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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/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 |
