another +silence. Then I realized she was crying softly.</p> + +<p>“Don’t do that!” pleaded Tommy. “Don’t!”</p> + +<p>“I thought you were killed!” she said, in a +smothered tone. “All the rest of the night I +sat and wanted to die. I thought I had killed +you!”</p> + +<p>“Where did you sit?” asked Tommy gently.</p> + +<p>“It doesn’t matter, does it?”</p> + +<p>“Very much—to me.”</p> + +<p>“I was—here,” she said, after a hesitation.</p> + +<p>“You were <i>not</i> here,” said Tommy. “Between +<i>that</i> and morning, I was here four times. +Where were you?”</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_122.jpg" alt="Tommy and Tish discussing the events of the previous night"></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span>“I was safe,” she said. “Why do you question +me so?”</p> + +<p>“Because,” he said gently, “I was in the +laboratory at two o’clock this morning. Jacobs +helped me with a—wound on my shoulder. I +had looked everywhere for you and failed to +find you. I thought I heard somebody moving +across the hall, and we made a casual search. +We found nothing, nobody. But during the +fifteen minutes that that door was unlocked, +somebody entered the building, and cut the +throats of eleven guinea-pigs, piling them in +the center of the room. And—on the floor underneath +them I picked up this afternoon a +small pink rosette, apparently off the toe of a +woman’s bedroom slipper.”</p> + +<p>“Ah!” she said, as if she found it suddenly +hard to breathe. And then she burst out unexpectedly. +“After all, was it so terrible? +They—they were only guinea-pigs!”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Tommy gravely, “they were +only guinea-pigs.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span>He came out the next moment and went +back along the hall into the hospital, having +quite forgotten me. His chin was sunk on +his breast, and he walked heavily. He was as +bewildered as I had been. We saw him only +once again that evening, and then only for a +minute. He was preparing to station his +guards through the house, much to Tish’s disgust.</p> + +<p>“It’s idiotic,” she confided to Aggie and me +that night as Aggie was getting ready for bed. +“Isn’t the creature dead? Do they expect it +to come back from the spirit world and do a +materializing seance for them while they +wait?”</p> + +<p>“That’s all very well, Tish,” said Aggie, +turning on all the lights and getting into bed, +“but that hand was not hairy.”</p> + +<p>“Foot, you mean,” said Tish. “If that is a +footprint on the wall of that room up-stairs, +it was a foot you touched last night.”</p> + +<p>At nine o’clock that night Tommy had a talk<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span> +with Miss Durand, the night nurse of K ward. +She denied being out of the ward between +twelve-ten and one o’clock, and characterized +Bates’ whole story as a fabrication.</p> + +<p>“He’s always making trouble, Doctor,” she +told Tommy. “He brings in tobacco and morphine +and sells it to the men, and you take his +word against mine!”</p> + +<p>And Tommy said that Bates, with Miss Durand’s +outraged eyes on him, reduced the time +of her absence to ten minutes, and might have +gone further if Tommy hadn’t turned away in +disgust.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XII<br> + +<small>THE CARBOLIC CASE AND A BROWN COAT</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">TOMMY was very gloomy that night. +He went about placing guards, with his +mouth set in a grim line and his eyes hard. A +few of the nurses knew what was going on, +but with the exception of the three of us, none +of the patients had been told.</p> + +<p>To Tish’s assurance that the trouble was +over, that the death of Hero, the ape, meant +the end of the disturbance, Tommy turned a +tolerant smile and a deaf ear. I would have +given a good bit to have had Tish’s conviction, +but no theory that was based on Hero at the +Zoo could possibly involve Miss Blake. And +Tommy and I knew that Miss Blake was involved.</p> + +<p>I had not told Tish the particulars of Tommy’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span> +visit to the girl’s room, or about the +rosette he had confronted her with. To be candid, +Tish was disagreeable about my having +gone with Tommy, and only relaxed when, at +supper time, a package came from Charlie +Sands, and proved to contain the very towel +with which the giant ape had been killed.</p> + +<p>“Thought you might like it,” Charlie wrote. +“I snitched it while the keeper’s back was +turned. Gruesome, but interesting, isn’t it? +The beast was almost human, and as far as I +know this may be the towel with which he +performed his final ablutions—or do apes ablute?”</p> + +<p>Tish laid it solemnly out on the bed and, +going to the dresser drawer, brought out the +one that had, as you may say, suspended Johnson. +They were absolutely alike, even to the +position of the S. P. T. which distinguished +them both.</p> + +<p>Tommy came into Aggie’s room about +eleven o’clock and sat, as usual, on the foot of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span> +the bed. He had lost his customary air of +good-natured raillery, and looked tired.</p> + +<p>“I’ve placed them all,” he said. “Counting +myself, there are fourteen of us, and I don’t +think a germ could escape from any of the +wards without my knowing it.”</p> + +<p>“How about the private rooms?” I asked. +“There’s as apt to be mischief done by pay +patients as by charities.”</p> + +<p>“You’re right, there. Well, every corridor +is under secret surveillance. The doors into +the nurses’ dormitory are being watched on +every floor, and we have a man on the roof.”</p> + +<p>“Humph!” said Aggie, from the bed. +“You’d do better to have a barrel of holy +water. Things that dissolve under your fingers, +just as the clock strikes midnight—it <i>was</i> +midnight, Tish. The clock in the hall is five +minutes fast by my watch.”</p> + +<p>“Fiddlesticks!” Tish said tartly. “Then the +sun’s too fast; you’d better have it regulated. +No, Tommy, it would have been more to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span> +point if you’d taken all these precautions last +night. You are too late.”</p> + +<p>“I hope so,” Tommy observed and got off +the bed. “I’ll come around now and then and +keep you posted.” He started toward the door +and stopped, looking at me. “You haven’t +seen—Miss Blake? She has not come from +the dormitory?”</p> + +<p>“No.”</p> + +<p>He looked relieved at that and went out, +and for an hour we saw nothing of him.</p> + +<p>A little before midnight Miss Lewis brought +in on a tray three glasses of buttermilk and +some crackers.</p> + +<p>“I knew none of you were sleeping,” +she said. “This will do you good. I don’t +mind saying <i>my</i> nerves are all twittering. This +house is enough to set you crazy. If you go +around a corner unexpectedly, you come +across a figure ducking into a doorway. A +nurse from L ward just fell across one of the +moppers squatting in a corner by the pantry<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span> +and threw a bowl of chicken broth at him, +thinking it was Johnson himself.”</p> + +<p>“They might as well calm themselves,” Tish +observed, sipping her buttermilk. “Nothing +will happen.”</p> + +<p>“Then why don’t you take off your clothes +and go to bed?” Aggie asked, but Tish scornfully +refused to answer.</p> + +<p>“I’m not expecting anything myself,” observed +Miss Lewis, straightening her cap at +the mirror. “These things have a way of +petering out—and yet, on the other hand, +things in a hospital usually go in threes. +If we have one burned case, we’ll get two +more. Shot cases will come in threes every +time, and as for suicides! Well, I’ve seen +three carbolic acids every time I’ve seen one. +And that reminds me,” she said, turning from +the mirror and with a dive thrusting a foot-rest +under Tish’s leg, “a carbolic case has just +piped out in one of the wards. There are +things I’d rather do than go up and lay it out.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span>And at that instant the hall nurse appeared +in the doorway and spoke to her.</p> + +<p>“Miss Lewis,” she said, “you are to go to +the mortuary with that case. Miss Grimes is +having an attack of hysteria.”</p> + +<p>Miss Lewis turned and surveyed us through +her spectacles. “Can you beat that?” she demanded. +“Wouldn’t a self-respecting mongrel +pup rebel at a life like this?” She jerked +her head—and her cap fell over her ear with +the facility of long practice. “All right,” she +said to the nurse, “I’m coming, but—” she +turned in the doorway and waved her hand to +us. “If I am found strung up with an S. P. T.,” +she said, “I’ll not hang alone, believe <i>me</i>.”</p> + +<p>An S. P. T.! We all three stared at each +other, and Tish tried to call her back. But she +had gone. Could it be, we wondered, that +Miss Lewis knew the meaning of the three letters? +And if she did—!</p> + +<p>At five minutes of midnight Tommy stopped +in to see us.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span>“Nothing yet,” he said. “Heaven knows, I +hope there won’t be anything at all, but there’s +an uneasy feeling in the house—I’ve had +to make a few changes. The man on the roof +refused to stay.”</p> + +<p>“Naturally,” Tish observed, with the lofty +air she’d had all evening. “If the wind blew +he would declare he heard groans.”</p> + +<p>“Exactly what he <i>did</i> say,” replied Tommy. +“Says he heard groans and felt eyes looking +at him. But we had the roof searched, and +found nothing. I put Hicks, the ambulance +man, there instead. He hasn’t any nerves.”</p> + +<p>“I beg your pardon, Doctor,” said the hall +nurse, from the doorway. “But—Hicks wants +to see you.”</p> + +<p>“Just for a moment,” a voice came from +behind the nurse. “I’ll go back up there, Doctor, +if I’ve got to kick myself up, but—”</p> + +<p>“Well?”</p> + +<p>“Doctor, as sure as I’m a living man, something +is singing on the roof.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span>“Singing!” said Tommy.</p> + +<p>“Half singing, half chanting. I—I’m going +back, Doctor. Nothing ain’t ever scared +me yet. But—it’s singing ‘Nearer, my God, +to Thee’—not the words. Just the tune.”</p> + +<p>“Did anybody else hear it?”</p> + +<p>“They heard something in the mortuary. +They said it didn’t sound exactly like singing. +But I heard it as plain as I hear you, sir. It—it’s +horrible.”</p> + +<p>“Are the nurses still there?”</p> + +<p>“No, sir. Miss Lewis was sent to take Miss +Grimes’ place, but she insisted on having her +night supper first. Mr. Briggs is in the mortuary +with the—you know, until she comes.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll go up with you to the roof,” said Tommy, +and went at once.</p> + +<p>Aggie had been getting white around the +lips during the whole scene, and when Hicks +said “Nearer, my God, to Thee,” she almost +keeled over against her pillows. The moment +Tommy had gone, she burst into tears,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span> +declaring that something awful was going to +happen, that being the tune they had sung at +the roofer’s funeral.</p> + +<p>Tish, however, was stonily calm, although +I could see she was shaken. She had got out +her Irish lace, and sat making picots as if her +life depended on it.</p> + +<p>“I don’t for the life of me see what you are +bleating about,” she snapped. “If you argue +from hearing that tune that <i>he’s</i> coming back +to-night, there will be more ghosts walking +than this hospital can hold. It’s been sung at +a good many funerals. And another thing, if +he was as good as you think he was, he’s sitting +around with a harp, learning celestial melodies, +not coming back to string up innocent +corpses with roller towels, and break skylights. +It’s only the bad ones that aren’t satisfied +where they are and come back.”</p> + +<p>It is hard to say just why that line of reasoning +made Aggie dry her tears, but it did, +and she sat up and finished her buttermilk.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_134.jpg" alt="Jacobs barring Miss Blake from passing"></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span>It was when I was reaching her the crackers +that I heard a creak, and knew that somebody +had stealthily opened the door into the nurses’ +dormitory. Tish heard it, too, and put down +her crocheting.</p> + +<p>All our lights were on, while the hall was +dark. This time we saw no candlelight, but +we each felt who it was. I stepped to the +door and looked out.</p> + +<p>Miss Blake, fully dressed, was on the narrow +staircase to the floor above, and at the +top somebody with an electric flash was barring +the way.</p> + +<p>“Sorry, Miss,” said Jacobs, the night watchman. +“We have orders not to let anybody +pass here to-night.”</p> + +<p>“But I must!” she pleaded. “I can’t endure +the suspense another moment, Jacobs! Where +is Doctor Andrews?”</p> + +<p>“On the roof, Miss Blake.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, not on the roof!” she cried. “Let +me pass. I <i>must</i> pass.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span>“Sorry,” he said, not moving. “My orders—”</p> + +<p>Suddenly, from somewhere overhead came +a woman’s scream, a shrill note of horror that +left my ears aching, my heart beating madly. +It rose and fell and then rose again, and the +silence that followed was the silence of paralysis.</p> + +<p>Immediately after, there was the sound of +scurrying feet. Tish and I never knew afterward +how we got up the stairs, or were almost +the first on the scene.</p> + +<p>The hall was dark, as on the floor below, +but from the mortuary a bright light streamed +down the short, wide flight of steps that +served as its approach.</p> + +<p>On one side of the receiving table Tommy +was standing. On the other, Miss Lewis stood, +as if frozen, with one hand turning down the +covering sheet. But the body on the table was +not wrapped in a shroud. It was the figure +of a tall man fully dressed, and with the head<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span> +and shoulders tightly wrapped in what looked +like a brown coat.</p> + +<p>Tish gripped my arm, shaking so she could +scarcely speak. “Johnson!” she said. “Oh, +my God, Lizzie, it’s Johnson!”</p> + +<p>But it was not. When they had untied the +sleeves, tightly knotted about the neck, Tommy +himself gave a cry of horror.</p> + +<p>It was Briggs, the orderly, dead about ten +minutes, and with his ribs crushed in like a +broken barrel.</p> + +<p>The “carbolic case” was lying in placid peace +under the table, its bandaged hands folded, its +jaw relaxed, its half-shut eyes looking calmly +up at the horror overhead.</p> + +<p>Tish and I put Miss Lewis to bed that night +and Tish sat with her until morning. It was +dawn when Tommy came in. They had found +nothing—except one curious fact:</p> + +<p>The brown coat that had covered poor +Briggs’ head had belonged to Johnson. The +pockets were full of his private papers.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XIII<br> + +<small>JACOBS’ ELEVATOR</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap2">AS I have said, Tommy came in about +dawn. Miss Lewis had dropped into an +uneasy sleep, and Tish was dozing in the chair +beside her; Aggie was stretched out on the +couch, with a cubeb cigarette burning in a +saucer beside her, and was resurrecting her +mother’s sister again when he came in. He +beckoned me out into the hall after he had told +us about the coat.</p> + +<p>“Miss Blake is ill again,” he said. “The +second shock, after the first, you know.”</p> + +<p>“Not seriously, Tommy?” I asked, putting +my hand on his arm.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” he said miserably. “People +don’t go from one fainting attack into another +without—I guess you’ve seen how it is, Miss<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span> +Lizzie. I—it would kill me if any harm came +to her!”</p> + +<p>“No harm is coming to her,” I reassured +him. “If the strain has had this effect on Miss +Lewis, who has about the same nervous system +as a cow, of course it would go hard with +a finely organized girl like Miss Blake. And—don’t +be foolish, Tommy. No finding of +surgical knives in that girl’s room, or of rosettes +where they don’t happen to belong, +is going to make her guilty of anything +wrong. If she’s in trouble, it’s not of her +own making.”</p> + +<p>He fairly put his arm around me and +hugged me, to the horror of a passing nurse.</p> + +<p>“Blessed are the spinsters!” he cried, “for +they are the salt of the earth! Do you really +think that?”</p> + +<p>“I do,” I said firmly. “And shame on you, +Tommy Andrews, for having thought anything +else. I shall stay with her for an hour +or two.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span>“If you will,” he said gratefully, and we +started toward the dormitory.</p> + +<p>On the way over, Tommy told me more +clearly what had happened. The body of the +“carbolic case” had been taken to the mortuary +by Jacobs and Briggs, Marshall, the other +night orderly, having refused to go. On the +way up, Jacobs, who was running the elevator, +complained that it was out of order. It was +an old-fashioned lift, moving always very +slowly, and built on the familiar cable and +wheel principle. Twice during the ascent the +cage stopped entirely.</p> + +<p>Near the top floor the cage began to vibrate +wildly and Briggs had been obliged to steady +the wheeled table containing the corpse.</p> + +<p>Jacobs, who had told Tommy the story, said +that both he and Briggs were alarmed, fearing +that one of the cables had broken; while he +worked with the lever in the cage, Briggs +looked up apprehensively through the metal +grill in the center of the cage. The car was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span> +still shaking from side to side, and refused to +obey the lever. Jacobs turned to Briggs and +threw up his hands.</p> + +<p>“It’s stuck!” he said. “Either it’s going to +drop, when it gets ready, or—”</p> + +<p>He said Briggs wasn’t listening, but was +standing looking up at the grill with his face +blue-white. Jacobs looked up, too, but he was +a second too late. He had a sense of something +white moving just out of his range of +vision, and then the car ceased vibrating.</p> + +<p>Briggs was still staring up and the car was +moving again as if nothing had happened to +it. At the mortuary floor he had touched +Briggs on the arm, and he shivered and helped +him wheel the table out of the cage. Then +Briggs asked him to lower the cage until he +could see the top, but there was nothing there. +After that they took the body to the mortuary.</p> + +<p>“What did Briggs think he saw?” I asked +nervously, holding to Tommy’s arm. The hall +was dark.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span>“It’s rather fantastic,” Tommy said, “but—he +declared there was a bare foot planted directly +on the grill of the cage.”</p> + +<p>“A foot!” I gasped.</p> + +<p>“A foot,” said Tommy soberly. “And I’m +going to tell you what I wouldn’t care to tell +Aunt Tish or Miss Aggie. I’ve been on top of +the cage myself, just now, with a candle. +There are innumerable footprints in the dust, +distinct marks of a naked foot. But it is always +the right foot!”</p> + +<p>I shivered. “Tommy!” I quavered. “The +mark on the wall where Johnson was found +was—the print of a <i>naked right</i> foot.”</p> + +<p>“I know,” he replied, and fell to thinking. +“Well,” he said, after a moment, “I’d better +go on. Jacobs moved the cage down, but there +was nothing on it, or in the shaft over their +heads. It ends just above that floor, and as +the doors to the shaft were all locked, if anything +had been above the cage, it could hardly +have got away. Briggs himself said that he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span> +thought it was an optical illusion, and was apparently +not nervous when Jacobs went down +to get Miss Lewis. He was gone some time, +Miss Lewis, as I have said, having insisted on +being fortified with food before she went up.”</p> + +<p>Finally, as we knew, he had got Miss Lewis +and they went back to the mortuary. Briggs +was sitting there quietly, with his pipe lighted +and a newspaper on his knee. But he was +neither reading nor smoking and Jacobs said +he was staring overhead, with a queer expression +on his face, as if he were listening to +something.</p> + +<p>He started to say something to Jacobs, but +Jacobs signaled him to be cautious and pointed +to Miss Lewis. Briggs had nodded and resumed +his pipe. Everything was quiet and +peaceful, Jacobs insisted. Tommy and Hicks +had appeared sometime before and had gone +up the stairs to the roof. The man who had +been sent to guard that corridor, one of the +laundry men, was dozing in a chair half way<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span> +down. Jacobs, not being needed in the mortuary, +went down to him and roused him by +shaking. He and the laundry man were talking +when Miss Lewis came down to the empty +ward across from them, and turning on the +lights, went in search of something she needed.</p> + +<p>Jacobs was positive there had not been a +sound from the mortuary, except that a gust +of air from its open windows had swept along +the hall, and the glass-topped doors slammed +shut. There had been no outcry, no struggle. +When Miss Lewis went back briskly, and +opened the doors, she found Briggs apparently +gone, and the sheeted figure on the table as +before.</p> + +<p>It was only when she turned down the sheet +that she discovered the truth—the body of the +murdered orderly on the table and the corpse +not to be seen. It was then she screamed.</p> + +<p>“We have sent for the police,” Tommy finished. +“We didn’t want any publicity, but +now it has to come. It’s beyond us. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span> +strange thing is,” he said, “at the time it happened, +every corridor, every ward, every possible +means of access to the mortuary was +guarded.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, and with the one nearest it sound +asleep!” I commented scornfully. “And +goodness knows how many of the others!”</p> + +<p>“Jacobs was in the upper hall,” he contended, +“and whoever was asleep beforehand, +none of them was asleep after Miss Lewis +shrieked, Miss Lizzie. There are only two +means of access to the mortuary, one is the +fire-escape and the other the steps. Jacobs +was just beyond the steps all the time, and +Hicks and I were on the roof near the fire-escape. +Nobody left by those two exits. +That’s positive.”</p> + +<p>“There is another door in the mortuary,” I +said. “What is that?”</p> + +<p>“Mortuary linen closet,” said Tommy. “Always +kept locked, and still locked.”</p> + +<p>“You haven’t examined it?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span>“The linen room woman carries the key, +and she is away over night.”</p> + +<p>“Nobody was missing in the house?”</p> + +<p>“We made a tally immediately, with the +guards all watching every door and window. +Two internes and I made the count ourselves, +not a soul was missing.”</p> + +<p>“He was—strangled?”</p> + +<p>“No. That’s one of the queerest things +about it. He had been <i>squeezed</i>—his chest is +caved in, and I think the autopsy will show +that a point of one of the ribs entered the +heart. Death was almost instantaneous.”</p> + +<p>“And the brown coat?” I asked. “How did +it get there?”</p> + +<p>“God knows,” said Tommy, and rapped at +Miss Blake’s door.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XIV<br> + +<small>BAG AND BAGGAGE</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">TISH stared at me the next morning +when I told her the story Tommy had +told me, and laid the key of the mortuary linen +closet on her breakfast tray.</p> + +<p>“The Blake girl is still out of her head,” I +finished up, “and I found the key, as I tell you, +on her dresser, labeled as you see it. I don’t +want you to show it to Tommy, Tish.”</p> + +<p>“Tommy!” said Tish scornfully, and pushed +away her breakfast untasted. “I tell you, Lizzie, +if <i>I</i> had had charge of things last night, +that poor wretch would have carried in this +tray this morning, with the tea slopped over +everything as usual. Tommy is a nice boy, but +he’s stupid.”</p> + +<p>“But I don’t understand,” said Aggie from +the bed. “If you think, Tish Carberry, that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span> +finding the key to a linen closet is going to +prove anything against that pretty little nurse, +I’ll tell Tommy about it myself.”</p> + +<p>“Exactly,” said Tish, coldly. “And if you +do, I wash my hands of the whole affair. As +far as I’m concerned in that case, she can go +under suspicion the rest of her life.”</p> + +<p>“Suspicion of what?” Aggie demanded +tartly. “She didn’t kill Briggs, I suppose. Even +if she could have broken his ribs, as Tish says, +and she’s a perfectly respectable girl—you can +see <i>that</i> in her face—she was right on the stairs +here when it happened, wasn’t she?”</p> + +<p>Tish got up and put the key of the linen +closet in the lower bureau drawer.</p> + +<p>“Don’t be any more of a fool than you can +help, Aggie,” she said, and shut the drawer. +“I <i>don’t</i> think Miss Blake killed Briggs, or +got up on the wall and made a footprint a +foot and a half long near the ceiling, or hung +Johnson by the neck to a chandelier. And if +my nephew chooses to be so head over ears<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span> +in love with the young woman that he’s no +more capable of logical thought than a guinea-pig, +<i>I</i> shall look into the thing myself.”</p> + +<p>“Guinea-pig,” said Aggie. “Now then, that’s +another thing, Tish. The rabbits—”</p> + +<p>“Lizzie,” Tish said, snubbing her completely. +“Will you see if Miss Durand is off +duty yet? I want to talk to her. Lewis won’t +be back from breakfast for an hour. She +can’t Fletcherize and tell that story at the +same time.”</p> + +<p>The hall nurse promised me to find Miss Durand +and send her to Tish’s room, and started +at once in the search for her. She turned to +say, over her shoulder and with bated breath, +that detectives were in the building now, that +Tommy was with them, and that there was a +story that they’d found some curious prints +on the wall in the room where Johnson’s body +had hung.</p> + +<p>“A foot, and just beside it a woman’s +hand,” she said. “I hear they are going to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span> +take impressions of all the hands in the hospital +to-day!”</p> + +<p>I carried this to Tish, and she affected indifference. +But she was visibly uneasy and at +different times I caught her staring fixedly at +her palm.</p> + +<p>At eight o’clock Miss Durand came in looking +tired and white, Tish asked her to sit +down and offered her a little port wine, but +she refused.</p> + +<p>“No, thanks,” she said. “I’m off to bed +soon, and if I can only sleep—I didn’t sleep +much yesterday.”</p> + +<p>“Too noisy, I daresay,” said Tish. “Poor +Briggs complained of the same thing in this +very room yesterday.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, it wasn’t the noise. I—I got to thinking.” +She tried to smile. “There have been +so many strange things happening!”</p> + +<p>“I should think so,” said Aggie. “That +poor Miss Blake! Do you think—”</p> + +<p>Tish fixed her with a cold eye, and Aggie’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span> +voice trailed off to nothing. She looked +frightened.</p> + +<p>“Miss Durand,” said Tish, suddenly hitching +her chair forward, “I should like you to +tell me why you left Johnson to die alone and +why you absented yourself from your ward +for fifty minutes.”</p> + +<p>Miss Durand turned even paler, and got up. +“I didn’t understand that you—”</p> + +<p>“Sit down,” said Tish. “I guess you know +I’m chairman of the Ladies’ Committee here, +and you’d better tell me than tell the police. +I don’t start with the belief that half the hospital’s +guilty and the other half accessories to +the crime, and that’s what the police will do, +according to my experience.”</p> + +<p>“You may ask Bates—” she began.</p> + +<p>“So I may,” said Tish cheerfully. “And if +you are around he’ll say you were away a +scant ten minutes and if he’s alone, he’ll swear +to an hour or more.”</p> + +<p>“It was less than an hour, I’d swear to that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span> +anywhere,” said Miss Durand. “It couldn’t +have taken so long!”</p> + +<p>“What couldn’t have taken so long?” Tish +demanded.</p> + +<p>Miss Durand looked around at the three of +us and seemed to be thinking.</p> + +<p>“What do you mean by saying I’d better tell +you than tell the police?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“Just this,” Tish said briskly getting out +her sheet of note-paper. “I flatter myself I +can see as far through a stone wall as most +people, especially if there’s a crack to look +through. I’ve been looking at this particular +stone wall off and on since four o’clock this +morning, and—well, I think I begin to see +daylight.”</p> + +<p>“Humph!” said Aggie. “Then the least I +can say, Tish—”</p> + +<p>“Now, Miss Durand,” Tish began, biting +a point on her pencil, “we’ll get at this systematically. +Did Briggs have any enemies in +K Ward?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span>“He wasn’t popular. I guess old Johnson +hated him about the most.”</p> + +<p>“Ah!” said Tish, and put that down. “Did +you know Johnson was dying when you left +the ward?”</p> + +<p>“He’d been dying for twenty-four hours +and had been unconscious for six,” she defended +herself. “Nobody can tell when that +sort will make a clean get-away.”</p> + +<p>“Good gracious!” Aggie ejaculated, and +even Tish looked shocked. Miss Durand was +clearly not in Miss Blake’s class: seen in the +morning light, her face looked hard as well as +tired.</p> + +<p>“I see,” said Tish, and put down “clean get-away.” +“Now, Miss Durand, why had Linda +Smith been crying when she came to you at +midnight that night?”</p> + +<p>“She said she had had some words with the +head nurse. She had missed a lecture that +evening.”</p> + +<p>“Why did she miss the lecture?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span>“I don’t know.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t know or won’t tell?” asked Tish, +over her note-paper.</p> + +<p>“Don’t know,” snapped Miss Durand, and +for all I didn’t like her, I thought she was telling +the truth.</p> + +<p>“Now, Miss Durand,” Tish observed, sitting +back and fixing her lame leg on its hassock, +“I’d be glad to hear why Miss Linda +Smith took you away from your ward that +night, and where you went.”</p> + +<p>“She had forgotten to attend to something, +and she came back to fix it.”</p> + +<p>“What?”</p> + +<p>Miss Durand stared at Tish and Tish leaned +back, with her pencil stuck through the knob +of her hair, and stared at Miss Durand. As +I have said somewhere else, Tish is a masterful +woman, and Miss Durand felt it.</p> + +<p>“She had forgotten to turn in Johnson’s +clothes,” she said. “That is always done after +a death: the clothes are held in the office for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span> +the friends to get. We went to the basement +clothes room.”</p> + +<p>“But Johnson was not dead!”</p> + +<p>“The chances were he would die that night. +The clothes should have been ready in case +relatives had wished to remove the body at +once.”</p> + +<p>“The trip to the clothes room would take +about ten minutes, I daresay,” Tish said dryly. +“Why didn’t she go alone?”</p> + +<p>“I—I hardly know. She was nervous and +upset. You see, her three years is almost up, +and she and the superintendent are on bad +terms. She has always said that he would +make use of any small mistake she made, to +keep her from getting her diploma.”</p> + +<p>“When would she get it, everything going +well?”</p> + +<p>“Next week.”</p> + +<p>“Very good,” said Tish, and put something +down. “Now then, what happened in the +clothes room?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span>“I didn’t go in.”</p> + +<p>“Where were you?”</p> + +<p>“The morning milk cans were being delivered. +I went to the other end of the basement, +past the engine room, and got a glass of milk. +I was thirsty.”</p> + +<p>“I see. And that took forty minutes?”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Miss Durand. “When I got +back to the clothes room, I couldn’t find Miss +Smith. The cellar man, sitting on the stairs, +said she had not gone up. I was worried, and +we both searched for her. We couldn’t find +her.”</p> + +<p>“But you did find her. You went back to +K ward together.”</p> + +<p>“I didn’t find her,” said Miss Durand. +“When I came back to the stairs, she was sitting +there, with a bundle in her lap. She was +white. The cellar man asked her if she felt +sick.”</p> + +<p>“How did she explain her absence?”</p> + +<p>“She didn’t,” said Miss Durand with her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span> +curious smile. “She’s a very queer woman, +Miss Smith is.”</p> + +<p>“Humph!” Tish said, and put down a line +or two. “Well, I reckon the next thing to do +is to see Miss Smith. She looks pleasant +enough, but you can’t tell by looking at a toad +how far it can hop.”</p> + +<p>Miss Durand got up and prepared to go. +She still wore her curious smile.</p> + +<p>“I think it has hopped a good ways, Miss +Carberry,” she said. “Linda Smith has gone, +bag and baggage, nobody knows where!”</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XV<br> + +<small>TO THE ZOO</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap2">AGGIE being better, and having declared +that no power on earth would make her +spend another night in the place, we planned to +leave about noon that day. But Tish’s astonishing +conduct drove all idea of going from +our minds.</p> + +<p>In the first place, Miss Lewis came in from +breakfast looking a little bit better, and insisted +on giving Tish’s knee its massage, as usual. +But Tish was sitting poring over the notes she +had made, and wouldn’t even so much as +look up.</p> + +<p>“Get away,” she snarled, with her pencil in +her teeth. “There’s nothing wrong with my +knee.”</p> + +<p>Miss Lewis looked at me.</p> + +<p>“There was something wrong with it yesterday,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span> +she said, with her thumbs tucked +inside her belt and her spectacles flashing. +“It’s got cured pretty quick, I think.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t employ you to think,” said Tish, +hopping past her and opening the lower bureau +drawer.</p> + +<p>“You needn’t employ me at all.”</p> + +<p>“That’s a fact,” Tish said. “It hadn’t occurred +to me. You go in and take care of +Miss Pilkington to-day, Miss Lewis. There’s +nothing pleases her like being taken care of.”</p> + +<p>“There’s nothing the matter with Miss Pilkington, +either,” snapped Miss Lewis, but +Tish was getting down on her knees by the +drawer, groaning as she did it, and she only +threw an absent reply over her shoulder. “Oh, +well,” she said, “you know what I mean. I +didn’t mean to offend you. You’re a good +nurse, but I’ve got something else on hand. +Give Miss Pilkington a bath and put talcum +on; she’ll take to it like a baby.”</p> + +<p>Miss Lewis opened her mouth to refuse,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span> +thought better of it, and went to Aggie’s +room. Tish drew a long sigh.</p> + +<p>“Thank heaven!” she said. “They’ll keep +each other busy for the rest of the day.”</p> + +<p>Which they did. Aggie emerged from her +room when Tish and I, breathless and dirty, +got back late that morning. She was powdered +and manicured, curled and French-puffed, +and she knew the history of every +private case on the floor; name, age, family +scandal and operation. She was primed to talk, +but by that time Tish and I had no time to +stop. Things were approaching a climax.</p> + +<p>Well, Miss Lewis and Aggie off our hands, +Tish emptied the lower drawer and spread its +contents on the floor in front of her. First +of all, she laid out the two roller towels, with +the S. P. T. showing. Then followed the +brown tweed coat, secured by a dollar to Jacobs, +the small surgeon’s knife, the dented +brass candlestick, the bandage Linda Smith +had picked up in the upper hall, the linen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span> +room key, and Charlie Sands’ letter about +Hero at the Zoo. Then with the sheet of note-paper +in her hand, she began to play a sort of +checkers with the different things. The two +S. P. T. towels she put together and using +this combination as a king, she proceeded to +jump the other articles, one by one, moving +them around aimlessly in the intervals and +consulting her notes.</p> + +<p>At the end of the game, as well as I could +make out, the king had it. At least, the two +towels seemed to have Charlie Sands’ letter +checkmated in a corner, and the other articles +lay in a humiliated heap on Tish’s lap.</p> + +<p>“Well,” I said, “I see the towels win, +although I think you cheated once.”</p> + +<p>Tish stuffed the notes into the bosom of her +dress and tumbled the other things back in +the drawer. Then she got up, making horrible +faces as she straightened her knee.</p> + +<p>“I’m sorry it’s raining, Lizzie,” she said. +“We’ll have to go out.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span>“Where!” I asked sarcastically. “To the +matinée?”</p> + +<p>“To the Zoo,” she replied, and hauling +down her bonnet from the cupboard, stuck it +on her head. “Shall we need a taxicab?”</p> + +<p>“Probably, if you intend to go out in your +nightgown,” I said coldly.</p> + +<p>But if I expected Tish to be confused, I was +disappointed. With her bonnet still on, she +put on her shoes and stockings, her black +broadcloth skirt, a lamb’s wool vest and her +long fur coat. It wasn’t until she was finished +that she remembered her nightgown underneath +everything.</p> + +<p>“It’s a little long, isn’t it?” she said, when +she’d started for the door, with six inches of +white trailing all around her. “Pin it up, +Lizzie; that’s a good girl.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll do nothing of the sort,” I said. “If +you want to make a goose of yourself with a +knee that you are forbidden to step on, and +maybe a taxicab accident with you fixed like<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span> +that underneath, I’m not going to be a party +to it.”</p> + +<p>“Very well!” said Tish, and getting a pair +of scissors, she was about to cut off eight +inches of her best French gown, when I weakened +and got the safety pins. It was plain, +Tish was in no mood to stop at trifles. I made +her as respectable as possible, at least on the +surface, and by that time, seeing she was determined +to go, I got ready and went with her.</p> + +<p>Now, a patient can’t leave a hospital without +a card being sent down, signed by the interne +and countersigned by the superintendent, +and brought back by the elevator boy for the +signatures of his family, his friends and the +police bureau, or something almost as complicated. +But not knowing anything of this, Tish +and I went down in the elevator, past the +door-man and out the front door, called a +taxicab and drove away with perfect ease and +calmness.</p> + +<p>We went to the Zoo. That is generally<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span> +known now, although that Tish went in her +nightgown is here for the first time set forth. +But what we did at the Zoo I do not know exactly. +I might as well have been back with +Aggie, being bathed and talcumed. Tish let +me pay the taxicab, pointed to a chair in the +ante-room, and spent twenty minutes in the +private office of the superintendent.</p> + +<p>I was rather bitter about it. In the first +place, I don’t like Zoos, and in the second +place, after I had been there ten minutes, a +man in uniform came in and examined all the +corners of the room and turned over every +chair. When he came to the one I was in, he +said, “Excuse me, ma’am, but you haven’t noticed +a small green snake with red and yellow +markings anywhere around here, have you?”</p> + +<p>I was frozen in my chair.</p> + +<p>“No,” I replied as calmly as I possibly could, +“unless I absent-mindedly put him in my hand-bag!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I didn’t mean that, lady,” he hastened<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span> +to explain, “I meant—he may be curled on the +rungs of your chair.”</p> + +<p>I got up at that almost instantaneously and +he turned the chair over. “Not here,” he +said, disappointed. “Little devil, this is the +third time this week!”</p> + +<p>“Is he—is he poisonous?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“Well,” he said thoughtfully, “personally, +I shouldn’t care to sit down on him in the +dark.”</p> + +<p>He went out and closed the door, and when +Tish came back, she declares I was standing +in the middle of the room with my skirts held +up, and turning slowly around in a circle.</p> + +<p>There was a glitter in Tish’s eye that I had +never seen there before, as we drove back to +the hospital. I attempted to explain a little +of how I felt at being left in a place like that, +where at any moment something might break +loose for the third time that week, and why +I was turning around, but she told me tartly +not to bother her.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span>We returned to the hospital in silence, and +I paid for the taxicab. It was not until we +were back in Tish’s room, and had put her +into her chair and got a hot-water bottle under +her knee, which had gone on a strike about +that time and refused to bend at all, that I +spoke.</p> + +<p>“Well?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“Well—what?”</p> + +<p>“Have they lost anything? Any animals?”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Tish calmly. “I knew that before +I went there. Aggie, what day was it the +two medical internes left?”</p> + +<p>“This is Friday,” I said. “It was Tuesday +evening, Tish.”</p> + +<p>“I thought so,” she observed. “Now reach +me my notes, Lizzie, and go call Bates.”</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XVI<br> + +<small>TOMMY TELLS WHY</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">BATES came unwillingly. His shrewd +face was pale and twitching, and he insisted +on knowing why he was wanted.</p> + +<p>“I can not tell you, because I do not know, +Mr. Bates,” I said. “Miss Carberry wants +to speak to you. That is all.”</p> + +<p>“I haven’t time,” he said. “I’m helping out +in the wards to-day. One of the day orderlies +has to take Mr. Briggs’ place to-night, and he +has gone to bed to get some sleep.”</p> + +<p>But I got him to go finally, and we went +together along the hall, his carpet-slippers flapping +loosely as he walked, his shirt open at +the throat and showing his lean brown neck. +I thought to myself uneasily that the man +looked like, at least, a potential criminal himself.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span> +But just as we reached Tish’s door +Tommy came out.</p> + +<p>I sent Bates in, for Tommy had put his +hand on my arm.</p> + +<p>“What has she been up to?” he asked, as +the door closed. “She’s sitting in there in a +kimono, with her foot on a stool, and she’s +got her bonnet on.”</p> + +<p>“We’ve been out,” I said tartly. “Or she’s +been out. I only went along. We went to the +Zoo, Tommy, and she left me to sit on snakes +with green and red markings—”</p> + +<p>“What!”</p> + +<p>“Well, it only happened that I didn’t. And +she’s got hold of something: I never saw her +in such a state.”</p> + +<p>“The Zoo!” cried Tommy and whistled. +Then he smiled. “I see,” he said; “<i>The Murders +in the Rue Morgue</i>, eh? Well, what +happened?”</p> + +<p>“I haven’t any idea. She’s got some sort +of a scent, and she’s got her nose to the ground<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span> +and running like mad. If she’s interfered +with to-day, she’ll bite.”</p> + +<p>“I see,” said Tommy again thoughtfully. +“Well, good luck to her.”</p> + +<p>“How is Miss Blake?”</p> + +<p>He lowered his voice. “She’s conscious, +but don’t tell Aunt Tish, please. She wants +to ask her some questions, and I don’t want +her disturbed. She’s very weak.” He looked +down at a little case he had in his hand, and +then at me. “I’m going to give her a hypodermic,” +he said, “and the nurse is doing something +else. Would you mind coming over +with me?”</p> + +<p>Well, of course, I’d wanted to hear what +Tish asked Bates, but as I’ve admitted before, +I’m a good bit of a fool where there’s a love +affair on hand, and I’m fond of Tommy.</p> + +<p>“All right,” I said, and we went. I thought +I heard Tish’s voice raised angrily as we left +the door, but the next moment there was only +the quiet hum of Bates speaking.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span>The little nurse was lying in bed with her +eyes closed. She looked white, but her lips +had more color than the day before. She +opened her eyes as we came in, and put out +her hand to me.</p> + +<p>“You’re very good,” she said. “You see I +am better.” Tommy beamed.</p> + +<p>“And just in time!” said I. “One more +fainting fit, and Doctor Tommy Andrews +would have been tied up in a strait-jacket.”</p> + +<p>She colored a little and looked at him.</p> + +<p>“I’ve been telling her,” said Tommy, catching +my eye, “about Miss Lewis and the mouse +last night. A girl with a set of lungs like that +is lost in a hospital. She ought to be in a +garage blowing up auto tires.”</p> + +<p>“And—everything was quiet last night?”</p> + +<p>“Not a sound—except the aforesaid yell. +Never knew the house quieter.” He reached +over and caught her wrist. “Nerves as tight +as a string!” he said. “You’re going to have +a hypodermic and relax a bit.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span>“Since you <i>will</i> be my medical adviser—” +she said, half shyly, and held out her right +arm.</p> + +<p>Tommy fixed the hypodermic and came +over to the bed. “Ready!” he said, but instead +of the right arm, he leaned across and +drew up the short white sleeve of the left. +She made a quick movement, but was too late.</p> + +<p>“Good heavens!” Tommy said, and we both +stared. The arm was covered with bruises +from elbow to shoulder!</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Tommy walked back with me to Tish’s +room, but at first he said nothing, and neither +did I. The girl had offered no explanation, +and he had asked none. The poor little arm +had been too pathetic.</p> + +<p>Just before we reached Tish’s door, however, +he stopped.</p> + +<p>“The sheer brutality of it!” he said. “She’s +only a bit of a girl, and she’s been through +something horrible. But I’m not going to ask<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span> +her about it, and I won’t have her questioned +by anybody else. If I’m satisfied, it’s nobody +else’s affair.”</p> + +<p>“Listen to the egoist!” said I. “And why +is it your affair only?”</p> + +<p>“Because I’m going to marry her, if she’ll +have me,” he said hotly. “And after I have +her, and can protect her, I’m going to kill whoever +put those finger-prints on her arm.”</p> + +<p>“Finger-prints!” I cried.</p> + +<p>“Yes, finger-prints,” he said, and opened +the door.</p> + +<p>Bates had gone, and Aggie and Tish were +together. Tish still wore her bonnet, and she +had a crimson spot on each cheek.</p> + +<p>“Tommy,” she said, the moment we entered. +“I’ve sent for the linen woman, and I +want you to stay by. As soon as I’ve seen her, +we’re going to the Blake girl’s room.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no; you’re not,” said Tommy calmly. +“You’ll go there over my dead body.”</p> + +<p>“That wouldn’t be much of an obstacle!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span>“She’s very ill. I won’t have her disturbed,” +said Tommy, and set his jaw. They both +have the Carberry jaw. Tish made an impatient +movement. “Oh, well, I can manage +without her. Is the top of the elevator flat?” +she added.</p> + +<p>“The center is, I believe,” Tommy was +doubtful. “What on earth—”</p> + +<p>“Never mind!” said Tish grandly, and the +linen woman knocked.</p> + +<p>“Mrs. Jenkins?” asked Tish.</p> + +<p>“Yes’m,” said Mrs. Jenkins. She was a tall +woman, in black, with a white apron and a +thimble as badges of office.</p> + +<p>“I wanted to ask you for the key to the +mortuary linen closet, Mrs. Jenkins,” said +Tish.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Jenkins fidgeted, and glanced at +Tommy.</p> + +<p>“I’m sorry,” she said. “I—haven’t got it +just now.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed!” Tish raised her eyebrows.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span> +“Aren’t you responsible for that closet? I +have a particular reason for asking.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Jenkins turned to Tommy. “Since +you’re here, Doctor Andrews,” she said, “I +suppose it’s all right, but we don’t give the +keys to any of the closets to patients usually.”</p> + +<p>“Since you haven’t got it, that needn’t disturb +you,” Tish said sharply. “If you wish a +reason, however, I’m a member of the Ladies’ +Committee of this hospital, and as I am undertaking +a special inquiry into things that +have happened here lately, <i>I want that key</i>.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Jenkins looked dazed. She had never +seen a female detective, I daresay, and to see +one sitting before her in a kimono over a +nightgown, with a black bonnet with jet bugles +over one ear, and her foot out on a stool, +clearly bewildered her.</p> + +<p>“I’m sorry,” she said respectfully, when +she’d recovered, “but the key that usually +hangs in the mortuary is lost, and I gave Miss +Linda Smith the other one.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span>“Hah!” cried Tish. “When?”</p> + +<p>“Yesterday, I think. I’m not sure.”</p> + +<p>“Thank you very much, Mrs. Jenkins. I’ll +not keep you any longer.” And as the linen +woman went out, Tish got up and reached for +her cane.</p> + +<p>“Now then, Tommy,” she said, “I’ll trouble +you to take Lizzie and Aggie somewhere and +keep them, so I can think. Take them out and +get them some soda water.”</p> + +<p>“Soda water! Perhaps you would like me +to go back to the Zoo,” I observed with biting +sarcasm. But it was lost on Tish.</p> + +<p>“I shouldn’t advise it,” she said. “It’s raining +again. Just get out—go anywhere, so you +go. And come back in an hour.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve half a mind—” Aggie began nastily.</p> + +<p>“Why, so you have!” said Tish. “Shut the +door behind you.” And as Aggie, who was +the last, slammed out, we heard Tish opening +the lower bureau drawer.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XVII<br> + +<small>ON THE ROOF AND ELSEWHERE</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">WE came back in an hour to find Tish +waiting with her bonnet still on, and +in a more agreeable frame of mind. She asked +Tommy and me to go around the hospital with +her, but refused to take Aggie, who retired +sulking to her room. Tish rolled up the S. P. +T. towels and led the way herself, a strange +gleam in her eye. Considering what she had in +mind, it was a courageous thing she was doing, +but I don’t mind admitting now that there +were moments that day when I thought she +had lost her reason.</p> + +<p>She led the way to the mortuary first, with +her bundle under her arm, and Tommy and +I trailing at her heels, like two bewildered +lambs after a wild-eyed sheep. Seen in daylight, +there was nothing horrible about the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span> +mortuary. There were no bodies there, and +the daylight came in in churchly fashion +through the two large stained-glass windows +in the end. Indeed, the room looked like a +small chapel, being finished in dark wood, with +pale walls, chairs in a row around the edge +of the floor, and only the row of tables in the +center instead of pews, to spoil its ecclesiastical +appearance.</p> + +<p>At the far end, to the left, and near the +windows, was the door to the linen closet. +Tish gave the room only a casual glance, and +stalked across to the linen closet. She hesitated +a moment and grasped her stick closely. +Then she inserted the key she had carried up +with her, and slowly turned it.</p> + +<p>The door flew open immediately and I took +a hasty step back. But it had been pushed +only by the draft of air from a small window +at the side, which was open, and except +for piles of neatly folded linen, the closet was +empty. Tish looked slightly disappointed, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span> +not discouraged. She went in and stuck her +head out through the open window, looking +in every direction.</p> + +<p>“Exactly,” she said and prepared to close +and lock the closet again. But she waited to +close the small window first, and when she +turned, Tommy had stooped over something +lying on the floor just inside the door.</p> + +<p>“Look!” he said, holding it out on his palm. +“Briggs’ old pipe, with the stem gone! The +one he was smoking when—!”</p> + +<p>If he expected Tish to be impressed he was +disappointed.</p> + +<p>“There’s nothing astonishing about that!” +she said calmly, and proceeding to climb out +one of the stained-glass windows on to the fire-escape—although +it was the fifth floor and +Tish had always declared she’d rather burn up +than put a foot on one of the things—she ran +nimbly up and over the cornice to the roof.</p> + +<p>It was a very ordinary roof. One part was +flat, and evidently used occasionally as a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span> +breathing spot. There were benches around +and a flower pot or two, and directly in the +center was a four-foot iron fence, enclosing +a skylight. Two men at work there showed +where Tommy had gone through, and when I +glanced at him he was staring at it with a +rueful smile.</p> + +<p>“When you remember,” he said, “that I +weigh a hundred and seventy pounds, and that +I went over that fence head first, it makes you +wonder what grudge old Johnson had against +me. <i>I</i> was decent enough to him, if Briggs +wasn’t.”</p> + +<p>“Do you mean that—that Briggs was <i>cruel</i> +to him?” I asked Tommy.</p> + +<p>“With a refined form of cruelty, yes. The +sort that lets an old man go without sugar in +his tea, and won’t hear him begging for ice-water.”</p> + +<p>“Then I’m glad he’s dead,” I snapped, “and +if I’d been Johnson, I’d have—”</p> + +<p>Tish had wandered across the roof, and was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span> +standing on a part of it about two feet higher +than the rest, looking at a second and smaller +skylight.</p> + +<p>“What’s this, Tommy?” she called.</p> + +<p>“Elevator, I think,” said Tommy, and we +went over. Tish was looking around her +with speculative eyes.</p> + +<p>“I guess this is about right,” she said. “I +miss my guess, unless—Tommy, get down +with your ear to the roof and see if you hear +anything.”</p> + +<p>“It’s dirty,” said Tommy.</p> + +<p>“I guess you’ll wash without spoiling,” Tish +snapped. “It ain’t a Carberry trait to be +afraid of dirt. Get down.”</p> + +<p>Tommy pulled up his trousers legs and got +down gingerly, and I followed suit. I daresay +we looked queer, both kneeling, and each with +an eager ear to the tin. The two men at the +other skylight stared at us over the railing +nervously.</p> + +<p>We didn’t hear anything, and Tish looked<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span> +disappointed. But she didn’t stop her half +hop, half run, over the roof. At the end of +fifteen minutes she was back at the top of the +fire-escape, ready to descend. But going down +was different from going up, and I guess we +were both relieved when Tommy said there +was a staircase.</p> + +<p>When we got to the bottom, I was clear out +of breath, and even Tommy was panting. But +Tish hadn’t turned a hair. Some sort of inward +excitement was stimulating her like a fever, +and knowing Tish, I felt she would cave in +like a pricked balloon when it was over.</p> + +<p>The next thing she demanded was to be put +on the top of the elevator cage. But Tommy +absolutely balked at that and Tish seemed to +realize herself that it wouldn’t do.</p> + +<p>“I’ll go for you,” Tommy said. “I’m willing +to sacrifice myself for you any time, Aunt +Tish, but you can see for yourself that a self-respecting +woman in her prime can’t ride on +top of an elevator without causing comment.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span> +It isn’t being done in our set this winter, Aunt +Tish.”</p> + +<p>Tish gave in, or pretended to, and we went +back to her room. Aggie was there, dressed +but sulky, and we had tea all around and tried +to talk about indifferent things. We told +Aggie we had been up to see the mortuary, +whereon she insisted on seeing it, too, and +Miss Lewis and I took her.</p> + +<p>We left Tish still working over her notes, +with a cup of tea in one hand, which she was +absently stirring with her lead pencil, and +went up-stairs. Tommy had gone to see Miss +Blake again.</p> + +<p>We showed Aggie the mortuary and she +got weak in the knees and had to sit a few +minutes. It must have been fifteen minutes, +therefore, when, supporting her between us, +we led her down the steps and rang for the +elevator. It travels, as I say, very quietly, and +when it came into view, all we could do was +to stare, our mouths open.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span>Riding majestically on top of it, one hand in +a dignified manner holding to the cable, the +other clutching her stick, and with her head +thrown back and staring up, was Tish! She +went past us without seeing us, and a moment +later we heard her say calmly:</p> + +<p>“Stop now, Frank. Stop!”</p> + +<p>Almost immediately on that she said, “Go +down! <i>Go down</i>, I tell you! <i>Go down!</i>”</p> + +<p>The cage went down past us, with Tish still +holding on, still looking up. But on her face +there was the most terrible expression of mingled +fright and satisfaction I ever saw.</p> + +<p>The next moment there began, from above, +a shower of sticks, pieces of plaster, and +finally, a small creature that looked like, and +proved to be, a dead rabbit. Aggie began to +scream and to tear at the elevator doors, but +luckily they held.</p> + +<p>Well, as the newspapers have told, the idiot +of an elevator man kept on to the first floor +in his excitement, and it’s a great wonder Tish<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span> +was not brained. But nothing hit her, and +she got to the lower floor in safety. If she +had waited until the cage was lowered sufficiently, +she would not have been hurt, but just +as the top was still four feet from the floor, +the rabbit landed, and Tish jumped and broke +her arm.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XVIII<br> + +<small>COMMON SENSE</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">WELL, that’s all there was to it. As +I said at the beginning, this is really +Tish’s story. She told us the whole thing +that night sitting up in bed, with the Chief of +Police and the hospital superintendent on one +side of the bed, and Miss Lewis and I on the +other. Aggie lay on the couch with a cubeb +cigarette burning beside her, and stared at +Tish with admiration mixed with awe.</p> + +<p>“In the first place,” said Tish, to the Chief +of Police, “here are the two towels that figure +in the case. One of them is the one that hung +Mr. Johnson’s body three nights ago to the +chandelier, the other is the one with which the +ape, Hero, is supposed to have committed suicide +at the Zoo the following night. As you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span> +see, the two towels are alike. Do you know +what S. P. T. stands for?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“I can’t say I do,” said the Chief of Police, +and picked up one of the towels.</p> + +<p>“Humph!” said Tish. “Well, it means +‘Sick Patient Towel,’ and they are used in hospitals +for tying up delirious patients. The +trouble was, there wasn’t a delirious patient +in the hospital strong enough to walk, let alone +tie up a body to a chandelier.</p> + +<p>“But before I learned from Bates what S. +P. T. meant, I’d been to the Zoo. That was +yesterday morning. Maybe you believe that +a lonely monkey will commit suicide; maybe +he will, I don’t know. But when he hangs +himself with a roller towel from the Dunkirk +hospital, I want to know how he got that +towel.”</p> + +<p>“Oho!” said the Chief of Police, “so the +little rascal got loose, did he?”</p> + +<p>“He did not,” said Tish tartly. “They said +he was lonely for his keeper. Very well, said<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span> +I, where is his keeper? Where is this man +he was so fond of that he couldn’t live without +him? The answer, gentlemen, was that +this keeper was a patient in the Dunkirk hospital, +as the result of being crushed almost to +death by the beast that was supposed to be +pining for him! The keeper’s name was Wesley +Barker!”</p> + +<p>“Barker!” said Tommy. “Why, that was +the big Englishman—! Go on, Aunt Tish.”</p> + +<p>“I came back to the hospital with a strong +desire to talk to Wesley Barker, but Wesley +Barker was not in the hospital. He had been +dismissed three days ago. Bates recalled taking +his dismissal card to the elevator man, +about seven o’clock Tuesday evening. That +put Barker out of the case, apparently, but I +sent for Jacobs and asked him how easily a +man could get into the building at night. He +said it was impossible. The doors are always +locked, the basement entrances and fire-escapes +lead from the courtyard, and the courtyard is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span> +locked and in charge of a gate man. That +seemed to cut out Wesley Barker, as I say. If +he was out, he could hardly get back without +using dynamite.</p> + +<p>“I got out my notes again, and went over +them. I couldn’t see how Miss Blake and +Miss Linda Smith were mixed up in it. They +were the day nurses in K ward, Miss Smith in +charge and Miss Blake assisting. I had several +notes on them: Tuesday at midnight Miss +Smith coaxed the night nurse to go to the basement +with her, where the patients’ clothes are +kept in lockers: she was missing for a time, +and when Bates saw her later she carried a +‘darkish bundle,’ possibly clothing. Why?”</p> + +<p>The Chief of Police looked wise; he had a +way of wriggling his nose like a rabbit.</p> + +<p>“The next morning, Miss Blake being ill, +we heard Miss Smith crying in her room and +blaming herself for the girl’s condition,” Tish +went on. “Again, why?</p> + +<p>“On Wednesday night Miss Blake, still<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span> +weak and ill, made a complete search of the +third floor. Not another nurse in the house +would have gone there, or to the mortuary and +later to the roof, as she did. Some strong +purpose sent the girl, of course—but what?</p> + +<p>“That night, following Miss Blake to the +roof, my nephew was thrown through a skylight. +Later he confessed to a bite on the +shoulder. The same night, apparently in a +spirit of wanton mischief, the guinea-pigs in +the laboratory were killed and three rabbits +were taken away. Miss Blake had been there. +My nephew confessed later to finding a rosette +from her slipper there. Again—why?”</p> + +<p>Tish stopped and looked at the Chief of +Police, who sat stroking his chin.</p> + +<p>“How would you have gone about the case, +Mr. Chief of Police?” Tish demanded.</p> + +<p>“Probably much as you did,” he said, looking +at her with a patronizing smile. “It’s a +simple matter when we know the answer, to +say that two and two make four, but you are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span> +giving me the four, and asking me whether +you reached that conclusion by adding three +and one, or two and two, or four and nothing. +Given a certain number of clues, the logical +mind often achieves remarkable results, but it +is usually the trained mind. That you succeeded +so well, my dear lady, I consider remarkable. +Remarkable!”</p> + +<p>“Given the same clues,” Tish persisted, +“you’d have reached the same result?”</p> + +<p>“Undoubtedly.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Tish, mildly. “It’s strange +that I couldn’t. There were a few gaps my +mind wouldn’t jump. And I noticed your +men here seemed to feel the same way. It +seemed like some distance from a roller towel +in the Zoo to Johnson’s brown tweed coat.”</p> + +<p>The Chief of Police looked uneasy.</p> + +<p>“By exactly <i>what</i> mental process did you +connect the two?” he asked, wriggling his +nose.</p> + +<p>“I didn’t,” said Tish calmly. “While you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span> +and your men were measuring finger-prints +and reassembling Mr. Johnson from where +he’d been scattered to, I did what any person +with common sense would have done, <i>I went +to Miss Blake and asked her</i>!”</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XIX<br> + +<small>NOTE BY DOCTOR THOMAS ANDREWS, LATE VISITING +PHYSICIAN AT THE DUNKIRK HOSPITAL, +AND NOW ON THE ORTHOPÆDIC +STAFF OF THE SAME INSTITUTION, +DATED THREE WEEKS LATER, +FROM BERMUDA</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">MISS LIZZIE’S narrative stops here. +My Aunt Letitia, during her convalescence +in the hospital, having been discovered +poring over books of aerial navigation, +and having written to the Wrights, offering +to turn over a second-hand automobile of +standard make, a thirty-foot motor-launch, and +an equity in money, for one of their model biplanes, +Miss Lizzie and Miss Aggie hurriedly +took her to Mount Clemens for a series of +baths.</p> + +<p>“I shall take up Miss Lizzie’s narrative with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span> +the story told to my Aunt Letitia by Miss +Blake, now my wife. Miss Blake was young, +only nineteen, and had been in the hospital +only six months. Miss Smith was the head day +nurse in K ward, with Miss Blake as her assistant. +Miss Smith had almost completed +her three years’ course, and was not popular +with the officers. She was, however, a good +nurse, and unlike Miss Blake, was dependent +on her earnings for her support.</p> + +<p>“On Tuesday evening, trouble between the +two medical <i>internes</i> and the hospital superintendent, +Mr. Harrison, reached a climax. The +three men had a wordy argument on the staircase +near K ward, and Linda Smith (who was +not over-scrupulous) had shut herself in a +small supply room near to listen. The ward +was in charge of Miss Blake, who was serving +the patients’ suppers from a table in the center +of the long room. Behind a screen, in the +second bed from the far end of the ward lay +Amos Johnson, peacefully dying. Beyond<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span> +him, in the end bed, lay a delirious patient +named Wesley Barker, an Englishman, who +had been sent in from the Zoological Garden, +badly injured by the great ape, Hero, since +dead.</p> + +<p>“Barker was tied down. Two long towels, +one over his arms and one over his legs, were +knotted beyond his reach under the edge of +the bed. His fractured ribs had healed, but +he was still delirious. His delirium in the last +day or two had taken on an acuter form, and +was mania. Articulate speech had changed +to noisy ape-like chatterings. He made strange +facial grimaces, and being tied, had more +than once tried to bite his nurses.</p> + +<p>“Miss Blake filled a feeding cup with broth, +and having attended to the other patients, went +behind Johnson’s screen to feed the maniac in +the last bed. To her horror, the bed was +empty!</p> + +<p>“Nervous, but not excessively alarmed, +Miss Blake called Linda Smith, and they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span> +searched the ward. Barker had gone, perhaps +by creeping behind the heads of the beds +to the doorway, and there, watching his +chance, escaping to the fire-escape by a hall +window near. Although only late September, +it was cold, and he wore only the clothing he +had worn in bed, a hospital nightshirt.</p> + +<p>“Miss Blake wished to raise an immediate +alarm, but Linda Smith refused. She was responsible: +an investigation would show she +had been absent from her ward without +reason, and for some time. She was in disfavor +already, and she could not risk losing +her diploma. She had an invalid sister dependent +on her. By threats and tears she +made Miss Blake promise to say nothing of +Barker’s escape and to help her find him.</p> + +<p>“It was almost dark by that time, and the +girls were in despair. Linda Smith went down +the fire-escape to the courtyard, and found the +gate man staring through the bars at the river.</p> + +<p>“‘I dropped a rubber sheet out the window,’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span> +she said, ‘but I don’t see it. What are +you looking at?’</p> + +<p>“The gate man pointed to the Center Street +bridge, which crosses the river near the hospital. +‘There’s a woman out there in white,’ +he said, ‘and she looks as if she might be +thinking—there, look at that!’</p> + +<p>“The bridge was practically deserted. She +and the gate man saw the figure move back a +step or two, run forward and dive over the +rail. The gate man unlocked the gate and ran +out, but the toll house is at the east end of +the bridge, and by the time he had raised the +alarm there was nothing to be seen. Linda +Smith went back to Miss Blake, and had hysteria +in the K ward linen room.</p> + +<p>“Discovery meant disgrace to her, so she +made up her mind not to be discovered. Barker +had had no family and no friends. No one +had visited him except the assistant keeper, +and he had not shown any particular solicitude. +Linda Smith thought she saw a way<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span> +out, and half frightened, half coaxed Miss +Blake into helping her. Remember, they both +thought Barker was dead, and Linda Smith +threatened in case of discovery, to throw herself +off the roof. Miss Blake’s part, therefore, +was the acquiescence of a young and +terrified girl, in a situation that would have +shaken older and stronger nerves.</p> + +<p>“The two medical <i>internes</i> left at seven +o’clock, as a result of the dispute with the superintendent. +At ten minutes past seven, Linda +Smith sent down a dismissal card for one +Wesley Barker, with the forged signature of +one of the departed <i>internes</i>. At twenty minutes +past, the yellow ticket came back from the +office, the ticket which would permit Wesley +Barker to pass the door-man and leave the hospital +for good. Linda Smith destroyed it.</p> + +<p>“At seventy-thirty the night nurse, Miss +Durand, was told that one of the heaviest +burdens had been taken from her, and went +to work cheerfully. But at ten o’clock that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span> +night Linda Smith, lying awake in bed in her +room in the dormitory, saw Wesley Barker +climb up the fire-escape outside her window, +stopping now and then, monkey fashion, to +swing out over the dizzy height by his hands.</p> + +<p>“The girl was almost frenzied. She got up +and dressed and went to the roof. To her +horror she found the superintendent, Mr. +Harrison, smoking there and she almost +fainted when she got back to her room. But +the superintendent was not molested. There +was no alarm.</p> + +<p>“At midnight she formed the resolution of +getting Barker’s clothes from the basement +clothes room and putting them on the roof, +in the hope that he would put them on and go +away. Properly dressed, even if he went back +to the Zoo, she could claim that he had been +taken away by somebody in a carriage, and +might still put through the deception. In any +event, his clothes could not be left there. Their +discovery meant her disgrace.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span>“She had forgotten, however, that Barker +had been brought in in the ambulance, and +had no clothes. Afraid to go to the basement +alone, she asked Miss Durand to go to the +clothes room with her, giving as an excuse +that she had forgotten to send Johnson’s +clothes to the office, a rule in case of death, +and on finding nothing there in Barker’s name, +she did the only thing she could think of—took +Johnson’s old brown suit, which, with his +worn shoes and not very clean linen, was tied +in a bundle with a piece of bandage and +marked with the dying spiritualist’s name.</p> + +<p>“Miss Durand had disappeared, carrying +the bundle. Miss Smith searched the far +corners of the basement, but found nothing. +Finally, she and Miss Durand went up-stairs +again, to find that Johnson had been dead for +some time. Bates, the convalescent, had seen +them go and saw them return. He had, however, +been detected a day or so before by Miss +Durand selling cocaine to a colored man in one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span> +of the wards, and later, under Miss Durand’s +eye, he said she had been absent ten minutes. +As a matter of fact, it had been fifty.</p> + +<p>“Linda Smith went back to her room at +once. She knew she and Miss Blake would +be called to attend to Johnson in the mortuary, +and she waited for the summons. The ghastly +trick of hanging the poor old body to the +chandelier followed in due course.</p> + +<p>“Thinking Barker still dead, it had been as +great a shock to Ruth Blake as to the others. +It was not until the next morning that Linda +Smith told her Barker was still alive, and +somewhere in the building. There was only +one comfort: Linda had put the bundle of +clothing on the roof, and it had disappeared.</p> + +<p>“The other things followed in quick succession. +Miss Blake, half frenzied, conceived the +idea of putting food heavily doped with morphia, +on the roof, along the fire-escape, anywhere +that the maniac might find it. She +hardly knew what she hoped to do by this:<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span> +she was in an abnormal frame of mind by this +time: ill, sleepless and unable to eat. The +food disappeared, but if the morphia had any +effect, it was in daylight, when he probably +slept, hidden away under the roof or in the +linen closet.</p> + +<p>“The following night she searched the fifth, +or mortuary floor, carrying a candle. She had +suspected, from the night before, that Barker +was hiding in the linen closet, and Linda +Smith got the key. The plan had been that +Miss Smith should go with her, but she was +given a special case that night, and Miss Blake, +courageously enough, went alone.</p> + +<p>“Barker was in the closet, and when she +opened the door he seized her arm in a murderous +grip that left it blue and swollen. She +tried speaking to him, and releasing his hold, +he darted out through the closet window and +leaped to the fire-escape. Miss Blake pluckily +followed him to the roof, but he had disappeared. +As Miss Lizzie has told, I followed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span> +Miss Blake. Just before I reached her, she +cried out and flung her brass candlestick at +something behind me. The next instant I was +grasped from behind and thrown head first +through the skylight.</p> + +<p>“I did not know I had been bitten in the +shoulder. I thought I had been stabbed, until +Jacobs and I together cauterized the wound +that night in the laboratory. Probably during +the time we were there, the door being unlocked, +Barker entered and hid in the building. +Miss Blake was there at the same time, having +watched Jacobs and myself enter, and being +fearful of further harm. She did not see +anything of Barker, however, and went back +to the roof, where she sat huddled until dawn, +waiting for Barker to appear again. But he +did not come, and at daylight, shaking with +cold, she went back to her room. There she +had a chill, followed by violent fever and delirium, +and there I believe Linda Smith came, +bringing a surgical knife stained with blood,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span> +that she had found on the roof, and which +Miss Lewis subsequently found in Miss Blake’s +room.</p> + +<p>“The condition of the two girls by that +time was pitiable. Miss Blake, younger and +more nervous, had entirely succumbed: Miss +Smith, sleepless and unable to eat, was still +making a fight to cover the whole thing and +to drive Barker away from the building. They +could not discover where he hid in the daytime, +but at night evidences of his ape-like +mischief were everywhere apparent. He +swung by his feet from the pipe-molding of +the walls, squatted on the foot-board of the +bed in private room thirty-six, making hideous +grimaces—a story which caused the nurse in +charge to mark ‘delirious’ on the record of a +perfectly rational woman—leaped at giddy +heights about the fire-escape and the roof, and +alarmed Miss Aggie into her story of a ghostly +foot. The man’s strength was almost super-human.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span>“Johnson died on Tuesday night, and it +was on Wednesday night that I was thrown +through the skylight. Toward dawn of Thursday +morning, Barker went to the Zoo, distant +about a mile from the hospital. By that time +he had donned Johnson’s trousers, but remained +in his bare feet. Access to the monkey +house proved easy. The assistant keeper, +sleeping in a small room just inside the entrance, +was not aroused until too late. The +key to Hero’s cage hung over his bed, it being +his habit to go in to see the ape several +times during the night. On that night, he +opened the cage at one o’clock, and spoke to +the ape, who had been sulky all day. He +locked the door and went back to bed, hanging +the key up again on its nail. It was still there +in the morning at six o’clock, but the ape was +dead. In spite of his tremendous strength +and length of arm, he had been literally +crushed to death, and then hung to the top of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span> +the cage by a roller towel which did not belong +to the Zoo.</p> + +<p>“The police were put on the case, and had +already arrested the assistant keeper, who had +been heard to say that either the ape would +get him or he would get the ape.</p> + +<p>“On Wednesday night, Briggs, who had +been most unpopular with Barker, met his +death in an almost similar manner, his ribs +being crushed in. In this case, however, +Barker’s ingenuity utilized the useless brown +coat, the two towels being gone. Previous to +that time, he had rocked the elevator in impish +mischief, or possibly wrath. It was this +incident which caused my Aunt Letitia to suspect +a space under the roof at the top of the +elevator shaft, as a hiding place.</p> + +<p>“The result of her courageous investigation +is well known: mounted on top of the cage, she +was taken to the upper position of the shaft, +and there found what she had been looking for, +an unboarded spot behind the elevator wheel.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span> +She was disappointed, however, in finding the +space too dark for inspection, and in hearing +or seeing nothing suspicious.</p> + +<p>“Being a courageous woman and convinced +that what she sought was there in the cave-like +recess, my Aunt Letitia threw her slipper +with all the strength she could summon, and +was answered by a growl.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>“My wife has just read this and confirms +most of it. She suggests, however, that I +have omitted our theory of how Briggs was +murdered without discovery, while Jacobs was +in the hall nearby and I myself guarded the +only other means of exit, the fire-escape.</p> + +<p>“Barker probably took refuge in the linen +closet, arriving at the mortuary floor ahead of +the slow progress of the cage, by scurrying up +the cable. He hid in the closet, and by throwing +the coat over Briggs and squeezing him in +his muscular arms, he prevented any outcry. +Immediately after, he locked himself in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span> +closet again, where he smoked Briggs’ pipe, +perhaps in itself the object of the attack.</p> + +<p>“On the alarm being raised, Hicks and I +came in through the window, and Jacobs +through the door. This left the fire-escape and +the roof unwatched, and he climbed out the +window of the linen closet, swinging himself +easily to the fire-escape.</p> + +<p>“The rest of the story we know. Barker +was found, exhausted and half starving, and +was promptly put in a padded cell, where, a +week later, he died, probably from an infection, +having cut his left foot badly, possibly +with the very knife that killed the laboratory +guinea-pigs. The injured foot, which he had +crudely bandaged, probably explains why only +prints of a right foot were discovered. With +the removal of suspense Miss Blake recovered, +and is now with me, enjoying the lilies and +onion fields of Bermuda. My Aunt Letitia is +at Mount Clemens, taking a series of baths +and—I am informed by Miss Lizzie—carrying<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span> +on what she believes is a clandestine correspondence +with the Wright brothers. Miss +Aggie’s hay fever left with the first frost. I +am sorry to say that Miss Linda Smith has +never been heard from.”</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span> +<p class="ph2">THE +AMAZING ADVENTURES OF +LETITIA CARBERRY</p> + +<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Part Two</span></h2> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER I<br> + +<small>A CIGARETTE CASE, A SHOE, AND A MENU CARD</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">IT was three o’clock in the morning when +we got back to the lake, and it was twenty +minutes before Carpenter heard us and started +the ferry across. Tish had lost her glasses in +the excitement at the Sherman House, and she +did not see that Carpenter had forgotten to +put the bar across the end of the boat. Aggie +and I screamed, but it was too late: she drove +the car down the bank in the moonlight and +she did not stop in time. The first we knew +we were sitting waist-deep in Lake Penzance, +with Tish still holding the steering wheel and +the stars making little twinkles in our laps.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span>As Tish said afterward, it was a fit ending +to a sensational night, but, what with the wetting +aggravating Aggie’s hay fever, and my +having bitten through the side of my tongue +when the machine struck the bottom of the +lake, it more nearly finished us. The engine +drowned with a gurgle, and after Carpenter’s +first yell there wasn’t a sound. Then we +heard him come to the end of the ferry-boat +and look down at us, and the next moment he +had dropped the lantern and was doubled up +on the dock, laughing like the fool he is.</p> + +<p>“Are you both there?” said Tish, without +turning her head.</p> + +<p>Aggie sneezed, as she always does after a +shock, and a wave moved slowly in and raised +the water level with my breastbone.</p> + +<p>“We are both here,” I said, with a bitterness +that was natural under the circumstances. “No +thanks to you, Tish Carberry. There’s no +fool like an old fool.”</p> + +<p>“What do you mean?” Tish demanded<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span> +fiercely, twisting around in the water with her +dust cap over her eye. “Who was it said I +ought to buy the dratted thing? Drive it +yourself if you think you can do any better.”</p> + +<p>“Row it,” I corrected. “It’s finished for +good as a touring car, but by putting an awning +over it we might make it into a tolerable +gasoline launch.”</p> + +<p>Aggie was crying.</p> + +<p>“I told you something would happen,” she +sniffled. “You’ll kill us all yet, Tish Carberry—and +me in my <i>foulard</i> silk that spots with a +drop of rain!”</p> + +<p>But Tish wasn’t paying any attention. She +picked up the wrench that she had kept by her +as a sort of weapon and stood up on the seat. +Tish is a large woman.</p> + +<p>“Abraham Carpenter,” she snapped, with as +much dignity as she could with her clothes +glued to her, “if you do not stop that noise I +will brain you.”</p> + +<p>Carpenter eased down gradually, and, holding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span> +his sides, he leaned over the end of the +ferry.</p> + +<p>“What’ll I do, Miss Tish?” he asked, beginning +to jerk again, but with an eye on the +wrench. “I can go around to the other dock +and get a rowboat, but it’ll take time.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t bother about the other dock,” Tish +snapped. “Get that board there on the ferry +and put one end of it down to the automobile. +Then turn your back.”</p> + +<p>That’s the way we got out. I went up the +board first, on my hands and knees, and barring +a few splinters I got up very nicely. +Aggie came next, and as the board was getting +wet she had more trouble. But Tish had the +worst, for by that time the board was as slippery +as a toboggan; twice she got as far as the +middle, only to slide back on her stomach, and +the last time she refused to try again. She sat +down on one of the seats, with the water up +to her waist, and said that she was skinned +alive, and that she wished there was a tide to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span> +come up and drown her and the miserable +machine. We got her up finally by throwing +her a rope to put under her arms, and once up +she collapsed on the ferry-bench. It was then +that Aggie missed the money. Carpenter had +slid down the board and was preparing to +salvage the cushions when Aggie clutched at +her stocking and yelled.</p> + +<p>“It’s gone!” she screeched, and then she sat +plump down on the floor of the ferry-boat and +began to cry.</p> + +<p>“What’s gone?” Tish demanded.</p> + +<p>“The money,” Aggie said, feeling frantically +around the tops of her shoes. “When we went +over the edge something broke—I felt it—and +the money’s gone.”</p> + +<p>Tish had both her arms in the air and the +rope over her shoulder, but she stopped struggling +and stared at Aggie.</p> + +<p>“Gone!” she said in an awful voice. “Aggie +Pilkington, every dollar of that money was +graft money. Only the prospect of stuffing it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span> +between that red-haired man’s teeth has kept +me alive through this terrible night. Don’t +tell me you’ve lost it.”</p> + +<p>“We can give him a check,” said Aggie +feebly.</p> + +<p>“We can!” Tish snorted, and not another +word did she say until Carpenter had taken us +across the lake and we stood dripping on the +front porch of the cottage, while Aggie got +the key from under a flower pot. Then Tish +looked across the moonlit lake to where the +cushions of the machine floated in a nest of +stars at the end of the ferry-dock. “We averaged +thirty miles an hour coming home,” she +said triumphantly, “and for the first time I +feel that I have mastered the machine.”</p> + +<p>Wet as we were, we remembered to put the +lantern in the window as we had promised, and +we thought we saw a skiff shoot out in the +starlight from the other side of the lake. Tish +and I took some hot milk, and Aggie had a +raw egg and some more baking soda, and we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span> +went to bed. The stars were fading by that +time, but after I got into bed I distinctly heard +footsteps on the gravel below my window.</p> + +<p>“Are you sure you said the first house on the +left?” Tish called to me. And then we heard +Mr. Ostermaier’s voice from the upper window +next door, and we knew it was all right. I +crawled out and tried to see into the preacher’s +parlor, but the shade was partly down. I could +only make out a sleeve of Mrs. Ostermaier’s +kimono. I was disappointed after all we had +gone through.</p> + +<p>She—Mrs. Ostermaier—came over the next +morning after breakfast, while Aggie’s <i>foulard</i> +silk was hanging on the clothes-line. She had +been down with the other cottagers, looking +across to where the red leather of Tish’s machine +stuck up above water-level.</p> + +<p>“Be careful,” Tish said under her breath +when she saw her; “she’s got something in her +hand!”</p> + +<p>“What a terrible accident, and how lucky<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span> +nobody was hurt!” Mrs. Ostermaier began, +holding the thing she was carrying against her +skirt and staring from the three of us to +Aggie’s <i>foulard</i>. “The spots did run, didn’t +they? I told Mr. Ostermaier they would. +He thinks you are wonderful women, to go +around the country as the three of you do at +all hours of the night.”</p> + +<p>Just then the sunlight caught the thing she +held in her hand, and I knew in a moment what +it was—it was Mr. Lewis’ silver cigarette case. +Tish saw it too, and ran her needle into her +finger.</p> + +<p>“We had an exciting night too,” Mrs. Ostermaier +went on. “Dear me, Miss Carberry, +you’ve jabbed your finger!”</p> + +<p>“An exciting night?” I asked, to keep her +attention from Aggie. Aggie had just seen +the cigarette case and she had gone blue around +the nose.</p> + +<p>“Most exciting. About three o’clock this +morning—about the time you three ladies were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span> +having such a dreadful experience—a young +couple came to our cottage and wakened Mr. +Ostermaier. I think they threw gravel +through the window. They wanted to be married.”</p> + +<p>Tish sat up and tried to look scandalized.</p> + +<p>“I hope your husband didn’t do it,” she said. +I had to pinch Aggie; she was leaning forward +with her eyes bulging.</p> + +<p>That put Mrs. Ostermaier on the defensive. +“Why not?” she demanded. “They had a +license, and they were of age. I believe in encouraging +young love; Mr. Ostermaier says it +is the most beautiful thing in the world. +Cousin Maggie and I were witnesses, and we +threw rice after them. It was barley, really, +but we didn’t discover that until this morning.”</p> + +<p>Aggie gave a sigh of relief; we had guessed, +but it was the first time we had really known.</p> + +<p>“I told Mr. Ostermaier that it gave me quite +a thrill the way he looked at her as Harold +pronounced them man and wife. ‘All the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span> +world loves a lover,’ and Cousin Maggie has +been reading Ella Wheeler Wilcox diligently +all morning.”</p> + +<p>She turned to go and we breathed easier. +Now that we knew they were safely married—Mrs. +Ostermaier turned and started back.</p> + +<p>“I nearly forgot what brought me,” she +called. “My Willie found this in the bed of +your automobile, Miss Tish.” She held out +the cigarette case and Tish took it and dropped +it into her work-basket.</p> + +<p>“It belongs to my nephew, Charlie Sands,” +she said, looking Mrs. Ostermaier in the eye. +Tish has plenty of courage, but I felt calamity +coming.</p> + +<p>“So I told Mr. Ostermaier,” the creature +said, with a smile. “But he insists on remarking +the coincidence that the initials on the +cigarette case are W. L. and that the young +man’s name on the license was Walter Lewis.”</p> + +<p>I have always thanked Heaven that at that +moment her Willie fell off the dock, and although<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span> +the child was not drowned, still, as +Tish wrote to Maria Lee, her niece, “he had +swallowed enough water to wash the initials off +the tablets of his mother’s memory.” And so +far as we know, although the papers came out +with great headlines about the marriage, and +another article about the post-office having +been robbed—we had nothing whatever to do +with that—and about three men disguised as +women making their escape toward Canada in +a red automobile and having run over a pig at +Dorchester Junction—I told Tish at the time +it was a pig, but she insisted it was a cow—although +the papers came out with all this, +nobody ever suspected the truth except Carpenter. +He happened to find a menu from the +Sherman House at Noblestown floating in the +body of the car, and the good-for-nothing took +a trip to the city and traced us.</p> + +<p>He did not say anything, but about a week +later he came to the cottage and put a package +on the table in the kitchen.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span>“It’s been puzzlin’ me for four days, Miss +Lizzie,” he said, fumbling with the string of +the bundle. “I sez to Mrs. C., sez I, ‘It ain’t +possible,’ I sez. ‘She sez she lost her shoe +when the automobile went into the water, and +she’s a truthful woman; and yet, two days +after, the chambermaid at the Sherman House +finds it high and dry under a bureau, forty +miles away. It’s spooky,’ I sez.”</p> + +<p>Aggie was pouring hot water into the teapot, +and she kept on pouring till it went all over +the place.</p> + +<p>“Nonsense,” said Tish. “That shoe doesn’t +belong to Miss Lizzie.”</p> + +<p>But I looked at Carpenter’s face and I knew +it was hopeless.</p> + +<p>“You’ve been a good friend to us, Mr. Carpenter,” +I said. “We’ve always felt we’ve +owed you something. Here’s a little present, +and thank you for the shoe.”</p> + +<p>He took the money and we looked each other +straight in the eye. Then he grinned.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span>“For twenty dollars, Miss Lizzie,” he said, +“I’d be willing to swallow my tongue backward. +And the shoe ain’t the tongue kind.”</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER II<br> + +<small>A BLUE RUNABOUT AND A BAD BRIDGE</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">BOTH Aggie and I had objected when +Tish talked of buying an automobile. +But the more you talk against a thing to Tish +the more she wants it. It was just the same +the time her niece, Maria Lee, went to Europe +for the whole summer and offered Tish her +motor-boat. Aggie and I protested, but the +boat came, and Tish had a lesson or two and +sent to town for a yachting cap. Then, one +day when we were making elderberry jelly and +ran out of sugar, Tish offered to take me to the +mainland in the boat. That was the time, you +remember, when the stopping lever got +jammed, and Tish and I circled around Lake +Penzance for seven hours, with people on different +docks trying to lasso us with ropes as we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span> +flew past, and Aggie in hysterics on the beach +below the cottage.</p> + +<p>People of Penzance still speak of that day, +for we figured out that we had enough gasoline +to run one hundred and sixty miles, and after +Peter Miller, at Point Lena, had lassoed us and +was dragged for a quarter of a mile before he +caught hold of a buoy and could let go of the +rope, we got desperate. I was at the wheel +and Tish was trying to stop the engine, pouring +water over it and attempting to stick an iron +rod in the wheels. And just as she succeeded, +and the rod shot through the awning on the +top of the launch like a sky-rocket, I turned the +thing toward shore where it looked fairly flat.</p> + +<p>“I’m going to get to land,” I said with my +teeth clenched. “I don’t care if it crawls up +and dies in a plowed field; I’m going to get my +feet on dry land again.”</p> + +<p>I had not expected it to stop so suddenly, but +it did, and Tish and I and the granulated sugar +landed some distance ahead of the boat and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span> +well above high-water mark; in fact, Tish +broke her collar-bone, and that entire summer, +whenever the doctor had to peel off the adhesive +plaster, Tish would get ugly and turn +on me.</p> + +<p>Well, we should have known about the automobile. +I had a queer feeling when I started +out that morning. Tish had had the car out +the day before by herself for the first time—both +Aggie and I had had the good judgment +to refuse—and she got home safely, although +she had a queer-looking mark on her right +cheek, and one of the mud-guards didn’t look +exactly right. She said she had had a lovely +ride, and we helped her push the machine into +the wash-house, where we had had Carpenter +knock out a side, and then she went to bed and +had a cup of tea. Aggie heard something +moving that night, and she found Tish sitting +up on the side of her bed, holding like death +to the back of a chair and turning it around +like a wheel. Aggie got her back to bed, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span> +Tish only looked up at her and said, “Four +chickens!” and went to sleep again.</p> + +<p>The next morning her left leg was quite +stiff from what she called the clutch, and she +sat on the porch peacefully and rocked. But +at noon she went to the wash-house, and when +she came back she was pale but determined.</p> + +<p>“I’m going to take it out,” she said solemnly. +“If I don’t I’ll forget everything I’ve learned. +Besides, we’ve been coming here every summer +for ten years, and there are plenty of places we +have never seen.”</p> + +<p>Aggie looked at me, but we knew it would +have to come some time, and so we all went in +and tied up our heads.</p> + +<p>“We needn’t go fast,” Aggie said when she +was putting on her bonnet. “We have all +afternoon, and one doesn’t really enjoy the +scenery unless one goes very slowly.”</p> + +<p>Tish’s face was pallid but resolved.</p> + +<p>“It’s a great deal easier to go fast than +slow,” she remarked. “I haven’t quite got the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span> +hang of going slow. But there’s one comfort +about going fast: you get around much +quicker.”</p> + +<p>At the foot of the stairs she stopped and +called up.</p> + +<p>“I’m going to take a tablespoonful of blackberry +wine,” she said. “I feel chilly in the +small of my back.”</p> + +<p>Aggie and I didn’t say anything, but we each +took a tablespoonful of blackberry wine also.</p> + +<p>Tish had written out a list of things to do to +start the car, such as “Turn A,” “Push forward +B,” and so on. And she had pasted bits of +paper marked A and B on the levers and plugs. +So I read:</p> + +<p>“Turn A; push up B; crank, and release C.”</p> + +<p>It started nicely.</p> + +<p>“Just one thing,” Tish said over her shoulder +as we passed the Ostermaier cottage, and +they waved to us from the porch: “Don’t +scream in my ears; don’t lean over and clutch +me around the neck; and if we run over anything,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span> +try to look as if you didn’t know we +had.”</p> + +<p>Luckily she had not noticed my traveling +bag. After the affair of the launch I was prepared +for anything, and I had packed up three +nightgowns, a balsam pillow, a roll of bandage, +a bottle of arnica, a cake of soap, my +sewing box and a prayer-book. Aggie had +some sandwiches; so we felt we were prepared +for everything, from sudden death to losing a +button.</p> + +<p>We got on to the ferry safely enough. Carpenter, +who runs the cable drum of the ferry +with a gas engine, examined the machine with +a great deal of interest on the way over.</p> + +<p>“It’s a pretty hot day, Miss Tish,” he called +as we were starting off the boat. “You’ll have +to watch her; she’ll boil.”</p> + +<p>Tish looked worried, but she said nothing.</p> + +<p>“What is there to boil?” Aggie whispered +to me.</p> + +<p>“The gasoline,” I told her; “and if it boils<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span> +it’ll explode. I’m no mechanic, but I know +that much.”</p> + +<p>After a few moments’ silence Aggie leaned +forward.</p> + +<p>“Tish,” she said.</p> + +<p>“Don’t take my mind off this machine!” +Tish shouted back. “Isn’t that a buggy coming?”</p> + +<p>“It’s too far off to see. It’s either a buggy +or a wagon,” I said. “Tish, where’s the gasoline +tank?”</p> + +<p>But Tish wasn’t listening. “Why doesn’t +that man turn out? Does he want the whole +road?” she snapped. There was a silence +while we neared the buggy ahead. Then Tish +leaned over and began jerking at levers.</p> + +<p>“I can’t stop the thing,” she gasped, “and +there isn’t room to pass!”</p> + +<p>There wasn’t time to pray. I saw Aggie +shut her eyes, and the next moment there was +a terrific jar. Aggie and I were flung together +in a corner of the seat, a man yelled, and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span> +next minute we had leaped out of the ditch +again and were going smoothly along the road. +I glanced behind. The man had halted his +horse and was standing up in the buggy, staring +after us.</p> + +<p>“I didn’t think I could do it,” said Tish complacently.</p> + +<p>“Only the grace of God took you into that +ditch and out again, Tish Carberry,” I snapped. +“And if you are going to do any more circus +performances I want to get out.”</p> + +<p>She could stop the car well enough when +there was no crying need to, and now, to our +alarm, she stopped every now and then and got +out and held her hand over the front of the +machine, like testing the oven for cake. Finally +she said:</p> + +<p>“It’s boiling!”</p> + +<p>Aggie got ready to jump.</p> + +<p>“It’ll explode, won’t it?” she quavered.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see why it should explode,” Tish +replied, wetting her finger to see if it sizzled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span> +when she touched it. “But it’s hot enough, in +all conscience. A good rain would cool it.”</p> + +<p>The sun was blazing down on us, however, +and there was no sign of rain. I said I would +just as soon be blown up as melted down, and +we got in again. The machine would not start. +We all took a turn at the handle in front, but +it was like winding a clock with a broken +spring.</p> + +<p>That is where the man and the girl and the +little Pomeranian dog enter the story. For +they came along in a blue runabout car +just as Tish threw her book called <i>Automobile +Troubles</i> over the fence and said she was going +to walk home. The book said: “Beginners +having trouble with their engines should look +under the headings Ignition, Carburation, Lubrication, +Compression, Circulation and Timing.” +As Tish remarked, the only one that +was understandable was Circulation, and anybody +could tell without a book that the car +wasn’t circulating to any extent.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span>Just as Tish threw the book away the young +man in the blue runabout stopped and got out.</p> + +<p>“In trouble?” he asked. “Can I do anything +for you?”</p> + +<p>“It was boiling,” said Tish. “I suppose +something has melted inside.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I think not.” He looked at the car, +pushed something, went round and turned the +handle—crank, Tish called it, and it’s a good +name—and the engine started.</p> + +<p>“You didn’t have your gas on,” said the +young man. “And don’t worry; you’re sure +to heat up on a day like this, but nothing will +melt.”</p> + +<p>“Or explode?” asked Aggie.</p> + +<p>“Or explode.”</p> + +<p>He looked at the girl and smiled, and when +we started off they were still there, watching +us. The dog yelped, and the girl smiled and +waved her hand. Aggie, who is far-sighted, +turned around a second time. “He reminds +me of Mr. Wiggins,” she said with a sigh, still<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span> +looking back. Aggie was engaged years ago +to a young man in the roofing business, who +fell off a roof.</p> + +<p>After a minute, “He’s kissing her!” she +gasped. After that she nearly broke her neck +watching them out of sight. Aggie is romantic. +I turned around, but I had on my +near glasses.</p> + +<p>I don’t know how we lost the Noblestown +Pike. Tish blamed it on having to drive with +one eye shut, on account of something getting +into the other. Aggie’s nose was sunburned +and swelling, and I would have given a good +bit for something heavy in my lap to anchor +me. When I was a girl I rode horseback, and +with any kind of a steady horse you can tell +when the next jolt is coming; but Tish’s machine +has a way of coming up and hitting you +when you are off guard, so to speak.</p> + +<p>To go back, after an hour or so we found we +were on the wrong road. It kept growing +narrower, and when at last it became only a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span> +dusty country lane Tish realized it herself. +There was a rickety farmhouse about two hundred +feet from the road, with a woman bending +over a washtub outside the door. I stood +up and made a megaphone of my hands.</p> + +<p>“Which way to the Noblestown Pike?” I +yelled, while Tish got out and stuck a wet +finger on the hood over the engine.</p> + +<p>The woman looked up and pointed sullenly +in the direction from which we had come. We +looked at the road. There wasn’t a spot to +turn—not another road in sight to back into. +It was hotter than ever. The engine hummed +like a teakettle on a hot stove, and there were +little clouds of blue smoke coming from somewhere +or other about it. Aggie said she +thought the gasoline tank was on fire.</p> + +<p>“If it is you’ll soon know it,” said Tish +grimly. “It’s under the seat. I’m going to +back up on to this bridge business over the +gutter. I think I can make it.”</p> + +<p>“Do you know how to back up?” I asked;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span> +and just at that minute the woman left her tub +and started to run down the walk.</p> + +<p>Tish backed. With an awful grinding of +wheels she got the right lever finally; the machine +gave a jerk that would have decapitated +a chicken, and we backed slowly on to the +timbers that bridged the gutter and made a +road toward the house. When it gave the first +crack we shouted—Aggie and I. It might not +have been too late, but Tish put on the emergency +brake by mistake and for a minute we +hung on the verge. Then we began to settle. +We went down slowly, with Tish above us and +rising; and when we stopped, there we were, +Aggie and I and the rear of the machine, a +good four feet below Tish and the engine, with +something grinding like mad and clouds of +smoke everywhere.</p> + +<p>When we crawled out the woman who +owned the bridge was standing on the bank +looking down at us, and her face was something +awful.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span>“You’ll fix that bridge before you leave!” +she said, shutting her mouth hard on the last +word.</p> + +<p>“You’ll fix that automobile before I’m +through with you!” said Tish, pointing at the +thing, which looked like a horse sitting down +in a gutter.</p> + +<p>“Oh, rats!” the woman said rudely. “That’s +four of them things that’s gone through that +bridge this week, and I’m good and sick of it. +Ain’t there any other bridges in Chester +county?”</p> + +<p>“Not like that,” retorted Tish, eying the +ruins. “You don’t call that a bridge, do you?”</p> + +<p>“It was,” said the woman.</p> + +<p>She came forward and a ferocious-looking +dog stepped from behind her.</p> + +<p>Tish looked at the dog.</p> + +<p>“It wasn’t much of a bridge,” she said, more +politely. “If you’ve got any men on the place +I’ll give them a dollar apiece to get my machine +out of there.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span>“No men around,” said the woman shortly. +“Theodore,”—to the dog—“don’t you go +around bitin’ until I give you the word. Sit +down.”</p> + +<p>The dog sat down.</p> + +<p>“Before you leave,” she said to Tish, “you’ll +mend that bridge or I’ll know the reason why. +Meantime your automobile is trespassin’, and +the fine is twenty dollars.”</p> + +<p>Then she sat down on the bank and began to +tickle the dog’s ears with a blade of grass.</p> + +<p>“Theodore,” she said, “if them three old +maids think they can bluff us, they don’t know +us, do they?”</p> + +<p>I had stood about as much as I could, so I +walked around in front of her and glared at +her.</p> + +<p>“I wouldn’t sit so close to the automobile if +I were you,” I remarked emphatically. “Something +is likely to explode.”</p> + +<p>“I feel like it,” she said. “When I get mad +I’m good an’ mad. Anyhow, I own this place,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span> +and I’ll sit where I please. Theodore, let’s put +the washing-machine on wheels and go round +the country bustin’ down folks’ bridges and +playin’ hell generally!”</p> + +<p>An oath always rouses Tish. She got the +engine stopped. Then she came around beside +me with her goggles shoved up on her forehead.</p> + +<p>“Woman,” she said sternly, “how dare you +mention the place of punishment so lightly!” +Tish had been superintendent of a Sunday-school +for thirty years.</p> + +<p>The woman stared at her. Then she got up +slowly.</p> + +<p>“I wasn’t alludin’ to the next world,” she +said bitterly. “Ninety-five degrees of heat, +seven inches of dust, five miles to a telephone +and ten miles to town, with an automobile +sittin’ down in your front yard—that’s all the +hell I want.”</p> + +<p>Then she walked up the path. We stared +after her; between her shoulder-blades her blue<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span> +wrapper was wet through with sweat, and the +dog trailed at her heels. Aggie, who is always +sentimental, took a step after her.</p> + +<p>“I say,” she called. “If we come back for +you some nice afternoon, will you let us take +you for a ride?”</p> + +<p>But she got no answer. To our amazement, +the woman turned around at the top of the path +and put her thumb to her nose!</p> + +<p>We did not see her again for some time, but +after Tish had climbed in twice and started the +engine, to see if the car couldn’t climb out—the +only result being that it almost turned over—the +woman appeared again. She carried a +board that looked like a breadboard nailed to a +broom-handle, and on it, in fresh ink, as if she +had done it with her finger, were the words:</p> + +<p>“Trespassing—fifty dollars.”</p> + +<p>“You said twenty before,” I protested.</p> + +<p>“That was for those little dinky, one-seated +affairs,” she said, jabbing the broom-handle +into the dirt beside the road. “Two seats,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span> +forty dollars; two seats and a folded back +buggy-top, fifty.” She adjusted the sign carefully, +looked up and down the road, and then +went back to the house.</p> + +<p>So we sat down on the bank and Tish explained +how she happened to do it. I am a +Christian woman, and Aggie is so gentle that +she has to scratch twice to light a match, but I +must say we were bitter. We told Tish we +didn’t care how she happened to do it, and that +some day she would be punished for a temper +that made her throw away books that she +would be sure to need some time; and that, +anyhow, an unmarried woman of fifty has no +business with an automobile.</p> + +<p>“It’s my belief,” Tish retorted, “that she +keeps her old bridge for this very purpose. +She could make a good living off it, and all the +work she’d have to do would be to build it up +after every accident.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no,” Aggie said bitterly. “We are going +to repair it, I believe.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span>The back of my neck began to smart from +the sun, and the dust eddied around us. A +white hen came down the path, hopped on to +the sloping step of the machine, perked its head +at us, and then, with a squawk, flew up into +Tish’s seat behind the wheel. I was thirsty +and my neck prickled.</p> + +<p>Early in the afternoon we had a difference +of opinion about who should walk the five miles +to telephone for help, and after that we did +not speak to each other. Tish talked to the +machine and Aggie to the chicken. Every now +and then Tish, after staring at the machine for +a while, would get up and pick up the soundest +of the bridge timbers, put it under the dropped +end of the car and push with all her might.</p> + +<p>“Call this a bridge?”—push—“Why, this is +nothing”—push—“but a rotten old fence-rail!”—bang!—the +timber broke. Tish stood with +her back to us and kicked the pieces; then she +turned on us. “As far as I’m concerned,” she +snapped, “the thing can sit there till it takes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span> +root. You’re very much mistaken if you think +I’m going to walk to that telephone, after +bringing you out on a pleasure trip.”</p> + +<p>“Pleasure trip!” Aggie retorted. “I can get +more pleasure out of a three-dollar rocking-chair. +The next time you ask me to go on a +pleasure trip, Tish Carberry, just push me off +the porch backward. It’s a good bit quicker.”</p> + +<p>By four o’clock I had a rash out all over my +shoulders and chest, and my mouth was so full +of dust that my teeth felt gritty. I had not +cared particularly about going up to the house, +but every few minutes between three and four +the woman had come out, pumped some water, +making a mighty splash, and gone back into the +house again. It was more than human nature +could stand. At a quarter after four o’clock I +got up from the baked earth, glared at Tish, +looked through Aggie, and walked with as +much dignity as I could muster up the path to +the well. There was a sign hung on it by a +string around the nail in the top. It read:<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span> +“Water, one dollar a tin. For automobiles, +five dollars a bucket.”</p> + +<p>The woman came out and pumped some. +The water ran cool and clear into a trough and +then spread over the ground in dreadful waste. +I could have lapped it up out of the trough; +every bit of skin on me and lining membrane +in me yelled “Water!” and—I had no money +with me! The woman stood and waited, Theodore +beside her.</p> + +<p>“That’s an outrage,” I fumed. “How dare +you put up such a sign! I—I shall report +you!”</p> + +<p>“Who to?” she inquired. “I ain’t askin’ you +to drink it, am I? It’s my well, ain’t it?”</p> + +<p>“I’ll send the money to you by mail.” I +had lost all my pride. “I’ll come back and pay +you.”</p> + +<p>“Cash in advance,” said the creature; and, +pumping enough into a tin basin to have cooled +me inside and out, she put it down for the dog +to drink!</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[243]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER III<br> + +<small>A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION AND A BARGAIN</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">I  HAVE always felt that we did the right +thing that night. It was all very well for +Charlie Sands, Tish’s nephew, when he heard +the story, to say: “And they talk about giving +women the vote! Why, for sense they would +substitute sentiment; they would buy their +opinions at the department stores along with +their bargains, and a little two-penny love affair +could upset the Government!”</p> + +<p>Tish was raging.</p> + +<p>“It does not matter whether you approve or +not, Charlie,” she said loftily, “as long as our +consciences approve.”</p> + +<p>“Approve!” He nearly fell back out of his +chair. “My dear ladies, you should every one +have been jailed! As for conscience, I’d give +a thousand dollars to have a conscience that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[244]</span> +would set the seal of its approval on assault +and battery, highway robbery and abduction.”</p> + +<p>“The end justifies the means,” I retorted; +“and when did you get a conscience, Charlie +Sands?”</p> + +<p>“I think I got one Aunt Tish used to have,” +he said, and I got up and went into the house.</p> + +<p>Well, I left the dog drinking, to go back, and +at that instant I happened to look at Tish, who +was standing on the bank waving her handkerchief +at something in the road. I stepped +to the corner of the house and saw what it was—creeping +along a lane we had not noticed +was the blue runabout car. Creeping is the +word. It would crawl forward a dozen feet +and stop, and it kept on repeating the performance. +But what puzzled me was a spot of +pink, just in front of the car and moving +slowly forward.</p> + +<p>At the end of the lane the pink spot hesitated +and then turned our way. Once beyond the +hedge, it proved to be the girl with her pink<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[245]</span> +motor veil. She was walking with her hands +in the pockets of her ulster, and she was limping. +About a dozen feet behind her, and stopping +every now and then so as not to overtake +her, came the runabout. It was very peculiar. +The young man had his jaws set tight, and as +he was staring at the girl, and as she was staring +straight ahead, neither of them saw us on +the bank just above their heads.</p> + +<p>The girl—she was a very pretty girl, although +streaky just then—had a tight grip on +the Pomeranian. She had it tucked under her +arm and it was wriggling and yelping to be +free. Just after the blue machine had turned +the corner the little beast got loose, and with a +yelp he dashed to the car and into the empty +seat.</p> + +<p>The girl stopped. So did the car. She +faced about and the young man gazed over +her head.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the girl looked up and saw us, and +with a quick glance she spied the lamps of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[246]</span> +Tish’s machine around a curve. No one would +have guessed from the front end of the thing +that the rear had died in a gutter.</p> + +<p>“Oh!” she said. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re +here! Are you going back to town?”</p> + +<p>“We are not going anywhere,” Tish replied +shortly, “unless your young man can help us.”</p> + +<p>“He is not my young man,” the girl retorted, +with distinctness; “but if there isn’t very much +the matter I daresay he can do something.”</p> + +<p>“I am not an automobile expert,” he said, +“but I probably can help a little, as, for instance, +stuffing a puncture with rags until we +get back to the city.” The girl flushed. It +was evidently a personal allusion.</p> + +<p>“We haven’t any rags,” said Aggie, “and it +isn’t a puncture.”</p> + +<p>“There are two things we might do,” said +the young gentleman as he eyed our machine +critically. “I might go to the nearest +telephone and have help sent out from +town, but as it’s almost sunset it’s pretty late +for that; or, with a jack and a little help, we +might fix it ourselves.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_246.jpg" alt="Mr. Lewis following Anne in his car"></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[247]</span>“A jack!” Tish said with scorn. “What +kind of a jack—a bootjack or a jackass? I +daresay they have them both at that farmhouse; +I know they have one.”</p> + +<p>“A jack—a lever,” explained the young +man, beginning to work at the lock of the tool-box. +“Where are you going—to Noblestown?”</p> + +<p>“To the lake,” I replied. Tish was fumbling +for the keys to the machine which she +kept in a pocket in her petticoat. “We have a +summer cottage there.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll make a bargain with you,” he suggested. +“The—the—er—young lady refuses to go back +in my car. We—the fact is, we have had a +small difference of opinion, and—she insists +on walking home. If I get your machine in +shape, will you take her to the city?”</p> + +<p>We would have taken her anywhere short of +a planet to get away ourselves, and that was +how it began; for the young gentleman took<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[248]</span> +off his coat and fell to work immediately. +Once, when he had raised the car on the jack +and Tish was holding the ends of the boards +that he shoved under, while Aggie and I +pushed, something gave way and the whole +thing settled back with a jerk. Mr. Lewis—that +was his name—lifted the broken fence-rails +off Tish and helped her to her feet.</p> + +<p>“There’s something almost alive about automobiles +occasionally,” he said. “They are so +blamed vicious.”</p> + +<p>“If it was alive,” Tish gasped, hunting for +her glasses, “I’d kill it.” But it never occurred +to her that she was going to drown it +that very night!</p> + +<p>By seven o’clock we had lifted the thing on +five fence-rails and the breadboard sign, and +Mr. Lewis announced it was now or never. +The girl had not come near us. She had taken +off her veil and smoothed up her hair, and was +busy with a bit of a silver mirror. She was +very pretty.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[249]</span>Mr. Lewis got into the car and put on the +power. There was a terrible grinding, but +nothing moved. From behind, the three of us +shoved, and Aggie said between gasps that if +anything gave way her niece was to have her +amethyst pin.</p> + +<p>“Anne!” cried the young gentleman. But +Miss Anne was powdering her nose and we all +saw her turn it up.</p> + +<p>“Anne!” called the young man who was not +her young man, “you’ll have to help here.”</p> + +<p>“Help yourself,” said Anne coolly, and, +moistening her finger, she proceeded to wipe +the powder off her eyebrows.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lewis shut off the engine, got out of +the car and put on his coat. The girl did not +turn her head, but she was watching through +the mirror, for as he picked up his cap she rose +lazily, put away her toilet things and started +in our direction.</p> + +<p>“What shall I do?” she asked Tish, ignoring +him.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[250]</span>“Push,” said Tish sharply—“unless you are +too lame.”</p> + +<p>“My being lame won’t matter, unless you +wish me to kick the machine out,” retorted the +girl sweetly; and with that, the power being +on, she put her brown arms against the car and +her shoulder-muscles leaped up under her thin +dress, and before I had planted my feet in the +ditch the car rose, clung for a minute to the +edge, and was over into the road. The girl +said nothing. She looked at her hands, stepped +out of the ditch, patronizingly helped Aggie +out of it, and swung up the path with her head +in the air. When I saw her again she had +taken the sign off the pump and thrown it in +the grass, and was washing her hands unconcernedly +while the woman stood in the door +and yapped at her.</p> + +<p>If she had a mite of sense she would have +gone back to the city in the blue car and let +us go home to bed. But when she had come +back to the road and the young man suggested<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[251]</span> +it—not to her, of course, but casually to us—she +whistled to her dog and started to limp +down the road. You can’t do anything with +a girl in that state of mind. I took her in the +tonneau with me, and Aggie, who prefers a +love affair to a scandal and always reads the +marriage licenses with the obituaries—Aggie +went in the blue car to keep Mr. Lewis from +being lonely.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[252]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER IV<br> + +<small>THE APPETIZERS AND THE HOTEL BUREAU</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">WE didn’t talk very much. Tish was +anxious to show she could drive, for +all she had sat us down in a ditch, and after +she took a wrong turning and stampeded a +herd that was being milked in a barnyard, I +could not keep my mind off the road. Once I +looked at the girl, and there were tears running +down her nose and dropping into her lap. I +gave her my smelling salts, which I always +carry in Tish’s machine, and after a while she +reached over and slid her hand into mine.</p> + +<p>“I shouldn’t care if the car went to pieces,” +she said. “I’d be happier dead.”</p> + +<p>“If you are always as unpleasant to that +young man as you were this evening, I doubt +it,” I snapped.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[253]</span>“Didn’t you ever quarrel with your husband +before you were married?” she demanded, +looking at me sideways.</p> + +<p>“I thank Heaven I never had a husband,” I +replied, and with that she looked uncomfortable +and drew her hand away.</p> + +<p>“Is your—friend married?” she inquired. +And it took me a moment to realize that she +meant Aggie and that the minx was jealous. +Aggie is fifty, and so thin that when she wears +a tailor-made suit she has to build out with +pneumatics. You remember, at the Woman’s +Suffrage Convention, how Mrs. Bailey pinned +a badge to Aggie, and how there was a slow +hissing immediately, and Aggie caved in before +our very eyes?</p> + +<p>Mr. Lewis checked our wild career after a +few miles by getting ahead of us, and we got +into town about eight. But after we had left +the girl at her house—an imposing place, with +a man at the door and a limousine at the curb—it +was too late to go back home. Aggie and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[254]</span> +the blue car were waiting down the street, and +they piloted us to the hotel.</p> + +<p>Now, Tish belongs to the Ladies’ Relief +Corps of the G. A. R., and when Mr. Lewis +said we looked tired and that he was going to +order supper for us all, and three Martinis, +Tish said it was all right, although she didn’t +see why we needed guns. It looked like a +safe place. But they were not guns—that’s +part of the story.</p> + +<p>While we were washing for supper Aggie +told us what the quarrel was about.</p> + +<p>“They are—were—engaged,” she said, “and +the girl’s father is Robertson—the boss of the +city, Mr. Lewis called him. And Mr. Lewis +is the youngest councilman—they call him +‘Baby’ Lewis, and he hates it—and there’s +something to be voted for to-morrow; and if +Mr. Lewis is for it he is to get the girl.”</p> + +<p>“And the girl refuses to be sold!” Tish said +triumphantly. “Quite right, too. I admire +her strength. That’s the typical womanly attitude<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[255]</span> +these days—right before anything, honor +above all.” Tish waved the hairbrush and +then she turned on the maid. “Girl,” she +snapped, “why is this brush chained?”</p> + +<p>“The ladies steal them,” said the girl. Tish +stared at the chain.</p> + +<p>“You are so quick, Letitia,” Aggie protested. +“It was the other way round. The girl was +angry because he wouldn’t sell his vote, even +for her.”</p> + +<p>Tish sat down in a chair, speechless; but +just then Mr. Lewis came to the door and said +that supper and the Martinis were ready. The +Martinis proved to be something to drink, and +after Mr. Lewis had raised his hand and sworn +there was no whisky in them we drank them. +He said they were appetizers, and the other +day Tish said she was going to write to the +Sherman House for the recipe before she has +the minister to dinner next week.</p> + +<p>Never did I eat so delightful a meal. Tish +forgot her sprained shoulder and the splinter<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[256]</span> +under her nail, and Aggie talked about the +roofer. And the food! I recall distinctly +shaking hands with Tish and agreeing to come +to the hotel to live, and asking the waiter to +find out from the cook how something or other +was made. And when Aggie had buried the +roofer, and Tish said it was funny, but Mr. +Lewis had four brown eyes instead of two, he +suggested that we must be tired, and a boy +took us to our room. Room, not rooms. We +could only get one. The last things I remember +are our shaking hands with Mr. Lewis, and +that Tish tried to get into the elevator before +the door was opened.</p> + +<p>About eleven o’clock I heard some one +groaning and I sat up in bed. It was Aggie, +whom, being the thinnest, we had put on the +cot. She said her nose was smarting from +the sunburn and she had heartburn something +awful. We rang for some baking soda, and +she drank some in water and made a plaster +for her nose with the rest. After a while she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[257]</span> +felt better, but we were all wide awake and the +heat was terrible. We could look out the +window and see there was a breeze, but not a +breath came in.</p> + +<p>We sent for the bell-boy again, and he said +there wasn’t another room and nobody he could +move around to give us a room on the breezy +side of the house.</p> + +<p>We took the rules and regulations card off +the door and fanned with it, but it did not help +much. After half an hour or so Tish got up, +pushed the washstand in front of a door that +connected with the next room and crawled up +on it.</p> + +<p>“If I had a chair,” she said, measuring the +distance with her eye, “I could see if that corner +room next door is occupied. I could tell +by that boy’s face that he was lying.”</p> + +<p>Aggie was trying to hold down the baking +soda, so, although I didn’t feel any too well +myself, I held the chair and Tish climbed up +on it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[258]</span>“What did I tell you?” she demanded when +she got down. “That room’s empty, and +what’s more there’s nobody belonging there. +There’s nothing on the dresser but the towel; +and there’s a breeze coming in that sends the +curtains straight into the room.”</p> + +<p>The connecting door was locked, and Tish +put a bed sheet around her and tried the hall +door. That was locked, too. And all the +time we were getting hotter and hotter, and by +putting our ears to the keyhole we could hear +the breeze blowing on the other side. It was +too much for Tish.</p> + +<p>“I’m going over the transom,” she announced, +after we had tried the dresser key in +the door without any effect. And go over she +did, after putting on her stockings to keep her +legs from being scraped.</p> + +<p>It was much cooler. We brought in our +clothes and Aggie’s cot, and spread up the bed +in the room we had left. Then we locked the +connecting door again, and after Aggie had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[259]</span> +had some more baking soda, in and out, we +went to bed.</p> + +<p>Well, as I was saying, I went to sleep. I +was awakened by Tish sitting up in bed and +clutching me somewhere about the diaphragm. +By the light from the hall over the transom I +could see Aggie sound asleep, with her mouth +opened, and Tish’s arm stretched out and +pointed at the yellow hotel bureau. I sat +straight up and looked. I couldn’t see anything, +and at first I thought Tish was dreaming. +Then I saw it too. The front of that +bureau on the left side moved out a good six +inches, stayed that way while I could count +ten, and then closed up again without a sound.</p> + +<p>Tish had put a leg out of bed, but she jerked +it in again, and just at that awful moment a +clock outside boomed twelve. And then, over +in her corner, Aggie began to talk in her sleep.</p> + +<p>“Turn around and run over it again,” she +said, with startling distinctness. “It isn’t +quite dead.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[260]</span>Tish put her hand up and held her shaking +lower jaw.</p> + +<p>“I—it’s those dr-dratted Martinis,” she quavered. +“I’ve—no—d-doubt Mr. Lewis meant +well, Lizzie, but I’ve b-been feeling very +strange all evening.”</p> + +<p>“Your stomach being upset needn’t affect +my eyes,” I retorted in a whisper. “I saw it +move.”</p> + +<p>“Are you sure?” she insisted. “I didn’t say +anything, Lizzie, but while we were eating +supper down-stairs I distinctly saw the piano +move out six feet from the wall and go back +again.”</p> + +<p>I didn’t say anything to Tish, but the fact +was that I distrusted my own vision—not that +I had seen anything so ridiculous as pianos +walking, but I had had a peculiar feeling in +the dining-room that my eyes were looking in +different directions, and when I focused them +on anything I saw double at once. It had got +so bad that when I wanted my fork I had to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[261]</span> +shut my eyes and feel for it. And so, neither +of us being certain the bureau had moved, and +nothing more occurring, we lay back again. +The next minute Tish clutched me and I looked +over. Something had happened to the bureau.</p> + +<p>It looked phosphorescent, or as though it +was on fire inside. There was a glow all +around it. The keyholes stood out like dots of +flame, and every crack gleamed. It was the +most awful thing I have ever seen.</p> + +<p>“Look!” gasped Tish, and, reaching over the +side of the bed, she picked up a shoe and flung +it with all her might at the thing. The thump +was followed by a thud inside the bureau. +Aggie stirred.</p> + +<p>“The milkman’s knocking,” she said thickly, +and sat up and yawned with her eyes shut. +Tish and I leaped out of bed and I turned on +the light. That gave us new courage, and the +dresser stood there, just like any other dresser, +with a towel on its yellow-pine top and fly-specks +on the mirror. Tish and I looked at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[262]</span> +each other and smiled in a sickly way. We +felt foolish. But Tish wasn’t satisfied. She +picked up a hairbrush and banged it on the +top.</p> + +<p>“Coming, Mr. Gibbs,” bawled Aggie, still +with her eyes shut, and she began to fumble +around on the floor for her slippers.</p> + +<p>“Wake her!” Tish commanded. “There’s +something moving in this thing. Lizzie, give +me that pitcher of scalding water.”</p> + +<p>Of course there wasn’t any hot water nearer +than the bath-room, which was three turns to +the right, one to the left and down a flight of +stairs.</p> + +<p>And at that minute the bureau spoke.</p> + +<p>“Don’t, for God’s sake, ladies!” it said.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_262.jpg" alt="Tish flung a shoe at the bureau"></div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[263]</span> +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER V<br> + +<small>THE REPORTER AND THE RED-HAIRED MAN</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">I  SCREAMED, and, as was perfectly natural, +I backed away from the thing. My +foot tripped over Tish’s water-pitcher, and my +sitting down was what wakened Aggie. She +says she never will forget how she felt when +she saw me prostrate and Tish holding a chair +aloft and begging the bureau to come out so +she could brain it. Of course she thought Tish +had gone crazy, what with the sun and excitement +of the day.</p> + +<p>“Tish!” she screeched.</p> + +<p>“Come out!” said Tish to the bureau. +“Make no resistance; we are armed!”</p> + +<p>As Aggie says, when she saw the left-hand +side of that bureau move slowly forward like +a door when Tish spoke to it, she thought she +had a touch of sun herself. But when she saw<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[264]</span> +a human figure crawl out of that place on its +hands and knees, and opened her mouth to +scream, her breath was gone as completely as +if she had been hit in the stomach.</p> + +<p>The figure got to its feet, and it had neither +horns nor tail. It had curly, light-brown hair +and blue eyes, and it was purplish red as to +face. We stood paralyzed while it stood erect +and blinked. Tish lowered her chair slowly +and the apparition dropped down on it. It was +masculine and shaking. Also young.</p> + +<p>“Ladies,” it said, “could I—could I thank +you for a drink of water? I have been almost +stifled.”</p> + +<p>When the haze cleared away from my eyes +I saw that the young man had on a light gray +suit, and that in his hand he carried his collar +and an electric flashlight. Perspiration was +pouring off his face and we could see that he +was as scared as we were.</p> + +<p>“Give him a drink, Lizzie,” Tish said firmly, +“and then press that button.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[265]</span>But the young man jumped to his feet at that +and looked at us squarely.</p> + +<p>“Ladies,” he said earnestly, “please do not +raise an alarm. I am not a thief. The manager +of the hotel put me in that bureau himself.”</p> + +<p>“The hotel must be crowded,” Tish scoffed. +“I hope they don’t charge you much for it.”</p> + +<p>From the street below came a sudden confusion +of men’s voices and the sound of feet on +the pavement. The young man threw up his +hands.</p> + +<p>“Madam,” he said to Tish, “you look like a +woman of large mind.” Tish stopped putting +the bedspread around her and stared at him. +“By your unfortunate—er—invasion here to-night +you are preventing the discovery of a +crime against civic morality. The councilmanic +banquet down-stairs is over; in a few +minutes Robertson—well, probably you don’t +understand, but I represent the <i>Morning Star</i>. +The Civic Purity League has learned that in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[266]</span> +this room, after the banquet, a bribe is going to +be offered. That bureau has been ready for a +month. Ladies, I implore you, go back to the +other room!”</p> + +<p>It was too late. At that moment there were +voices in the hall and somebody put a key into +the lock of the door. There was no time to +put the light out. The young man dropped +behind the foot of the bed, the door swung +open and a red-haired man stepped into the +room.</p> + +<p>“Suffering cats!” he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>“Go out immediately!” I said, pointing to +the door. Tish was unwinding herself from +the counterpane. She took it off airily and +flung it over the foot of the bed, so that it +covered the young man. It looked abandoned, +but the necessity was terrible. As Tish said +afterward, fifty years of respectable living +would not have prevented the tongue of scandal +licking up such a spicy morsel as that compromising +situation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[267]</span>The red-haired man retreated a step or two, +opened the door part way, and went out and +looked at the number. Then he came in again.</p> + +<p>“Madam—ladies,” he said, “this room belongs +to me. There must be some mistake.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe it belongs to you,” Tish +snapped. “Why haven’t you got some brushes +on the dresser?”</p> + +<p>“If you were a gentleman,” Aggie wailed +from the cot, “you would go out and let us get +to sleep. I never put in such a night. First +the other room is too hot, and we crawl over +the transom to get a cool place, and then—”</p> + +<p>“Over the transom,” said the red-haired gentleman. +“Do you mean to say—” Then he +laughed a little and spoke over his shoulder.</p> + +<p>“I’m sorry, Lewis,” he said, “but my room’s +taken.”</p> + +<p>“Kismet,” said our Mr. Lewis’ voice, but it +sounded reckless and strained. “Fate has +crooked her finger; I’m going home.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t be an ass,” said the red-haired gentleman.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[268]</span> +“These women in here came over the +transom from the next room. It’s empty.”</p> + +<p>“Good gracious!” Aggie gasped. “I left my +forms hanging to the gas-jet!”</p> + +<p>The red-haired man backed into the hall, +but he still held the door.</p> + +<p>“I’m going home,” said our Mr. Lewis +again. “I’m sick of things around here, anyhow. +I’ve got a chance to get an orange grove +cheap in California.”</p> + +<p>“Fiddlesticks!” retorted the red-haired man. +“Why don’t you stick by the plum tree here at +home?”</p> + +<p>On that the door closed, and we could hear +them talking guardedly in the hall.</p> + +<p>“The wretches!” Tish fumed. “Oh, why +haven’t women the vote? I tell you”—she +fixed Aggie and me with a gesture—“the day +of conscience is coming. Women stand for +civic purity, for the home, for right against +might!”</p> + +<p>It was the “right against might” that we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[269]</span> +repeated to her afterward, when we had +stolen—but that is coming soon.</p> + +<p>“But he loves the girl,” said Aggie, beginning +to sniffle. “I—I think as much of +ci—civic purity as you do, Tish Carberry, +but I th—think he is just p—pig-headed.”</p> + +<p>“The girl’s a fool and so are you,” said +Tish, beginning to take the counterpane off the +reporter. And at that second there was a +knock and the red-haired man opened the door +again.</p> + +<p>“I beg your pardon,” he apologized, “but +will you give me the key to the other room?”</p> + +<p>We did. Aggie unlocked the connecting +door and brought back the key to our old room +and the things she had left on the gas-jet. In +the excitement she threw the key on the +dresser and was just about to reach the other +articles through the crack in the door when +Tish caught her arm.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[270]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER VI<br> + +<small>A BRIBE AND A BRIDE AND IT’S ALL OVER</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">NOW I am not defending what followed. +But the Lewis man had been nice to +us, and, as Tish said tartly to Charlie Sands, +women who had lived in single blessedness as +long as we had, learned to think quick and act +quicker. As to the law, we sent a check to +the farmer whose pig we killed—and with +pork at its present price it was ruinous, although +we were glad it had not been a cow; +and as to using our missionary money to make +up for the packet Aggie lost—as we said, we +considered that it had been used in missionary +work. It was hardest, of course, on the <i>Morning +Star</i> reporter. Only a week or so ago we +had to go to Noblestown to get a new handle +for the meat-chopper. We were in the machine +outside the store, and when we saw him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[271]</span> +it was too late. Tish was wearing his necktie—having +gathered it up with her clothes that +awful night, and not knowing his name she +could not send it back to him—and she clapped +her hand over it. But he saw it.</p> + +<p>“Good afternoon,” he said, grinning.</p> + +<p>“What do you mean by addressing us?” +Tish demanded, trying to pull the collar of her +duster over the tie.</p> + +<p>“You don’t mean to say you’ve forgotten +me already!” he exclaimed, looking grieved. +“Don’t you remember—your—our room at the +Sherman House?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly not,” Tish said haughtily.</p> + +<p>He pulled out a card and scribbled something +on it. “My card,” he said. He leaned +over from the curb and gave it to Tish.</p> + +<p>“Don’t bother about the tie,” he said. “I +never liked it anyhow. But—I lost a scarfpin +that night. I—I suppose you don’t know anything +about it?”</p> + +<p>Out of the corner of her eye Tish saw Aggie<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[272]</span> +make a clutch at her neck, and she threw her +a warning glance.</p> + +<p>“I am afraid you have made a mistake,” she +said stiffly, and just then the hardware man +brought out the handle. Tish was so excited +that she started the car without paying for it, +and when we looked back he and the reporter +were staring after us; and the reporter distinctly +said, “Those women will be wealthy +some day.”</p> + +<p>“Why didn’t you let me give him his pin?” +Aggie demanded when we were safely out of +sight. “I—I feel like a thief.”</p> + +<p>“Fiddle! And confess?” said Tish. “We’ll +send it to him. I’ve got his card.”</p> + +<p>But all he had written on it, after all, was, +“A. Dresser. Private Bureau.” Charlie Sands +has promised to return the pin.</p> + +<p>Well, all this time I have left the three of +us huddled in our nightgowns on the side of +the bed, with sheets draped over us, and the +<i>Morning Star</i> gentleman with his ear to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[273]</span> +connecting door and taking down every word +that was said, in shorthand. Robertson was +offering the girl, and enough money for Mr. +Lewis to marry on, for his vote on something +or other. I reckon the balance between a man’s +honor and his cupidity hangs pretty even anyhow, +and when you throw a girl to one side or +the other it swings the scale. The Lewis man +was yielding and Tish was breathing hard.</p> + +<p>“The hussy!” she muttered.</p> + +<p>“Did you notice how pretty her hair was in +the sunlight?” whispered Aggie.</p> + +<p>Somehow it came over me then how young +the girl was, and what kind of moral sense +could one expect of a girl with that red-headed +scamp for a father?</p> + +<p>Strangely enough, the plot was gentle Aggie’s. +Aggie is like baking powder—she rises +when she gets heated up. And she was mad +clear through. We had no trouble gathering +our clothes in our arms, although I could not +find my shoe, which Tish had thrown at the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[274]</span> +bureau. Then we sat and waited. At the last +minute Aggie got a little weak and wanted +blackberry wine, but I had nothing in the +satchel but arnica.</p> + +<p>All we intended to do was to get the yellow +notebook—to meet strategy with strategy. +The rest, while unexpected, followed naturally. +But when I look out the window from +my desk and see Aggie’s placid face, and +Tish’s austere Methodist profile, it is difficult +to associate them or myself with the three +partly dressed creatures who— But to go +back.</p> + +<p>We had locked the door into the hall and +each of us had her clothes. When the two men +in the next room went out Mr. <i>Morning Star</i> +turned to us with a chuckle.</p> + +<p>“Thanks for your forbearance, ladies,” he +said, “we’ve got that villain Robertson where +he ought to have been a dozen years ago. And +as for Lewis—” He shut his notebook with +a bang, and there was something in his face<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[275]</span> +besides exultation. “To buy a girl like that!” +he said—and I knew. He wanted the girl +himself.</p> + +<p>Aggie was to ask to see the notebook and +then toss it over the transom into the corridor. +While the reporter was trying to get out the +locked door into the hall we could escape into +the adjoining room, lock the connecting door, +walk around easily and get the notebook, and +then make our escape comfortably.</p> + +<p>It would have been all right, but Aggie can +not throw. The first attempt failed by seven +feet. The young man was so astonished, however, +that he stood with his mouth open, and +the second trial sent it through.</p> + +<p>“What in the name of Heaven did you do +that for?” he demanded, thinking Aggie had +suddenly gone mad. Then he rushed to the +door. It was locked and I had the key! We +were all in the next room and a bolted door +between us before he realized what had happened.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[276]</span>We had expected, of course, to get the notebook, +to dress, and to leave in the machine +quietly, but from that time on there was no +time to think of the conventions. The young +man began to hammer on the door and other +doors opened along the hall. Then a bell-boy +came up and ran off in a hurry for a key. I +saw Tish putting on her ulster over her petticoat, +and Aggie and I did the same. The next +thing we knew we were down in the empty +lobby, and Tish had forgotten the spark plugs!</p> + +<p>We got started finally with a steel hairpin +for a plug, and as we moved away I heard the +chase coming down the stairs after us. They +were howling “Stop thief!” We were hardly +well under way when the bell-boy came in +sight with the bureau man at his heels and a +collection of people in all sorts of costumes following.</p> + +<p>Tish says we did forty miles an hour going +down the main street. I should have guessed +more than that. I had a fearful exaltation:<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[277]</span> +Aggie had advanced her speed limit since +morning from four miles an hour to the capacity +of the engine, and kept bawling to Tish +a phrase she had caught from Charlie Sands.</p> + +<p>“Letter out!” she cried, over and over. +“Letter out!”</p> + +<p>We stopped on a quiet side street and listened, +but there was no noise of pursuit. Tish +got out and stuck her wet finger on the hood, +but it wasn’t boiling.</p> + +<p>“There’s nothing coming,” she said. “I’m +going to stop long enough to put on my stockings.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t see why you couldn’t have flung +your own shoe, Tish,” I snapped. “What use +is one shoe?—unless I lose a leg, and that’s as +like as not before this night’s over.”</p> + +<p>“Do you see where we are?” Aggie asked. +“Isn’t this where we brought Miss Anne?”</p> + +<p>It was, for Anne opened the door just then +and peered down at the car.</p> + +<p>“Is that you, father?” she called. She came<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[278]</span> +down the steps, and the light from the hall fell +full on us. We must have looked rather +strange, with Tish putting on her stocking in +the driving seat and the most of our clothing +in our laps instead of on us.</p> + +<p>“Something has happened!” she said, catching +her breath. “Ted!”</p> + +<p>“Something <i>has</i> happened,” Tish retorted +grimly, and held up the notebook. “Here’s +the <i>Morning Star’s</i> shorthand report of the +interview in which your Ted sold his honor +for a mess of pottage—you being the pottage.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no,” said Miss Anne, going wobbly. +“Oh, he wouldn’t—he didn’t do such a thing!”</p> + +<p>“Upon my soul!” I broke in. “Weren’t you +fighting him all day to do it?”</p> + +<p>“You couldn’t understand,” she said, looking +at me with the eyes of a baby. “I didn’t +want him to do it; I wanted him to want to +do it.”</p> + +<p>“Well, if that’s being in love, thank Heaven<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[279]</span> +for the mind of a spinster,” I retorted angrily.</p> + +<p>“You’ve won,” Tish said. “You’ve got him +kneeling at your feet, as you wanted. But he +went down in the mud to do it. And the only +reason the newspapers won’t be slinging some +of that very mire to-morrow is because three +elderly women, who ought to have more sense, +have resorted to thievery and lost their reputations +and parts of their garments to save +him!”</p> + +<p>“I hate him,” said the young woman, with +her chin quivering. “I knew all along I +should hate him if he did it. I—I’ll never +marry him.”</p> + +<p>And with that she turned and started up the +steps. Half way up she turned.</p> + +<p>“I’m sorry you went to so much trouble,” +she said. “I don’t think he is worth saving.”</p> + +<p>Aggie’s early experience with the roofer +stood her in good stead then. She understood; +Tish and I never would have. She got out of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[280]</span> +the machine and went up into the vestibule, +and a minute later, against the hall light, we +saw the girl’s head on Aggie’s shoulder. Then +they both came down again with their arms +wrapped around each other, and Aggie asked +me to move over.</p> + +<p>“We’re going to Mr. Lewis’ apartment,” she +announced, with a thrill in her voice. She was +maudlin with romance. “It will be proper +enough, I think, with three chaperons. She +wants to see him.”</p> + +<p>“Not until I put on my other stocking,” +Tish put in grimly. “And we don’t get out of +the machine; I’ve been compromised once to-night.”</p> + +<p>“They are both young,” Aggie rebuked her +gently. “I think, having begun this thing, we +ought to see it through. We will have to be +mothers to her, for she has none.”</p> + +<p>Well, we passed Mr. Robertson at the corner +of the next street, and the girl shrank back +and covered her face. And then she directed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[281]</span> +us, and we overtook the other one as he was +going into his doorway. The girl jumped out +and ran after him. We distinctly heard him +say, “Anne! Darling!” And then, what with +anxiety and excitement, Aggie took the worst +sneezing spell of the summer, and the rest was +lost.</p> + +<p>He was terribly ashamed and humiliated, +and he said he would take the girl away and +be married right off, only he had that wretched +package of bribe money that made him think, +every time he saw it, how unworthy he was of +her! He was going to put it down a sewer +drop, but Tish suggested that they be married +and go on a honeymoon, and let us return the +bribe to Mr. Robertson.</p> + +<p>So he gave us the package; and, as you +know, Aggie lost it later. Then he asked us if +there was a minister in the summer colony at +Penzance, and Tish mentioned Mr. Ostermaier. +“I don’t like him,” she remarked, “and +his wife is a dowdy, but I suppose you don’t<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[282]</span> +expect an organ prelude and floral decorations. +Get in.”</p> + +<p>I did not mind their sitting back with me, +and his kissing her hand whenever he thought +I was not looking. But the thing I objected to +was this: I distinctly overheard him say:</p> + +<p>“I was desperate to-night, sweetheart; and, +oh, my love, you saved me!”</p> + +<p>She saved him!</p> + +<p>At a crossroads near Penzance, Tish made +them get out, and we directed them to a landing +where they would find a rowboat. We all +kissed the bride; and Mr. Lewis said he had +nobody to cheer him on his way, and wouldn’t +we kiss him, too. So we did, and after they +had gone we prepared for Carpenter’s sharp +eyes by going into the bushes and putting on +the rest of our clothes.</p> + +<p>It was the first thing Carpenter said that +caused the accident. He brought in the ferry-boat +and came up the bank to us.</p> + +<p>“I’ve been expectin’ you,” he said, with a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[283]</span> +grin. “I was thinkin’ you might come over by +the Carrick Ferry, and the folks there wouldn’t +know you.”</p> + +<p>“I guess they’d take my money without +knowing me,” Tish said sharply.</p> + +<p>“Well,” he drawled, with a sharp eye on the +three of us, “I didn’t want you to have any +trouble. We got a telephone message from +Noblestown not very long ago to look out for +an automobile containing three female desperadoes. +The police wants them.”</p> + +<p>That was when Tish sent the car over the +end of the ferry.</p> + +<p>Well, as I said early in the narrative, after +Tish and Aggie had dried off and gone to bed +I stood at my window and tried to see into +Ostermaier’s parlor, but all I could see was +the sleeve of Mrs. Ostermaier’s kimono.</p> + +<p>As I stood there shivering, the door opened +and two shadowy figures came out of the house +and crossed the lawn. Just under my window +they stopped and the tall shadow held open<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[284]</span> +its arms. The smaller one went into them with +a little cry, and they stood there a disgraceful +time. Then they lifted their heads and looked +up at our cottage.</p> + +<p>“Bless their dear, romantic hearts!” said the +girl. I was glad Tish was asleep.</p> + +<p>“They should have been pirates!” said the +man. “They are true old sports. I suppose +they’ve had their catnip tea by now and are +sound asleep. Beloved!” he said, and held out +his arms again.</p> + +<p>Pirates! I went back to bed in a rage, but +I couldn’t sleep. Somehow I kept seeing that +young idiot holding out his arms, and I felt +lonely. Finally I filled the hot-water bottle +and put it at my back.</p> + +<p>“It’s all over, Aggie!” I called—but the only +response was a snore that turned into a sneeze.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[285]</span> +<p class="ph2">THE +AMAZING ADVENTURES OF +LETITIA CARBERRY</p> + +<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Part Three</span></h2> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER I<br> + +<small>THE GREEN KIMONO</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">NOTHING would have induced me to +tell the scandalous story had it not +been for Letitia’s green kimono. But when it +was found at the Watermelon Camp, two miles +from our cottage, hanging to the branch of a +tree, instead of the corduroy trousers and blue +flannel shirt that one of the campers said he +had hung there overnight, it seemed to require +explanation. For <i>one of the men at the Watermelon +Camp knew the kimono</i>.</p> + +<p>He brought it up the next morning, hanging +over his arm, and asked Letitia for the +trousers and shirt! He said that the young +man who owned them had to wear a blanket<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[286]</span> +until we returned them, not having any other +clothes in camp. Also, he said there was a +particular kind of bass hook in one of the +pockets, and if there was any reason why we +could not return the trousers, would we be +kind enough to send back the hook.</p> + +<p>Now Tish is a teacher in the Sunday-School +and has been for thirty-five years. But she +looked up from the bowl she was wiping—we +had made a pretense at breakfast, although nobody +could eat—and she <i>lied</i>.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know what you mean by coming +here for your corduroy trousers and flannel +shirt,” she said, with a three-cornered red spot +in each cheek. “As for that kimono, I <i>never +saw it before</i>!”</p> + +<p>Then she dropped the bowl. She had to pay +twenty cents into the cottage exchequer for it +afterward, and she explained that she felt the +bowl going, and the falsehood slipped out before +she knew what she was saying. Anyhow, +it did no good, for the young man in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[287]</span> +knickerbockers and a bathing shirt held up the +kimono, grinning and pointing to the laundry +tag. It said “Letitia Carberry,” as plain as ink +could make it.</p> + +<p>Aggie weakened at once. It is always Aggie +that weakens. She sat down on the porch step +and began to cry. She had been crying off and +on all morning, having lost her upper teeth +when the boat—but that brings me to the boat.</p> + +<p>Just as Aggie threw her apron over her face, +we saw old Carpenter, the boatman, coming +up the path. I caught Tish’s arm as she was +escaping into the house. “Not a step,” I whispered +sternly. “If they arrest one of us, they +take us all.”</p> + +<p>“You see, it was like this,” the young man +was saying, “Carleton, one of our fellows, was +out in his motor canoe last night, and it upset. +When he came in, he says he hung his trousers +and shirt out on a branch to dry. Anyhow, +when he got up an hour or so ago, his clothes +were gone, and this—er—garment was there<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[288]</span> +instead.” He was staring very hard at Tish. +“He didn’t notice the change, being half +asleep, and he got his feet in the sleeves all +right, but when it came to drawing it up, he +noticed something strange about it.”</p> + +<p>At the name “Carleton” Aggie threw me an +agonized glance from her apron. She would +not speak without her teeth, and Tish was +stooping over the pieces of the bowl. I am a +Christian woman, but seeing Aggie weak-kneed +and Tish as shaky as gelatine, I hoped +that Carpenter, the boatman, would have apoplexy +or fall and break his leg before he +reached the porch. I turned on the young man +at the foot of the steps.</p> + +<p>“If you think,” I said indignantly, “that +three ladies, past their youth and with affairs +of their own to look after, have nothing better +to do than to wander around at night stealing +clothing that they could not possibly wear, and +leaving in exchange articles that they er—cherish, +go in and examine the house.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[289]</span>Carpenter had come up and stood respectfully +by, listening, and to my horror I saw +that he held the other half of Aggie’s broken +oar.</p> + +<p>“He won’t go into <i>my</i> room!” Aggie said +suddenly, and with amazing clearness, considering +her teeth.</p> + +<p>“Nonsense,” I snapped. “This young man +has seen an unmade bed before.” But Aggie +had gone pale, and suddenly I remembered. +The handle of the very oar Carpenter carried +was lying on a chair beside her bed. All that +terrible night she had held on to it as a weapon.</p> + +<p>The young man in the bathing shirt only +smiled, however, and shifted Tish’s kimono to +the other shoulder.</p> + +<p>“Certainly, if you say you haven’t seen +Carleton’s clothes,” he said easily, “the matter +is settled. No doubt the same breeze last night +that blew the kimono down to the camp and +hung it on the branch of a tree took the trousers +to make a sensation on one of the nearby<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[290]</span> +islands. I am sorry Carleton didn’t know they +were going traveling, he would at least have +had them brushed.”</p> + +<p>While I was glaring at him Carpenter +stepped forward and placed the oar blade on +the porch. When Aggie saw the name “Witch +Hazel” she opened her mouth like a fish, and +I daresay if I had not pinched her she would +have told the whole miserable story then and +there. Not that I am ashamed of it—I am +not too old, thank the Lord, to know real love +when I see it—but Aggie has no sense of proportion, +and in her telling, what was pure romance +would have become merely assault and +battery, with intent to compound a felony.</p> + +<p>“I reckon, Miss Lizzie,” Carpenter said, addressing +me, “that you and Miss Tish and Miss +Aggie didn’t take the <i>Witch Hazel</i> out last +night and forget to bring her back, did you?”</p> + +<p>Aggie shut her mouth and swallowed.</p> + +<p>“Certainly,” I retorted sarcastically. “We +decided to take a midnight row yesterday evening,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[291]</span> +but the boat leaked. In the middle of the +lake it filled and sank under our feet.”</p> + +<p>Tish gave me an awful look, and snapped:</p> + +<p>“I suppose if we’d taken your boat out, we’d +have brought it back, not being mermaids.”</p> + +<p>“That’s what I argued down at the camp,” +he meditated. “I said to them, ‘you boys have +been up to some devilment or other, and I’ll +git you yet. It ain’t likely that them three +old—them three ladies that can’t row a stroke +or swim a yard would take the <i>Witch Hazel</i> +out in the middle of the night in a storm, sink +the boat, and swim home four miles in time to +put up their crimps and get breakfast.’”</p> + +<p>“Thirtainly not,” Aggie said with injured +dignity, “I can’t thwim a thtroke.”</p> + +<p>Carpenter spat on one of our whitewashed +cobblestones. “It’s what you might call <i>ree</i>markable,” +he observed. “Not another soul +on the island, and won’t be ’til the Methodist +camp meeting next week; one of the boys at +the Watermelon Camp with a blanket on instead<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[292]</span> +of his pants and a bandage on his head, +and the <i>Witch Hazel</i> stole last night by somebody +who cut through her painter with a pair +of scissors and takes her out with two oars +that ain’t mates.”</p> + +<p>The young man with the kimono dropped it +carelessly into Aggie’s lap and straightened +with a glance at her stricken face.</p> + +<p>“Scissors!” he repeated. “Oh, come, Abe, +you’re no detective. How the mischief do you +know whether the rope was cut with scissors +or chewed off?”</p> + +<p>Abe dived into his pocket and brought up +two articles on the palm of his hand.</p> + +<p>“Scissored off or chewed off,” he said triumphantly. +“Take your choice.”</p> + +<p>There, gleaming in the sunlight, were <i>Tish’s +buttonhole scissors and Aggie’s upper teeth</i>!</p> + +<p>“Found them in four feet of water at the +end of the boat dock,” he said, “where I left +the <i>Witch Hazel</i> last night. If them teeth ever +belonged in a fish, then I’m a dentist.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[293]</span>I remember the next ten minutes through a +red haze; I knew in a dim way that Aggie had +clutched at her teeth and disappeared; I heard +from far off Tish’s voice, explaining that Aggie +had dropped the scissors in the water the +previous afternoon, and had lost her teeth +while lying on the dock trying to fish them up—the +scissors, of course—with a hairpin on +the end of a string. And finally, with the line +of the waterfront undulating before my dizzy +eyes like a marcel wave—which is a figure of +speech and not a pun—I realized that Carpenter +and the sleeveless and neckless young +man from the camp were retreating down the +path, and I knew that the ordeal was over.</p> + +<p>I believe I fainted, for when I opened my +eyes again Tish was standing in front of me +with a cup of tea, and she had been crying.</p> + +<p>“You needn’t feel so badly about it,” I said, +when I had taken a sip of the tea. “There are +times when to lie is humanity.”</p> + +<p>“It isn’t that,” Tish whimpered, breaking<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[294]</span> +down again, “but—but the wretches didn’t believe +me!”</p> + +<p>“No,” I echoed sadly, “they didn’t believe +you.”</p> + +<p>“I could think of so many better ones now,” +she wailed.</p> + +<p>“Never mind,” I said, with a feeble attempt +to console her, “they won’t jail us for lying, +anyhow. We are reasonably safe, Tish, unless +Mr. Carleton has Aggie arrested for assault +and battery.”</p> + +<p>But he did not. The only court concerned +was the marriage license court, from which +you will know that this is a love story. Even +if it does begin with a mangy dog.</p> + +<p>At least Aggie said it was mange; her parrot +had the same moth-eaten look before it +died. But Tish has always maintained that +it was fleas. She says they breed in the grass, +and attack dogs in swarms in hot weather.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[295]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER II<br> + +<small>IT WAS THE DOG</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">THE dog was put ashore under our very +noses, by the crew of a passing launch. +We were knitting on our veranda that afternoon, +looking across at Sunset Island, which is +four miles away. Carpenter was not in sight, +and from down the beach came the yells and +splashes that told that the college boys at the +Watermelon Camp were bathing. We were +sitting with our backs to them, when Tish said +suddenly:</p> + +<p>“There is a launch coming in.”</p> + +<p>There was, a very fine one, although handsome +is as handsome does, as the colored man +said about the hippopotamus. For as the +launch steamed past, a man in a white uniform +threw something with a thud on to the dock. +It was a dog. The next moment they headed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[296]</span> +out into the lake again, paying no attention to +Tish, who ran down the path and tried to signal +them with the raffia basket she was making.</p> + +<p>The dog came up and sniffed at her.</p> + +<p>Now we never had any dogs on the island, +even in the season. Tish’s uncle had been bitten +by a dog once, and although he never had +hydrophobia, he was always strange afterward. +They say that when he coughed it was exactly +like a bark, and the very sight of a cat upset +him terribly. Also, although the family never +said much about this, I have heard that after +he died they found quite a collection of bones +in his upper washstand drawer. And my +grandmother saw him once eating raw meat +mixed with onion, between slices of bread! So +when we bought the island, and sold parts of it +for cottages, we always put in the agreement +of sale: “No intoxicants, no phonographs and +no dogs.”</p> + +<p>You may imagine how we felt, therefore, +when we saw the dog following Tish up the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[297]</span> +path, and biting at her heels. (When a dog +bites at your heels, and isn’t wagging his tail, +he is not playing; he is in earnest. It is much +like that line in <i>The Virginian</i>—“When you +say that, smile!” But this dog did not smile.)</p> + +<p>Tish shouted to us, as she came, to run and +shut Paulina, her cat, in the spare room, and +to give her her catnip ball (the cat, not Tish). +And then she came up and dropped on the +porch step and covered up her feet, and the +creature sat down before her and dared her to +move.</p> + +<p>That was the most terrible afternoon of my +life. He sat there and drooled over the step, +and growled now and then, and Tish told +about her uncle, and Aggie said she knew a +man who had been attacked by a bulldog, and +the only way they got him loose was to give +him—the dog—a hypodermic of poison and +pry him off after he died.</p> + +<p>To make matters worse, there did not seem +to be a soul on the island. The boys from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[298]</span> +camp had disappeared; Carpenter’s cabin was +closed and locked. At tea time the dog heard +Paulina wailing up-stairs and he made a hole +in the screen door and went after her. He had +chewed almost through the guest room door +before Aggie called him off with the chops for +supper.</p> + +<p>That decided us.</p> + +<p>About eight o’clock that evening, while the +creature was gnawing at a leg of the dining-room +table, we held a whispered conference, +and Tish came forward with a plan. It was +very daring, and Aggie immediately objected. +“It’s all very well,” she said, “to sit here in a +rocking-chair and talk about rowing four miles +to Sunset Island, with not one of us knowing +anything about a boat, and Lizzie told by that +fortune teller last spring that she would die +by drowning. Not only that. <i>How are you +going to get the dog into the boat?</i>”</p> + +<p>Tish leaned forward cautiously. The Dog +was still gnawing in the next room.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[299]</span>“Chloroform him!” she whispered. “Wait +until he gets sleepy. Then take Lizzie’s bath +sponge, soak it with your chloroform liniment, +Aggie, and when he’s stupefied, carry him +down and dump him in the boat.”</p> + +<p>“Why not let Carpenter do it, in the morning?” +Aggie objected. She was green with +nervousness.</p> + +<p>“Carpenter!” Tish snorted. “If he ever sees +that flea-bitten creature he will keep him.”</p> + +<p>(Carpenter, being an original settler, had +never subscribed to the liquor, phonograph and +dog clause.)</p> + +<p>At eleven o’clock the Dog turned over on his +side and went to sleep. We were ready. My +sponge, saturated with Aggie’s liniment and +impaled on the end of Tish’s umbrella, was +held to his nostrils, and we each drew a long +breath. But we had counted without Aggie’s +hay fever. Just as the creature seemed about +settled and was growing limp, Aggie began to +sneeze, and by the time the paroxysm was over<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[300]</span> +the dog was awake and had eaten part of the +sponge. It was a terrible disappointment. As +Tish said afterward, we should have anæsthetized +Aggie first.</p> + +<p>However, perhaps it was for the best, after +all, for it made him very ill, and when, after +Tish had washed the floor, she prodded him +with the wooden handle of the mop and he +only groaned, he had ceased to be formidable.</p> + +<p>“It’s now or never,” Tish said, with determination, +and put on her overshoes. It had +been raining, and luckily Aggie put her plaid +shawl around her shoulders. What we should +have done later without that shawl I shudder +to think. Tish put on a knitted cape and I tied +a scarf over my head. Then, with the dog—no +longer a capital D—wobbling at the end of +a clothes-line, we started.</p> + +<p>At the last minute Tish had a spell of conscience +and hunted up a bottle of cleaning fluid +to put in the boat.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_300.jpg" alt="Tish prodded the dog"></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[301]</span>“It’s mostly gasoline,” she said. “If it’s +mange it won’t do any harm, and if it’s fleas +it will kill them. We can put it on just before +we leave him on Sunset Island. You start +pouring it at his nose and work along his back. +The fleas will drop off his tail. Every creature +deserves a chance.”</p> + +<p>None of us thought of the ether in the stuff, +although, as it turned out, it did not hurt the +dog. <i>It was never used on the dog.</i></p> + +<p>We got to the dock without incident, Aggie +ahead with the dog, and Tish and I feeling for +the rope of Carpenter’s skiff. Tish had the +scissors, in case we couldn’t untie it. Just as +we found it and stooped, something splashed. +Tish straightened and gripped me by the arm.</p> + +<p>“Did you throw anything in?” she demanded +in an awful tone.</p> + +<p>“Stop pinching me, Tish Carberry!” I +snapped, “or I will.”</p> + +<p>There was silence for a minute; then there +was a swirling whitish appearance at our very +feet, and something dark raised itself up in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[302]</span> +water and stood waving its arms. Then it +gave a gurgle or two, choked, coughed and +finally sneezed. We knew the sneeze; it was +Aggie!</p> + +<p>It was when she got her breath that she said +the incredible thing, the thing she flatly denied +afterward, but for which she was obliged to +pay five dollars into the fine box.</p> + +<p>“That damned dog pulled me in!” she gurgled. +“I’ve thwallowed—” She clapped her +hands to her mouth, and we knew at once. +Her teeth!</p> + +<p>We pulled them both out grimly—Aggie and +the dog, and Tish ordered Aggie to the house +for dry clothes at once. “And it might be as +well, Agatha,” she added coldly, “if you would +wash your mouth out with soap. You can buy +new teeth, but you can not buy another immortal +soul.”</p> + +<p>Agatha sloshed a half-dozen steps up the +dock. Then she turned on us both in the darkness.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[303]</span>“If <i>you</i> had thwallowed two gallonth of +dirty water, tho that you can feel it thaking +in you when you walk, and had lotht your +thell back comb and your betht upper teeth, +you wouldn’t care, Tith Carberry, whether you +had an immortal thoul or not.”</p> + +<p>Then she thtalked—stalked, I mean, up to +the house. Tish was furious, but luckily, I +have a sense of humor. With Aggie’s soul +hanging fire, so to speak, I sat down on the +dock in the rain and laughed. That was the +beginning of my deterioration; from that instant, +when I braved rheumatism and Tish’s +displeasure, to that later moment just at dawn, +when we came back to the dock again, draggled, +dirty and guilty, I was forty-nine years +young, reckless, disdainful of consequences, +unmindful of wet feet and the proprieties, forgetful +even of law and order. That awful, +glorious night, when young Love—but that’s +the story.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[304]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER III<br> + +<small>A WET YOUNG MAN</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">WELL, Tish and I got the boat loose, +and Tish dropped the scissors into the +water. Then when we got in, Tish insisted on +rowing with her face to the bow of the boat. +She said she couldn’t see where she was going +if she didn’t, which, of course, was true enough. +We dragged the dog in by his tail and then sat +and waited for Aggie. When she did come she +was sulky, and almost the only words she said +that entire night were “Kill him!” And that +was under stress of great excitement, at three +o’clock in the morning.</p> + +<p>The night was very black, but a light on the +boat-landing at Sunset Island gave us our direction. +Tish and I rowed, I behind her, and +as she had an unexpected habit of scooping the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[305]</span> +top off a wave with her oar and throwing it +over my face and chest, finally, in desperation +I turned my back to her. It was really easier +rowing that way, although we did not keep +very good time. But, as I explained when +Tish objected, it was really safer, for by rowing +back to back we could see in both directions +at once.</p> + +<p>When we were about a mile from shore, Aggie +spoke for the first time.</p> + +<p>“The boat’th leaking!” she said.</p> + +<p>“Gracious!” I exclaimed, and felt my petticoats. +They were sopping.</p> + +<p>“Nonsense!” Tish sneered. “It’s the water +Lizzie’s been ladling in with her oars.” Then +she caught a wave with her oar, and poured it +down my back. At that minute the dog moved +uneasily in the bottom of the boat and crawled +up on the seat in the bow, where he sat and +wailed.</p> + +<p>We should have gone back. I said so then, +but Tish is like all the Carberrys—immovably<span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[306]</span> +obstinate. When I tried to row back to the +landing, <i>she</i> was rowing for Sunset Island, and +all we did was to make as much splash as a +paddle-wheel steamer, and not move an inch +in either direction. And just then Tish broke +an oar.</p> + +<p>“There!” she snapped, turning on me, of +course. “Just look what your pig-headedness—”</p> + +<p>She never finished. She was staring, petrified, +at the rim of the boat, which was just +visible. There were two white splotches on it +that looked like hands. The more I looked, +the more I knew they <i>were</i> hands! And then +the boat tilted to that side until we all +screamed, and a head and shoulders appeared, +fell back out of sight, upreared themselves with +a mighty heave, and—dropped into the boat.</p> + +<p>It was a man—a young man. Even in the +darkness he gleamed white from head to foot. +We shut our eyes and screamed. When we +stopped he had sat down on the dog, discovered<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[307]</span> +him, slid him with a splash into the bottom of +the boat and had settled himself comfortably +in the bow.</p> + +<p>“I’m sorry I frightened you,” he was saying, +“but—I’d been swimming for a good +while, and your boat was an oasis in the dusty +desert.”</p> + +<p>“Get back into the water instantly!” Tish +commanded, turning her profile to him. “Have +you no shame?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, as to <i>that</i>,” he said aggrieved, “I—I +have something on, you know. Of course, +they are wet, and they stick to me, but—”</p> + +<p>“Give him thith,” Aggie broke in, and unwound +herself from her shawl. I passed it to +Letitia over my shoulder, and Letitia averted +her face and held it out to him.</p> + +<p>“Thanks, awfully,” he said. “After all that +exercise, the night air is cold on a fellow’s +back.”</p> + +<p>At that Letitia turned on him in a rage.</p> + +<p>“<i>Will</i> you open that shawl out and cover<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[308]</span> +yourself?” she asked furiously. “<i>Cover</i> yourself. +Your <i>back</i>! Look at your <i>legs</i>!”</p> + +<p>“As long as you sit quiet and behave yourself, +you may stay in the boat,” I added with as +much composure as I could get over my trembling +lips. “Otherwise, I warn you, we have +a dog.”</p> + +<p>At that I think he prodded the dog with his +foot, for he set up a nauseated whine—the dog, +of course—and the young gentleman laughed.</p> + +<p>“Your dog is quite safe, madam,” he said. +“I wouldn’t bite him for anything.” Then he +leaned forward in the darkness and stared at +Tish and myself.</p> + +<p>“Upon my soul!” he muttered, and then +aloud: “How in the name of all that is nautical +did you ladies get as far from shore as +this, when you are rowing in different directions?”</p> + +<p>Tish refused to answer, and fell to rowing +madly with her one oar, so that we turned +around and around in a circle. Aggie had not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[309]</span> +said a word since she gave the young man her +shawl. She was sitting in the stern with the +jug in her lap and her handkerchief over her +mouth.</p> + +<p>“This is a wonderful piece of luck,” he said +finally. “I must have been blown up the lake. +I hope I didn’t startle you?”</p> + +<p>“Not at all,” I said, as coolly as I could. At +least he didn’t have a revolver: there was no +place to hide one, or a knife either. “Are you +out for a pleasure trip? Or did you have any +definite objective point?” This scathingly.</p> + +<p>“Just land,” he said. “Any old land will +do. Near a boat-house, if possible.”</p> + +<p>“We are going to Thunthet Island,” Aggie +lisped, encouraged by his good humor.</p> + +<p>This seemed to surprise him, but after a +minute he threw back his head and laughed: +it was almost a chuckle. Certainly, if he was +a lunatic, he was a cheerful one.</p> + +<p>“To Sunset Island, then!” he exclaimed. +“Forward, and God with us!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[310]</span>The rain was over, and by the starlight we +could make out a little more about our intruder. +He seemed large and not bad looking, +and he had a nice voice. (It was a disappointment, +when we finally saw him in the daylight, +to find that his hair was red, but it was offset +by an attractive smile and exceedingly good +teeth. Next to a nice nose, I like a man to +have good teeth.) But, of course, some of the +greatest rascals have all the physical attributes +at the expense of the moral ones. As to his +good humor, every one knows that a man can +smile and smile and be a villain still. He +wanted to take the oars, but an oar is a mighty +effective weapon: neither Tish nor I would +give ours up. Finally—</p> + +<p>“I suppose you haven’t any gasoline with +you?” he inquired, leaning forward and hugging +the shawl under his chin.</p> + +<p>“There’th a quart bottle of cleaning fluid—” +Aggie began, but Tish interrupted her.</p> + +<p>“Agatha!” she said.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[311]</span>“I suppose you don’t know of a boat-house +near where we could steal some, do you?” he +reflected.</p> + +<p>“<i>We!</i>”</p> + +<p>Tish lifted her oar out of the water and +leaned on it. There is no space here to set +down what she said, but she did it thoroughly. +She told him what she thought of his going +around in his present costume; she told him +that two of us were Methodist Protestants and +one an Episcopalian, and that we would not +assist him to steal anybody’s gasoline, or his +wife or his silver spoons: and she ended up by +demanding that he go back where he came +from immediately: that we could not compromise +ourselves by landing him anywhere in his +existing undress—only Tish called it negligée.</p> + +<p>He listened meekly.</p> + +<p>“If that’s the way you feel,” he said finally, +“of course I’ll drop back into the water. +Drowning’s an easy death. But if during your +excursion you happen to come across a motor-boat<span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[312]</span> +containing a girl, I wish you would tell +her that I did the best I could.”</p> + +<p>He stood up and began to take off the +shawl. Tish poked at him with her oar.</p> + +<p>“Don’t be a young idiot,” she snapped. +“We’re not making you walk the plank. What +about the young lady?”</p> + +<p>“It’s rather a story,” he said, drawing the +shawl around him again and sitting down. +“But the idea is this: when a fellow starts to +elope with a girl, and then funks it, by getting +drowned or running out of gasoline or anything +of that sort, and leaves her sitting in a +dead motor-boat in the middle of the night, +she’s—she’s apt to be touchy about it.”</p> + +<p>“Lord have mercy!” said Tish. “You were +abducting a young woman!”</p> + +<p>“Penitentiary offense,” he confirmed coolly.</p> + +<p>“When she didn’t want to be eloped with!” +I added. I confess I had a queer thrill up and +down my back.</p> + +<p>“Well,” he considered, “hardly that. She<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[313]</span> +only thought she didn’t. She has been told so +many times that she mustn’t like me that now +she thinks she doesn’t. Pure power of suggestion. +If she hadn’t pitched a can of gasoline +overboard in a temper, we’d have been +miles away by this time,” he finished, with his +first suggestion of gloom.</p> + +<p>In the darkness I heard Aggie draw a long +breath. Aggie is romantic, having been engaged +a long time ago to a young man in the +roofing business, who fell off a roof.</p> + +<p>“How you mutht love her!” she said, and +one could imagine her clasping her hands. +“And how alarmed <i>the</i> mutht be for you.”</p> + +<p>“She said she hoped I would drown,” he +said, more cheerfully, “but that’s only girl’s +talk. When she gets over thinking she doesn’t +like me, she’s going to be crazy about me. +When a girl hates a fellow, she’s next door to +loving him.”</p> + +<p>“‘Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,’” +Tish snorted with scorn, and just then<span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">[314]</span> +the dog began to whine again and tried to +crawl up into Aggie’s lap. The young man in +the shawl started to say something about having +a minister waiting at Telusah, and stopped +suddenly.</p> + +<p>“It isn’t raining now,” he said, “and yet this +boat is filling. Does she leak?”</p> + +<p>She did: we knew it then. The water that +had been sloshing around in the bottom was +almost to the top of our overshoes, and an +instant later Aggie, with a fine disregard of the +proprieties, had her feet up on the thwarts. +We are all vague about the next few minutes, +but after a great deal of screeching and tipping +of the boat, our young man, with the +shawl belted around him as a petticoat, was in +Tish’s seat, rowing like mad, and we were all +bailing like mad with our rubber shoes.</p> + +<p>We headed the boat straight for Sunset +Island, which was as near as any place, but in +spite of us it kept on getting fuller. And just +when Aggie had lifted her jug into her lap to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">[315]</span> +lighten her end of the boat, and the water was +well above our shoe tops, and climbing, and +Tish was muttering the alphabet under the impression +that she was praying, the boat stopped +suddenly and the young man said:</p> + +<p>“Why don’t you women bail? What are +you doing? Tickling the ribs of the boat? +We’ll never get to shore at this rate!”</p> + +<p>Aggie began to sniffle, and the man in the +shawl stood up and peered over the water.</p> + +<p>“Lillian!” he shouted. “Wave the lantern! +Coo—ee!”</p> + +<p>We all heard it. From far down the lake +came a distant “coo—ee” that was not an echo. +The shawl man muttered something and +lurched where he stood: the boat tipped, of +course, and more water came over the edge.</p> + +<p>Aggie began fervently, “For what we are +about to receive, O Lord, make us duly thankful,” +when the boat bumped without warning +into something.</p> + +<p>It was just in time. As I, the last, was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">[316]</span> +hauled into the motor-launch, the <i>Witch Hazel</i> +slid greasily under the surface, to rise no more.</p> + +<p>(The loss of the <i>Witch Hazel</i> was deplorable, +and later on we sent Carpenter, anonymously, +money to buy a new boat. He has +one, which he calls the <i>Urticaria</i>, but the ghost +of the <i>Witch Hazel</i> still walks, a sort of Pond’s +Extract in his memory.)</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">[317]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER IV<br> + +<small>CLEANING FLUID TO THE RESCUE</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">IT was some time before we could realize +that eternity had ceased staring us in the +face and had taken a back seat, so to speak. +The first thing Tish said was that, man or no +man, her shoes were going to come off, and +while Aggie was wringing alternately her +hands and her petticoats, I happened to notice +the Shawl Man. He was standing holding his +garment around him and staring over the dark +water ahead.</p> + +<p>“You needn’t feel so badly,” I said to him. +“We’re only glad Aggie had the shawl, and +now, if you can run the launch, why don’t you +hunt up your own, with the young lady in it?”</p> + +<p>“<i>This</i> is the boat!” he said heavily, and, sitting +down, he dropped his chin in his hands.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_318">[318]</span>Well, there was no girl. Dark as it was, we +could all see that. Tish looked up suspiciously +from where she was stuffing her wet shoes +with her stockings to keep them in shape.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see any clothes either,” she said +tartly. “I suspect your lady friend tied them +into a bundle and swam ashore with them in +her teeth!”</p> + +<p>“I left her there in that chair!” he affirmed. +He looked dazed. “She—she didn’t want to—to +go, you know, and she threw the extra +gasoline can overboard. When we stalled there +was nothing to do but swim ashore, borrow a +skiff, and steal some gasoline from the boat-house +on one of the islands. I wasn’t going to +sit out there in a dead motor-boat and let her +people stand on the bank in the morning and +pot at me with a target rifle.”</p> + +<p>“Thirtainly not!” said Aggie, who had +shamelessly allied herself with him.</p> + +<p>“Not only that,” he went on defiantly, “but +when a man cares for a girl the way I care for—her,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_319">[319]</span> +he either carries her off and marries her +or he dies trying.”</p> + +<p>“And quite right, I’m thure.” Thus Aggie. +She was still clutching her jug; the dog, the +first to be saved, had sniffed the cork, got a +whiff of the ether, and retired with a moan to +the corner.</p> + +<p>“If she tried to swim to shore,” began the +Shawl Man, and groaned. But Aggie had +forgotten her lisp in her rôle of comforter.</p> + +<p>“Nonthenth!” she said. “Probably Mithther +Carleton came along with hith motor canoe +and took her home. He’th alwayth mooning +around the lake late at night.”</p> + +<p>The Shawl Man jumped to his feet and the +boat rocked.</p> + +<p>“Denby Carleton!” he said. “Hell!”</p> + +<p>Then he went to pieces. As Tish wrote to +her niece, Martha Ann Lee, afterward, “his +composure went to pieces on the rocks of adversity, +and sank in a sea of woe.” He raged +up and down the launch, muttering strange<span class="pagenum" id="Page_320">[320]</span> +and awful things, and every now and then he +stooped over the engine in the middle of the +boat and gritted his teeth and turned something. +And the engine would draw a quick +breath and turn over on its other side and settle +down to sleep again. And then, when he finally +gave up, he declared he was going to swim +after the canoe and kill Carleton for stealing +the girl and throwing his clothes overboard.</p> + +<p>(Yes, we found a soft hat floating, and the +rest were gone.)</p> + +<p>He stood up on the front peak of the launch +and began to untie the shawl, but Tish pulled +him back and told him if the girl wanted Mr. +Carleton instead of him he was well rid of her. +And she asked him his name. This brought +him around a little. He said, “Mansfield, +Donald Mansfield,” and stalked back and sat +down in the stern squarely on the dog.</p> + +<p>“Keep away from that dog!” Aggie exclaimed. +“He hath mange.”</p> + +<p>“Fleas!” Tish snapped.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_321">[321]</span>“Mange!” said Aggie.</p> + +<p>“Upon my word, Aggie Pilkington,” Tish +sniffed, “if the creature has mange, why on +earth are you still hugging that jar of gasoline?”</p> + +<p>Then, of course, the Shawl Man, who shall +be Mansfield now, gave a whoop and seized the +jug.</p> + +<p>“Ith cleaning fluid,” Aggie protested. +“Thereth ether and alcohol—”</p> + +<p>“Never mind what’s in it,” he said excitedly. +“I know this engine. It’ll run on the gas out +of a bottle of Apollinaris.” And while he +poured the stuff into the tank he explained his +plan. If the engine ran on the mixture, and +didn’t get something that he called a “bun on,” +we could get back to Sunset Island, which I +gathered belonged to the girl’s father, get into +somebody’s boat-house (preferably the father’s) +and obtain some gasoline. Also, he +would try to find some clothes. It shows how +thoroughly demoralized we were that not one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_322">[322]</span> +of us objected to his stealing anything he +needed, and that Tish asked him to bring her a +blanket if he happened on one!</p> + +<p>The engine would not start at once. And +after he had explained that he had only one +hand to crank with, having to hold on the +shawl with the other, we turned our backs, and +almost immediately there was an explosion. +The boat jumped out of the water and dropped +back with a thud. I could not scream. Then +there came a series of reports, and I sat waiting +for the floor to separate and drop me into +sixty feet of water and mud and crawly things +with the family burial lot full, provided my +body was ever found, unless they moved +Cousin James beside his first wife, where he +ought to be anyhow. And then I realized that +we were moving.</p> + +<p>We did not float. We got to shore by a distinct +species of leaps; once or twice I am quite +sure we left the surface of the lake. If that +stuff had ever been put on the dog, the fleas<span class="pagenum" id="Page_323">[323]</span> +would have killed themselves jumping. And +all the time there was a combination of odors +that as Tish said afterward reminded one individually +of burnt brandy sauce and an operating +room, and collectively of something that +has died in the alley. And whenever we +stopped Mr. Mansfield would do something +that he called “spinner again.”</p> + +<p>When we got near enough to shore we could +see that the big white Lovell house was lighted +up, late as it was, and there were people on the +boat dock with lanterns. Mr. Mansfield saw +it too, and changed the course of the launch, so +we stopped at a smaller landing, half a mile or +so down the beach, and tied up there.</p> + +<p>“You are perfectly safe here,” he said, “and +I’ll be back in ten minutes. The only way +Major Lovell could recognize this boat in the +dark would be by the sound of the engine, and +if he heard this racket he’ll take us for a battle +in a moving picture show. Just sit tight and +keep warm.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_324">[324]</span>He threw the shawl to us and dived into the +darkness. Somebody was shouting at the +Lovell dock, but we sat in safe obscurity and +listened to the wash of the water against the +piles. The absurdity of the situation began to +dawn on me, and the sight of Tish and Aggie, +luminous in the starlight—it had stopped raining—trying +to get into their wet shoes, made +me fairly hysterical. To add to it all, the +patter of Mr. Mansfield’s bare feet on the +boards of the dock waked our sleeping dog, +and with a series of staccato barks he was at +our unlucky young man’s heels. He seemed to +have a fondness for feet.</p> + +<p>“If you could see yourself, Lizzie, I might +understand your mirth,” Tish said scathingly. +“But I fail to see anything funny.”</p> + +<p>“Then for goodness sake, Tish,” I cried, +“stop dangling that shoe on your toe and see +what is the matter with your figure. It has +slipped up under your chin.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_325">[325]</span>“Good heaventh!” said Aggie. “They are +coming down the beach after uth!”</p> + +<p>It was true. The lanterns had left the +Lovell dock and were bobbing wildly along the +waterfront in our direction, guided by the +barking of the dog. Of all the hours of that +awful night, that was the most terrible. We +sat there shivering and helpless and watched +Nemesis chasing and bobbing down on us. +About half way to us the first lantern stopped +and fired a gun, and back along the beach new +lanterns kept adding themselves to the line that +stretched out like the tail of a comet.</p> + +<p>Tish thought she was very cool, but both +Aggie and I distinctly heard her say that the +stars had stopped raining. And once she said +that she had always been a respected member +of the community, and that nobody in his sober +senses would believe her if she told the true +story. And when the first lantern was so +close that we could see a vague outline of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_326">[326]</span> +man behind it, desperation gave me a courage +that has appalled me since.</p> + +<p>I went over to the engine and tried to “spinner.”</p> + +<p>What is more to the point, I did it. The +wheels began to revolve with a sickening speed: +the whole frame of the boat jarred and quivered. +I sank back on my knees and closed my +eyes.</p> + +<p>“We’re not moving,” Tish said with awful +calmness.</p> + +<p>And at that a white figure hurled itself from +the darkness at the end of the landing and flew +down the dock to us. It had a can in one hand +and a lantern in the other. It hesitated a +second to throw off the rope, which was why +we hadn’t moved, of course, and, as the engine +was going full, he had only time to catch one +of the awning supports as it flew past. It went +as if it had been shot out of a gun, and when +Aggie and Tish and I had assorted ourselves<span class="pagenum" id="Page_327">[327]</span> +from a heap on the floor, we were well out +from shore.</p> + +<p>It was lucky that Aggie took one of her +awful sneezing spells just then, as she always +does when she is excited, for by the time +she was breathing easily again the shore was +well behind and Mr. Mansfield had put on the +shawl again.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_328">[328]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER V<br> + +<small>THE CAVE-MAN AND HIS WOMAN</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">IT is a little difficult, looking back, to explain +our state of mind that night. It was +only our second taste of romance—Aggie’s +roofer being too far back to count. Now, with +six months of perspective, I think we were intoxicated +with adventure to the point of abandon. +For when Mr. Mansfield offered to take +us home, before starting on his pursuit of the +motor canoe, we refused to go. As Tish said:</p> + +<p>“No doubt when you do overtake them, Mr. +Mansfield, the young woman will feel the need +of some of her own sex, women of—er—maturity +and experience, to advise her. I consider +it our duty to go.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, leth go!” said Aggie. “Mr. Carletonth +a large man. Do you think you will have to +fight him for your lady?” Aggie’s tone was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_329">[329]</span> +cheerfully bloodthirsty, and she clutched the +end of the broken oar like a club. Aggie, the +apostle of peace!</p> + +<p>“Frankly, I should like to see the end of the +affair myself,” I admitted. “I should like to +see the young lady’s face when she finds you +eloping with three maiden ladies, and—I am +curious to know how your cave-man theory +works out.”</p> + +<p>He was working over the engine, and we +were headed down the lake. While I was +speaking he moved to the other side of the +launch, and it tilted villainously. He loomed +very large in the darkness, and the strength of +his bare arms and heavy chest, his sinewy legs, +made him not unlike his prototype.</p> + +<p>He did not answer me at once. He had +found some cigarettes in the boat, and he +lighted one. Only when it was well aglow did +he show that he had heard me.</p> + +<p>“The original cave-man was no fool,” he observed, +calmly looking ahead. “A man doesn’t<span class="pagenum" id="Page_330">[330]</span> +carry a woman off unless he’s crazy about her, +in the first place. If he’s got sufficient force +of character to dare her daddy’s stone club—jail, +in this case—and enough physical strength +to hold her to him with one arm and fight off +pursuit and rivals with the other, it—well, it +doesn’t matter much what the girl thinks of +him in the beginning: she’ll die for him, in the +end.”</p> + +<p>Aggie positively thrilled in the darkness beside +me, and even Tish was silenced by the +vision of this masculine point of view. As for +me, just at that instant I quite agreed with the +young savage!</p> + +<p>“Ith—ith the very pretty?” Aggie ventured, +after swallowing hard.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” he said indifferently, straining +his eyes ahead. “Oh—yes, I suppose she +is. I never thought about it. I haven’t thought +of anybody else—<i>anything</i> else, for the week +I’ve known her.”</p> + +<p>“The week!” we all repeated faintly.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_331">[331]</span>“When her groom lifts her off her horse, I +want to kill him. If that ass Carleton gets her +to Telusah first and marries her, I’ll take her +from him. She’s my woman.”</p> + +<p>Tish stood right up in the boat and pointed +her finger at him. “You d-don’t know what +you are talking about,” she stuttered. “How—how +dare you speak of taking a married +woman from her husband!”</p> + +<p>“Figs!” he said disrespectfully. “In the +first place, if the engine holds out, we’ll run +them down at least a mile from Telusah, and in +the second place, while I judge you are talking +by the book and not by experience—a few +words said over a man and a woman don’t +make them husband and wife. It gives the +woman the man’s name, but—the man don’t +necessarily get the woman. Mine—or nobody’s,” +he added under his breath.</p> + +<p>Tish collapsed into her chair. I admit I +felt queer all over, and Aggie’s heart had fluttered +back to the thin young man with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_332">[332]</span> +curled-up mustache and a dimple in his chin, +who had fallen off a roof.</p> + +<p>“Mister Wigginth usthed to talk exactly that +way!” she said softly.</p> + +<p>That is the way we went down toward Telusah: +the prehistoric gentleman in the bow steering +and watching the engine, now and then +stopping it dead to listen for the throb of the +motor canoe ahead. Aggie twitteringly in the +past, with her bare feet tucked under her for +warmth and the broken oar in her lap. Tish +blazing with indignation and excitement, and I +saved by my sense of humor from going into +violent hysteria and embracing the hot-headed, +mad, ridiculous and altogether satisfactory +young animal at the wheel. I merely said:</p> + +<p>“I wish somebody had wooed me like that +thirty years ago. I wouldn’t be earning my +own living, young man.”</p> + +<p>“That’s what she wants to do—stay single +and work for a livelihood,” he said with disgust. +“I told her it was all fool nonsense; that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_333">[333]</span> +the place for her kind of woman was in some +man’s home—”</p> + +<p>“Cave,” I suggested.</p> + +<p>“Bearing his children—”</p> + +<p>“Silence!” Tish shouted, and even Aggie +was roused out of a dream.</p> + +<p>He shut down the engine just then, and we +all heard it: a faint throbbing that one felt in +the ears, rather than heard. He leaped up on +the peak of the boat and stared into the darkness +ahead.</p> + +<p>“Better than I expected,” he said with suppressed +excitement. “They’re not a mile ahead. +I wish I had a stick of some sort: I may have to +knock that chump on the head.”</p> + +<p>Luckily he did not see Aggie’s oar, and to +his everlasting honor be it said, he went dauntlessly +into the battle with his bare hands. “And +bare arms and legs,” Tish ironically suggests +that I add.</p> + +<p>For battle it was.</p> + +<p>We overtook the canoe somewhere about<span class="pagenum" id="Page_334">[334]</span> +Long Point, and our lantern showed two people, +as we expected. It was Mr. Carleton, who +evidently hadn’t dressed to elope, and who +wore the shirt of a bathing suit and a pair of +corduroy trousers, and the Girl. She was in a +white party frock of some sort. She stopped +paddling and stared up at us defiantly as we +must have loomed black behind our lantern. +She was very pretty, and she had two triangular +red spots in her cheeks. Our gentleman +pulled the shawl around him and stepped on +the thwarts, and even at that distance we could +see the angry fear in the girl’s eyes.</p> + +<p>“Lillian,” Mr. Mansfield said cheerfully, “I +am not going to do that puppy with you the +honor of asking you to choose between us. I +give you your choice—either get into the launch +comfortably, or stay where you are—in which +case I shall run you down and pick you out of +the water.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_334.jpg" alt="Aggie banged Mr. Carleton on the head"></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_335">[335]</span>“You coward!” said Mr. Carleton from the +stern of the canoe. “You can’t try your high-handed +methods with me. Run us down if you +like. It’s a penitentiary offense to kidnap a +girl and marry her.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, piffle!” said Mr. Mansfield rudely. “I +suppose you didn’t intend to marry her yourself +at Telusah!”</p> + +<p>“I intended to return her to her parents in +safety, by way of the trolley,” retorted Carleton +stiffly.</p> + +<p>The Mansfield man threw back his head and +laughed.</p> + +<p>“Did you hear that, Lillian?” he called. +“That’s love for you! Why, the idiot didn’t +even intend to marry you! He was going to +take you home to your people!” He laughed +again in pure delight.</p> + +<p>But the girl had plenty of spirit.</p> + +<p>“I don’t intend to be married at all,” she +flared at him. “Certainly not to you, Donald +Mansfield. Run us down if you like. I would +rather die than marry you.”</p> + +<p>“You hear what she says,” said Carleton,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_336">[336]</span> +from the darkness. “If you are a gentleman +you will take your boat and your ruffianly accomplices +back to where you came from—or to +hell, as far as I’m concerned.”</p> + +<p>“Ruffian yourself,” Tish said furiously, but +I pulled her down. There was silence, then—</p> + +<p>“Lillian,” Mr. Mansfield said very gently, +“‘Lady’ Carleton is right. If it’s as bad as +that I’ll take you home. I had a sort of fool +idea that you would know it was inevitable—that +you were my woman. If I’ve been a bit +raw about it, it’s because the thing seemed so +clear to me. Give me your hand.”</p> + +<p>“I shall not get into the launch,” the girl +said haughtily.</p> + +<p>“Your hand.”</p> + +<p>“Confound you, Mansfield, can’t you see she +hates you?” This was Carleton, of course.</p> + +<p>“The girlth a fool,” Aggie muttered angrily, +behind me. In the instant that I turned my +head, something happened—I don’t know just +what. For the girl was alone in the canoe, we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_337">[337]</span> +were alone in the launch, and just below me the +water was boiling into white spray. Now and +then an arm shot into the air, or a leg, and occasionally, +not often, both heads were above +water at the same time. And it was then that +Aggie, the president of the Civic Club and corresponding +secretary of the Working Girls’ +Home, with her draggled skirts pinned up +above her bare feet, stood up suddenly and +banged Mr. Carleton on the head with what +was left of her oar!</p> + +<p>But if that was amazing, the most surprising +thing followed. The Girl stood up in the +canoe and—</p> + +<p>“Oh, you’ve killed him!” she screeched. +“Oh, Don! Don!” <i>Donald being the Mansfield +man!</i></p> + +<p>Then, of course, the canoe turned over, and +the rest of what she was saying ended in +a gurgle.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_338">[338]</span> + +<h3 class="nobreak">CHAPTER VI<br> + +<small>“I WILL GO WITH YOU”</small></h3> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap">WE got them all into the launch finally, +for there was only five feet of water, +which explained much that we had not understood +about the fight, and they were as disconsolate +looking a lot of lovers as I ever wish to +see. Mr. Carleton sat in the stern and held his +head, which Aggie’s oar had almost broken, and +the girl dripped and shivered in a corner by +herself and stared at the Mansfield man, who +was coaxing Tish for one of her petticoats so +he could give the girl his shawl.</p> + +<p>Aggie was for trying to explain to the girl +how we came to be there at all, and without +our shoes at that. But it was such a long +story, beginning with the dog that had fleas +(“mange,” says Aggie) and extending through +robbery to attempted murder (“I only meant to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_339">[339]</span> +stun him,” says Aggie), that I advised her not +to begin it.</p> + +<p>The launch would not start after all, and it +developed that the propeller shaft was choked +with weeds. This meant that the Mansfield +man must crawl overboard, get on his back +under the launch (which is much more unpleasant, +I should think, than getting under an +automobile), and clear off the shaft. And +while he was holding his breath under the boat, +and while Tish had turned her back on everybody +and with the aid of the lantern was trying +to take a splinter out of the sole of her foot, +the Carleton man got up dizzily and went over +to the girl.</p> + +<p>“Surely, Lillian,” he said, steadying himself +by the awning frame, “you—you don’t intend +to let that—”</p> + +<p>“Please go away,” she said. “I don’t want +to talk. How funny you look with that bandage +around your head.” And then, to me +(she had accepted the presence of three bare-footed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_340">[340]</span> +maiden ladies in the launch without +comment): “Oh, do you think he might be +caught in the weeds and—and <i>drown</i>?”</p> + +<p>But he did not drown. He came magnificently +over the edge of the boat in a few +minutes, with a string of green water-weeds +clinging to his head. Aggie, who, as you have +seen, is romantic, muttered something about +“grape leaves in his hair,” which she said afterward +was Ibsen, although the only use I have +ever known for grape leaves was to wrap pats +of butter in, in the country.</p> + +<p>He turned the launch around and we started +for home. I do not recall that any one spoke +on the way back, except Tish, who asked me if +I had any castor oil at the house: she wanted it +to soften her shoes if they dried stiff. The +Girl sat by herself and watched the big fellow +in the shawl-toga. And once or twice, +when he glanced up and saw her, he smiled +over at her, but he did not go near her or speak +to her.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_340.jpg" alt="The girl went over to the Mansfield man and put her hand on his shoulder"></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_341">[341]</span>It was pale dawn when we stopped at the +dock of the Watermelon Camp. We, who had +been sodden shadows in the night, were now +damp and shivering outlines. Mr. Mansfield, +having given the girl the shawl, drew around +him still closer the awning curtain with which +he had draped himself, and Aggie, still clutching +the oar, held up one hand in the gray light +to hide the deficiencies of her mouth. No one +stirred in the camp.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carleton got up stiffly and glanced +around at all of us. Then he stalked over to +the man at the wheel, who was staring ahead +and whistling under his breath.</p> + +<p>“Will you give me your word to take her +home?” he said.</p> + +<p>“Ask her if she <i>wants</i> to go home.” He +threw this over his shoulder, between whistles, +as it were. Then the girl, looking very pretty, +but slim and slinky in her wet things, went over +to the Mansfield man and put her hand on his +shoulder.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_342">[342]</span>“I—I think I will go with you, Don!” she +said. And that practically ends the story.</p> + +<p>We left Mr. Carleton on the dock, staring +after us through the mist, and we all went back +to the cottage and put the girl to bed. We +gave Mr. Mansfield a pillow by the sitting-room +wood fire, and <i>Tish’s green kimono</i> to +sleep in. And after that we all three took a +mustard foot-bath and some camphor sprinkled +on sugar and went to bed.</p> + +<p>Aggie wakened me at nine o’clock the next +morning by hunting in my bureau for her second +best teeth, and it was then that we found +our lovers had gone. In the girl’s room there +was a letter of thanks. She said she did not +wish to disturb us after that awful night, but +that she could not sleep, and that she and Mr. +Mansfield were going down to Telusah to be +married.</p> + +<p>Tish read the letter aloud and stared at us, +while Paulina whined for her breakfast.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_343">[343]</span>“Upon my soul,” Tish gasped, when she +could speak. “Instead of clapping him into +jail, she’s going to marry him!”</p> + +<p>“Do you thuppoth he went to Telutha in that +kimono?” Aggie said in a husky whisper. She +had taken a terrible cold.</p> + +<p>But Mr. Mansfield did not go to Telusah in +Tish’s kimono.</p> + +<p>After all, the beginning of this story is also +the end. For now you can understand why +Tish dropped the bowl when the young man +brought her kimono back from the Watermelon +Camp and asked for Mr. Carleton’s +trousers!</p> + +<p>I have told the story in defense of Tish and +the rest of us. I wish to brand as false the +story told by the man from the hotel who happened +to be fishing for muskalunge early that +morning. He said, you remember, that he saw +Miss Carberry <i>in her green kimono</i> leave our +cottage just after dawn and go stealthily along<span class="pagenum" id="Page_344">[344]</span> +the beach through the mist to the Watermelon +Camp. When she got there, he said, to his +horror he saw her strip off the green kimono +and hang it to a tree. Just then the mist shut +down and he saw nothing more.</p> + +<p>In his anxiety for Miss Carberry’s sanity he +was on the point of landing to investigate, +when he hooked the largest ’lunge of the season +(registered weight at the hatcheries, thirty-seven +pounds four ounces), and when he +looked again at the shore all he saw was a red-haired +man hurrying along the beach in a pair +of corduroy trousers and a bathing shirt!</p> + +<p>Tish closed the incident with one comment.</p> + +<p>“Young millionaire!” she snapped when she +saw the newspapers. “Young scamp, <i>I</i> say, +stealing poor Mr. Carleton’s sweetheart and +then his trousers. As for my green kimono, +after all we did for him, he might at least have +had the grace to roll it up and stick it under a +barrel. I shall burn it.”</p> + +<p>But she did not. Aggie saw it only the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_345">[345]</span> +other day, put away in a lavender silk sachet, +with a bundle of newspaper clippings, a half-eaten +bath sponge, and a particular kind of bass +hook, which we had found on the sitting-room +floor.</p> + +<p class="center">THE END</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="transnote"> +<p class="ph1">TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:</p> + +<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.</p> + +<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.</p> + +<p>Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.</p> +</div></div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75922 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/75922-h/images/cover.jpg b/75922-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3bde474 --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75922-h/images/coversmall.jpg b/75922-h/images/coversmall.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9f7fc5 --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-h/images/coversmall.jpg diff --git a/75922-h/images/i_006.jpg b/75922-h/images/i_006.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..419ee5c --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-h/images/i_006.jpg diff --git a/75922-h/images/i_068.jpg b/75922-h/images/i_068.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef9c7d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-h/images/i_068.jpg diff --git a/75922-h/images/i_122.jpg b/75922-h/images/i_122.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..78f37d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-h/images/i_122.jpg diff --git a/75922-h/images/i_134.jpg b/75922-h/images/i_134.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a1fe67 --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-h/images/i_134.jpg diff --git a/75922-h/images/i_246.jpg b/75922-h/images/i_246.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea54b45 --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-h/images/i_246.jpg diff --git a/75922-h/images/i_262.jpg b/75922-h/images/i_262.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..df0ef33 --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-h/images/i_262.jpg diff --git a/75922-h/images/i_300.jpg b/75922-h/images/i_300.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f20105 --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-h/images/i_300.jpg diff --git a/75922-h/images/i_334.jpg b/75922-h/images/i_334.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..414aa45 --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-h/images/i_334.jpg diff --git a/75922-h/images/i_340.jpg b/75922-h/images/i_340.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc37efc --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-h/images/i_340.jpg diff --git a/75922-h/images/i_frontispiece.jpg b/75922-h/images/i_frontispiece.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..132e206 --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-h/images/i_frontispiece.jpg diff --git a/75922-h/images/i_title.jpg b/75922-h/images/i_title.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7cb9c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/75922-h/images/i_title.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5dba15 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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