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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17999-8.txt b/17999-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b332f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/17999-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7502 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Chief Legatee, by Anna Katharine Green, +Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Chief Legatee + + +Author: Anna Katharine Green + + + +Release Date: March 18, 2006 [eBook #17999] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHIEF LEGATEE*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 17999-h.htm or 17999-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/9/9/17999/17999-h/17999-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/9/9/17999/17999-h.zip) + + + + + +THE CHIEF LEGATEE + +by + +ANNA KATHARINE GREEN + +Author of +"The Leavenworth Case," "The Woman in the Alcove," Etc., Etc. + +Illustrated in Water-Colors by Frank T. Merrill + + + + + + + +Copyright, 1906, by Anna Katharine Green Rohlfs +Weinstock, Lubin & Co. +Special Edition, +400 to 418 K. Street, Sacramento, Cal. +New York and London +The Authors and Newspapers Association +1906 +Copyright, 1906, by +Anna Katharine Green Rohlfs +Entered at Stationers' Hall. +All rights reserved. +Composition, Electrotyping, +Printing and Binding by +The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.S.A. + + + + +[Illustration: A young girl sitting on a low stool by the window mending +a rent in her skirt.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PART I.--A WOMAN OF MYSTERY + +CHAPTER + + I. A Bride of Five Hours + + II. The Lady in Number Three + + III. "He Knows the Word" + + IV. Mr. Ransom Waits + + V. In Corridor and in Room + + VI. The Lawyer + + VII. Rain + + VIII. Elimination + + IX. Hunter's Inn + + +PART II.--THE CALL OF THE WATERFALL + + X. Two Doors + + XI. Half-Past One in the Morning + + XII. "Georgian" + + XIII. Where the Mill Stream Runs Fiercest + + XIV. A Detective's Work + + XV. Anitra + + XVI. "Love" + + XVII. "I Don't Hear" + + +PART III.--MONEY + + XVIII. God's Forest, Then Man's + + XIX. In Mrs. Deo's Room + + XX. Between the Elderberry Bushes + + XXI. On the Cars + + XXII. A Suspicious Test + + XXIII. A Startling Decision + + XXIV. The Devil's Cauldron + + +PART IV.--THE MAN OF MYSTERY + + XXV. Death Eddy + + XXVI. Hazen + + XXVII. She Speaks + +XXVIII. Fifteen Minutes + + XXIX. "There is One Way" + + XXX. Not Yet + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +A young girl sitting on a low stool by the window mending a rent in her +skirt (_Frontispiece_) + +"I cut them letters there fifteen years ago. Now I'm to cut 'em out" + +"A slight, dark form steals from the shadows and lays a hand on the +stooping man's shoulder" + +"Cormorants!" escaped his lips. "They look for a feast of death, but they +will be disappointed" + + + + +[Illustration: Facsimile Page of Manuscript from THE LEAVENWORTH CASE + +"Yes, sir," + +Might even have entered +his room late at night, +crossed it and stood at his +side, without disturbing him +sufficiently to cause him to +turn his head? + +"Yes," her hands pressing +themselves painfully together. + +"Miss Leavenworth, the key +to the library door is missing." + +She made no answer. + +"It has been testified to, +that previous to the actual +discovery of the murder, +you visited the door of the +library above. Will you tell +us if the key to the door +was there in the lock?" + +"It was not." + +Anna K. Green Rohlfs] + + + + +THE CHIEF LEGATEE + + + + +PART I + +A Woman of Mystery + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A BRIDE OF FIVE HOURS + + +"What's up?" + +This from the manager of the Hotel ---- to his chief clerk. "Something +wrong in Room 81?" + +"Yes, sir. I've just sent for a detective. You were not to be found and +the gentleman is desperate. But very anxious to have it all kept quiet; +very anxious. I think we can oblige him there, or, at least, we'll try. +Am I right, sir?" + +"Of course, if--" + +"Oh! it's nothing criminal. The lady's missing, that's all; the lady +whose name you see here." + +The register lay open between them; the clerk's finger, running along the +column, rested about half-way down. + +The manager bent over the page. + +"'Roger J. Ransom and wife,'" he read out in decided astonishment. "Why, +they are--" + +"You're right. Married to-day in Grace Church. A great wedding; the +papers are full of it. Well, she's the lady. They registered here a few +minutes before five o'clock and in ten minutes the bride was missing. +It's a queer story Mr. Ransom tells. You'd better hear it. Ah, there's +our man! Perhaps you'll go up with him." + +"You may bet your last dollar on that," muttered the manager. And joining +the new-comer, he made a significant gesture which was all that passed +between them till they stepped out on the second floor. + +"Wanted in Room 81?" the manager now asked. + +"Yes, by a man named Ransom." + +"Just so. That's the door. Knock--or, rather, I'll knock, for I must hear +his story as soon as you do. The reputation of the hotel--" + +"Yes, yes, but the gentleman's waiting. Ah! that's better." + +The manager had just knocked. + +An exclamation from within, a hurried step, and the door fell open. The +figure which met their eyes was startling. Distress, anxiety, and an +impatience almost verging on frenzy, distorted features naturally amiable +if not handsome. + +"My wife," fell in a gasp from his writhing lips. + +"We have come to help you find her," Mr. Gerridge calmly assured him. Mr. +Gerridge was the detective. "Relate the circumstances, sir. Tell us where +you were when you first missed her." + +Mr. Ransom's glance wandered past him to the door. It was partly open. +The manager, whose name was Loomis, hastily closed it. Mr. Ransom showed +relief and hurried into his story. It was to this effect: + +"I was married to-day in Grace Church. At the altar my bride--you +probably know her name, Miss Georgian Hazen--wore a natural look, and was +in all respects, so far as any one could see, a happy woman, satisfied +with her choice and pleased with the éclat and elegancies of the +occasion. Half-way down the aisle this all changed. I remember the +instant perfectly. Her hand was on my arm and I felt it suddenly stiffen. +I was not alarmed, but I gave her a quick look and saw that something had +happened. What, I could not at the moment determine. She didn't answer +when I spoke to her and seemed to be mainly concerned in getting out of +the church before her emotions overcame her. This she succeeded in doing +with my help; and, once in the vestibule, recovered herself so +completely, and met all my inquiries with such a gay shrug of the +shoulders, that I should have passed the matter over as a mere attack of +nerves, if I had not afterwards detected in her face, through all the +hurry and excitement of the ensuing reception, a strained expression not +at all natural to her. This was still more evident after the +congratulations of a certain guest, who, I am sure, whispered to her +before he passed on; and when the time came for her to go up-stairs she +was so pale and unlike herself that I became seriously alarmed and asked +if she felt well enough to start upon the journey we had meditated. +Instantly her manner changed. She turned upon me with a look I have been +trying ever since to explain to myself, and begged me not to take her out +of town to-night but to some quiet hotel where we might rest for a few +days before starting on our travels. She looked me squarely in the eye as +she made this request and, seeing in her nothing more than a feverish +anxiety lest I should make difficulties of some kind, I promised to do +what she asked and bade her run away and get herself ready to go and say +nothing to any one of our change of plan. She smiled and turned away +towards her own room, but presently came hurrying back to ask if I would +grant her one more favor. Would I be so good as not to speak to her or +expect her to speak to me till we got to the hotel; she was feeling very +nervous but was sure that a few minutes of complete rest would entirely +restore her; something had occurred (she acknowledged this) which she +wanted to think out; wouldn't I grant her this one opportunity of doing +so? It was a startling request, but she looked so lovely--pardon me, I +must explain my easy acquiescence--that I gave her the assurance she +wished and went about my own preparations, somewhat disconcerted but +still not at all prepared for what happened afterward. I had absolutely +no idea that she meant to leave me." + +Mr. Ransom paused, greatly affected; but upon the detective asking him +how and when Mrs. Ransom had deserted him, he controlled himself +sufficiently to say: + +"Here; immediately after that silent and unnatural ride. She entered the +office with me and was standing close at my side all the time I was +writing our names in the register; but later, when I turned to ask her to +enter the elevator with me, she was gone, and the boy who was standing by +with our two bags said that she had slipped into the reception-room +across the hall. But I didn't find her there or in any of the adjoining +rooms. Nor has anybody since succeeded in finding her. She has left the +building--left me, and--" + +"You want her back again?" + +This from the detective, but very dryly. + +"Yes. For she was not following her own inclinations in thus abandoning +me so soon after the words which made us one were spoken. Some influence +was brought to bear on her which she felt unable to resist. I have +confidence enough in her to believe that. The rest is mystery--a mystery +which I am forced to ask you to untangle. I have neither the necessary +calmness nor experience myself." + +"But you surely have done something," protested Gerridge. "Telephoned to +her late home or--" + +"Oh yes, I have done all that, but with no result. She has not returned +to her old home. Her uncle has just been here and he is as much mystified +by the whole occurrence as I am. He could tell me nothing, absolutely +nothing." + +"Indeed! and the man, the one who whispered to her during the reception, +couldn't you learn anything about him?" + +Mr. Ransom's face took on an expression almost ferocious. + +"No. He's a stranger to Mr. Fulton; yet Mr. Fulton's niece introduced him +to me as a relative." + +"A relative? When was that?" + +"At the reception. He was introduced as Mr. Hazen (my wife's maiden name, +you know), and when I saw how his presence disturbed her, I said to her, +'A cousin of yours?' and she answered with very evident embarrassment, 'A +relative';--which you must acknowledge didn't locate him very definitely. +Mr. Fulton doesn't know of any such relative. And I don't believe he is +a relative. He didn't sit with the rest of the family in the church." + +"Ah! you saw him in the church." + +"Yes. I noticed him for two reasons. First, because he occupied an end +seat and so came directly under my eye in our passage down the aisle. +Secondly, because his face of all those which confronted me when I looked +for the cause of her sudden agitation, was the only one not turned +towards her in curiosity or interest. His eyes were fixed and vacant; his +only. That made him conspicuous and when I saw him again I knew him." + +"Describe the man." + +Mr. Ransom's face lightened up with an expression of strong satisfaction. + +"I am going to astonish you," said he. "The fellow is so plain that +children must cry at him. He has suffered some injury and his mouth and +jaw have such a twist in them that the whole face is thrown out of shape. +So you see," continued the unhappy bridegroom, as his eyes flashed from +the detective's face to that of the manager's, "that the influence he +exerts over my wife is not that of love. No one could love _him_. The +secret's of another kind. What kind, what, what, what? Find out and I'll +pay you any amount you ask. She is too dear and of too sensitive a +temperament to be subject to a wretch of his appearance. I cannot bear +the thought. It stifles, it chokes me; and yet for three hours I've had +to endure it. Three hours! and with no prospect of release unless you--" + +"Oh, I'll do something," was Gerridge's bland reply. "But first I must +have a few more facts. A man such as you describe should be easy to find; +easier than the lady. Is he a tall man?" + +"Unusually so." + +"Dark or light?" + +"Dark." + +"Any beard?" + +"None. That's why the injury to his jaw shows so plainly." + +"I see. Is he what you would call a gentleman?" + +"Yes, I must acknowledge that. He shows the manners of good society, if +he did whisper words into my wife's ear which were not meant for mine." + +"And Mr. Fulton knows nothing of him?" + +"Nothing." + +"Well, we'll drop him for the present. You have a photograph of your +wife?" + +"Her picture was in all the papers to-night." + +"I noticed. But can we go by it? Does it resemble her?" + +"Only fairly. She is far prettier. My wife is something uncommon. No +picture ever does her justice." + +"She looks like a dark beauty. Is her hair black or brown?" + +"Black. So black it has purple shades in it." + +"And her eyes? Black too?" + +"No, gray. A deep gray, which look black owing to her long lashes." + +"Very good. Now about her dress. Describe it as minutely as you can. It +was a bride's traveling costume, I suppose." + +"Yes. That is, I presume so. I know that it was all right and suitable to +the occasion, but I don't remember much about it. I was thinking too much +of the woman in the gown to notice the gown itself." + +"Cannot you tell the color?" + +"It was a dark one. I'm sure it was a dark one, but colors are not much +in my line. I know she looked well--they can tell you about it at the +house. All that I distinctly remember is the veil she had wound so +tightly around her face and hat to keep the rice out of her hair that +I could not get one glimpse of her features. All nonsense that veil, +especially when I had promised not to address her or even to touch her +in the cab. And she wore it into the office. If it had not been for that +I might have foreseen her intention in time to prevent it." + +"Perhaps she knew that." + +"It looks as if she did." + +"Which means that she was meditating flight from the first." + +"From the time she saw that man," Mr. Ransom corrected. + +"Just so; from the time she left her uncle's house. Your wife is a woman +of means, I believe." + +"Yes, unfortunately." + +"Why unfortunately?" + +"It makes her independent and offers a lure to irresponsible wretches +like him." + +"Her fortune is large, then?" + +"Very large; larger than my own." + +Every one knew Mr. Ransom to be a millionaire. + +"Left her by her father?" + +"No, by some great-uncle, I believe, who made his fortune in the +Klondike." + +"And entirely under her own control?" + +"Entirely so." + +"Who is her man of business?" + +"Edward Harper, of--Wall Street." + +"He's your man. He'll know sooner or later where she is." + +"Yes, but later won't do. I must know to-night; or, if that is +impossible, to-morrow. Were it not for the mortification it would cause +her I should beg you to put on all your force and ransack the city for +this bride of five hours. But such publicity is too shocking. I should +like to give her a day to reconsider her treatment of me. She cannot mean +to leave me for good. She has too much self-respect; to say nothing of +her very positive and not to be questioned affection for myself." + +The detective looked thoughtful. The problem had its difficulties. + +"Are those hers?" he asked at last, pointing to the two trunks he saw +standing against the wall. + +"Yes. I had them brought up, in the hope that she had slipped away on +some foolish errand or other and would yet come back." + +"By their heft I judge them to be full; how about her hand-bag?" + +"She had only a small bag and an umbrella. They are both here." + +"How's that?" + +"The colored boy took them at the door. She went away with nothing in her +hands." + +Gerridge glanced at the bag Mr. Ransom had pointed out, fingered it, then +asked the young husband to open it. + +He did so. The usual articles and indispensable adjuncts of a nice +woman's toilet met their eyes. Also a pocketbook containing considerable +money and a case holding more than one valuable jewel. + +The eyes of the officer and manager met in ill disguised alarm. + +"She must have been under the most violent excitement to slip away +without these," suggested the former. "I'd better be at work. Give me two +hours," were his parting words to Mr. Ransom. "By that time I'll either +be back or telephone you. You had better stay here; she may return. +Though I don't think that likely," he muttered as he passed the manager. + +At the door he stopped. "You can't tell me the color of that veil?" + +"No." + +"Look about the room, sir. There's lots of colors in the furniture and +hangings. Don't you see one somewhere that reminds you of her veil or +even of her dress?" + +The miserable bridegroom looked up from the bag into which he was still +staring and, glancing slowly around him, finally pointed at a chair +upholstered in brown and impulsively said: + +"The veil was like that; I remember now. Brown, isn't it? a dark brown?" + +"Yes. And the dress?" + +"I can't tell you a thing about the dress. But her gloves--I remember +something about them. They were so tight they gaped open at the wrist. +Her hands looked quite disfigured. I wondered that so sensible a woman +should buy gloves at least two sizes too small for her. I think she was +ashamed of them herself, for she tried to hide them after she saw me +looking." + +"This was in the cab?" + +"Yes." + +"Where you didn't speak a word?" + +"Not a word." + +"Though she seemed so very much cut up?" + +"No, she didn't seem cut up; only tired." + +"How tired?" + +"She sat with her head pressed against the side of the cab." + +"And a little turned away?" + +"Yes." + +"As if she shrank from you?" + +"A little so." + +"Did she brighten when the carriage stopped?" + +"She started upright." + +"Did you help her out?" + +"No, I had promised not to touch her." + +"She jumped out after you?" + +"Yes." + +"And never spoke?" + +"Not a word." + +Gerridge opened the door, motioned for the manager to follow, and, once +in the hall, remarked to that gentleman: + +"I should like to see the boy who took her bag and was with them when she +slipped away." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE LADY IN NUMBER THREE + + +The boy was soon found and proved to be more observing in matters of +dress than Mr. Ransom. He described with apparent accuracy both the color +and cut of the garments worn by the lady who had flitted away so +mysteriously. The former was brown, all brown; and the latter was of the +tailor-made variety, very natty and becoming. "What you would call +'swell,'" was the comment, "if her walk hadn't spoiled the hang of it. +How she did walk! Her shoes must have hurt her most uncommon. I never did +see any one hobble so." + +"How's that? She hobbled, and her husband didn't notice it?" + +"Oh, he had hurried on ahead. She was behind him, and she walked like +this." + +The pantomime was highly expressive. + +"That's a point," muttered Gerridge. Then with a sharp look at the boy: +"Where were you that you didn't notice her when she slipped off?" + +"Oh, but I did, sir. I was waiting for the clerk to give me the +key, when I saw her step back from the gentleman's side and, looking +quickly round to see if any one was noticing her, slide off into the +reception-room. I thought she wanted a drink of water out of the pitcher +on the center-table, but if she did, she didn't come back after she had +got it. None of us ever saw her again." + +"Did you follow Mr. Ransom when he walked through those rooms?" + +"No, sir; I stayed in the hall." + +"Did the lady hobble when she slid thus mysteriously out of sight?" + +"A little. Not so much as when she came in. But she wasn't at her ease, +sir. Her shoes were certainly too small." + +"I think I will take a peep at those rooms now," Gerridge remarked to the +manager. + +Mr. Loomis bowed, and together they crossed the office to the +reception-room door. The diagram of this portion of the hotel will give +you an idea of these connecting rooms. + +[Illustration] + +There are three of them, as you will see, all reception-rooms. Mr. Ransom +had passed through them all in looking for his wife. In No. 1 he found +several ladies sitting and standing, all strangers. He encountered no one +in No. 2, and in No. 3 just one person, a lady in street costume +evidently waiting for some one. To this lady he had addressed himself, +asking if she had seen any one pass that way the moment before. Her reply +was a decided "No"; that she had been waiting in that same room for +several minutes and had seen no one. This staggered him. It was as if his +wife had dissolved into thin air. True, she might have eluded him by +slipping out into the hall by means of door two at the moment he entered +door one; and alert to this possibility, he hastened back into the hall +to look for her. But she was nowhere visible, nor had she been observed +leaving the building by the man stationed at entrance A. But there was +another exit, that of B. Had she gone out that way? Mr. Ransom had taken +pains to inquire and had been assured by the man in charge that no +lady had left by that door during the last ten minutes. This he had +insisted on, and when Mr. Loomis and the detective came in their turn +to question him on this point he insisted on it again. The mystery seemed +complete,--at least to the manager. But the detective was not quite +satisfied. He asked the man if at any time that day, before or after Mrs. +Ransom's disappearance, he had swung the door open for a lady who walked +lame. The answer was decisive. "Yes; one who walked as if her shoes were +tight." + +"When?" + +"Oh a little while after the gentleman asked his questions." + +"Was she dressed in brown?" + +That he didn't know. He didn't look at ladies' dresses unless they were +something special. + +"But she walked lame and she came from Room 3?" + +Yes. He remembered that much. + +Gerridge, with a nod to the manager, stepped into the open compartment of +the whirling door. "I'm off," said he. "Expect to hear from me in two +hours." + +At twenty minutes to ten Mr. Ransom was called up on the telephone. + +"One question, Mr. Ransom." + +"Hello, who are you?" + +"Gerridge." + +"All right, go ahead." + +"Did you see the face of the woman you spoke to in Room No. 3?" + +"Of course. She was looking directly at me." + +"You remember it? Could identify it if you saw it again?" + +"Yes; that is--" + +"That's all, good-by." + +The circuit was cut off. + +Another intolerable wait. Then there came a knock on the door and +Gerridge entered. He held a photograph in his hand which he had evidently +taken from his pocket on his way up. + +"Look at this," said he. "Do you recognize the face?" + +"The lady--" + +"Just so; the one who said she had seen no one come into No. 3 on the +first floor." + +Mr. Ransom's expression of surprised inquiry was sufficient answer. + +"Well, it's a pity you didn't look at her gloves instead of at her face. +You might have had some dim idea of having seen them before. It was she +who rode to the hotel with you; not your wife. The veil was wound around +her face for a far deeper purpose than to ward off rice." + +Mr. Ransom staggered back against the table before which he had been +standing. The blow was an overwhelming one. + +"Who is this woman?" he demanded. "She came from Mr. Fulton's house. More +than that, from my wife's room. What is her name and what did she mean by +such an outrage?" + +"Her name is Bella Burton, and she is your wife's confidential maid. As +for the meaning of this outrage, it will take more than two hours to +ferret out that. I can only give you the single fact I've mentioned." + +"And Mrs. Ransom?" + +"She left the house at the same moment you did; you and Miss Burton. Only +she went by the basement door." + +"She? _She?_" + +"Dressed in her maid's clothes. Oh, you'll have to hear worse things than +that before we're out of this muddle. If you won't mind a bit of advice +from a man of experience, I would suggest that you take things easy. It's +the only way." + +Shocked into silence by this cold-blooded philosophy, Mr. Ransom +controlled both his anger and his humiliation; but he could not control +his surprise. + +"What does it mean?" he murmured to himself. "_What does it all mean?_" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +"HE KNOWS THE WORD" + + +The next moment the doubt natural to the occasion asserted itself. + +"How do you know all this? You state the impossible. Explain yourself." + +Gerridge was only too willing to do so. + +"I have just come from Mr. Fulton's house," said he. "Inquiries there +elicited the facts which have so startled you. Neither Mr. Fulton nor his +wife meant to deceive you. They knew nothing, suspected nothing of what +took place, and you have no cause to blame them. It was all a plot +between the two women." + +"But how--why--" + +"You see, I had a fact to go upon. You had noticed that your so-called +bride's gloves did not fit her; the boy below, that her shoes were so +tight she hobbled. That set me thinking. A woman of Mrs. Ransom's +experience and judgment would not be apt to make a mistake in two such +important particulars; which, taken with the veil and the promise she +exacted from you not to address or touch her during your short ride to +the hotel, led me to point my inquiries so that I soon found out that +your wife had had the assistance of another woman in getting ready for +her journey and that this woman was her own maid who had been with her +for a long time, and had always given evidence of an especial attachment +for her. Asking about this girl's height and general appearance (for the +possibility of a substitution was already in my mind), I found that she +was of slight figure and good carriage, and that her age was not far +removed from that of her young mistress. This made the substitution I +have mentioned feasible, and when I was told that she was seen taking her +hat and bonnet into the bride's room, and, though not expected to leave +till the next morning, had slid away from the house by the basement door +at the same moment her mistress appeared on the front steps, my +suspicions became so confirmed that I asked how this girl looked, in the +hope that you would be able to recognize her, through the description, +as the woman you had seen sitting in Reception-room No. 3. But to my +surprise, Mrs. Fulton had what was better than any description, the +girl's picture. This has simplified matters very much. By it you have +been able to identify the woman who attempted to mislead you in the +reception-room, and I the person who rode here with you from Mr. Fulton's +house. Wasn't she dressed in brown? Didn't you notice a similarity in her +appearance to that of the very lady you were then seeking?" + +"I did not observe. Her face was all I saw. She was looking directly at +me as I stepped into the room." + +"I see. She had taken off her veil and trusted to your attention being +caught by her strange features,--as it was. But that dress was brown; +I'm sure of it. She was the very woman. Otherwise the mystery is +impenetrable. A deep plot, Mr. Ransom; one that should prove to you that +Mrs. Ransom's motive in leaving you was of a very serious character. Do +you wish that motive probed to the bottom? I cannot do it without +publicity. Are you willing to incur that publicity?" + +"I must." Mr. Ransom had risen in great excitement. "Nothing can hide the +fact that my bride left me on our wedding-day. It only remains now to +show that she did it under an influence which robbed her of her own will; +an influence from which she shrank even while succumbing to it. I can +show her no greater kindness, and I am not afraid of the result. I have +perfect confidence in her integrity"--he hesitated, then added with +strong conviction--"and in her love." + +The detective hid his surprise. He could not understand this confidence. +But then he knew nothing of the memories which lay back of it. Not to him +could this grievously humiliated and disappointed man reveal the secrets +of a courtship which had fixed his heart on this one woman, and aroused +in him such trust that even this uncalled-for outrage to his pride and +affection had not been able to shake it. Such secrets are sacred; but the +reflection of his trust was strong on his face as he repeated: + +"Perfect confidence, Mr. Gerridge. Whatever may have drawn Mrs. Ransom +from my side, it was not lack of affection, or any doubt of my sincerity +or undivided attachment to herself." + +The detective may not have been entirely convinced on the first point, +but he was discretion itself, and responded quite cheerfully with an +emphatic: + +"Very well. You still want me to find her. I will do my best, sir; but +first, cannot you help me with a suggestion or two?" + +"I?" + +"There must be some clew to so sudden a freak on the part of a young and +beautiful woman, who, I have taken pains to learn, has not only a clean +record but a reputation for good sense. The Fultons cannot supply it. +She has lived a seemingly open and happy life in their house, and the +mystery is as great to them as to you. But _you_, as her lover and now +her husband, must have been favored with confidences not given to others. +Cannot you recall one likely to put us on the right track? Some fact +prior to the events of to-day, I mean; some fact connected with her past +life; before she went to live with the Fultons?" + +"No. Yet let me think; let me think." Mr. Ransom dropped his face into +his hands and sat for a moment silent. When he looked up again, the +detective perceived that the affair was hopeless so far as he was +concerned. "No," he repeated, this time with unmistakable emphasis, +"she has always appeared buoyant and untrammeled. But then I have only +known her six months." + +"Tell me her history so far as you know it. What do you know of her life +previous to your meeting her?" + +"It was a very simple one. She had a country bringing up, having been +born in a small village in Connecticut. She was one of three children and +the only one who has survived; her sister, who was her twin, died when +she was a small child, and a brother some five years ago. Her fortune was +willed her, as I have already told you, by a great-uncle. It is entirely +in her own hands. Left an orphan early, she lived first with her brother; +then when he died, with one relative after another, till lastly she +settled down with the Fultons. I know of no secret in her life, no +entanglement, not even of any prior engagements. Yet that man with the +twisted jaw was not unknown to her, and if he is a relative, as she said, +you should have no difficulty in locating him." + +"I have a man on his track," Gerridge replied. "And one on the girl's +too; I mean, of course, Bela Burton's. They will report here up to twelve +o'clock to-night. It is now half-past eleven. We should hear from one or +the other soon." + +"And my wife?" + +"A description of the clothing she wore has gone out. We may hear from +it. But I doubt if we do to-night unless she has rejoined her maid or the +man with a scar. Somehow I think she will join the girl. But it's hard to +tell yet." + +Mr. Ransom could hardly control his impatience. "And I must sit helpless +here!" he exclaimed. "I who have so much at stake!" + +The detective evidently thought the occasion called for whatever comfort +it was in his power to bestow. + +"Yes," said he. "For it is here she will seek you if she takes a notion +to return. But woman is an uncertain quantity," he dryly added. + +At that moment the telephone bell rang. Mr. Ransom leaped to answer; +but the call was only an anxious one from the Fultons, who wanted to +know what news. He answered as best he could, and was recrossing +disconsolately to his chair when voices rose in the hall, and a man was +ushered in, whom Gerridge immediately introduced as Mr. Sims. + +A runner--and with news! Mr. Ransom, summoning up his courage, waited for +the inevitable question and reply. They came quickly enough. + +"What have you got? Have you found the man?" + +"Yes. And the lady's been to see him; that is, if the description of her +togs was correct." + +"He means Mrs. Ransom," explained Gerridge. Then, as he marked his +client's struggle for composure, he quietly asked, "A lady in a dark +green suit with yellowish furs and a blue veil over her hat?" + +"That's the ticket!" + +"The clothes worn by the woman who went out of the basement door, Mr. +Ransom." + +The latter turned sharply aside. The shame of the thing was becoming +intolerable. + +"And this woman wearing those yellow furs and the blue veil visited the +man of the broken jaw?" inquired Gerridge. + +"Yes, sir." + +"When?" + +"About six this afternoon." + +"And where?" + +"At the hotel St. Denis where I have since tracked him." + +"How long did she stay?" + +"About an hour." + +"In the parlor or--" + +"In the parlor. They had a great deal to say. More than one noticed them, +but no one heard anything. They talked very low but they meant business." + +"Where is this man now?" + +"At the same place. He has engaged a room there." + +"The man with the twisted jaw?" + +"Yes." + +"Under what name?" + +"Hugh Porter." + +"Ah, it was Hazen only five hours ago," muttered Ransom. "Porter, did you +say? I'll have a talk with this Porter at once." + +"I think not to-night," put in the detective, with the mingled authority +and deference natural to one of his kind. "To-morrow, perhaps, but +to-night it would only provoke scandal." + +This was certainly true, but Mr. Ransom was not an easy man to dominate. + +"I must see him before I sleep," he insisted. "A single word may solve +this mystery. He has the word. I'd be a fool to let the night go by--Ah! +what's that?" + +The telephone bell had rung again. A message from the office this time. A +note had just been handed in for Mr. Ransom; should they send it up? + +Gerridge was at the 'phone. + +"Instantly," he shouted down, "and be sure you hold the messenger. It may +be from your lady," he remarked to Mr. Ransom. "Stranger things than that +have happened." + +Mr. Ransom reeled to the door, opened it and stood waiting. The two +detectives exchanged glances. What might not that note contain! + +Mr. Ransom opened it in the hall. When he came back into the room, his +hand was shaking and his face looked drawn and pale. But he showed no +further disposition to go out. Instead, he sank into a chair, with a +motion of dismissal to the two detectives. + +"Question the boy who brought this," said he. "It is from Mrs. Ransom; +written, as you see, at the St. Denis. She bids me farewell for a time, +but does not favor me with any explanations. She cannot do differently, +she says, and asks me to trust her and wait. Not very encouraging to +sleep on; but it's something. She has not entirely forsaken me." + +Gerridge with a shrug turned sharply towards the door. "I take it that +you wouldn't object to knowing all the messenger can tell you?" + +"No, no. Question him. Find out whether she gave this to him with her own +hand." + +Gerridge obeyed this injunction, but was told in reply that the note had +been given him to deliver by a clerk in the hotel lobby. He could tell +nothing about the lady. + +This was unsatisfactory enough; but the man who had influenced her to +this step had been placed under surveillance. To-morrow they would +question him; the mystery was not without a promise of solution. So +Gerridge felt; but not Mr. Ransom; for at the end of the lines whose +purport he had just communicated to the detective were these few, +significant words: + +"Make no move to find me. If you love me well enough to wait in silence +for developments, happiness may yet be ours." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MR. RANSOM WAITS + + +Gerridge rose early, primed, as he said to himself, for business. But to +his great disappointment he found Mr. Ransom in a frame of mind which +precluded action. Indeed, that gentleman looked greatly changed. He not +only gave evidence of a sleepless night but showed none of the spirit of +the previous evening, and hesitated quite painfully when Gerridge asked +him if he did not intend to go ahead with the interview they had promised +themselves. + +"That's as it may be," was the hesitating reply. "I hardly think that I +shall visit the man you mean this morning. He interests me and I hope +that none of his movements will escape you. But I'm not ready to talk to +him. I prefer to wait a little; to give my wife a chance. I should feel +better, and have less to forget." + +"Just as you say," returned the detective stiffly. "He's under our thumb +at present, I can't tell when he may wriggle out." + +"Not while your eye's on him. And your eye won't leave him as long as you +have confidence in the reward I've promised you." + +"Perhaps not; but you take the life out of me. Last night you were too +hot; this morning you are too cold. But it's not for me to complain. You +know where to find me when you want me." And without more ado the +detective went out. + +Mr. Ransom remained alone and in no enviable frame of mind. He was +distrustful of himself, distrustful of the man who had made all this +trouble, and distrustful of her, though he would not acknowledge it. +Every baser instinct in him drove him to the meeting he declined. To see +the man--to force from him the truth, seemed the only rational thing to +do. But the final words of his wife's letter stood in his way. She had +advised patience. If patience would clear the situation and bring him the +result he so ardently desired, then he would be patient--that is, for a +day; he did not promise to wait longer. Yes, he would give her a day. +That was time enough for a man suffering on the rack of such an +intolerable suspense--one day. + +But even that day did not pass without breaks in his mood and more than +one walk in the direction of the St. Denis Hotel. If Gerridge's eye was +on him as well as on the special object of his surveillance, he must have +smiled, more than once, at the restless flittings of his client about the +forbidden spot. In the evening it was the same, but the next morning he +remained steadfastly at his hotel. He had laid out his future course in +these words: "I will extend the time to three days; then if I do not hear +from her I will get that wry-necked fellow by the throat and twist an +explanation from him." But the three days passed and he found the +situation unchanged. Then he set as his limit the end of the week, but +before the full time had elapsed he was advised by Gerridge that he +himself was being followed in his turn by a couple of private detectives; +and while still under the agitation of this discovery was further +disconcerted by having the following communication thrust into his hand +in the open street by a young woman who succeeded in losing herself in +the crowd before he had got so much as a good look at her. + +You can judge of his amazement as he read the few lines it contained. + + Read the papers to-night and forget the stranger at the St. Denis. + +That was all. But the writing was hers. The hours passed slowly till the +papers were cried in the street. What Mr. Ransom read in them increased +his astonishment, I might say his anxiety. It was a paragraph about his +wife, an almost incredible one, running thus: + + A strange explanation is given of the disappearance of Mrs. Roger + Ransom on her wedding-day. As our readers will remember, she + accompanied her husband to the hotel, but managed to slip away and + leave the house while he still stood at the desk. This act, for which + nothing in her previous conduct has in any way prepared her friends, is + now said to have been due to the shock of hearing, some time during her + wedding-day, that a sister whom she had supposed dead was really alive + and in circumstances of almost degrading poverty. As this sister had + been her own twin the effect upon her mind was very serious. To find + and rescue this sister she left her newly made husband in the + surreptitious manner already recorded in the papers. That she is not + fully herself is shown by her continued secrecy as to her whereabouts. + All that she has been willing to admit to the two persons she has so + far taken into her confidence--her husband and the agent who conducts + her affairs--is that she has found her sister and cannot leave her. + Why, she does not state. The case is certainly a curious one and Mr. + Ransom has the sympathy of all his friends. + +Confused, and in a state of mind bordering on frenzy, Mr. Ransom returned +to the hotel and sought refuge in his own room. He put no confidence in +what he had just read; he regarded it as a newspaper story and a great +fake; but she had bid him read it, and this fact in itself was very +disturbing. For how could she have known about it if she had not been +its author, and if she was its author, what purpose had she expected it +to serve? + +He was still debating this question when he reached his own room. On the +floor, a little way from the sill, lay a letter. It had been thrust under +the door during his absence. Lifting it in some trepidation, he cast a +glance at its inscription and sank staggering into the nearest chair, +asking himself if he had the courage to open and read it. For the +handwriting, like that of the note handed him in the street, was +Georgian's, and he felt himself in a maze concerning her which made +everything in her connection seem dreamlike and unreal. It was not long, +however, before he had mastered its contents. They were strange enough, +as this transcription of them will show. + + You have seen what has happened to me, but you cannot understand how I + feel. _She looks exactly like me._ It is that which makes the world + eddy about me. I cannot get used to it. It is like seeing my own + reflected image step from the mirror and walk about doing things. Two + of us, Roger, two! If you saw her you would call her Georgian. And she + says that she knows _you_, admires _you_! _and she says it in my + voice_! I try to shut my ears, but I hear her saying it even when her + lips do not move. She is as ignorant as she is afflicted and I cannot + leave her. She cannot hear a sound, though she can talk well enough + about what is going on in her own mind, and she is so wayward and + uncertain of temper, owing to her ignorance and her difficulty in + understanding me, that I don't know what she would do if once let out + of my sight. I love you--I love you--but I must stay right here. + + Your affectionate and most unhappy + + Georgian. + +The sheet with its tear-stained lines fell from his grasp. Then he caught +it up again and looked carefully at the signature. It was his wife's +without doubt. Then he studied the rest of the writing and compared it +with that of the note which had been thrust into his hands earlier in the +day. There was no difference between them except that there were +evidences of faltering in the latter, not noticeable in the earlier +communication. As he noted these tokens of weakness or suffering, he +caught up the telephone receiver in good earnest and called out +Gerridge's number. When the detective answered, he shouted back: + +"Have you read the evening papers? If you haven't, do so at once; then +come directly to me. It's business now and no mistake; and our first +visit shall be on the fellow at the St. Denis." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +IN CORRIDOR AND IN ROOM + + +Three quarters of an hour later Mr. Ransom and Gerridge stood in close +conference before the last mentioned hotel. The former was peremptory in +what he had to say. + +"I haven't a particle of confidence in this newspaper story," he +declared. "I haven't much confidence in her letter. It is this man who is +working us. He has a hold on her and has given her this cock and bull +story to tell. A sister! A twin sister come to light after fifteen years +of supposed burial! I find the circumstance entirely too romantic. Nor +does an explanation of this nature fit the conditions. She was happy +before she saw _him_ in the church. He isn't her twin sister. I tell you +the game is a deep one and she is the sufferer. Her letters betray more +than a disturbed mind; they betray a disturbed brain. That man is the +cause and I mean to wring his secret from him. You are sure of his being +still in the house?" + +"He was early this morning. He has lived a very quiet life these last few +days, the life of one waiting. He has not even had visitors, after that +one interview he held with your wife. I have kept careful watch on him. +Though a suspected character, he has done nothing suspicious while I've +had him under my eye." + +"That's all right and I thank you, Gerridge; but it doesn't shake my +opinion as to his being the moving power in this fraud. For fraud it +is and no mistake. Of that I am fully convinced. Shall we go up? I want +to surprise him in his own room where he cannot slip away or back out." + +"Leave that business to me; I'll manage it. If you want to see him in his +room, you shall." + +But this time the detective counted without his host. Mr. Porter was not +in his room but in one of the halls. They encountered him as they left +the elevator. He was standing reading a newspaper. The disfigured jaw +could not be mistaken. They stopped where they were and looked at him. + +He was intent, absorbed. As they watched, they saw his hands close +convulsively on the sheet he was holding, while his lips muttered +some words that made the detective look hard at his companion. + +"Did you hear?" he cautiously inquired, as Mr. Ransom stood hesitating, +not knowing whether to address the man or not. + +"No; what did he say? Do you suppose he is reading that paragraph?" + +"I haven't a doubt of it; and his words were, 'Here's a damned +lie!'--very much like your own, sir." + +Mr. Ransom drew the detective a few steps down the corridor. + +"He said that?" + +"Yes, I heard him distinctly." + +"Then my theory is all wrong. This man didn't provide her with this +imaginary twin sister." + +"Evidently not." + +"And is as surprised as we are." + +"And about as much put out. Look at him! Nothing yellow there! We shall +have to go easy with him." + +Mr. Ransom looked and felt a recoil of more than ordinary dislike for the +man. The latter had put the paper in his pocket and was coming their way. +His face, once possibly handsome, for his eyes and forehead were +conspicuously fine, showed a distortion quite apart from that given by +his physical disfigurement. He was not simply angry but in a mental and +moral rage, and it made him more than hideous; it made him appalling. Yet +he said nothing and moved along very quietly, making, to all appearance, +for his room. Would he notice them as he went by? It did not seem likely. +Instinctively they had stepped to one side, and Mr. Ransom's face was in +the shadow. To both it had seemed better not to accost him while he was +in this mood. They would see him later. + +But this was not to be. Some instinct made him turn, and Mr. Ransom, +recognizing his opportunity, stepped forward and addressed him by the +name under which he had introduced himself at the reception; that of his +wife's family, Hazen. + +The effect was startling. Instead of increasing his anger, as the +detective had naturally expected, it appeared to have the contrary +effect, for every vestige of passion immediately disappeared from his +face, leaving only its natural disfigurement to plead against him. +He approached them, and Ransom, at least, was conscious of a revulsion +of feeling in his favor, there was such restraint and yet such undoubted +power in his strange and peculiar personality. + +"You know me?" said he, darting a keen and comprehensive look from one to +the other. + +"We should like a few words with you," ventured Gerridge. "This gentleman +thinks you can give him very valuable information about a person he is +greatly interested in." + +"He is mistaken." The words came quick and decisive in a not unmelodious +voice. "I am a stranger in New York; a stranger in this country. I have +few, if any, acquaintances." + +"You have _one_." + +It was now Mr. Ransom's turn. + +"A man with no acquaintances does not attend weddings; certainly not +wedding receptions. I have seen you at one, my own. Do you not recognize +me, Mr. Hazen?" + +A twitch of surprise, not even Ransom could call it alarm, drew his mouth +still further towards his ear; but his manner hardly altered and it was +in the same affable tone that he replied: + +"You must pardon my short-sightedness. I did not recognize you, Mr. +Ransom." + +"Did not want to," muttered Gerridge, satisfied in his own mind that this +man was only deterred by his marked and unmistakable physiognomy from +denying the acquaintanceship just advanced. + +"Your congratulations did not produce the desired effect," continued Mr. +Ransom. "My happiness was short lived. Perhaps you knew its uncertain +tenure when you wished me joy. I remember that your tone lacked +sincerity." + +It was a direct attack. Whether a wise one or not remained to be seen. +Gerridge watched the unfolding drama with interest. + +"I have reason to think," proceeded Mr. Ransom, "that the unhappy +termination of that day's felicities were in a measure due to you. +You seem to know my bride very well; much too well for her happiness +or mine." + +"We will argue that question in my room," was the unmoved reply. "The +open hall is quite unsuited to a conversation of this nature. Now," said +he, turning upon them when they were in the privacy of his small but not +uncomfortable apartment, "you will be kind enough to repeat what you just +said. I wish to thoroughly understand you." + +"You have the right," returned Mr. Ransom, controlling himself under the +detective's eye. "I said that your presence at this wedding seemed to +disturb my wife, which fact, considering the after occurrences of the +day, strikes me as important enough for discussion. Are you willing to +discuss it affably and fairly?" + +"May I ask who your companion is?" inquired the other, with a slight +inclination towards Gerridge. + +"A friend; one who is in my confidence." + +"Then I will answer you without any further hesitation. My presence may +have disturbed your wife, it very likely did, but I was not to blame for +that. No man is to blame for the bad effects of an unfortunate accident." + +"Oh, I don't mean that," Mr. Ransom hastened to protest. "The cause of +her very evident agitation was not personal. It had a deeper root than +that. It led, or so I believe, to her flight from a love she cherished, +at a moment when our mutual life seemed about to begin." + +The impassive, I might almost say set features of this man of violent +passions but remarkable self-restraint failed to relax or give any +token of the feelings with which he listened to this attack. + +"Then the news given of your wife in the papers to-night is false," +was his quiet retort. "It professes to give a distinct, if somewhat +fantastic, reason for her flight. A reason totally different from the +one you suggest." + +"A reason you don't believe in?" + +"Certainly not. It is too bizarre." + +"I share your incredulity. That is why I seek the truth from you rather +than from the columns of a newspaper. And you owe me this truth. You have +broken up my life." + +"I? That's a strange accusation you make, Mr. Ransom." + +"Possibly. But it's one which strikes hard on your conscience, for all +that. This is evident enough even to a stranger like myself. I am +convinced that if you had not come into her life she would have been at +my side to-day. Now, who are you? She told me you were a relative." + +"She told you the truth; I am. Her nearest relative. The story in the +paper has a certain amount of truth in it. Her brother, not her sister, +has come back from the grave. I am that brother. She was once devoted to +me." + +"You are--" + +"Yes. Oh, there'll be no difficulty in my proving this relationship. +I have evidence upon evidence of the fact right in this room with me; +evidence much more convincing and far less disputable than this +surprising twin can bring forward if _her_ identity is questioned. +Georgian had a twin sister, but she was buried years ago. I was never +buried. I simply did not return from a well-known and dangerous voyage. +The struggle I had for life--you cannot want the details now--has left +its indelible impress in the scar which has turned me from a personable +man into what some people might call a monstrosity. And it is this scar +which has kept me so long from home and country. It has taken me four +years to make up my mind to face again my family and friends. And now +that I have, I find that it would have been better for us all if I had +stayed away. Georgian saw me and her mind wavered. In no other way can I +account for her wild behavior since that hour. That is all I have to say, +sir. I think I am almost as much an object of pity as yourself." + +And for a moment he appeared to be so, not only to Gerridge, but to Mr. +Ransom himself. Then something in the man--his unnatural coldness, the +purpose which made itself felt through all his self-restraint--reawakened +Mr. Ransom's distrust and led him to say: + +"Your complaint is natural. If you are Mrs. Ransom's brother, there +should be sympathy between us and not antagonism. But I feel only +antagonism. Why is this?" + +A shrug, followed by an odd smile. + +"You should be able to account for that on very reasonable grounds," said +he. "I do not expect much mercy from strangers. It is hard to make your +good intentions felt through such a distorted medium as my expression has +now become." + +"Mrs. Ransom has been here," Ransom suddenly launched forth. "Within two +hours of your encounter under Mr. Fulton's roof, she was talking with you +in this hotel. I have proof positive of that, sir." + +"I have no wish to deny the fact," was the steady answer. "She did come +here and we had a talk; it was necessary; I wanted money." + +The last phrase was uttered with such grim determination that the +exclamation which had risen to Mr. Ransom's lips died in a conflict +of feeling which forbade any rejoinder that savored of sarcasm. Hazen, +however, must have noted his first look, for he added with an air of +haughty apology: + +"I repeat that we were once very fond of each other." + +Ransom felt his perplexities growing with every moment he talked with +this man. He remembered the money which both he and Gerridge had seen in +her bag,--an amount too large for her to have retained very much on her +person,--and following the instinct of the moment, he remarked: + +"Mrs. Ransom is not the woman to hesitate when a person she loves makes +an appeal for money. She handed you immediately a large sum, I have no +doubt." + +"She wrote me out a check," was the simple but cold answer. + +Mr. Ransom felt the failure of his attempt and stole a glance at +Gerridge. + +The doubtful smile he received was not very encouraging. The same thought +had evidently struck both. The money in the bag was a blind--she had +carried her check-book with her and so could draw on her account for +whatever she wished. But under what name? Her maiden one or his? Ransom +determined to find out. + +"I do not begrudge you the money," said he, "but Mrs. Ransom's signature +had changed a few hours previous to her making out this check. Did she +remember this?" + +"She signed her married name promising to notify the bank at once." + +"And you cashed the check?" + +"No, sir; I am not in such immediate need of money as that. I have it +still, but I shall endeavor to cash it to-morrow. Some question may come +up as to her sanity, and I do not choose to lose the only money she has +ever been in a position to give me." + +"Mr. Hazen, you harp on the irresponsible condition of her mind. Did you +see any tokens of this in the interview you had together?" + +"No; she seemed sane enough then; a little shocked and troubled, but +quite sane." + +"You knew that she had stolen away from me--that she had resorted to a +most unworthy subterfuge in order to hold this conversation with you?" + +"No; I had asked her to come, and on that very afternoon if possible, but +I never knew what means she took for doing so; I didn't ask and she +didn't say." + +"But she talked of her marriage? She must have said something about an +event which is usually considered the greatest in a woman's life." + +"Yes, she spoke of it." + +"And of me?" + +"Yes, she spoke of you." + +"And in what terms? I cannot refrain from asking you, Mr. Hazen, I am +in such ignorance as to her real attitude towards me; her conduct is so +mysterious; the reasons she gives for it so puerile." + +"She said nothing against you or her marriage. She mentioned both, but +not in a manner that would add to your or my knowledge of her intentions. +My sister disappointed me, sir. She was much less open than I wished. All +that I could make out of her manner and conversation was the overpowering +shock she felt at seeing me again and seeing me so changed. She didn't +even tell me when and where we might meet again. When she left, she was +as much lost to me as she was to you, and I am no less interested in +finding her than you are yourself. I had no idea she did not mean to +return to you when she went away from this hotel." + +Mr. Ransom sprang upright in an agitation the other may have shared, but +of which he gave no token. + +"Do you mean to say," he asked, "that you cannot tell me where the woman +you call your sister is now?" + +"No more than you can give me the same necessary information in regard to +your wife. I am waiting like yourself to hear from her--and waiting with +as little hope." + +Had he seen Ransom's hand close convulsively over the pocket in which her +few strange words to him were lying, that a slight tinge of sarcasm gave +edge to the last four words? + +"But this is not like my wife," protested Ransom, hesitating to accuse +the other of falsehood, yet evidently doubting him from the bottom of his +heart. "Why deceive us both? She was never a disingenuous woman." + +"In childhood she had her incomprehensible moments," observed Hazen, with +an ambiguous lift of his shoulders; then, as Ransom made an impatient +move, added with steady composure: "I have candidly answered all your +questions whether agreeable or otherwise, and the fact that I am as much +shocked as yourself by these mad and totally incredible statements of +hers about a newly recovered sister should prove to you that she is not +following any lead of mine in this dissemination of a bare-faced +falsehood." + +There was truth in this which both Mr. Ransom and Gerridge felt obliged +to own. Yet they were not satisfied, even after Mr. Hazen, almost against +Mr. Ransom's will, had established his claims to the relationship he +professed, by various well-attested documents he had at hand. Instinct +could not be juggled with, nor could Ransom help feeling that the mystery +in which he found himself entangled had been deepened rather than +dispelled by the confidences of this new brother-in-law. + +"The maze is at its thickest," he remarked as he left a few minutes later +with the perplexed Gerridge. "How shall I settle this new question? By +what means and through whose aid can I gain an interview with my wife?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LAWYER + + +The answer was an unexpectedly sensible one. + +"Hunt up her man of business and see what he can do for you. She cannot +get along without money; nor could that statement of hers have got into +the papers without somebody's assistance. Since she did not get it from +the fellow we have just left, she must have had it from the only other +person she would dare confide in." + +Ransom answered by immediately hailing a down-town car. + +The interview which followed was certainly a remarkable one. At first Mr. +Harper would say nothing, declaring that his relations with Mrs. Ransom +were of a purely business and confidential nature. But by degrees, moved +by the persuasive influence of Mr. Ransom's candor and his indubitable +right to consideration, he allowed himself to admit that he had seen Mrs. +Ransom during the last three days and that he had every reason to believe +that there was a twin sister in the case and that all Mrs. Ransom's +eccentric conduct was attributable to this fact and the overpowering +sense of responsibility which it seemed to have brought to her--a result +which would not appear strange to those who knew the sensitiveness of her +nature and the delicate balance of her mind. + +Mr. Ransom recalled the tenor of her strange letter on this subject, but +was not convinced. He inquired of Mr. Harper if he had heard her say +anything about the equally astounding fact of a returned brother, and +when he found that this was mere jargon to Mr. Harper, he related what he +knew of Hazen and left the lawyer to draw his own inferences. + +The result was some show of embarrassment on the part of Mr. Harper. It +was evident that in her consultations with him she had entirely left out +all allusion to this brother. Either the man had advanced a false claim +or else she was in an irresponsible condition of mind which made her see +a sister where there was a brother. + +Ransom made some remark indicative of his appreciation of the dilemma in +which they found themselves, but was quickly silenced by the other's +emphatic assertion: + +"I have seen the girl; she was with Mrs. Ransom the day she came here. +She sat in the adjoining room while we talked over her case in this one." + +"You saw her--saw her face?" + +"No, not her face; she was too heavily veiled for that. Mrs. Ransom +explained why. They were too absurdly alike, she said. It awoke comment +and it gave her the creeps. But their figures were identical though their +dresses were different." + +"So! there _is_ some one then; the girl is not absolutely a myth." + +"Far from it. Nor is the will which Mrs. Ransom has asked me to draw up +for her a myth." + +"Her will! she has asked you to draw up her will!" + +"Yes. That was the object of her visit. She had entered the married +state, she said, and wished to make a legal disposition of her property +before she returned to you. She was very nervous when she said this; very +nervous through all the interview. There was nothing else for me to do +but comply." + +"And you have drawn up this will?" + +"According to her instructions, yes." + +"But she has not signed it?" + +"Not yet." + +"But she intends to?" + +"Certainly." + +"Then you will see her again?" + +"Naturally." + +"_Is the time set?_" + +The lawyer rose to his feet. He understood the hint implied and for an +instant appeared to waver. There was something very winsome about Roger +Ransom; some attribute or expression which appealed especially to men. + +"I wish I might help you out of your difficulty," said he. "But a +client's wishes are paramount. Mrs. Ransom desired secrecy. She had every +right to demand it of me." + +Mr. Ransom's face fell. Hope had flashed upon him only to disappear +again. The lawyer eyed him out of the corner of his eye, his mouth +working slightly as he walked to and fro between his desk and the door. + +"Mrs. Ransom will not always feel herself hampered by a sister, or, if +you prefer it, a brother who has so inconveniently come back from the +dead. You will have the pleasure of her society some day. There is no +doubt about her affection for you." + +"But that isn't it," exclaimed the now thoroughly discouraged husband. +"I am afraid for her reason, afraid for her life. There is something +decidedly wrong somewhere. Don't you see that I must have an immediate +interview with her if only to satisfy myself that she aggravates her own +danger? Why should she make a will in this underhanded way? Does she fear +opposition from me? I have a fortune equal to her own. It is something +else she dreads. What? I feel that I ought to know if only to protect her +against herself. I would even promise not to show myself or to speak." + +"I am sorry to have to say good afternoon, Mr. Ransom. Have you any +commands that I can execute for you?" + +"None but to give her my love. Tell her there is not a more unhappy man +in New York; you may add that I trust her affection." + +The lawyer bowed. Mr. Ransom and Gerridge withdrew. At the foot of the +stairs they were stopped by the shout of a small boy behind them. + +"Say, mister, did you drop something?" he called down, coming meanwhile +as rapidly after them as the steepness of the flight allowed. "Mr. Harper +says, he found this where you gentlemen were sitting." + +Mr. Ransom, somewhat startled, took the small paper offered him. It was +none of his property but he held to it just the same. In the middle of a +torn bit of paper he had read these words written in his own wife's hand: + + Hunter's Tavern, + Sitford, Connecticut. + At 9 o'clock April the 15th. + +"By Jove!" he exclaimed, "no one will ever hear me say again that lawyers +are devoid of heart?" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +RAIN + + +Mr. Ransom had never heard of Sitford, but upon inquiry learned that it +was a small manufacturing town some ten miles from the direct route of +travel, to which it was only connected by a stage-coach running once a +day, late in the afternoon. + +What a spot for a meeting of this kind! Why chosen by her? Why submitted +to by this busy New York lawyer? Was this another mystery; or had he +misinterpreted Mr. Harper's purpose in passing over to him the address of +this small town? He preferred to think the former. He could hardly +contemplate now the prospect of failing to see her again which must +follow any mistake as to this being the place agreed upon for the signing +of her will. + +Meantime he had said nothing to Gerridge. This was a hope too personal to +confide in a man of his position. He would go to Sitford and endeavor to +catch a glimpse of his wife there. If successful, the whole temper of his +mind might change towards the situation, if not toward her. He would at +least have the satisfaction of seeing her. The detective had enough to do +in New York. + +April the fifteenth fell on Tuesday. He was not minded to wait so long +but took the boat on Monday afternoon. This landed him some time before +daylight at the time-worn village from which the coach ran to Sitford. A +railway connected this village with New York, necessitating no worse +inconvenience than crossing the river on a squat, old-fashioned ferry +boat; but he calculated that both the lawyer and Mrs. Ransom would make +use of this, and felt the risk would be less for him if he chose the +slower and less convenient route. + +He had given his name on the boat as Roger Johnston, which was true so +far as it went, and he signed this same name at the hotel where he put +up till morning. The place was an entirely unknown one to him and he was +unknown to it. Both fortuitous facts, he thought, in the light of his own +perplexity as to the position in which he really stood towards this +mysterious wife of his. + +The coach, as I have said, ran late in the afternoon. This was to +accommodate the passengers who came by rail. But Mr. Ransom had not +planned to go by coach. That would be to risk a premature encounter with +his wife, or at least with the lawyer. He preferred to hire a team, and +be driven there by some indifferent livery-stable man. Neither prospect +was pleasing. It had been raining all night, and bade fair to rain all +day. The river was clouded with mist; the hills, which are the glory of +the place, were obliterated from the landscape, and the road--he had +never seen such a road, all little pools and mud. + +However, there was no help for it. The journey must be made, and seeing +a livery-stable sign across the road, lost no time in securing the +conveyance he needed. At nine o'clock he started out. + +The rain drove so fiercely from the northwest,--the very direction in +which they were traveling,--that enjoyment of the scenery was impossible. +Nor could any pleasure be got out of conversation with the man who drove +him. Rain, rain, that was all; and the splash of mud over the wheels +which turned all too slowly for his comfort. And there were to be ten +miles of this. Naturally he turned to his thoughts and they were all of +her. + +Why had he not known her better before linking his fate to hers? Why had +he never encouraged her to talk to him more about herself and her early +life? Had he but done so, he might now have some clew to the mystery +devouring him. He might know why so rich and independent a woman had +chosen this remote town on an inaccessible road, for the completion of +an act which was in itself a mystery. Why could not the will have been +signed in New York? But he was not inquisitive in those days. He had +taken her for what she seemed--an untrammeled, gay-hearted girl, ready +to love and be his happy wife and lifelong companion; and he had been +contented to keep all conversation along natural lines and do no probing. +And now,--this brother whom all had thought dead, come to life with +menace in his acts and conversation! Also a sister,--but this sister he +had no belief in. The coincidence was too startlingly out of nature for +him to accept a brother and a sister too. A brother or a sister; but not +both. Not even Mr. Harper's assurances should influence his credulity to +this extent. "Money! money is at the bottom of it all," was his final +decision. "She knows it and is making her will, as a possible protection. +But why come here?" + +Thus every reflection ended. + +Suddenly a vanished, half-forgotten memory came back. It brought a gleam +of light into the darkness which had hitherto enveloped the whole matter. +She had once spoken to him of her early life. She had mentioned a place +where she used to play as a child; had mentioned it lovingly, longingly. +There were hills, she had said; hills all around. And woods full of +chestnut-trees, safe woods where she could wander at will. And the +roads--how she loved to walk the roads. No automobiles then, not even +bicycles. One could go miles without meeting man or horse. Sometimes a +heavily-laden cart would go by drawn by a long string of oxen; but they +were picturesque and added to the charm. Oxen were necessary where there +was no railroad. + +As he repeated these words to himself, he looked up. Through the downpour +his eyes could catch a glimpse of the road before him, winding up a long +hillside. Down this road was approaching a dozen yoke of oxen dragging a +wagon piled with bales of some sort of merchandise. One question in his +mind was answered. This spot was not an unknown one to her. It was +connected with her childhood days. There was reason back of her choice +of it as a place of meeting between her and her lawyer, or if not reason, +association, and that of the tenderest kind. He felt himself relieved of +the extreme weight of his oppression and ventured upon asking a question +or two about Sitford, which he took pains to say he was visiting for the +first time. + +The information he obtained was but meager, but he did learn that there +was a very fair tavern there and that the manufactures of the place were +sufficient to account for a stranger's visit. The articles made were +mostly novelties. + +This knowledge he meant to turn to account, but changed his mind when +they finally splashed into town and stopped before the tavern which had +been so highly recommended by his driver. The house, dripping though it +was from every eave, had such a romantic air that he thought he could +venture to cite other reasons for his stay there than the prosaic one of +business. That is, if the landlady should give any evidence of being at +all in accord with her quaint home and picturesque surroundings. + +She showed herself and he at once gave her credit for being all he could +wish in the way of credulity and good-nature, and meeting her with the +smile which had done good execution in its day, he asked if she had a +room for a writer who was finishing a book, and who only asked for quiet +and regular meals before his own cosy fire. This to rouse her imagination +and make her amenable to his wishes for secrecy. + +She was a simple soul and fell easily into the trap. In half an hour Mr. +Ransom was ensconced in a pleasant room over the porch, a room which he +soon learned possessed many advantages. For it not only overlooked the +main entrance, but was so placed as to command a view of all the rooms on +his hall. In two of those rooms he bade fair to be greatly interested, +Mrs. Deo having remarked that they were being prepared for a lady who was +coming that night. As he had no doubt who this lady was, he encouraged +the good woman to talk, and presently had the satisfaction of hearing her +say that she was very happy over this lady's coming, as she was a Sitford +girl, one of the old family of Hazens, and though married now and very +rich was much loved by every one in town because she had never forgotten +Sitford or Sitford people. + +She was coming! He had made no mistake. And this was the place of her +birth, just as he had decided when he saw that long line of oxen! He +realized how fortunate he was, or rather how indebted he was to Mr. +Harper, since in this place only could he hope to gain satisfaction on +the mooted point raised by that same gentleman. If she had been born +here, so had her twin sister; so had the brother whose claims lay counter +to that sister's. Both must have been known to these people, their +persons, their history and the circumstances of their supposed deaths. +The clews thus afforded must prove invaluable to him. From them he must +soon be able to ascertain in which story to place faith and which +claimant to believe. He might have interrogated his hostess, but feared +to show his interest in the supposed stranger. He preferred to wait a few +hours and gather his facts from other lips. + +Meantime it rained. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ELIMINATION + + +At about three o'clock in the afternoon Mr. Ransom left his room. He had +been careful almost from his first arrival to sit with his door ajar. He +had, therefore, only to give it a slight push and walk out when he heard +the bustle of preparation going on in the two rooms in whose future +occupancy he was so vitally interested. A maid stood in the hall. A man +within was pushing about furniture. The landlady was giving orders. His +course down-stairs did not lead him so far as those rooms, so he called +out pleasantly: + +"I have written till my head aches, Mrs. Deo. I must venture out +notwithstanding the rain. In which direction shall I find the best +walking?" + +She came to him all eagerness and smiles. "It's all bad, such a day," +said she, "but it's muddiest down by the factories. You had better climb +the hill." + +"Where the cemetery is?" he asked. + +"Yes; do you object to cemeteries? Ours is thought to be very +interesting. We have stones there whose inscriptions are a hundred and +fifty years old. But it's a bad day to walk amongst graves. Perhaps you +had better go east. I'm sorry we should have such a storm on your first +day. Must you go out?" + +He forced a suffering look into his eyes, and insisting that nothing but +outdoor air would help him when he had a headache, hastened down-stairs +and so out. A blinding gust seized him as he faced the hill, but he drew +down his umbrella and hurried on. He had a purpose in following her +suggestion as to a walk in this direction. Dark as the grasses were, he +meant to search the cemetery for the graves of the Hazens and see what he +could learn from them. + +He met three persons on his way, all of whom turned to look at him. +This was in the village. On the hillside he met nobody. Wind and rain +and mud were all; desolation in the prospect and all but desolation in +his heart. At the brow he first caught sight of the broken stone wall +which separated the old burying place from the road. There lay his path. +Happily he could tread it unnoticed and unwatched. There was no one +within sight, high or low. + +He spent a half hour among the tombs before +he struck the name he was looking for. +Another ten minutes before he found those +of his wife's family. Then he had his reward. +On a low brown shaft he read the names of +father and mother, and beneath them the following +lines: + + Sacred to the memory of + Anitra + Died June 7, 1885 + Aged 6 years and one day. +_Of such is the Kingdom of heaven._ + +The twin! Georgian was mad. This record showed that her little sister lay +here. Anitra,--yes, that was the name of her other half. He remembered it +well. Georgian had mentioned it to him more than once. And this child, +this Anitra, had been buried here for fifteen years. + +Deeply indignant at his wife's duplicity, he took a look at the opposite +side of the shaft where still another surprise awaited him. Here was the +record of the brother; the brother he had so lately talked to and who had +seemingly proven his claim to the name he now read: + + Alfred Francesco + only son of + Georgian Toritti afterwards Georgian Hazen. + Lost at sea February, 1895. + Aged twenty-five years. + +An odd inscription opening up conjectures of the most curious and +interesting nature. But it was not this fact which struck him at the +time, it was the possibility underlying the simple statement, Lost +at sea. This, as the wry-necked man had said, admitted of a possible +resurrection. Here was no body. A mound showed where Anitra had been laid +away; a little mound surmounted by a headstone carved with her name. But +only these few words gave evidence of the young man's death, and +inscriptions of this nature are sometimes false. + +The conclusion was obvious. It was the brother and not the sister who had +reappeared. Georgian was not only playing him false but deceiving the +general public. In fact, knowingly or unknowingly, she was perpetrating +a great fraud. He was inclined to think unknowingly. He began to regard +with less incredulity Hazen's declaration that the shock of her brother's +return had unsettled her mind. + +Distressed, but no longer the prey of distracting doubt, he again +examined the inscription before him and this time noticed its +peculiarities. _Alfred Francesco, only son of Georgian Toritti afterwards +Georgian Hazen._ Afterwards! What was meant by that _afterwards_? That +the woman had been married twice, and that this Alfred Francesco was the +son of her first husband rather than of the one whose name he bore? It +looked that way. There was a suggestion of Italian parentage in the +Francesco which corresponded well with the decidedly Italian Toritti. + +Perplexed and not altogether satisfied with his discoveries, he turned to +leave the place when he found himself in the presence of a man carrying a +kit of tools and wearing on his face a harsh and discontented expression. +As this man was middle-aged and had no other protection from the rain +than a rubber cape for his shoulders, the cause of his discontent was +easy enough to imagine; though why he should come into this place with +tools was more than Mr. Ransom could understand. + +[Illustration: "I cut them letters there fifteen years ago. Now I'm to +cut 'em out."] + +"Hello, stranger." It was this man who spoke. "Interested in the Hazen +monument, eh? Well, I'll soon give you reason to be more interested yet. +Do you see this inscription--On June 7, 1885; Anitra, aged six, and the +rest of it? Well, I cut them letters there fifteen years ago. Now I'm to +cut 'em out. The orders has just come. The youngster didn't die it seems, +and I'm commanded to chip the fifteen-year-old lie out. What do you think +of that? A sweet job for a day like this. Mor'n likely it'll put me under +a stone myself. But folks won't listen to reason. It's been here fifteen +years and seventeen days and now it must come out, rain or shine, before +night-fall. 'Before the sun sets,' so the telegram ran. I'll be blessed +but I'll ask a handsome penny for this job." + +Mr. Ransom, controlling himself with difficulty, pointed to the little +mound. "But the child seems to have been buried here," he said. + +"Lord bless you, yes, a child was buried here, but we all knew years ago +that it mightn't be Hazen's. The schoolhouse burned and a dozen children +with it. One of the little bodies was given to Mr. Hazen for burial. He +believed it was his Anitra, but a good while after, a bit of the dress +she wore that day was found hanging to a bush where some gipsies had +been. There were lots of folks who remembered that them gipsies had +passed the schoolhouse a half hour before the fire, and they now say +found the little girl hiding behind the wood-pile, and carried her off. +No one ever knew; but her death was always thought doubtful by every one +but Mr. and Mrs. Hazen. They stuck to the old idee and believed her to be +buried under this mound where her name is." + +"But one of the children was buried here," persisted Ransom. "You must +have known the number of those lost and would surely be able to tell if +one were missing, as must have been the case if the gipsies had carried +off Anitra before the fire." + +"I don't know about that," objected the stone-cutter. "There was, in +those days, a little orphan girl, almost an idiot, who wandered about +this town, staying now in one house and now in another as folks took +compassion on her. She was never seen agin after that fire. If she was in +the schoolhouse that day, as she sometimes was, the number would be made +up. No one was left to tell us. It was an awful time, sir. The village +hasn't got over it yet." + +Mr. Ransom made some sympathetic rejoinder and withdrew towards the +gateway, but soon came strolling back. The man had arranged his tools and +was preparing to go to work. + +"It seems as if the family was pretty well represented here," remarked +Ransom. "Is it the girl herself,--Anitra, I believe you called her,--who +has ordered this record of her death removed?" + +"Oh, no, you don't know them Hazens. There's one of 'em who has quite a +story; the twin of this Anitra. She lived to grow up and have a lot of +money left her. If you lived in Sitford, or lived in New York, you'd know +all about her; for her name's been in the papers a lot this week. She's +the great lady who married and left her husband all in one day; and for +what reason do you think? We know, because she don't keep no secrets from +her old friends. _She's found this sister_, and it's her as has ordered +me to chip away this name. She wants it done to-day, because she's coming +here with this gal she's found. Folks say she ran across her in the +street and knew her at once. Can you guess how?" + +"From her name?" + +"Lord, no; from what I hear, she hadn't any name. _From her looks!_ She +saw her own self when she looked at her." + +"How interesting, how very interesting," stammered Mr. Ransom, feeling +his newly won convictions shaken again. "Quite remarkable the whole +story. And so is this inscription," he added, pointing to the words +_Georgian Toritti_, etc. "Did the woman have two husbands, and was the +Alfred Hazen, whose death at sea is commemorated here, the son of Toritti +or of Hazen?" + +"Of Toritti," grumbled the man, evidently displeased at the question. "A +black-browed devil who it won't do to talk about here. Mrs. Hazen was +only a slip of a gal when she married him, and as he didn't live but a +couple o' months folks have sort o' forgiven her and forgotten him. To us +Mrs. Hazen was always Mrs. Hazen; and Alf--well, he was just Alf Hazen +too; a lad with too much good in him to perish in them murderous waters a +thousand miles from home." + +So they still believed Hazen dead! No intimation of his return had as yet +reached Sitford. This was what Ransom wanted to know. But there was still +much to learn. Should he venture an additional question? No, that would +show more than a stranger's interest in a topic so purely local. Better +leave well enough alone and quit the spot before he committed himself. + +Uttering some commonplace observation about the fatality attending +certain families, he nodded a friendly good-by and made for the entrance. + +As he stepped below the brow of the hill he heard the first click of the +workman's hammer on the chisel with which he proposed to eliminate the +word _Anitra_ from the list of the Hazen dead. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +HUNTER'S INN + + +When Mr. Ransom re-entered the hotel, which he did under a swoop of wind +which turned his umbrella inside out and drenched him through in an +instant, it was to find the house in renewed turmoil, happily explained +by the landlady, whom he ran across on the stairs. + +"Oh, Mr. Johnston!" she cried as she edged by him with a pile of +bed-linen on her arm. "Please excuse all this fuss. Another guest is +coming--I have just got a telegram. A famous lawyer from New York. Our +house will be full to-night." + +"Where will you put him?" inquired Mr. Ransom with a good-natured air. +"There seem to be no unoccupied rooms on this hall." + +"More's the pity," she sighed, with a half-inquiring, half deprecatory +look at this fortunate first comer. "I shall have to put him below, poor +man. I'm afraid he won't like it, but--" Mr. Ransom remained silent. +"But," she went on with sudden cheerfulness, "I will make it up in the +supper. That shall be as good a one as our kitchen will provide. Four +city guests all in one day! That's a good many for this quiet hotel." + +"Four!" retorted Mr. Ransom as he turned towards his own door. "The +number has grown by two since I went out." + +"Oh, I didn't tell you. The lady--her name's Mrs. Ransom--brings her +sister with her. The little girl who--yes, I am coming." This latter to +some perplexed domestic down the hall, who had already called her twice. +"I mustn't stand talking here," she apologized as she hurried away. "But +do take care of yourself. You are dreadful wet. How I wish the weather +would clear up!" + +Mr. Ransom wished the same. To say nothing of his own inconvenience, +it was a source of anxiety to him that she should have to ride these +inevitable ten miles in such a chilling downpour. Besides, a storm of +this kind complicated matters; gave him less sense of freedom, shut him +in, as it were, with the mystery he was there to unravel, but which for +some reason, hardly explainable to himself, filled him with such a sense +of foreboding that he had moments in which he thought only of escape. But +his part must be played and he prepared himself to play it well. Having +changed his clothes and warmed himself with a draft of whisky, he sat +down at his table and was busy writing when the maid came in to ask if he +would wait for his supper till the coach came, or have it earlier and +served in his own room. + +With an air of petulance, he looked up, rapped on the table, and replied: + +"Here! here! I'm too busy to meet strangers. An early supper and an early +bed. That's the way I get through _my_ work." + +The girl stared and went softly out. Work!--that? Sitting at a table and +just putting words on paper. If it was beds he had to drag around now, or +a dozen hungry, clamoring men to feed all at once, and all with the best +cuts, or stairs to run up fifty times a day, or--but I need not fill out +her thought. It made her voluble in the kitchen and secured him the +privacy which his incognito demanded. + +His supper over, he waited feverishly for the coach, which ordinarily was +due at seven in the evening. To-night it bade fair to be late, owing to +the bad condition of the roads and the early darkness. The wind had gone +down, but it still rained. Not quite so tempestuously as when he roamed +the cemetery, but steadily enough to keep eaves and branches dripping. +The sound of this ceaseless drip was eerie enough to his strained senses, +waiting as he was for an event which might determine the happiness or the +misery of his life. He tried to forget it and wrote diligently, putting +down words whose meaning he did not stop to consider, so that he had +something to show to prying eyes if such should ever glance through his +papers. But the sound had got on his brain, and presently became so +insistent that he rose again and flung his window up to see if he were +deceived in thinking he heard a deep roar mingling with the incessant +patter, a roar which the wind had hitherto prevented him from separating +from the general turmoil, but which now was apparent enough to call for +some explanation. + +He had made no mistake; a steady sound of rushing water filled the +outside air. A fall was near, a fall by means of which, no doubt, the +factories were run. + +Why had he not thought of this? Why had its sound held a note of menace +for him, awakening feelings he did not understand and from which he +sought to escape? A factory fall swollen by the rain! What was there +in this to make his hand shake and cause the deepening night to seem +positively hateful to him? With a bang he closed the window; then he +softly threw it up again. Surely he had heard the noise of wheels +splashing through the pools of the highway. The coach was coming! and +with it--what? + +His room was in the gable end facing the road. From it he could look +directly down on the porch of entrance, a fact which he had thankfully +noted at his first look. As he heard the bustle which now broke out +below, and caught the gleam of a lantern coming round the corner of the +house, he softly stepped to his lamp and put it out, then took his stand +at the window. The coach was now very near; he could hear the straining +of the harness and the shouts of the driver. In another moment it drew +lumberingly up. A man from the hotel advanced with an umbrella; a young +lady was helped out who, standing one moment in the full glare of the +lights thrown upon her from the open door, showed him the face and form +he knew so well and loved--yes, loved for all her mystery, as he knew by +the wild beating of his heart, and the irresistible impulse he felt to +rush down and receive her in his arms, to her great terror doubtless, but +to his own boundless satisfaction and delight. But strong as the +temptation was, he did not yield to it. Something in her attitude, as she +stood there, talking earnestly to the driver, held him spellbound and +alert. All was not right; there was passion in her movements and in her +voice. What she said drew the heads of landlady and maid from the open +door and caused the man with the lantern to peer past her into the coach +and backward along the road. What had happened? Nothing that concerned +the lawyer. Mr. Ransom could see him disentangling himself from the +coverings in front where he had ridden with the driver, but the sister +was not there. No other lady got out of the coach even after his young +wife had finished her conversation with the driver and disappeared into +the house. + +"How can I stand this?" thought Mr. Ransom as the coach finally rattled +and swished away towards the stable. "I must hear, I must see, I must +_know_ what is going on down there." + +This because he heard voices in the open hall. Crossing to his own +doorway, he listened. His wife and Mr. Harper had stepped into the office +close by the front door. He could hear now and then a word of what they +said, but not all. Venturing a step further, he leaned over the +balustrade which extended almost up to his own door. This was better; he +could now catch most of the words and sometimes a sentence. They all +referred to the sister. "Temper--her own way--deaf--_would_ walk in all +the rain and slush.--A strange character--you can't imagine," and other +similar phrases, uttered in a passionate and half-angry voice. Then +ejaculations from Mrs. Deo, and a word or two of caution or injunction in +the polished tones of the lawyer, followed by a sudden rush towards the +staircase, over which he was leaning. + +"Show me my room," rang up in Georgian's bell-like tones; "then I'll tell +you what to do about _her_. She isn't easily managed." + +"But she'll get her death!" expostulated Mrs. Deo; "to say nothing of her +losing her way in this dreadful darkness. Let me send--" + +"Not yet," broke in his young wife's voice, with just the hint of +asperity in it. "She must trudge out her tantrum first. I think her idea +was to show that she remembered the old place and the lane where she used +to pick blackberries. You needn't worry about her getting cold. She's +lived a gipsy life too many years to mind wind and wet. But it's +different with _me_. I'm all in a shiver. Which is my room, please?" + +She was now at the head of the stairs. Mr. Ransom had closed his door, +but not latched it, and as she turned to go down the hall, followed by +the chattering landlady, he swung it open for an instant and so caught +one full glimpse of her beloved figure. She was dressed in a long +rain-coat and had some sort of modish hat on her head, which, in spite of +its simplicity, gave her a highly fashionable air. A woman to draw all +eyes, but such a mystery to her husband! Such a mystery to all who knew +her story, or rather her actions, for no one seemed to know her story. + +Events did not halt. He heard her give this and that order, open a door +and look in; say a word of commendation, ask if the key was on her side +of the partition, then shut the door again and open another. + +"Ah, this looks comfortable," she exclaimed in great satisfaction. "Is +that my bag? Put it down, please. I'll open it. Now, if you'll leave me a +moment alone, I'll soon be ready. But you mustn't expect me to eat till +Anitra comes. I couldn't do that. Oh, she's a dreadful trial, Mrs. Deo; +you have a motherly face, and I can tell you that the girl is just eating +up my life. If she weren't my very self, deafened by hard usage, and +rendered coarse and wilful by years of a miserable and half-starved life, +I couldn't bear it, especially after what I've sacrificed for her. I've +parted with my husband--but I can't talk, I can't. I would not have said +so much if you hadn't looked so kind." + +All this her husband heard, followed by a sob or two, quickly checked, +however, by a high strained laugh and the gay remark: + +"I'm wet enough, but she'll be dripping. I'm afraid she'll have to have +her supper in her room. She got out at the new schoolhouse and started +to come through the lane. It must be a weltering pool. If I'm dressed in +time I'll come down and meet her at the door. Meanwhile don't wait for +us; give Mr. Harper his supper." + +Her door closed, then suddenly opened again. "If she don't come in ten +minutes, let some one go to the head of the lane. But be sure it's a +careful person who won't startle her. I've got to put on another dress, +so don't bother me. I'll hear her when she enters her own room and will +speak to her then--if I dare; I'm not sure that I shall." And the door +shut to again, this time with a snap of the lock. Quiet reigned once more +in the hall save for Mrs. Deo's muttered exclamations as she made her +laborious way down-stairs. Had this good woman been less disturbed and +not in so much of a hurry, she might have noted that the door of her +literary guest's room was ajar, and stopped to ask why the lamp remained +unlit. + +For five minutes, for ten minutes, he watched and listened, passing +continually to and fro from door to window. But his vigilance remained +unrewarded by any further movement in the hall, or by the sight of an +approaching figure up the road. He began to feel odd, and was asking +himself what sort of fool-work this was, when a clatter of voices rose +below, followed by heavy steps on the veranda. One or two men were going +out, and as it seemed to him the landlady too, for he heard her say just +as the door closed: + +"Let me on ahead; she must see a woman's kind face first, poor child, or +we shall not succeed in getting her in. I know all about these wild +ones." + + + + +PART II + +The Call of the Waterfall + + + + +CHAPTER X + +TWO DOORS + + +The enthusiasm, the expectation in Mrs. Deo's voice were unmistakable. +This good woman believed in this rescued waif of turbulent caprices and +gipsy ways, and from this moment he began to believe in her too, and +consequently to share some of the excitement which had now become +prevalent all through the house. + +His suspense was destined to be short. While he was straining his eyes to +see what might be going on down the road, a small crowd of people came +round the corner of the house. In their midst walked a woman with a shawl +or cape over her head--a fierce and wilful figure which shook off the +hand kind Mrs. Deo laid on her arm, and shrank as the great front door +fell open, sending forth a flood of light which, to one less wedded to +wild ways and outdoor living, promised a hospitable cheer. + +"Georgian's form!" muttered Ransom involuntarily to himself. "And +Georgian's face!" he felt obliged to add, as the light fell broadly +across her. "But not Georgian's ways and not Georgian's nature," he +impetuously finished as she slipped out of sight. + +Then the mystery of _the brother_ came rushing over him and he yielded +himself again to the wonder of the situation till he was reawakened to +realities by the shuffling of feet on the stairway and the raised tones +of Mrs. Deo as she tried to make herself understood by her new and +somewhat difficult guest. A maid followed in their wake, and from some +as yet unexplored region below there rose the sound of clattering dishes. + +It was a trying moment for him. He longed for another glimpse of the +girl, but feared to betray his own curiosity to the two women who +accompanied her. Should he be forced to allow her to enter her room +unseen? Might he not better run some small risk of detection? He had +escaped discovery before; wasn't it possible for him to escape it again? +He finally compromised matters by first flinging his door wide open and +then retreating to the other end of the room where the shadows appeared +heavy enough to hide him. From this point he cast a look down the hall +which was in a direct line from his present standpoint, and was fortunate +enough to catch a glimpse of the girl with her face turned in his +direction. Her companions, on the contrary, were standing with their +backs to him, one beside the door she had just thrown open, the other +at his wife's door on which she had just given a significant rap. + +Such was the picture. + +The girl absorbed all his attention. The shawl--a gay one with colors in +it--had fallen from her head and was trailing, wet and bedraggled, over +an equally bedraggled skirt. Soused with wet, her hair disheveled, and +all her garments awry with the passion of her movements, she yet made his +heart stand still, as, with a sullen look at those about her, she rushed +into the room prepared for her use and slammed the door behind her with a +quick cry of mingled rage and relief. For with all these drawbacks of +manner and appearance she was the living picture of Georgian; so like +her, indeed, that he could well understand now the shock which his +darling received when, in the unconsciousness of possessing a living +sister, she had encountered in street or store, or wherever they had +first met, this living reproduction of herself. + +"No wonder she became confused as to her duty," he muttered. "I even feel +myself becoming confused as to mine." + +"Bring me up something to eat," he now heard this latest comer shout from +her doorway. "I don't want tea and I don't want soup; I want meat, meat. +And I shan't go down afterward, either. I'm going to stay right here. +I've seen enough of people I don't know. And of my sister too. She was +cross to me because I hated the coach and wanted to walk, and she shan't +come into my room till I tell her to. Don't forget; it's meat I want, +just meat and something sweet. Pudding's good." + +All shocking to Mr. Ransom's taste, but more so to his heart. For +notwithstanding the coarseness of the expressions, the voice was +Georgian's and laden with a hundred memories. + +He was still struggling with the agitation of this discovery when he +heard Mrs. Deo give another tap on his wife's door. This time it was +unlocked and pushed softly open, and through the crack thus made some +whispered orders were given. These seemed to satisfy Mrs. Deo, for she +called the maid to her and together they hurried down the hall to a rear +staircase, communicating with the kitchen. This was fortunate for him, +for if they had turned his way he would have had to issue from his room +and take open part in the excitement of the moment. + +A few minutes of quiet now supervened. During these he decided that if +he must keep up this watch--and nothing now could deter him from doing +so--he must take a position consistent with his assumed character. +Detection by Georgian was what he now feared. Whatever happened, she must +not get the smallest glimpse of him or be led by any indiscretion on his +part to suspect his presence under the same roof as herself. Yet he must +see all, hear all that was possible to him. For this a continuance of the +present conditions, an open door and no light, were positively requisite. +But how avert the comment which this unusual state of things must awaken +if noticed? But one expedient suggested itself. He would light a cigar +and sit in the window. If questioned he would say that he was engaged +in deciding how he would end the story he was writing; that such +contemplation called for darkness but above all for good air; that had +the weather been favorable he would have obtained the latter by opening +the window; but it being so bad he could only open the door. Certain +eccentricities are allowable in authors. + +This settled, he proceeded to take a chair and envelope himself in smoke. +With eyes fixed on the dimly-lighted vista of the hall before him, he +waited. What would happen next? Would his wife reappear? No; supper was +coming up. He could hear dishes rattling on the rear stairway, and in +another moment saw the maid coming down the hall with a large tray in her +hands. She stopped at Anitra's door, knocked, and was answered by the +harsh command: + +"Set it down. I'll get it for myself." + +The maid set it down. + +Next instant Mrs. Ransom's door opened. + +"Don't be too generous with me," he heard her call softly out. "I can't +eat. I'm too upset for much food. Tea," she whispered, "and some nice +toast. Tell Mrs. Deo that I want nothing else. She will understand." + +The maid nodded and disappeared down the hall just as a bare arm was +thrust out from Anitra's door and the tray drawn in. A few minutes later +the other tray came up and was carried into Mrs. Ransom's room. The +contrast in the way the two trays had been received struck him as showing +the difference between the two women, especially after he had been given +an opportunity, as he was later, of seeing the ferocious way in which the +food brought to Anitra had been disposed of. + +But I anticipate. The latter tray had not yet been pushed again into the +hall, and Mr. Ransom was still smoking his first cigar when he heard the +lawyer's voice in the office below asking to have pen and ink placed in +the small reception-room. This recalled him to the real purpose of his +wife's presence in the house, and also assured him that the opportunity +would soon be given him for another glimpse of her before the evening was +over. It was also likely to be a full-face one, as she would have to +advance several steps directly towards him before taking the turn leading +to the front staircase. + +He awaited the moment eagerly. The hour for signing the will had been set +at nine o'clock, but it was surely long past that time now. No, the clock +in the office is striking; it is just nine. Would she recognize the +summons? Assuredly; for with the last stroke she lifts the latch of her +door and comes out. + +She has exchanged her dark dress for a light one and has arranged her +hair in the manner he likes best. But he scarcely notes these changes in +the interest he feels in her intentions and the manner in which she +proceeds to carry out her purpose. + +She does not advance at once to the staircase, but creeps first to her +sister's door, where she stands listening for a minute or so in an +attitude of marked anxiety. Then, with a gesture expressive of repugnance +and alarm, she steps quickly forward and disappears down the staircase +without vouchsafing one glance in his direction. + +His vision of her as she looked in that short passage from room to +staircase was momentary only, but it left him shuddering. Never before +had he seen resolve burning to a white heat in the human countenance. +There was something abnormal in it, taken with his knowledge of her face +in its happier and more wholesome aspects. The innocent, affectionate +young girl, whose soul he had looked upon as a weeded garden, had become +in a moment to his eyes a suffering, determined, deeply concentrated +woman of unsuspected power and purpose. A suggestion of wildness in her +air added to the mysterious impression she made; an impression which +rendered this instant memorable to him and set his pulses beating to +a tune quite new to them. What was she going to do? Sign away all her +property? Beggar her heirs for--He could not say what. No; even such +a resolution could not account for her remarkable expression of +concentrated will. There was in her distracted mind something of more +tragic import than this; and he dared not question what; dared not even +approach this woman who, less than a week before, had linked herself to +him for life. The uneasy light in those fixed and gleaming eyes betrayed +a reason too lightly poised. He feared any additional shock for her. +Better that she should go down undisturbed to her adviser, who bore a +reputation which insured a judicious use of his power. What if she were +about to will away her fortune to the man she called brother? He himself +had no use for her wealth. Her health and happiness were all that +concerned him, and these possibly depended on her being allowed to go her +own way without interference. But oh, for eyes to see into the room into +which she had withdrawn with the lawyer! For eyes to see into her heart! +For eyes to see into the future! + +His suspense presently became so great that he could no longer control +himself. Throwing up the window, he thrust his head out into the rain and +felt refreshed by the icy drops falling on his face and neck. But the +roar of the waterfall rang too persistently in his ears and he hastily +closed the window again. There was something in the incessant boom of +that tumbling water which strangely disturbed him. He could better stand +suspense than that. If only the wind would bluster again. That, at least, +was intermittent in its fury and gave momentary relief to thoughts +strained to an unbearable tension. + +Afterwards, only a short time afterwards, he wondered that he had given +himself over to such extreme feeling at this especial moment. Her +appearance when she came quietly back, with Mrs. Deo chatting and smiling +behind her, was natural enough, and though she did not speak herself, the +tenor of the landlady's remarks was such as to show that they had been +conversing about old days when the two little girls used to ransack her +cupboards for their favorite cookies, and when their united pranks were +the talk of the town. + +As they passed down the hall, Mrs. Deo garrulously remarked: + +"You were never separated except on that dreadful day of the schoolhouse +burning. That day you were sick and--" + +"Please!" The word leaped from Georgian in terror, and she almost threw +her hand against the other's mouth. "I--I can't bear it." + +The good lady paused, gurgled an apology, and stooped for the tray which +disfigured the sightliness of the neatly kept hall. Then, nodding towards +a maid whom she had placed on watch at the extreme end of the hall, she +muttered some assurances as to this woman's faithfulness, and turned away +with a cordial good night. Georgian watched her go with a strange and +lingering intentness, or so it seemed to Ransom; then slowly entered her +room and locked the door. + +The incidents of the day, so far as she was concerned, appeared to be at +an end. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +HALF-PAST ONE IN THE MORNING + + +Nothing now held Mr. Ransom to his room. The two women in whose fate he +was so nearly concerned, his sister-in-law and his wife, had both retired +and there was no other eye he feared. Indeed, he courted an interview +with the lawyer, if only it could be naturally obtained; and he had +little reason to think it could not. So he went down-stairs. + +In a moment he seemed to have passed from the realm of dreams to that of +reality. Here was no mystery. Here was life as he knew it. Walking boldly +into the office, he ran his eye over the half-dozen men who sat there +and, picking out the lawyer from the rest, sauntered easily up to him and +sat down. + +"My name is Johnston," said he. "I'm from New York; like yourself, I +believe." + +The lawyer, with a twinkle in his light-blue eye, answered with a cordial +nod; and in two minutes a lively conversation had begun between them on +purely impersonal subjects suited to the intelligence of the crowd they +were in. This did not last, however. An opportunity soon came for them to +stroll off together, and presently Mr. Ransom found himself closeted with +this man who he had reason to believe was the sole holder of the key to +the secret which was devouring him. + +A bottle of wine was on the table between them, and some cigars. As Mr. +Ransom filled the two glasses, he spoke: + +"I have to thank you--" he began, but saw immediately that he had made a +wrong start. + +"For what, _Mr. Johnston_?" asked the other coldly. + +"For giving me this opportunity to speak alone with you," Ransom +explained with a nervous gesture. "An hour of unrestrained gossip is so +necessary to me after a day of hard work. Perhaps you don't know that I +am an author--have been one for seven whole hours. I find it exhausting. +You could give me great relief by talking a little on some foreign +subject, say on the one now engrossing every one in the house, the twin +ladies from New York. You were in the same coach with them. Did they +quarrel and did the most wilful of the two insist on getting out at the +foot of the hill and walking up through the lane?" + +"I doubt if I have anything to say to Mr. Johnston on this subject," was +the wary reply. + +"What if he added another name to the Johnston?" + +"It would make no appreciable difference. The driver is a loquacious +fellow, talk to him." + +Mr. Ransom felt his heart fail him. He surveyed closely the mouth which +had uttered this off-hand sentence and saw that it was set in a line +there was no mistaking. Little enlightenment was to be got from this man. +Yet he made one more effort. + +"Did my wife sign the will?" he asked. "All pretense aside, this is a +very important matter to me, Mr. Harper; not on account of the money +involved, but because the doing of this simple act seemed to require such +an effort on her part." + +"You are mistaken," was the quick reply, harshly accentuated. "She did +just what she wanted to do. She was not in the least coerced, unless it +was by circumstances." + +"Circumstances! But that is what I mean. They seem to have been too much +for her. I want to understand these circumstances." + +The lawyer honored him with his first direct look. + +"I don't understand them myself," said he. + +"You don't?" + +"No." + +Mr. Ransom set down the wineglass he had raised half-way to his lips. + +"You have simply followed her orders?" + +"You have said it. Your wife is a woman of much more character than you +think. She has amazed me." + +"She is amazing me. I am here; she is here; only a few boards separate +us. But iron bars could not be more effectual. I dare not approach her +door; dare not ask her to accept from me the natural protection of a +lover and husband. Instinct holds me back, or her will, which may not +be stronger than mine but is certainly more dominant." + +"Lawyers do not believe much in instinct as a usual thing, but I should +advise confidence in this one. A woman with a tremendous will like that +of Mrs. Ransom should be allowed a slack tether. The day will arrive when +she will come to you herself. This I have said before; I can say nothing +more to you to-night." + +"Then there is nothing in the will you have drawn up to show that she has +lost her affection for me?" + +The lawyer drained his glass. + +"I have not been given permission to declare its terms," said he, when +his glass was again upon the table. + +"In other words, I am to know nothing," exclaimed his exasperated +companion. + +"Not from me." + +And this ended the conversation. Ransom withdrew immediately up-stairs. + +At ten o'clock he retired. The last look he cast down the hall had shown +him the drowsy figure of the maid still sitting at her watch. It seemed +to insure a peaceful night. But he had little expectation of sleep. +Though the wind had quieted down and the rain fell with increasing +gentleness, the roar of the waterfall surged through all his thoughts, +which in themselves were turbulent. He did sleep, however, slept +peacefully till half-past one, when he and all in the house were startled +by a wild and piercing cry rising from one of the rooms. Terror was in +the sound and in an instant every door was open save the two which were +shut upon Georgian and her twin sister. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +"GEORGIAN!" + + +Mr. Ransom was the first one in the hall. He had not undressed himself, +expecting a totally sleepless night. It was his figure, then, that the +maid encountered as she came running from her post at the end of the +corridor. + +"Which room? which?" he gasped out, ignoring every precaution in his +blind terror. + +"This one. I am sure it came from this one," she declared, knocking +loudly on Anitra's door. + +There was a rustle within, a cry which was half a sob, then the sound of +a hand fumbling with the lock. Meanwhile, Mr. Ransom had bent his ear to +his wife's door. + +"All still in here," he cried. "Not a sound. Something dreadful has +happened--" + +Just then Anitra's door fell back and a wild image confronted him and +such others as had by this time collected in the passageway. With only a +shawl covering her nightdress, the gipsy-like creature stood clawing the +air and answering the looks that appealed to her, with wild gurgles, till +suddenly her hot glances fell on Roger Ransom, when she instantly became +rigid and stammered out: + +"She's gone! I saw her black figure go by my window. She called out that +the waterfall drew her. She went by the little balcony and the roof. The +roof was slippery with the rain and she fell. That's why I screamed. But +she got up again. What is she going to do at the waterfall? Stop her! +stop her! She hasn't steady feet like me, and I wasn't really angry. I +liked her; I liked her." + +Sobs choked the rest. Her terror was infectious. Mr. Ransom reeled, then +flung himself at Georgian's door. It resisted but the silence within told +him that she was not there. Neither was she in Anitra's room. They could +all look in and see it bare to the window. + +"You saw her climbing past there?" he cried, forgetting she was deaf. + +"Yes, yes," she chattered, catching his meaning from his pointing finger. +"There's a balcony. She must have jumped on it from her own window. She +didn't come in here. See! the door is locked on her side." + +This was true. + +"I woke and saw her. My eyes are like lynx's. I got out of bed to watch. +She fell--" + +The noise of a breaking lock snapped her words in two. One of the men +present had flung himself against this communicating door. Immediately +they all crowded into the adjoining room. It was empty and bitterly cold +and wet. An open window explained why, and possibly the letter lying on +the bureau inscribed with her husband's name would explain the rest. But +he stopped to read no letters now. + +"Show me the way to those falls," he cried, pocketing the letter as he +rushed by the disheveled Anitra into the open hall. "I'm her husband, +Roger Ransom. Who goes with me? He who does is my friend for life." + +The clerk and one or two others rushed for their coats and lanterns. He +waited for nothing. The roar of the waterfall had told him too many tales +that day. And the will! Her will just signed! + +"Georgian!" + +They could hear his cry. + +"Georgian! Georgian! Wait! wait! hear what I have to say!" thrilled back +through the mist as he stumbled on, followed by the men waving their +lanterns and shouting words of warning he probably never heard. Then his +cry further off and fainter. "Georgian! Georgian!" Then silence and the +slow drizzle of rain on the soggy walk and soaked roofs, with the far-off +boom of the waterfall which Mrs. Deo and the trembling maids gazing at +the wide-eyed Anitra shivering in the center of her deserted room, tried +to shut out by closing window and blind, forgetting that she was deaf and +only heard such echoes as were thundering in her own mind. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WHERE THE MILL STREAM RUNS FIERCEST + + +Two o'clock. + +Three o'clock. + +Two men were talking below their breaths in the otherwise empty office. +"That 'ere mill stream never gives up anything it has once caught," +muttered one into the ear of the other. "It's swift as fate and in +certain places deep as hell. Dutch Jan's body was five months at the +bottom of it, before it came up at Clark's pool." + +The man beside him shivered and his hand roamed nervously towards his +breast. + +"Did Jan, the Dutchman you speak of, fall in by accident, or did +he--throw himself over--from homesickness, or some such cause?" + +"Wa'al we don't say; on account of his old mother, you know, we don't +say. It was called accident." + +The other man rose and walked restlessly to the window. + +"Half the town is up," he muttered. "The lanterns go by like fire-flies. +Poor Ransom! It's a hopeless job, I fear." And again his hand wandered to +that breast pocket where the edge of a document could be seen. "I have +half a mind to go out myself; anything is better than sitting here." + +But he sat down just the same. Mr. Harper was no longer a young man. + +"The storm's bating," observed the one. + +"But not the cold. Throw on a stick; I'm freezing." + +The other man obeyed; then looking up, stared. A girl stood before them +in the doorway. Anitra, with cheeks ablaze and eyes burning, her +traveling dress flapping damp about her heels, and on her head the red +shawl she preferred to any hat. Behind her shoulder peered the anxious +face of Mrs. Deo. + +"I'm going out," cried the former in the loud and unmodulated voice of +the deaf. "He don't come back! he don't come back! I'm going to see why." + +The lawyer rose and bowed; then resolutely shook his head. He did not +know whether she had appealed to him or not. She had not looked at him, +had not looked at any one, but he felt that he must protest. + +"I beg you not to do so," he began. "I really beg you to remain here and +wait with me. You can do no good and the result may be dangerous." But he +knew he was talking to deaf ears even before the landlady murmured: + +"She doesn't hear a word. I've talked and talked to her. I've used every +sign and motion I could think of, but it's done no good. She would dress +and she will go out; you'll see." + +The next minute her prophecy came true; the wild thing, with a quick +whirl of her lithe body, was at the front door, and in another instant +had flashed through it and was gone. + +"It is my duty to follow her," said the lawyer. "Help me on with my coat; +I'll find some one to guide me." + +"Here is a lantern. Excuse me for not going with you," pleaded Mrs. Deo, +"but some one must watch the house." + +The New Yorker nodded, took the lantern offered him, and went stoically +out. + +He met a man on the walk in front. He was faced his way and was panting +heavily. + +"Hello," said he, "what news?" + +"They haven't found her; but there's no doubt she went over the fall. The +fellow who calls himself her husband has just been reading a letter they +say she left on her bureau for him. It was a good-by, I reckon, for you +can't tear him from the spot. He says he'll stay there till daylight. I +couldn't stand the sight of his misery myself. Besides, it's mortal cold; +I've just been running to get warm. Who was the girl who just went +scurrying by out of here? It's no place for wimmen down there. One lost +gal is enough." + +"That's what I think," muttered the lawyer, hurrying on. + +He was not a very imaginative man; some of his best friends thought him a +cold and prosaic one, but he never forgot that walk or the sensations +accompanying it. Dark as it still was, the way would have been impassable +for a stranger, had it not been for the guidance given by the noisy +passing to and fro of the awakened townspeople. Those coming from the +river approached in a direct line from one spot; those going to it +advanced in the same line and to the same spot. A ring of lanterns marked +it. It was near, very near where the heavy waters fell into a deep pool. +No one now spoke of Anitra; she had evidently been warned by her first +encounter to move with less precipitancy. + +As he approached the place of central interest, he moved more warily too. +The ground was very bad; he had never walked in such slush. Once and +again he tripped; once he came down upon his face. The boom of the waters +was now very near; he could see nothing but the flicker of the lanterns, +but he felt the near rush of the stream, and presently was at its very +edge. Startled by the nearness of his escape, for he had almost lost +his footing by his sudden halt, he started back, looked again at the +lanterns, took a turn and came upon the dozen or more men bending over +the edge of the stream where the waters ran most swiftly. But he did not +join them. Another sight attracted his eyes and presently himself. This +was the sight of Ransom crouched on the wet earth, staring down at a slip +of paper he held in his hands. A lantern set in the sand at his feet sent +its feeble rays over his face and possibly over the paper; but he was no +longer reading it, he was simply so lost in its sorrowful contents that +all power of movement had deserted him. + +Harper approached to his side, but he did not address him. Something +stirred in his own breast and kept him silent. But there was another +person near who was not so deterred. As Harper stood watching Ransom's +crouched, almost insensible figure, he perceived a slight dark form steal +from the shadows and lay a hand on the stooping man's shoulder, then as +he failed to move or give any token of feeling this touch, he heard +Anitra's voice say in accents almost musical: + +"You will get ill here; you are not used to the cold and the night air. +Come back to the house; Georgian would wish it." + +The name roused him and he looked up. Their eyes met and a strange +gleam--a shock, perhaps, of sympathetic feeling, flashed upon either +face. The lawyer saw and instinctively retreated from out the circle of +light cast by the lantern; but the men at the stream's edge heard +nothing. The flash of something white had caught their eyes and one man +was reaching for it. + +"Georgian," came in astonished repetition from the bereaved man's lips. + +"She would wish it," persisted the other with still deeper and more +urgent meaning. + +[Illustration: A slight, dark form stole from the shadows and laid a +hand on the stooping man's shoulder.] + +Then in a whisper so penetrating that even Mr. Harper caught its least +inflection through all the thunder of the waterfall, "She loved you." + +Ah! the enchantment, the feminine persuasiveness, the heart-moving +sincerity which breathed through that simple phrase! From lips so +untutored, it seemed marvelous. Ransom was not insensible to its power, +for he quivered under her hand and his eyes took on a look of wonder. But +he made no attempt to answer, even by a sign. He seemed content for that +one instant just to listen and to look. + +The man hanging over the stream drew back his arm. He had been deceived +by a bit of froth; some of it clung yet to his fingers. + +"Come," entreated the girl, her face emerging softly into the light, as +she stooped lower over the lantern. "Come!" she had taken him by the hand +and was drawing him gently upward. + +With a leap he was on his feet and had thrown her off. Some memory had +come to make her entreaty hateful. + +"No," he cried, "no! Here is my place and here will I stay. You are a +stranger to me! You drove her to this act, and you shall not cajole me +into forgetting it." + +He had spoken loudly; not so much because he remembered her affliction, +but because of the roar of the fall and his own overwhelming passion. The +result was that the lawyer caught every word; possibly the workers at the +water-edge did also; for some of them quickly turned their heads. But +she, though she stopped short in the spot where he had pushed her, gave +no evidence of hearing his words or even of resenting his manner. + +"Won't you come?" she falteringly pleaded, pointing towards the house +with its twinkling lights. "You are cold; you are shuddering; they will +do the searching who don't mind night or wet. Follow Anitra, Anitra who +is so sorry." + +"No!" he shouted. His tone, his look, were almost those of a madman. He +even put out his hands towards her in repulsion. He seemed to cast her +away. This gesture, if not his words, reached her understanding. The +lawyer saw her sway, fling back her young head with its disheveled locks +to the night, and fall moaning pitifully to the ground. Here she lay +still, with the wet grass all about her and the last lingering drops of +rain beating on her huddled form. + +Mr. Harper started to raise her, for Ransom stood petrified. But no +sooner had the lawyer made his presence known by this impetuous movement, +than Ransom woke from his trance and, darting down, lifted the girl in +his arms and began moving with her towards the house. As he passed the +lawyer he muttered between set teeth: + +"She's caused me all my misery. But she looks too much like Georgian for +me to see another man touch her. God will care for my poor darling's +body." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A DETECTIVE'S WORK + + +Morning. + +The living household was about its tasks for all the horror of the night +before, and the still unrelieved suspense as to the fate of one of its +members. + +The maid, who had sat on watch in the upper hall for so many hours the +evening before, was again at her post, but this time with her eye fixed +only on one door, the door behind which slept the exhausted Anitra. +Ransom's room was empty; he was in the sitting-room below, closeted with +the lawyer. + +Some one had been there before them. The tray of bottles and glasses had +been removed from the table, and in their place were to be seen a woman's +damaged hat and a small tortoise-shell comb. Mr. Harper's hand was on the +former, which was wound about with a wet veil. + +"I think I recognize this," said he. "At least I have a distinct +impression of having seen it before." + +"It was picked up with the veil still on it near the entrance of the +lane," explained Ransom. + +"Then there can be no doubt that it is the hat Miss Hazen wore during +her journey. She tossed it off the moment her foot touched the ground, +and taking the shawl from her neck pulled it over her head instead. You +remember that she had no hat on when they brought her in." + +"I remember. This is Miss Hazen's hat without any doubt." + +The lawyer eyed the speaker with curious interest. There was something in +his tone that he did not understand. + +"And this?" he ventured, laying a respectful finger on the comb. + +"Found in the open field between the house and the mill-stream." + +"Do you recognize it?" + +"No. Georgian wore such combs, but I cannot absolutely say that this is +hers." + +"I can. You see this little gold work at the top? Well, I have an eye for +such things and I noticed this comb in her hair last night. There were +two of them just alike." + +Instinctively the two men sat with their eyes fixed for a minute on this +comb, then, equally instinctively, they both looked up and gazed at each +other long and hard. It was the lawyer who first spoke. + +"I think that we should have no further secrets between us," said he. +"Here is Mrs. Ransom's will. There is a name mentioned in it which I do +not know. Perhaps you do." Here he laid the document on the table. + +Mr. Ransom eyed it but did not take it up. Instead, he drew a crumpled +paper from his own pocket and, handing it to the lawyer, said: "First, +I should like you to read the letter which she left behind for me. My +feelings as a husband would lead me to hold it as a sacred legacy from +all eyes but my own; but there is a mystery hidden in it, a mystery which +I must penetrate, and you are the only man who can assist me in doing +so." + +The lawyer, lowering his eyes to hide their own suspicious glint, opened +the paper, and carefully read these lines: + + "Forgive. My troubles are too much for me. I'm going to a place of + rest, the only place and the only rest possible to one in my position. + I don't blame anybody. Least of all do I blame Anitra. It was not her + fault that she was brought up rudely, or that she knows no restraint + in love or in hate. Be kind to her for my sake, and if any one else + claims her or offers to take her from you, resist them. I give her + entirely to you. It's a more priceless gift than you think; much more + priceless than the one which I take from you by my death. I could + never have been happy with you; you could never have been happy with + me. Fate stood between us; a darker and more inexorable fate than you, + in your kindly experience of life, could imagine. Else, why do I + plunge to my death with your ring on my finger and your love in my + heart? + + "Georgian." + +"Ravings?" questioned Ransom hoarsely, as Mr. Harper's eyes rose again to +his face. + +"It would seem so," assented the lawyer. "Yet there is intelligence in +all the lines. And the will--read the will. There is no lack of +intelligent purpose there; little as it accords with the feeling she +exhibits here for her sister. She leaves her nothing; and does not even +mention her name. Her personal belongings she bequeaths to you; but her +realty, which comprises the bulk of her property I believe, she divides, +somewhat unequally I own, between you and a man named Auchincloss. It +is he I want to ask you about. Have you ever heard her speak of him?" + +"Josiah Auchincloss of St. Louis, Missouri," read Mr. Ransom. "No, the +name is new to me. Didn't she tell you anything about him when she gave +you her instructions?" + +"Not a word. She said, 'You will hear from him if ever this will is +published. He has a right to the money and I entreat you to show your +respect for me by seeing that he gets it without any unnecessary +trouble.' That was all she said or would say. Your wife was a woman of +powerful character, Mr. Ransom. My little arts counted for nothing in any +difference of opinion between us." + +"Auchincloss!" repeated Ransom. "Another unknown quantity in the problem +of my poor girl's life. What a tangle! Do you wonder that I am overcome +by it? Anitra--the so-called brother--and now this Auchincloss!" + +"Right, Ransom, I share your confusion." + +"Do you?" The words came very slowly, penetratingly. "Haven't you some +idea--some strange, possibly half-formed notion or secret intuition which +might afford some clew to this labyrinth? I have been told that lawyers +have a knack of getting at the bottom of human conduct and affairs. You +have had a wide experience; does it not suggest some answer to this +problem which will harmonize all its discordant elements and make clear +its various complications?" + +Mr. Harper shook his head, but there was a restrained excitement in his +manner which was not altogether the reflection of that which dominated +Ransom, and the latter, observing it, leaned across the table till their +faces almost touched. + +"Do you guess my thought?" he whispered. "Look at me and tell me if you +guess my thought." + +The lawyer hesitated, eying well the trembling lip, the changing color, +the wide-open, deeply flushed eyes so near his own; then with a slow +smile of extraordinary subtlety, if not of comprehension, answered in +a barely audible murmur: + +"I think I do. I may be mad, but I think I do." + +The other sank back with a sigh charged with what the lawyer interpreted +as relief. Mr. Harper reseated himself, and for a moment neither looked +at the other, and neither spoke; it would almost seem as if neither +breathed. Then, as a bird, deceived by the silence, hopped to the window +sill and began its cheep, "cheep," Mr. Ransom broke the spell by saying +in low but studiously business-like tones: + +"Have you thought it worth while to study the ground under her window or +anywhere else for footprints? It might not be amiss; what do you think +about it?" + +"Let us go," readily acquiesced the lawyer, rising to his feet with an +honest show of alacrity; "after which I must telegraph to New York. I was +expected back to-day." + +"I know it; but your duties there will keep; these here cannot. Your hand +on the promise that you will respect my secret till--well, till I can +assure you that my intuitions are devoid of any real basis." + +The lawyer's palm met his; then they started to go out; but before they +had passed the door, Mr. Ransom came back, and lifting the comb from the +table he put it in his pocket. As he did this, his eye flashed sidewise +on the other. There were strange hints and presentiments in it which +brought the color to the usually imperturbable lawyer's cheek. + +In going out they passed the office-door. A dozen men were hanging about, +smoking and talking. Among them was a countryman who had just swallowed, +open-mouthed, the story of the past night's tragedy. He was now speaking +out his own mind concerning it, and this is what these two heard him say +as they went by: + +"Do you know what strikes me as mighty strange? That they should clear +that stone of the name of Anitra just in time to put Georgian's in its +place. I call that peculiar, I do." + +The lawyer and the husband exchanged a glance. + +"Mrs. Ransom had a deep mind," the lawyer remarked, as the door slammed +behind them. "She apparently thought of everything." + +Ransom, directing a look down the street towards the factories and the +roaring mill-stream, uttered a shuddering sigh. + +"They are still searching," said he. "But they will never find her. They +will never find her." + +The lawyer pulled him away. + +"That's because they search the water. We will search the land." + +"That's half water, too; but it cannot hide every clew. You have eyes for +the imperceptible; use them, Mr. Harper, use them." + +"I will; but this is a detective's work. Do not expect too much from me." + +"I expect nothing. I do not dare to. Let us tread very softly, that is +all, and be careful to talk low, if we have anything to say." + +By this time they had rounded the corner of the house and entered a +narrow walk, flagged with brick, which connected the space in front +with the rear offices and garden. This walk ran close to the walls which +were broken on this side by an ell projecting in the direction of the +mill-stream. It was from the roof of this ell that Anitra declared +Georgian to have slipped and fallen. + +Their first care was to glance up at the roof. It was a sloping one and +Anitra's story seemed credible enough when they noted how much easier it +would be to drop upon it from the little balcony overhead than to +traverse the roof itself and reach the ground beneath without slipping. +But as they looked longer, each face betrayed doubt. The descent from the +balcony was easy enough, but how about the passage from Georgian's window +to the balcony? This latter was confined to the one window, and was +surrounded by an ornamental balustrade, high enough to offer a decided +obstacle to the adventurous person endeavoring to leap upon it from the +adjoining window-ledge. However, this leap, made in the dark and under +circumstances inducing the utmost recklessness, might look practical +enough from the window-ledge itself, and Mr. Harper, making a remark to +this effect, proposed that they should examine the ground rather than the +house for evidences of Mrs. Ransom's slip and fall as related by Anitra. + +The only spot where they could hope to find such was in the one short +stretch--the width of the ell--underlying the edge of the sloping roof. +But this spot was all flagged, as I have already said, and when their +eyes strayed beyond it to the untilled fields, stretching between them +and the great rock at the verge of the waterfall from which she was +supposed to have taken her fatal leap, it was to find them as +unproductive of evidence as the brick walk itself. Not one pair of feet +but many had passed that way since early morning. The ground showed a +mass of impressions of all sizes and shapes, amid which it would have +been impossible for them, without the necessary experience, to have +followed up the flight of any one person. They had come to their task +too late. + +"Futile," decided the lawyer. "There is no use in our going that way." +And he turned to look again at the ground in their immediate vicinity. As +he did so, his eye lighted on the triangular spot where the ell met the +side of the house under the kitchen windows. Here there was no flagging, +the walk taking a diagonal course from the corner of the ell to the +kitchen door. + +"What are those?" he asked, pointing to two oblong impressions brimming +with water which disfigured the center of this small plot. + +"They look like footprints," ventured Ransom. + +"They are footprints," decided Mr. Harper as they stooped to examine the +marks, "and the footprints of a person dropping from a height. Nothing +else explains their depth or general appearance." + +"Couldn't they be those of a person approaching the ell to converse with +some one above? I see others similar to these in the open place over +there beyond the kitchen door." + +"It is a trail. Let us follow it. It seems to lead anywhere but towards +the waterfall. This is an important discovery, Mr. Ransom, and may lead +to conclusions such as we might not otherwise have presumed to entertain, +especially if we come upon an impression clear enough to point in which +direction the person making it was going." + +"Here is what you want," Ransom assured him in a low and curiously +smothered voice. He was evidently greatly excited by this result of their +inquiries, for all his apparent quiet and precise movements. "It's a +woman's step, and that woman was going from the ell when she left these +tokens of her passage behind her. Going! and as you say not in the +direction of the waterfall." + +"Hush! I see some one at the kitchen window. Let us move warily and be +sure not to confound these prints with those of any other person. It +looks as if a great many people had passed here." + +"Yes, this is the way to the chicken-coops and out-houses. But in the +ground beyond I think I see a single line of steps again,--small steps +like these. Where can they be leading? They are deep like those of a +person running." + +"And straggling, like those of a person running in the dark. See how they +waver from the direct line down there, turn, and almost come up against +that wood-pile! Whose steps are these? Whose, Mr. Harper? Quick! I must +see where they go. Our time will not be lost. The key to the labyrinth is +in our hands." + +The lawyer was in the rear and the eyes of the other were fixed far +ahead. For this reason, perhaps, the former allowed himself a quiet shake +of the head, which might not have encouraged the other so very much, had +he caught sight of it. They were now on the verge of the garden, or what +would soon be a garden if these rains betokened spring. A path ran along +its edge and in this path the footsteps they were following lost +themselves; but they came upon them again among the hillocks of some old +potato-hills beyond, and finally traced them quite across the garden +waste to a fence, along which they ran, blundering from ploughed earth to +spots of smoother ground, and so back again till they came upon an old +turn-stile! + +Passing through this, the two men stopped and looked about them. They +were in a road ridged with grass and flanked by bushes. One end ran east +into a wooded valley, the other debouched on the highway a few feet to +the right of the tavern. + +"The lane!" exclaimed Mr. Harper. "The lead towards the waterfall was a +feint. It was in this direction she fled, and it is from this point that +search must be made for her." + +Ransom, greatly perturbed, for this possibility of secret flight opened +vistas of as much mystery, if not of as much suffering, as her death in +the river, glanced at the sodden ground under their feet, and thus along +the lane to where it lost itself from view among the trees. + +"No possible following of steps here," he declared. "A hundred people +must have come this way since early morning." + +"It's a short cut from the Ferry. They told me last night that it +lessened the distance by fully a quarter of a mile." + +"The Ferry! Can she be there? Or in the woods, or on her way to some +unknown place far out of our reach? The thought is maddening, Mr. Harper, +and I feel as helpless as a child under it. Shall we get detectives from +the county-seat, or start on the hunt ourselves? We might hear something +further on to help us." + +"We might; but I should rather stay on the immediate scene at present. +Ah, there comes a fellow in a cart who should be able to tell us +something! Stand by and I'll accost him. You needn't show your face." + +Mr. Ransom turned aside. Mr. Harper waited till the slow-moving horse, +dragging a heavily jogging wagon, came alongside, and he had caught the +eye of the low-browed, broad-faced farmer boy who sat on a bag of +potatoes and held the reins. + +"Good morning," said he. "Bad news this way. Any better at the Ferry, or +down east, as you call it?" + +"Eh?" was the lumbering, half-suspicious answer from the startled boy. +"I've heard naught down yonder, but that a gal threw herself over the +waterfall up here last night. Is that a fact, sir? I'm mighty curus to +know. My mother knew them Hazens; used to wash for 'em years ago. She +told me to bring up these taters and larn all I could about it." + +"We don't know much more than that ourselves," was the smooth and +cautious reply. "The lady certainly is missing, and she is supposed to +have drowned herself." Then, as he noted the fellow's eyes resting with +some curiosity on Mr. Ransom's well-clad, gentlemanly figure, added +gravely, and with a slight gesture towards the latter: + +"The lady's husband." + +The lad's jaw fell and he looked very sheepish. + +"Excuse me, misters, I didn't know," he managed to mutter, with a slash +at his horse which was vainly endeavoring to pull the cart from the rut +in which it had stuck. "I guess I'll go along to the hotel. I've a bag of +taters for Mrs. Deo." + +But the cart didn't budge and the lawyer had time to say: + +"Guess you didn't hear anything said about another lady I am interested +in. No talk down your way of a strange young woman seen anywhere on the +highway or about any of the houses between here and the Landing?" + +"Jerusha! I did hear a neighbor of mine say somethin' about a stranger +gal he saw this very mornin'. Met her down by Beardsley's. She was goin' +through the mud on foot as lively as you please. Asked him the way to the +Ferry. He noticed her because she was pretty and spoke in such a nice +way--just like a city gal," he said. "Is it any one from this hotel?" +added the fellow with a wondering look. "If so, she walked a mile before +daylight in mud up to her ankles. A girl of powerful grit that! with a +mighty good reason for catching the train." + +"Oh! there's an early train then?" asked the lawyer, ignoring the other's +question with unmoved good-humor. "One, I mean, before the 10:50 +express?" + +"Yes, sir, or so I've heard. I never took it. Folks don't from here, +except they're in an awful hurry. Will y'er say who the young woman is? +Not--not--" + +"We don't know who she is," quietly objected the lawyer. "And you don't +know who she is either," he severely added, holding the yawping +countryman with his eye. "If you're the man I think you, you'll not talk +about her unless you're asked by the constable or some one you are bound +to answer. And what's more, you'll earn a five-dollar bill by going back +the road you've come and bringing here, without any talk or fuss, the man +you were just telling us about. I want to have a talk with him, but I +don't want any one but you and him to know this. You can tell him it's +worth money, if he don't want to come. Do you understand?" + +"You bet," chuckled the grinning lad. "A five-dollar bill is mighty +clearing to the mind, sir. But must I turn right back before going on to +the hotel and hearing the news?" + +"We'll help you turn the cart," grimly suggested Mr. Harper. "Get up +there, Dobbin, or whatever your name is. Here, Ransom, lend a hand!" + +There was nothing for the fellow to do but to accept the help proffered, +and turn his cart. With one longing look towards the hotel he jerked at +the rein and shouted at the horse, which, after a few feeble efforts, +pulled the cart about and started off again in the desired direction. + +"Sooner done, sooner paid," shouted the lawyer, as lad and cart went +jolting off. "Remember to ask for Lawyer Harper when you come back. I +won't be far from the office." + +The fellow nodded; gave one grinning look back and whipped up his nag. +The lawyer and Ransom eyed one another. "It's only a possibility," +emphasized the former. "Don't lay too much stress upon it." + +"Let us speak plainly," urged Ransom. "Mr. Harper, are you sure that you +know just what my thought is?" + +"The time has not come for discussing that question. Let us defer it. +There is a fact to be settled first." + +"Whether the girl--" + +"No; this! Whether your wife could have jumped from her window to the +balcony, as Anitra said. It did not look feasible from below, but as I +then remarked to you, our opinion may change when we consider it from +above. Will you go up-stairs with me to your wife's room?" + +"I will go anywhere and do anything you please, so that we learn the +exact truth. But spare me the curiosity of these people. The crowd on +this side is increasing." + +"We will go in by the kitchen door. Some one there will show us the way +up-stairs." + +And in this manner they entered; not escaping entirely all curious looks, +for human nature is human nature, whether in the kitchen or parlor. + +In the hall above Mr. Ransom took the precedence. As they neared the +fatal room he motioned the lawyer to wait till he could ascertain if Miss +Hazen would be disturbed by their intrusion. The door, which had been +broken in between the two rooms, could not have been put back very +securely, and he dreaded incommoding her. He was gone but a minute. +Almost as soon as the lawyer started to follow him, he could be seen +beckoning from poor Georgian's door. + +"Miss Hazen is asleep," whispered Ransom, as the other drew near. "We can +look about this room with impunity." + +They both entered and the lawyer crossed at once to the window. + +"Your wife could never have taken the leap ascribed to her by the woman +you call Anitra," he declared, after a minute's careful scrutiny of the +conditions. "The balustrade of the adjoining balcony is not only in the +way, but the distance is at least five feet from the extreme end of this +window-ledge. A woman accustomed to a life of adventure or to the feats +of a gymnasium might do it, but not a lady of Mrs. Ransom's habits. If +your wife made her way from this room to the balcony outside her sister's +window, she did it by means of the communicating door." + +"But the door was found locked on this side. There is the key in the lock +now." + +"You are sure of this?" + +"I was the first one to call attention to it." + +"Then," began the lawyer judicially, but stopped as he noted the peculiar +eagerness of Ransom's expression, and turned his attention instead to the +interior of the room and the various articles belonging to Mrs. Ransom +which were to be seen in it. "The dress your wife wore when she signed +her will," he remarked, pointing to the light green gown hanging on the +inside of the door by which they had entered. + +Ransom stepped up to it, but did not touch it. He could see her as she +looked in this gown in her memorable passage through the hall the evening +before, and, recalling her expression, wondered if they yet understood +the nature of her purpose and the determination which gave it such +extraordinary vigor. + +Mr. Harper called his attention to two other articles of dress hanging in +another part of the room. These were her long gray rain-coat and the hat +and veil she had worn on the train. + +"She went out bare-headed and in the plain serge dress in which she +arrived," remarked Mr. Harper with a side glance at Ransom. "I wonder if +the girl met on the highway was without hat and dressed in black serge." + +Ransom was silent. + +"Anitra's hat is below and here is Mrs. Ransom's. She who escaped from +this house last night went out bare-headed," repeated the lawyer. + +Mr. Ransom, moving aside to avoid the probing of the other's eye, merely +remarked: + +"You noticed my wife's dress very particularly it seems. It was of serge, +you say." + +"Yes. I am learned in stuffs. I remarked it when she got into the coach, +possibly because I was struck by its simplicity and conventional make. +There was no trimming on the bottom, only stitching. Her sister's was +just like it. They had the look of being ready-made." + +"But Anitra had no rain-coat. I remember that her shoulders were wet when +she came in from the lane." + +"No, she had no protection but her blouse, black like her dress. I +presume that her hot blood resented every kind of wrap." + +Again that sidelong glance from his keen eye. "She wore a checked silk +handkerchief about her neck--the one she afterwards put over her head." + +"You were on the same train with my wife and sister-in-law," Ransom now +said. "Did you sit near them? Converse with them, that is, with Mrs. +Ransom?" + +"I have no reason for deceiving you in that regard," replied Mr. Harper. +"I did not come up from New York on the same train they did. They must +have come up in the morning, for when I arrived at the place they call +the Ferry, I saw them standing on the hotel steps ready to step into the +coach. I spoke to Mrs. Ransom then, but only a word. My grip-sack had +been put under the driver's seat, and I saw that I was expected to ride +with him, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather. Mrs. Ransom saw +it too and possibly my natural hesitation, for she turned to me after she +had seen her sister safely ensconced inside, and said something about her +regret at having subjected me to such inconvenience, but did not offer to +make room for me in the body of the coach, though there was room enough +if the other had been the quiet lady she was herself. But she was not, +and possibly this was Mrs. Ransom's excuse for her apparent lack of +consideration for me. Before we reached the point where the lane cuts in, +I became aware of some disturbance behind me, and when we really got +there, I heard first the coach door opening, then your wife's voice, +raised in entreaty to the driver, calling on him to stop before her +sister jumped out and hurt herself. 'She is deaf and very wild' was all +the explanation she gave after Miss Hazen had leaped into the wet road +and darted from sight into what looked to me, in the darkness, like a +tangled mass of bushes. Then she said something about her having had +hard work to keep her still till we got this far; but that she was sure +she would find her way to the hotel, and that we mustn't bother ourselves +about it for she wasn't going to; Anitra and she had run this road too +many times when they were children. That is all I have to tell of my +intercourse with these ladies prior to our appearance at the hotel. I +think it right for me to clear the slate, Ransom. Who knows what we may +wish to write upon it next?" + +A slight shiver on Ransom's part was the sole answer he gave to this +innuendo; then both settled themselves to work, the eyes of either +flashing hither and thither from one small object to another, in this +seemingly deserted room. In the momentary silence which followed, the +even breathing of the woman in the adjoining room could be distinctly +heard. It seemed to affect Mr. Ransom deeply, though he strove hard to +maintain the business-like attitude he had assumed from the beginning +of this unofficial examination. + +"She has confided nothing more to you since your return from the river +bank?" suggested the lawyer. + +"No." + +The word came sharply, considering Mr. Ransom's usual manner. The lawyer +showed surprise but no resentment, and turned his attention to the bag +both had noted lying open on two chairs. + +"Nothing equivocal here," he declared, after a moment's careful scrutiny +of its remaining contents. "The only comment I should make in regard to +what I find here is that all the articles are less carefully chosen than +you would expect from one of your wife's fondness for fine appointments." + +"They were collected in a hurry and possibly by telephone," returned the +unhappy husband, after a shrinking glance into the bag. "The ones she +provided in anticipation of her wedding are at the hotel in New York. In +the trunks and bags there you will find articles as elegant as you could +wish." Here he turned to the dresser, and pointed to the various objects +grouped upon it. + +"These show that she arranged herself with care for her meeting with you +last night. How did she appear at that interview? Natural?" + +"Hardly; she was much too excited. But I had no suspicion of what she +was cherishing in her mind. I thought her intentions whimsical, and +endeavored to edge in a little advice, but she was in no mood to receive +it. Her mind was too full of what she intended to do. + +"Here's where she ate her supper," he added, picking up a morsel of crust +from a table set against the wall. "And so this door was found fastened +on this side?" he proceeded, laying his hand on the broken lock. + +"It had to be burst open, you see." + +"And the window?" + +"Was up. The carpet, as you can tell by look and feeling, is still wet +with the soaking it got." + +Mr. Harper's air changed to one of reluctant conviction. + +"The evidence seems conclusive of your wife having left this room and the +house in the remarkable manner stated by Miss Hazen. Yet--" + +This _yet_ showed that he was not as thoroughly convinced as the first +phrase would show. But he added nothing to it; only stood listening, +apparently to the even breathing of the sleeper on the other side of this +loosely hanging door. + +As he did so, his eye encountered the hot, dry gaze of Mr. Ransom, fixed +upon him in a suspense too cruel to prolong, and with a sudden change of +manner he moved from the door, saying significantly as he led the way +out: + +"Let us have a word or two in your own room. It is a principle of mine +not to trust even the ears of the deaf with what it is desirable to keep +secret." + +Had the glance with which he said this lingered a moment longer on his +companion's face, he would undoubtedly have been startled at the effect +of his own words. But being at heart a compassionate man, or possibly +understanding his new client much better than that client supposed, he +had turned quite away in crossing the threshold, and so missed the +conscious flash which for a moment replaced the somber and feverish +expression that had already aged by ten years the formerly open features +of this deeply grieved man. + +Once in the hall, it was too dark to note further niceties of expression, +and by the time Mr. Ransom's room was reached, purpose and purpose only +remained visible in either face. + +As they were crossing the threshold, the lawyer wheeled about and cast a +quick look behind him. + +"I observe," said he, "that you have a full and unobstructed view from +here of the whole hall and of the two doors where our interest is +centered. I presume you kept a strict watch on both last night. You let +nothing escape you?" + +"Nothing that one could see from this room." + +With a thoughtful air, the lawyer swung to the door behind them. As it +latched, the face of Mr. Ransom sharpened. He even put out a hand and +rested it on a table standing near, as if to support himself in +anticipation of what the lawyer would say now that they were again +closeted together. + +Mr. Harper was not without his reasons for a corresponding agitation, but +he naturally controlled himself better, and it was with almost a judicial +air that he made this long-expected but long-deferred suggestion: + +"You had better tell me now, and as explicitly as possible, just what is +in your mind. It will prevent all misunderstanding between us, as well as +any injudicious move on my part." + +Mr. Ransom hesitated, leaning hard on the table; then, with a sudden +burst, he exclaimed: + +"It sounds like folly, and you may think that my troubles have driven me +mad. But I have a feeling here--a feeling without any reason or proof to +back it--that the woman now sleeping off her exhaustion in Anitra's room +is the woman I courted and married--Georgian Hazen, now Georgian Ransom, +my wife." + +"Good! I have made no mistake. That is my thought, too," responded the +lawyer. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ANITRA + + +A few minutes later they were discussing this amazing possibility. + +"I have no reason for this conclusion,--this hope," admitted Mr. Ransom. +"It is instinct with me, an intuition, and not the result of my judgment. +It came to me when she first addressed me down by the mill-stream. If you +consider me either wrong or misled, I confess that I shall not be able to +combat your decision with any argument plausible enough to hold your +attention for a moment." + +"But I don't consider you either wrong or misled," protested the other. +"That is," he warily added, "I am ready to accept the correctness of the +possibility you mention and afterwards to note where the supposition will +lead us. Of course, your first sensation is that of relief." + +"It will be when I am no longer the prey of doubts." + +"Notwithstanding the mystery?" + +"Notwithstanding the mystery. The one thing I have found it impossible to +contemplate is her death;--the extinction of all hope which death alone +can bring. She has become so blended with my every thought since the hour +she vanished from my eyes and consequently from my protection, that I +should lose the better part of my self in losing her. Anything but that, +Mr. Harper." + +"Even possible shame?" + +"How, shame?" + +"Some reason very strong and very vital must underlie her conduct if what +we suspect is true, and she has not only been willing to subject you and +herself to a seeming separation by death, but to burden herself with the +additional misery of being obliged to assume a personality cumbered by +such a drawback to happiness and even common social intercourse as this +of the supposed Anitra." + +"You mean her deafness?" + +"I mean that, yes. What could Mrs. Ransom's motive be (if the woman +sleeping yonder is Mrs. Ransom) for so tremendous a sacrifice as this you +ascribe to her? The rescue of her sister from some impending calamity? +That would argue a love of long standing and of superhuman force; one far +transcending even her natural affection for the husband to whom she has +just given her hand. Such a love under such circumstances is not +possible. She has known this long lost sister for a few days only. Her +sense of duty towards her, even her compassion for one so unfortunate, +might lead her to risk much, but not so much as that. You must look for +some other explanation; one more reasonable and much more personal." + +"Where? where? I'm all at sea; blinded, dazed, almost at my wits' end. I +can see no reason for anything she has done. I neither understand her nor +understand myself. I ought to shrink from the poor creature there, +sleeping off--I don't know what. But I don't. I feel drawn to her, +instead, irresistibly drawn, as if my place were at her bedside to +comfort and protect." + +At this impulsive assertion springing from a depth of feeling for which +the staid lawyer had no measure, a perplexed frown chased all the +urbanity from his face. Some thought, not altogether welcome, had come to +disturb him. He eyed Mr. Ransom closely from under his clouded brows. He +could do this now with impunity, for Mr. Ransom's glances were turned +whither his thoughts and inclinations had wandered. + +"I would advise you," came in slow comment from the watchful lawyer, "not +to be too certain of your conclusions till doubt becomes an absolute +impossibility. Instinct is a good thing but it must never be regarded as +infallible. It may be proved that it is your wife who has fled, after +all. In which case it would be a great mistake to put any faith in this +gipsy girl, Anitra." + +Mr. Ransom's face hardened; his eyes did not leave the direction in which +they were set. + +"I will remember," said he. + +His companion did not appear satisfied, and continued emphatically: + +"Whether the woman now here is Mrs. Ransom or her wild and irresponsible +sister, she is a person of dangerous will and one not to be lightly +regarded nor carelessly dealt with. Pray consider this, Mr. Ransom, and +do not allow impulse to supersede judgment. If you will take my advice--" + +"Speak." + +"I should treat her as if she were the woman she calls herself, or, at +least, as if you thought her so. Nothing--" this word he repeated as he +noted the incredulity with which the other listened--"would be so likely +to make her betray herself as that." + +"Let us go back and listen again at her door," was Mr. Ransom's emphatic +but inconsequent reply. + +The lawyer desisted from further advice, but sighed as he followed his +new client into the hall. At the turn of the staircase they were stopped +by the sound of wrangling voices in the office below. Mr. Harper heard +his name mentioned and hastened to interfere. Assuring Mr. Ransom of his +speedy return, he stepped down-stairs, and in a few minutes reappeared +with a middle-aged man of characteristic appearance, whom he introduced +to Mr. Ransom as Mr. Goodenough. The sight of the uncouth head of their +youthful acquaintance of the morning peering up after him from the foot +of the stairs was warranty sufficient that this was the man who had met +the strange young lady on the highway early that morning. + +At sight of him Mr. Ransom felt that inner recoil which we all experience +at the prospect of an immediate and definite termination of a long +brooding doubt. In another instant and with one word this uncultured and +hitherto unknown man would settle for him the greatest question of his +life. And he did not feel prepared for it. He had an impulse almost of +flight, as if in this way he could escape a certainty he feared. What +certainty? Perhaps he could not have answered had he been asked. His mind +was in a turmoil. He had feelings--instincts; that was all. + +The lawyer, noting his condition, undertook the leadership of affairs. +Beckoning Mr. Goodenough into Mr. Ransom's room, he softly closed the +door upon the many inquiring ears about, and, assuming the manner most +likely to encourage the unsophisticated but straightforward looking man +with whom he had to deal, quietly observed: + +"We hear that you met this morning a young girl going towards the Ferry. +There is great reason why we should know just how this young girl looks. +A lady disappeared from here last night, and though, from a letter she +left behind her, we have every reason to believe that her body is +somewhere in the river, yet we don't want to overlook the possibility +of her having escaped alive in another direction. Can you describe the +person you saw?" + +"Wa'al, I'm not much good at talk," was the embarrassed, almost halting +reply. "I saw the gal and I remember just how she looked, but I couldn't +put it into words to save my soul. She was pretty and chipper and walked +along as if she was part of the mornin'; but that don't tell you much, +does it? Yet I don't know what else to say. P'raps you could help me +by asking questions." + +"We'll see. Was she light-complexioned? Yellow hair, you know, and blue +eyes?" + +"No; I don't think she was. Not what I call light. My Sal's light; this +gal wasn't like my Sal." + +"Dark, then, very dark, with a gipsy color and snapping black eyes?" + +"No, not that either. What I should call betweens. But more dark than +light." + +Harper flashed a glance at Ransom before putting his next question. + +"What did she have on her head?" + +"Bless me if I can tell! It wasn't a sun-bonnet, nor was it slapped all +over with ribbons and flowers like my darter's." + +"But she had some sort of hat on?" + +"Sartain. Did you think she was just running to the neighbors?" + +"But she wore no coat?" + +"I don't remember any coat." + +"Do you remember her frock?" + +"No, not exactly." + +"Don't you remember its color?" + +"No." + +"Wasn't it black? the skirt of it, at least?" + +"Black? Wa'al, I guess not. A gal of her age in black! No, she was as +bright as the flowers in my wife's garden. Not a black thing on her. I +should sooner think her clothes were red than black." + +Harper showed his surprise. + +"Not a black skirt?" he persisted. + +"No, sir'ee. I haven't much eye for fixin's but I've eye enough to know +when a gal's dressed like a gal and not like some old woman." + +Harper's eye stole again towards Ransom. + +"Checkmate in four moves," he muttered. "The person we are interested in +could have worn no such clothing as Mr. Goodenough describes. Yet +clothing can be changed. How, I cannot see in this instance; but I will +risk no mistake. The trail we followed led too surely in the direction of +the highway for us to drop all inquiries because of a colored skirt and a +hat we cannot quite account for. If the face is one we know (and I +really believe it was), we can leave the other discrepancies to future +explanation." And turning back to the patient countryman, he composedly +remarked: "You are positive in your recollections of the young lady's +features. You would have no difficulty in recognizing her if you saw her +again?" + +"Not a bit. Once I get a picter in my mind of a man or a woman I see it +always. And I can see her as plain as plain the moment I stop to think. +She was pretty, you see, and just a little scared to speak to a stranger. +But that went as she saw my face, and she asked me very perlite if she +was on the right road to the Ferry." + +"And you told her she was?" + +"Sartain; and how much time she had to get there to catch the boat." + +"I see. So you would know her again if you saw her." + +"I jest would." + +The lawyer made a move towards the door which Mr. Ransom hastened to +open. As the long vista of the hall disclosed itself, Mr. Harper turned +upon the countryman with the quiet remark: + +"There were two ladies here, you know. Twins. Their likeness was +remarkable. If we show you the remaining one who now lies asleep, you +surely will be able to tell if she is like the lady you saw." + +"If she looks just like her you can bet beans against potatoes on that." + +"Come, then. You needn't feel any embarrassment, for she's not only sound +asleep but so deaf she couldn't hear you if she were awake. You need only +take one glance and nod your head if she looks like the other. It is very +desirable that none of us should speak. The case is a mysterious one and +there's enough talk about it already without the women hiding and +listening behind every shut door you see, adding their gossip to the +rest." + +A knowing look, a twitch at the corners of a good-natured mouth, and the +man followed them down the hall, past one or two of the doors alluded to, +till they reached the one against the panel of which Mr. Ransom had +already laid his ear. + +"Still asleep," his gesture seemed to signify; and with a word of caution +he led the way in. + +The room was very dark. Mrs. Deo had been careful to draw down the shade +when she put her strange charge to bed, and at this first moment of +entrance it was impossible for them to see more than the outline of a +dark head upon a snowy pillow. But gradually, feature by feature of the +sleeping woman's countenance became visible, and the lawyer, turning his +acute gaze on the man from whose recognition he expected so much, +impatiently awaited the nod which was to settle their doubt. + +But that nod did not come, not even after Mr. Ransom, astonished at the +long pause, turned on the stranger his own haggard and inquiring eyes. +Instead, Mr. Goodenough lifted a blank stare to either face beside him, +and, shaking his head, stumbled awkwardly back in an endeavor to leave +the room. Mr. Ransom, taken wholly by surprise, uttered some peremptory +ejaculation, but a glance from the lawyer quieted him, and not till they +were all shut up again in that convenient room at the head of the stairs +did any of the three speak. + +And not even then without an embarrassed pause. Both the lawyer and his +unhappy client had a deep and, in the case of the latter, a heartrending +disappointment to overcome, and the clock on the stairs ticked out +several seconds before the lawyer ventured to remark: + +"Miss Hazen's face is quite new to you, I perceive. Evidently it was not +her twin sister you met on the high road this morning." + +"Nor anything like her," protested the man. "A different face entirely; +prettier and more saucy. Such a gal as a man like me would be glad to +call darter." + +"Oh, I see!" assented the lawyer. Then with the instinctive caution of +his class, "You have made no mistake?" + +"Not a bit of a one," emphasized the other. "Sorry I can't give the +gentleman any hope, but if the sisters look alike, it was not this +woman's twin I met. I'm ready to take my oath on that." + +"Very well. One catches at straws in a stress like this. Here's a fiver +to pay for your trouble, and another for the lad who brought you here. +Good day. We had no sound reason for expecting any different result from +our experiment." + +The man bowed awkwardly and went out. Mr. Harper brought down his fist +heavily on the table, and after a short interval of silence, during which +he studiously avoided meeting his companion's eye, he remarked: + +"I am as much taken aback as yourself. For all he had to say about her +gay clothing, I expected a different result. The girl on the highway was +neither Mrs. Ransom nor her sister. We have made a confounded mistake and +Mrs. Ransom--" + +"Don't say it. I'm going back to the room where that woman lies sleeping. +I cannot yet believe that my heart is not shut up within its walls. I'm +going to watch for her eyes to open. Their expression will tell me what I +want to know;--the look one gives before full realization comes and the +soul is bare without any thought of subterfuge." + +"Very well. I should probably do the same if I were you. Only your +insight may be affected by prejudice. You will excuse me if I join you +in this watch. The experiment is of too important a character for its +results to depend upon the correct seeing of one pair of eyes." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +"LOVE!" + + +She lay in the abandonment of profound slumber, one hand under her cheek, +the other hidden by the white spread Mrs. Deo had been careful to draw +closely about her. Both Mr. Harper and Mr. Ransom regretted this fact, +for each instinctively felt that in her hands, if not in her sleeping +face, they should be able to read the story of her life. If that life had +been a hard one, such as must have befallen the waif, Anitra, her hands +should show it. + +But her hands were covered. And so, or nearly so, was her face; the +latter by her long and curling locks of whose beauty I have hitherto +spoken. One cheek only was visible, and this cheek looked dark to Ransom, +decidedly darker than Georgian's; but realizing that the room itself was +dark, he forbore to draw the attention of the lawyer to it, or even to +allow it to affect his own judgment to the extent it reasonably called +for. + +His first scrutiny over, Mr. Harper crossed over to his old seat against +the wall. Mr. Ransom remained by the bed. And thus began their watch. + +It was a long and solemn one; a tedious waiting. The gloom and quiet of +the small room was so profound that both men, for all their suspense and +absorption in the event they awaited, welcomed the sound of a passing +whisper or the careful stepping of feet in the corridor without. + +If they turned to look they could just catch the outline of each other's +countenance, but this they did not often attempt. Their attention was +held by the silent figure on the bed, and so motionless was this figure +in the profound slumber in which it lay enchained, and so motionless were +they in their increasing suspense and expectation, that time seemed to +have come to a standstill in this little room. There was one break. The +lips which had hitherto remained mute opened in a quiet murmur, and Mr. +Harper, watching his client, saw him clutch the headboard in sudden +emotion before he finally rose and, with looks still fixed on the bed, +approached him with the startling announcement: + +"The word she whispered was '_Love_'! It must be Georgian." + +Alas! the same thought struck them both. Was this a proof? Mr. Ransom +flushed hotly and crept softly back to his post. + +Again time seemed to stop. Then there came a cautious rap on the door, +followed by the hasty retreat of the person knocking. It caused Mr. +Ransom to stir slightly, but did not affect the lawyer. Suddenly the +former rose with every evidence of renewed agitation. This drew Mr. +Harper from his seat. + +"What is it?" he cried, softly approaching the other and whispering, +though after events proved that he might have spoken aloud with impunity. + +Mr. Ransom pointed to her temple from which her hair had just fallen +away. + +"The veining here. I have often studied it. I recognize its every +convolution. It is Georgian, Georgian who lies there--ah, she's stirring, +waking! Let me go--" + +He dragged himself from Mr. Harper's detaining hand, bent over the bed +and murmured softly but with the thrilling intensity of a suffering, +hoping heart, the name which at that moment meant the whole wide world +to him: + +"Georgian!" + +Would she greet this expression with recognition and a smile? The lawyer +half expected her to and stepped near enough to see, but the eyes which +had opened upon the white wall in front of her stared on, and when they +did turn, as they did after one halting, agonizing minute, it was in +response to some movement made by Mr. Ransom and not in reply to his +voice. + +This sudden and unexpected overthrow of his secretly cherished hopes +was terrible. As he saw her rise on one elbow and meet his gaze with +one which revealed the astonishment and resentment of a wild creature +suddenly entrapped, he felt, or so he afterwards declared, as if the +viper which had hitherto clung cold and deathlike about his heart had +suddenly sprung to life and stung him. It was the most uncanny moment +of his life. + +Aghast at the effect of this upon his own mind, he reeled from the room, +followed by the lawyer. As they passed down the hall they heard her voice +raised to a scream in uncontrollable shame and indignation. This was +followed by the snap of her key in the lock. + +They had made a great mistake, or so the lawyer decided when they again +stood face to face in Mr. Ransom's room. That the latter made no +immediate answer was no proof that he did not coincide in the other's +opinion. Indeed it was only too evident that he did, for his first words, +when he had controlled himself sufficiently to speak, were these: + +"I should have taken your advice. In future I will. To me she is +henceforth Anitra, and I shall treat her as my wife's sister. Watch if +I fail. Anitra! Anitra!" He reiterated the word as if he would fix it in +his mind as well as accustom his lips to it. Then he wheeled about and +faced Harper, whose eyes he doubtless felt on him. "Yet I am not so +thoroughly convinced as to feel absolute peace here," he admitted, +striking his breast with irrepressible passion. "My good sense tells me +I am a fool, but my heart whispers that the sweetness in her sleeping +face was the sweetness which won me to love Georgian Hazen. That gentle +sweetness! Did you note it?" + +"Yes, I noted what you mention. But don't let that influence you too +much. The wildest heart has its tender moments, and her dreams may have +been pleasant ones." + +Mr. Ransom remembered her unconscious whisper and felt stunned, silenced. +The lawyer gave no evidence of observing this, but remarked quite easily +and with evident sincerity: + +"I am more readily affected by proof than you are. I am quite convinced +myself, that our wits have been wool-gathering. There was no mistaking +her look of outraged womanhood. It was not your wife who encountered your +look, but the deaf Anitra. Of course, you won't believe me. Yet I advise +you to do so. It would be too dreadful to find that this woman really is +your wife." + +"_What?_" + +"I know what I am saying. Nothing much worse could happen to you. Don't +you see where the hypothesis to which you persist in clinging would land +you? Should the woman in there prove to be your wife Georgian--" The +lawyer stopped and, in a tone the seriousness of which could not fail to +impress his agitated hearer, added quietly, "you remember what I said to +you a short time ago about _guilt_." + +"Guilt!" + +"No, the word was shame. But guilt better expresses my meaning. I repeat, +should the woman prove to be, not the lovely but ignorant girl she +appears, but Georgian Ransom, your wife, then upon her must fall the +onus of Anitra's disappearance if not of her possible death. No! you must +hear me out; the time has come for plain speaking. Your wife had her +reasons--we do not know what they were, but they were no common ones--for +wishing this intrusive sister out of the way. Anitra, on the contrary, +could have desired nothing so much as the preservation of her protector. +The conclusion is not an agreeable one. Let us hope that the question it +involves will never be presented for any man's consideration." + +Mr. Ransom sank speechless into a chair. This last blow was an +overwhelming one and he sank before it. + +Mr. Harper altered his tone. He had real commiseration for his client and +had provided himself with an antidote to the poison he had just so +ruthlessly administered. + +"Courage!" he cried. "I only wished you to see that there were worse +losses to consider than that of your wife's desertion, even if that +desertion took the form of suicide. There is a reason which you have +forgotten for acquitting Mrs. Ransom of such criminal intentions and +of accepting as your sister-in-law the woman who calls herself Anitra. +Recall Mrs. Ransom's will; the general terms of which I felt myself +justified in confiding to you. In it there are no provisions made for +this Anitra. Had Mrs. Ransom, for any inexplicable reason, planned an +exchange of identities with her sorely afflicted sister, she would have +been careful to have left that sister some portion of her great fortune. +But she did not remember her with a cent. This fact is very significant +and should give you great comfort." + +"It should, it should, in face of the other alternative you have +suggested as possible. But I fear that I am past comfort. In whatever +light we regard this tragedy, it all means woe and disaster to me. I have +made a mess of my life and I have got to face the fact like a man." Then +rising and confronting Mr. Harper with passionate intensity, he called +out till the room rang again: + +"Georgian is dead! You hear me, Georgian is dead!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +"I DON'T HEAR" + + +The afternoon passed without further developments. Mr. Harper, who had +his own imperative engagements, left on the evening train for New York, +promising to return the next day in case his presence seemed +indispensable to his client. + +That client's final word to him had been an injunction to keep an eye on +Georgian's so-called brother and to report how he had been affected by +the news from Sitford; and when, in the lull following the lawyer's +departure, Mr. Ransom sat down in his room to look his own position +resolutely in the face, this brother and his possible connection with the +confusing and unhappy incidents of this last fatal week regained that +prominent place in his thoughts which the doubts engendered by the +unusual character of these incidents had for a while dispelled. + +What had been the hold of this strange and uncongenial man on Georgian? +And was his reappearance at the same time with that of a supposedly long +deceased sister simply a coincidence so startling as to appear unreal? + +He had not seen Anitra again and did not propose to, unless the meeting +came about in a natural way and without any show of desire on his part. +If any suspicion had been awakened in the house by his peculiar conduct +in the morning, he meant it to be speedily dissipated by the careful way +in which he now held to his rôle of despairing husband whose only +interest in the girl left on his hands was the dutiful one of a reluctant +brother-in-law, who doubts the kindly feelings of his strange and +unwelcome charge. + +The landlady, with a delicacy he highly appreciated, cared for the young +girl without making her conspicuous by any undue attention. No tidings +had come in of any discovery in the mill-stream or in the river into +which it ran, and there being nothing with which to feed gossip, the +townsfolk who had gathered about the hotel porches gradually began to +disperse, till only a few of the most persistent remained to keep up +conversation till midnight. + +Finally these too left and the house sank into quiet, a quiet which +remained unbroken all night; for everybody, even poor Mr. Ransom, slept. + +He was up, however, with the first beam entering his room. How could he +tell but that news of a definite and encouraging nature awaited him? Some +one might have come in early from town or river. All search had not been +abandoned. There were certain persistent ones who had gone as far as +Beardsley's. Some of these might have returned. He would hasten down and +see. But it was only to find the office empty, and though the household +presently awoke and the great front door was thrown open to all comers, +no eager straggler came rushing in with the tidings he equally longed and +dreaded to receive. + +At half-past ten the representative of the county police called on Mr. +Ransom, but with small result. Shortly after his departure, the mail +came in and with it the New York papers. These he read with avidity. But +they added nothing to his knowledge. Georgian's death was accepted as +a fact, and the peculiarities of their history since their unfortunate +wedding-day were laid bare with but little consideration for his feelings +or the good name of his bride. With a sorer heart than ever, he flung the +papers from him and went out to gather strength in the open air. + +There was a corner of the veranda into which he had never ventured. It +was likely to be a solitary one at this hour, and thither he now went. +But a shock awaited him there. A lady was pacing its still damp boards. +A lady who did not turn her head at his step, but whom he instantly +recognized from her dress, and wilful but not ungraceful bearing, as her +whom he was determined to call, nay recognize, as Anitra Hazen. + +His judgment counseled retreat, but the fascination of her presence held +him, and in that moment of hesitation she turned towards him and flight +became impossible. + +It was the first opportunity he had had of observing her features in +broad daylight. The effect was a confused one. She was Georgian and she +was not Georgian. Her skin was decidedly darker, her eyes more lustrous, +her bearing less polished and at the same time more impassioned. She was +not so tall or quite so elegantly proportioned;--or was it her rude +method of dressing her hair and the awkward cut of her clothes which made +the difference. He could not be sure. Resolved as he was to consider her +Anitra, and excellent as his reasons were for doing so, the swelling of +his heart as he met her eye roused again the old doubt and gave an +unnatural tone to his voice as he advanced towards her with an impetuous +utterance of her name: + +"Anitra!" + +She shrunk, not at the word but at his movement, which undoubtedly was +abrupt; but immediately recovered herself and, meeting him half-way, +cried out in the unnaturally loud tones of the very deaf: + +"They don't bring my sister back. She is drowned, drowned. But you still +have Anitra," she exclaimed in child-like triumph. "Anitra will be good +to you. Don't forsake the poor girl. She will go where you go and be very +obedient and not get angry ever again." + +He felt his hair rise. Something in her look, something in her manner of +making evident the indefinable barrier between them even while expressing +her desire to accompany him, made such a disturbance in his brain that +for the moment he no longer knew himself, nor her, nor the condition of +things about him. If she saw the effect she produced, she gave no +evidence of it. She had begun to smile and her smile transformed her. The +wild look which was never long out of her eyes softened into a milder +gleam, and dimples he had been accustomed to see around lips he had +kissed and called the sweetest in the world flashed for a moment in the +face before him with a story of love he dared not read, yet found it +impossible to forget or see unmoved. + +"What trial is this into which my unhappy fate has plunged me!" thought +he. "Can reason stand it? Can I see this woman daily, hourly, and not go +mad between my doubts and my love?" + +His face had turned so stern that even she noticed it, and in a trice the +offending dimples disappeared. + +"You are angry," she pouted. "You don't want Anitra. Nod if it is so, nod +and I will go away." + +He did not nod; he could not. She seemed to gather courage at this, and +though she did not smile again, she gave him a happy look as she said: + +"I have no home now, nor any friend since sister has gone. I don't want +any if I can stay with you and learn things. I want to be like sister. +She was nice and wore pretty clothes. She gave me some, but I don't know +where they are. I don't like this dress. It's black and all bad round the +bottom where I fell into the mud." + +She looked down at her dress. It showed, in spite of Mrs. Deo's effort at +cleaning it, signs of her tramp through the wet lane. He looked at it +too, but it was mechanically. He was debating in his mind a formidable +question. Should he grasp her hand, insist that she was Georgian and +demand her confidence and the truth? or should he follow the lawyer's +advice and continue to accept appearances, meet her on her own ground and +give her the answer called for by her lonely and forsaken position? He +found after a moment's thought that he had no choice; that he could not +do the first and must do the last. + +"You shall come with me," said he quietly. "I will see that you have +every suitable protection and care." + +She surveyed him with the same unmoved inquiry burning in her eyes. + +"I don't hear," said she. + +He looked at her, his lips set, his eyes as inquiring as her own. + +"I don't believe it," he muttered just above his breath. + +The steady stare of her eyes never faltered. + +"You loved sister, love me," she whispered. + +He fell back from her. This was not Georgian. This was the untutored girl +about whom Georgian had written to him. Everything proved it, even her +hands upon which his eyes now fell. Why had he not noticed them before? +He had meant to look at them the first thing. Now that he did, he saw +that he might have spared himself some of the miserable uncertainties of +the last few minutes. They were small and slight like Georgian's, but +very brown and only half cared for. That they were cared for at all +astonished him. But she soon explained that. Seeing where his eyes were +fixed, she cried out: + +"Don't look at my hands. I know they are not real nice like sister's. But +I'm learning. She showed me how to rub them white and cut the nails. A +woman did it for me the first time and I've been doing it ever since, but +they don't look like hers, for all the pretty rings she bought me. Was I +foolish to want the rings? I always had rings when I was with the +gipsies. They were not gold ones, but I liked them. And Mother Duda liked +rings too and made me one once out of beads. It was on my finger when my +sister took me home with her. That is why she brought me these. She +didn't think the bead one was good enough. It wasn't much like hers." + +Ransom recalled the diamonds and the rich sapphires he had been +accustomed to see on his bride's hand. + +But this did not engage him long. Some method of communication must be +found with this girl, which could be both definite and unmistakable. +Feeling in his pocket, he brought out pencil and a small pad. He would +write what he had to say, and was hesitating over the words with which to +open this communication, when he saw her hand thrust itself between his +eyes and the pad, and heard these words uttered in a resolute tone, but +not without a hint of sadness: + +"I cannot read. I have never been taught." + + + + +PART III + +Money + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +GOD'S FOREST, THEN MAN'S + + +The pencil and pad fell from Mr. Ransom's hands. He stared at the girl +who had made this astonishing statement, and his brain whirled. + +As for her, she simply stooped and picked up the pad. + +"You feel badly about that," said she. "You want me to read. I'll learn. +That will make me more like sister. But I know some things now. I know +what you are thinking about. You are curious about my life, what it has +been and what kind of a girl I am. I'll tell you. I can talk if I cannot +hear. I heard up to two years ago. Shall I talk now? Shall I tell you +what I told Georgian when she found me crying in the street and took me +home to her house?" + +He nodded blindly. + +With a smile as beautiful as Georgian's--for a moment he thought more +beautiful--she drew him to a seat. She was all fire and purpose now. The +spark of intelligence which was not always visible in her eye burned +brightly. She would have looked lovely even to a stranger, but he was not +thinking of her looks, only of the hopelessness of the situation, its +difficulties and possibly its perils. + +"I don't remember all that has happened to me," she began, speaking very +fast. "I never tried to remember, when I was little; I just lived, and +ran wild in the roads and woods like the weasels and the chipmunks. The +gipsies were good to me. I had not a cross word in years. The wife of the +king was my friend, and all I knew I learned from her. It was not much, +but it helped me to live in the forest and be happy, as long as I was a +little girl. When I grew up it was different. It was the king who was +kind then, and the woman who was fierce. I didn't like his kindness, but +she didn't know this, for after one day when she caught him staring at me +across the fire, she sent me off after something she wanted in a small +town we were camping near, and when I came back with it, the band was +gone. I tried to follow, but it was dark and I didn't know the way; +besides I was afraid--afraid of him. So I crept back to the town and +slept in the straw of a barn I found open. Next day I sold my earrings +and got bread. It didn't last long and I tried to work, but that meant +sleeping under a roof, and houses smothered me, so I did my work badly +and was turned out. Then I sold my ring. It was my last trinket, and when +the few cents I got for it were gone, I wandered about hungry. This I was +used to and didn't mind at first, but at last I went to work again, and +I did better now for a little while, till one evening I saw, through the +stable window of the inn where I was working, two black eyes staring in +just as they stared across the dying embers of the gipsy camp. I did not +scream, but I hid myself, and when they were gone away stole out and +got on the cars, and gave the man my last dollar--all the money I had +earned--for a ride to New York. I did not know any better. I knew he +never went to New York, and I thought I would be safe from him there. But +of the difference between the woods and a forest of brick and stone I +never thought; of night with no shelter but the wall of some blind alley; +of hunger in the sight of food, and wild beasts in the shape of men. I +didn't know where to go or who to speak to. If any one stared at me long, +I turned and ran away. I ran away once from a policeman. He thought me a +thief, and started to run after me. But people slipped in between us and +I got away. What happened next I don't know. Perhaps I was thrown down, +perhaps I fell. I had come a long way and I was tired. When I did know +anything, I was lying on my back in a narrow street, looking up at a tall +building that seemed to go right up into the sky like the great rocks I +had sometimes slept under when I was with the gipsies. Only there were +windows in the rock, out of which looked faces, and I got looking back +at one of these faces and the face looked at me, and I liked it and got +up on my knees and held up my arms, and the face drew back out of sight, +and I felt very sorry and cried and almost laid down again. I seemed so +alone and hurt and hungry. But the children--there were crowds of +children--wouldn't let me. They got in a ring and pulled at me, and some +one cried: 'Big cheeks is coming! Big cheeks will eat her up,' and I was +angry and got up on my feet. But I couldn't walk; I screamed when I tried +to, which frightened the children, and they all ran away. But I didn't +fall; an arm was round me, a good, kind arm, and though I didn't see the +face of the woman who helped, for she had her head wrapped up in an old +shawl, I felt that it was the same which had looked out of the window +at me, and went willingly enough when she began to draw me toward the +house and up the first flight of stairs, though I could hardly help +screaming every time my foot touched the ground. At the top of the first +flight I stopped; I could go no further. The woman heard me pant, and +pushing the covering from her eyes, she turned my face towards the light +and looked at it. I thought she wanted to see if I was strong enough to +go on, but that wasn't it at all, for in a minute I heard her say, in a +voice so sweet I thought I had never heard the like, 'Yes, you're pretty; +I want a pretty girl to stay with me and go about selling my things. I +love pretty girls; I never was pretty myself. Will you stay with me if I +take you up to my room and take care of you? I'll be good to you, little +duckling, everybody about here will tell you that; everybody but the +children, they don't like me.' I moaned, but it was from happiness. It +seemed too good to hear that cooing voice in my ear. I thought of my +mother--a dream--and my arms went up as they had in the street below. 'I +will stay,' I said. She caught my hands and that is all I remember till I +found myself in bed, with my ankle bound up and a gentle hand smoothing +my hair. It was a month before I walked again. All the time this woman +tended me, but always from behind. I did not see her face--not well--only +by glimpses and then only partly, for the shawl was always over her head, +covering everything but her eyes and mouth. These were small, the +smallest I ever saw, little pig eyes, and little screwed up mouth; but +the look of them was kindly and that was all I cared about then; that and +her talk, which made me cry one minute and laugh the next. I have never +cried so much or laughed so much in my life as I did that one month. She +told such sad things and she told such funny ones. She made me glad to +see her come in and sorry to see her go out. She let no one else come +near me. I did not care; I liked her too well. I was never tired of +listening to her praises and she praised me a great deal. I even did not +mind sleeping under a roof as much as I had before, perhaps because we +were so near it; perhaps because the room was so full of all sorts of +things, I never got tired of looking at them. Pretty things she called +them, but when I saw more things, things outside in shop windows and the +houses I afterwards went into, I knew they were very cheap things and not +always pretty. But she thought they were, and used to talk about them by +the hour and tell me stories she had made up about the pictures she had +cut out of newspapers. And I learned something; I could not help it, and +even began to think a bit--something I had never done before. But when I +got on my feet again, and was given the choice of staying there all the +time, I did not know at first whether I wanted to or not. For Mother Duda +had been very honest with me, and the minute she found that I could walk +again had told me that I would have to have great patience if I lived +with her, and endure a very disagreeable sight. Then she pulled off her +shawl and I saw her as she was and almost screamed, she looked so horrid +to me, but I didn't quite, for her eyes wouldn't let me. They seemed to +ask me not to care, but to love her a little though she was a fright to +look at, and I tried but I couldn't, I could only keep from screaming. + +"She had a goitre; that is what she called it, and the great pocket of +flesh hanging down on either side of her neck frightened me. It +frightened everybody; she was used to that, but she said she loved me and +felt my fear more than she did others. Could I bear to live with her, +knowing what her shawl hid? If I could she would be good to me, but if I +couldn't she would do what she could to get me honest work in some other +place. I didn't answer at first, but I did before she had put her shawl +on again. I told her that I would forget everything but her good smile, +and stay with her a little while. I stayed three years, helping her by +going about and selling the tatting work she made. + +"She could make beautiful patterns and so neat, but she couldn't sell +them, on account of her awful appearance. So I was very useful to her, +and felt I was earning my meat and drink and the kind looks and words +which made them taste good. It taught me a lot, going around. I saw +people and how they lived and what was nice and what wasn't. I was only +sorry that Mother Duda couldn't go too. She loved pretty things so. But +she never went out except at a very early hour in the morning, so early +that it was still dark. It seemed a terrible hour to me, but she always +came in with a smile, and when one day I asked her why, she said, because +she saw so many other poor creatures out at this same hour, who were +worse to look at than she was. This didn't seem possible to me, and once +I went out with her to see. But I never went again. Such faces as we met; +such deformity--men who never showed themselves by day--women who loved +beauty and were hideous. We saw them on street corners--coming up cellar +steps, slinking in and out of blind alleys--never where it was light--and +they shrank from each other, but not from the policeman. They were not +afraid of his eye; they were used to him and he to them. After I had +passed a dozen such miserable creatures, I felt myself one of them and +never wanted to go out at this hour again. + +"Don't you believe this part of my story," she suddenly asked, looking up +into Mr. Ransom's troubled face? "Ask the policeman who tramps about +those streets every night; he'll tell you." + +The question on Ransom's lips died. What use of asking what she could not +hear. + +"I wish I knew what you were thinking," she now murmured softly, so +softly that he hardly caught the words. "But I never shall, I never +shall. I will tell you now how I became deaf," she promised after a +moment of wistful gazing. "Is there any one near? Can anybody hear me?" +she continued, with a suspicious look about her. + +He shook his head. It was the first movement he had made since she began +her story. + +This apparently reassured her, for she proceeded at once to say: + +"Mother Duda had never told me anything about herself. It scared me then +when one morning I found sitting at the breakfast table a man who she +said was her son. He was big and pale looking, and had a slight swelling +on one side of his neck which made me sick; but I tried to be polite, +though I did not like him at all and had a sudden feeling of having no +home any more. That was the first day. The next two were worse. For he +didn't hate me as I did him, and wouldn't leave the house while I was +there, saying he could not bear to be away from his mother. But he +skipped out quick enough after I was gone, so the neighbors said, and +sometimes I think he followed me. Mother Duda wasn't like her old self at +all. She loved him, he was her son, but she didn't like all he did. She +wanted him to work; he wouldn't work. He sat and stared at me as the +gipsy king used to stare, and if I grew red and hot it was from shame and +fear and horror of the great throat I saw growing from day to day, and +which would some time be like his mother's. He knew I didn't like him, +but he wasn't good like Mother Duda, and told me one day that he was +going to make me his wife, whether I wanted him to or not, and talked +about a great secret, and the big man he would be some day. This made me +angry, and I said that all the bigness he would ever have would be in his +neck. At which he struck me, right across the ear, hard, so hard that I +fell on the floor with a scream, and Mother Duda came running. He was +sorry then and threw down the thing he had in his hand; but the harm had +been done and I was sick a month and had doctors and awful pain, and when +I was well again I couldn't hear a sound with that ear. Hans wasn't there +while I was ill; I shouldn't have got well if he had been; but he came +back when I was up again and was very meek though he didn't stop looking +at me. I thought I would run away one day, and went out without my +basket, but after I had tried two whole days to get work and couldn't, I +went back. Mother Duda almost squeezed the heart out of me for joy, and +Hans went down on his knees and promised not to do or say anything more +that I didn't like. He even promised to go to work, but his work was of a +queer kind. It kept him in his little room and meant spending money, and +not getting it. Men came to see him and were locked up with him in his +little room. And if he went out, he locked the door and took the key +away, and said great times were coming and that I would be glad to marry +him some day, whether his neck was big or small. But I knew I shouldn't +and kept very close to Mother Duda and begged her to get me a new home, +and she promised and I was feeling happier, when one day Hans was called +out by a man and went away so fast that he forgot to lock his door, and +Mother Duda and I went into the room, and it was then that the thing +happened which spoiled all my life. I don't understand it. I never did, +for no one could tell me anything after that day. Mother Duda had gone +up to a table and was moving things about, trying to see what they were, +when everything turned black, the room shook, and I was whirling all +about, trying to take hold of things which seemed to be falling about me, +till I too fell. When I knew anything, there was lots of people looking +at me; people of the house, men, women, and children, but what was +strangest of all was the awful stillness. No one made any sound--nothing +made any sound, though I saw an old book-shelf tumble down from the wall +while I was looking, and people moved about and opened their lips and +seemed to be talking. Had Hans struck me again? I began to think so, and +got up from the floor where I was lying and tried to call out, but my +voice made no noise though people looked around as if it had, and I felt +an awful fright, not only for myself but for Mother Duda, who was being +carried out of the door by two men, and who did not move at all and who +never moved again. Poor Mother Duda, she was killed and I was deaf. I +knew it after a little while, but I don't know what did it; something +that Hans had; something that Mother Duda touched--a square something--I +had just caught a glimpse of it in Mother Duda's hand when the room flew +into a wreck and I became what I am now." + +"Dynamite," murmured Ransom; then paused and had a small struggle with +his heart, for she was looking up into his face, demanding sympathy with +Georgian's eyes; and being close together on the short seat, he could not +help but feel her shudders and share the intense excitement which choked +her. + +"Oh," she cried, as he laid his hand a moment on her arm and then took it +away again, "one minute to hear! the next to find the world all still, +always still,--a poor girl--not knowing how to read or write! But you +cannot care about that; you cannot care about me. It's sister you want +to hear about, how she came to find me; how we came here for new and +terrible things to happen; always for new and terrible things to happen +which I don't understand. + +"Hans never came back. All sorts of policemen came into the house, +doctors came, priests came, but no Hans. Mother Duda was buried, I rode +in a coach at the funeral, but still no Hans. The old life was over, and +when the food was all gone from the shelves, I took my little basket and +went out, not meaning to come back again. And I did not. I sold my basket +out; got a handful of pennies and went to the market to get something to +eat. Then I went into a park, where there were benches, and sat down to +rest. I did not know of any place to go to and began to cry, when a lady +stopped before me, and I looked up and saw myself. + +"I thought I was dreaming or had the fever again, as when I was sick with +my ear, and I thought it was myself as I would look in heaven, for she +had such beautiful clothes on and looked so happy. But when she talked, I +could see her lips move and I couldn't hear; and I knew that I was just +in the park with my empty basket and my onion and bread, and that the +lady was a lady and no one I knew, only so like what I had seen of myself +in the glass that I was shaking all over, and she was shaking all over, +and neither of us could look away. And still her lips moved, and seeing +her at last look frightened and angry that I didn't answer, I spoke and +said that I was deaf; that I was very sorry that I couldn't hear because +we looked so much alike, though she was a great lady and I was a very, +very poor girl who hadn't any home or any friends, or anything to wear or +eat but what she saw. At this her eyes grew bigger even than before, and +she tried to talk some more, and when I shook my head she took hold of my +arm and began drawing me away, and I went and we got on the cars, and she +took me to a house and into a room where she took away my basket and put +me in a chair, and took off first her hat, then my own, and showed me the +two heads in a glass, and then looked at me so hard that I cried out, +'Sister,' which made her jump up and put her hand on her heart, then look +at me again harder and harder, till I remembered way back in my life, and +I said: + +"'When I was a little girl I had a sister they called my twin. That was +before I lived in the woods with the gipsies. Are you that sister grown +up? The place where we played together had a tall fence with points at +the top. There were flowers and there were bushes with currants on them +all round the fence.' + +"She made a sudden move, and I felt her arms about my neck. I think she +cried a little. I didn't, I was too glad. I knew she was that sister the +moment our faces touched, and I knew she would care for me, and that I +needn't go back into the streets any more. So I kissed her and talked a +good deal and told her what I've been telling, and she tried to answer, +tried as you did to write, but all I could understand was that she meant +to keep me, but not in the place where we were, and that I was to go out +again. But she fixed me up a little before we went out, and she bought +me some things, so that I looked different. Then we went into another +house, where she talked with a woman for a long time, and then sat down +with me and moved her lips very patiently, motioning me to watch and try +to understand. But I was frightened and couldn't. So she gave up and, +kissing me, made motions with her hands which I understood better; she +wanted me to stay there while she went away, and I promised to if she +would come back soon. At this she took out her watch. I was pleased with +the watch, and she let me look at it, and inside against the cover I saw +a picture. You know whose it was." + +The depths to which her voice sank, the trembling of her tones, startled +Ransom. Had she been less unfortunate, he would have moved to a different +seat, but he could not show her a discourtesy after so pitiful a tale. +But the nod he gave her was a grave one, and her cheek flushed and her +head fell, as she softly added: "It was the first time I ever saw a face +I liked--you won't mind my saying so,--and I wanted to keep the watch, +but sister carried it away. She didn't tell me what it meant, her having +your picture where she could see it all the time, but when she came again +she made me know that you and she were married, by pointing at the +picture and then throwing something white over her head; I didn't ask for +the watch after that, but--" + +A far-away look, a trembling of her whole body, finished this ingenuous +confession. Ransom edged himself away and then was sorry for it, for her +lip quivered and her hands, from being quiet, began that nervous +interlacing of the fingers which bespeaks mental perturbation. + +"I am very ignorant," she faltered; "perhaps I have said something wrong. +I don't mean to, I want to be a good girl and please you, so that you +won't send me away now sister is gone. Ah, I know what you want," she +suddenly broke out, as he seized her by the arm and looked inquiringly at +her. "You want me to tell why I jumped out of the carriage that night and +vexed Georgian and was naughty and wouldn't speak to her. I can't, I +can't. You wouldn't like it if I did. But I'm sorry now, and will never +vex you, but do just what you want me to. Shall I go up-stairs now?" + +He shook his head. How could he let her go with so much unsaid? She had +talked frankly till she had reached the very place where his greatest +interest lay. Then she had suddenly shown shyness of her subject and +leaped the gap, as it were, to the present moment. How recall her to the +hour when she had seen Georgian for the second time? How urge her into a +description of those days succeeding his wife's flight from the hotel, of +which he had no account, save the feverish lines of the letter she had +sent him. He was racking his brain for some method of communicating his +wishes to Anitra, when he heard steps behind him, and, turning, saw the +clerk approaching him with a telegram. + +He glanced at her slyly as he took it. Somehow he couldn't get used to +her deafness, and expected her to give some evidence of surprise or +curiosity. But she was still studying her hands, and as his eyes lingered +on her downcast face he saw a tear well from her lids and wet the cheek +she held partly turned from him. He wanted to kiss that tear, but +refrained and opened his telegram instead. It was from Mr. Harper, and +ran thus: + + Expect a visitor. The man we know has left the St. Denis. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +IN MRS. DEO'S ROOM + + +A prey to fresh agitation, he stepped back to Anitra's side. Surely she +must understand that it was Georgian and not herself about whom he was +most anxious to hear. But she did not seem to. The smile with which she +greeted him suggested nothing of the past. It spoke only of the future. + +"I will learn to be like sister," she impulsively cried out, rising and +beaming brightly upon him. "I will forget the old gipsy ways and Mother +Duda's ways, and try to be nice and pretty like my sister. And you shall +learn me to read and write. I've known deaf people who learned. Then I +shall know what you think; now I only know how you feel." + +He shook his head, a little sadly, perhaps. There were people who could +teach her these arts, but not he. He had neither the ability, the +courage, nor the patience. + +"Then some one shall learn me," she loudly insisted, her cheek flushing +and her eye showing an angry spark. "I will not be ignorant always; I +will not, I will not." And turning, she fled from his side, and he was +left to think over her story and ask himself for the hundredth time what +it all meant, what his own sensations meant, and what would be the +outcome of conditions so complicated. + +The possibly speedy appearance on the scene of Georgian's so-called +brother did not detract from his difficulty. He felt helpless without +the support of Mr. Harper's presence, and spent a very troubled forenoon +listening to the mingled condolences and advice of people who had no +interest in his concerns save such as sprang from curiosity and a morbid +craving for excitement. + +At two o'clock occurred the event of which he had been forewarned. A +carriage drove up to the hotel and from it stepped two travelers; one +of them a stranger, the other the man with the twisted jaw. Mr. Ransom +advanced to meet the latter. He was anxious to listen to his first +inquiries and, if possible, be the person to answer them. + +He was successful in this. Mr. Hazen no sooner saw him than he accosted +him without ceremony. + +"What is this I hear and read about Georgian and her so-called twin?" he +cried. "Nothing that I can believe, I want you to know. Georgian may have +drowned herself. That is credible enough. But that the girl we read about +in the papers and whom she evidently induced to come to this place with +her should be the dead girl we called Anitra--why, that is all bosh--a +tale to deceive the public, and possibly you, but not one to deceive me. +The coincidence is much too improbable." + +"'There are stranger things in heaven and earth'"--quoted Ransom; but +Hazen was already in conversation with the group of hotel idlers who had +crowded up at sound of his loud voice. + +After a careful look which had taken in all of their faces, he had +approached one young fellow, covering the lower part of his face as he +did so. + +"Halloo! Yates," he called out. "Don't you remember the day we tied two +chickens together, leg to leg, and sent them tumbling down the hill back +of old Wylie's barn?" + +"Alf Hazen!" shouted the fellow, thus accosted. "Why, I thought you--" + +"Dead, eh? Of course you did. So did everybody else. But I've come to +life, you see. With sad marks of battle on me," he continued, dropping +his hand. "You all recognize me?" + +"Yes, yes," rose in one acclaim from a dozen or more throats after a +moment of awkward uncertainty. + +"I know the eyes," vigorously asserted one. + +"And the voice," chimed in another. After which rose a confused babel of +ejaculations and exclamatory questions, among which one could detect: + +"How did it happen, Alf?" "What took off your jaw?" and other equally +felicitous expressions. + +"I'll tell you all about that later," he replied, after silence had in a +measure been restored. "What I want to say now is this. Is it believable +that simultaneously with my own return from the grave another member of +my family should reappear before you from an older and much more certain +burying? I tell you no. The riddle is one which calls for quite another +solution and I have come to assist you in finding it." + +Here he cast a sinister glance at Ransom. + +The latter met the implied accusation with singular calmness. + +"Any assistance will be welcome," said he, "which will enable us to solve +this very serious problem." Then, as Hazen's lip curled, he added with +dignified candor, "I scorn to retort by throwing any doubt on your +assertion of relationship to my lost wife, or the possibility of these +good people being misled by your confident bearing and a possible +likeness about the eyes to the boy they knew. But one question I will +hazard, and that before we have gone a step further. Why does it seem so +credible to you that Georgian, a much loved and loving woman, should have +leaped to a watery death within a week of her marriage? You have just +stated that you found no difficulty in that. Does not that statement call +for some explanation? All your old friends here must see that this is my +due as well as hers." + +For an instant the man hesitated, but in that instant his hand slipped +from his mouth over which he had again laid it, and his whole face, with +its changed lines and the threatening, almost cruel expression which +these gave it, appeared in all its combined eagerness and force. A murmur +escaped the watchful group about him, but this affected him little. His +eyes, which he had fixed on Ransom, sharpened a trifle, perhaps, and his +tone grew a thought more sarcastic as he finally retorted: + +"I will explain myself to you but not to this crowd. And not to you till +I am sure of the facts which as yet have reached me only through the +newspapers. Let me hear a full account of what has transpired here since +you all came to town. I have an enormous interest in the matter;--a +family interest, as you are well aware for all your badly hidden +insinuations." + +"Follow me," was the quiet reply. "There is a room on this very floor +where we can talk undisturbed." + +Mr. Hazen cast a quick glance behind him at the man who had driven up +with him and whom nobody had noticed till now. Then without a word he +separated himself from the chattering group encircling him and stepped +after Mr. Ransom into the small room where the latter had held his first +memorable conversation with the lawyer. + +"Now," said he as the door swung to behind them, "plain language and not +too much of it. I have no time to waste, but the truth about Georgian I +must know." + +Ransom settled himself. He felt bound to comply with the other's request, +but he wished to make sure of not saying too much, or too little. Hazen's +attack had startled him. It revealed one of two things. Either this man +of mystery had assumed the offensive to hide his own connection with this +tragedy, or his antagonism was an honest one, springing from an utter +disbelief in the circumstances reported to him by the press and such +gossips as he had encountered on his way to Sitford. + +With the first possibility he felt himself unable to cope without the aid +of Mr. Harper; the second might be met with candor. Should he then be +candid with this doubter, relate to him the facts as they had unrolled +themselves before his own eyes;--secret facts--convincing ones--facts +which must prove to him that whether Georgian did or did not lie at the +bottom of the mill-stream, the woman now in the house was his sister +Anitra, lost to him and the rest of the family for many years, but now +found again and restored to her position as a Hazen and Georgian's twin. +The discovery might not prove welcome. It would have a tendency to throw +Mr. Hazen's own claim into the disrepute he would cast on hers. But this +consideration could have no weight with Mr. Ransom. He decided upon +candor at all costs. It suited his nature best, and it also suited the +strange and doubtful situation. Mr. Harper might have concluded +differently, but Mr. Harper was not there to give advice; and the matter +would not wait. Little as he understood this Hazen, he recognized that he +was not a man to trifle with. Something would have to be said or done. + +Meeting the latter's eye frankly, he remarked: + +"I have no wish to keep anything back from you. I am as much struck +as you are by the mystery of this whole occurrence. I was as hard to +convince. This is my story. It involves all that is known here with the +exception of such facts as have been kept from us by the three parties +directly concerned--of which three I consider you one." + +As the last four words fell from his lips he looked for some change, +slight and hardly perceptible perhaps, in the other's expression. But he +was doomed to disappointment. The steady regard held, nothing moved about +the man, not even the hand into which the poor disfigured chin had +fallen. Ransom suppressed a sigh. His task was likely to prove a blind +one. He had a sense of stumbling in the dark, but the gaze he had hoped +to see falter compelled him to proceed, and he told his story without +subterfuge or suppression. + +One thing, and only one thing, caused a movement in the set figure before +him. When he mentioned the will which Georgian had made a few hours prior +to her disappearance, Hazen's hand slipped aside from the wound it had +sought to cover, and Ransom caught sight of the sudden throb which +deepened its hue. It was the one infallible sign that the man was not +wholly without feeling, and it had sprung to life at an intimation +involving _money_. + +When his tale was quite finished, he rose. So did Hazen. + +"Let us see this girl," suggested the latter. + +It was the first word he had spoken since Ransom began his story. + +"She is up-stairs. I will go see--" + +"No, _we_ will go see. I particularly desire to take her unawares." + +Ransom offered no objection. Perhaps he felt interested in the experiment +himself. Together they left the room, together they went up-stairs. A +turmoil of questions followed them from the throng of men and boys +gathered in the halls, but they returned no answer and curiosity remained +unsatisfied. + +Once in the hall above, Ransom stopped a moment to deliberate. He could +not enter Anitra's room unannounced, and he could not make her hear by +knocking. He must find the landlady. + +He knew Mrs. Deo's room. He had had more than one occasion to visit it +during the last two days. With a word of explanation to Hazen, he passed +down the hall and tapped on the last door at the extreme left. No one +answered, but the door standing ajar, he pushed it quietly open, being +anxious to make sure that Mrs. Deo was not there. + +The next moment he was beckoning to Hazen. + +"Look!" said he, holding the door open with one hand and pointing with +the other to a young girl sitting on a low stool by the window, mending, +or trying to mend, a rent in her skirt. + +"Why, that's Georgian!" exclaimed Hazen, and hastily entering he +approached the anxious figure laboriously pushing her needle in and out +of the torn goods, and pricking herself more than once in the attempt. + +"Georgian!" he cried again and yet more emphatically, as he stepped up in +front of her. + +The young girl failed to notice. Awkwardly drawing her thread out to its +extreme length, she prepared to insert her needle again, when her eye +caught sight of his figure bending over her, and she looked up quietly +and with an air of displeasure, which pleased Ransom,--he could hardly +tell why. This was before her eyes reached his face; when they had, it +was touching to see how she tried to hide the shock caused by its +deformity, as she said with a slight gesture of dismissal: + +"I'm quite deaf. I cannot hear what you say. If it is the landlady you +want, she has gone down-stairs for a minute; perhaps, to the kitchen." + +He did not retreat, if anything he approached nearer, and Ransom was +surprised to observe the force and persuasive power of his expression +as he repeated: + +"No nonsense, Georgian," opening and shutting his hands as he spoke, in +curious gesticulations which her eye mechanically followed but which +seemed to convey no meaning to her, though he evidently expected them to +and looked surprised (Ransom almost thought baffled) when she shook her +head and in a sweet, impassive way reiterated: + +"I cannot hear and I do not understand the deaf and dumb alphabet. I'm +sorry, but you'll have to go to some one else. I'm very unfortunate. I +have to mend this dress and I don't know how." + +Hazen, who could hardly tear his eyes from her face, fell slowly back as +she painfully and conscientiously returned to her task. "Good God!" he +murmured, as his eye sought Ransom's. "What a likeness!" Then he looked +again at the girl, at the wave of her raven black hair breaking into +little curls just above her ear; at the smooth forehead rendered so +distinguished by the fine penciling of her arching brows; at the delicate +nose with nostrils all alive to the beating of an over-anxious heart; at +the mouth, touching in its melancholy so far beyond her years; and lastly +at the strong young figure huddled on the little stool; and bending +forward again, he uttered two or three quick sentences which Ransom could +not catch. + +His persistence, or the near approach of his face to hers, angered her. +Rising quickly to her feet, she vehemently cried out: + +"Go away from here. It is not right to keep on talking to a deaf girl +after she has told you she cannot hear you." Then catching sight of +Ransom, who had advanced a step in his sympathy for her, she gave a +little sigh of relief and added querulously: + +"Make this man go away. This is the landlady's room. I don't like to have +strangers talk to me. Besides--" here her voice fell, but not so low as +to be inaudible to the subject of her remark, "he's not pretty. I've seen +enough of men and women who are--" + +At this point Ransom drew Hazen out into the hall. + +"What do you think now?" he demanded. + +Hazen did not reply. The room they had just left seemed to possess a +strange fascination for him. He continued to look back at it as he +preceded Ransom down the hall. Ransom did not press his questions, but +when they were on the point of separating at the head of the stairs, he +held Hazen back with the words: + +"Let us come to some understanding. Neither of us can desire to waste +strength in wrong conclusions. Can that woman be other than your own +sister?" + +"No." The denial was absolute. "She is my sister." + +"Anitra?" emphasized Ransom. + +The smile which he received in reply was strangely mirthless. + +"I never rush to conclusions," was Hazen's remark after a moment of +possibly mutual heart-beat and unsettling suspense. "Ask me that same +question to-morrow. Perhaps by then I shall be able to answer you." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +BETWEEN THE ELDERBERRY BUSHES + + +"No." + +The word came from Ransom. He had reached the end of his patience and was +determined to have it out with this man on the spot. + +"Come into my room," said he. "If you doubt her, you doubt me; and in the +present stress of my affairs this demands an immediate explanation." + +"I have no time to enter your room, and I cannot linger here any longer +talking on a subject which at the present moment is not clear to either +of us," was the resolute if not quite affable reply. "Later, when my +conclusions are made, I will see you again. Now I am going to eat and +refresh myself. Don't follow me; it will do you no good." + +He turned to descend. Ransom had an impulse to seize him by his twisted +throat and drag from him the secret which his impassive features refused +to give up. But Ransom was no fool and, stepping back out of the way of +temptation, he allowed him to escape without further parley. + +Then he went to his room. But, after an hour or two spent with his own +thoughts, his restlessness became so great that he sought the gossips +below for relief. He found them all clustered about Hazen, who was +reeling off stories by the mile. This was unendurable to him and he was +striding off, when Hazen burst away from his listeners and, joining +Ransom, whispered in his ear: + +"I saw her go by the window just now on her way up-street. What can she +find there to interest her? Where is she going?" + +"I don't know. She doesn't consult me as to her movements. Probably she +has gone for a walk. She looks as if she needs it." + +"So do you," was the unexpected retort given by Hazen, as he stepped back +to rejoin his associates. + +Ransom paused, watching him askance in doubt of the suggestion, in doubt +of the man, in doubt of himself. Then he yielded to an impulse stronger +than any doubt and slipped out into the highway, where he turned, as she +had turned, up-street. + +But not without a struggle. He hated himself for his puppet-like +acceptance of the hint given him by a man he both distrusted and +disliked. He felt his dignity impaired and his self-confidence shaken, +yet he went on, following the high road eagerly and watching with wary +eye for the first glimpse of the slight figure which was beginning to +make every scene alive to him. + +It had rained heavily and persistently the last time he came this way, +but to-day the sun was shining with a full radiance, and the trees +stretching away on either side of the road were green with the tender +tracery of early leafage; a joy-compelling sight which may have accounted +for the elasticity of his step as he ascended one small hill after +another in the wake of a fluttering skirt. + +It was the cemetery road, and odd as the fancy was, he felt that he +should overtake her at the old gate, behind which lay so many of her +name. Here he had seen her name before its erasement from the family +monument, and here he should see--could he say Anitra if he found her +bending over those graves; the woman who could not hear, who could not +read,--whose childish memory, if she had any in connection with this +spot, could not be distinct enough or sufficiently intelligent to guide +her to this one plot? No. Human credulity can go far, but not so far as +that. He knew that all his old doubts would return if, on entering the +cemetery, he found her under the brown shaft carved with the name of +Hazen. + +The test was one he had not sought and did not welcome. Yet he felt +bound, now that he recognized it as such, to see it through and accept +its teaching for what it surely would be worth. Only he began to move +with more precaution and studied more to hide his approach than to give +any warning of it. + +The close ranks of the elderberry bushes lining the fences on the final +hill-top lent themselves to the concealment he now sought. As soon as he +was sure of her having left the road he drew up close to these bushes and +walked under them till he was almost at the gate. Then he allowed himself +to peer through their close branches and received an unexpected shock at +seeing her figure standing very near him, posed in an uncertainty which, +for some reason, he had not expected, but which restored him to himself, +though why he had not the courage, the time, nor the inclination to ask. + +She was babbling in a low tone to herself, an open sesame to her mind, +which Ransom hailed with a sense of awe. If only he might distinguish the +words! But this was difficult; not only was her head turned partly away, +but she spoke in a murmur which was far from distinct. Yet--yes, that one +sentence was plain enough. She had muttered musingly, anxiously, and with +a searching look among the graves: + +"It was on this side. I know it was on this side." + +Watching her closely lest some chance glance of hers should stray his +way, he listened still more intently and was presently rewarded by +catching another sentence. + +"A single grave all by itself. I fell over it and my mother scolded me, +saying it was my father's. There was a bush near it. A bush with white +flowers on it. I tried to pick some." + +Ransom's heart was growing lighter and lighter. She did not even know +that there had been placed over that grave a monument with her name on it +and that of the mother who had scolded her for tripping over her father's +sod. Only Anitra could be so ignorant or expect to find a grave by means +of a bush blooming with flowers fifteen years ago. As she went wandering +on, peering to right and left, he thought of Hazen and his doubts, and +wished that he were here beside him to mark her perplexity. + +When quite satisfied that she would never find what she sought without +help, Ransom stepped from his hiding-place and joined her among the +grassy hillocks. The start of pleasure she gave and her almost childish +look of relief warmed his heart, and it was with a smile he waited for +her to speak. + +"My father's grave!" she explained. "I was looking for my father's grave. +I remember my mother taking me to it when I was little. There was a bush +close by it--oh! I see what you think. The bush would be big now--I +forgot that. And something else! You are thinking of something else. Oh, +I know, I know. He wouldn't be lying alone any more. My mother must have +died, or sister would have taken me to her. There ought to be two +graves." + +He nodded, and taking her by the hand led her to the family monument. She +gazed at it for a moment, amazed, then laid her finger on one of the +inscriptions. + +"My father's name?" she asked. + +He nodded. + +She hung her head thoughtfully for a moment, then slipping to the other +side of the stone laid her hand on another. + +"My mother's?" + +Again he signified yes. + +"And this? Is this sister's name? No, she's not buried yet. I had a +brother. Is it his?" + +Ransom bowed. How tell her that it was a false inscription and that the +man whose death it commemorated was not only alive but had only a little +while before spoken to her. + +"I didn't like my brother. He was cruel and liked to hurt people. I'm +glad he's dead." + +Ransom drew her away. Her frankness was that of a child, but it produced +an uncomfortable feeling. He didn't like this brother either, and in this +thoughtless estimate of hers he seemed to read a warning to which his own +nature intuitively responded. + +"Come!" he motioned, leading the way out. + +She followed with a smile, and together they entered the highway. As they +did so, Ransom caught sight of a man speeding down the hill before them +on a bicycle. He had not come front the upper road, or they would have +seen him as he flew past the gateway. Where had he come from, then? From +the peep-hole where Ransom himself had stood a few minutes before. No +other conclusion was possible, and Ransom felt both angry and anxious +till he could find out who the man was. This he did not succeed in doing +till he reached the hotel. There a bicycle leaning against a tree gave +point to his questions, and he learned that it belonged to a clerk in one +of the small stores near by, but that the man who had just ridden it up +and down the road on a trial of speed was the stranger who had just come +to town with Mr. Hazen. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +ON THE CARS + + +This episode, which to Ransom's mind would bear but one interpretation, +gave him ample food for thought. He decided to be more circumspect in the +future and to keep an eye out for inquisitive strangers. Not that he had +any thing to conceal, but no man enjoys having his proceedings watched, +especially where a woman is concerned. + +That Hazen was antagonistic to him he had always known; but that he was +regarded by him with suspicion he had not realized till now. Hazen +suspicious of _him_! that meant what? He wished that he had Mr. Harper +at his side to enlighten him. + +It was now five o'clock and he was sitting in his room awaiting the usual +report from the river, when a quick tap at his door was followed by the +entrance of the very man he was thinking about. He rose eagerly to +receive him, determined, however, to allow no inconsiderate impulse to +drive him into unnecessary speech. + +"I have already said too much," he reminded himself in self-directed +monition. "It's time he did some of the talking." + +Hazen seemed willing enough to do this. Taking the seat proffered him, he +opened the conversation as follows: + +"Mr. Ransom, I have been doing you an injustice. I do not consider it +necessary to tell you just how I have found this out, but I am now +convinced that you are as much in the dark as myself in regard to this +unfortunate affair, and are as willing as I am to take all justifiable +means to enlighten yourself. I own that at first I thought it more than +probable you were in collusion with the girl here to deceive me. That I +wouldn't stand. I'm glad to find you as truly a victim of this mystery as +myself." + +Ransom straightened himself. + +"If this is an apology," he returned, "I am willing to accept it in the +spirit in which it is proffered. But I should like something more than +apology from you. Candor for candor;--your whole story in return for +mine." + +"I'm afraid it would be a trifle tedious,--my whole story," smiled Hazen. +"If you mean such part of it as concerns Georgian's peculiar actions and +the complications with which we are at this moment struggling, I can only +repeat what I have already told you, both at the St. Denis in New York +and here. I am Georgian's returned brother, saved from the jaws of hell +to see my own country again. I arrived in New York on the tenth. +Naturally, after securing a room at the hotel, I took up the papers. They +were full of the approaching marriage of Miss Hazen. I recognized my +sister's name, though not her splendor, for we were the sole survivors of +a poor country family and I knew nothing of the legacy I am now told she +received. Anxious to see her, I attended the ceremony. She recognized me. +I had not expected this, and feeling old affections revive, I followed +her friends to the house and was presented to them and to you. What +I whispered to her on this occasion were my assumed name and the place +where I was to be found. My changed countenance called for explanations, +for which a bridal reception offered no opportunity. Besides, as I have +already said, I stood in sore need of a definite amount of money. I meant +her to come and see me, but I did not expect her to play a trick on you +in order to do so. This had its birth in the to me unaccountable mystery +embodied in the girl you call Anitra, but whom I'm not ready yet to name. +For when I do, action must follow conviction and that without mercy or +delay." + +"Action?" repeated Ransom, with quick suspicion and a confused rush of +contradictory visions in his mind. "What do you mean by that?" + +Hazen covered his chin with his hand. + +"I will try and explain," he replied. "If I am abrupt in my language, it +is owing to the exigencies of the case. I have no time to waste and no +disposition to whitewash a rough piece of work. To speak to the point, I +have an intense interest in my sister Georgian. I have little or none in +my sister Anitra. Georgian's intelligence, good-will, and command of +money would be of inestimable benefit to me. Anitra, on the contrary, +could be nothing but a burden, unless--" here he cast a very sharp glance +at Ransom--"unless Georgian should have been sufficiently considerate to +leave her a good share of her fortune in the will you say she made just +before her disappearance and supposed death." + +"That I can say nothing about," rejoined Ransom in answer to this feeler. +"The will is in the hands of her lawyer, but if it will help your +argument any we will suppose that she left her sister to the care of her +friends without any especial provision for her in the way of money." + +The steady fingers clutching the scarred neck loosed their grip to wave +this supposition aside. + +"A hardly supposable case," was the cold comment with which he +supplemented this disclaimer; "but one which would make the girl a burden +indeed; a burden which for many reasons I could not assume." Here he +struck himself sharply on the neck, with the first display of passion he +had shown. "My advantages are not such as to make it easy for me to +support myself. It would be simply impossible for me to undertake the +care of any girl, least of all of one with a manifest infirmity." + +"Anitra will prosper without your care," replied Ransom, overlooking the +heartlessness of the man in the mad, unaccountable sense of relief with +which he listened to his withdrawal from concerns for which he showed so +little sympathy. "There are others who will be glad to do all that can be +done for Georgian's forsaken sister." + +"Yes. That is all right, but--" Here Hazen squared himself across the top +of the table before which he had been sitting; "I must be made sure that +the facts have been rightly represented to me and that the girl now in +this house _is_ Georgian's deserted sister. I'm not yet satisfied that +she is, and I must be convinced not only on this point but on many +others, before this day is over. Business of great importance calls me +back to the city and, it may be, out of the country. I may never be able +to spend another day on purely personal affairs, so this one must tell. I +have a scheme (it is a very simple one) which, if carried out as I have +planned, will satisfy me as nothing else will as to the identity of the +girl we will call, from lack of positive knowledge, Anitra. Will you help +me in its furtherance? It lies with you to do so." + +"First, your reasons for doubting the girl," retorted Ransom. "They must +be excellent ones for you to resist the evidence of such conclusive +proofs as you have yourself been witness to since entering this house. I +am Georgian's husband. I have the strongest wish in the world to see her +again at my side; yet with the exception of her wonderful likeness to my +wife, I find nothing in this raw if beautiful girl, of the polished, +highly trained woman I married. I have not even succeeded in startling +her ear--something which I should have been able to do if she were not +the totally deaf woman she appears. Confide to me then your reasons for +demanding additional proofs of her identity. If they carry conviction +with them, I will aid you in any scheme you can propose which will +neither frighten nor afflict her." + +Hazen rose to his feet. Narrow as the room was, he yielded to his +restless desire to move about and began pacing up and down the restricted +quarters bounded by the edge of the table and the door. Not until he had +made the second turning did he speak; then it was with seeming openness. + +"It's like putting the torch to my last ship," said he; "but this is no +time to hesitate. Mr. Ransom, I do not trust my eyes, I do not trust my +ears, nor your eyes, nor your ears, nor those of any one here, because I +have talked with a man who was on the same train with my sisters. He +noticed them because of their similar appearance and close intimacy. +They were not dressed alike, but they were veiled alike and one did not +move without the other. More than that, they not only walked about the +various stations where they waited, arm in arm, but they sat thus closely +joined in the cars all the way from New York. This interested him +especially as he noted great anxiety and incessant movement in the one, +and complete passiveness in the other. She who sat in the outer seat was +watchful, busy, and ready to press the other's arm at the least +provocation, but if either spoke it was always the other. It was not till +the quick rush and shrill whistle of a passing train made one start and +not the other, that he got the idea that one of them was deaf. As this +was the one by the window, he felt that their peculiar actions were now +accounted for, and indeed thus far it all tallied with what we might +expect from Georgian traveling with the hapless Anitra. But there +remained a fact to be told, which rouses doubt. When they reached +G---- and he saw from their quick rising that they were about to leave +the train, he naturally glanced their way again, and this time he caught +a glimpse of the inner one's neck. Her veil had become slightly +disarranged, exposing the whole nape. It was unexpectedly dark, almost +brunette in color, and quite devoid of delicacy; such a skin as one might +look for in the gipsy Anitra after years of outdoor living and a long +lack of nice personal attention, but not such as I saw and admired a few +hours ago on the neck of the woman bending over her work in the +landlady's room. Oh, I recognized the difference; I have an eye for +necks." + +He paused, coming to a standstill in the middle of the room, to see what +effect his words had had on Ransom. + +"I have that man's name," he continued, "and can produce him if I have +time and it seems to be necessary. But I had rather come to my own +decision without any outside interference. This is not an affair for +public gossip or newspaper notoriety. It is a question of justice to +myself. If this girl is Georgian--" His whole face changed. For a moment +Ransom hardly knew him. The quiet, self-contained man seemed to have +given way to one of such unexpected power and threat that Ransom rose +instinctively to his feet in recognition of a superiority he could no +longer deny. + +The action seemed to recall Hazen to himself. He wheeled about and +recommenced his quiet pacing to and fro. + +"I beg pardon," he quietly finished. "If it is Georgian, she must stand +my friend. That is all I was going to say. If it is, against all reason +and probability, her strangely restored twin, I shall leave this house by +midnight, never probably to see any of you again. So you perceive that it +is incumbent upon us to work promptly. Are you ready to hear what I have +to propose?" + +"Yes." + +Hazen paused again, this time in front of the door. Laying his hand +lightly on one of the panels, he glanced back at Ransom. + +"You are nicely placed here for observation. Your door directly faces the +hall she must traverse in returning to her room." + +"That's quite true." + +"She's in her room now. Ah, you know that?" + +"Yes." Ransom seemed to have no other word at his command. + +"Will she come out again before night to eat or to visit?" + +"There's no telling. She's very fitful. No one can prophesy what she +will do. Sometimes she eats in the landlady's room, sometimes in her +own, sometimes not at all. If you have frightened her, or she has been +disturbed in any way by your companion who shows such interest in her +and in me, she probably will not come out at all." + +"But she must. I expect you to see that she does. Use any messenger, any +artifice, but get her away from this hall for ten minutes, even if it is +only into Mrs. Deo's room. When she returns I shall be on my knees before +this keyhole to watch her and observe. To see what, I do not mean to tell +you, but it will be something which will definitely settle for me this +matter of identity. Does this plan look sufficiently harmless to meet +with your approval?" + +"Yes, but looks cannot always be trusted. I must know just what you mean +to do. I will leave nothing to a mind and hand I do not trust any more +fully than I do yours. You are too eager for Georgian's money; too little +interested in herself; _and you are too sly in your ways_. I overlooked +this when you had the excuse of a possible distrust of myself. But now +that your confidence is restored in me, now that you recognize the fact +that I stand outside of this whole puzzling affair and have no other wish +than to know the truth about it and do my duty to all parties concerned, +secrecy on your part means more than I care to state. If you persist in +it I shall lend myself to nothing that you propose, but wait for time to +substantiate her claim or prove its entire falsity." + +"You will!" + +The words rang out involuntarily. It almost seemed as if the man would +spring with them straight at the other's throat. But he controlled +himself, and smiling bitterly, added: + +"I know the marks of human struggle. I have read countenances from my +birth. I've had to, and only one has baffled me--_hers_. But we are going +to read that too and very soon. We are going to learn, you and I, what +lies behind that innocent manner and her rude, uncultivated ways. We are +going to sound that deafness. I say _we_," he impressively concluded, +"because I have reconsidered my first impulse and now propose to allow +you to participate openly, and without the secrecy you object to, in all +that remains to be done to make our contemplated test a success. Will +that please you? May I count on you now?" + +"Yes," replied Ransom, returning to his old monosyllable. + +"Very well, then, see if you can make a scrawl like this." + +Pulling a piece of red chalk from his pocket, he drew a figure of a +somewhat unusual character on the bare top of the table between them; +then he handed the chalk over to Ransom, who received it with a stare of +wonder not unmixed with suspicion. + +"I'm not an adept at drawing," said he, but made his attempt, +notwithstanding, and evidently to Hazen's satisfaction. + +"You'll do," said he. "That's a mystic symbol once used by Georgian +and myself in place of our names in all mutual correspondence, and +on the leaves of our school-books and at the end of our exercises. It +meant nothing, but the boys and girls we associated with thought it did +and envied us the free-masonry it was supposed to cover. A ridiculous +make-believe which I rate at its full folly now, but one which cannot +fail to arouse a hundred memories in Georgian. We will scrawl it on +her door, or rather you shall, and according to the way she conducts +herself on seeing it, we shall know in one instant what you with your +patience and trust in time may not be able to arrive at in weeks." + +Ransom recalled some of the tests he had himself employed, many of which +have been omitted from this history, and shrugged his shoulders mentally, +if not physically. If Hazen noted this evidence of his lack of faith, he +remained entirely unaffected by it, and in a few minutes everything had +been planned between them for the satisfactory exercise of what Hazen +evidently regarded as a crucial experiment. Ransom was about to proceed +to take the first required step, when they heard a disturbance in front, +and the coach came driving up with a great clatter and bang and from it +stepped the lean, well-groomed figure of Mr. Harper. + +"Bah!" exclaimed Hazen with a violent gesture of disappointment. "There +comes your familiar. Now I suppose you will cry off." + +"Not necessarily," returned Ransom. "But this much is certain. I shall +certainly consult him before hazarding this experiment. I am not so sure +of myself or--pardon me--of yourself as to take any steps in the dark +while I have at hand so responsible a guide as the man whom you choose to +call my familiar." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A SUSPICIOUS TEST + + +"Let him make his experiment. It will do no harm, and if it rids us of +him, well and good." + +Such was Mr. Harper's decision after hearing all that Mr. Ransom had to +tell him of the present situation. + +"His disappointment when he learns that he has nothing to hope for from +his sister's generosity calls for some consideration from us," proceeded +the lawyer. "Go and have your little talk with the landlady or take +whatever other means suggest themselves for luring this girl from her +room. I will summon Hazen and hold him very closely under my eye till the +whole affair is over. He shall get no chance for any hocus-pocus +business, not while I have charge of your interests. He shall do just +what he has laid out for himself and nothing more; you may rely on that." + +Ransom expressed his satisfaction, and left the room with a lighter heart +than he had felt since Hazen came upon the scene. He did not know that +all he had been through was as nothing to what lay before him. + +It was an hour before he returned. When he did, it was to find Hazen and +the lawyer awaiting him in ill-concealed impatience. These two were much +too incongruous in tastes and interests to be very happy in a forced and +prolonged tête-à-tête. + +"Have you done it?" exclaimed Hazen, leaping eagerly to his feet as the +door closed softly behind Ransom. "Is she out of her room? I have +listened and listened for her step, but could not be sure of it. There +seem to be a lot of people in the house to-night." + +"Too many," quoth Ransom. "That is why I couldn't get hold of Mrs. Deo +any sooner. Anitra is having her hair brushed or something else of equal +importance done for her in one of the rear rooms. So we can proceed +fearlessly. Have you looked to see if you can get a good glimpse of her +door through the keyhole of this one?" + +"Haven't you already made a trial of that? Then do so now," suggested +Hazen, drawing out the key and laying it on the table. + +But this was too uncongenial a task for Ransom. + +"I shall be satisfied," said he, "if Mr. Harper tells me that it can." + +"It can," asserted that gentleman, falling on his knees and adjusting his +eye to the keyhole. "Or rather, you can see plainly the face of any one +approaching it. I don't suppose any of us expected to see the door +itself." + +"No, it is not the door, but the woman entering the door, we want to see. +Did you ask for an extra lamp?" + +"Yes, and saw it placed. It is on a small table almost opposite her +room." + +"Then everything is ready." + +"All but the mark which I am to put on the panel." + +"Very good. Here is the chalk. Let us see what you mean to do with it +before you risk an attempt on the door itself." + +Ransom thought a minute, then with one quick twist produced the +following: + +[Illustration] + +"Correct," muttered Hazen, with what Harper thought to be a slight but +unmistakable shudder. "One would think you had been making use of this +very cabalistic sign all your life." + +"Then _one_ would be mistaken. I have simply a true eye and a ready +hand." + +"And a very remarkable memory. You have recalled every little line and +quirk." + +"That's possible. What I have made once I can make the second time. It's +a peculiarity of mine." + +There was no mistaking the continued intensity of Hazen's gaze. Ransom +felt his color rise, but succeeded in preserving his quiet tone, as he +added: + +"Besides, this character is not a wholly new one to me. My attention was +called to it months ago. It was when I was courting Georgian. She was +writing a note one day when she suddenly stopped to think and I saw her +pen making some marks which I considered curious. But I should not have +remembered them five minutes, if she had not impulsively laid her hand +over them when she saw me looking. That fixed the memory of them in my +mind, and when I saw this combination of lines again, I remembered it. +That is why I lent myself so readily to this experiment. I lent that what +you said about her acquaintance with this odd arrangement of lines was +true." + +Hazen's hand stole up to his neck, a token of agitation which Ransom +should have recognized by this time. + +"And her account of the use we made of it tallied with mine?" + +"She gave me no account of any use she had ever made of it." + +"That was because you didn't ask her." + +"Just so. Why should I ask her? It was a small matter to trouble her +about." + +"You are right," acquiesced Hazen, wheeling himself away towards the +window. Then after a momentary silence, "It was so then, but it is likely +to prove of some importance now. Let me see if the hall is empty." + +As he bent to open the door, the lawyer, who had not moved nor spoken +till now, turned a quick glance on Ransom and impulsively stretched out +his hand. But he dropped it very quickly and subsided into his old +attitude of simple watchfulness, as Hazen glanced back with the remark: + +"There's nobody stirring; now's your time, Ransom." + +The moment for action had arrived. + +Ransom stepped into the hall. As he passed Hazen, the latter whispered: + +"Don't forget that last downward quirk. That was the line she always +emphasized." + +Ransom gave him an annoyed look. His nerves as well as his feelings were +on a keen stretch, and this persistence of Hazen's was more than he could +bear. + +"I'll not forget the least detail," he answered shortly, and passed +quickly down the hall, while Hazen watched him through the crack of the +door, and the lawyer watched Hazen. + +Suddenly Mr. Harper's brow wrinkled. Hazen had uttered such a sigh of +relief that the lawyer was startled. In another moment Ransom re-entered +the room. + +"She's coming," said he, striving to hide his extreme emotion. "I heard +her voice in the hall beyond." + +Hazen sprang to the door which Ransom had carefully closed, and was about +to fall on his knees before the keyhole when he suddenly stiffened +himself and, turning towards the lawyer, cried with a new strain of +loftiness in his tone: + +"You. You shall do the looking, only promise to be very minute in your +description of her behavior. It's a great trust I repose in you. See that +you honor it." + +The revulsion of feeling caused in the lawyer by this show of confidence +was not perceptible. But it softened his step as well as his manner as he +crossed to do the other's bidding. + +The remaining two stood at his side breathless, waiting for his first +word. + +It came in a whisper: + +"She's approaching her room. She looks tired. Her eyes are stealing this +way;--no, they are resting on her own door. She sees the sign. She stands +staring at it, but not like a person who has ever seen it before. It's +the stare of an uneducated woman who runs upon something she does not +understand. Now she touches it with one finger and glances up and down +the hall with a doubtful shake of the head. Now she is running to another +door, now to another. She is looking to see if this scrawl is to be found +anywhere else; she even casts her eye this way--I feel like leaving my +post. If I do, you may know that she's coming--No, she's back at her own +door and--gentlemen, her bringing up or rather coming up asserts itself. +She has put her palm to her mouth and is vigorously rubbing off the +marks." + +The next instant Mr. Harper rose. "She's gone into her room," said he. +"Listen and you will hear her key click in the lock." + +Ransom sank into a seat; Hazen had walked to the window. Presently he +turned. + +"I am convinced," said he. "I will not trouble you gentlemen further. +Mr. Ransom, I condole with you upon your loss. My sister was a woman of +uncommon gifts." + +Mr. Ransom bowed. He had no words for this man at a moment of such +extreme excitement. He did not even note the latent sting hidden in the +other's seeming tribute to Georgian. But the lawyer did and Hazen +perceived that he did, for pausing in his act of crossing the room, he +leaned for a moment on the table with his eyes down, then quickly +raising them remarked to that gentleman: + +"I am going to leave by the midnight train for New York. To-morrow I +shall be on the ocean. Will it be transgressing all rules of propriety +for me to ask the purport of my sister's will? It is a serious matter to +me, sir. If she has left me anything--" + +"She has _not_," emphasized the lawyer. + +A shadow darkened the disappointed man's brow. His wound swelled and his +eyes gleamed ironically as he turned them upon Ransom. + +Instantly that gentleman spoke. + +"I have received but a moiety," said he. "You need not envy me the +amount." + +"Who has it then?" briskly demanded the startled man. "Who? who? _She?_" + +Mr. Harper never knew why he did it. He was reserved as a man and, +usually, more than reserved as a lawyer, but as Hazen lifted his hands +from the table and turned to leave, he quietly remarked: + +"The chief legatee--the one she chose to leave the bulk of her very large +fortune to--is a man we none of us know. His name is Josiah Auchincloss." + +The change which the utterance of this name caused in Hazen's expression +threw them both into confusion. + +"Why didn't you tell me that in the beginning?" he cried. "I needn't have +wasted all this time and effort." + +His eyes shone, his poor lips smiled, his whole air was jubilant. Both +Mr. Harper and his client surveyed him in amazement. The lines so fast +disappearing from his brow were beginning to reappear on theirs. + +"Mr. Harper," this hard-to-be-understood man now declared, "you may +safely administer the estate of my sister. She is surely dead." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A STARTLING DECISION + + +Before Mr. Ransom and the lawyer had recovered from their astonishment, +Hazen had slipped from the room. As Mr. Harper started to follow, he saw +the other's head disappearing down the staircase leading to the office. +He called to him, but Hazen declined to turn. + +"No time," he shouted back. "I shall have to make use of somebody's +automobile now, to get to the Ferry in time." + +The lawyer did not persist, not at that moment; he went back to his +client and they had a few hurried words; then Mr. Harper went below and +took up his stand on the portico. He was determined that Hazen should not +leave the place without some further explanation. + +It was light where he stood and he very soon felt that this would not +do, so he slipped back into the shade of a pillar, and seeing, from the +bustle, that Hazen was likely to obtain the use of the one automobile +stored in the stable, he waited with reasonable patience for his +reappearance in the road before him. + +Meanwhile he had confidence in Ransom, who he felt sure was watching +them both from the window overhead. If he should fail in getting in +the word he wanted, Ransom was pledged to shout it out without regard +to appearances. But this was not likely to occur. He knew his own +persistency to equal Hazen's. Nothing should stop the momentary interview +he had promised himself. + +Ah! A well-known whirr and clatter is heard. The automobile was leaving +the stable. Hazen was already in it and the man who had come up from New +York was with him. This was bad; they would flash by--No; he would not be +balked thus. Stepping out into the road, he stopped full in the glare of +the office lights and held up his hand. They could not but see him and +they did. The chauffeur reversed the lever and the machine stopped to +the accompaniment of low muttered oaths from Hazen, which were rather +disagreeable than otherwise to Harper's ear. + +"One word," said he, approaching to the side where Hazen sat. "I thought +you ought to know before leaving that we can take no proceedings in the +matter we were speaking of till we have undisputed proof that your sister +is dead. That we may not get for a long time, possibly never. If you are +interested in having this Auchincloss receive his inheritance, you had +better prepare both yourself and him for a long wait. The river seems +slow to give up its dead." + +The quiver of impatience which had shaken Hazen at the first word had +settled into a strange rigidity. + +"One moment," he said in a command to the chauffeur at his side. Then in +a low, strangely sounding whisper to Harper: "They think the body's in +the Devil's Cauldron. Nothing can get it out if it is. Would some proof +of its presence there be sufficient to settle the fact of her death?" + +"That would depend. If the proof was unmistakable, it might pass in the +Surrogate's Court. What is the matter, Hazen?" + +"Nothing." The tone was hollow; the whole man sat like an image of death. +"I--I'm thinking--weighing--" he uttered in scattered murmurs. Then +suddenly, "You're not deceiving me, Harper. Some proof will be necessary, +and that very soon, for this man Auchincloss to realize the money?" + +"Yes," the monosyllable was as dry as it was short. Harper's patience +with this unnatural brother was about at an end. + +"And who will venture to obtain this proof for us? No one. Not even +Ransom would venture down into that watery hole. They say it is almost +certain death," babbled Hazen. + +Harper kept silence. Strange forces were at work. The head of another +gruesome tragedy loomed vaguely through the shadows of this already +sufficiently tragic mystery. + +"Go on!" suddenly shouted Hazen, leaning forward to the chauffeur. But +the next instant his hand was on the man's sleeve. "No, I have changed my +mind. Here, Staples," he called out as a man came running down the steps, +"take my bag and ask the landlady to prepare me a room. I'll not try for +the train to-night." Then as the man at his side leaped to the ground, he +turned to Harper and remarked quietly, but in no common tone: + +"The steamer must sail without me. I'll stay in this place a while and +prove the death of Georgian Ransom myself." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE DEVIL'S CAULDRON + + +The solemnity of Hazen's whole manner impressed Mr. Harper strongly. As +soon as the opportunity offered he cornered the young man in the office +where he had taken refuge, and giving him to understand that further +explanations must pass between them before either slept, he drew him +apart and put the straight question to him: + +"Who is Josiah Auchincloss?" + +The answer was abrupt, almost menacing in its emphasis and tone. + +"A trunk-maker in St. Louis. A man she was indebted to." + +"How indebted to--a trunk-maker?" + +"That I cannot, do not desire to state. It is enough that she felt she +owed him the bulk of her fortune. Though this eliminates me from benefits +of a wealth I had some rights to share, I make no complaint. She knew her +business best, and I am disposed to accept her judgment in the matter +without criticism." + +"You are?" The tone was sharp, the sarcasm biting. "I can understand +that. For Auchincloss, in this will, read Hazen; but how about her +husband? How about her friends and the general community? Do you not +think they will ask why a beautiful and socially well-placed young woman +like your sister should leave so large a portion of her wealth to an +obscure man in another town, of whom her friends and even her business +agent have never heard? It would have been better if she had left you her +thousands directly." + +The smile which was Hazen's only retort was very bitter. + +"You drew up her will," said he. "You must have reasoned with her on this +very point as you are now trying to reason with me?" + +The lawyer waved this aside. + +"I didn't know at that time the social status of the legatee; nor did I +know her brother then as well as I do now." + +"You do not know me now." + +"I know that you are very pale; that the determination you have just made +has cost you more than you perhaps are willing to state. That there is +mystery in your past, mystery in your present, and, possibly, mystery +threatening your future, and all in connection with your great desire for +this money." + +Hazen made a forcible gesture, but whether of denial or depreciation, it +was not easy to decide. + +"Would it not then be better for all parties," pursued the lawyer, "for +you to give me some idea of the great obligation under which your sister +lay to this man, that I may have an answer ready when people ask me why +she passed you so conspicuously by, in order to enrich this stranger?" + +"The story is not mine. Had she wished you to know it, she would have +confided it to you herself. I must decline--" + +Mr. Harper interrupted the other impressively. "Do you realize what a +shadow may be thrown upon your sister's memory by this reticence on your +part? Her death was suggestive enough without the complications you +mention. In justice to your relationship you should speak. If, as I +think, the money is really meant for you, say so. The subterfuge may be +difficult of explanation, but it will not hurt her memory as much as this +extraordinary silence on your part." + +"I am sorry," began Hazen. But Harper cut him short. + +"You expect the money--you yourself," said he. "Nothing else would force +you into an attempt so perilous. You would risk death. Risk something +less final; risk your place in my esteem, your standing among men, and +confess the full truth about this matter. If it involves crime--why, I'm +a lawyer and can see you through better than you can win through by your +own misdirected efforts. The truth, my lad, the truth, nothing else will +serve you." + +The look he received he will never forget. + +"You are a man of limited experience, Mr. Harper," were the words which +accompanied it. "You would not understand the truth, Georgian or me. +Ransom might, but I shall not even risk Ransom's discretion. Now this +is all I am going to say about this matter. Georgian's last will and +testament, followed though it was by suicide, was a perfectly regular +one. The only impediment to its being so recognized and acted upon is the +doubt as to her actual decease. If the body of my poor young sister has +become lodged in the Devil's Cauldron, I am going there to seek it. As +the project calls for courage and, above all, a good condition of body +and mind, I shall be obliged to you if you will allow me the benefit of +the sleep I most certainly need. To-morrow I may have something more to +say to you, and I may not. Perhaps I shall want to make _my will_, who +knows?" And with a smile full of sarcastic meaning, he pushed Mr. +Harper's arm aside and made for the staircase, up which he presently +vanished without another attempt on the lawyer's part to hold him back. + +A few minutes later the lawyer was getting what information he could +about the so-called Devil's Cauldron. + +It seems that this was a very deep hole in which, on account of the rocky +formation surrounding it, the water swept in an eddy which had the force +of a whirlpool. No one had ever sounded its depths and nothing had ever +been seen again which had once been sucked into its deathly hollow. That +Georgian's body had found its everlasting grave there, many had believed +from the first, and if the conviction had not yet been publicly expressed +it was out of consideration for Mr. Ransom, to whose hopes it could but +ring a final knell. + +"Where is the hole? How far from the waterfall?" queried Mr. Harper. + +"A good mile," muttered one man. "Quite around the bend of the stream. +It's a horrid place, sir. We've always been mortal careful about rowing +down that side of the river. Children are never allowed to. Only a man's +strength could get him free again if he once struck the eddy." + +"Would anything floating down from the falls be apt to strike this eddy?" + +"Very apt. It would be a miracle if it didn't. That is why we all turned +out so willingly the first day. We knew that if Mrs. Ransom's body was to +be found at all, it would be found then; another day it would be beyond +our reach." + +"You say that no one has ever sounded the depths of that hole. Has any +one ever tried to?" + +"More than once. Scientific men and others." + +"Did they ever emerge--any of them?" + +"Yes, one, a powerful sort of chap with Indian blood in him. But he +didn't advise any one to try it; said the knowledge wasn't worth the +strain to heart and muscle." + +"What was the knowledge? We can imagine the strain." + +"Oh, he said as how the walls of the vortex--didn't he call it a +vortex--was all stone, and he spoke of a ledge--I didn't hear what +else." + +"To go down there a man would have to take his life in his hand, I see. +Well, I don't think I will try," dryly observed the lawyer as he left the +room. + +He could no longer hide his excitement at the thought that Hazen +meditated this undertaking. + +"How he must want money!" thought he. That a man should face such a +horror for another man's profit did not seem likely enough to engage his +consideration for a moment. + +Lawyer Harper knew the world--or thought he did. + +Next day the whole town was thrown into a hubbub. Word had gone out +through every medium possible to so small a place, that Alfred Hazen, +Georgian's long-lost brother, was going to dare Death Eddy in a final +attempt to recover his sister's body. + + + + +PART IV + +The Man of Mystery + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +DEATH EDDY + + +It was a gray day, chill and ominous. As the three most interested in the +event came together on the road facing the point from which Hazen had +decided to make his desperate plunge, the dreariness of the scene was +reflected in the troubled eye of the lawyer and that of the still more +profoundly affected Ransom. Only Hazen gazed unmoved. Perhaps because +the spot was no new one to him, perhaps because an unsympathetic sky, +a stretch of rock, the swirl of churning waters without any of the +lightness and color which glancing sunlight gives, meant for him but one +thing--the thing upon which he had fixed his mind, his soul. + +The rocky formation into which the stream ran at this point as into a +pocket, revealed itself in the bald outlines of the point which, curving +half-way upon itself, held in its cold embrace the unseen vortex. One +tree, and one only, disturbed the sky line. Stark and twisted into an +unusual shape from the steady blowing of the prevalent east winds, it +imprinted itself at once upon the eye and unconsciously upon the +imagination. To some it was the keeper of that hell-gate; the contorted +sentinel of bygone woes and long-buried horrors, if not the gnomish +genius of others yet to come. To-day it was the sign-post to a strange +deed--the courting of an uncanny death that one of the many secrets +hidden in that hole of miseries might be unlocked. + +Under this tree a small group of strong and determined men was already +collected; not as spectators but helpers in the adventurous attempt about +to be undertaken by their old friend and playmate. The spectators had +been barred from the point and stood lined up in the road overlooking the +eddy. They were numerous and very eager. Hazen's brows drew together in +his first exhibition of feeling, as he saw women and even children in the +crowd, and caught the expression of morbid anticipation with which they +all turned as he stepped with his two associates over the rope which had +been stretched across the base of the out-curving head line. + +[Illustration: "Cormorants!" escaped his lips. "They look for a feast +of death, but they will be disappointed."] + +"Cormorants!" escaped his lips. "They look for a feast of death, but +they will be disappointed." He was almost bitter. "I shall survive this +plunge. I have no wish for my death to be the holiday for a hundred +gloating eyes, I am not handsome enough. When I die, it will be quietly, +with some hand near, kind enough to cover my poor face with a napkin." + +Harper and Ransom both remembered this remark a little while later. + +"Mr. Hazen?" It was Harper who spoke. They had passed a little thicket +of brush and were drawing near the group under the tree. "Have you duly +considered what you are about to do? I have talked with several men of +judgment and experience about this attempt, and they all say it can have +but one termination." + +"I know. That is because they know little or nothing of the life I have +led since I left this town. There is not a man amongst them so slight and +seemingly frail of figure as myself, but none of them, not one, has been +so often up to the very gates of death and escaped, as I have. My +schooling has been long and severe, perhaps in preparation for this day. +I have been through fire; I have been through water. The swirling of my +own native stream does not appall me. I rather welcome it; it is but +another experience." + +"But for money?" broke in Ransom. "You acknowledge it is for no other +purpose. Will it pay? I own that in my eyes no amount of money could pay +a man for so superhuman a risk as this. Take a few thousands from me--I +had rather give them to you than see you leap into that water opening +beneath us like a hungry maw." + +Hazen stood silent, his eye glistening, his hand almost outstretched. +Harper thought he would yield; the offer must have struck him as generous +and very tempting--a good excuse for a hot-headed man to withdraw from a +very doubtful adventure. But he did not know Hazen. This latter advanced +his hand and squeezed Ransom's warmly, but his answer, when he was ready +to give one, conveyed no intention of a change of mind. + +"Will your thousands amount to a clean million?" he smiled. "That is the +amount, I believe, bequeathed by your wife to Mr. Auchincloss. Nothing +less will suffice. Yet I thank you, Ransom." + +The latter bowed and fell a little behind the others. The struggle in his +mind had been severe; it was severe yet; he did not know but that it was +his duty to stop this Hazen from his intended action by force. He was not +sure but that the onus of this whole desperate undertaking would yet fall +upon him. Certainly it would fall upon his conscience if the end was +fatal. He had had proof of that in the long night of wakeful misery he +had just passed; a night in which he had faced the furies; in which this +inexorable question had forced itself upon him despite every effort on +his part to evade it. + +Why had he, a humane man, consented to this attempt on the part of the +devoted Hazen? That his mind might be free to mourn his beautiful young +bride whose fatal and mysterious secret he was still as far from knowing +as in the hour he turned to welcome her to their first home and found her +fled from his arms and heart? Or had this suspense, this feeling of +standing now, as never before, at the opening door of fate, a deeper +significance, a more active meaning? Was this meditated test a crucial +one, because it opened to him the only possible releasement of soul and +conscience to the undivided care of one who had no other refuge in life +save that offered by his devotion? The horror of this self-probing was +still upon him as he followed Hazen's slight and virile figure across the +rocks, but it fled as he felt the spray of the tossing waters dash its +chilling reminder in his face. + +The event was upon him and he must add to his former actions that of +a complete and determined opposition to the risk proposed or possibly +forfeit his peace of mind forever. Quickening his pace, he reached Hazen +and the lawyer just as the men awaiting them had advanced on their side. +Instantly he knew it was too late. There was neither time nor opportunity +for any weak protests on his part now. Older men were speaking; men who +knew the river, the danger, and the man, but even they said nothing to +him in way of dissuasion. They only pointed out what especial points of +suction were to be avoided, and showed him the chain they had brought for +his waist and how he was to pull upon it the very instant he felt his +senses or his strength leaving him. + +He answered as a courageous man might, and making ready by taking off his +coat and shoes he gave himself into their hands for the proper fastening +on of the chain. Then, while the murmur of expectation rose from the +crowd on the river bank, he stepped back to Mr. Ransom and whispered +hurriedly in his ear: + +"You have a good heart, a better heart than I ever gave you credit for. +Promise that in case I never come out of those waters alive, that you +will put no obstacle in the way of Mr. Auchincloss inheriting his fortune +in good time. He's a man worthy of all the assistance which money can +bring. _You_ do not need her wealth; Anitra--well, she will be cared for, +but Auchincloss--promise--brother." + +Ransom half drew back in his amazement. Then started forward again. This +man whom he had always distrusted, whom he had looked upon as Georgian's +possible enemy, certainly his own, was looking into his eyes with a gaze +of trust, almost of affection. The money was not for himself; he showed +it by the noble, almost grand look with which he waited for his answer; +a look that carried conviction despite Ransom's prejudice and great +dislike. + +"You will give me that much additional nerve for the task lying before +me?" he added. And Ransom could only bow his head. The man's mastery was +limitless; it had reached and moved even him. + +Another moment and a gasp went up from fifty or more throats. Hazen had +taken the chain in his hand, walked to the edge of the rock and slipped +into the quietest water he saw there. + +"Strike left!" called out a voice. And he struck left. The eddy seized +him and they could see his head moving slowly about in the great circle +which gradually grew smaller and smaller till he suddenly disappeared. A +groan muffled with horror went up from the shore. But the man who held +the chain lifted up his hand, and silence--more pregnant of anticipation +than any sound--held that whole crowd rigid. The man played out the +chain; Harper stared at the seething, tumbling water, but Ransom looked +another way. The torture in his soul was taking shape, the shape of a +ghost rising from those tossing waters. Suddenly the pent-in breath of +fifty breasts found its way again to the lips. + +The men who held the chain were pulling it in with violent reaches. It +dragged more slowly, stuck, loosened itself, and finally brought into +sight a face white as the foam it rose amongst. + +"Dead! Drowned!" the whisper went around. + +But when Hazen was dragged ashore and Ransom had thrown himself at his +feet, he saw that he yet lived, and lived triumphantly. Ransom could not +have told more; it was for others to see and point out the smile that +sweetened the wan lips, and the passion with which he held against his +breast some sodden and shapeless object which he had rescued from those +awful depths, and which, when spread out and clean of sand, betrayed +itself as that peculiar article of woman's clothing, a small side bag. + +"I remember that bag," said Harper. "I saw it, or one exactly like it, in +Mrs. Ransom's hand when she got into the coach the day we all rode up +from the ferry. What will he have to say about it? and could he have seen +the body from which it has evidently been torn?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +HAZEN + + +"An unfathomable man," grumbled Mr. Harper, entering Mr. Ransom's room in +marked disorder. "They say that he has not spoken yet; but the coroner is +with him and we shall hear something from him soon. I expect--" here the +lawyer's voice changed and his manner took on meaning--"that his report +will be final." + +"Final? You mean--" + +"What his fainting face showed. For all its pallor and the exhaustion it +expressed, there was triumph in its every feature. The little bag was not +all he saw in that pit of hell. You must prepare yourself for no common +ordeal, Ransom; it will take all your courage to listen to his story." + +"I know." The words came with difficulty but not without a certain manly +courage. "I shall try not to make you too much trouble." Then after a +moment of oppressive silence, "Did you notice, when we all came in, the +figure of a woman disappearing up the stair way? It was Anitra's and it +paused before it reached the top, and I saw her eyes staring down at +Hazen's helpless figure with a wildness in its inquiry that has sapped +all my courage. How are we to answer that girl when she asks us what has +happened? How make her know that Hazen is her brother and that he has +just risked his life to satisfy himself and us that Georgian was really +lost in that dreadful pool." + +The lawyer, darting a keen glance at the speaker, softly shook his head. + +"I am not thinking of Miss Hazen," said he. "I'm wondering how far the +proof he has obtained will go." He paused, listening, then made a gesture +towards the hall. "There's some one there," he whispered. + +Ransom rose, and with a quick turn of the wrist pulled open the door. + +A man was standing on the threshold, a ghastly figure before which Ransom +involuntarily stepped back. + +"Hazen!" he cried; then, as the other tottered, he sprang forward again +and, reaching out his hand to steady him, drew him in with the remark, +"We were expecting a summons from you. We are happy that you find +yourself able to come to us." + +"The coroner has just gone. The doctors I dismissed. I have something to +say to you--to both of you," he added as he caught sight of Mr. Harper. + +Entering slowly, he sat down in the chair proffered him by the lawyer. +There was something strange in his air, a quiet automaton-like quality +which attracted the latter's notice and led him to watch him very +closely. Ransom was busy with the door, which the strong west wind +blowing through the hall made difficult to close. + +"I--" The one word uttered, Hazen seemed to forget himself. Sitting quite +still, he gazed straight before him at the open window. There was little +to be seen there but the swaying boughs of the huge tree, but his gaze +never left those tossing limbs, and his sentence hung suspended till the +movement made by Ransom recrossing the room roused him, and he went on. + +"I have made the plunge, gentlemen, and fortune favored me. I--" here his +voice failed him again, but realizing the fact more quickly than before, +he shook off his apathy, and facing the two men, who awaited his slow +words with inconceivable excitement, continued with sudden concentration +upon his subject, "I saw what I went to see--poor Georgian's body. I have +satisfied the coroner of this fact. The little bag I tore from her side +proves her identity beyond a doubt. You saw it, Mr. Harper. They tell me +that you recognized it at once as the same you saw in her hand in the +stage-coach. But if you had not, the initials on it are unmistakable, G. +Q. H., Georgian Quinlan Hazen. Auchincloss will get his money, and soon, +will he not? Answer me plainly, Harper. Such an experience merits some +reward. You will not make difficulties?" + +"I?" The lawyer's query had a strange ring to it. He glanced from Hazen +to Ransom, and from Ransom back to Hazen, whose features had now become +more composed, though they still retained their remarkable pallor. + +"If the proof is positive," he then went on, "you assuredly can trust +both my client and myself to remember our promise to you." + +"The coroner, you say, is satisfied?" + +"Yes, with the proof and my sworn statement. He is obliged to be. No one +else, least of all himself, feels any desire to go down to that whirling +eddy for confirmation of my story. And they are wise. I do not think +that any man with less experience than myself could sound the depths of +that vortex and come up alive. The noise--the swirl--the sense of being +sucked down--down in ever-increasing fury--but my purpose kept the life +in me. I was determined not to yield, not to faint, till I had seen--and +proved--" + +"What's that?" + +The cry was from Mr. Ransom. A sudden gust of wind had torn its way +through the room, flinging the door wide, and strewing the floor with +flying papers from the large stand in the window. + +"Nothing but wind," answered Harper, half rising to close the door, but +immediately sitting down again with a strange look at Ransom. "Let be," +he whispered, as the other rose in his turn to restore order. "Keep Hazen +talking. It's important; imperative. I'll see to the door." + +But it was the window he closed, not the door. + +Ransom, with that obedience natural to a client in presence of his most +trusted adviser, did as he was bid, and turned his full attention back to +Hazen instantly. That gentleman, upon whom the rushing wind and the havoc +it created had made little if any impression, rushed again into words. + +"I've led an adventurous life," he declared, "and, in the last few years +especially, passed through many perils and experienced much awful +suffering. I have felt the pang of hunger and the pang of biting despair; +but nothing I have ever endured can equal the horror which beclouded my +mind and rendered powerless my body as I felt myself sliding from the +sight of earth and heaven into the jaws of that rapacious eddy, whose +bottom no man had ever sounded. + +"I went in young--I have come out old. Look at my hands--they shake like +those of a man of ninety. Yet yesterday they could have pulled to the +ground an ox." + +"You saw Mrs. Ransom's body down in that pool some fathoms below the +surface," observed the lawyer, after waiting in vain for some word from +the shrinking husband. "Won't you particularize, Mr. Hazen? Tell us just +how she was lying and where. Mr. Ransom cannot but wish to know, +difficult as he evidently finds it to ask you." + +"The coroner has the story," Hazen began, with the slow, painful gasp of +the unwilling narrator. "But I will tell it again; it is your right, the +painful duty which we cannot escape. She was lying, not on the bottom, +but in a niche of rock into which she had been thrown and wedged by the +force of the current. One arm was free and was washing about; I tried to +clutch this arm as I went down, but it eluded me. When I arose, the rush +and swirl of the water was against me and I felt my senses going, but +enough instinct was left for me to snatch again at the arm as I passed, +and though it eluded me again, my fingers closed on something, which I +was just conscious enough to hold on to with a frenzied grip. We have +spoken of this thing--a little bag which must have been fastened to her +side, for the end of its connecting strap is torn away by the wrench I +gave it." + +"Vivid enough; but I am sure you will tell me one thing more. Did you see +the face of this body as well as the arm? It would greatly add to the +strength of your testimony if you could describe it." + +Ransom, who had been watching Hazen, cast a sudden look back at the +lawyer as he dropped these insinuating words. Something more than a +cold-blooded desire for truth had prompted this almost brutal +inquisition. He must know what it was, if anything in Harper's +well-controlled countenance would tell him. The result transfixed him, +for following the lawyer's gaze, which was fixed not on the man he was +addressing but on a small mirror hanging on the opposite wall, he saw +reflected in it the face and form of Anitra standing in the open +doorway behind them. + +She was looking at Hazen and, as Ransom noted that look, he understood +Harper's previous caution and all that lay behind his insistent and +cold-blooded questions. For her gaze was no longer one of simple inquiry +but of horrified understanding;--_the gaze of one who heard_. + +Meantime, Hazen was answering in painful gasps the lawyer's pointed +question, "Did you see the face of this body as well as the arm?" + +"Did I see--God help me, yes. Just a glimpse, but I knew it. Eyes that my +mother had kissed, blind--staring--glassed in awe and unspeakable fright. +The mouth, whose every curve I had studied in the old days of perfect +affection, drawn into a revolting grin and dripping with unwholesome +weeds brought down from the shallows. All strange, yet all familiar--my +sister--Georgian--dead--stark--but recognizable. Don't ask me if I saw +it. I always see it; it is before me now, the forehead--the chin--the +eyes--" + +Ransom sprang to his feet, Harper also. + +The girl in the doorway had gone white as death, and with outstretched +arms and frantic, haggard eyes was striving to ward off the frightful +vision conjured up by her brother's words. The movement made by the +two men recalled her in an instant to herself, and she drew back--the +hesitating, appealing, anxious-eyed girl whom they all knew. But it +was too late. Hazen had seen as well as the others, and leaping in +frenzy from his chair stood confronting her--a dominant and accusing +figure--between the quietly triumphant lawyer and the crushed, almost +unconscious Ransom. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +SHE SPEAKS + + +Hazen's face was frightful to see; the more so that physical weakness +contended with the outsweep of passion, so great and overwhelming in its +power and destructive force that to the two onlookers it seemed to spring +from deeper sources than ordinary life and death, and have its birth, as +well as its culmination, in the unknown and all that is most terrible +in the human mind and human experience. + +Anitra's eye was spellbound by it. As it dilated upon this vision of +unspeakable wrath and almost superhuman denunciation, her own exquisite +face filled with a reflected horror, almost equaling his in force and +meaning, till the two awed spectators saw in this moment of startled +recognition and the up-gathering of two great natures, the oncoming of +some hideous climax for which the many strange and contradictory +experiences of the last few days had not served to prepare them. + +"You _hear_!" + +In these words Hazen loosed out his soul. + +The keen cry of the wind running through the house was his only answer. + +"You _hear_!" he repeated, advancing and laying a determined hand upon +her arm. "You have made a mock of us with your pretended deafness. What +does it mean--Stop! no more play-acting," he fiercely admonished her, as +her eyes assumed a look of startled inquiry and wandered away in vague +curiosity to the papers scattered over the floor--"we have had enough +of that; you cannot deceive us--you cannot deceive _me_ twice. You played +at deafness--why? Because Anitra must have some disability to distinguish +her from Georgian? Because you are not Anitra? Because you are Georgian +after all?" + +Georgian! + +The word fell like a plummet into the hollow of that great expectancy. +Ransom shivered and even Harper's hard cheek changed color. Hazen only +stood unmoved, his look, his grasp, the spirit behind that look and +grasp, implacable and determined. Their influence was terrible; slowly +she succumbed to it against her will and purpose, the will and purpose of +a very strong woman. Her eyes rose in a painful and lingering struggle to +his face. Then, with a cry her drawn and parched lips could not suppress, +she flashed them in agony on Ransom, and this long-suffering man read in +them the maddening truth. They were his wife's eyes; the woman before him +was indeed Georgian. + +"Speak!" rang out the voice of Hazen, as Harper, realizing from Ransom's +face what Ransom had just realized from hers, stepped to the door and +closed it. "The time is short; I have much, very much to do. For my sake, +for the sake of this much-abused man, whom you allowed to marry you, +speak out, tell the truth at once. You are Georgian." + +"Yes," fell in almost an inaudible whisper from her lips. "I am +Georgian." Then as he loosed his grasp from her arm and she was left +standing there alone, some instinct of isolation, some realization of the +mysterious pit she had dug for herself and possibly for others, in this +avowal of her identity, wrought her brain into momentary madness, and +flinging up her arms she fell on her knees before Hazen as under the +stroke of some unseen thunderbolt. + +"You made me say it," she cried. "On your head be the punishment, not on +mine nor on his." Then as Hazen drew slowly back, touched in his turn by +some emotion to which neither his look nor gesture gave any clew, she +rose to her feet, and fixing him with a look of strange defiance, added +in milder but no less determined tones: "A tongue unloosed talks long and +loud. You have made me give up my secret, but I shall not stop at that. I +shall say more; tell all my dreadful history; yours--mine. I will not be +thought wicked because I undertook so great a deception. I will not have +this good man's opinion of me shaken; not for a minute; what I did, I +did for him and he shall know it whatever penalty it may incur. He is +my husband--his love to me is priceless, and I will hold it against +you--against the Cause--against Heaven--yes, and against Hell." + +Here was truth. To Ransom it came like balm and a renewed life. Bounding +across the room, he strove to seize her hand and draw her to himself. +But Hazen would not have it. His anger, indeterminate before, was +concentrated now, and not the white pleading of her face, nor the warning +gesture of Ransom, could hold it back. + +"Traitress!" he cried, "traitress to me and to the Cause. You thought +to escape what is inescapable. Do you know what you have done? You +have--" The rest hung in air. A sudden weakness had seized him and he +sank faltering back into a chair Harper pushed towards him, still +denouncing her, however, with lifted hand and accusing eyes, the +image--though no longer a speaking one--of the implacable and determined +avenger. + +Georgian, shocked into silence, stared at him in a frenzy of complicated +emotions to which neither of them as yet had given the key capable of +relieving the maddening tension. + +"It is the pool; the pool," she finally murmured. "Its waters have beaten +out your life." But he calmly shook his head. + +"It is not in water to do that," he murmured. "Give me a moment. I've a +question to ask. I think a drop of liquor--" + +Harper had flask in hand almost before the word had left the other's +mouth. The draft revived Hazen; he looked up at Georgian. "I believe you, +so do these men believe you. But you were not alone in this plot. Where +is Anitra? Where is the deaf and solitary one you dragged from the +streets of New York to bolster up your plot? Tell us and tell us quickly. +Where is Anitra?" + +"Anitra? Do you ask that?" cried Harper, roused to speak for the first +time by his boundless amazement and indignation. "You have described the +body in the pool--a description which fits either sister, and yet you +would make this woman tell us what you have seen with your own eyes." + +He might as well not have spoken. Neither he nor she seemed to hear him. +Certainly neither heeded. + +"Anitra?" she repeated softly and with a strange intonation. "I am +Anitra. I am both Georgian and Anitra. There have never been two of us +since I came into this house." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +FIFTEEN MINUTES + + +"There have never been but one of us since I came into this house." + +Monstrous assertion! or so it seemed to Ransom as the whirl of his +thoughts settled and reason resumed its sway. Only one! But he had +himself seen two; so had Mrs. Deo and the maids; he could even relate the +differences between them on that first night. Yet had he ever seen them +together, or even the shadow of one at the same moment he saw the person +of the other? No, and with such an actress as she had shown herself to be +these last two days, such changes of appearance might be possible, though +why she should engage in such a deep, almost incredible plot was a +mystery to make the hair rise,--she, the tender, exquisite, the beloved +woman of his dreams. + +She saw the maddening nature of his confusion and, springing to him, fell +on her knees with the imploring cry: + +"Patience! Do not try to think--I will tell you. It can all be said in a +word. I was bound to this brother of mine, to do his bidding, to follow +his fortunes through life, and up to death, by promises and oaths to +which those uttered by me at the marriage altar were but toys and empty +air. Anitra, or the dream sister my misery took from the dead, was not +so bound, so I strove to secure our joy by the seeming death of Georgian +and a new life as her twin. You do not understand; you cannot. You have +no measure with which to gauge such men as my brother. But it will be +given you. There is no hope now. The weakness of a moment has undone us." + +Ransom must have heard her, after events proved that he did, but he gave +no token of it. The visions that were whirling through his mind still +held it engrossed. He saw her, not as she stood before him now, trembling +and appealing, but as she had looked to him in the hall that first night, +as she had looked to him down by the mill-stream, as she had looked when +she told her story as Anitra, and later when she had faced the landlady +as Georgian, and the confusion of it all left no room in his conscience +for any other impression. But Mr. Harper, though surprised as he had +never been before in all his professional career, lost himself in no such +abyss. With the freedom which long-delayed insight into the truth gives +to a man of his positive nature and training, he left speculation and all +endeavor to reconcile events with her declaration, and plunged at once to +the obvious question of the moment. + +Fixing his keen gaze on Hazen, he observed very quietly, but with an +underlying note of sarcasm: + +"If this lady is your sister, Georgian Ransom, and there is no Anitra +save the fast fading memory of the child commemorated in your family's +monument, then your statement as to the body you saw under the ledge was +false?" + +The answer came deliberately, unaffected both by the manner of the +accusation or by the accusation itself. + +"Perfectly so," said he, "I saw no body. Perhaps my description would +have been less vivid if I had. My intention you know. This woman had +deceived me to the point of making me believe that she was indeed Anitra, +the twin, and not my millionaire sister, and Georgian's fortune being +necessary to her heir, I wished to cut short the law's delay by an +apparent identification. I never doubted from the moment this woman faced +with such well-played ignorance the mark of great meaning we had placed +upon her door, that Georgian was in the river, as you all believed. Why +then not give her a positive resting-place, since this would smooth out +all difficulties and hasten the very end for which she had apparently +sacrificed herself." + +If there was any irony in his heart, his tongue did not show it. Indeed +his manner betrayed little. Immobility had again replaced all tokens of +anger, and immobility which only yielded now and then to a slight +contortion more expressive of physical pain than of mental agitation. +Yet in Georgian's eyes he had lost none of his formidable qualities, for +the dismay with which she followed his words grew as she listened, and +reached its height as he added in final explanation: + +"The bag I did draw out of the pool, but only because I had taken it down +there in my blouse front. Did you think a man could see that or anything +else indeed in that maddening swirl of water?" + +"But it was Mrs. Ransom's bag," came from Harper in ill-disguised +amazement. Even his sang-froid was leaving him before these evidences +of a plot so deep as to awaken awe. "Where did you get it? Not from Mrs. +Ransom herself? Her own surprise is warranty for that." + +"No, I got it from the river, another reason why I credited her drowning. +It was fished up from the sand, a little way from the Fall. My man found +it; I had sent him there in a vain hope that he might find evidence of +the tragedy which others had overlooked. He did, but he told no one but +me. You flung the thing too far," he remarked to Georgian. "You should +have dropped it nearer the bank. Only such a prodder as my man Ives would +ever have discovered it." + +Georgian shook her head, impatient at such banalities, in the face of the +important matters they had to discuss. "To the point," she cried, "tell +these men what will clear me of everything but a wild attempt at +freedom." + +"I have said what I had to say," returned her brother. + +Georgian's head fell. For a moment her courage seemed to fail her. + +Mr. Harper rose and locked the door. + +"We must have no intruders here," said he, pausing with a certain sense +of shock, as he noticed the faint smile, full of some sinister meaning, +which for an instant twisted Hazen's lips at these words. + +But the delay was but momentary. With an odd sense of haste he rushed at +once to the attack. + +Stepping in front of Hazen, he observed with force and unmistakable +resolution: + +"Your devotion to the legatee Auchincloss cannot possibly be explained by +any ordinary feeling of obligation. Your sister has mentioned a Cause. +Can he by any possibility be the treasurer of that Cause?" + +But Hazen was as impervious to direct attack as he had been to a covert +one. + +"Georgian will tell you," said he. "When a woman looks as she looks now, +and is so given over to her own personal longings that she forgets the +most serious oaths, the most binding promises, nothing can hold back her +speech. She will talk, and since this must be, let her talk now and in +my presence. But let it be briefly," he admonished her, "and with +discretion. An unnecessary word will weigh heavily in the end. You know +in what scales. You shall have just fifteen minutes." + +He looked about for a clock, but seeing none drew out his watch from his +vest pocket and laid it on the table. Then he settled himself again in +his chair, with a look and gesture of imperative command towards +Georgian. + +Struck with dismay, she hesitated and he had time to add: "I shall not +interrupt unless you pass the bounds where narrative ends and disclosure +begins." And Harper and Ransom, glancing up at this, wondered at his +rigidity and the almost marble-like quiet into which his restless eye and +frenzied movements had now subsided. + +Georgian seemed to wonder also, for she gave him a long and piercing look +before she spoke. But once she had begun her story, she forgot to look +anywhere but at the man whose forgiveness she sought and for the +restoration of whose sympathy she was unconsciously pleading. + +Her first words settled one point which up to this moment had disturbed +Ransom greatly. + +"You must forget Anitra's story. It was suggested by facts in my own +life, but it was not true of me or mine in any of its particulars. +Nor must you remember what the world knows, or what my relations say +about my life. The open facts tell little of my real history, which +from childhood to the day I believed my brother dead was indissolubly +bound up in his. Though our fathers were not the same and he has +old-world blood in his veins, while I am of full American stock, we loved +each other as dearly and shared each other's life as intimately as if the +bond between us had been one in blood as it was in taste and habit. This +was when we were both young. Later, a change came. Some old papers of his +father fell into his hands. A new vision of life,--sympathies quite +remote from those which had hitherto engrossed him, led him further and +further into strange ways and among strange companions. Ignorant of what +it all meant, but more alive than ever to his influence, I blindly +followed him, receiving his friends as my friends and subscribing to such +of their convictions as they thought wise to express before me. Another +year and he and I were living a life apart, owning no individual +existence but devoting brain, heart, all we had and all we were, to the +advancement and perpetuation of an idea. I have called this idea the +Cause. Let that name suffice. I can give you no other." + +Pausing, she waited for some look of comprehension from the man she +sought to enlighten. But he was yet too dazed to respond to her mute +appeal, and she was forced to continue without it. Indicating Hazen with +a gesture, she said, with her eyes still fixed on those of her husband: + +"You see him now as he came from under the harrow; but in those days--I +must speak of you as you were, Alfred--he was a man to draw all eyes and +win all hearts. Men loved him, women adored him. Little as he cared for +our sex, he had but to speak, for the coldest breast to heave, the most +indifferent eye to beam. I felt his power as strong as the rest, only +differently. No woman was more his slave than I, but it was a sister's +devotion I felt, a devotion capable of being supplanted by another. But I +did not know this. I thought him my whole world and let him engross me in +his plans and share his passions for subjects I did not even seek to +understand. + +"I was only seventeen, he twenty-five. It was for him to think, not me. +And he did think but to my eternal undoing. The Cause needed a woman's +help, a woman's enthusiasm. Without considering my motherless condition, +my helplessness, the immaturity of my mind, he drew me day by day into +the secret meshes of his great scheme, a scheme which, as I failed to +understand till it had absorbed me, meant the unequivocal devotion of my +whole life to the exclusion of every other hope or purpose. Favored, he +called it, favored to stand for liberty, the advancement of men, the +right of every human being to an untrammeled existence. And favored I +thought myself, till one awful day when my brother, coming suddenly into +my room, found me making plans for an innocent pleasure and told me such +things were no longer for me, that a great and immortal duty awaited me, +one that had come sooner than he expected, but which my youth, beauty, +and spirit eminently fitted me to carry on to triumph. + +"I was frightened. For the first time in my memory of him he looked like +his Italian father, the man we had all tried to forget. Once while +rummaging amongst my mother's treasures I had come across a miniature of +Signor Toritti. He was a handsome man but there was something terrible in +his eye; something to make the ordinary heart stand still. Alfred's +burned with the same meaning at this moment, and as I noted his manner, +which was elevated, almost godlike, I realized the difference in our +heredity and how natural to him were the sacrifices for which my mind and +temper were as naturally unprepared. With difficulty I asked him to +explain himself, and it was with terror that I listened when he did. +He may have been made to ask, but I was not made to hear such words. He +saw my inner rebellion and stopped in mid-harangue. He has never forgiven +me the disappointment of that moment. I have never forgiven him for +making me sign away my independence, my holdings, and my life to a Cause +I did not thoroughly understand." + +"Your life?" echoed Ransom, roused to involuntary expression by this +word. + +"Surely not your life," echoed the lawyer, with the slow credulity of the +matter-of-fact man. + +"I have said it," she murmured, her head falling on her breast. At which +token of weakness, Hazen stirred and took the words from her mouth. + +"The organization," said he, "is a secret one and its code is +self-sacrifice. To the band of noble men and women, of whose integrity +and far-reaching purpose you can judge little from the whinings of a +love-sick girl, life and all personal gratifications are as dust in the +balance against the preservation and advancement of universal happiness +and the great Cause. I thought my sister, young as she was, sufficiently +great-minded to comprehend this and sufficiently great-hearted to do the +society's bidding with joy at the sacrifice. But I found her lacking, +and--" He stopped and almost lost himself again, but roused and cried +with sudden fire, "Tell what I did, Georgian." + +"You took my duty on yourself," she conceded, but coldly. "That was +brotherly; that was noble, if you had not exacted a vow from me in +return, destined to lay waste my whole life. Released from this one great +duty, I was to hold myself ready to fulfil all others. At the lift of a +hand--a finger--I was to leave whatever held me and go after the one who +beckoned in the name of the Cause. No circumstances were to be +considered; no other human duty or affection. If it were to enter upon a +fuller and more adventurous life, well and good; if it were to encounter +death and the cessation of all earthly things, that was well too, and a +good to be embraced with ardor. Obedience was all, and obedience at a +mere signal! I took the oath and then--" + +"Yes, _then_--" emphasized Hazen in wavering but peremptory tones. + +"He told me what had led to all this misery. That as yet this compact was +between us two, and us two only. That he had considered my youth, and in +speaking of me to the Chief had held back my name even while promising +my assistance. That he should continue to consider it, by keeping my name +in reserve till he had returned from his mission, and if that mission +failed, or succeeded too well, and he did not return, I might regard +myself as freed from the Cause, unless my enlarging nature led me to +attach myself to it of my own free will. That said, he went, and for a +year I lived under the dread of his return and all the obligations that +return would entail. Then came tidings of his death, tidings for which he +may not have been responsible, but which he never contradicted, and I +thought myself free--free to enjoy life, and the fortune that had so +unexpectedly come to me; free to love and, alas! free to marry. And that +is why," she pursued, in all the anguish of a dreadful retrospect, "I +recoiled in such horror and hung, a dead weight on your arm, when on +turning from the altar where we had just pledged ourselves to mutual love +and mutual life, I saw among the faces before me the changed but still +recognizable one of my brother, and beheld him make the fatal sign which +meant, 'You are wanted. Come at once.'" + +"Wretch!" issued from the frenzied lips of the half-maddened bridegroom, +as his glance flashed on Hazen. "Had you no mercy? Have you no mercy now, +that you should torture her young, credulous soul with these fanciful +obligations; obligations which no human being has any right to impose +upon another, whatsoever the Cause, holy or unholy, he represents?" + +"Mercy? It is the weakness of the easy soul. There is no ease here," he +cried, touching his breast with no gentle hand. + +"Then you forget my money," suggested Georgian. "Can you expect mercy +from a man who sees a million just within his grasp? I know," she +acknowledged, as Hazen lifted that same ungentle hand in haughty protest, +"that it was not for himself. I do not think Alfred would disturb a fly +for his own comfort, but he would wreck a woman's hopes, a good man's +happiness for the Cause. He admitted as much to me, _and more_, in the +interview we held that afternoon at the St. Denis. I had to go to him at +once, and I had to employ subterfuge in order to do so," she went on in +rapid explanation, as she saw her husband's eye refill with doubt under a +remembrance of the shame and anguish of that unhappy afternoon. "I had +not the courage to leave you openly at the carriage door. Besides, I +hoped to work on Alfred's pity in our interview together, or, if not +that, to buy my release and return to you a free woman. But the wound +which had changed his face for me had changed and made hard his heart. He +had other purposes for me than quiet living with a man who could have no +real interest in the Cause. The money I inherited, the rare and growing +beauty which he declared me to have, were too valuable to the brethren +for me to hope for any existence in which their interests were not +paramount. I might return to you, subject to the same authoritative beck +and call which had put me in my present position, or I might leave you at +once and forever. No half measures were possible. Was I, a bride, loving +and beloved by my husband, to listen to either of these alternatives? I +rebelled, and then the thunderbolt fell. + +"I was no longer on probation, no longer subject to his will alone. I was +a fully affiliated member. That day my name had been sent to the Chief. +This meant obedience on my part or a vengeance I felt it impossible to +consider. While I lived I need never hope again for freedom without +penalty. + +"'While I lived'; the words rang in my ears. I did not need to weigh +them; I knew that they were words of truth. There is no power on earth +so inescapable as that exercised by a secret society, and this one has +a terrible safeguard. None but he who keeps the list knows the members. +You, Roger, might be one, and I never suspect it, unless you chose to +give me the sign. Knowing this, I realized that my life was not worth the +purchase if I sought to cross the will of my own brother. Nor yours, +either. It was the last thought which held me. While I dutifully +listened, my mind was working out the deception which was to release me, +and when I left him it was to take the first step in the complicated plot +by which I hoped to recover my lost happiness. And I nearly succeeded. +You have seen what I have borne, what difficulties I have faced, what +discoveries eluded, but this last, this greatest ordeal, was too much. I +could not listen unmoved to a description of my own drowned body. I, who +had calculated on all, had not calculated on this. The horror overcame +me--I forgot--perhaps because God was weary of my many deceptions!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +"THERE IS ONE WAY" + + +"Have you done?" + +Hazen was on his feet and, rigid still, but oscillating from side to +side, as though his strength did not suffice to hold him quite erect, was +surveying them with eyes sunk so deeply in his head that they looked like +dying sparks reanimated for an instant by some passing breath. + +The half-fainting woman he addressed did not answer. She was looking up +at Ransom for the sympathy and pardon he was as yet too dazed to show. + +Hazen made a move. It was that of physical suffering sternly endured. + +"Let me speak," he urged. "I have a question to ask. I must ask it now. +Who was the woman who came up from New York with you? There were two of +you then." + +Without turning her head Georgian replied: + +"That was Bela, my maid; the same one who personated me on the afternoon +of my wedding." + +"That accounts for the coarseness of her neck," Hazen explained with a +certain grim humor to the lawyer, who had given a slight start of +surprise or humiliation. Then quietly to Georgian: + +"Was it she who threw the comb and dropped your bag where my man found +it?" + +"I threw the comb; threw it from my window before I uttered that loud +shriek. It did not go very far; but I had to be satisfied with the fact +that it lay in the direction of the waterfall. But it was to Bela I +entrusted the flinging of the bag. I gave it to her when she left the +coach. I had explained to her long before just what a place she would +find herself in when she was set down at the foot of the lane; how she +was to make her way in the darkness till she came to where there were +no more trees, when she was to strike across to the stream, led by the +noise of the waterfall. I was very particular in my directions, because I +knew the danger she incurred of slipping into the chasm. It was her fear +of this and the more than ordinary darkness, I presume, which made her +throw the bag hap-hazard. I simply wanted it dropped on the bank above +the waterfall." + +"I saw the girl," Mr. Harper broke in. "She wore a black skirt like the +one you now wear, a black blouse and a red-checked handkerchief knotted +about her throat. But the young woman who was seen leaving these parts +the next morning had on some kind of a red dress and wore a hat. Bela had +thrown away her hat; it was picked up where the coach stopped and +afterwards brought here." + +"I know. My plans went deep; I foresaw the possibility of her being +recognized by her clothes. To guard against this, I had her skirt and +blouse made double, the one side black, the other a bright color. She had +simply to turn them. The extra hat she carried with her; it was small and +easily concealed. Her neckerchief she probably tucked away. I had its +mate in my pocket, and when I left my room by the window, as I did the +moment after I had locked the two rooms, it was with my hair pulled down +and this neckerchief about my shoulders. How did I dare the risk! I +wonder now; but it was life, life I was after; life and love; nothing +else would have made me so fearless; nothing else would have given me +such confidence in myself or lent such speed to my feet, running as I did +in the darkness." + +"You ran around the house to the lane, and entered it by the turn-stile." + +"Yes, and so quickly that I had time to splash myself with mud and lose +all my natural characteristics before any one came to find me. It was +Anitra they met, panting and disheveled, at the head of the lane; Anitra +in appearance, Anitra in heart. I did not act a part; I _was_ Anitra; +Anitra as I had conceived her. To me she was and is an active, living +personality. Whenever I faced you in her character, I thought with her +half-educated mind; felt with her half-disciplined heart. I even shut my +ears to sounds; I would not hear; half the time I did not. Nor did I fall +back into my old ways when I was alone. From the minute Georgian closed +her door upon you for the last time, and I darkened my skin in +preparation for a permanent assumption of Anitra's individuality, I +became the imaginary twin, in thought, feeling, and action. It was my +only safeguard. Alas! had I only gone one step further and made myself +really deaf!" + +The cry was bitterness itself, but it passed unheeded. Mr. Ransom could +not speak and Hazen had other cares in mind. + +"Where is this woman Bela now?" he asked. + +Georgian was too absorbed or too unwilling, to answer. + +He repeated the question, this time with an authority she could not +resist. Rising slowly, she faced him for one impressive moment. + +"My God!" came from her lips in startled surprise. "How pale you are! Sit +down or you will fall." + +He shook his head impatiently. + +"It's nothing. Answer my question. Where is this Bela now?" + +"I don't know. She is beyond my reach--and _yours_. I told her to lose +herself. I think she is clever enough to do so. The money I paid her was +worth a few years spent in obscurity." + +The spark lighting his eye brightened into baleful flame, but she met +it calmly. An indomitable spirit confronted one equally indomitable, and +his was the first to succumb. Turning from her, Hazen took out pencil +and paper from his pocket, and, crossing to the window with that same +peculiar and oscillating motion of which he seemed unconscious, or which +he found it impossible to subdue, he wrote a line, folded it, and before +even Harper was aware of his purpose threw up the sash and flung it out, +uttering a quick, sharp whistle as he did so. + +"What's that you're up to?" shouted the lawyer, rushing to the window and +peering over the other's shoulder into the open space below, from which a +man was just disappearing. + +"Am I a prisoner of the police that you should ask me that?" returned +Hazen, haughtily. + +"No, but you should be," retorted Harper. "I don't like your ways, Hazen. +I don't like what you and your sister have said about the Cause and the +conscienceless obedience exacted from its members. I don't like any of +it; least of all this passing over of poor Bela's name to one whose duty +it will possibly be to make trouble for her." + +Hazen smiled and moved from the window. No one there had ever seen such a +smile before, and the oppression which it brought heightened Georgian's +fear to terror. + +"Let be!" she cried, lifting her hands towards Harper in inconceivable +anxiety. "A quarrel with him will not help you and it may greatly injure +_me_. Alfred, what am I to expect? Something dreadful, I can see. Your +face is not the face of one who forgives, or who sees in a gift of money +an adequate recompense for a cowardly withdrawal." + +"You read rightly," said he. "Your fortune will be accepted by the Chief, +but he will never forget the cowardice. What faith can he put in one who +prefers her own happiness to the general good? You must prepare for +punishment." + +"Punishment!" broke scornfully from Harper's lips. + +She hushed him with a look before which even he stood aghast. + +"You will only waste words," she cried. "If he says punishment, I may +expect punishment." And turning back to Ransom, in a burst of longing and +passion, she raised her eyes to him again, saying, "You do not forgive +because you do not realize my danger. But you will realize it when I am +gone." + +Ransom, under a sudden releasement of the tension of doubt and awe which +had hitherto held him speechless, gave her one wild stare, then caught +her to his breast. + +She uttered a happy sigh. + +"Ah!" she murmured in the soft ecstasy and boundless relief of the +moment, "how I have learned to love you during the fears and agonies +of this awful week." + +"And I you," was the whispered answer. "Too deeply," he impetuously added +in louder tones, "to let any harm come to you now." + +She smiled; but desperation fought with love in that smile. Gently +releasing herself, she cast another glance at Hazen, upon whose gray +and distorted countenance there had settled a great gloom, and +passionately exclaimed: + +"Had law or love been able to interfere with the judgment of our Chief, I +should not have been driven into the herculean task of deceiving you and +the whole world as to my real identity." Then with slowly drooping head, +and the manner of one who has heard his doom pronounced, she hoarsely +whispered; "The death-mark was scrawled upon my door last night. This is +never done without the consent of the Chief. No one can save me now, not +even my own brother." + +"False. I scrawled those lines," declared Ransom. "It was a test--" + +"Which _I_ commanded you to make," put in Hazen. Then in fainter and less +strenuous tones, "She's right. Georgian Ransom is doomed; no one can save +her." + +"False again!" This time it was Harper who interposed. "I can and will. +You forget that I know the name of your Chief. Conspiracy such as you +hint at is indictable in this country. I am a lawyer. I shall protect, +not only your sister, but her money." + +The smile he received in return evinced no ordinary scorn. + +"Try it," said he. Then with a laugh so low as to be almost inaudible, +yet so full of meaning that even Harper's cheek lost color, he calmly +declared: "No one knows the name of our Chief. Auchincloss is a member +and a valuable one--the only one whose name Georgian positively knows; +but he's but a unit in a thousand. You cannot reach the Head or even the +Heart of this great organization through him, and if you did and punished +it, the Cause would grow another head and you would be as far from +injuring us as you are now. Georgian is right. Not even I can save her +now." Then, with a steady look into each of their faces, he smiled again +and one and all shuddered. "But the Cause will go on," he cried in tones +ringing with enthusiasm. "Mankind will drop its shackles and we, we shall +have unriveted one of its chains. It is worth dying for, I, Alfred Hazen, +say it." + +Slowly he sank back into his chair. The pallor which had astounded all +from the first had now become the ghastly mask of a soul whose only token +of life glimmered through the orbits of his fast glazing eyes. He +breathed, but in great pants. Georgian became alarmed. + +"What is it?" she cried, forgetting her own fears and threats in the +horror which his appearance excited. "This is something more than +exhaustion from the pounding of that murderous eddy. What have you done? +Tell me, Alfred, tell me." + +For the first time since his entrance into the room a suggestion of +sweetness crept into his tone. + +"Simply forestalled the verdict of the Chief," said he. "I was under oath +to leave the country to-day on no ordinary errand. I failed to keep my +word, believing that the interests of the Cause could be better served by +what I have here undertaken than by the fulfilment of my primal duty. But +we are not allowed the free exercise of our own judgment, else what man +could be depended on? With us, neglect means death, no matter what the +excuse or the Cause's benefit. I knew this when I made my choice last +night. I have been dying ever since, but only actually since I came into +this room. When the doctors decided that I had received no mortal hurt in +the eddy, I--" + +"Alfred!" The sister-heart spoke at last. "Not--not poison!" + +"That is what you may call it here," said he, with a return to his old +imperious manner, "but later and to the world it will be kindness on your +part to name it exhaustion--the effect of my battle with the water. The +doctors will reconsider their diagnosis and blame my poor heart. You will +have no trouble about it. It _is_ my heart--I feel it failing--failing--" + +He was sinking, but suddenly his whole nature flared up. Bounding to his +feet, he stood before them, with eyes aflame and a passionate strength in +his attitude which held them spellbound. + +"What can law, what can selfish greed, what can self-aggrandizement and +the most pitiless ambition effect against men who own to such discipline +as this? Nothing. The world will go on, you will try your little ways, +your petty reforms, your slow-moving legislation and promise of justice +to the weak, but the invincible is the ready; ready to act; ready to +suffer, ready to die so that God is justified of his children and man +lifted into brotherhood and equality. You cannot strive against the +unseen and the fearless. The Cause will triumph though all else fails. +Georgian, I am sorry--" He was tottering now, but he held them back +with a stern gesture, "I don't think I ever knew just what love was. +There is one way--only one--" + +But from those lips the explanation of this one way never came. As they +saw the change in him and rushed to his support, his head fell forward on +his breast and all was over. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +NOT YET + + +They had laid him on the bed and Mr. Harper, in his usual practical way, +was hastening to rouse the house, when Georgian stepped before him and +laid her hand upon the door. + +"Not yet," said she with authority. "He said there was a way--let us find +it before we give up our secret and our possible safety. Mr. Harper, have +you guessed that way?" + +"No, except the usual one of protection through the law which he scouts. +I do not believe, Mrs. Ransom, in any other being necessary. Your +brother's threats answered a very good purpose while he was alive, but +now that he is dead they need not trouble you. I'm not even sure that I +believe in the organization. It was mostly in your brother's brain, Mrs. +Ransom; there's no such band, or if there is, its powers are not so +unlimited as he would make you believe." + +She simply pointed to the motionless form and the distorted face which +were slowly assuming an expression of great majesty. + +"There is my answer," said she. "Men of his strong attributes do not kill +themselves from fancy. He knew what he did." + +"And you think--" + +"That I will not live a week if I pass that door under the name of +Georgian Ransom. Mr. Harper, I am sure of it; Roger, I beg you to believe +what I say. It may not come here--but it will come. The mark has been set +against my name. Death only will obliterate this mark. But the name--that +is already a dead one--shall it not stay so?--It is the one way--the way +he meant." + +"Georgian!" + +It was a cry of infinite protest. Such a cry as one might expect from the +long-suffering Ransom. It drew her from the door; it brought her to his +side. As their eyes and hands met, Harper stepped back to the bedside, +and remembering the sensitiveness of the man before him, softly covered +his poor face. When he turned back, Mrs. Ransom was slowly shaking her +head under her husband's prolonged look and saying softly: + +"No, not Georgian, Anitra. Henceforth Anitra, always Anitra. Can you +endure the ordeal for the sake of the safety and peace of mind it will +bring?" + +"I endure it! Can you? Remember the deafness that marks Anitra." + +"That can be cured." Her smile turned almost arch. "We will travel; there +are great physicians abroad." + +"A sister--not a wife?" + +"Your wife in time--Ah, it will mean a new courtship and--Anitra is a +different woman from Georgian--she has suffered--you will love her +better." + +"O God! Harper, are we living, awake, sane? Help me at this crisis. I do +not know where I am or what this is she really asks." + +"She asks the impossible. She asks what you can, perhaps, give, but not +what I can. You forget that this deception calls for connivance on my +part, and whatever you may think of me or my profession, deception is +foreign to my nature and very repugnant to me." + +"And you refuse?" + +"Mrs. Ransom, I must." + +The hope which had held her up, the life which had returned to body and +spirit since this prospect of a possible future had dawned upon her, +faded from glance and smile. + +"Then good-by, Roger, we shall never have those happy days together of +which we have often dreamt. I may stay with you a week, a month, a year, +but the horror of a great fear will be over us, and never, never can we +know joy." + +She threw herself into her husband's arms; she clung to him. + +"One moment," she cried, "one moment of perfect happiness before the +shadow falls. Oh, how I must love you, Roger, to say such words, to think +such thoughts, with the body of the brother I loved so deeply once, lying +there dead before us, killed by his own hand." + +Ransom softly drew her aside where her eyes could not fall upon the bed. + +Harper stopped still where he was, the picture of gloom and uncertainty. + +"It must be settled now," said Ransom. "As we leave this room, our +relations must remain." + +"I cannot but think your fears all folly," muttered Harper. "Yet the +responsibility you force upon me is terrible. If it were not for that +will! How can I present it to the Surrogate when I know the testator is +still alive?" + +"You need not. I will do that," said Ransom. + +"And the property! Given to a man we none of us know. Property that is +not legally his." + +"I will make it so," cried Georgian with a burst of new and +uncontrollable hope as she saw, as she thought, this conscientious lawyer +yielding. "There is paper here; draw up a deed of gift. I will sign it +and you shall hold it so that whether I live or die, Auchincloss' title +to his money shall be absolute. Thus much I wish to do, that Alfred's +life should not have been sacrificed for nothing." + +"Let me think." + +Harper was wavering. + + * * * * * + +A half-hour later the door of Ransom's room was flung hurriedly open, and +loud cries for Mrs. Deo and the office clerk rang through the house. And +when they and others came running at the call, it was to find Mr. Ransom +and the lawyer hanging over the recumbent figure of the dead Hazen, and +the deaf girl Anitra pointing at the group, with wild and inarticulate +cries. + + +THE END + + + + * * * * * + + + +_Works by Anna Katharine Green_ + + +THE LEAVENWORTH CASE. A Lawyer's Story. + +"She has worked up a _cause célèbre_ with a fertility of device and +ingenuity of treatment hardly second to Wilkie Collins or Edgar +Allan Poe."--_Christian Union_. + + +A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE + +"A most ingenious and absorbingly interesting story. The +readers are held spellbound until the last page."--_Cincinnati +Commercial_. + + +THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES. A Story of New York Life. + +"'The Sword of Damocles' is a book of great power, which far +surpasses either of its predecessors from her pen, and places her +high among American writers. The plot is complicated and is +managed adroitly.... In the delineation of characters she has +shown both delicacy and vigor."--_Congregationalist_. + + +BEHIND CLOSED DOORS + +" ... She has never succeeded better in baffling the reader."--_Boston +Christian Register_. + + +HARD AND RING + +"It is a tribute to the author's genius that she never tires and +never loses her readers.... It moves on clean and healthy.... +It is worked out powerfully and skilfully."--_N. Y. Independent_. + + +THE MILL MYSTERY + + +X. Y. Z. and 7 TO 12: DETECTIVE STORIES + +"Well written and extremely exciting and captivating.... She +is a perfect genius in the construction of a plot."--_N. Y. Commercial +Advertiser_. + + +THE OLD STONE HOUSE, AND OTHER STORIES + +"It is a bundle of quite cleverly constructed pieces of fiction, with +which an idle hour may be pleasantly passed."--_N. Y. Independent_. + + +CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY + +"'Cynthia Wakeham's Money' is a story notable even among the +many vigorous works of Anna Katharine Green."--_New York Sun_. + + +MARKED "PERSONAL." + +"The ingenious plot is built up with all the skill of the writer of +'The Leavenworth Case' to the very last chapter, which contains +the surprising solutions of several mysteries." + + +MISS HURD: AN ENIGMA + +"A strong and interesting novel in an entirely new field of romance." + + +THE DOCTOR, HIS WIFE, AND THE CLOCK + +"The story is entertainingly told...."--_Cincinnati Tribune_. + + +DR. IZARD + +"Those who have read her other books will not need to be urged +to read this; they will be eager to do so, and we assure them a very +interesting story."--_Boston Times_. + + +THAT AFFAIR NEXT DOOR + +"Startling in its ingenuity and its wonderful plot."--_Buffalo +Enquirer_. + + +LOST MAN'S LANE + + +AGATHA WEBB + + +ONE OF MY SONS + + +THE DEFENCE OF THE BRIDE, AND OTHER POEMS + + +RISIFI'S DAUGHTER + + +THE FILIGREE BALL + + +THE MILLIONAIRE BABY + + +THE AMETHYST BOX + + +THE HOUSE IN THE MIST + + +THE WOMAN IN THE ALCOVE + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHIEF LEGATEE*** + + +******* This file should be named 17999-8.txt or 17999-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/9/9/17999 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Merrill</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Chief Legatee</p> +<p>Author: Anna Katharine Green</p> +<p>Release Date: March 18, 2006 [eBook #17999]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHIEF LEGATEE***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net/)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/cover.jpg"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/></a> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>The Chief Legatee</h1> + +<h2>By ANNA KATHARINE GREEN</h2> + +<h4>Author of</h4> + + + +<h3><i>"The Leavenworth Case," "The Woman in the Alcove," Etc., Etc.</i></h3> + +<h4>Illustrated in Water-Colors by <span class="smcap">Frank T. Merrill</span></h4> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h5>Copyright, 1906, by Anna Katharine Green Rohlfs</h5> + + + +<h5>WEINSTOCK, LUBIN & CO.<br /> +SPECIAL EDITION,<br /> +400 to 418 K. Street, Sacramento, Cal.</h5> + + + +<h5>New York and London<br /> +The Authors and Newspapers Association<br /> +1906</h5> + + + +<h5>Copyright, 1906, by<br /> +ANNA KATHARINE GREEN ROHLFS</h5> + + + +<h5><i>Entered at Stationers' Hall.<br /> +All rights reserved.</i></h5> + +<h5>Composition, Electrotyping,<br /> +Printing and Binding by<br /> +The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.S.A.</h5> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/frontis.jpg"><img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt=""/></a> +</div> + + +<h4>A young girl sitting on a low stool by the window mending a rent in her skirt.</h4> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#PART_I">PART I.—A WOMAN OF MYSTERY</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.--<span class="smcap">A Bride of Five Hours</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.--<span class="smcap">The Lady in Number Three</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.--<span class="smcap">"He Knows the Word"</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.--<span class="smcap">Mr. Ransom Waits</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.--<span class="smcap">In Corridor and in Room</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.--<span class="smcap">The Lawyer</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.--<span class="smcap">Rain</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.--<span class="smcap">Elimination</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.--<span class="smcap">Hunter's Inn</span></a><br /><br /> + +<a href="#PART_II">PART II.—THE CALL OF THE WATERFALL</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.--<span class="smcap">Two Doors</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.--<span class="smcap">Half-Past One in the Morning</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.--<span class="smcap">"Georgian"</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.--<span class="smcap">Where the Mill Stream Runs Fiercest</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.--<span class="smcap">A Detective's Work</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.--<span class="smcap">Anitra</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.--<span class="smcap">"Love"</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.--<span class="smcap">"I Don't Hear"</span></a><br /><br /> + +<a href="#PART_III">PART III.—MONEY</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.--<span class="smcap">God's Forest, Then Man's</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.--<span class="smcap">In Mrs. Deo's Room</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.--<span class="smcap">Between the Elderberry Bushes</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.--<span class="smcap">On the Cars</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.--<span class="smcap">A Suspicious Test</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.--<span class="smcap">A Startling Decision</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.--<span class="smcap">The Devil's Cauldron</span></a><br /><br /> + + +<a href="#PART_IV">PART IV.—THE MAN OF MYSTERY</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.--<span class="smcap">Death Eddy</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.--<span class="smcap">Hazen</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.--<span class="smcap">She Speaks</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.--<span class="smcap">Fifteen Minutes</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.--<span class="smcap">"There is One Way"</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX.--<span class="smcap">Not Yet</span></a><br /><br /> + + +<a href="#Works_by_Anna_Katharine_Green">Works by Anna Katharine Green</a><br /> + + +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<p>A young girl sitting on a low stool by the window mending a rent in her +skirt (<i>Frontispiece</i>)</p> + +<p>"I cut them letters there fifteen years ago. Now I'm to cut 'em out"</p> + +<p>"A slight, dark form steals from the shadows and lays a hand on the +stooping man's shoulder"</p> + +<p>"Cormorants!" escaped his lips. "They look for a feast of death, but they +will be disappointed"</p> + + + + + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_CHIEF_LEGATEE" id="THE_CHIEF_LEGATEE"></a>THE CHIEF LEGATEE</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PART_I" id="PART_I"></a>PART I</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">A Woman of Mystery</span></h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>A BRIDE OF FIVE HOURS</h3> + + +<p>"What's up?"</p> + +<p>This from the manager of the Hotel —— to his chief clerk. "Something +wrong in Room 81?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. I've just sent for a detective. You were not to be found and +the gentleman is desperate. But very anxious to have it all kept quiet; +very anxious. I think we can oblige him there, or, at least, we'll try. +Am I right, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, if—"</p> + +<p>"Oh! it's nothing criminal. The lady's missing, that's all; the lady +whose name you see here."</p> + +<p>The register lay open between them; the clerk's finger, running along the +column, rested about half-way down.</p> + +<p>The manager bent over the page.</p> + +<p>"'Roger J. Ransom and wife,'" he read out in decided astonishment. "Why, +they are—"</p> + +<p>"You're right. Married to-day in Grace Church. A great wedding; the +papers are full of it. Well, she's the lady. They registered here a few +minutes before five o'clock and in ten minutes the bride was missing. +It's a queer story Mr. Ransom tells. You'd better hear it. Ah, there's +our man! Perhaps you'll go up with him."</p> + +<p>"You may bet your last dollar on that," muttered the manager. And joining +the new-comer, he made a significant gesture which was all that passed +between them till they stepped out on the second floor.</p> + +<p>"Wanted in Room 81?" the manager now asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, by a man named Ransom."</p> + +<p>"Just so. That's the door. Knock—or, rather, I'll knock, for I must hear +his story as soon as you do. The reputation of the hotel—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, but the gentleman's waiting. Ah! that's better."</p> + +<p>The manager had just knocked.</p> + +<p>An exclamation from within, a hurried step, and the door fell open. The +figure which met their eyes was startling. Distress, anxiety, and an +impatience almost verging on frenzy, distorted features naturally amiable +if not handsome.</p> + +<p>"My wife," fell in a gasp from his writhing lips.</p> + +<p>"We have come to help you find her," Mr. Gerridge calmly assured him. Mr. +Gerridge was the detective. "Relate the circumstances, sir. Tell us where +you were when you first missed her."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom's glance wandered past him to the door. It was partly open. +The manager, whose name was Loomis, hastily closed it. Mr. Ransom showed +relief and hurried into his story. It was to this effect:</p> + +<p>"I was married to-day in Grace Church. At the altar my bride—you +probably know her name, Miss Georgian Hazen—wore a natural look, and was +in all respects, so far as any one could see, a happy woman, satisfied +with her choice and pleased with the éclat and elegancies of the +occasion. Half-way down the aisle this all changed. I remember the +instant perfectly. Her hand was on my arm and I felt it suddenly stiffen. +I was not alarmed, but I gave her a quick look and saw that something had +happened. What, I could not at the moment determine. She didn't answer +when I spoke to her and seemed to be mainly concerned in getting out of +the church before her emotions overcame her. This she succeeded in doing +with my help; and, once in the vestibule, recovered herself so +completely, and met all my inquiries with such a gay shrug of the +shoulders, that I should have passed the matter over as a mere attack of +nerves, if I had not afterwards detected in her face, through all the +hurry and excitement of the ensuing reception, a strained expression not +at all natural to her. This was still more evident after the +congratulations of a certain guest, who, I am sure, whispered to her +before he passed on; and when the time came for her to go up-stairs she +was so pale and unlike herself that I became seriously alarmed and asked +if she felt well enough to start upon the journey we had meditated. +Instantly her manner changed. She turned upon me with a look I have been +trying ever since to explain to myself, and begged me not to take her out +of town to-night but to some quiet hotel where we might rest for a few +days before starting on our travels. She looked me squarely in the eye as +she made this request and, seeing in her nothing more than a feverish +anxiety lest I should make difficulties of some kind, I promised to do +what she asked and bade her run away and get herself ready to go and say +nothing to any one of our change of plan. She smiled and turned away +towards her own room, but presently came hurrying back to ask if I would +grant her one more favor. Would I be so good as not to speak to her or +expect her to speak to me till we got to the hotel; she was feeling very +nervous but was sure that a few minutes of complete rest would entirely +restore her; something had occurred (she acknowledged this) which she +wanted to think out; wouldn't I grant her this one opportunity of doing +so? It was a startling request, but she looked so lovely—pardon me, I +must explain my easy acquiescence—that I gave her the assurance she +wished and went about my own preparations, somewhat disconcerted but +still not at all prepared for what happened afterward. I had absolutely +no idea that she meant to leave me."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom paused, greatly affected; but upon the detective asking him +how and when Mrs. Ransom had deserted him, he controlled himself +sufficiently to say:</p> + +<p>"Here; immediately after that silent and unnatural ride. She entered the +office with me and was standing close at my side all the time I was +writing our names in the register; but later, when I turned to ask her to +enter the elevator with me, she was gone, and the boy who was standing by +with our two bags said that she had slipped into the reception-room +across the hall. But I didn't find her there or in any of the adjoining +rooms. Nor has anybody since succeeded in finding her. She has left the +building—left me, and—"</p> + +<p>"You want her back again?"</p> + +<p>This from the detective, but very dryly.</p> + +<p>"Yes. For she was not following her own inclinations in thus abandoning +me so soon after the words which made us one were spoken. Some influence +was brought to bear on her which she felt unable to resist. I have +confidence enough in her to believe that. The rest is mystery—a mystery +which I am forced to ask you to untangle. I have neither the necessary +calmness nor experience myself."</p> + +<p>"But you surely have done something," protested Gerridge. "Telephoned to +her late home or—"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, I have done all that, but with no result. She has not returned +to her old home. Her uncle has just been here and he is as much mystified +by the whole occurrence as I am. He could tell me nothing, absolutely +nothing."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! and the man, the one who whispered to her during the reception, +couldn't you learn anything about him?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom's face took on an expression almost ferocious.</p> + +<p>"No. He's a stranger to Mr. Fulton; yet Mr. Fulton's niece introduced him +to me as a relative."</p> + +<p>"A relative? When was that?"</p> + +<p>"At the reception. He was introduced as Mr. Hazen (my wife's maiden name, +you know), and when I saw how his presence disturbed her, I said to her, +'A cousin of yours?' and she answered with very evident embarrassment, 'A +relative';—which you must acknowledge didn't locate him very definitely. +Mr. Fulton doesn't know of any such relative. And I don't believe he is +a relative. He didn't sit with the rest of the family in the church."</p> + +<p>"Ah! you saw him in the church."</p> + +<p>"Yes. I noticed him for two reasons. First, because he occupied an end +seat and so came directly under my eye in our passage down the aisle. +Secondly, because his face of all those which confronted me when I looked +for the cause of her sudden agitation, was the only one not turned +towards her in curiosity or interest. His eyes were fixed and vacant; his +only. That made him conspicuous and when I saw him again I knew him."</p> + +<p>"Describe the man."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom's face lightened up with an expression of strong satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"I am going to astonish you," said he. "The fellow is so plain that +children must cry at him. He has suffered some injury and his mouth and +jaw have such a twist in them that the whole face is thrown out of shape. +So you see," continued the unhappy bridegroom, as his eyes flashed from +the detective's face to that of the manager's, "that the influence he +exerts over my wife is not that of love. No one could love <i>him</i>. The +secret's of another kind. What kind, what, what, what? Find out and I'll +pay you any amount you ask. She is too dear and of too sensitive a +temperament to be subject to a wretch of his appearance. I cannot bear +the thought. It stifles, it chokes me; and yet for three hours I've had +to endure it. Three hours! and with no prospect of release unless you—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll do something," was Gerridge's bland reply. "But first I must +have a few more facts. A man such as you describe should be easy to find; +easier than the lady. Is he a tall man?"</p> + +<p>"Unusually so."</p> + +<p>"Dark or light?"</p> + +<p>"Dark."</p> + +<p>"Any beard?"</p> + +<p>"None. That's why the injury to his jaw shows so plainly."</p> + +<p>"I see. Is he what you would call a gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I must acknowledge that. He shows the manners of good society, if +he did whisper words into my wife's ear which were not meant for mine."</p> + +<p>"And Mr. Fulton knows nothing of him?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing."</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll drop him for the present. You have a photograph of your +wife?"</p> + +<p>"Her picture was in all the papers to-night."</p> + +<p>"I noticed. But can we go by it? Does it resemble her?"</p> + +<p>"Only fairly. She is far prettier. My wife is something uncommon. No +picture ever does her justice."</p> + +<p>"She looks like a dark beauty. Is her hair black or brown?"</p> + +<p>"Black. So black it has purple shades in it."</p> + +<p>"And her eyes? Black too?"</p> + +<p>"No, gray. A deep gray, which look black owing to her long lashes."</p> + +<p>"Very good. Now about her dress. Describe it as minutely as you can. It +was a bride's traveling costume, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Yes. That is, I presume so. I know that it was all right and suitable to +the occasion, but I don't remember much about it. I was thinking too much +of the woman in the gown to notice the gown itself."</p> + +<p>"Cannot you tell the color?"</p> + +<p>"It was a dark one. I'm sure it was a dark one, but colors are not much +in my line. I know she looked well—they can tell you about it at the +house. All that I distinctly remember is the veil she had wound so +tightly around her face and hat to keep the rice out of her hair that +I could not get one glimpse of her features. All nonsense that veil, +especially when I had promised not to address her or even to touch her +in the cab. And she wore it into the office. If it had not been for that +I might have foreseen her intention in time to prevent it."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she knew that."</p> + +<p>"It looks as if she did."</p> + +<p>"Which means that she was meditating flight from the first."</p> + +<p>"From the time she saw that man," Mr. Ransom corrected.</p> + +<p>"Just so; from the time she left her uncle's house. Your wife is a woman +of means, I believe."</p> + +<p>"Yes, unfortunately."</p> + +<p>"Why unfortunately?"</p> + +<p>"It makes her independent and offers a lure to irresponsible wretches +like him."</p> + +<p>"Her fortune is large, then?"</p> + +<p>"Very large; larger than my own."</p> + +<p>Every one knew Mr. Ransom to be a millionaire.</p> + +<p>"Left her by her father?"</p> + +<p>"No, by some great-uncle, I believe, who made his fortune in the +Klondike."</p> + +<p>"And entirely under her own control?"</p> + +<p>"Entirely so."</p> + +<p>"Who is her man of business?"</p> + +<p>"Edward Harper, of—Wall Street."</p> + +<p>"He's your man. He'll know sooner or later where she is."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but later won't do. I must know to-night; or, if that is +impossible, to-morrow. Were it not for the mortification it would cause +her I should beg you to put on all your force and ransack the city for +this bride of five hours. But such publicity is too shocking. I should +like to give her a day to reconsider her treatment of me. She cannot mean +to leave me for good. She has too much self-respect; to say nothing of +her very positive and not to be questioned affection for myself."</p> + +<p>The detective looked thoughtful. The problem had its difficulties.</p> + +<p>"Are those hers?" he asked at last, pointing to the two trunks he saw +standing against the wall.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I had them brought up, in the hope that she had slipped away on +some foolish errand or other and would yet come back."</p> + +<p>"By their heft I judge them to be full; how about her hand-bag?"</p> + +<p>"She had only a small bag and an umbrella. They are both here."</p> + +<p>"How's that?"</p> + +<p>"The colored boy took them at the door. She went away with nothing in her +hands."</p> + +<p>Gerridge glanced at the bag Mr. Ransom had pointed out, fingered it, then +asked the young husband to open it.</p> + +<p>He did so. The usual articles and indispensable adjuncts of a nice +woman's toilet met their eyes. Also a pocketbook containing considerable +money and a case holding more than one valuable jewel.</p> + +<p>The eyes of the officer and manager met in ill disguised alarm.</p> + +<p>"She must have been under the most violent excitement to slip away +without these," suggested the former. "I'd better be at work. Give me two +hours," were his parting words to Mr. Ransom. "By that time I'll either +be back or telephone you. You had better stay here; she may return. +Though I don't think that likely," he muttered as he passed the manager.</p> + +<p>At the door he stopped. "You can't tell me the color of that veil?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Look about the room, sir. There's lots of colors in the furniture and +hangings. Don't you see one somewhere that reminds you of her veil or +even of her dress?"</p> + +<p>The miserable bridegroom looked up from the bag into which he was still +staring and, glancing slowly around him, finally pointed at a chair +upholstered in brown and impulsively said:</p> + +<p>"The veil was like that; I remember now. Brown, isn't it? a dark brown?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. And the dress?"</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you a thing about the dress. But her gloves—I remember +something about them. They were so tight they gaped open at the wrist. +Her hands looked quite disfigured. I wondered that so sensible a woman +should buy gloves at least two sizes too small for her. I think she was +ashamed of them herself, for she tried to hide them after she saw me +looking."</p> + +<p>"This was in the cab?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Where you didn't speak a word?"</p> + +<p>"Not a word."</p> + +<p>"Though she seemed so very much cut up?"</p> + +<p>"No, she didn't seem cut up; only tired."</p> + +<p>"How tired?"</p> + +<p>"She sat with her head pressed against the side of the cab."</p> + +<p>"And a little turned away?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"As if she shrank from you?"</p> + +<p>"A little so."</p> + +<p>"Did she brighten when the carriage stopped?"</p> + +<p>"She started upright."</p> + +<p>"Did you help her out?"</p> + +<p>"No, I had promised not to touch her."</p> + +<p>"She jumped out after you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And never spoke?"</p> + +<p>"Not a word."</p> + +<p>Gerridge opened the door, motioned for the manager to follow, and, once +in the hall, remarked to that gentleman:</p> + +<p>"I should like to see the boy who took her bag and was with them when she +slipped away."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE LADY IN NUMBER THREE</h3> + + +<p>The boy was soon found and proved to be more observing in matters of +dress than Mr. Ransom. He described with apparent accuracy both the color +and cut of the garments worn by the lady who had flitted away so +mysteriously. The former was brown, all brown; and the latter was of the +tailor-made variety, very natty and becoming. "What you would call +'swell,'" was the comment, "if her walk hadn't spoiled the hang of it. +How she did walk! Her shoes must have hurt her most uncommon. I never did +see any one hobble so."</p> + +<p>"How's that? She hobbled, and her husband didn't notice it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he had hurried on ahead. She was behind him, and she walked like +this."</p> + +<p>The pantomime was highly expressive.</p> + +<p>"That's a point," muttered Gerridge. Then with a sharp look at the boy: +"Where were you that you didn't notice her when she slipped off?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I did, sir. I was waiting for the clerk to give me the +key, when I saw her step back from the gentleman's side and, looking +quickly round to see if any one was noticing her, slide off into the +reception-room. I thought she wanted a drink of water out of the pitcher +on the center-table, but if she did, she didn't come back after she had +got it. None of us ever saw her again."</p> + +<p>"Did you follow Mr. Ransom when he walked through those rooms?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; I stayed in the hall."</p> + +<p>"Did the lady hobble when she slid thus mysteriously out of sight?"</p> + +<p>"A little. Not so much as when she came in. But she wasn't at her ease, +sir. Her shoes were certainly too small."</p> + +<p>"I think I will take a peep at those rooms now," Gerridge remarked to the +manager.</p> + +<p>Mr. Loomis bowed, and together they crossed the office to the +reception-room door. The diagram of this portion of the hotel will give +you an idea of these connecting rooms.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/floorplan.png"><img src="images/floorplan.png" alt=""/></a> +</div> + +<p>There are three of them, as you will see, all reception-rooms. Mr. Ransom +had passed through them all in looking for his wife. In No. 1 he found +several ladies sitting and standing, all strangers. He encountered no one +in No. 2, and in No. 3 just one person, a lady in street costume +evidently waiting for some one. To this lady he had addressed himself, +asking if she had seen any one pass that way the moment before. Her reply +was a decided "No"; that she had been waiting in that same room for +several minutes and had seen no one. This staggered him. It was as if his +wife had dissolved into thin air. True, she might have eluded him by +slipping out into the hall by means of door two at the moment he entered +door one; and alert to this possibility, he hastened back into the hall +to look for her. But she was nowhere visible, nor had she been observed +leaving the building by the man stationed at entrance A. But there was +another exit, that of B. Had she gone out that way? Mr. Ransom had taken +pains to inquire and had been assured by the man in charge that no +lady had left by that door during the last ten minutes. This he had +insisted on, and when Mr. Loomis and the detective came in their turn +to question him on this point he insisted on it again. The mystery seemed +complete,—at least to the manager. But the detective was not quite +satisfied. He asked the man if at any time that day, before or after Mrs. +Ransom's disappearance, he had swung the door open for a lady who walked +lame. The answer was decisive. "Yes; one who walked as if her shoes were +tight."</p> + +<p>"When?"</p> + +<p>"Oh a little while after the gentleman asked his questions."</p> + +<p>"Was she dressed in brown?"</p> + +<p>That he didn't know. He didn't look at ladies' dresses unless they were +something special.</p> + +<p>"But she walked lame and she came from Room 3?"</p> + +<p>Yes. He remembered that much.</p> + +<p>Gerridge, with a nod to the manager, stepped into the open compartment of +the whirling door. "I'm off," said he. "Expect to hear from me in two +hours."</p> + +<p>At twenty minutes to ten Mr. Ransom was called up on the telephone.</p> + +<p>"One question, Mr. Ransom."</p> + +<p>"Hello, who are you?"</p> + +<p>"Gerridge."</p> + +<p>"All right, go ahead."</p> + +<p>"Did you see the face of the woman you spoke to in Room No. 3?"</p> + +<p>"Of course. She was looking directly at me."</p> + +<p>"You remember it? Could identify it if you saw it again?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; that is—"</p> + +<p>"That's all, good-by."</p> + +<p>The circuit was cut off.</p> + +<p>Another intolerable wait. Then there came a knock on the door and +Gerridge entered. He held a photograph in his hand which he had evidently +taken from his pocket on his way up.</p> + +<p>"Look at this," said he. "Do you recognize the face?"</p> + +<p>"The lady—"</p> + +<p>"Just so; the one who said she had seen no one come into No. 3 on the +first floor."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom's expression of surprised inquiry was sufficient answer.</p> + +<p>"Well, it's a pity you didn't look at her gloves instead of at her face. +You might have had some dim idea of having seen them before. It was she +who rode to the hotel with you; not your wife. The veil was wound around +her face for a far deeper purpose than to ward off rice."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom staggered back against the table before which he had been +standing. The blow was an overwhelming one.</p> + +<p>"Who is this woman?" he demanded. "She came from Mr. Fulton's house. More +than that, from my wife's room. What is her name and what did she mean by +such an outrage?"</p> + +<p>"Her name is Bella Burton, and she is your wife's confidential maid. As +for the meaning of this outrage, it will take more than two hours to +ferret out that. I can only give you the single fact I've mentioned."</p> + +<p>"And Mrs. Ransom?"</p> + +<p>"She left the house at the same moment you did; you and Miss Burton. Only +she went by the basement door."</p> + +<p>"She? <i>She?</i>"</p> + +<p>"Dressed in her maid's clothes. Oh, you'll have to hear worse things than +that before we're out of this muddle. If you won't mind a bit of advice +from a man of experience, I would suggest that you take things easy. It's +the only way."</p> + +<p>Shocked into silence by this cold-blooded philosophy, Mr. Ransom +controlled both his anger and his humiliation; but he could not control +his surprise.</p> + +<p>"What does it mean?" he murmured to himself. "<i>What does it all mean?</i>"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>"HE KNOWS THE WORD"</h3> + + +<p>The next moment the doubt natural to the occasion asserted itself.</p> + +<p>"How do you know all this? You state the impossible. Explain yourself."</p> + +<p>Gerridge was only too willing to do so.</p> + +<p>"I have just come from Mr. Fulton's house," said he. "Inquiries there +elicited the facts which have so startled you. Neither Mr. Fulton nor his +wife meant to deceive you. They knew nothing, suspected nothing of what +took place, and you have no cause to blame them. It was all a plot +between the two women."</p> + +<p>"But how—why—"</p> + +<p>"You see, I had a fact to go upon. You had noticed that your so-called +bride's gloves did not fit her; the boy below, that her shoes were so +tight she hobbled. That set me thinking. A woman of Mrs. Ransom's +experience and judgment would not be apt to make a mistake in two such +important particulars; which, taken with the veil and the promise she +exacted from you not to address or touch her during your short ride to +the hotel, led me to point my inquiries so that I soon found out that +your wife had had the assistance of another woman in getting ready for +her journey and that this woman was her own maid who had been with her +for a long time, and had always given evidence of an especial attachment +for her. Asking about this girl's height and general appearance (for the +possibility of a substitution was already in my mind), I found that she +was of slight figure and good carriage, and that her age was not far +removed from that of her young mistress. This made the substitution I +have mentioned feasible, and when I was told that she was seen taking her +hat and bonnet into the bride's room, and, though not expected to leave +till the next morning, had slid away from the house by the basement door +at the same moment her mistress appeared on the front steps, my +suspicions became so confirmed that I asked how this girl looked, in the +hope that you would be able to recognize her, through the description, +as the woman you had seen sitting in Reception-room No. 3. But to my +surprise, Mrs. Fulton had what was better than any description, the +girl's picture. This has simplified matters very much. By it you have +been able to identify the woman who attempted to mislead you in the +reception-room, and I the person who rode here with you from Mr. Fulton's +house. Wasn't she dressed in brown? Didn't you notice a similarity in her +appearance to that of the very lady you were then seeking?"</p> + +<p>"I did not observe. Her face was all I saw. She was looking directly at +me as I stepped into the room."</p> + +<p>"I see. She had taken off her veil and trusted to your attention being +caught by her strange features,—as it was. But that dress was brown; +I'm sure of it. She was the very woman. Otherwise the mystery is +impenetrable. A deep plot, Mr. Ransom; one that should prove to you that +Mrs. Ransom's motive in leaving you was of a very serious character. Do +you wish that motive probed to the bottom? I cannot do it without +publicity. Are you willing to incur that publicity?"</p> + +<p>"I must." Mr. Ransom had risen in great excitement. "Nothing can hide the +fact that my bride left me on our wedding-day. It only remains now to +show that she did it under an influence which robbed her of her own will; +an influence from which she shrank even while succumbing to it. I can +show her no greater kindness, and I am not afraid of the result. I have +perfect confidence in her integrity"—he hesitated, then added with +strong conviction—"and in her love."</p> + +<p>The detective hid his surprise. He could not understand this confidence. +But then he knew nothing of the memories which lay back of it. Not to him +could this grievously humiliated and disappointed man reveal the secrets +of a courtship which had fixed his heart on this one woman, and aroused +in him such trust that even this uncalled-for outrage to his pride and +affection had not been able to shake it. Such secrets are sacred; but the +reflection of his trust was strong on his face as he repeated:</p> + +<p>"Perfect confidence, Mr. Gerridge. Whatever may have drawn Mrs. Ransom +from my side, it was not lack of affection, or any doubt of my sincerity +or undivided attachment to herself."</p> + +<p>The detective may not have been entirely convinced on the first point, +but he was discretion itself, and responded quite cheerfully with an +emphatic:</p> + +<p>"Very well. You still want me to find her. I will do my best, sir; but +first, cannot you help me with a suggestion or two?"</p> + +<p>"I?"</p> + +<p>"There must be some clew to so sudden a freak on the part of a young and +beautiful woman, who, I have taken pains to learn, has not only a clean +record but a reputation for good sense. The Fultons cannot supply it. +She has lived a seemingly open and happy life in their house, and the +mystery is as great to them as to you. But <i>you</i>, as her lover and now +her husband, must have been favored with confidences not given to others. +Cannot you recall one likely to put us on the right track? Some fact +prior to the events of to-day, I mean; some fact connected with her past +life; before she went to live with the Fultons?"</p> + +<p>"No. Yet let me think; let me think." Mr. Ransom dropped his face into +his hands and sat for a moment silent. When he looked up again, the +detective perceived that the affair was hopeless so far as he was +concerned. "No," he repeated, this time with unmistakable emphasis, +"she has always appeared buoyant and untrammeled. But then I have only +known her six months."</p> + +<p>"Tell me her history so far as you know it. What do you know of her life +previous to your meeting her?"</p> + +<p>"It was a very simple one. She had a country bringing up, having been +born in a small village in Connecticut. She was one of three children and +the only one who has survived; her sister, who was her twin, died when +she was a small child, and a brother some five years ago. Her fortune was +willed her, as I have already told you, by a great-uncle. It is entirely +in her own hands. Left an orphan early, she lived first with her brother; +then when he died, with one relative after another, till lastly she +settled down with the Fultons. I know of no secret in her life, no +entanglement, not even of any prior engagements. Yet that man with the +twisted jaw was not unknown to her, and if he is a relative, as she said, +you should have no difficulty in locating him."</p> + +<p>"I have a man on his track," Gerridge replied. "And one on the girl's +too; I mean, of course, Bela Burton's. They will report here up to twelve +o'clock to-night. It is now half-past eleven. We should hear from one or +the other soon."</p> + +<p>"And my wife?"</p> + +<p>"A description of the clothing she wore has gone out. We may hear from +it. But I doubt if we do to-night unless she has rejoined her maid or the +man with a scar. Somehow I think she will join the girl. But it's hard to +tell yet."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom could hardly control his impatience. "And I must sit helpless +here!" he exclaimed. "I who have so much at stake!"</p> + +<p>The detective evidently thought the occasion called for whatever comfort +it was in his power to bestow.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said he. "For it is here she will seek you if she takes a notion +to return. But woman is an uncertain quantity," he dryly added.</p> + +<p>At that moment the telephone bell rang. Mr. Ransom leaped to answer; +but the call was only an anxious one from the Fultons, who wanted to +know what news. He answered as best he could, and was recrossing +disconsolately to his chair when voices rose in the hall, and a man was +ushered in, whom Gerridge immediately introduced as Mr. Sims.</p> + +<p>A runner—and with news! Mr. Ransom, summoning up his courage, waited for +the inevitable question and reply. They came quickly enough.</p> + +<p>"What have you got? Have you found the man?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. And the lady's been to see him; that is, if the description of her +togs was correct."</p> + +<p>"He means Mrs. Ransom," explained Gerridge. Then, as he marked his +client's struggle for composure, he quietly asked, "A lady in a dark +green suit with yellowish furs and a blue veil over her hat?"</p> + +<p>"That's the ticket!"</p> + +<p>"The clothes worn by the woman who went out of the basement door, Mr. +Ransom."</p> + +<p>The latter turned sharply aside. The shame of the thing was becoming +intolerable.</p> + +<p>"And this woman wearing those yellow furs and the blue veil visited the +man of the broken jaw?" inquired Gerridge.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"When?"</p> + +<p>"About six this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"And where?"</p> + +<p>"At the hotel St. Denis where I have since tracked him."</p> + +<p>"How long did she stay?"</p> + +<p>"About an hour."</p> + +<p>"In the parlor or—"</p> + +<p>"In the parlor. They had a great deal to say. More than one noticed them, +but no one heard anything. They talked very low but they meant business."</p> + +<p>"Where is this man now?"</p> + +<p>"At the same place. He has engaged a room there."</p> + +<p>"The man with the twisted jaw?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Under what name?"</p> + +<p>"Hugh Porter."</p> + +<p>"Ah, it was Hazen only five hours ago," muttered Ransom. "Porter, did you +say? I'll have a talk with this Porter at once."</p> + +<p>"I think not to-night," put in the detective, with the mingled authority +and deference natural to one of his kind. "To-morrow, perhaps, but +to-night it would only provoke scandal."</p> + +<p>This was certainly true, but Mr. Ransom was not an easy man to dominate.</p> + +<p>"I must see him before I sleep," he insisted. "A single word may solve +this mystery. He has the word. I'd be a fool to let the night go by—Ah! +what's that?"</p> + +<p>The telephone bell had rung again. A message from the office this time. A +note had just been handed in for Mr. Ransom; should they send it up?</p> + +<p>Gerridge was at the 'phone.</p> + +<p>"Instantly," he shouted down, "and be sure you hold the messenger. It may +be from your lady," he remarked to Mr. Ransom. "Stranger things than that +have happened."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom reeled to the door, opened it and stood waiting. The two +detectives exchanged glances. What might not that note contain!</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom opened it in the hall. When he came back into the room, his +hand was shaking and his face looked drawn and pale. But he showed no +further disposition to go out. Instead, he sank into a chair, with a +motion of dismissal to the two detectives.</p> + +<p>"Question the boy who brought this," said he. "It is from Mrs. Ransom; +written, as you see, at the St. Denis. She bids me farewell for a time, +but does not favor me with any explanations. She cannot do differently, +she says, and asks me to trust her and wait. Not very encouraging to +sleep on; but it's something. She has not entirely forsaken me."</p> + +<p>Gerridge with a shrug turned sharply towards the door. "I take it that +you wouldn't object to knowing all the messenger can tell you?"</p> + +<p>"No, no. Question him. Find out whether she gave this to him with her own +hand."</p> + +<p>Gerridge obeyed this injunction, but was told in reply that the note had +been given him to deliver by a clerk in the hotel lobby. He could tell +nothing about the lady.</p> + +<p>This was unsatisfactory enough; but the man who had influenced her to +this step had been placed under surveillance. To-morrow they would +question him; the mystery was not without a promise of solution. So +Gerridge felt; but not Mr. Ransom; for at the end of the lines whose +purport he had just communicated to the detective were these few, +significant words:</p> + +<p>"Make no move to find me. If you love me well enough to wait in silence +for developments, happiness may yet be ours."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>MR. RANSOM WAITS</h3> + + +<p>Gerridge rose early, primed, as he said to himself, for business. But to +his great disappointment he found Mr. Ransom in a frame of mind which +precluded action. Indeed, that gentleman looked greatly changed. He not +only gave evidence of a sleepless night but showed none of the spirit of +the previous evening, and hesitated quite painfully when Gerridge asked +him if he did not intend to go ahead with the interview they had promised +themselves.</p> + +<p>"That's as it may be," was the hesitating reply. "I hardly think that I +shall visit the man you mean this morning. He interests me and I hope +that none of his movements will escape you. But I'm not ready to talk to +him. I prefer to wait a little; to give my wife a chance. I should feel +better, and have less to forget."</p> + +<p>"Just as you say," returned the detective stiffly. "He's under our thumb +at present, I can't tell when he may wriggle out."</p> + +<p>"Not while your eye's on him. And your eye won't leave him as long as you +have confidence in the reward I've promised you."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not; but you take the life out of me. Last night you were too +hot; this morning you are too cold. But it's not for me to complain. You +know where to find me when you want me." And without more ado the +detective went out.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom remained alone and in no enviable frame of mind. He was +distrustful of himself, distrustful of the man who had made all this +trouble, and distrustful of her, though he would not acknowledge it. +Every baser instinct in him drove him to the meeting he declined. To see +the man—to force from him the truth, seemed the only rational thing to +do. But the final words of his wife's letter stood in his way. She had +advised patience. If patience would clear the situation and bring him the +result he so ardently desired, then he would be patient—that is, for a +day; he did not promise to wait longer. Yes, he would give her a day. +That was time enough for a man suffering on the rack of such an +intolerable suspense—one day.</p> + +<p>But even that day did not pass without breaks in his mood and more than +one walk in the direction of the St. Denis Hotel. If Gerridge's eye was +on him as well as on the special object of his surveillance, he must have +smiled, more than once, at the restless flittings of his client about the +forbidden spot. In the evening it was the same, but the next morning he +remained steadfastly at his hotel. He had laid out his future course in +these words: "I will extend the time to three days; then if I do not hear +from her I will get that wry-necked fellow by the throat and twist an +explanation from him." But the three days passed and he found the +situation unchanged. Then he set as his limit the end of the week, but +before the full time had elapsed he was advised by Gerridge that he +himself was being followed in his turn by a couple of private detectives; +and while still under the agitation of this discovery was further +disconcerted by having the following communication thrust into his hand +in the open street by a young woman who succeeded in losing herself in +the crowd before he had got so much as a good look at her.</p> + +<p>You can judge of his amazement as he read the few lines it contained.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Read the papers to-night and forget the stranger at the St. Denis.</p></div> + +<p>That was all. But the writing was hers. The hours passed slowly till the +papers were cried in the street. What Mr. Ransom read in them increased +his astonishment, I might say his anxiety. It was a paragraph about his +wife, an almost incredible one, running thus:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A strange explanation is given of the disappearance of Mrs. Roger +Ransom on her wedding-day. As our readers will remember, she +accompanied her husband to the hotel, but managed to slip away and +leave the house while he still stood at the desk. This act, for which +nothing in her previous conduct has in any way prepared her friends, is +now said to have been due to the shock of hearing, some time during her +wedding-day, that a sister whom she had supposed dead was really alive +and in circumstances of almost degrading poverty. As this sister had +been her own twin the effect upon her mind was very serious. To find +and rescue this sister she left her newly made husband in the +surreptitious manner already recorded in the papers. That she is not +fully herself is shown by her continued secrecy as to her whereabouts. +All that she has been willing to admit to the two persons she has so +far taken into her confidence—her husband and the agent who conducts +her affairs—is that she has found her sister and cannot leave her. +Why, she does not state. The case is certainly a curious one and Mr. +Ransom has the sympathy of all his friends.</p></div> + +<p>Confused, and in a state of mind bordering on frenzy, Mr. Ransom returned +to the hotel and sought refuge in his own room. He put no confidence in +what he had just read; he regarded it as a newspaper story and a great +fake; but she had bid him read it, and this fact in itself was very +disturbing. For how could she have known about it if she had not been +its author, and if she was its author, what purpose had she expected it +to serve?</p> + +<p>He was still debating this question when he reached his own room. On the +floor, a little way from the sill, lay a letter. It had been thrust under +the door during his absence. Lifting it in some trepidation, he cast a +glance at its inscription and sank staggering into the nearest chair, +asking himself if he had the courage to open and read it. For the +handwriting, like that of the note handed him in the street, was +Georgian's, and he felt himself in a maze concerning her which made +everything in her connection seem dreamlike and unreal. It was not long, +however, before he had mastered its contents. They were strange enough, +as this transcription of them will show.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>You have seen what has happened to me, but you cannot understand how I +feel. <i>She looks exactly like me.</i> It is that which makes the world +eddy about me. I cannot get used to it. It is like seeing my own +reflected image step from the mirror and walk about doing things. Two +of us, Roger, two! If you saw her you would call her Georgian. And she +says that she knows <i>you</i>, admires <i>you</i>! <i>and she says it in my +voice</i>! I try to shut my ears, but I hear her saying it even when her +lips do not move. She is as ignorant as she is afflicted and I cannot +leave her. She cannot hear a sound, though she can talk well enough +about what is going on in her own mind, and she is so wayward and +uncertain of temper, owing to her ignorance and her difficulty in +understanding me, that I don't know what she would do if once let out +of my sight. I love you—I love you—but I must stay right here.</p> + +<p>Your affectionate and most unhappy</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Georgian.</span></p></div> + +<p>The sheet with its tear-stained lines fell from his grasp. Then he caught +it up again and looked carefully at the signature. It was his wife's +without doubt. Then he studied the rest of the writing and compared it +with that of the note which had been thrust into his hands earlier in the +day. There was no difference between them except that there were +evidences of faltering in the latter, not noticeable in the earlier +communication. As he noted these tokens of weakness or suffering, he +caught up the telephone receiver in good earnest and called out +Gerridge's number. When the detective answered, he shouted back:</p> + +<p>"Have you read the evening papers? If you haven't, do so at once; then +come directly to me. It's business now and no mistake; and our first +visit shall be on the fellow at the St. Denis."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>IN CORRIDOR AND IN ROOM</h3> + + +<p>Three quarters of an hour later Mr. Ransom and Gerridge stood in close +conference before the last mentioned hotel. The former was peremptory in +what he had to say.</p> + +<p>"I haven't a particle of confidence in this newspaper story," he +declared. "I haven't much confidence in her letter. It is this man who is +working us. He has a hold on her and has given her this cock and bull +story to tell. A sister! A twin sister come to light after fifteen years +of supposed burial! I find the circumstance entirely too romantic. Nor +does an explanation of this nature fit the conditions. She was happy +before she saw <i>him</i> in the church. He isn't her twin sister. I tell you +the game is a deep one and she is the sufferer. Her letters betray more +than a disturbed mind; they betray a disturbed brain. That man is the +cause and I mean to wring his secret from him. You are sure of his being +still in the house?"</p> + +<p>"He was early this morning. He has lived a very quiet life these last few +days, the life of one waiting. He has not even had visitors, after that +one interview he held with your wife. I have kept careful watch on him. +Though a suspected character, he has done nothing suspicious while I've +had him under my eye."</p> + +<p>"That's all right and I thank you, Gerridge; but it doesn't shake my +opinion as to his being the moving power in this fraud. For fraud it +is and no mistake. Of that I am fully convinced. Shall we go up? I want +to surprise him in his own room where he cannot slip away or back out."</p> + +<p>"Leave that business to me; I'll manage it. If you want to see him in his +room, you shall."</p> + +<p>But this time the detective counted without his host. Mr. Porter was not +in his room but in one of the halls. They encountered him as they left +the elevator. He was standing reading a newspaper. The disfigured jaw +could not be mistaken. They stopped where they were and looked at him.</p> + +<p>He was intent, absorbed. As they watched, they saw his hands close +convulsively on the sheet he was holding, while his lips muttered +some words that made the detective look hard at his companion.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear?" he cautiously inquired, as Mr. Ransom stood hesitating, +not knowing whether to address the man or not.</p> + +<p>"No; what did he say? Do you suppose he is reading that paragraph?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't a doubt of it; and his words were, 'Here's a damned +lie!'—very much like your own, sir."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom drew the detective a few steps down the corridor.</p> + +<p>"He said that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I heard him distinctly."</p> + +<p>"Then my theory is all wrong. This man didn't provide her with this +imaginary twin sister."</p> + +<p>"Evidently not."</p> + +<p>"And is as surprised as we are."</p> + +<p>"And about as much put out. Look at him! Nothing yellow there! We shall +have to go easy with him."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom looked and felt a recoil of more than ordinary dislike for the +man. The latter had put the paper in his pocket and was coming their way. +His face, once possibly handsome, for his eyes and forehead were +conspicuously fine, showed a distortion quite apart from that given by +his physical disfigurement. He was not simply angry but in a mental and +moral rage, and it made him more than hideous; it made him appalling. Yet +he said nothing and moved along very quietly, making, to all appearance, +for his room. Would he notice them as he went by? It did not seem likely. +Instinctively they had stepped to one side, and Mr. Ransom's face was in +the shadow. To both it had seemed better not to accost him while he was +in this mood. They would see him later.</p> + +<p>But this was not to be. Some instinct made him turn, and Mr. Ransom, +recognizing his opportunity, stepped forward and addressed him by the +name under which he had introduced himself at the reception; that of his +wife's family, Hazen.</p> + +<p>The effect was startling. Instead of increasing his anger, as the +detective had naturally expected, it appeared to have the contrary +effect, for every vestige of passion immediately disappeared from his +face, leaving only its natural disfigurement to plead against him. +He approached them, and Ransom, at least, was conscious of a revulsion +of feeling in his favor, there was such restraint and yet such undoubted +power in his strange and peculiar personality.</p> + +<p>"You know me?" said he, darting a keen and comprehensive look from one to +the other.</p> + +<p>"We should like a few words with you," ventured Gerridge. "This gentleman +thinks you can give him very valuable information about a person he is +greatly interested in."</p> + +<p>"He is mistaken." The words came quick and decisive in a not unmelodious +voice. "I am a stranger in New York; a stranger in this country. I have +few, if any, acquaintances."</p> + +<p>"You have <i>one</i>."</p> + +<p>It was now Mr. Ransom's turn.</p> + +<p>"A man with no acquaintances does not attend weddings; certainly not +wedding receptions. I have seen you at one, my own. Do you not recognize +me, Mr. Hazen?"</p> + +<p>A twitch of surprise, not even Ransom could call it alarm, drew his mouth +still further towards his ear; but his manner hardly altered and it was +in the same affable tone that he replied:</p> + +<p>"You must pardon my short-sightedness. I did not recognize you, Mr. +Ransom."</p> + +<p>"Did not want to," muttered Gerridge, satisfied in his own mind that this +man was only deterred by his marked and unmistakable physiognomy from +denying the acquaintanceship just advanced.</p> + +<p>"Your congratulations did not produce the desired effect," continued Mr. +Ransom. "My happiness was short lived. Perhaps you knew its uncertain +tenure when you wished me joy. I remember that your tone lacked +sincerity."</p> + +<p>It was a direct attack. Whether a wise one or not remained to be seen. +Gerridge watched the unfolding drama with interest.</p> + +<p>"I have reason to think," proceeded Mr. Ransom, "that the unhappy +termination of that day's felicities were in a measure due to you. +You seem to know my bride very well; much too well for her happiness +or mine."</p> + +<p>"We will argue that question in my room," was the unmoved reply. "The +open hall is quite unsuited to a conversation of this nature. Now," said +he, turning upon them when they were in the privacy of his small but not +uncomfortable apartment, "you will be kind enough to repeat what you just +said. I wish to thoroughly understand you."</p> + +<p>"You have the right," returned Mr. Ransom, controlling himself under the +detective's eye. "I said that your presence at this wedding seemed to +disturb my wife, which fact, considering the after occurrences of the +day, strikes me as important enough for discussion. Are you willing to +discuss it affably and fairly?"</p> + +<p>"May I ask who your companion is?" inquired the other, with a slight +inclination towards Gerridge.</p> + +<p>"A friend; one who is in my confidence."</p> + +<p>"Then I will answer you without any further hesitation. My presence may +have disturbed your wife, it very likely did, but I was not to blame for +that. No man is to blame for the bad effects of an unfortunate accident."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't mean that," Mr. Ransom hastened to protest. "The cause of +her very evident agitation was not personal. It had a deeper root than +that. It led, or so I believe, to her flight from a love she cherished, +at a moment when our mutual life seemed about to begin."</p> + +<p>The impassive, I might almost say set features of this man of violent +passions but remarkable self-restraint failed to relax or give any +token of the feelings with which he listened to this attack.</p> + +<p>"Then the news given of your wife in the papers to-night is false," +was his quiet retort. "It professes to give a distinct, if somewhat +fantastic, reason for her flight. A reason totally different from the +one you suggest."</p> + +<p>"A reason you don't believe in?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not. It is too bizarre."</p> + +<p>"I share your incredulity. That is why I seek the truth from you rather +than from the columns of a newspaper. And you owe me this truth. You have +broken up my life."</p> + +<p>"I? That's a strange accusation you make, Mr. Ransom."</p> + +<p>"Possibly. But it's one which strikes hard on your conscience, for all +that. This is evident enough even to a stranger like myself. I am +convinced that if you had not come into her life she would have been at +my side to-day. Now, who are you? She told me you were a relative."</p> + +<p>"She told you the truth; I am. Her nearest relative. The story in the +paper has a certain amount of truth in it. Her brother, not her sister, +has come back from the grave. I am that brother. She was once devoted to +me."</p> + +<p>"You are—"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Oh, there'll be no difficulty in my proving this relationship. +I have evidence upon evidence of the fact right in this room with me; +evidence much more convincing and far less disputable than this +surprising twin can bring forward if <i>her</i> identity is questioned. +Georgian had a twin sister, but she was buried years ago. I was never +buried. I simply did not return from a well-known and dangerous voyage. +The struggle I had for life—you cannot want the details now—has left +its indelible impress in the scar which has turned me from a personable +man into what some people might call a monstrosity. And it is this scar +which has kept me so long from home and country. It has taken me four +years to make up my mind to face again my family and friends. And now +that I have, I find that it would have been better for us all if I had +stayed away. Georgian saw me and her mind wavered. In no other way can I +account for her wild behavior since that hour. That is all I have to say, +sir. I think I am almost as much an object of pity as yourself."</p> + +<p>And for a moment he appeared to be so, not only to Gerridge, but to Mr. +Ransom himself. Then something in the man—his unnatural coldness, the +purpose which made itself felt through all his self-restraint—reawakened +Mr. Ransom's distrust and led him to say:</p> + +<p>"Your complaint is natural. If you are Mrs. Ransom's brother, there +should be sympathy between us and not antagonism. But I feel only +antagonism. Why is this?"</p> + +<p>A shrug, followed by an odd smile.</p> + +<p>"You should be able to account for that on very reasonable grounds," said +he. "I do not expect much mercy from strangers. It is hard to make your +good intentions felt through such a distorted medium as my expression has +now become."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Ransom has been here," Ransom suddenly launched forth. "Within two +hours of your encounter under Mr. Fulton's roof, she was talking with you +in this hotel. I have proof positive of that, sir."</p> + +<p>"I have no wish to deny the fact," was the steady answer. "She did come +here and we had a talk; it was necessary; I wanted money."</p> + +<p>The last phrase was uttered with such grim determination that the +exclamation which had risen to Mr. Ransom's lips died in a conflict +of feeling which forbade any rejoinder that savored of sarcasm. Hazen, +however, must have noted his first look, for he added with an air of +haughty apology:</p> + +<p>"I repeat that we were once very fond of each other."</p> + +<p>Ransom felt his perplexities growing with every moment he talked with +this man. He remembered the money which both he and Gerridge had seen in +her bag,—an amount too large for her to have retained very much on her +person,—and following the instinct of the moment, he remarked:</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Ransom is not the woman to hesitate when a person she loves makes +an appeal for money. She handed you immediately a large sum, I have no +doubt."</p> + +<p>"She wrote me out a check," was the simple but cold answer.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom felt the failure of his attempt and stole a glance at +Gerridge.</p> + +<p>The doubtful smile he received was not very encouraging. The same thought +had evidently struck both. The money in the bag was a blind—she had +carried her check-book with her and so could draw on her account for +whatever she wished. But under what name? Her maiden one or his? Ransom +determined to find out.</p> + +<p>"I do not begrudge you the money," said he, "but Mrs. Ransom's signature +had changed a few hours previous to her making out this check. Did she +remember this?"</p> + +<p>"She signed her married name promising to notify the bank at once."</p> + +<p>"And you cashed the check?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; I am not in such immediate need of money as that. I have it +still, but I shall endeavor to cash it to-morrow. Some question may come +up as to her sanity, and I do not choose to lose the only money she has +ever been in a position to give me."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hazen, you harp on the irresponsible condition of her mind. Did you +see any tokens of this in the interview you had together?"</p> + +<p>"No; she seemed sane enough then; a little shocked and troubled, but +quite sane."</p> + +<p>"You knew that she had stolen away from me—that she had resorted to a +most unworthy subterfuge in order to hold this conversation with you?"</p> + +<p>"No; I had asked her to come, and on that very afternoon if possible, but +I never knew what means she took for doing so; I didn't ask and she +didn't say."</p> + +<p>"But she talked of her marriage? She must have said something about an +event which is usually considered the greatest in a woman's life."</p> + +<p>"Yes, she spoke of it."</p> + +<p>"And of me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, she spoke of you."</p> + +<p>"And in what terms? I cannot refrain from asking you, Mr. Hazen, I am +in such ignorance as to her real attitude towards me; her conduct is so +mysterious; the reasons she gives for it so puerile."</p> + +<p>"She said nothing against you or her marriage. She mentioned both, but +not in a manner that would add to your or my knowledge of her intentions. +My sister disappointed me, sir. She was much less open than I wished. All +that I could make out of her manner and conversation was the overpowering +shock she felt at seeing me again and seeing me so changed. She didn't +even tell me when and where we might meet again. When she left, she was +as much lost to me as she was to you, and I am no less interested in +finding her than you are yourself. I had no idea she did not mean to +return to you when she went away from this hotel."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom sprang upright in an agitation the other may have shared, but +of which he gave no token.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say," he asked, "that you cannot tell me where the woman +you call your sister is now?"</p> + +<p>"No more than you can give me the same necessary information in regard to +your wife. I am waiting like yourself to hear from her—and waiting with +as little hope."</p> + +<p>Had he seen Ransom's hand close convulsively over the pocket in which her +few strange words to him were lying, that a slight tinge of sarcasm gave +edge to the last four words?</p> + +<p>"But this is not like my wife," protested Ransom, hesitating to accuse +the other of falsehood, yet evidently doubting him from the bottom of his +heart. "Why deceive us both? She was never a disingenuous woman."</p> + +<p>"In childhood she had her incomprehensible moments," observed Hazen, with +an ambiguous lift of his shoulders; then, as Ransom made an impatient +move, added with steady composure: "I have candidly answered all your +questions whether agreeable or otherwise, and the fact that I am as much +shocked as yourself by these mad and totally incredible statements of +hers about a newly recovered sister should prove to you that she is not +following any lead of mine in this dissemination of a bare-faced +falsehood."</p> + +<p>There was truth in this which both Mr. Ransom and Gerridge felt obliged +to own. Yet they were not satisfied, even after Mr. Hazen, almost against +Mr. Ransom's will, had established his claims to the relationship he +professed, by various well-attested documents he had at hand. Instinct +could not be juggled with, nor could Ransom help feeling that the mystery +in which he found himself entangled had been deepened rather than +dispelled by the confidences of this new brother-in-law.</p> + +<p>"The maze is at its thickest," he remarked as he left a few minutes later +with the perplexed Gerridge. "How shall I settle this new question? By +what means and through whose aid can I gain an interview with my wife?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>THE LAWYER</h3> + + +<p>The answer was an unexpectedly sensible one.</p> + +<p>"Hunt up her man of business and see what he can do for you. She cannot +get along without money; nor could that statement of hers have got into +the papers without somebody's assistance. Since she did not get it from +the fellow we have just left, she must have had it from the only other +person she would dare confide in."</p> + +<p>Ransom answered by immediately hailing a down-town car.</p> + +<p>The interview which followed was certainly a remarkable one. At first Mr. +Harper would say nothing, declaring that his relations with Mrs. Ransom +were of a purely business and confidential nature. But by degrees, moved +by the persuasive influence of Mr. Ransom's candor and his indubitable +right to consideration, he allowed himself to admit that he had seen Mrs. +Ransom during the last three days and that he had every reason to believe +that there was a twin sister in the case and that all Mrs. Ransom's +eccentric conduct was attributable to this fact and the overpowering +sense of responsibility which it seemed to have brought to her—a result +which would not appear strange to those who knew the sensitiveness of her +nature and the delicate balance of her mind.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom recalled the tenor of her strange letter on this subject, but +was not convinced. He inquired of Mr. Harper if he had heard her say +anything about the equally astounding fact of a returned brother, and +when he found that this was mere jargon to Mr. Harper, he related what he +knew of Hazen and left the lawyer to draw his own inferences.</p> + +<p>The result was some show of embarrassment on the part of Mr. Harper. It +was evident that in her consultations with him she had entirely left out +all allusion to this brother. Either the man had advanced a false claim +or else she was in an irresponsible condition of mind which made her see +a sister where there was a brother.</p> + +<p>Ransom made some remark indicative of his appreciation of the dilemma in +which they found themselves, but was quickly silenced by the other's +emphatic assertion:</p> + +<p>"I have seen the girl; she was with Mrs. Ransom the day she came here. +She sat in the adjoining room while we talked over her case in this one."</p> + +<p>"You saw her—saw her face?"</p> + +<p>"No, not her face; she was too heavily veiled for that. Mrs. Ransom +explained why. They were too absurdly alike, she said. It awoke comment +and it gave her the creeps. But their figures were identical though their +dresses were different."</p> + +<p>"So! there <i>is</i> some one then; the girl is not absolutely a myth."</p> + +<p>"Far from it. Nor is the will which Mrs. Ransom has asked me to draw up +for her a myth."</p> + +<p>"Her will! she has asked you to draw up her will!"</p> + +<p>"Yes. That was the object of her visit. She had entered the married +state, she said, and wished to make a legal disposition of her property +before she returned to you. She was very nervous when she said this; very +nervous through all the interview. There was nothing else for me to do +but comply."</p> + +<p>"And you have drawn up this will?"</p> + +<p>"According to her instructions, yes."</p> + +<p>"But she has not signed it?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet."</p> + +<p>"But she intends to?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly."</p> + +<p>"Then you will see her again?"</p> + +<p>"Naturally."</p> + +<p>"<i>Is the time set?</i>"</p> + +<p>The lawyer rose to his feet. He understood the hint implied and for an +instant appeared to waver. There was something very winsome about Roger +Ransom; some attribute or expression which appealed especially to men.</p> + +<p>"I wish I might help you out of your difficulty," said he. "But a +client's wishes are paramount. Mrs. Ransom desired secrecy. She had every +right to demand it of me."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom's face fell. Hope had flashed upon him only to disappear +again. The lawyer eyed him out of the corner of his eye, his mouth +working slightly as he walked to and fro between his desk and the door.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Ransom will not always feel herself hampered by a sister, or, if +you prefer it, a brother who has so inconveniently come back from the +dead. You will have the pleasure of her society some day. There is no +doubt about her affection for you."</p> + +<p>"But that isn't it," exclaimed the now thoroughly discouraged husband. +"I am afraid for her reason, afraid for her life. There is something +decidedly wrong somewhere. Don't you see that I must have an immediate +interview with her if only to satisfy myself that she aggravates her own +danger? Why should she make a will in this underhanded way? Does she fear +opposition from me? I have a fortune equal to her own. It is something +else she dreads. What? I feel that I ought to know if only to protect her +against herself. I would even promise not to show myself or to speak."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to have to say good afternoon, Mr. Ransom. Have you any +commands that I can execute for you?"</p> + +<p>"None but to give her my love. Tell her there is not a more unhappy man +in New York; you may add that I trust her affection."</p> + +<p>The lawyer bowed. Mr. Ransom and Gerridge withdrew. At the foot of the +stairs they were stopped by the shout of a small boy behind them.</p> + +<p>"Say, mister, did you drop something?" he called down, coming meanwhile +as rapidly after them as the steepness of the flight allowed. "Mr. Harper +says, he found this where you gentlemen were sitting."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom, somewhat startled, took the small paper offered him. It was +none of his property but he held to it just the same. In the middle of a +torn bit of paper he had read these words written in his own wife's hand:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Hunter's Tavern</span>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sitford, Connecticut.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At 9 o'clock April the 15th.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"By Jove!" he exclaimed, "no one will ever hear me say again that lawyers +are devoid of heart?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>RAIN</h3> + + +<p>Mr. Ransom had never heard of Sitford, but upon inquiry learned that it +was a small manufacturing town some ten miles from the direct route of +travel, to which it was only connected by a stage-coach running once a +day, late in the afternoon.</p> + +<p>What a spot for a meeting of this kind! Why chosen by her? Why submitted +to by this busy New York lawyer? Was this another mystery; or had he +misinterpreted Mr. Harper's purpose in passing over to him the address of +this small town? He preferred to think the former. He could hardly +contemplate now the prospect of failing to see her again which must +follow any mistake as to this being the place agreed upon for the signing +of her will.</p> + +<p>Meantime he had said nothing to Gerridge. This was a hope too personal to +confide in a man of his position. He would go to Sitford and endeavor to +catch a glimpse of his wife there. If successful, the whole temper of his +mind might change towards the situation, if not toward her. He would at +least have the satisfaction of seeing her. The detective had enough to do +in New York.</p> + +<p>April the fifteenth fell on Tuesday. He was not minded to wait so long +but took the boat on Monday afternoon. This landed him some time before +daylight at the time-worn village from which the coach ran to Sitford. A +railway connected this village with New York, necessitating no worse +inconvenience than crossing the river on a squat, old-fashioned ferry +boat; but he calculated that both the lawyer and Mrs. Ransom would make +use of this, and felt the risk would be less for him if he chose the +slower and less convenient route.</p> + +<p>He had given his name on the boat as Roger Johnston, which was true so +far as it went, and he signed this same name at the hotel where he put +up till morning. The place was an entirely unknown one to him and he was +unknown to it. Both fortuitous facts, he thought, in the light of his own +perplexity as to the position in which he really stood towards this +mysterious wife of his.</p> + +<p>The coach, as I have said, ran late in the afternoon. This was to +accommodate the passengers who came by rail. But Mr. Ransom had not +planned to go by coach. That would be to risk a premature encounter with +his wife, or at least with the lawyer. He preferred to hire a team, and +be driven there by some indifferent livery-stable man. Neither prospect +was pleasing. It had been raining all night, and bade fair to rain all +day. The river was clouded with mist; the hills, which are the glory of +the place, were obliterated from the landscape, and the road—he had +never seen such a road, all little pools and mud.</p> + +<p>However, there was no help for it. The journey must be made, and seeing +a livery-stable sign across the road, lost no time in securing the +conveyance he needed. At nine o'clock he started out.</p> + +<p>The rain drove so fiercely from the northwest,—the very direction in +which they were traveling,—that enjoyment of the scenery was impossible. +Nor could any pleasure be got out of conversation with the man who drove +him. Rain, rain, that was all; and the splash of mud over the wheels +which turned all too slowly for his comfort. And there were to be ten +miles of this. Naturally he turned to his thoughts and they were all of +her.</p> + +<p>Why had he not known her better before linking his fate to hers? Why had +he never encouraged her to talk to him more about herself and her early +life? Had he but done so, he might now have some clew to the mystery +devouring him. He might know why so rich and independent a woman had +chosen this remote town on an inaccessible road, for the completion of +an act which was in itself a mystery. Why could not the will have been +signed in New York? But he was not inquisitive in those days. He had +taken her for what she seemed—an untrammeled, gay-hearted girl, ready +to love and be his happy wife and lifelong companion; and he had been +contented to keep all conversation along natural lines and do no probing. +And now,—this brother whom all had thought dead, come to life with +menace in his acts and conversation! Also a sister,—but this sister he +had no belief in. The coincidence was too startlingly out of nature for +him to accept a brother and a sister too. A brother or a sister; but not +both. Not even Mr. Harper's assurances should influence his credulity to +this extent. "Money! money is at the bottom of it all," was his final +decision. "She knows it and is making her will, as a possible protection. +But why come here?"</p> + +<p>Thus every reflection ended.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a vanished, half-forgotten memory came back. It brought a gleam +of light into the darkness which had hitherto enveloped the whole matter. +She had once spoken to him of her early life. She had mentioned a place +where she used to play as a child; had mentioned it lovingly, longingly. +There were hills, she had said; hills all around. And woods full of +chestnut-trees, safe woods where she could wander at will. And the +roads—how she loved to walk the roads. No automobiles then, not even +bicycles. One could go miles without meeting man or horse. Sometimes a +heavily-laden cart would go by drawn by a long string of oxen; but they +were picturesque and added to the charm. Oxen were necessary where there +was no railroad.</p> + +<p>As he repeated these words to himself, he looked up. Through the downpour +his eyes could catch a glimpse of the road before him, winding up a long +hillside. Down this road was approaching a dozen yoke of oxen dragging a +wagon piled with bales of some sort of merchandise. One question in his +mind was answered. This spot was not an unknown one to her. It was +connected with her childhood days. There was reason back of her choice +of it as a place of meeting between her and her lawyer, or if not reason, +association, and that of the tenderest kind. He felt himself relieved of +the extreme weight of his oppression and ventured upon asking a question +or two about Sitford, which he took pains to say he was visiting for the +first time.</p> + +<p>The information he obtained was but meager, but he did learn that there +was a very fair tavern there and that the manufactures of the place were +sufficient to account for a stranger's visit. The articles made were +mostly novelties.</p> + +<p>This knowledge he meant to turn to account, but changed his mind when +they finally splashed into town and stopped before the tavern which had +been so highly recommended by his driver. The house, dripping though it +was from every eave, had such a romantic air that he thought he could +venture to cite other reasons for his stay there than the prosaic one of +business. That is, if the landlady should give any evidence of being at +all in accord with her quaint home and picturesque surroundings.</p> + +<p>She showed herself and he at once gave her credit for being all he could +wish in the way of credulity and good-nature, and meeting her with the +smile which had done good execution in its day, he asked if she had a +room for a writer who was finishing a book, and who only asked for quiet +and regular meals before his own cosy fire. This to rouse her imagination +and make her amenable to his wishes for secrecy.</p> + +<p>She was a simple soul and fell easily into the trap. In half an hour Mr. +Ransom was ensconced in a pleasant room over the porch, a room which he +soon learned possessed many advantages. For it not only overlooked the +main entrance, but was so placed as to command a view of all the rooms on +his hall. In two of those rooms he bade fair to be greatly interested, +Mrs. Deo having remarked that they were being prepared for a lady who was +coming that night. As he had no doubt who this lady was, he encouraged +the good woman to talk, and presently had the satisfaction of hearing her +say that she was very happy over this lady's coming, as she was a Sitford +girl, one of the old family of Hazens, and though married now and very +rich was much loved by every one in town because she had never forgotten +Sitford or Sitford people.</p> + +<p>She was coming! He had made no mistake. And this was the place of her +birth, just as he had decided when he saw that long line of oxen! He +realized how fortunate he was, or rather how indebted he was to Mr. +Harper, since in this place only could he hope to gain satisfaction on +the mooted point raised by that same gentleman. If she had been born +here, so had her twin sister; so had the brother whose claims lay counter +to that sister's. Both must have been known to these people, their +persons, their history and the circumstances of their supposed deaths. +The clews thus afforded must prove invaluable to him. From them he must +soon be able to ascertain in which story to place faith and which +claimant to believe. He might have interrogated his hostess, but feared +to show his interest in the supposed stranger. He preferred to wait a few +hours and gather his facts from other lips.</p> + +<p>Meantime it rained.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>ELIMINATION</h3> + + +<p>At about three o'clock in the afternoon Mr. Ransom left his room. He had +been careful almost from his first arrival to sit with his door ajar. He +had, therefore, only to give it a slight push and walk out when he heard +the bustle of preparation going on in the two rooms in whose future +occupancy he was so vitally interested. A maid stood in the hall. A man +within was pushing about furniture. The landlady was giving orders. His +course down-stairs did not lead him so far as those rooms, so he called +out pleasantly:</p> + +<p>"I have written till my head aches, Mrs. Deo. I must venture out +notwithstanding the rain. In which direction shall I find the best +walking?"</p> + +<p>She came to him all eagerness and smiles. "It's all bad, such a day," +said she, "but it's muddiest down by the factories. You had better climb +the hill."</p> + +<p>"Where the cemetery is?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes; do you object to cemeteries? Ours is thought to be very +interesting. We have stones there whose inscriptions are a hundred and +fifty years old. But it's a bad day to walk amongst graves. Perhaps you +had better go east. I'm sorry we should have such a storm on your first +day. Must you go out?"</p> + +<p>He forced a suffering look into his eyes, and insisting that nothing but +outdoor air would help him when he had a headache, hastened down-stairs +and so out. A blinding gust seized him as he faced the hill, but he drew +down his umbrella and hurried on. He had a purpose in following her +suggestion as to a walk in this direction. Dark as the grasses were, he +meant to search the cemetery for the graves of the Hazens and see what he +could learn from them.</p> + +<p>He met three persons on his way, all of whom turned to look at him. +This was in the village. On the hillside he met nobody. Wind and rain +and mud were all; desolation in the prospect and all but desolation in +his heart. At the brow he first caught sight of the broken stone wall +which separated the old burying place from the road. There lay his path. +Happily he could tread it unnoticed and unwatched. There was no one +within sight, high or low.</p> + +<p>He spent a half hour among the tombs before +he struck the name he was looking for. +Another ten minutes before he found those +of his wife's family. Then he had his reward. +On a low brown shaft he read the names of +father and mother, and beneath them the following +lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Sacred to the memory of<br /></span> +<span class="i5"><span class="smcap">Anitra</span><br /></span> +<span class="i3">Died June 7, 1885<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Aged 6 years and one day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Of such is the Kingdom of heaven.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The twin! Georgian was mad. This record showed that her little sister lay +here. Anitra,—yes, that was the name of her other half. He remembered it +well. Georgian had mentioned it to him more than once. And this child, +this Anitra, had been buried here for fifteen years.</p> + +<p>Deeply indignant at his wife's duplicity, he took a look at the opposite +side of the shaft where still another surprise awaited him. Here was the +record of the brother; the brother he had so lately talked to and who had +seemingly proven his claim to the name he now read:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7"><span class="smcap">Alfred Francesco</span><br /></span> +<span class="i9">only son of<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Georgian Toritti afterwards Georgian Hazen.<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Lost at sea February, 1895.<br /></span> +<span class="i7">Aged twenty-five years.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>An odd inscription opening up conjectures of the most curious and +interesting nature. But it was not this fact which struck him at the +time, it was the possibility underlying the simple statement, Lost +at sea. This, as the wry-necked man had said, admitted of a possible +resurrection. Here was no body. A mound showed where Anitra had been laid +away; a little mound surmounted by a headstone carved with her name. But +only these few words gave evidence of the young man's death, and +inscriptions of this nature are sometimes false.</p> + +<p>The conclusion was obvious. It was the brother and not the sister who had +reappeared. Georgian was not only playing him false but deceiving the +general public. In fact, knowingly or unknowingly, she was perpetrating +a great fraud. He was inclined to think unknowingly. He began to regard +with less incredulity Hazen's declaration that the shock of her brother's +return had unsettled her mind.</p> + +<p>Distressed, but no longer the prey of distracting doubt, he again +examined the inscription before him and this time noticed its +peculiarities. <i>Alfred Francesco, only son of Georgian Toritti afterwards +Georgian Hazen.</i> Afterwards! What was meant by that <i>afterwards</i>? That +the woman had been married twice, and that this Alfred Francesco was the +son of her first husband rather than of the one whose name he bore? It +looked that way. There was a suggestion of Italian parentage in the +Francesco which corresponded well with the decidedly Italian Toritti.</p> + +<p>Perplexed and not altogether satisfied with his discoveries, he turned to +leave the place when he found himself in the presence of a man carrying a +kit of tools and wearing on his face a harsh and discontented expression. +As this man was middle-aged and had no other protection from the rain +than a rubber cape for his shoulders, the cause of his discontent was +easy enough to imagine; though why he should come into this place with +tools was more than Mr. Ransom could understand.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/grave.jpg"><img src="images/grave.jpg" alt=""/></a> +</div> + +<h4>"I cut them letters there fifteen years ago. Now I'm to +cut 'em out."</h4> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<p>"Hello, stranger." It was this man who spoke. "Interested in the Hazen +monument, eh? Well, I'll soon give you reason to be more interested yet. +Do you see this inscription—On June 7, 1885; Anitra, aged six, and the +rest of it? Well, I cut them letters there fifteen years ago. Now I'm to +cut 'em out. The orders has just come. The youngster didn't die it seems, +and I'm commanded to chip the fifteen-year-old lie out. What do you think +of that? A sweet job for a day like this. Mor'n likely it'll put me under +a stone myself. But folks won't listen to reason. It's been here fifteen +years and seventeen days and now it must come out, rain or shine, before +night-fall. 'Before the sun sets,' so the telegram ran. I'll be blessed +but I'll ask a handsome penny for this job."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom, controlling himself with difficulty, pointed to the little +mound. "But the child seems to have been buried here," he said.</p> + +<p>"Lord bless you, yes, a child was buried here, but we all knew years ago +that it mightn't be Hazen's. The schoolhouse burned and a dozen children +with it. One of the little bodies was given to Mr. Hazen for burial. He +believed it was his Anitra, but a good while after, a bit of the dress +she wore that day was found hanging to a bush where some gipsies had +been. There were lots of folks who remembered that them gipsies had +passed the schoolhouse a half hour before the fire, and they now say +found the little girl hiding behind the wood-pile, and carried her off. +No one ever knew; but her death was always thought doubtful by every one +but Mr. and Mrs. Hazen. They stuck to the old idee and believed her to be +buried under this mound where her name is."</p> + +<p>"But one of the children was buried here," persisted Ransom. "You must +have known the number of those lost and would surely be able to tell if +one were missing, as must have been the case if the gipsies had carried +off Anitra before the fire."</p> + +<p>"I don't know about that," objected the stone-cutter. "There was, in +those days, a little orphan girl, almost an idiot, who wandered about +this town, staying now in one house and now in another as folks took +compassion on her. She was never seen agin after that fire. If she was in +the schoolhouse that day, as she sometimes was, the number would be made +up. No one was left to tell us. It was an awful time, sir. The village +hasn't got over it yet."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom made some sympathetic rejoinder and withdrew towards the +gateway, but soon came strolling back. The man had arranged his tools and +was preparing to go to work.</p> + +<p>"It seems as if the family was pretty well represented here," remarked +Ransom. "Is it the girl herself,—Anitra, I believe you called her,—who +has ordered this record of her death removed?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, you don't know them Hazens. There's one of 'em who has quite a +story; the twin of this Anitra. She lived to grow up and have a lot of +money left her. If you lived in Sitford, or lived in New York, you'd know +all about her; for her name's been in the papers a lot this week. She's +the great lady who married and left her husband all in one day; and for +what reason do you think? We know, because she don't keep no secrets from +her old friends. <i>She's found this sister</i>, and it's her as has ordered +me to chip away this name. She wants it done to-day, because she's coming +here with this gal she's found. Folks say she ran across her in the +street and knew her at once. Can you guess how?"</p> + +<p>"From her name?"</p> + +<p>"Lord, no; from what I hear, she hadn't any name. <i>From her looks!</i> She +saw her own self when she looked at her."</p> + +<p>"How interesting, how very interesting," stammered Mr. Ransom, feeling +his newly won convictions shaken again. "Quite remarkable the whole +story. And so is this inscription," he added, pointing to the words +<i>Georgian Toritti</i>, etc. "Did the woman have two husbands, and was the +Alfred Hazen, whose death at sea is commemorated here, the son of Toritti +or of Hazen?"</p> + +<p>"Of Toritti," grumbled the man, evidently displeased at the question. "A +black-browed devil who it won't do to talk about here. Mrs. Hazen was +only a slip of a gal when she married him, and as he didn't live but a +couple o' months folks have sort o' forgiven her and forgotten him. To us +Mrs. Hazen was always Mrs. Hazen; and Alf—well, he was just Alf Hazen +too; a lad with too much good in him to perish in them murderous waters a +thousand miles from home."</p> + +<p>So they still believed Hazen dead! No intimation of his return had as yet +reached Sitford. This was what Ransom wanted to know. But there was still +much to learn. Should he venture an additional question? No, that would +show more than a stranger's interest in a topic so purely local. Better +leave well enough alone and quit the spot before he committed himself.</p> + +<p>Uttering some commonplace observation about the fatality attending +certain families, he nodded a friendly good-by and made for the entrance.</p> + +<p>As he stepped below the brow of the hill he heard the first click of the +workman's hammer on the chisel with which he proposed to eliminate the +word <i>Anitra</i> from the list of the Hazen dead.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>HUNTER'S INN</h3> + + +<p>When Mr. Ransom re-entered the hotel, which he did under a swoop of wind +which turned his umbrella inside out and drenched him through in an +instant, it was to find the house in renewed turmoil, happily explained +by the landlady, whom he ran across on the stairs.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Johnston!" she cried as she edged by him with a pile of +bed-linen on her arm. "Please excuse all this fuss. Another guest is +coming—I have just got a telegram. A famous lawyer from New York. Our +house will be full to-night."</p> + +<p>"Where will you put him?" inquired Mr. Ransom with a good-natured air. +"There seem to be no unoccupied rooms on this hall."</p> + +<p>"More's the pity," she sighed, with a half-inquiring, half deprecatory +look at this fortunate first comer. "I shall have to put him below, poor +man. I'm afraid he won't like it, but—" Mr. Ransom remained silent. +"But," she went on with sudden cheerfulness, "I will make it up in the +supper. That shall be as good a one as our kitchen will provide. Four +city guests all in one day! That's a good many for this quiet hotel."</p> + +<p>"Four!" retorted Mr. Ransom as he turned towards his own door. "The +number has grown by two since I went out."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I didn't tell you. The lady—her name's Mrs. Ransom—brings her +sister with her. The little girl who—yes, I am coming." This latter to +some perplexed domestic down the hall, who had already called her twice. +"I mustn't stand talking here," she apologized as she hurried away. "But +do take care of yourself. You are dreadful wet. How I wish the weather +would clear up!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom wished the same. To say nothing of his own inconvenience, +it was a source of anxiety to him that she should have to ride these +inevitable ten miles in such a chilling downpour. Besides, a storm of +this kind complicated matters; gave him less sense of freedom, shut him +in, as it were, with the mystery he was there to unravel, but which for +some reason, hardly explainable to himself, filled him with such a sense +of foreboding that he had moments in which he thought only of escape. But +his part must be played and he prepared himself to play it well. Having +changed his clothes and warmed himself with a draft of whisky, he sat +down at his table and was busy writing when the maid came in to ask if he +would wait for his supper till the coach came, or have it earlier and +served in his own room.</p> + +<p>With an air of petulance, he looked up, rapped on the table, and replied:</p> + +<p>"Here! here! I'm too busy to meet strangers. An early supper and an early +bed. That's the way I get through <i>my</i> work."</p> + +<p>The girl stared and went softly out. Work!—that? Sitting at a table and +just putting words on paper. If it was beds he had to drag around now, or +a dozen hungry, clamoring men to feed all at once, and all with the best +cuts, or stairs to run up fifty times a day, or—but I need not fill out +her thought. It made her voluble in the kitchen and secured him the +privacy which his incognito demanded.</p> + +<p>His supper over, he waited feverishly for the coach, which ordinarily was +due at seven in the evening. To-night it bade fair to be late, owing to +the bad condition of the roads and the early darkness. The wind had gone +down, but it still rained. Not quite so tempestuously as when he roamed +the cemetery, but steadily enough to keep eaves and branches dripping. +The sound of this ceaseless drip was eerie enough to his strained senses, +waiting as he was for an event which might determine the happiness or the +misery of his life. He tried to forget it and wrote diligently, putting +down words whose meaning he did not stop to consider, so that he had +something to show to prying eyes if such should ever glance through his +papers. But the sound had got on his brain, and presently became so +insistent that he rose again and flung his window up to see if he were +deceived in thinking he heard a deep roar mingling with the incessant +patter, a roar which the wind had hitherto prevented him from separating +from the general turmoil, but which now was apparent enough to call for +some explanation.</p> + +<p>He had made no mistake; a steady sound of rushing water filled the +outside air. A fall was near, a fall by means of which, no doubt, the +factories were run.</p> + +<p>Why had he not thought of this? Why had its sound held a note of menace +for him, awakening feelings he did not understand and from which he +sought to escape? A factory fall swollen by the rain! What was there +in this to make his hand shake and cause the deepening night to seem +positively hateful to him? With a bang he closed the window; then he +softly threw it up again. Surely he had heard the noise of wheels +splashing through the pools of the highway. The coach was coming! and +with it—what?</p> + +<p>His room was in the gable end facing the road. From it he could look +directly down on the porch of entrance, a fact which he had thankfully +noted at his first look. As he heard the bustle which now broke out +below, and caught the gleam of a lantern coming round the corner of the +house, he softly stepped to his lamp and put it out, then took his stand +at the window. The coach was now very near; he could hear the straining +of the harness and the shouts of the driver. In another moment it drew +lumberingly up. A man from the hotel advanced with an umbrella; a young +lady was helped out who, standing one moment in the full glare of the +lights thrown upon her from the open door, showed him the face and form +he knew so well and loved—yes, loved for all her mystery, as he knew by +the wild beating of his heart, and the irresistible impulse he felt to +rush down and receive her in his arms, to her great terror doubtless, but +to his own boundless satisfaction and delight. But strong as the +temptation was, he did not yield to it. Something in her attitude, as she +stood there, talking earnestly to the driver, held him spellbound and +alert. All was not right; there was passion in her movements and in her +voice. What she said drew the heads of landlady and maid from the open +door and caused the man with the lantern to peer past her into the coach +and backward along the road. What had happened? Nothing that concerned +the lawyer. Mr. Ransom could see him disentangling himself from the +coverings in front where he had ridden with the driver, but the sister +was not there. No other lady got out of the coach even after his young +wife had finished her conversation with the driver and disappeared into +the house.</p> + +<p>"How can I stand this?" thought Mr. Ransom as the coach finally rattled +and swished away towards the stable. "I must hear, I must see, I must +<i>know</i> what is going on down there."</p> + +<p>This because he heard voices in the open hall. Crossing to his own +doorway, he listened. His wife and Mr. Harper had stepped into the office +close by the front door. He could hear now and then a word of what they +said, but not all. Venturing a step further, he leaned over the +balustrade which extended almost up to his own door. This was better; he +could now catch most of the words and sometimes a sentence. They all +referred to the sister. "Temper—her own way—deaf—<i>would</i> walk in all +the rain and slush.—A strange character—you can't imagine," and other +similar phrases, uttered in a passionate and half-angry voice. Then +ejaculations from Mrs. Deo, and a word or two of caution or injunction in +the polished tones of the lawyer, followed by a sudden rush towards the +staircase, over which he was leaning.</p> + +<p>"Show me my room," rang up in Georgian's bell-like tones; "then I'll tell +you what to do about <i>her</i>. She isn't easily managed."</p> + +<p>"But she'll get her death!" expostulated Mrs. Deo; "to say nothing of her +losing her way in this dreadful darkness. Let me send—"</p> + +<p>"Not yet," broke in his young wife's voice, with just the hint of +asperity in it. "She must trudge out her tantrum first. I think her idea +was to show that she remembered the old place and the lane where she used +to pick blackberries. You needn't worry about her getting cold. She's +lived a gipsy life too many years to mind wind and wet. But it's +different with <i>me</i>. I'm all in a shiver. Which is my room, please?"</p> + +<p>She was now at the head of the stairs. Mr. Ransom had closed his door, +but not latched it, and as she turned to go down the hall, followed by +the chattering landlady, he swung it open for an instant and so caught +one full glimpse of her beloved figure. She was dressed in a long +rain-coat and had some sort of modish hat on her head, which, in spite of +its simplicity, gave her a highly fashionable air. A woman to draw all +eyes, but such a mystery to her husband! Such a mystery to all who knew +her story, or rather her actions, for no one seemed to know her story.</p> + +<p>Events did not halt. He heard her give this and that order, open a door +and look in; say a word of commendation, ask if the key was on her side +of the partition, then shut the door again and open another.</p> + +<p>"Ah, this looks comfortable," she exclaimed in great satisfaction. "Is +that my bag? Put it down, please. I'll open it. Now, if you'll leave me a +moment alone, I'll soon be ready. But you mustn't expect me to eat till +Anitra comes. I couldn't do that. Oh, she's a dreadful trial, Mrs. Deo; +you have a motherly face, and I can tell you that the girl is just eating +up my life. If she weren't my very self, deafened by hard usage, and +rendered coarse and wilful by years of a miserable and half-starved life, +I couldn't bear it, especially after what I've sacrificed for her. I've +parted with my husband—but I can't talk, I can't. I would not have said +so much if you hadn't looked so kind."</p> + +<p>All this her husband heard, followed by a sob or two, quickly checked, +however, by a high strained laugh and the gay remark:</p> + +<p>"I'm wet enough, but she'll be dripping. I'm afraid she'll have to have +her supper in her room. She got out at the new schoolhouse and started +to come through the lane. It must be a weltering pool. If I'm dressed in +time I'll come down and meet her at the door. Meanwhile don't wait for +us; give Mr. Harper his supper."</p> + +<p>Her door closed, then suddenly opened again. "If she don't come in ten +minutes, let some one go to the head of the lane. But be sure it's a +careful person who won't startle her. I've got to put on another dress, +so don't bother me. I'll hear her when she enters her own room and will +speak to her then—if I dare; I'm not sure that I shall." And the door +shut to again, this time with a snap of the lock. Quiet reigned once more +in the hall save for Mrs. Deo's muttered exclamations as she made her +laborious way down-stairs. Had this good woman been less disturbed and +not in so much of a hurry, she might have noted that the door of her +literary guest's room was ajar, and stopped to ask why the lamp remained +unlit.</p> + +<p>For five minutes, for ten minutes, he watched and listened, passing +continually to and fro from door to window. But his vigilance remained +unrewarded by any further movement in the hall, or by the sight of an +approaching figure up the road. He began to feel odd, and was asking +himself what sort of fool-work this was, when a clatter of voices rose +below, followed by heavy steps on the veranda. One or two men were going +out, and as it seemed to him the landlady too, for he heard her say just +as the door closed:</p> + +<p>"Let me on ahead; she must see a woman's kind face first, poor child, or +we shall not succeed in getting her in. I know all about these wild +ones."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PART_II" id="PART_II"></a>PART II</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Call of the Waterfall</span></h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>TWO DOORS</h3> + + +<p>The enthusiasm, the expectation in Mrs. Deo's voice were unmistakable. +This good woman believed in this rescued waif of turbulent caprices and +gipsy ways, and from this moment he began to believe in her too, and +consequently to share some of the excitement which had now become +prevalent all through the house.</p> + +<p>His suspense was destined to be short. While he was straining his eyes to +see what might be going on down the road, a small crowd of people came +round the corner of the house. In their midst walked a woman with a shawl +or cape over her head—a fierce and wilful figure which shook off the +hand kind Mrs. Deo laid on her arm, and shrank as the great front door +fell open, sending forth a flood of light which, to one less wedded to +wild ways and outdoor living, promised a hospitable cheer.</p> + +<p>"Georgian's form!" muttered Ransom involuntarily to himself. "And +Georgian's face!" he felt obliged to add, as the light fell broadly +across her. "But not Georgian's ways and not Georgian's nature," he +impetuously finished as she slipped out of sight.</p> + +<p>Then the mystery of <i>the brother</i> came rushing over him and he yielded +himself again to the wonder of the situation till he was reawakened to +realities by the shuffling of feet on the stairway and the raised tones +of Mrs. Deo as she tried to make herself understood by her new and +somewhat difficult guest. A maid followed in their wake, and from some +as yet unexplored region below there rose the sound of clattering dishes.</p> + +<p>It was a trying moment for him. He longed for another glimpse of the +girl, but feared to betray his own curiosity to the two women who +accompanied her. Should he be forced to allow her to enter her room +unseen? Might he not better run some small risk of detection? He had +escaped discovery before; wasn't it possible for him to escape it again? +He finally compromised matters by first flinging his door wide open and +then retreating to the other end of the room where the shadows appeared +heavy enough to hide him. From this point he cast a look down the hall +which was in a direct line from his present standpoint, and was fortunate +enough to catch a glimpse of the girl with her face turned in his +direction. Her companions, on the contrary, were standing with their +backs to him, one beside the door she had just thrown open, the other +at his wife's door on which she had just given a significant rap.</p> + +<p>Such was the picture.</p> + +<p>The girl absorbed all his attention. The shawl—a gay one with colors in +it—had fallen from her head and was trailing, wet and bedraggled, over +an equally bedraggled skirt. Soused with wet, her hair disheveled, and +all her garments awry with the passion of her movements, she yet made his +heart stand still, as, with a sullen look at those about her, she rushed +into the room prepared for her use and slammed the door behind her with a +quick cry of mingled rage and relief. For with all these drawbacks of +manner and appearance she was the living picture of Georgian; so like +her, indeed, that he could well understand now the shock which his +darling received when, in the unconsciousness of possessing a living +sister, she had encountered in street or store, or wherever they had +first met, this living reproduction of herself.</p> + +<p>"No wonder she became confused as to her duty," he muttered. "I even feel +myself becoming confused as to mine."</p> + +<p>"Bring me up something to eat," he now heard this latest comer shout from +her doorway. "I don't want tea and I don't want soup; I want meat, meat. +And I shan't go down afterward, either. I'm going to stay right here. +I've seen enough of people I don't know. And of my sister too. She was +cross to me because I hated the coach and wanted to walk, and she shan't +come into my room till I tell her to. Don't forget; it's meat I want, +just meat and something sweet. Pudding's good."</p> + +<p>All shocking to Mr. Ransom's taste, but more so to his heart. For +notwithstanding the coarseness of the expressions, the voice was +Georgian's and laden with a hundred memories.</p> + +<p>He was still struggling with the agitation of this discovery when he +heard Mrs. Deo give another tap on his wife's door. This time it was +unlocked and pushed softly open, and through the crack thus made some +whispered orders were given. These seemed to satisfy Mrs. Deo, for she +called the maid to her and together they hurried down the hall to a rear +staircase, communicating with the kitchen. This was fortunate for him, +for if they had turned his way he would have had to issue from his room +and take open part in the excitement of the moment.</p> + +<p>A few minutes of quiet now supervened. During these he decided that if +he must keep up this watch—and nothing now could deter him from doing +so—he must take a position consistent with his assumed character. +Detection by Georgian was what he now feared. Whatever happened, she must +not get the smallest glimpse of him or be led by any indiscretion on his +part to suspect his presence under the same roof as herself. Yet he must +see all, hear all that was possible to him. For this a continuance of the +present conditions, an open door and no light, were positively requisite. +But how avert the comment which this unusual state of things must awaken +if noticed? But one expedient suggested itself. He would light a cigar +and sit in the window. If questioned he would say that he was engaged +in deciding how he would end the story he was writing; that such +contemplation called for darkness but above all for good air; that had +the weather been favorable he would have obtained the latter by opening +the window; but it being so bad he could only open the door. Certain +eccentricities are allowable in authors.</p> + +<p>This settled, he proceeded to take a chair and envelope himself in smoke. +With eyes fixed on the dimly-lighted vista of the hall before him, he +waited. What would happen next? Would his wife reappear? No; supper was +coming up. He could hear dishes rattling on the rear stairway, and in +another moment saw the maid coming down the hall with a large tray in her +hands. She stopped at Anitra's door, knocked, and was answered by the +harsh command:</p> + +<p>"Set it down. I'll get it for myself."</p> + +<p>The maid set it down.</p> + +<p>Next instant Mrs. Ransom's door opened.</p> + +<p>"Don't be too generous with me," he heard her call softly out. "I can't +eat. I'm too upset for much food. Tea," she whispered, "and some nice +toast. Tell Mrs. Deo that I want nothing else. She will understand."</p> + +<p>The maid nodded and disappeared down the hall just as a bare arm was +thrust out from Anitra's door and the tray drawn in. A few minutes later +the other tray came up and was carried into Mrs. Ransom's room. The +contrast in the way the two trays had been received struck him as showing +the difference between the two women, especially after he had been given +an opportunity, as he was later, of seeing the ferocious way in which the +food brought to Anitra had been disposed of.</p> + +<p>But I anticipate. The latter tray had not yet been pushed again into the +hall, and Mr. Ransom was still smoking his first cigar when he heard the +lawyer's voice in the office below asking to have pen and ink placed in +the small reception-room. This recalled him to the real purpose of his +wife's presence in the house, and also assured him that the opportunity +would soon be given him for another glimpse of her before the evening was +over. It was also likely to be a full-face one, as she would have to +advance several steps directly towards him before taking the turn leading +to the front staircase.</p> + +<p>He awaited the moment eagerly. The hour for signing the will had been set +at nine o'clock, but it was surely long past that time now. No, the clock +in the office is striking; it is just nine. Would she recognize the +summons? Assuredly; for with the last stroke she lifts the latch of her +door and comes out.</p> + +<p>She has exchanged her dark dress for a light one and has arranged her +hair in the manner he likes best. But he scarcely notes these changes in +the interest he feels in her intentions and the manner in which she +proceeds to carry out her purpose.</p> + +<p>She does not advance at once to the staircase, but creeps first to her +sister's door, where she stands listening for a minute or so in an +attitude of marked anxiety. Then, with a gesture expressive of repugnance +and alarm, she steps quickly forward and disappears down the staircase +without vouchsafing one glance in his direction.</p> + +<p>His vision of her as she looked in that short passage from room to +staircase was momentary only, but it left him shuddering. Never before +had he seen resolve burning to a white heat in the human countenance. +There was something abnormal in it, taken with his knowledge of her face +in its happier and more wholesome aspects. The innocent, affectionate +young girl, whose soul he had looked upon as a weeded garden, had become +in a moment to his eyes a suffering, determined, deeply concentrated +woman of unsuspected power and purpose. A suggestion of wildness in her +air added to the mysterious impression she made; an impression which +rendered this instant memorable to him and set his pulses beating to +a tune quite new to them. What was she going to do? Sign away all her +property? Beggar her heirs for—He could not say what. No; even such +a resolution could not account for her remarkable expression of +concentrated will. There was in her distracted mind something of more +tragic import than this; and he dared not question what; dared not even +approach this woman who, less than a week before, had linked herself to +him for life. The uneasy light in those fixed and gleaming eyes betrayed +a reason too lightly poised. He feared any additional shock for her. +Better that she should go down undisturbed to her adviser, who bore a +reputation which insured a judicious use of his power. What if she were +about to will away her fortune to the man she called brother? He himself +had no use for her wealth. Her health and happiness were all that +concerned him, and these possibly depended on her being allowed to go her +own way without interference. But oh, for eyes to see into the room into +which she had withdrawn with the lawyer! For eyes to see into her heart! +For eyes to see into the future!</p> + +<p>His suspense presently became so great that he could no longer control +himself. Throwing up the window, he thrust his head out into the rain and +felt refreshed by the icy drops falling on his face and neck. But the +roar of the waterfall rang too persistently in his ears and he hastily +closed the window again. There was something in the incessant boom of +that tumbling water which strangely disturbed him. He could better stand +suspense than that. If only the wind would bluster again. That, at least, +was intermittent in its fury and gave momentary relief to thoughts +strained to an unbearable tension.</p> + +<p>Afterwards, only a short time afterwards, he wondered that he had given +himself over to such extreme feeling at this especial moment. Her +appearance when she came quietly back, with Mrs. Deo chatting and smiling +behind her, was natural enough, and though she did not speak herself, the +tenor of the landlady's remarks was such as to show that they had been +conversing about old days when the two little girls used to ransack her +cupboards for their favorite cookies, and when their united pranks were +the talk of the town.</p> + +<p>As they passed down the hall, Mrs. Deo garrulously remarked:</p> + +<p>"You were never separated except on that dreadful day of the schoolhouse +burning. That day you were sick and—"</p> + +<p>"Please!" The word leaped from Georgian in terror, and she almost threw +her hand against the other's mouth. "I—I can't bear it."</p> + +<p>The good lady paused, gurgled an apology, and stooped for the tray which +disfigured the sightliness of the neatly kept hall. Then, nodding towards +a maid whom she had placed on watch at the extreme end of the hall, she +muttered some assurances as to this woman's faithfulness, and turned away +with a cordial good night. Georgian watched her go with a strange and +lingering intentness, or so it seemed to Ransom; then slowly entered her +room and locked the door.</p> + +<p>The incidents of the day, so far as she was concerned, appeared to be at +an end.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>HALF-PAST ONE IN THE MORNING</h3> + + +<p>Nothing now held Mr. Ransom to his room. The two women in whose fate he +was so nearly concerned, his sister-in-law and his wife, had both retired +and there was no other eye he feared. Indeed, he courted an interview +with the lawyer, if only it could be naturally obtained; and he had +little reason to think it could not. So he went down-stairs.</p> + +<p>In a moment he seemed to have passed from the realm of dreams to that of +reality. Here was no mystery. Here was life as he knew it. Walking boldly +into the office, he ran his eye over the half-dozen men who sat there +and, picking out the lawyer from the rest, sauntered easily up to him and +sat down.</p> + +<p>"My name is Johnston," said he. "I'm from New York; like yourself, I +believe."</p> + +<p>The lawyer, with a twinkle in his light-blue eye, answered with a cordial +nod; and in two minutes a lively conversation had begun between them on +purely impersonal subjects suited to the intelligence of the crowd they +were in. This did not last, however. An opportunity soon came for them to +stroll off together, and presently Mr. Ransom found himself closeted with +this man who he had reason to believe was the sole holder of the key to +the secret which was devouring him.</p> + +<p>A bottle of wine was on the table between them, and some cigars. As Mr. +Ransom filled the two glasses, he spoke:</p> + +<p>"I have to thank you—" he began, but saw immediately that he had made a +wrong start.</p> + +<p>"For what, <i>Mr. Johnston</i>?" asked the other coldly.</p> + +<p>"For giving me this opportunity to speak alone with you," Ransom +explained with a nervous gesture. "An hour of unrestrained gossip is so +necessary to me after a day of hard work. Perhaps you don't know that I +am an author—have been one for seven whole hours. I find it exhausting. +You could give me great relief by talking a little on some foreign +subject, say on the one now engrossing every one in the house, the twin +ladies from New York. You were in the same coach with them. Did they +quarrel and did the most wilful of the two insist on getting out at the +foot of the hill and walking up through the lane?"</p> + +<p>"I doubt if I have anything to say to Mr. Johnston on this subject," was +the wary reply.</p> + +<p>"What if he added another name to the Johnston?"</p> + +<p>"It would make no appreciable difference. The driver is a loquacious +fellow, talk to him."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom felt his heart fail him. He surveyed closely the mouth which +had uttered this off-hand sentence and saw that it was set in a line +there was no mistaking. Little enlightenment was to be got from this man. +Yet he made one more effort.</p> + +<p>"Did my wife sign the will?" he asked. "All pretense aside, this is a +very important matter to me, Mr. Harper; not on account of the money +involved, but because the doing of this simple act seemed to require such +an effort on her part."</p> + +<p>"You are mistaken," was the quick reply, harshly accentuated. "She did +just what she wanted to do. She was not in the least coerced, unless it +was by circumstances."</p> + +<p>"Circumstances! But that is what I mean. They seem to have been too much +for her. I want to understand these circumstances."</p> + +<p>The lawyer honored him with his first direct look.</p> + +<p>"I don't understand them myself," said he.</p> + +<p>"You don't?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom set down the wineglass he had raised half-way to his lips.</p> + +<p>"You have simply followed her orders?"</p> + +<p>"You have said it. Your wife is a woman of much more character than you +think. She has amazed me."</p> + +<p>"She is amazing me. I am here; she is here; only a few boards separate +us. But iron bars could not be more effectual. I dare not approach her +door; dare not ask her to accept from me the natural protection of a +lover and husband. Instinct holds me back, or her will, which may not +be stronger than mine but is certainly more dominant."</p> + +<p>"Lawyers do not believe much in instinct as a usual thing, but I should +advise confidence in this one. A woman with a tremendous will like that +of Mrs. Ransom should be allowed a slack tether. The day will arrive when +she will come to you herself. This I have said before; I can say nothing +more to you to-night."</p> + +<p>"Then there is nothing in the will you have drawn up to show that she has +lost her affection for me?"</p> + +<p>The lawyer drained his glass.</p> + +<p>"I have not been given permission to declare its terms," said he, when +his glass was again upon the table.</p> + +<p>"In other words, I am to know nothing," exclaimed his exasperated +companion.</p> + +<p>"Not from me."</p> + +<p>And this ended the conversation. Ransom withdrew immediately up-stairs.</p> + +<p>At ten o'clock he retired. The last look he cast down the hall had shown +him the drowsy figure of the maid still sitting at her watch. It seemed +to insure a peaceful night. But he had little expectation of sleep. +Though the wind had quieted down and the rain fell with increasing +gentleness, the roar of the waterfall surged through all his thoughts, +which in themselves were turbulent. He did sleep, however, slept +peacefully till half-past one, when he and all in the house were startled +by a wild and piercing cry rising from one of the rooms. Terror was in +the sound and in an instant every door was open save the two which were +shut upon Georgian and her twin sister.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>"GEORGIAN!"</h3> + + +<p>Mr. Ransom was the first one in the hall. He had not undressed himself, +expecting a totally sleepless night. It was his figure, then, that the +maid encountered as she came running from her post at the end of the +corridor.</p> + +<p>"Which room? which?" he gasped out, ignoring every precaution in his +blind terror.</p> + +<p>"This one. I am sure it came from this one," she declared, knocking +loudly on Anitra's door.</p> + +<p>There was a rustle within, a cry which was half a sob, then the sound of +a hand fumbling with the lock. Meanwhile, Mr. Ransom had bent his ear to +his wife's door.</p> + +<p>"All still in here," he cried. "Not a sound. Something dreadful has +happened—"</p> + +<p>Just then Anitra's door fell back and a wild image confronted him and +such others as had by this time collected in the passageway. With only a +shawl covering her nightdress, the gipsy-like creature stood clawing the +air and answering the looks that appealed to her, with wild gurgles, till +suddenly her hot glances fell on Roger Ransom, when she instantly became +rigid and stammered out:</p> + +<p>"She's gone! I saw her black figure go by my window. She called out that +the waterfall drew her. She went by the little balcony and the roof. The +roof was slippery with the rain and she fell. That's why I screamed. But +she got up again. What is she going to do at the waterfall? Stop her! +stop her! She hasn't steady feet like me, and I wasn't really angry. I +liked her; I liked her."</p> + +<p>Sobs choked the rest. Her terror was infectious. Mr. Ransom reeled, then +flung himself at Georgian's door. It resisted but the silence within told +him that she was not there. Neither was she in Anitra's room. They could +all look in and see it bare to the window.</p> + +<p>"You saw her climbing past there?" he cried, forgetting she was deaf.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," she chattered, catching his meaning from his pointing finger. +"There's a balcony. She must have jumped on it from her own window. She +didn't come in here. See! the door is locked on her side."</p> + +<p>This was true.</p> + +<p>"I woke and saw her. My eyes are like lynx's. I got out of bed to watch. +She fell—"</p> + +<p>The noise of a breaking lock snapped her words in two. One of the men +present had flung himself against this communicating door. Immediately +they all crowded into the adjoining room. It was empty and bitterly cold +and wet. An open window explained why, and possibly the letter lying on +the bureau inscribed with her husband's name would explain the rest. But +he stopped to read no letters now.</p> + +<p>"Show me the way to those falls," he cried, pocketing the letter as he +rushed by the disheveled Anitra into the open hall. "I'm her husband, +Roger Ransom. Who goes with me? He who does is my friend for life."</p> + +<p>The clerk and one or two others rushed for their coats and lanterns. He +waited for nothing. The roar of the waterfall had told him too many tales +that day. And the will! Her will just signed!</p> + +<p>"Georgian!"</p> + +<p>They could hear his cry.</p> + +<p>"Georgian! Georgian! Wait! wait! hear what I have to say!" thrilled back +through the mist as he stumbled on, followed by the men waving their +lanterns and shouting words of warning he probably never heard. Then his +cry further off and fainter. "Georgian! Georgian!" Then silence and the +slow drizzle of rain on the soggy walk and soaked roofs, with the far-off +boom of the waterfall which Mrs. Deo and the trembling maids gazing at +the wide-eyed Anitra shivering in the center of her deserted room, tried +to shut out by closing window and blind, forgetting that she was deaf and +only heard such echoes as were thundering in her own mind.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>WHERE THE MILL STREAM RUNS FIERCEST</h3> + + +<p>Two o'clock.</p> + +<p>Three o'clock.</p> + +<p>Two men were talking below their breaths in the otherwise empty office. +"That 'ere mill stream never gives up anything it has once caught," +muttered one into the ear of the other. "It's swift as fate and in +certain places deep as hell. Dutch Jan's body was five months at the +bottom of it, before it came up at Clark's pool."</p> + +<p>The man beside him shivered and his hand roamed nervously towards his +breast.</p> + +<p>"Did Jan, the Dutchman you speak of, fall in by accident, or did +he—throw himself over—from homesickness, or some such cause?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al we don't say; on account of his old mother, you know, we don't +say. It was called accident."</p> + +<p>The other man rose and walked restlessly to the window.</p> + +<p>"Half the town is up," he muttered. "The lanterns go by like fire-flies. +Poor Ransom! It's a hopeless job, I fear." And again his hand wandered to +that breast pocket where the edge of a document could be seen. "I have +half a mind to go out myself; anything is better than sitting here."</p> + +<p>But he sat down just the same. Mr. Harper was no longer a young man.</p> + +<p>"The storm's bating," observed the one.</p> + +<p>"But not the cold. Throw on a stick; I'm freezing."</p> + +<p>The other man obeyed; then looking up, stared. A girl stood before them +in the doorway. Anitra, with cheeks ablaze and eyes burning, her +traveling dress flapping damp about her heels, and on her head the red +shawl she preferred to any hat. Behind her shoulder peered the anxious +face of Mrs. Deo.</p> + +<p>"I'm going out," cried the former in the loud and unmodulated voice of +the deaf. "He don't come back! he don't come back! I'm going to see why."</p> + +<p>The lawyer rose and bowed; then resolutely shook his head. He did not +know whether she had appealed to him or not. She had not looked at him, +had not looked at any one, but he felt that he must protest.</p> + +<p>"I beg you not to do so," he began. "I really beg you to remain here and +wait with me. You can do no good and the result may be dangerous." But he +knew he was talking to deaf ears even before the landlady murmured:</p> + +<p>"She doesn't hear a word. I've talked and talked to her. I've used every +sign and motion I could think of, but it's done no good. She would dress +and she will go out; you'll see."</p> + +<p>The next minute her prophecy came true; the wild thing, with a quick +whirl of her lithe body, was at the front door, and in another instant +had flashed through it and was gone.</p> + +<p>"It is my duty to follow her," said the lawyer. "Help me on with my coat; +I'll find some one to guide me."</p> + +<p>"Here is a lantern. Excuse me for not going with you," pleaded Mrs. Deo, +"but some one must watch the house."</p> + +<p>The New Yorker nodded, took the lantern offered him, and went stoically +out.</p> + +<p>He met a man on the walk in front. He was faced his way and was panting +heavily.</p> + +<p>"Hello," said he, "what news?"</p> + +<p>"They haven't found her; but there's no doubt she went over the fall. The +fellow who calls himself her husband has just been reading a letter they +say she left on her bureau for him. It was a good-by, I reckon, for you +can't tear him from the spot. He says he'll stay there till daylight. I +couldn't stand the sight of his misery myself. Besides, it's mortal cold; +I've just been running to get warm. Who was the girl who just went +scurrying by out of here? It's no place for wimmen down there. One lost +gal is enough."</p> + +<p>"That's what I think," muttered the lawyer, hurrying on.</p> + +<p>He was not a very imaginative man; some of his best friends thought him a +cold and prosaic one, but he never forgot that walk or the sensations +accompanying it. Dark as it still was, the way would have been impassable +for a stranger, had it not been for the guidance given by the noisy +passing to and fro of the awakened townspeople. Those coming from the +river approached in a direct line from one spot; those going to it +advanced in the same line and to the same spot. A ring of lanterns marked +it. It was near, very near where the heavy waters fell into a deep pool. +No one now spoke of Anitra; she had evidently been warned by her first +encounter to move with less precipitancy.</p> + +<p>As he approached the place of central interest, he moved more warily too. +The ground was very bad; he had never walked in such slush. Once and +again he tripped; once he came down upon his face. The boom of the waters +was now very near; he could see nothing but the flicker of the lanterns, +but he felt the near rush of the stream, and presently was at its very +edge. Startled by the nearness of his escape, for he had almost lost +his footing by his sudden halt, he started back, looked again at the +lanterns, took a turn and came upon the dozen or more men bending over +the edge of the stream where the waters ran most swiftly. But he did not +join them. Another sight attracted his eyes and presently himself. This +was the sight of Ransom crouched on the wet earth, staring down at a slip +of paper he held in his hands. A lantern set in the sand at his feet sent +its feeble rays over his face and possibly over the paper; but he was no +longer reading it, he was simply so lost in its sorrowful contents that +all power of movement had deserted him.</p> + +<p>Harper approached to his side, but he did not address him. Something +stirred in his own breast and kept him silent. But there was another +person near who was not so deterred. As Harper stood watching Ransom's +crouched, almost insensible figure, he perceived a slight dark form steal +from the shadows and lay a hand on the stooping man's shoulder, then as +he failed to move or give any token of feeling this touch, he heard +Anitra's voice say in accents almost musical:</p> + +<p>"You will get ill here; you are not used to the cold and the night air. +Come back to the house; Georgian would wish it."</p> + +<p>The name roused him and he looked up. Their eyes met and a strange +gleam—a shock, perhaps, of sympathetic feeling, flashed upon either +face. The lawyer saw and instinctively retreated from out the circle of +light cast by the lantern; but the men at the stream's edge heard +nothing. The flash of something white had caught their eyes and one man +was reaching for it.</p> + +<p>"Georgian," came in astonished repetition from the bereaved man's lips.</p> + +<p>"She would wish it," persisted the other with still deeper and more +urgent meaning.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/hand.jpg"><img src="images/hand.jpg" alt=""/></a> +</div> + +<h4>A slight, dark form stole from the shadows and laid a +hand on the stooping man's shoulder.</h4> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<p>Then in a whisper so penetrating that even Mr. Harper caught its least +inflection through all the thunder of the waterfall, "She loved you."</p> + +<p>Ah! the enchantment, the feminine persuasiveness, the heart-moving +sincerity which breathed through that simple phrase! From lips so +untutored, it seemed marvelous. Ransom was not insensible to its power, +for he quivered under her hand and his eyes took on a look of wonder. But +he made no attempt to answer, even by a sign. He seemed content for that +one instant just to listen and to look.</p> + +<p>The man hanging over the stream drew back his arm. He had been deceived +by a bit of froth; some of it clung yet to his fingers.</p> + +<p>"Come," entreated the girl, her face emerging softly into the light, as +she stooped lower over the lantern. "Come!" she had taken him by the hand +and was drawing him gently upward.</p> + +<p>With a leap he was on his feet and had thrown her off. Some memory had +come to make her entreaty hateful.</p> + +<p>"No," he cried, "no! Here is my place and here will I stay. You are a +stranger to me! You drove her to this act, and you shall not cajole me +into forgetting it."</p> + +<p>He had spoken loudly; not so much because he remembered her affliction, +but because of the roar of the fall and his own overwhelming passion. The +result was that the lawyer caught every word; possibly the workers at the +water-edge did also; for some of them quickly turned their heads. But +she, though she stopped short in the spot where he had pushed her, gave +no evidence of hearing his words or even of resenting his manner.</p> + +<p>"Won't you come?" she falteringly pleaded, pointing towards the house +with its twinkling lights. "You are cold; you are shuddering; they will +do the searching who don't mind night or wet. Follow Anitra, Anitra who +is so sorry."</p> + +<p>"No!" he shouted. His tone, his look, were almost those of a madman. He +even put out his hands towards her in repulsion. He seemed to cast her +away. This gesture, if not his words, reached her understanding. The +lawyer saw her sway, fling back her young head with its disheveled locks +to the night, and fall moaning pitifully to the ground. Here she lay +still, with the wet grass all about her and the last lingering drops of +rain beating on her huddled form.</p> + +<p>Mr. Harper started to raise her, for Ransom stood petrified. But no +sooner had the lawyer made his presence known by this impetuous movement, +than Ransom woke from his trance and, darting down, lifted the girl in +his arms and began moving with her towards the house. As he passed the +lawyer he muttered between set teeth:</p> + +<p>"She's caused me all my misery. But she looks too much like Georgian for +me to see another man touch her. God will care for my poor darling's +body."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>A DETECTIVE'S WORK</h3> + + +<p>Morning.</p> + +<p>The living household was about its tasks for all the horror of the night +before, and the still unrelieved suspense as to the fate of one of its +members.</p> + +<p>The maid, who had sat on watch in the upper hall for so many hours the +evening before, was again at her post, but this time with her eye fixed +only on one door, the door behind which slept the exhausted Anitra. +Ransom's room was empty; he was in the sitting-room below, closeted with +the lawyer.</p> + +<p>Some one had been there before them. The tray of bottles and glasses had +been removed from the table, and in their place were to be seen a woman's +damaged hat and a small tortoise-shell comb. Mr. Harper's hand was on the +former, which was wound about with a wet veil.</p> + +<p>"I think I recognize this," said he. "At least I have a distinct +impression of having seen it before."</p> + +<p>"It was picked up with the veil still on it near the entrance of the +lane," explained Ransom.</p> + +<p>"Then there can be no doubt that it is the hat Miss Hazen wore during +her journey. She tossed it off the moment her foot touched the ground, +and taking the shawl from her neck pulled it over her head instead. You +remember that she had no hat on when they brought her in."</p> + +<p>"I remember. This is Miss Hazen's hat without any doubt."</p> + +<p>The lawyer eyed the speaker with curious interest. There was something in +his tone that he did not understand.</p> + +<p>"And this?" he ventured, laying a respectful finger on the comb.</p> + +<p>"Found in the open field between the house and the mill-stream."</p> + +<p>"Do you recognize it?"</p> + +<p>"No. Georgian wore such combs, but I cannot absolutely say that this is +hers."</p> + +<p>"I can. You see this little gold work at the top? Well, I have an eye for +such things and I noticed this comb in her hair last night. There were +two of them just alike."</p> + +<p>Instinctively the two men sat with their eyes fixed for a minute on this +comb, then, equally instinctively, they both looked up and gazed at each +other long and hard. It was the lawyer who first spoke.</p> + +<p>"I think that we should have no further secrets between us," said he. +"Here is Mrs. Ransom's will. There is a name mentioned in it which I do +not know. Perhaps you do." Here he laid the document on the table.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom eyed it but did not take it up. Instead, he drew a crumpled +paper from his own pocket and, handing it to the lawyer, said: "First, +I should like you to read the letter which she left behind for me. My +feelings as a husband would lead me to hold it as a sacred legacy from +all eyes but my own; but there is a mystery hidden in it, a mystery which +I must penetrate, and you are the only man who can assist me in doing +so."</p> + +<p>The lawyer, lowering his eyes to hide their own suspicious glint, opened +the paper, and carefully read these lines:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Forgive. My troubles are too much for me. I'm going to a place of +rest, the only place and the only rest possible to one in my position. +I don't blame anybody. Least of all do I blame Anitra. It was not her +fault that she was brought up rudely, or that she knows no restraint +in love or in hate. Be kind to her for my sake, and if any one else +claims her or offers to take her from you, resist them. I give her +entirely to you. It's a more priceless gift than you think; much more +priceless than the one which I take from you by my death. I could +never have been happy with you; you could never have been happy with +me. Fate stood between us; a darker and more inexorable fate than you, +in your kindly experience of life, could imagine. Else, why do I +plunge to my death with your ring on my finger and your love in my +heart?</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Georgian.</span>"</p></div> + +<p>"Ravings?" questioned Ransom hoarsely, as Mr. Harper's eyes rose again to +his face.</p> + +<p>"It would seem so," assented the lawyer. "Yet there is intelligence in +all the lines. And the will—read the will. There is no lack of +intelligent purpose there; little as it accords with the feeling she +exhibits here for her sister. She leaves her nothing; and does not even +mention her name. Her personal belongings she bequeaths to you; but her +realty, which comprises the bulk of her property I believe, she divides, +somewhat unequally I own, between you and a man named Auchincloss. It +is he I want to ask you about. Have you ever heard her speak of him?"</p> + +<p>"Josiah Auchincloss of St. Louis, Missouri," read Mr. Ransom. "No, the +name is new to me. Didn't she tell you anything about him when she gave +you her instructions?"</p> + +<p>"Not a word. She said, 'You will hear from him if ever this will is +published. He has a right to the money and I entreat you to show your +respect for me by seeing that he gets it without any unnecessary +trouble.' That was all she said or would say. Your wife was a woman of +powerful character, Mr. Ransom. My little arts counted for nothing in any +difference of opinion between us."</p> + +<p>"Auchincloss!" repeated Ransom. "Another unknown quantity in the problem +of my poor girl's life. What a tangle! Do you wonder that I am overcome +by it? Anitra—the so-called brother—and now this Auchincloss!"</p> + +<p>"Right, Ransom, I share your confusion."</p> + +<p>"Do you?" The words came very slowly, penetratingly. "Haven't you some +idea—some strange, possibly half-formed notion or secret intuition which +might afford some clew to this labyrinth? I have been told that lawyers +have a knack of getting at the bottom of human conduct and affairs. You +have had a wide experience; does it not suggest some answer to this +problem which will harmonize all its discordant elements and make clear +its various complications?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Harper shook his head, but there was a restrained excitement in his +manner which was not altogether the reflection of that which dominated +Ransom, and the latter, observing it, leaned across the table till their +faces almost touched.</p> + +<p>"Do you guess my thought?" he whispered. "Look at me and tell me if you +guess my thought."</p> + +<p>The lawyer hesitated, eying well the trembling lip, the changing color, +the wide-open, deeply flushed eyes so near his own; then with a slow +smile of extraordinary subtlety, if not of comprehension, answered in +a barely audible murmur:</p> + +<p>"I think I do. I may be mad, but I think I do."</p> + +<p>The other sank back with a sigh charged with what the lawyer interpreted +as relief. Mr. Harper reseated himself, and for a moment neither looked +at the other, and neither spoke; it would almost seem as if neither +breathed. Then, as a bird, deceived by the silence, hopped to the window +sill and began its cheep, "cheep," Mr. Ransom broke the spell by saying +in low but studiously business-like tones:</p> + +<p>"Have you thought it worth while to study the ground under her window or +anywhere else for footprints? It might not be amiss; what do you think +about it?"</p> + +<p>"Let us go," readily acquiesced the lawyer, rising to his feet with an +honest show of alacrity; "after which I must telegraph to New York. I was +expected back to-day."</p> + +<p>"I know it; but your duties there will keep; these here cannot. Your hand +on the promise that you will respect my secret till—well, till I can +assure you that my intuitions are devoid of any real basis."</p> + +<p>The lawyer's palm met his; then they started to go out; but before they +had passed the door, Mr. Ransom came back, and lifting the comb from the +table he put it in his pocket. As he did this, his eye flashed sidewise +on the other. There were strange hints and presentiments in it which +brought the color to the usually imperturbable lawyer's cheek.</p> + +<p>In going out they passed the office-door. A dozen men were hanging about, +smoking and talking. Among them was a countryman who had just swallowed, +open-mouthed, the story of the past night's tragedy. He was now speaking +out his own mind concerning it, and this is what these two heard him say +as they went by:</p> + +<p>"Do you know what strikes me as mighty strange? That they should clear +that stone of the name of Anitra just in time to put Georgian's in its +place. I call that peculiar, I do."</p> + +<p>The lawyer and the husband exchanged a glance.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Ransom had a deep mind," the lawyer remarked, as the door slammed +behind them. "She apparently thought of everything."</p> + +<p>Ransom, directing a look down the street towards the factories and the +roaring mill-stream, uttered a shuddering sigh.</p> + +<p>"They are still searching," said he. "But they will never find her. They +will never find her."</p> + +<p>The lawyer pulled him away.</p> + +<p>"That's because they search the water. We will search the land."</p> + +<p>"That's half water, too; but it cannot hide every clew. You have eyes for +the imperceptible; use them, Mr. Harper, use them."</p> + +<p>"I will; but this is a detective's work. Do not expect too much from me."</p> + +<p>"I expect nothing. I do not dare to. Let us tread very softly, that is +all, and be careful to talk low, if we have anything to say."</p> + +<p>By this time they had rounded the corner of the house and entered a +narrow walk, flagged with brick, which connected the space in front +with the rear offices and garden. This walk ran close to the walls which +were broken on this side by an ell projecting in the direction of the +mill-stream. It was from the roof of this ell that Anitra declared +Georgian to have slipped and fallen.</p> + +<p>Their first care was to glance up at the roof. It was a sloping one and +Anitra's story seemed credible enough when they noted how much easier it +would be to drop upon it from the little balcony overhead than to +traverse the roof itself and reach the ground beneath without slipping. +But as they looked longer, each face betrayed doubt. The descent from the +balcony was easy enough, but how about the passage from Georgian's window +to the balcony? This latter was confined to the one window, and was +surrounded by an ornamental balustrade, high enough to offer a decided +obstacle to the adventurous person endeavoring to leap upon it from the +adjoining window-ledge. However, this leap, made in the dark and under +circumstances inducing the utmost recklessness, might look practical +enough from the window-ledge itself, and Mr. Harper, making a remark to +this effect, proposed that they should examine the ground rather than the +house for evidences of Mrs. Ransom's slip and fall as related by Anitra.</p> + +<p>The only spot where they could hope to find such was in the one short +stretch—the width of the ell—underlying the edge of the sloping roof. +But this spot was all flagged, as I have already said, and when their +eyes strayed beyond it to the untilled fields, stretching between them +and the great rock at the verge of the waterfall from which she was +supposed to have taken her fatal leap, it was to find them as +unproductive of evidence as the brick walk itself. Not one pair of feet +but many had passed that way since early morning. The ground showed a +mass of impressions of all sizes and shapes, amid which it would have +been impossible for them, without the necessary experience, to have +followed up the flight of any one person. They had come to their task +too late.</p> + +<p>"Futile," decided the lawyer. "There is no use in our going that way." +And he turned to look again at the ground in their immediate vicinity. As +he did so, his eye lighted on the triangular spot where the ell met the +side of the house under the kitchen windows. Here there was no flagging, +the walk taking a diagonal course from the corner of the ell to the +kitchen door.</p> + +<p>"What are those?" he asked, pointing to two oblong impressions brimming +with water which disfigured the center of this small plot.</p> + +<p>"They look like footprints," ventured Ransom.</p> + +<p>"They are footprints," decided Mr. Harper as they stooped to examine the +marks, "and the footprints of a person dropping from a height. Nothing +else explains their depth or general appearance."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't they be those of a person approaching the ell to converse with +some one above? I see others similar to these in the open place over +there beyond the kitchen door."</p> + +<p>"It is a trail. Let us follow it. It seems to lead anywhere but towards +the waterfall. This is an important discovery, Mr. Ransom, and may lead +to conclusions such as we might not otherwise have presumed to entertain, +especially if we come upon an impression clear enough to point in which +direction the person making it was going."</p> + +<p>"Here is what you want," Ransom assured him in a low and curiously +smothered voice. He was evidently greatly excited by this result of their +inquiries, for all his apparent quiet and precise movements. "It's a +woman's step, and that woman was going from the ell when she left these +tokens of her passage behind her. Going! and as you say not in the +direction of the waterfall."</p> + +<p>"Hush! I see some one at the kitchen window. Let us move warily and be +sure not to confound these prints with those of any other person. It +looks as if a great many people had passed here."</p> + +<p>"Yes, this is the way to the chicken-coops and out-houses. But in the +ground beyond I think I see a single line of steps again,—small steps +like these. Where can they be leading? They are deep like those of a +person running."</p> + +<p>"And straggling, like those of a person running in the dark. See how they +waver from the direct line down there, turn, and almost come up against +that wood-pile! Whose steps are these? Whose, Mr. Harper? Quick! I must +see where they go. Our time will not be lost. The key to the labyrinth is +in our hands."</p> + +<p>The lawyer was in the rear and the eyes of the other were fixed far +ahead. For this reason, perhaps, the former allowed himself a quiet shake +of the head, which might not have encouraged the other so very much, had +he caught sight of it. They were now on the verge of the garden, or what +would soon be a garden if these rains betokened spring. A path ran along +its edge and in this path the footsteps they were following lost +themselves; but they came upon them again among the hillocks of some old +potato-hills beyond, and finally traced them quite across the garden +waste to a fence, along which they ran, blundering from ploughed earth to +spots of smoother ground, and so back again till they came upon an old +turn-stile!</p> + +<p>Passing through this, the two men stopped and looked about them. They +were in a road ridged with grass and flanked by bushes. One end ran east +into a wooded valley, the other debouched on the highway a few feet to +the right of the tavern.</p> + +<p>"The lane!" exclaimed Mr. Harper. "The lead towards the waterfall was a +feint. It was in this direction she fled, and it is from this point that +search must be made for her."</p> + +<p>Ransom, greatly perturbed, for this possibility of secret flight opened +vistas of as much mystery, if not of as much suffering, as her death in +the river, glanced at the sodden ground under their feet, and thus along +the lane to where it lost itself from view among the trees.</p> + +<p>"No possible following of steps here," he declared. "A hundred people +must have come this way since early morning."</p> + +<p>"It's a short cut from the Ferry. They told me last night that it +lessened the distance by fully a quarter of a mile."</p> + +<p>"The Ferry! Can she be there? Or in the woods, or on her way to some +unknown place far out of our reach? The thought is maddening, Mr. Harper, +and I feel as helpless as a child under it. Shall we get detectives from +the county-seat, or start on the hunt ourselves? We might hear something +further on to help us."</p> + +<p>"We might; but I should rather stay on the immediate scene at present. +Ah, there comes a fellow in a cart who should be able to tell us +something! Stand by and I'll accost him. You needn't show your face."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom turned aside. Mr. Harper waited till the slow-moving horse, +dragging a heavily jogging wagon, came alongside, and he had caught the +eye of the low-browed, broad-faced farmer boy who sat on a bag of +potatoes and held the reins.</p> + +<p>"Good morning," said he. "Bad news this way. Any better at the Ferry, or +down east, as you call it?"</p> + +<p>"Eh?" was the lumbering, half-suspicious answer from the startled boy. +"I've heard naught down yonder, but that a gal threw herself over the +waterfall up here last night. Is that a fact, sir? I'm mighty curus to +know. My mother knew them Hazens; used to wash for 'em years ago. She +told me to bring up these taters and larn all I could about it."</p> + +<p>"We don't know much more than that ourselves," was the smooth and +cautious reply. "The lady certainly is missing, and she is supposed to +have drowned herself." Then, as he noted the fellow's eyes resting with +some curiosity on Mr. Ransom's well-clad, gentlemanly figure, added +gravely, and with a slight gesture towards the latter:</p> + +<p>"The lady's husband."</p> + +<p>The lad's jaw fell and he looked very sheepish.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, misters, I didn't know," he managed to mutter, with a slash +at his horse which was vainly endeavoring to pull the cart from the rut +in which it had stuck. "I guess I'll go along to the hotel. I've a bag of +taters for Mrs. Deo."</p> + +<p>But the cart didn't budge and the lawyer had time to say:</p> + +<p>"Guess you didn't hear anything said about another lady I am interested +in. No talk down your way of a strange young woman seen anywhere on the +highway or about any of the houses between here and the Landing?"</p> + +<p>"Jerusha! I did hear a neighbor of mine say somethin' about a stranger +gal he saw this very mornin'. Met her down by Beardsley's. She was goin' +through the mud on foot as lively as you please. Asked him the way to the +Ferry. He noticed her because she was pretty and spoke in such a nice +way—just like a city gal," he said. "Is it any one from this hotel?" +added the fellow with a wondering look. "If so, she walked a mile before +daylight in mud up to her ankles. A girl of powerful grit that! with a +mighty good reason for catching the train."</p> + +<p>"Oh! there's an early train then?" asked the lawyer, ignoring the other's +question with unmoved good-humor. "One, I mean, before the 10:50 +express?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, or so I've heard. I never took it. Folks don't from here, +except they're in an awful hurry. Will y'er say who the young woman is? +Not—not—"</p> + +<p>"We don't know who she is," quietly objected the lawyer. "And you don't +know who she is either," he severely added, holding the yawping +countryman with his eye. "If you're the man I think you, you'll not talk +about her unless you're asked by the constable or some one you are bound +to answer. And what's more, you'll earn a five-dollar bill by going back +the road you've come and bringing here, without any talk or fuss, the man +you were just telling us about. I want to have a talk with him, but I +don't want any one but you and him to know this. You can tell him it's +worth money, if he don't want to come. Do you understand?"</p> + +<p>"You bet," chuckled the grinning lad. "A five-dollar bill is mighty +clearing to the mind, sir. But must I turn right back before going on to +the hotel and hearing the news?"</p> + +<p>"We'll help you turn the cart," grimly suggested Mr. Harper. "Get up +there, Dobbin, or whatever your name is. Here, Ransom, lend a hand!"</p> + +<p>There was nothing for the fellow to do but to accept the help proffered, +and turn his cart. With one longing look towards the hotel he jerked at +the rein and shouted at the horse, which, after a few feeble efforts, +pulled the cart about and started off again in the desired direction.</p> + +<p>"Sooner done, sooner paid," shouted the lawyer, as lad and cart went +jolting off. "Remember to ask for Lawyer Harper when you come back. I +won't be far from the office."</p> + +<p>The fellow nodded; gave one grinning look back and whipped up his nag. +The lawyer and Ransom eyed one another. "It's only a possibility," +emphasized the former. "Don't lay too much stress upon it."</p> + +<p>"Let us speak plainly," urged Ransom. "Mr. Harper, are you sure that you +know just what my thought is?"</p> + +<p>"The time has not come for discussing that question. Let us defer it. +There is a fact to be settled first."</p> + +<p>"Whether the girl—"</p> + +<p>"No; this! Whether your wife could have jumped from her window to the +balcony, as Anitra said. It did not look feasible from below, but as I +then remarked to you, our opinion may change when we consider it from +above. Will you go up-stairs with me to your wife's room?"</p> + +<p>"I will go anywhere and do anything you please, so that we learn the +exact truth. But spare me the curiosity of these people. The crowd on +this side is increasing."</p> + +<p>"We will go in by the kitchen door. Some one there will show us the way +up-stairs."</p> + +<p>And in this manner they entered; not escaping entirely all curious looks, +for human nature is human nature, whether in the kitchen or parlor.</p> + +<p>In the hall above Mr. Ransom took the precedence. As they neared the +fatal room he motioned the lawyer to wait till he could ascertain if Miss +Hazen would be disturbed by their intrusion. The door, which had been +broken in between the two rooms, could not have been put back very +securely, and he dreaded incommoding her. He was gone but a minute. +Almost as soon as the lawyer started to follow him, he could be seen +beckoning from poor Georgian's door.</p> + +<p>"Miss Hazen is asleep," whispered Ransom, as the other drew near. "We can +look about this room with impunity."</p> + +<p>They both entered and the lawyer crossed at once to the window.</p> + +<p>"Your wife could never have taken the leap ascribed to her by the woman +you call Anitra," he declared, after a minute's careful scrutiny of the +conditions. "The balustrade of the adjoining balcony is not only in the +way, but the distance is at least five feet from the extreme end of this +window-ledge. A woman accustomed to a life of adventure or to the feats +of a gymnasium might do it, but not a lady of Mrs. Ransom's habits. If +your wife made her way from this room to the balcony outside her sister's +window, she did it by means of the communicating door."</p> + +<p>"But the door was found locked on this side. There is the key in the lock +now."</p> + +<p>"You are sure of this?"</p> + +<p>"I was the first one to call attention to it."</p> + +<p>"Then," began the lawyer judicially, but stopped as he noted the peculiar +eagerness of Ransom's expression, and turned his attention instead to the +interior of the room and the various articles belonging to Mrs. Ransom +which were to be seen in it. "The dress your wife wore when she signed +her will," he remarked, pointing to the light green gown hanging on the +inside of the door by which they had entered.</p> + +<p>Ransom stepped up to it, but did not touch it. He could see her as she +looked in this gown in her memorable passage through the hall the evening +before, and, recalling her expression, wondered if they yet understood +the nature of her purpose and the determination which gave it such +extraordinary vigor.</p> + +<p>Mr. Harper called his attention to two other articles of dress hanging in +another part of the room. These were her long gray rain-coat and the hat +and veil she had worn on the train.</p> + +<p>"She went out bare-headed and in the plain serge dress in which she +arrived," remarked Mr. Harper with a side glance at Ransom. "I wonder if +the girl met on the highway was without hat and dressed in black serge."</p> + +<p>Ransom was silent.</p> + +<p>"Anitra's hat is below and here is Mrs. Ransom's. She who escaped from +this house last night went out bare-headed," repeated the lawyer.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom, moving aside to avoid the probing of the other's eye, merely +remarked:</p> + +<p>"You noticed my wife's dress very particularly it seems. It was of serge, +you say."</p> + +<p>"Yes. I am learned in stuffs. I remarked it when she got into the coach, +possibly because I was struck by its simplicity and conventional make. +There was no trimming on the bottom, only stitching. Her sister's was +just like it. They had the look of being ready-made."</p> + +<p>"But Anitra had no rain-coat. I remember that her shoulders were wet when +she came in from the lane."</p> + +<p>"No, she had no protection but her blouse, black like her dress. I +presume that her hot blood resented every kind of wrap."</p> + +<p>Again that sidelong glance from his keen eye. "She wore a checked silk +handkerchief about her neck—the one she afterwards put over her head."</p> + +<p>"You were on the same train with my wife and sister-in-law," Ransom now +said. "Did you sit near them? Converse with them, that is, with Mrs. +Ransom?"</p> + +<p>"I have no reason for deceiving you in that regard," replied Mr. Harper. +"I did not come up from New York on the same train they did. They must +have come up in the morning, for when I arrived at the place they call +the Ferry, I saw them standing on the hotel steps ready to step into the +coach. I spoke to Mrs. Ransom then, but only a word. My grip-sack had +been put under the driver's seat, and I saw that I was expected to ride +with him, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather. Mrs. Ransom saw +it too and possibly my natural hesitation, for she turned to me after she +had seen her sister safely ensconced inside, and said something about her +regret at having subjected me to such inconvenience, but did not offer to +make room for me in the body of the coach, though there was room enough +if the other had been the quiet lady she was herself. But she was not, +and possibly this was Mrs. Ransom's excuse for her apparent lack of +consideration for me. Before we reached the point where the lane cuts in, +I became aware of some disturbance behind me, and when we really got +there, I heard first the coach door opening, then your wife's voice, +raised in entreaty to the driver, calling on him to stop before her +sister jumped out and hurt herself. 'She is deaf and very wild' was all +the explanation she gave after Miss Hazen had leaped into the wet road +and darted from sight into what looked to me, in the darkness, like a +tangled mass of bushes. Then she said something about her having had +hard work to keep her still till we got this far; but that she was sure +she would find her way to the hotel, and that we mustn't bother ourselves +about it for she wasn't going to; Anitra and she had run this road too +many times when they were children. That is all I have to tell of my +intercourse with these ladies prior to our appearance at the hotel. I +think it right for me to clear the slate, Ransom. Who knows what we may +wish to write upon it next?"</p> + +<p>A slight shiver on Ransom's part was the sole answer he gave to this +innuendo; then both settled themselves to work, the eyes of either +flashing hither and thither from one small object to another, in this +seemingly deserted room. In the momentary silence which followed, the +even breathing of the woman in the adjoining room could be distinctly +heard. It seemed to affect Mr. Ransom deeply, though he strove hard to +maintain the business-like attitude he had assumed from the beginning +of this unofficial examination.</p> + +<p>"She has confided nothing more to you since your return from the river +bank?" suggested the lawyer.</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>The word came sharply, considering Mr. Ransom's usual manner. The lawyer +showed surprise but no resentment, and turned his attention to the bag +both had noted lying open on two chairs.</p> + +<p>"Nothing equivocal here," he declared, after a moment's careful scrutiny +of its remaining contents. "The only comment I should make in regard to +what I find here is that all the articles are less carefully chosen than +you would expect from one of your wife's fondness for fine appointments."</p> + +<p>"They were collected in a hurry and possibly by telephone," returned the +unhappy husband, after a shrinking glance into the bag. "The ones she +provided in anticipation of her wedding are at the hotel in New York. In +the trunks and bags there you will find articles as elegant as you could +wish." Here he turned to the dresser, and pointed to the various objects +grouped upon it.</p> + +<p>"These show that she arranged herself with care for her meeting with you +last night. How did she appear at that interview? Natural?"</p> + +<p>"Hardly; she was much too excited. But I had no suspicion of what she +was cherishing in her mind. I thought her intentions whimsical, and +endeavored to edge in a little advice, but she was in no mood to receive +it. Her mind was too full of what she intended to do.</p> + +<p>"Here's where she ate her supper," he added, picking up a morsel of crust +from a table set against the wall. "And so this door was found fastened +on this side?" he proceeded, laying his hand on the broken lock.</p> + +<p>"It had to be burst open, you see."</p> + +<p>"And the window?"</p> + +<p>"Was up. The carpet, as you can tell by look and feeling, is still wet +with the soaking it got."</p> + +<p>Mr. Harper's air changed to one of reluctant conviction.</p> + +<p>"The evidence seems conclusive of your wife having left this room and the +house in the remarkable manner stated by Miss Hazen. Yet—"</p> + +<p>This <i>yet</i> showed that he was not as thoroughly convinced as the first +phrase would show. But he added nothing to it; only stood listening, +apparently to the even breathing of the sleeper on the other side of this +loosely hanging door.</p> + +<p>As he did so, his eye encountered the hot, dry gaze of Mr. Ransom, fixed +upon him in a suspense too cruel to prolong, and with a sudden change of +manner he moved from the door, saying significantly as he led the way +out:</p> + +<p>"Let us have a word or two in your own room. It is a principle of mine +not to trust even the ears of the deaf with what it is desirable to keep +secret."</p> + +<p>Had the glance with which he said this lingered a moment longer on his +companion's face, he would undoubtedly have been startled at the effect +of his own words. But being at heart a compassionate man, or possibly +understanding his new client much better than that client supposed, he +had turned quite away in crossing the threshold, and so missed the +conscious flash which for a moment replaced the somber and feverish +expression that had already aged by ten years the formerly open features +of this deeply grieved man.</p> + +<p>Once in the hall, it was too dark to note further niceties of expression, +and by the time Mr. Ransom's room was reached, purpose and purpose only +remained visible in either face.</p> + +<p>As they were crossing the threshold, the lawyer wheeled about and cast a +quick look behind him.</p> + +<p>"I observe," said he, "that you have a full and unobstructed view from +here of the whole hall and of the two doors where our interest is +centered. I presume you kept a strict watch on both last night. You let +nothing escape you?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing that one could see from this room."</p> + +<p>With a thoughtful air, the lawyer swung to the door behind them. As it +latched, the face of Mr. Ransom sharpened. He even put out a hand and +rested it on a table standing near, as if to support himself in +anticipation of what the lawyer would say now that they were again +closeted together.</p> + +<p>Mr. Harper was not without his reasons for a corresponding agitation, but +he naturally controlled himself better, and it was with almost a judicial +air that he made this long-expected but long-deferred suggestion:</p> + +<p>"You had better tell me now, and as explicitly as possible, just what is +in your mind. It will prevent all misunderstanding between us, as well as +any injudicious move on my part."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom hesitated, leaning hard on the table; then, with a sudden +burst, he exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"It sounds like folly, and you may think that my troubles have driven me +mad. But I have a feeling here—a feeling without any reason or proof to +back it—that the woman now sleeping off her exhaustion in Anitra's room +is the woman I courted and married—Georgian Hazen, now Georgian Ransom, +my wife."</p> + +<p>"Good! I have made no mistake. That is my thought, too," responded the +lawyer.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>ANITRA</h3> + + +<p>A few minutes later they were discussing this amazing possibility.</p> + +<p>"I have no reason for this conclusion,—this hope," admitted Mr. Ransom. +"It is instinct with me, an intuition, and not the result of my judgment. +It came to me when she first addressed me down by the mill-stream. If you +consider me either wrong or misled, I confess that I shall not be able to +combat your decision with any argument plausible enough to hold your +attention for a moment."</p> + +<p>"But I don't consider you either wrong or misled," protested the other. +"That is," he warily added, "I am ready to accept the correctness of the +possibility you mention and afterwards to note where the supposition will +lead us. Of course, your first sensation is that of relief."</p> + +<p>"It will be when I am no longer the prey of doubts."</p> + +<p>"Notwithstanding the mystery?"</p> + +<p>"Notwithstanding the mystery. The one thing I have found it impossible to +contemplate is her death;—the extinction of all hope which death alone +can bring. She has become so blended with my every thought since the hour +she vanished from my eyes and consequently from my protection, that I +should lose the better part of my self in losing her. Anything but that, +Mr. Harper."</p> + +<p>"Even possible shame?"</p> + +<p>"How, shame?"</p> + +<p>"Some reason very strong and very vital must underlie her conduct if what +we suspect is true, and she has not only been willing to subject you and +herself to a seeming separation by death, but to burden herself with the +additional misery of being obliged to assume a personality cumbered by +such a drawback to happiness and even common social intercourse as this +of the supposed Anitra."</p> + +<p>"You mean her deafness?"</p> + +<p>"I mean that, yes. What could Mrs. Ransom's motive be (if the woman +sleeping yonder is Mrs. Ransom) for so tremendous a sacrifice as this you +ascribe to her? The rescue of her sister from some impending calamity? +That would argue a love of long standing and of superhuman force; one far +transcending even her natural affection for the husband to whom she has +just given her hand. Such a love under such circumstances is not +possible. She has known this long lost sister for a few days only. Her +sense of duty towards her, even her compassion for one so unfortunate, +might lead her to risk much, but not so much as that. You must look for +some other explanation; one more reasonable and much more personal."</p> + +<p>"Where? where? I'm all at sea; blinded, dazed, almost at my wits' end. I +can see no reason for anything she has done. I neither understand her nor +understand myself. I ought to shrink from the poor creature there, +sleeping off—I don't know what. But I don't. I feel drawn to her, +instead, irresistibly drawn, as if my place were at her bedside to +comfort and protect."</p> + +<p>At this impulsive assertion springing from a depth of feeling for which +the staid lawyer had no measure, a perplexed frown chased all the +urbanity from his face. Some thought, not altogether welcome, had come to +disturb him. He eyed Mr. Ransom closely from under his clouded brows. He +could do this now with impunity, for Mr. Ransom's glances were turned +whither his thoughts and inclinations had wandered.</p> + +<p>"I would advise you," came in slow comment from the watchful lawyer, "not +to be too certain of your conclusions till doubt becomes an absolute +impossibility. Instinct is a good thing but it must never be regarded as +infallible. It may be proved that it is your wife who has fled, after +all. In which case it would be a great mistake to put any faith in this +gipsy girl, Anitra."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom's face hardened; his eyes did not leave the direction in which +they were set.</p> + +<p>"I will remember," said he.</p> + +<p>His companion did not appear satisfied, and continued emphatically:</p> + +<p>"Whether the woman now here is Mrs. Ransom or her wild and irresponsible +sister, she is a person of dangerous will and one not to be lightly +regarded nor carelessly dealt with. Pray consider this, Mr. Ransom, and +do not allow impulse to supersede judgment. If you will take my advice—"</p> + +<p>"Speak."</p> + +<p>"I should treat her as if she were the woman she calls herself, or, at +least, as if you thought her so. Nothing—" this word he repeated as he +noted the incredulity with which the other listened—"would be so likely +to make her betray herself as that."</p> + +<p>"Let us go back and listen again at her door," was Mr. Ransom's emphatic +but inconsequent reply.</p> + +<p>The lawyer desisted from further advice, but sighed as he followed his +new client into the hall. At the turn of the staircase they were stopped +by the sound of wrangling voices in the office below. Mr. Harper heard +his name mentioned and hastened to interfere. Assuring Mr. Ransom of his +speedy return, he stepped down-stairs, and in a few minutes reappeared +with a middle-aged man of characteristic appearance, whom he introduced +to Mr. Ransom as Mr. Goodenough. The sight of the uncouth head of their +youthful acquaintance of the morning peering up after him from the foot +of the stairs was warranty sufficient that this was the man who had met +the strange young lady on the highway early that morning.</p> + +<p>At sight of him Mr. Ransom felt that inner recoil which we all experience +at the prospect of an immediate and definite termination of a long +brooding doubt. In another instant and with one word this uncultured and +hitherto unknown man would settle for him the greatest question of his +life. And he did not feel prepared for it. He had an impulse almost of +flight, as if in this way he could escape a certainty he feared. What +certainty? Perhaps he could not have answered had he been asked. His mind +was in a turmoil. He had feelings—instincts; that was all.</p> + +<p>The lawyer, noting his condition, undertook the leadership of affairs. +Beckoning Mr. Goodenough into Mr. Ransom's room, he softly closed the +door upon the many inquiring ears about, and, assuming the manner most +likely to encourage the unsophisticated but straightforward looking man +with whom he had to deal, quietly observed:</p> + +<p>"We hear that you met this morning a young girl going towards the Ferry. +There is great reason why we should know just how this young girl looks. +A lady disappeared from here last night, and though, from a letter she +left behind her, we have every reason to believe that her body is +somewhere in the river, yet we don't want to overlook the possibility +of her having escaped alive in another direction. Can you describe the +person you saw?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, I'm not much good at talk," was the embarrassed, almost halting +reply. "I saw the gal and I remember just how she looked, but I couldn't +put it into words to save my soul. She was pretty and chipper and walked +along as if she was part of the mornin'; but that don't tell you much, +does it? Yet I don't know what else to say. P'raps you could help me +by asking questions."</p> + +<p>"We'll see. Was she light-complexioned? Yellow hair, you know, and blue +eyes?"</p> + +<p>"No; I don't think she was. Not what I call light. My Sal's light; this +gal wasn't like my Sal."</p> + +<p>"Dark, then, very dark, with a gipsy color and snapping black eyes?"</p> + +<p>"No, not that either. What I should call betweens. But more dark than +light."</p> + +<p>Harper flashed a glance at Ransom before putting his next question.</p> + +<p>"What did she have on her head?"</p> + +<p>"Bless me if I can tell! It wasn't a sun-bonnet, nor was it slapped all +over with ribbons and flowers like my darter's."</p> + +<p>"But she had some sort of hat on?"</p> + +<p>"Sartain. Did you think she was just running to the neighbors?"</p> + +<p>"But she wore no coat?"</p> + +<p>"I don't remember any coat."</p> + +<p>"Do you remember her frock?"</p> + +<p>"No, not exactly."</p> + +<p>"Don't you remember its color?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Wasn't it black? the skirt of it, at least?"</p> + +<p>"Black? Wa'al, I guess not. A gal of her age in black! No, she was as +bright as the flowers in my wife's garden. Not a black thing on her. I +should sooner think her clothes were red than black."</p> + +<p>Harper showed his surprise.</p> + +<p>"Not a black skirt?" he persisted.</p> + +<p>"No, sir'ee. I haven't much eye for fixin's but I've eye enough to know +when a gal's dressed like a gal and not like some old woman."</p> + +<p>Harper's eye stole again towards Ransom.</p> + +<p>"Checkmate in four moves," he muttered. "The person we are interested in +could have worn no such clothing as Mr. Goodenough describes. Yet +clothing can be changed. How, I cannot see in this instance; but I will +risk no mistake. The trail we followed led too surely in the direction of +the highway for us to drop all inquiries because of a colored skirt and a +hat we cannot quite account for. If the face is one we know (and I +really believe it was), we can leave the other discrepancies to future +explanation." And turning back to the patient countryman, he composedly +remarked: "You are positive in your recollections of the young lady's +features. You would have no difficulty in recognizing her if you saw her +again?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit. Once I get a picter in my mind of a man or a woman I see it +always. And I can see her as plain as plain the moment I stop to think. +She was pretty, you see, and just a little scared to speak to a stranger. +But that went as she saw my face, and she asked me very perlite if she +was on the right road to the Ferry."</p> + +<p>"And you told her she was?"</p> + +<p>"Sartain; and how much time she had to get there to catch the boat."</p> + +<p>"I see. So you would know her again if you saw her."</p> + +<p>"I jest would."</p> + +<p>The lawyer made a move towards the door which Mr. Ransom hastened to +open. As the long vista of the hall disclosed itself, Mr. Harper turned +upon the countryman with the quiet remark:</p> + +<p>"There were two ladies here, you know. Twins. Their likeness was +remarkable. If we show you the remaining one who now lies asleep, you +surely will be able to tell if she is like the lady you saw."</p> + +<p>"If she looks just like her you can bet beans against potatoes on that."</p> + +<p>"Come, then. You needn't feel any embarrassment, for she's not only sound +asleep but so deaf she couldn't hear you if she were awake. You need only +take one glance and nod your head if she looks like the other. It is very +desirable that none of us should speak. The case is a mysterious one and +there's enough talk about it already without the women hiding and +listening behind every shut door you see, adding their gossip to the +rest."</p> + +<p>A knowing look, a twitch at the corners of a good-natured mouth, and the +man followed them down the hall, past one or two of the doors alluded to, +till they reached the one against the panel of which Mr. Ransom had +already laid his ear.</p> + +<p>"Still asleep," his gesture seemed to signify; and with a word of caution +he led the way in.</p> + +<p>The room was very dark. Mrs. Deo had been careful to draw down the shade +when she put her strange charge to bed, and at this first moment of +entrance it was impossible for them to see more than the outline of a +dark head upon a snowy pillow. But gradually, feature by feature of the +sleeping woman's countenance became visible, and the lawyer, turning his +acute gaze on the man from whose recognition he expected so much, +impatiently awaited the nod which was to settle their doubt.</p> + +<p>But that nod did not come, not even after Mr. Ransom, astonished at the +long pause, turned on the stranger his own haggard and inquiring eyes. +Instead, Mr. Goodenough lifted a blank stare to either face beside him, +and, shaking his head, stumbled awkwardly back in an endeavor to leave +the room. Mr. Ransom, taken wholly by surprise, uttered some peremptory +ejaculation, but a glance from the lawyer quieted him, and not till they +were all shut up again in that convenient room at the head of the stairs +did any of the three speak.</p> + +<p>And not even then without an embarrassed pause. Both the lawyer and his +unhappy client had a deep and, in the case of the latter, a heartrending +disappointment to overcome, and the clock on the stairs ticked out +several seconds before the lawyer ventured to remark:</p> + +<p>"Miss Hazen's face is quite new to you, I perceive. Evidently it was not +her twin sister you met on the high road this morning."</p> + +<p>"Nor anything like her," protested the man. "A different face entirely; +prettier and more saucy. Such a gal as a man like me would be glad to +call darter."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see!" assented the lawyer. Then with the instinctive caution of +his class, "You have made no mistake?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of a one," emphasized the other. "Sorry I can't give the +gentleman any hope, but if the sisters look alike, it was not this +woman's twin I met. I'm ready to take my oath on that."</p> + +<p>"Very well. One catches at straws in a stress like this. Here's a fiver +to pay for your trouble, and another for the lad who brought you here. +Good day. We had no sound reason for expecting any different result from +our experiment."</p> + +<p>The man bowed awkwardly and went out. Mr. Harper brought down his fist +heavily on the table, and after a short interval of silence, during which +he studiously avoided meeting his companion's eye, he remarked:</p> + +<p>"I am as much taken aback as yourself. For all he had to say about her +gay clothing, I expected a different result. The girl on the highway was +neither Mrs. Ransom nor her sister. We have made a confounded mistake and +Mrs. Ransom—"</p> + +<p>"Don't say it. I'm going back to the room where that woman lies sleeping. +I cannot yet believe that my heart is not shut up within its walls. I'm +going to watch for her eyes to open. Their expression will tell me what I +want to know;—the look one gives before full realization comes and the +soul is bare without any thought of subterfuge."</p> + +<p>"Very well. I should probably do the same if I were you. Only your +insight may be affected by prejudice. You will excuse me if I join you +in this watch. The experiment is of too important a character for its +results to depend upon the correct seeing of one pair of eyes."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>"LOVE!"</h3> + + +<p>She lay in the abandonment of profound slumber, one hand under her cheek, +the other hidden by the white spread Mrs. Deo had been careful to draw +closely about her. Both Mr. Harper and Mr. Ransom regretted this fact, +for each instinctively felt that in her hands, if not in her sleeping +face, they should be able to read the story of her life. If that life had +been a hard one, such as must have befallen the waif, Anitra, her hands +should show it.</p> + +<p>But her hands were covered. And so, or nearly so, was her face; the +latter by her long and curling locks of whose beauty I have hitherto +spoken. One cheek only was visible, and this cheek looked dark to Ransom, +decidedly darker than Georgian's; but realizing that the room itself was +dark, he forbore to draw the attention of the lawyer to it, or even to +allow it to affect his own judgment to the extent it reasonably called +for.</p> + +<p>His first scrutiny over, Mr. Harper crossed over to his old seat against +the wall. Mr. Ransom remained by the bed. And thus began their watch.</p> + +<p>It was a long and solemn one; a tedious waiting. The gloom and quiet of +the small room was so profound that both men, for all their suspense and +absorption in the event they awaited, welcomed the sound of a passing +whisper or the careful stepping of feet in the corridor without.</p> + +<p>If they turned to look they could just catch the outline of each other's +countenance, but this they did not often attempt. Their attention was +held by the silent figure on the bed, and so motionless was this figure +in the profound slumber in which it lay enchained, and so motionless were +they in their increasing suspense and expectation, that time seemed to +have come to a standstill in this little room. There was one break. The +lips which had hitherto remained mute opened in a quiet murmur, and Mr. +Harper, watching his client, saw him clutch the headboard in sudden +emotion before he finally rose and, with looks still fixed on the bed, +approached him with the startling announcement:</p> + +<p>"The word she whispered was '<i>Love</i>'! It must be Georgian."</p> + +<p>Alas! the same thought struck them both. Was this a proof? Mr. Ransom +flushed hotly and crept softly back to his post.</p> + +<p>Again time seemed to stop. Then there came a cautious rap on the door, +followed by the hasty retreat of the person knocking. It caused Mr. +Ransom to stir slightly, but did not affect the lawyer. Suddenly the +former rose with every evidence of renewed agitation. This drew Mr. +Harper from his seat.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he cried, softly approaching the other and whispering, +though after events proved that he might have spoken aloud with impunity.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom pointed to her temple from which her hair had just fallen +away.</p> + +<p>"The veining here. I have often studied it. I recognize its every +convolution. It is Georgian, Georgian who lies there—ah, she's stirring, +waking! Let me go—"</p> + +<p>He dragged himself from Mr. Harper's detaining hand, bent over the bed +and murmured softly but with the thrilling intensity of a suffering, +hoping heart, the name which at that moment meant the whole wide world +to him:</p> + +<p>"Georgian!"</p> + +<p>Would she greet this expression with recognition and a smile? The lawyer +half expected her to and stepped near enough to see, but the eyes which +had opened upon the white wall in front of her stared on, and when they +did turn, as they did after one halting, agonizing minute, it was in +response to some movement made by Mr. Ransom and not in reply to his +voice.</p> + +<p>This sudden and unexpected overthrow of his secretly cherished hopes +was terrible. As he saw her rise on one elbow and meet his gaze with +one which revealed the astonishment and resentment of a wild creature +suddenly entrapped, he felt, or so he afterwards declared, as if the +viper which had hitherto clung cold and deathlike about his heart had +suddenly sprung to life and stung him. It was the most uncanny moment +of his life.</p> + +<p>Aghast at the effect of this upon his own mind, he reeled from the room, +followed by the lawyer. As they passed down the hall they heard her voice +raised to a scream in uncontrollable shame and indignation. This was +followed by the snap of her key in the lock.</p> + +<p>They had made a great mistake, or so the lawyer decided when they again +stood face to face in Mr. Ransom's room. That the latter made no +immediate answer was no proof that he did not coincide in the other's +opinion. Indeed it was only too evident that he did, for his first words, +when he had controlled himself sufficiently to speak, were these:</p> + +<p>"I should have taken your advice. In future I will. To me she is +henceforth Anitra, and I shall treat her as my wife's sister. Watch if +I fail. Anitra! Anitra!" He reiterated the word as if he would fix it in +his mind as well as accustom his lips to it. Then he wheeled about and +faced Harper, whose eyes he doubtless felt on him. "Yet I am not so +thoroughly convinced as to feel absolute peace here," he admitted, +striking his breast with irrepressible passion. "My good sense tells me +I am a fool, but my heart whispers that the sweetness in her sleeping +face was the sweetness which won me to love Georgian Hazen. That gentle +sweetness! Did you note it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I noted what you mention. But don't let that influence you too +much. The wildest heart has its tender moments, and her dreams may have +been pleasant ones."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom remembered her unconscious whisper and felt stunned, silenced. +The lawyer gave no evidence of observing this, but remarked quite easily +and with evident sincerity:</p> + +<p>"I am more readily affected by proof than you are. I am quite convinced +myself, that our wits have been wool-gathering. There was no mistaking +her look of outraged womanhood. It was not your wife who encountered your +look, but the deaf Anitra. Of course, you won't believe me. Yet I advise +you to do so. It would be too dreadful to find that this woman really is +your wife."</p> + +<p>"<i>What?</i>"</p> + +<p>"I know what I am saying. Nothing much worse could happen to you. Don't +you see where the hypothesis to which you persist in clinging would land +you? Should the woman in there prove to be your wife Georgian—" The +lawyer stopped and, in a tone the seriousness of which could not fail to +impress his agitated hearer, added quietly, "you remember what I said to +you a short time ago about <i>guilt</i>."</p> + +<p>"Guilt!"</p> + +<p>"No, the word was shame. But guilt better expresses my meaning. I repeat, +should the woman prove to be, not the lovely but ignorant girl she +appears, but Georgian Ransom, your wife, then upon her must fall the +onus of Anitra's disappearance if not of her possible death. No! you must +hear me out; the time has come for plain speaking. Your wife had her +reasons—we do not know what they were, but they were no common ones—for +wishing this intrusive sister out of the way. Anitra, on the contrary, +could have desired nothing so much as the preservation of her protector. +The conclusion is not an agreeable one. Let us hope that the question it +involves will never be presented for any man's consideration."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom sank speechless into a chair. This last blow was an +overwhelming one and he sank before it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Harper altered his tone. He had real commiseration for his client and +had provided himself with an antidote to the poison he had just so +ruthlessly administered.</p> + +<p>"Courage!" he cried. "I only wished you to see that there were worse +losses to consider than that of your wife's desertion, even if that +desertion took the form of suicide. There is a reason which you have +forgotten for acquitting Mrs. Ransom of such criminal intentions and +of accepting as your sister-in-law the woman who calls herself Anitra. +Recall Mrs. Ransom's will; the general terms of which I felt myself +justified in confiding to you. In it there are no provisions made for +this Anitra. Had Mrs. Ransom, for any inexplicable reason, planned an +exchange of identities with her sorely afflicted sister, she would have +been careful to have left that sister some portion of her great fortune. +But she did not remember her with a cent. This fact is very significant +and should give you great comfort."</p> + +<p>"It should, it should, in face of the other alternative you have +suggested as possible. But I fear that I am past comfort. In whatever +light we regard this tragedy, it all means woe and disaster to me. I have +made a mess of my life and I have got to face the fact like a man." Then +rising and confronting Mr. Harper with passionate intensity, he called +out till the room rang again:</p> + +<p>"Georgian is dead! You hear me, Georgian is dead!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>"I DON'T HEAR"</h3> + + +<p>The afternoon passed without further developments. Mr. Harper, who had +his own imperative engagements, left on the evening train for New York, +promising to return the next day in case his presence seemed +indispensable to his client.</p> + +<p>That client's final word to him had been an injunction to keep an eye on +Georgian's so-called brother and to report how he had been affected by +the news from Sitford; and when, in the lull following the lawyer's +departure, Mr. Ransom sat down in his room to look his own position +resolutely in the face, this brother and his possible connection with the +confusing and unhappy incidents of this last fatal week regained that +prominent place in his thoughts which the doubts engendered by the +unusual character of these incidents had for a while dispelled.</p> + +<p>What had been the hold of this strange and uncongenial man on Georgian? +And was his reappearance at the same time with that of a supposedly long +deceased sister simply a coincidence so startling as to appear unreal?</p> + +<p>He had not seen Anitra again and did not propose to, unless the meeting +came about in a natural way and without any show of desire on his part. +If any suspicion had been awakened in the house by his peculiar conduct +in the morning, he meant it to be speedily dissipated by the careful way +in which he now held to his rôle of despairing husband whose only +interest in the girl left on his hands was the dutiful one of a reluctant +brother-in-law, who doubts the kindly feelings of his strange and +unwelcome charge.</p> + +<p>The landlady, with a delicacy he highly appreciated, cared for the young +girl without making her conspicuous by any undue attention. No tidings +had come in of any discovery in the mill-stream or in the river into +which it ran, and there being nothing with which to feed gossip, the +townsfolk who had gathered about the hotel porches gradually began to +disperse, till only a few of the most persistent remained to keep up +conversation till midnight.</p> + +<p>Finally these too left and the house sank into quiet, a quiet which +remained unbroken all night; for everybody, even poor Mr. Ransom, slept.</p> + +<p>He was up, however, with the first beam entering his room. How could he +tell but that news of a definite and encouraging nature awaited him? Some +one might have come in early from town or river. All search had not been +abandoned. There were certain persistent ones who had gone as far as +Beardsley's. Some of these might have returned. He would hasten down and +see. But it was only to find the office empty, and though the household +presently awoke and the great front door was thrown open to all comers, +no eager straggler came rushing in with the tidings he equally longed and +dreaded to receive.</p> + +<p>At half-past ten the representative of the county police called on Mr. +Ransom, but with small result. Shortly after his departure, the mail +came in and with it the New York papers. These he read with avidity. But +they added nothing to his knowledge. Georgian's death was accepted as +a fact, and the peculiarities of their history since their unfortunate +wedding-day were laid bare with but little consideration for his feelings +or the good name of his bride. With a sorer heart than ever, he flung the +papers from him and went out to gather strength in the open air.</p> + +<p>There was a corner of the veranda into which he had never ventured. It +was likely to be a solitary one at this hour, and thither he now went. +But a shock awaited him there. A lady was pacing its still damp boards. +A lady who did not turn her head at his step, but whom he instantly +recognized from her dress, and wilful but not ungraceful bearing, as her +whom he was determined to call, nay recognize, as Anitra Hazen.</p> + +<p>His judgment counseled retreat, but the fascination of her presence held +him, and in that moment of hesitation she turned towards him and flight +became impossible.</p> + +<p>It was the first opportunity he had had of observing her features in +broad daylight. The effect was a confused one. She was Georgian and she +was not Georgian. Her skin was decidedly darker, her eyes more lustrous, +her bearing less polished and at the same time more impassioned. She was +not so tall or quite so elegantly proportioned;—or was it her rude +method of dressing her hair and the awkward cut of her clothes which made +the difference. He could not be sure. Resolved as he was to consider her +Anitra, and excellent as his reasons were for doing so, the swelling of +his heart as he met her eye roused again the old doubt and gave an +unnatural tone to his voice as he advanced towards her with an impetuous +utterance of her name:</p> + +<p>"Anitra!"</p> + +<p>She shrunk, not at the word but at his movement, which undoubtedly was +abrupt; but immediately recovered herself and, meeting him half-way, +cried out in the unnaturally loud tones of the very deaf:</p> + +<p>"They don't bring my sister back. She is drowned, drowned. But you still +have Anitra," she exclaimed in child-like triumph. "Anitra will be good +to you. Don't forsake the poor girl. She will go where you go and be very +obedient and not get angry ever again."</p> + +<p>He felt his hair rise. Something in her look, something in her manner of +making evident the indefinable barrier between them even while expressing +her desire to accompany him, made such a disturbance in his brain that +for the moment he no longer knew himself, nor her, nor the condition of +things about him. If she saw the effect she produced, she gave no +evidence of it. She had begun to smile and her smile transformed her. The +wild look which was never long out of her eyes softened into a milder +gleam, and dimples he had been accustomed to see around lips he had +kissed and called the sweetest in the world flashed for a moment in the +face before him with a story of love he dared not read, yet found it +impossible to forget or see unmoved.</p> + +<p>"What trial is this into which my unhappy fate has plunged me!" thought +he. "Can reason stand it? Can I see this woman daily, hourly, and not go +mad between my doubts and my love?"</p> + +<p>His face had turned so stern that even she noticed it, and in a trice the +offending dimples disappeared.</p> + +<p>"You are angry," she pouted. "You don't want Anitra. Nod if it is so, nod +and I will go away."</p> + +<p>He did not nod; he could not. She seemed to gather courage at this, and +though she did not smile again, she gave him a happy look as she said:</p> + +<p>"I have no home now, nor any friend since sister has gone. I don't want +any if I can stay with you and learn things. I want to be like sister. +She was nice and wore pretty clothes. She gave me some, but I don't know +where they are. I don't like this dress. It's black and all bad round the +bottom where I fell into the mud."</p> + +<p>She looked down at her dress. It showed, in spite of Mrs. Deo's effort at +cleaning it, signs of her tramp through the wet lane. He looked at it +too, but it was mechanically. He was debating in his mind a formidable +question. Should he grasp her hand, insist that she was Georgian and +demand her confidence and the truth? or should he follow the lawyer's +advice and continue to accept appearances, meet her on her own ground and +give her the answer called for by her lonely and forsaken position? He +found after a moment's thought that he had no choice; that he could not +do the first and must do the last.</p> + +<p>"You shall come with me," said he quietly. "I will see that you have +every suitable protection and care."</p> + +<p>She surveyed him with the same unmoved inquiry burning in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"I don't hear," said she.</p> + +<p>He looked at her, his lips set, his eyes as inquiring as her own.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe it," he muttered just above his breath.</p> + +<p>The steady stare of her eyes never faltered.</p> + +<p>"You loved sister, love me," she whispered.</p> + +<p>He fell back from her. This was not Georgian. This was the untutored girl +about whom Georgian had written to him. Everything proved it, even her +hands upon which his eyes now fell. Why had he not noticed them before? +He had meant to look at them the first thing. Now that he did, he saw +that he might have spared himself some of the miserable uncertainties of +the last few minutes. They were small and slight like Georgian's, but +very brown and only half cared for. That they were cared for at all +astonished him. But she soon explained that. Seeing where his eyes were +fixed, she cried out:</p> + +<p>"Don't look at my hands. I know they are not real nice like sister's. But +I'm learning. She showed me how to rub them white and cut the nails. A +woman did it for me the first time and I've been doing it ever since, but +they don't look like hers, for all the pretty rings she bought me. Was I +foolish to want the rings? I always had rings when I was with the +gipsies. They were not gold ones, but I liked them. And Mother Duda liked +rings too and made me one once out of beads. It was on my finger when my +sister took me home with her. That is why she brought me these. She +didn't think the bead one was good enough. It wasn't much like hers."</p> + +<p>Ransom recalled the diamonds and the rich sapphires he had been +accustomed to see on his bride's hand.</p> + +<p>But this did not engage him long. Some method of communication must be +found with this girl, which could be both definite and unmistakable. +Feeling in his pocket, he brought out pencil and a small pad. He would +write what he had to say, and was hesitating over the words with which to +open this communication, when he saw her hand thrust itself between his +eyes and the pad, and heard these words uttered in a resolute tone, but +not without a hint of sadness:</p> + +<p>"I cannot read. I have never been taught."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PART_III" id="PART_III"></a>PART III</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Money</span></h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>GOD'S FOREST, THEN MAN'S</h3> + + +<p>The pencil and pad fell from Mr. Ransom's hands. He stared at the girl +who had made this astonishing statement, and his brain whirled.</p> + +<p>As for her, she simply stooped and picked up the pad.</p> + +<p>"You feel badly about that," said she. "You want me to read. I'll learn. +That will make me more like sister. But I know some things now. I know +what you are thinking about. You are curious about my life, what it has +been and what kind of a girl I am. I'll tell you. I can talk if I cannot +hear. I heard up to two years ago. Shall I talk now? Shall I tell you +what I told Georgian when she found me crying in the street and took me +home to her house?"</p> + +<p>He nodded blindly.</p> + +<p>With a smile as beautiful as Georgian's—for a moment he thought more +beautiful—she drew him to a seat. She was all fire and purpose now. The +spark of intelligence which was not always visible in her eye burned +brightly. She would have looked lovely even to a stranger, but he was not +thinking of her looks, only of the hopelessness of the situation, its +difficulties and possibly its perils.</p> + +<p>"I don't remember all that has happened to me," she began, speaking very +fast. "I never tried to remember, when I was little; I just lived, and +ran wild in the roads and woods like the weasels and the chipmunks. The +gipsies were good to me. I had not a cross word in years. The wife of the +king was my friend, and all I knew I learned from her. It was not much, +but it helped me to live in the forest and be happy, as long as I was a +little girl. When I grew up it was different. It was the king who was +kind then, and the woman who was fierce. I didn't like his kindness, but +she didn't know this, for after one day when she caught him staring at me +across the fire, she sent me off after something she wanted in a small +town we were camping near, and when I came back with it, the band was +gone. I tried to follow, but it was dark and I didn't know the way; +besides I was afraid—afraid of him. So I crept back to the town and +slept in the straw of a barn I found open. Next day I sold my earrings +and got bread. It didn't last long and I tried to work, but that meant +sleeping under a roof, and houses smothered me, so I did my work badly +and was turned out. Then I sold my ring. It was my last trinket, and when +the few cents I got for it were gone, I wandered about hungry. This I was +used to and didn't mind at first, but at last I went to work again, and +I did better now for a little while, till one evening I saw, through the +stable window of the inn where I was working, two black eyes staring in +just as they stared across the dying embers of the gipsy camp. I did not +scream, but I hid myself, and when they were gone away stole out and +got on the cars, and gave the man my last dollar—all the money I had +earned—for a ride to New York. I did not know any better. I knew he +never went to New York, and I thought I would be safe from him there. But +of the difference between the woods and a forest of brick and stone I +never thought; of night with no shelter but the wall of some blind alley; +of hunger in the sight of food, and wild beasts in the shape of men. I +didn't know where to go or who to speak to. If any one stared at me long, +I turned and ran away. I ran away once from a policeman. He thought me a +thief, and started to run after me. But people slipped in between us and +I got away. What happened next I don't know. Perhaps I was thrown down, +perhaps I fell. I had come a long way and I was tired. When I did know +anything, I was lying on my back in a narrow street, looking up at a tall +building that seemed to go right up into the sky like the great rocks I +had sometimes slept under when I was with the gipsies. Only there were +windows in the rock, out of which looked faces, and I got looking back +at one of these faces and the face looked at me, and I liked it and got +up on my knees and held up my arms, and the face drew back out of sight, +and I felt very sorry and cried and almost laid down again. I seemed so +alone and hurt and hungry. But the children—there were crowds of +children—wouldn't let me. They got in a ring and pulled at me, and some +one cried: 'Big cheeks is coming! Big cheeks will eat her up,' and I was +angry and got up on my feet. But I couldn't walk; I screamed when I tried +to, which frightened the children, and they all ran away. But I didn't +fall; an arm was round me, a good, kind arm, and though I didn't see the +face of the woman who helped, for she had her head wrapped up in an old +shawl, I felt that it was the same which had looked out of the window +at me, and went willingly enough when she began to draw me toward the +house and up the first flight of stairs, though I could hardly help +screaming every time my foot touched the ground. At the top of the first +flight I stopped; I could go no further. The woman heard me pant, and +pushing the covering from her eyes, she turned my face towards the light +and looked at it. I thought she wanted to see if I was strong enough to +go on, but that wasn't it at all, for in a minute I heard her say, in a +voice so sweet I thought I had never heard the like, 'Yes, you're pretty; +I want a pretty girl to stay with me and go about selling my things. I +love pretty girls; I never was pretty myself. Will you stay with me if I +take you up to my room and take care of you? I'll be good to you, little +duckling, everybody about here will tell you that; everybody but the +children, they don't like me.' I moaned, but it was from happiness. It +seemed too good to hear that cooing voice in my ear. I thought of my +mother—a dream—and my arms went up as they had in the street below. 'I +will stay,' I said. She caught my hands and that is all I remember till I +found myself in bed, with my ankle bound up and a gentle hand smoothing +my hair. It was a month before I walked again. All the time this woman +tended me, but always from behind. I did not see her face—not well—only +by glimpses and then only partly, for the shawl was always over her head, +covering everything but her eyes and mouth. These were small, the +smallest I ever saw, little pig eyes, and little screwed up mouth; but +the look of them was kindly and that was all I cared about then; that and +her talk, which made me cry one minute and laugh the next. I have never +cried so much or laughed so much in my life as I did that one month. She +told such sad things and she told such funny ones. She made me glad to +see her come in and sorry to see her go out. She let no one else come +near me. I did not care; I liked her too well. I was never tired of +listening to her praises and she praised me a great deal. I even did not +mind sleeping under a roof as much as I had before, perhaps because we +were so near it; perhaps because the room was so full of all sorts of +things, I never got tired of looking at them. Pretty things she called +them, but when I saw more things, things outside in shop windows and the +houses I afterwards went into, I knew they were very cheap things and not +always pretty. But she thought they were, and used to talk about them by +the hour and tell me stories she had made up about the pictures she had +cut out of newspapers. And I learned something; I could not help it, and +even began to think a bit—something I had never done before. But when I +got on my feet again, and was given the choice of staying there all the +time, I did not know at first whether I wanted to or not. For Mother Duda +had been very honest with me, and the minute she found that I could walk +again had told me that I would have to have great patience if I lived +with her, and endure a very disagreeable sight. Then she pulled off her +shawl and I saw her as she was and almost screamed, she looked so horrid +to me, but I didn't quite, for her eyes wouldn't let me. They seemed to +ask me not to care, but to love her a little though she was a fright to +look at, and I tried but I couldn't, I could only keep from screaming.</p> + +<p>"She had a goitre; that is what she called it, and the great pocket of +flesh hanging down on either side of her neck frightened me. It +frightened everybody; she was used to that, but she said she loved me and +felt my fear more than she did others. Could I bear to live with her, +knowing what her shawl hid? If I could she would be good to me, but if I +couldn't she would do what she could to get me honest work in some other +place. I didn't answer at first, but I did before she had put her shawl +on again. I told her that I would forget everything but her good smile, +and stay with her a little while. I stayed three years, helping her by +going about and selling the tatting work she made.</p> + +<p>"She could make beautiful patterns and so neat, but she couldn't sell +them, on account of her awful appearance. So I was very useful to her, +and felt I was earning my meat and drink and the kind looks and words +which made them taste good. It taught me a lot, going around. I saw +people and how they lived and what was nice and what wasn't. I was only +sorry that Mother Duda couldn't go too. She loved pretty things so. But +she never went out except at a very early hour in the morning, so early +that it was still dark. It seemed a terrible hour to me, but she always +came in with a smile, and when one day I asked her why, she said, because +she saw so many other poor creatures out at this same hour, who were +worse to look at than she was. This didn't seem possible to me, and once +I went out with her to see. But I never went again. Such faces as we met; +such deformity—men who never showed themselves by day—women who loved +beauty and were hideous. We saw them on street corners—coming up cellar +steps, slinking in and out of blind alleys—never where it was light—and +they shrank from each other, but not from the policeman. They were not +afraid of his eye; they were used to him and he to them. After I had +passed a dozen such miserable creatures, I felt myself one of them and +never wanted to go out at this hour again.</p> + +<p>"Don't you believe this part of my story," she suddenly asked, looking up +into Mr. Ransom's troubled face? "Ask the policeman who tramps about +those streets every night; he'll tell you."</p> + +<p>The question on Ransom's lips died. What use of asking what she could not +hear.</p> + +<p>"I wish I knew what you were thinking," she now murmured softly, so +softly that he hardly caught the words. "But I never shall, I never +shall. I will tell you now how I became deaf," she promised after a +moment of wistful gazing. "Is there any one near? Can anybody hear me?" +she continued, with a suspicious look about her.</p> + +<p>He shook his head. It was the first movement he had made since she began +her story.</p> + +<p>This apparently reassured her, for she proceeded at once to say:</p> + +<p>"Mother Duda had never told me anything about herself. It scared me then +when one morning I found sitting at the breakfast table a man who she +said was her son. He was big and pale looking, and had a slight swelling +on one side of his neck which made me sick; but I tried to be polite, +though I did not like him at all and had a sudden feeling of having no +home any more. That was the first day. The next two were worse. For he +didn't hate me as I did him, and wouldn't leave the house while I was +there, saying he could not bear to be away from his mother. But he +skipped out quick enough after I was gone, so the neighbors said, and +sometimes I think he followed me. Mother Duda wasn't like her old self at +all. She loved him, he was her son, but she didn't like all he did. She +wanted him to work; he wouldn't work. He sat and stared at me as the +gipsy king used to stare, and if I grew red and hot it was from shame and +fear and horror of the great throat I saw growing from day to day, and +which would some time be like his mother's. He knew I didn't like him, +but he wasn't good like Mother Duda, and told me one day that he was +going to make me his wife, whether I wanted him to or not, and talked +about a great secret, and the big man he would be some day. This made me +angry, and I said that all the bigness he would ever have would be in his +neck. At which he struck me, right across the ear, hard, so hard that I +fell on the floor with a scream, and Mother Duda came running. He was +sorry then and threw down the thing he had in his hand; but the harm had +been done and I was sick a month and had doctors and awful pain, and when +I was well again I couldn't hear a sound with that ear. Hans wasn't there +while I was ill; I shouldn't have got well if he had been; but he came +back when I was up again and was very meek though he didn't stop looking +at me. I thought I would run away one day, and went out without my +basket, but after I had tried two whole days to get work and couldn't, I +went back. Mother Duda almost squeezed the heart out of me for joy, and +Hans went down on his knees and promised not to do or say anything more +that I didn't like. He even promised to go to work, but his work was of a +queer kind. It kept him in his little room and meant spending money, and +not getting it. Men came to see him and were locked up with him in his +little room. And if he went out, he locked the door and took the key +away, and said great times were coming and that I would be glad to marry +him some day, whether his neck was big or small. But I knew I shouldn't +and kept very close to Mother Duda and begged her to get me a new home, +and she promised and I was feeling happier, when one day Hans was called +out by a man and went away so fast that he forgot to lock his door, and +Mother Duda and I went into the room, and it was then that the thing +happened which spoiled all my life. I don't understand it. I never did, +for no one could tell me anything after that day. Mother Duda had gone +up to a table and was moving things about, trying to see what they were, +when everything turned black, the room shook, and I was whirling all +about, trying to take hold of things which seemed to be falling about me, +till I too fell. When I knew anything, there was lots of people looking +at me; people of the house, men, women, and children, but what was +strangest of all was the awful stillness. No one made any sound—nothing +made any sound, though I saw an old book-shelf tumble down from the wall +while I was looking, and people moved about and opened their lips and +seemed to be talking. Had Hans struck me again? I began to think so, and +got up from the floor where I was lying and tried to call out, but my +voice made no noise though people looked around as if it had, and I felt +an awful fright, not only for myself but for Mother Duda, who was being +carried out of the door by two men, and who did not move at all and who +never moved again. Poor Mother Duda, she was killed and I was deaf. I +knew it after a little while, but I don't know what did it; something +that Hans had; something that Mother Duda touched—a square something—I +had just caught a glimpse of it in Mother Duda's hand when the room flew +into a wreck and I became what I am now."</p> + +<p>"Dynamite," murmured Ransom; then paused and had a small struggle with +his heart, for she was looking up into his face, demanding sympathy with +Georgian's eyes; and being close together on the short seat, he could not +help but feel her shudders and share the intense excitement which choked +her.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she cried, as he laid his hand a moment on her arm and then took it +away again, "one minute to hear! the next to find the world all still, +always still,—a poor girl—not knowing how to read or write! But you +cannot care about that; you cannot care about me. It's sister you want +to hear about, how she came to find me; how we came here for new and +terrible things to happen; always for new and terrible things to happen +which I don't understand.</p> + +<p>"Hans never came back. All sorts of policemen came into the house, +doctors came, priests came, but no Hans. Mother Duda was buried, I rode +in a coach at the funeral, but still no Hans. The old life was over, and +when the food was all gone from the shelves, I took my little basket and +went out, not meaning to come back again. And I did not. I sold my basket +out; got a handful of pennies and went to the market to get something to +eat. Then I went into a park, where there were benches, and sat down to +rest. I did not know of any place to go to and began to cry, when a lady +stopped before me, and I looked up and saw myself.</p> + +<p>"I thought I was dreaming or had the fever again, as when I was sick with +my ear, and I thought it was myself as I would look in heaven, for she +had such beautiful clothes on and looked so happy. But when she talked, I +could see her lips move and I couldn't hear; and I knew that I was just +in the park with my empty basket and my onion and bread, and that the +lady was a lady and no one I knew, only so like what I had seen of myself +in the glass that I was shaking all over, and she was shaking all over, +and neither of us could look away. And still her lips moved, and seeing +her at last look frightened and angry that I didn't answer, I spoke and +said that I was deaf; that I was very sorry that I couldn't hear because +we looked so much alike, though she was a great lady and I was a very, +very poor girl who hadn't any home or any friends, or anything to wear or +eat but what she saw. At this her eyes grew bigger even than before, and +she tried to talk some more, and when I shook my head she took hold of my +arm and began drawing me away, and I went and we got on the cars, and she +took me to a house and into a room where she took away my basket and put +me in a chair, and took off first her hat, then my own, and showed me the +two heads in a glass, and then looked at me so hard that I cried out, +'Sister,' which made her jump up and put her hand on her heart, then look +at me again harder and harder, till I remembered way back in my life, and +I said:</p> + +<p>"'When I was a little girl I had a sister they called my twin. That was +before I lived in the woods with the gipsies. Are you that sister grown +up? The place where we played together had a tall fence with points at +the top. There were flowers and there were bushes with currants on them +all round the fence.'</p> + +<p>"She made a sudden move, and I felt her arms about my neck. I think she +cried a little. I didn't, I was too glad. I knew she was that sister the +moment our faces touched, and I knew she would care for me, and that I +needn't go back into the streets any more. So I kissed her and talked a +good deal and told her what I've been telling, and she tried to answer, +tried as you did to write, but all I could understand was that she meant +to keep me, but not in the place where we were, and that I was to go out +again. But she fixed me up a little before we went out, and she bought +me some things, so that I looked different. Then we went into another +house, where she talked with a woman for a long time, and then sat down +with me and moved her lips very patiently, motioning me to watch and try +to understand. But I was frightened and couldn't. So she gave up and, +kissing me, made motions with her hands which I understood better; she +wanted me to stay there while she went away, and I promised to if she +would come back soon. At this she took out her watch. I was pleased with +the watch, and she let me look at it, and inside against the cover I saw +a picture. You know whose it was."</p> + +<p>The depths to which her voice sank, the trembling of her tones, startled +Ransom. Had she been less unfortunate, he would have moved to a different +seat, but he could not show her a discourtesy after so pitiful a tale. +But the nod he gave her was a grave one, and her cheek flushed and her +head fell, as she softly added: "It was the first time I ever saw a face +I liked—you won't mind my saying so,—and I wanted to keep the watch, +but sister carried it away. She didn't tell me what it meant, her having +your picture where she could see it all the time, but when she came again +she made me know that you and she were married, by pointing at the +picture and then throwing something white over her head; I didn't ask for +the watch after that, but—"</p> + +<p>A far-away look, a trembling of her whole body, finished this ingenuous +confession. Ransom edged himself away and then was sorry for it, for her +lip quivered and her hands, from being quiet, began that nervous +interlacing of the fingers which bespeaks mental perturbation.</p> + +<p>"I am very ignorant," she faltered; "perhaps I have said something wrong. +I don't mean to, I want to be a good girl and please you, so that you +won't send me away now sister is gone. Ah, I know what you want," she +suddenly broke out, as he seized her by the arm and looked inquiringly at +her. "You want me to tell why I jumped out of the carriage that night and +vexed Georgian and was naughty and wouldn't speak to her. I can't, I +can't. You wouldn't like it if I did. But I'm sorry now, and will never +vex you, but do just what you want me to. Shall I go up-stairs now?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head. How could he let her go with so much unsaid? She had +talked frankly till she had reached the very place where his greatest +interest lay. Then she had suddenly shown shyness of her subject and +leaped the gap, as it were, to the present moment. How recall her to the +hour when she had seen Georgian for the second time? How urge her into a +description of those days succeeding his wife's flight from the hotel, of +which he had no account, save the feverish lines of the letter she had +sent him. He was racking his brain for some method of communicating his +wishes to Anitra, when he heard steps behind him, and, turning, saw the +clerk approaching him with a telegram.</p> + +<p>He glanced at her slyly as he took it. Somehow he couldn't get used to +her deafness, and expected her to give some evidence of surprise or +curiosity. But she was still studying her hands, and as his eyes lingered +on her downcast face he saw a tear well from her lids and wet the cheek +she held partly turned from him. He wanted to kiss that tear, but +refrained and opened his telegram instead. It was from Mr. Harper, and +ran thus:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Expect a visitor. The man we know has left the St. Denis.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>IN MRS. DEO'S ROOM</h3> + + +<p>A prey to fresh agitation, he stepped back to Anitra's side. Surely she +must understand that it was Georgian and not herself about whom he was +most anxious to hear. But she did not seem to. The smile with which she +greeted him suggested nothing of the past. It spoke only of the future.</p> + +<p>"I will learn to be like sister," she impulsively cried out, rising and +beaming brightly upon him. "I will forget the old gipsy ways and Mother +Duda's ways, and try to be nice and pretty like my sister. And you shall +learn me to read and write. I've known deaf people who learned. Then I +shall know what you think; now I only know how you feel."</p> + +<p>He shook his head, a little sadly, perhaps. There were people who could +teach her these arts, but not he. He had neither the ability, the +courage, nor the patience.</p> + +<p>"Then some one shall learn me," she loudly insisted, her cheek flushing +and her eye showing an angry spark. "I will not be ignorant always; I +will not, I will not." And turning, she fled from his side, and he was +left to think over her story and ask himself for the hundredth time what +it all meant, what his own sensations meant, and what would be the +outcome of conditions so complicated.</p> + +<p>The possibly speedy appearance on the scene of Georgian's so-called +brother did not detract from his difficulty. He felt helpless without +the support of Mr. Harper's presence, and spent a very troubled forenoon +listening to the mingled condolences and advice of people who had no +interest in his concerns save such as sprang from curiosity and a morbid +craving for excitement.</p> + +<p>At two o'clock occurred the event of which he had been forewarned. A +carriage drove up to the hotel and from it stepped two travelers; one +of them a stranger, the other the man with the twisted jaw. Mr. Ransom +advanced to meet the latter. He was anxious to listen to his first +inquiries and, if possible, be the person to answer them.</p> + +<p>He was successful in this. Mr. Hazen no sooner saw him than he accosted +him without ceremony.</p> + +<p>"What is this I hear and read about Georgian and her so-called twin?" he +cried. "Nothing that I can believe, I want you to know. Georgian may have +drowned herself. That is credible enough. But that the girl we read about +in the papers and whom she evidently induced to come to this place with +her should be the dead girl we called Anitra—why, that is all bosh—a +tale to deceive the public, and possibly you, but not one to deceive me. +The coincidence is much too improbable."</p> + +<p>"'There are stranger things in heaven and earth'"—quoted Ransom; but +Hazen was already in conversation with the group of hotel idlers who had +crowded up at sound of his loud voice.</p> + +<p>After a careful look which had taken in all of their faces, he had +approached one young fellow, covering the lower part of his face as he +did so.</p> + +<p>"Halloo! Yates," he called out. "Don't you remember the day we tied two +chickens together, leg to leg, and sent them tumbling down the hill back +of old Wylie's barn?"</p> + +<p>"Alf Hazen!" shouted the fellow, thus accosted. "Why, I thought you—"</p> + +<p>"Dead, eh? Of course you did. So did everybody else. But I've come to +life, you see. With sad marks of battle on me," he continued, dropping +his hand. "You all recognize me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," rose in one acclaim from a dozen or more throats after a +moment of awkward uncertainty.</p> + +<p>"I know the eyes," vigorously asserted one.</p> + +<p>"And the voice," chimed in another. After which rose a confused babel of +ejaculations and exclamatory questions, among which one could detect:</p> + +<p>"How did it happen, Alf?" "What took off your jaw?" and other equally +felicitous expressions.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you all about that later," he replied, after silence had in a +measure been restored. "What I want to say now is this. Is it believable +that simultaneously with my own return from the grave another member of +my family should reappear before you from an older and much more certain +burying? I tell you no. The riddle is one which calls for quite another +solution and I have come to assist you in finding it."</p> + +<p>Here he cast a sinister glance at Ransom.</p> + +<p>The latter met the implied accusation with singular calmness.</p> + +<p>"Any assistance will be welcome," said he, "which will enable us to solve +this very serious problem." Then, as Hazen's lip curled, he added with +dignified candor, "I scorn to retort by throwing any doubt on your +assertion of relationship to my lost wife, or the possibility of these +good people being misled by your confident bearing and a possible +likeness about the eyes to the boy they knew. But one question I will +hazard, and that before we have gone a step further. Why does it seem so +credible to you that Georgian, a much loved and loving woman, should have +leaped to a watery death within a week of her marriage? You have just +stated that you found no difficulty in that. Does not that statement call +for some explanation? All your old friends here must see that this is my +due as well as hers."</p> + +<p>For an instant the man hesitated, but in that instant his hand slipped +from his mouth over which he had again laid it, and his whole face, with +its changed lines and the threatening, almost cruel expression which +these gave it, appeared in all its combined eagerness and force. A murmur +escaped the watchful group about him, but this affected him little. His +eyes, which he had fixed on Ransom, sharpened a trifle, perhaps, and his +tone grew a thought more sarcastic as he finally retorted:</p> + +<p>"I will explain myself to you but not to this crowd. And not to you till +I am sure of the facts which as yet have reached me only through the +newspapers. Let me hear a full account of what has transpired here since +you all came to town. I have an enormous interest in the matter;—a +family interest, as you are well aware for all your badly hidden +insinuations."</p> + +<p>"Follow me," was the quiet reply. "There is a room on this very floor +where we can talk undisturbed."</p> + +<p>Mr. Hazen cast a quick glance behind him at the man who had driven up +with him and whom nobody had noticed till now. Then without a word he +separated himself from the chattering group encircling him and stepped +after Mr. Ransom into the small room where the latter had held his first +memorable conversation with the lawyer.</p> + +<p>"Now," said he as the door swung to behind them, "plain language and not +too much of it. I have no time to waste, but the truth about Georgian I +must know."</p> + +<p>Ransom settled himself. He felt bound to comply with the other's request, +but he wished to make sure of not saying too much, or too little. Hazen's +attack had startled him. It revealed one of two things. Either this man +of mystery had assumed the offensive to hide his own connection with this +tragedy, or his antagonism was an honest one, springing from an utter +disbelief in the circumstances reported to him by the press and such +gossips as he had encountered on his way to Sitford.</p> + +<p>With the first possibility he felt himself unable to cope without the aid +of Mr. Harper; the second might be met with candor. Should he then be +candid with this doubter, relate to him the facts as they had unrolled +themselves before his own eyes;—secret facts—convincing ones—facts +which must prove to him that whether Georgian did or did not lie at the +bottom of the mill-stream, the woman now in the house was his sister +Anitra, lost to him and the rest of the family for many years, but now +found again and restored to her position as a Hazen and Georgian's twin. +The discovery might not prove welcome. It would have a tendency to throw +Mr. Hazen's own claim into the disrepute he would cast on hers. But this +consideration could have no weight with Mr. Ransom. He decided upon +candor at all costs. It suited his nature best, and it also suited the +strange and doubtful situation. Mr. Harper might have concluded +differently, but Mr. Harper was not there to give advice; and the matter +would not wait. Little as he understood this Hazen, he recognized that he +was not a man to trifle with. Something would have to be said or done.</p> + +<p>Meeting the latter's eye frankly, he remarked:</p> + +<p>"I have no wish to keep anything back from you. I am as much struck +as you are by the mystery of this whole occurrence. I was as hard to +convince. This is my story. It involves all that is known here with the +exception of such facts as have been kept from us by the three parties +directly concerned—of which three I consider you one."</p> + +<p>As the last four words fell from his lips he looked for some change, +slight and hardly perceptible perhaps, in the other's expression. But he +was doomed to disappointment. The steady regard held, nothing moved about +the man, not even the hand into which the poor disfigured chin had +fallen. Ransom suppressed a sigh. His task was likely to prove a blind +one. He had a sense of stumbling in the dark, but the gaze he had hoped +to see falter compelled him to proceed, and he told his story without +subterfuge or suppression.</p> + +<p>One thing, and only one thing, caused a movement in the set figure before +him. When he mentioned the will which Georgian had made a few hours prior +to her disappearance, Hazen's hand slipped aside from the wound it had +sought to cover, and Ransom caught sight of the sudden throb which +deepened its hue. It was the one infallible sign that the man was not +wholly without feeling, and it had sprung to life at an intimation +involving <i>money</i>.</p> + +<p>When his tale was quite finished, he rose. So did Hazen.</p> + +<p>"Let us see this girl," suggested the latter.</p> + +<p>It was the first word he had spoken since Ransom began his story.</p> + +<p>"She is up-stairs. I will go see—"</p> + +<p>"No, <i>we</i> will go see. I particularly desire to take her unawares."</p> + +<p>Ransom offered no objection. Perhaps he felt interested in the experiment +himself. Together they left the room, together they went up-stairs. A +turmoil of questions followed them from the throng of men and boys +gathered in the halls, but they returned no answer and curiosity remained +unsatisfied.</p> + +<p>Once in the hall above, Ransom stopped a moment to deliberate. He could +not enter Anitra's room unannounced, and he could not make her hear by +knocking. He must find the landlady.</p> + +<p>He knew Mrs. Deo's room. He had had more than one occasion to visit it +during the last two days. With a word of explanation to Hazen, he passed +down the hall and tapped on the last door at the extreme left. No one +answered, but the door standing ajar, he pushed it quietly open, being +anxious to make sure that Mrs. Deo was not there.</p> + +<p>The next moment he was beckoning to Hazen.</p> + +<p>"Look!" said he, holding the door open with one hand and pointing with +the other to a young girl sitting on a low stool by the window, mending, +or trying to mend, a rent in her skirt.</p> + +<p>"Why, that's Georgian!" exclaimed Hazen, and hastily entering he +approached the anxious figure laboriously pushing her needle in and out +of the torn goods, and pricking herself more than once in the attempt.</p> + +<p>"Georgian!" he cried again and yet more emphatically, as he stepped up in +front of her.</p> + +<p>The young girl failed to notice. Awkwardly drawing her thread out to its +extreme length, she prepared to insert her needle again, when her eye +caught sight of his figure bending over her, and she looked up quietly +and with an air of displeasure, which pleased Ransom,—he could hardly +tell why. This was before her eyes reached his face; when they had, it +was touching to see how she tried to hide the shock caused by its +deformity, as she said with a slight gesture of dismissal:</p> + +<p>"I'm quite deaf. I cannot hear what you say. If it is the landlady you +want, she has gone down-stairs for a minute; perhaps, to the kitchen."</p> + +<p>He did not retreat, if anything he approached nearer, and Ransom was +surprised to observe the force and persuasive power of his expression +as he repeated:</p> + +<p>"No nonsense, Georgian," opening and shutting his hands as he spoke, in +curious gesticulations which her eye mechanically followed but which +seemed to convey no meaning to her, though he evidently expected them to +and looked surprised (Ransom almost thought baffled) when she shook her +head and in a sweet, impassive way reiterated:</p> + +<p>"I cannot hear and I do not understand the deaf and dumb alphabet. I'm +sorry, but you'll have to go to some one else. I'm very unfortunate. I +have to mend this dress and I don't know how."</p> + +<p>Hazen, who could hardly tear his eyes from her face, fell slowly back as +she painfully and conscientiously returned to her task. "Good God!" he +murmured, as his eye sought Ransom's. "What a likeness!" Then he looked +again at the girl, at the wave of her raven black hair breaking into +little curls just above her ear; at the smooth forehead rendered so +distinguished by the fine penciling of her arching brows; at the delicate +nose with nostrils all alive to the beating of an over-anxious heart; at +the mouth, touching in its melancholy so far beyond her years; and lastly +at the strong young figure huddled on the little stool; and bending +forward again, he uttered two or three quick sentences which Ransom could +not catch.</p> + +<p>His persistence, or the near approach of his face to hers, angered her. +Rising quickly to her feet, she vehemently cried out:</p> + +<p>"Go away from here. It is not right to keep on talking to a deaf girl +after she has told you she cannot hear you." Then catching sight of +Ransom, who had advanced a step in his sympathy for her, she gave a +little sigh of relief and added querulously:</p> + +<p>"Make this man go away. This is the landlady's room. I don't like to have +strangers talk to me. Besides—" here her voice fell, but not so low as +to be inaudible to the subject of her remark, "he's not pretty. I've seen +enough of men and women who are—"</p> + +<p>At this point Ransom drew Hazen out into the hall.</p> + +<p>"What do you think now?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>Hazen did not reply. The room they had just left seemed to possess a +strange fascination for him. He continued to look back at it as he +preceded Ransom down the hall. Ransom did not press his questions, but +when they were on the point of separating at the head of the stairs, he +held Hazen back with the words:</p> + +<p>"Let us come to some understanding. Neither of us can desire to waste +strength in wrong conclusions. Can that woman be other than your own +sister?"</p> + +<p>"No." The denial was absolute. "She is my sister."</p> + +<p>"Anitra?" emphasized Ransom.</p> + +<p>The smile which he received in reply was strangely mirthless.</p> + +<p>"I never rush to conclusions," was Hazen's remark after a moment of +possibly mutual heart-beat and unsettling suspense. "Ask me that same +question to-morrow. Perhaps by then I shall be able to answer you."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>BETWEEN THE ELDERBERRY BUSHES</h3> + + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>The word came from Ransom. He had reached the end of his patience and was +determined to have it out with this man on the spot.</p> + +<p>"Come into my room," said he. "If you doubt her, you doubt me; and in the +present stress of my affairs this demands an immediate explanation."</p> + +<p>"I have no time to enter your room, and I cannot linger here any longer +talking on a subject which at the present moment is not clear to either +of us," was the resolute if not quite affable reply. "Later, when my +conclusions are made, I will see you again. Now I am going to eat and +refresh myself. Don't follow me; it will do you no good."</p> + +<p>He turned to descend. Ransom had an impulse to seize him by his twisted +throat and drag from him the secret which his impassive features refused +to give up. But Ransom was no fool and, stepping back out of the way of +temptation, he allowed him to escape without further parley.</p> + +<p>Then he went to his room. But, after an hour or two spent with his own +thoughts, his restlessness became so great that he sought the gossips +below for relief. He found them all clustered about Hazen, who was +reeling off stories by the mile. This was unendurable to him and he was +striding off, when Hazen burst away from his listeners and, joining +Ransom, whispered in his ear:</p> + +<p>"I saw her go by the window just now on her way up-street. What can she +find there to interest her? Where is she going?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. She doesn't consult me as to her movements. Probably she +has gone for a walk. She looks as if she needs it."</p> + +<p>"So do you," was the unexpected retort given by Hazen, as he stepped back +to rejoin his associates.</p> + +<p>Ransom paused, watching him askance in doubt of the suggestion, in doubt +of the man, in doubt of himself. Then he yielded to an impulse stronger +than any doubt and slipped out into the highway, where he turned, as she +had turned, up-street.</p> + +<p>But not without a struggle. He hated himself for his puppet-like +acceptance of the hint given him by a man he both distrusted and +disliked. He felt his dignity impaired and his self-confidence shaken, +yet he went on, following the high road eagerly and watching with wary +eye for the first glimpse of the slight figure which was beginning to +make every scene alive to him.</p> + +<p>It had rained heavily and persistently the last time he came this way, +but to-day the sun was shining with a full radiance, and the trees +stretching away on either side of the road were green with the tender +tracery of early leafage; a joy-compelling sight which may have accounted +for the elasticity of his step as he ascended one small hill after +another in the wake of a fluttering skirt.</p> + +<p>It was the cemetery road, and odd as the fancy was, he felt that he +should overtake her at the old gate, behind which lay so many of her +name. Here he had seen her name before its erasement from the family +monument, and here he should see—could he say Anitra if he found her +bending over those graves; the woman who could not hear, who could not +read,—whose childish memory, if she had any in connection with this +spot, could not be distinct enough or sufficiently intelligent to guide +her to this one plot? No. Human credulity can go far, but not so far as +that. He knew that all his old doubts would return if, on entering the +cemetery, he found her under the brown shaft carved with the name of +Hazen.</p> + +<p>The test was one he had not sought and did not welcome. Yet he felt +bound, now that he recognized it as such, to see it through and accept +its teaching for what it surely would be worth. Only he began to move +with more precaution and studied more to hide his approach than to give +any warning of it.</p> + +<p>The close ranks of the elderberry bushes lining the fences on the final +hill-top lent themselves to the concealment he now sought. As soon as he +was sure of her having left the road he drew up close to these bushes and +walked under them till he was almost at the gate. Then he allowed himself +to peer through their close branches and received an unexpected shock at +seeing her figure standing very near him, posed in an uncertainty which, +for some reason, he had not expected, but which restored him to himself, +though why he had not the courage, the time, nor the inclination to ask.</p> + +<p>She was babbling in a low tone to herself, an open sesame to her mind, +which Ransom hailed with a sense of awe. If only he might distinguish the +words! But this was difficult; not only was her head turned partly away, +but she spoke in a murmur which was far from distinct. Yet—yes, that one +sentence was plain enough. She had muttered musingly, anxiously, and with +a searching look among the graves:</p> + +<p>"It was on this side. I know it was on this side."</p> + +<p>Watching her closely lest some chance glance of hers should stray his +way, he listened still more intently and was presently rewarded by +catching another sentence.</p> + +<p>"A single grave all by itself. I fell over it and my mother scolded me, +saying it was my father's. There was a bush near it. A bush with white +flowers on it. I tried to pick some."</p> + +<p>Ransom's heart was growing lighter and lighter. She did not even know +that there had been placed over that grave a monument with her name on it +and that of the mother who had scolded her for tripping over her father's +sod. Only Anitra could be so ignorant or expect to find a grave by means +of a bush blooming with flowers fifteen years ago. As she went wandering +on, peering to right and left, he thought of Hazen and his doubts, and +wished that he were here beside him to mark her perplexity.</p> + +<p>When quite satisfied that she would never find what she sought without +help, Ransom stepped from his hiding-place and joined her among the +grassy hillocks. The start of pleasure she gave and her almost childish +look of relief warmed his heart, and it was with a smile he waited for +her to speak.</p> + +<p>"My father's grave!" she explained. "I was looking for my father's grave. +I remember my mother taking me to it when I was little. There was a bush +close by it—oh! I see what you think. The bush would be big now—I +forgot that. And something else! You are thinking of something else. Oh, +I know, I know. He wouldn't be lying alone any more. My mother must have +died, or sister would have taken me to her. There ought to be two +graves."</p> + +<p>He nodded, and taking her by the hand led her to the family monument. She +gazed at it for a moment, amazed, then laid her finger on one of the +inscriptions.</p> + +<p>"My father's name?" she asked.</p> + +<p>He nodded.</p> + +<p>She hung her head thoughtfully for a moment, then slipping to the other +side of the stone laid her hand on another.</p> + +<p>"My mother's?"</p> + +<p>Again he signified yes.</p> + +<p>"And this? Is this sister's name? No, she's not buried yet. I had a +brother. Is it his?"</p> + +<p>Ransom bowed. How tell her that it was a false inscription and that the +man whose death it commemorated was not only alive but had only a little +while before spoken to her.</p> + +<p>"I didn't like my brother. He was cruel and liked to hurt people. I'm +glad he's dead."</p> + +<p>Ransom drew her away. Her frankness was that of a child, but it produced +an uncomfortable feeling. He didn't like this brother either, and in this +thoughtless estimate of hers he seemed to read a warning to which his own +nature intuitively responded.</p> + +<p>"Come!" he motioned, leading the way out.</p> + +<p>She followed with a smile, and together they entered the highway. As they +did so, Ransom caught sight of a man speeding down the hill before them +on a bicycle. He had not come front the upper road, or they would have +seen him as he flew past the gateway. Where had he come from, then? From +the peep-hole where Ransom himself had stood a few minutes before. No +other conclusion was possible, and Ransom felt both angry and anxious +till he could find out who the man was. This he did not succeed in doing +till he reached the hotel. There a bicycle leaning against a tree gave +point to his questions, and he learned that it belonged to a clerk in one +of the small stores near by, but that the man who had just ridden it up +and down the road on a trial of speed was the stranger who had just come +to town with Mr. Hazen.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>ON THE CARS</h3> + + +<p>This episode, which to Ransom's mind would bear but one interpretation, +gave him ample food for thought. He decided to be more circumspect in the +future and to keep an eye out for inquisitive strangers. Not that he had +any thing to conceal, but no man enjoys having his proceedings watched, +especially where a woman is concerned.</p> + +<p>That Hazen was antagonistic to him he had always known; but that he was +regarded by him with suspicion he had not realized till now. Hazen +suspicious of <i>him</i>! that meant what? He wished that he had Mr. Harper +at his side to enlighten him.</p> + +<p>It was now five o'clock and he was sitting in his room awaiting the usual +report from the river, when a quick tap at his door was followed by the +entrance of the very man he was thinking about. He rose eagerly to +receive him, determined, however, to allow no inconsiderate impulse to +drive him into unnecessary speech.</p> + +<p>"I have already said too much," he reminded himself in self-directed +monition. "It's time he did some of the talking."</p> + +<p>Hazen seemed willing enough to do this. Taking the seat proffered him, he +opened the conversation as follows:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Ransom, I have been doing you an injustice. I do not consider it +necessary to tell you just how I have found this out, but I am now +convinced that you are as much in the dark as myself in regard to this +unfortunate affair, and are as willing as I am to take all justifiable +means to enlighten yourself. I own that at first I thought it more than +probable you were in collusion with the girl here to deceive me. That I +wouldn't stand. I'm glad to find you as truly a victim of this mystery as +myself."</p> + +<p>Ransom straightened himself.</p> + +<p>"If this is an apology," he returned, "I am willing to accept it in the +spirit in which it is proffered. But I should like something more than +apology from you. Candor for candor;—your whole story in return for +mine."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid it would be a trifle tedious,—my whole story," smiled Hazen. +"If you mean such part of it as concerns Georgian's peculiar actions and +the complications with which we are at this moment struggling, I can only +repeat what I have already told you, both at the St. Denis in New York +and here. I am Georgian's returned brother, saved from the jaws of hell +to see my own country again. I arrived in New York on the tenth. +Naturally, after securing a room at the hotel, I took up the papers. They +were full of the approaching marriage of Miss Hazen. I recognized my +sister's name, though not her splendor, for we were the sole survivors of +a poor country family and I knew nothing of the legacy I am now told she +received. Anxious to see her, I attended the ceremony. She recognized me. +I had not expected this, and feeling old affections revive, I followed +her friends to the house and was presented to them and to you. What +I whispered to her on this occasion were my assumed name and the place +where I was to be found. My changed countenance called for explanations, +for which a bridal reception offered no opportunity. Besides, as I have +already said, I stood in sore need of a definite amount of money. I meant +her to come and see me, but I did not expect her to play a trick on you +in order to do so. This had its birth in the to me unaccountable mystery +embodied in the girl you call Anitra, but whom I'm not ready yet to name. +For when I do, action must follow conviction and that without mercy or +delay."</p> + +<p>"Action?" repeated Ransom, with quick suspicion and a confused rush of +contradictory visions in his mind. "What do you mean by that?"</p> + +<p>Hazen covered his chin with his hand.</p> + +<p>"I will try and explain," he replied. "If I am abrupt in my language, it +is owing to the exigencies of the case. I have no time to waste and no +disposition to whitewash a rough piece of work. To speak to the point, I +have an intense interest in my sister Georgian. I have little or none in +my sister Anitra. Georgian's intelligence, good-will, and command of +money would be of inestimable benefit to me. Anitra, on the contrary, +could be nothing but a burden, unless—" here he cast a very sharp glance +at Ransom—"unless Georgian should have been sufficiently considerate to +leave her a good share of her fortune in the will you say she made just +before her disappearance and supposed death."</p> + +<p>"That I can say nothing about," rejoined Ransom in answer to this feeler. +"The will is in the hands of her lawyer, but if it will help your +argument any we will suppose that she left her sister to the care of her +friends without any especial provision for her in the way of money."</p> + +<p>The steady fingers clutching the scarred neck loosed their grip to wave +this supposition aside.</p> + +<p>"A hardly supposable case," was the cold comment with which he +supplemented this disclaimer; "but one which would make the girl a burden +indeed; a burden which for many reasons I could not assume." Here he +struck himself sharply on the neck, with the first display of passion he +had shown. "My advantages are not such as to make it easy for me to +support myself. It would be simply impossible for me to undertake the +care of any girl, least of all of one with a manifest infirmity."</p> + +<p>"Anitra will prosper without your care," replied Ransom, overlooking the +heartlessness of the man in the mad, unaccountable sense of relief with +which he listened to his withdrawal from concerns for which he showed so +little sympathy. "There are others who will be glad to do all that can be +done for Georgian's forsaken sister."</p> + +<p>"Yes. That is all right, but—" Here Hazen squared himself across the top +of the table before which he had been sitting; "I must be made sure that +the facts have been rightly represented to me and that the girl now in +this house <i>is</i> Georgian's deserted sister. I'm not yet satisfied that +she is, and I must be convinced not only on this point but on many +others, before this day is over. Business of great importance calls me +back to the city and, it may be, out of the country. I may never be able +to spend another day on purely personal affairs, so this one must tell. I +have a scheme (it is a very simple one) which, if carried out as I have +planned, will satisfy me as nothing else will as to the identity of the +girl we will call, from lack of positive knowledge, Anitra. Will you help +me in its furtherance? It lies with you to do so."</p> + +<p>"First, your reasons for doubting the girl," retorted Ransom. "They must +be excellent ones for you to resist the evidence of such conclusive +proofs as you have yourself been witness to since entering this house. I +am Georgian's husband. I have the strongest wish in the world to see her +again at my side; yet with the exception of her wonderful likeness to my +wife, I find nothing in this raw if beautiful girl, of the polished, +highly trained woman I married. I have not even succeeded in startling +her ear—something which I should have been able to do if she were not +the totally deaf woman she appears. Confide to me then your reasons for +demanding additional proofs of her identity. If they carry conviction +with them, I will aid you in any scheme you can propose which will +neither frighten nor afflict her."</p> + +<p>Hazen rose to his feet. Narrow as the room was, he yielded to his +restless desire to move about and began pacing up and down the restricted +quarters bounded by the edge of the table and the door. Not until he had +made the second turning did he speak; then it was with seeming openness.</p> + +<p>"It's like putting the torch to my last ship," said he; "but this is no +time to hesitate. Mr. Ransom, I do not trust my eyes, I do not trust my +ears, nor your eyes, nor your ears, nor those of any one here, because I +have talked with a man who was on the same train with my sisters. He +noticed them because of their similar appearance and close intimacy. +They were not dressed alike, but they were veiled alike and one did not +move without the other. More than that, they not only walked about the +various stations where they waited, arm in arm, but they sat thus closely +joined in the cars all the way from New York. This interested him +especially as he noted great anxiety and incessant movement in the one, +and complete passiveness in the other. She who sat in the outer seat was +watchful, busy, and ready to press the other's arm at the least +provocation, but if either spoke it was always the other. It was not till +the quick rush and shrill whistle of a passing train made one start and +not the other, that he got the idea that one of them was deaf. As this +was the one by the window, he felt that their peculiar actions were now +accounted for, and indeed thus far it all tallied with what we might +expect from Georgian traveling with the hapless Anitra. But there +remained a fact to be told, which rouses doubt. When they reached +G—— and he saw from their quick rising that they were about to leave +the train, he naturally glanced their way again, and this time he caught +a glimpse of the inner one's neck. Her veil had become slightly +disarranged, exposing the whole nape. It was unexpectedly dark, almost +brunette in color, and quite devoid of delicacy; such a skin as one might +look for in the gipsy Anitra after years of outdoor living and a long +lack of nice personal attention, but not such as I saw and admired a few +hours ago on the neck of the woman bending over her work in the +landlady's room. Oh, I recognized the difference; I have an eye for +necks."</p> + +<p>He paused, coming to a standstill in the middle of the room, to see what +effect his words had had on Ransom.</p> + +<p>"I have that man's name," he continued, "and can produce him if I have +time and it seems to be necessary. But I had rather come to my own +decision without any outside interference. This is not an affair for +public gossip or newspaper notoriety. It is a question of justice to +myself. If this girl is Georgian—" His whole face changed. For a moment +Ransom hardly knew him. The quiet, self-contained man seemed to have +given way to one of such unexpected power and threat that Ransom rose +instinctively to his feet in recognition of a superiority he could no +longer deny.</p> + +<p>The action seemed to recall Hazen to himself. He wheeled about and +recommenced his quiet pacing to and fro.</p> + +<p>"I beg pardon," he quietly finished. "If it is Georgian, she must stand +my friend. That is all I was going to say. If it is, against all reason +and probability, her strangely restored twin, I shall leave this house by +midnight, never probably to see any of you again. So you perceive that it +is incumbent upon us to work promptly. Are you ready to hear what I have +to propose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>Hazen paused again, this time in front of the door. Laying his hand +lightly on one of the panels, he glanced back at Ransom.</p> + +<p>"You are nicely placed here for observation. Your door directly faces the +hall she must traverse in returning to her room."</p> + +<p>"That's quite true."</p> + +<p>"She's in her room now. Ah, you know that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes." Ransom seemed to have no other word at his command.</p> + +<p>"Will she come out again before night to eat or to visit?"</p> + +<p>"There's no telling. She's very fitful. No one can prophesy what she +will do. Sometimes she eats in the landlady's room, sometimes in her +own, sometimes not at all. If you have frightened her, or she has been +disturbed in any way by your companion who shows such interest in her +and in me, she probably will not come out at all."</p> + +<p>"But she must. I expect you to see that she does. Use any messenger, any +artifice, but get her away from this hall for ten minutes, even if it is +only into Mrs. Deo's room. When she returns I shall be on my knees before +this keyhole to watch her and observe. To see what, I do not mean to tell +you, but it will be something which will definitely settle for me this +matter of identity. Does this plan look sufficiently harmless to meet +with your approval?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but looks cannot always be trusted. I must know just what you mean +to do. I will leave nothing to a mind and hand I do not trust any more +fully than I do yours. You are too eager for Georgian's money; too little +interested in herself; <i>and you are too sly in your ways</i>. I overlooked +this when you had the excuse of a possible distrust of myself. But now +that your confidence is restored in me, now that you recognize the fact +that I stand outside of this whole puzzling affair and have no other wish +than to know the truth about it and do my duty to all parties concerned, +secrecy on your part means more than I care to state. If you persist in +it I shall lend myself to nothing that you propose, but wait for time to +substantiate her claim or prove its entire falsity."</p> + +<p>"You will!"</p> + +<p>The words rang out involuntarily. It almost seemed as if the man would +spring with them straight at the other's throat. But he controlled +himself, and smiling bitterly, added:</p> + +<p>"I know the marks of human struggle. I have read countenances from my +birth. I've had to, and only one has baffled me—<i>hers</i>. But we are going +to read that too and very soon. We are going to learn, you and I, what +lies behind that innocent manner and her rude, uncultivated ways. We are +going to sound that deafness. I say <i>we</i>," he impressively concluded, +"because I have reconsidered my first impulse and now propose to allow +you to participate openly, and without the secrecy you object to, in all +that remains to be done to make our contemplated test a success. Will +that please you? May I count on you now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Ransom, returning to his old monosyllable.</p> + +<p>"Very well, then, see if you can make a scrawl like this."</p> + +<p>Pulling a piece of red chalk from his pocket, he drew a figure of a +somewhat unusual character on the bare top of the table between them; +then he handed the chalk over to Ransom, who received it with a stare of +wonder not unmixed with suspicion.</p> + +<p>"I'm not an adept at drawing," said he, but made his attempt, +notwithstanding, and evidently to Hazen's satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"You'll do," said he. "That's a mystic symbol once used by Georgian +and myself in place of our names in all mutual correspondence, and +on the leaves of our school-books and at the end of our exercises. It +meant nothing, but the boys and girls we associated with thought it did +and envied us the free-masonry it was supposed to cover. A ridiculous +make-believe which I rate at its full folly now, but one which cannot +fail to arouse a hundred memories in Georgian. We will scrawl it on +her door, or rather you shall, and according to the way she conducts +herself on seeing it, we shall know in one instant what you with your +patience and trust in time may not be able to arrive at in weeks."</p> + +<p>Ransom recalled some of the tests he had himself employed, many of which +have been omitted from this history, and shrugged his shoulders mentally, +if not physically. If Hazen noted this evidence of his lack of faith, he +remained entirely unaffected by it, and in a few minutes everything had +been planned between them for the satisfactory exercise of what Hazen +evidently regarded as a crucial experiment. Ransom was about to proceed +to take the first required step, when they heard a disturbance in front, +and the coach came driving up with a great clatter and bang and from it +stepped the lean, well-groomed figure of Mr. Harper.</p> + +<p>"Bah!" exclaimed Hazen with a violent gesture of disappointment. "There +comes your familiar. Now I suppose you will cry off."</p> + +<p>"Not necessarily," returned Ransom. "But this much is certain. I shall +certainly consult him before hazarding this experiment. I am not so sure +of myself or—pardon me—of yourself as to take any steps in the dark +while I have at hand so responsible a guide as the man whom you choose to +call my familiar."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>A SUSPICIOUS TEST</h3> + + +<p>"Let him make his experiment. It will do no harm, and if it rids us of +him, well and good."</p> + +<p>Such was Mr. Harper's decision after hearing all that Mr. Ransom had to +tell him of the present situation.</p> + +<p>"His disappointment when he learns that he has nothing to hope for from +his sister's generosity calls for some consideration from us," proceeded +the lawyer. "Go and have your little talk with the landlady or take +whatever other means suggest themselves for luring this girl from her +room. I will summon Hazen and hold him very closely under my eye till the +whole affair is over. He shall get no chance for any hocus-pocus +business, not while I have charge of your interests. He shall do just +what he has laid out for himself and nothing more; you may rely on that."</p> + +<p>Ransom expressed his satisfaction, and left the room with a lighter heart +than he had felt since Hazen came upon the scene. He did not know that +all he had been through was as nothing to what lay before him.</p> + +<p>It was an hour before he returned. When he did, it was to find Hazen and +the lawyer awaiting him in ill-concealed impatience. These two were much +too incongruous in tastes and interests to be very happy in a forced and +prolonged tête-à-tête.</p> + +<p>"Have you done it?" exclaimed Hazen, leaping eagerly to his feet as the +door closed softly behind Ransom. "Is she out of her room? I have +listened and listened for her step, but could not be sure of it. There +seem to be a lot of people in the house to-night."</p> + +<p>"Too many," quoth Ransom. "That is why I couldn't get hold of Mrs. Deo +any sooner. Anitra is having her hair brushed or something else of equal +importance done for her in one of the rear rooms. So we can proceed +fearlessly. Have you looked to see if you can get a good glimpse of her +door through the keyhole of this one?"</p> + +<p>"Haven't you already made a trial of that? Then do so now," suggested +Hazen, drawing out the key and laying it on the table.</p> + +<p>But this was too uncongenial a task for Ransom.</p> + +<p>"I shall be satisfied," said he, "if Mr. Harper tells me that it can."</p> + +<p>"It can," asserted that gentleman, falling on his knees and adjusting his +eye to the keyhole. "Or rather, you can see plainly the face of any one +approaching it. I don't suppose any of us expected to see the door +itself."</p> + +<p>"No, it is not the door, but the woman entering the door, we want to see. +Did you ask for an extra lamp?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and saw it placed. It is on a small table almost opposite her +room."</p> + +<p>"Then everything is ready."</p> + +<p>"All but the mark which I am to put on the panel."</p> + +<p>"Very good. Here is the chalk. Let us see what you mean to do with it +before you risk an attempt on the door itself."</p> + +<p>Ransom thought a minute, then with one quick twist produced the +following:</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/symbol.png"><img src="images/symbol.png" alt=""/></a> +</div> + +<p>"Correct," muttered Hazen, with what Harper thought to be a slight but +unmistakable shudder. "One would think you had been making use of this +very cabalistic sign all your life."</p> + +<p>"Then <i>one</i> would be mistaken. I have simply a true eye and a ready +hand."</p> + +<p>"And a very remarkable memory. You have recalled every little line and +quirk."</p> + +<p>"That's possible. What I have made once I can make the second time. It's +a peculiarity of mine."</p> + +<p>There was no mistaking the continued intensity of Hazen's gaze. Ransom +felt his color rise, but succeeded in preserving his quiet tone, as he +added:</p> + +<p>"Besides, this character is not a wholly new one to me. My attention was +called to it months ago. It was when I was courting Georgian. She was +writing a note one day when she suddenly stopped to think and I saw her +pen making some marks which I considered curious. But I should not have +remembered them five minutes, if she had not impulsively laid her hand +over them when she saw me looking. That fixed the memory of them in my +mind, and when I saw this combination of lines again, I remembered it. +That is why I lent myself so readily to this experiment. I lent that what +you said about her acquaintance with this odd arrangement of lines was +true."</p> + +<p>Hazen's hand stole up to his neck, a token of agitation which Ransom +should have recognized by this time.</p> + +<p>"And her account of the use we made of it tallied with mine?"</p> + +<p>"She gave me no account of any use she had ever made of it."</p> + +<p>"That was because you didn't ask her."</p> + +<p>"Just so. Why should I ask her? It was a small matter to trouble her +about."</p> + +<p>"You are right," acquiesced Hazen, wheeling himself away towards the +window. Then after a momentary silence, "It was so then, but it is likely +to prove of some importance now. Let me see if the hall is empty."</p> + +<p>As he bent to open the door, the lawyer, who had not moved nor spoken +till now, turned a quick glance on Ransom and impulsively stretched out +his hand. But he dropped it very quickly and subsided into his old +attitude of simple watchfulness, as Hazen glanced back with the remark:</p> + +<p>"There's nobody stirring; now's your time, Ransom."</p> + +<p>The moment for action had arrived.</p> + +<p>Ransom stepped into the hall. As he passed Hazen, the latter whispered:</p> + +<p>"Don't forget that last downward quirk. That was the line she always +emphasized."</p> + +<p>Ransom gave him an annoyed look. His nerves as well as his feelings were +on a keen stretch, and this persistence of Hazen's was more than he could +bear.</p> + +<p>"I'll not forget the least detail," he answered shortly, and passed +quickly down the hall, while Hazen watched him through the crack of the +door, and the lawyer watched Hazen.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Mr. Harper's brow wrinkled. Hazen had uttered such a sigh of +relief that the lawyer was startled. In another moment Ransom re-entered +the room.</p> + +<p>"She's coming," said he, striving to hide his extreme emotion. "I heard +her voice in the hall beyond."</p> + +<p>Hazen sprang to the door which Ransom had carefully closed, and was about +to fall on his knees before the keyhole when he suddenly stiffened +himself and, turning towards the lawyer, cried with a new strain of +loftiness in his tone:</p> + +<p>"You. You shall do the looking, only promise to be very minute in your +description of her behavior. It's a great trust I repose in you. See that +you honor it."</p> + +<p>The revulsion of feeling caused in the lawyer by this show of confidence +was not perceptible. But it softened his step as well as his manner as he +crossed to do the other's bidding.</p> + +<p>The remaining two stood at his side breathless, waiting for his first +word.</p> + +<p>It came in a whisper:</p> + +<p>"She's approaching her room. She looks tired. Her eyes are stealing this +way;—no, they are resting on her own door. She sees the sign. She stands +staring at it, but not like a person who has ever seen it before. It's +the stare of an uneducated woman who runs upon something she does not +understand. Now she touches it with one finger and glances up and down +the hall with a doubtful shake of the head. Now she is running to another +door, now to another. She is looking to see if this scrawl is to be found +anywhere else; she even casts her eye this way—I feel like leaving my +post. If I do, you may know that she's coming—No, she's back at her own +door and—gentlemen, her bringing up or rather coming up asserts itself. +She has put her palm to her mouth and is vigorously rubbing off the +marks."</p> + +<p>The next instant Mr. Harper rose. "She's gone into her room," said he. +"Listen and you will hear her key click in the lock."</p> + +<p>Ransom sank into a seat; Hazen had walked to the window. Presently he +turned.</p> + +<p>"I am convinced," said he. "I will not trouble you gentlemen further. +Mr. Ransom, I condole with you upon your loss. My sister was a woman of +uncommon gifts."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ransom bowed. He had no words for this man at a moment of such +extreme excitement. He did not even note the latent sting hidden in the +other's seeming tribute to Georgian. But the lawyer did and Hazen +perceived that he did, for pausing in his act of crossing the room, he +leaned for a moment on the table with his eyes down, then quickly +raising them remarked to that gentleman:</p> + +<p>"I am going to leave by the midnight train for New York. To-morrow I +shall be on the ocean. Will it be transgressing all rules of propriety +for me to ask the purport of my sister's will? It is a serious matter to +me, sir. If she has left me anything—"</p> + +<p>"She has <i>not</i>," emphasized the lawyer.</p> + +<p>A shadow darkened the disappointed man's brow. His wound swelled and his +eyes gleamed ironically as he turned them upon Ransom.</p> + +<p>Instantly that gentleman spoke.</p> + +<p>"I have received but a moiety," said he. "You need not envy me the +amount."</p> + +<p>"Who has it then?" briskly demanded the startled man. "Who? who? <i>She?</i>"</p> + +<p>Mr. Harper never knew why he did it. He was reserved as a man and, +usually, more than reserved as a lawyer, but as Hazen lifted his hands +from the table and turned to leave, he quietly remarked:</p> + +<p>"The chief legatee—the one she chose to leave the bulk of her very large +fortune to—is a man we none of us know. His name is Josiah Auchincloss."</p> + +<p>The change which the utterance of this name caused in Hazen's expression +threw them both into confusion.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you tell me that in the beginning?" he cried. "I needn't have +wasted all this time and effort."</p> + +<p>His eyes shone, his poor lips smiled, his whole air was jubilant. Both +Mr. Harper and his client surveyed him in amazement. The lines so fast +disappearing from his brow were beginning to reappear on theirs.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Harper," this hard-to-be-understood man now declared, "you may +safely administer the estate of my sister. She is surely dead."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>A STARTLING DECISION</h3> + + +<p>Before Mr. Ransom and the lawyer had recovered from their astonishment, +Hazen had slipped from the room. As Mr. Harper started to follow, he saw +the other's head disappearing down the staircase leading to the office. +He called to him, but Hazen declined to turn.</p> + +<p>"No time," he shouted back. "I shall have to make use of somebody's +automobile now, to get to the Ferry in time."</p> + +<p>The lawyer did not persist, not at that moment; he went back to his +client and they had a few hurried words; then Mr. Harper went below and +took up his stand on the portico. He was determined that Hazen should not +leave the place without some further explanation.</p> + +<p>It was light where he stood and he very soon felt that this would not +do, so he slipped back into the shade of a pillar, and seeing, from the +bustle, that Hazen was likely to obtain the use of the one automobile +stored in the stable, he waited with reasonable patience for his +reappearance in the road before him.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile he had confidence in Ransom, who he felt sure was watching +them both from the window overhead. If he should fail in getting in +the word he wanted, Ransom was pledged to shout it out without regard +to appearances. But this was not likely to occur. He knew his own +persistency to equal Hazen's. Nothing should stop the momentary interview +he had promised himself.</p> + +<p>Ah! A well-known whirr and clatter is heard. The automobile was leaving +the stable. Hazen was already in it and the man who had come up from New +York was with him. This was bad; they would flash by—No; he would not be +balked thus. Stepping out into the road, he stopped full in the glare of +the office lights and held up his hand. They could not but see him and +they did. The chauffeur reversed the lever and the machine stopped to +the accompaniment of low muttered oaths from Hazen, which were rather +disagreeable than otherwise to Harper's ear.</p> + +<p>"One word," said he, approaching to the side where Hazen sat. "I thought +you ought to know before leaving that we can take no proceedings in the +matter we were speaking of till we have undisputed proof that your sister +is dead. That we may not get for a long time, possibly never. If you are +interested in having this Auchincloss receive his inheritance, you had +better prepare both yourself and him for a long wait. The river seems +slow to give up its dead."</p> + +<p>The quiver of impatience which had shaken Hazen at the first word had +settled into a strange rigidity.</p> + +<p>"One moment," he said in a command to the chauffeur at his side. Then in +a low, strangely sounding whisper to Harper: "They think the body's in +the Devil's Cauldron. Nothing can get it out if it is. Would some proof +of its presence there be sufficient to settle the fact of her death?"</p> + +<p>"That would depend. If the proof was unmistakable, it might pass in the +Surrogate's Court. What is the matter, Hazen?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing." The tone was hollow; the whole man sat like an image of death. +"I—I'm thinking—weighing—" he uttered in scattered murmurs. Then +suddenly, "You're not deceiving me, Harper. Some proof will be necessary, +and that very soon, for this man Auchincloss to realize the money?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," the monosyllable was as dry as it was short. Harper's patience +with this unnatural brother was about at an end.</p> + +<p>"And who will venture to obtain this proof for us? No one. Not even +Ransom would venture down into that watery hole. They say it is almost +certain death," babbled Hazen.</p> + +<p>Harper kept silence. Strange forces were at work. The head of another +gruesome tragedy loomed vaguely through the shadows of this already +sufficiently tragic mystery.</p> + +<p>"Go on!" suddenly shouted Hazen, leaning forward to the chauffeur. But +the next instant his hand was on the man's sleeve. "No, I have changed my +mind. Here, Staples," he called out as a man came running down the steps, +"take my bag and ask the landlady to prepare me a room. I'll not try for +the train to-night." Then as the man at his side leaped to the ground, he +turned to Harper and remarked quietly, but in no common tone:</p> + +<p>"The steamer must sail without me. I'll stay in this place a while and +prove the death of Georgian Ransom myself."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h3>THE DEVIL'S CAULDRON</h3> + + +<p>The solemnity of Hazen's whole manner impressed Mr. Harper strongly. As +soon as the opportunity offered he cornered the young man in the office +where he had taken refuge, and giving him to understand that further +explanations must pass between them before either slept, he drew him +apart and put the straight question to him:</p> + +<p>"Who is Josiah Auchincloss?"</p> + +<p>The answer was abrupt, almost menacing in its emphasis and tone.</p> + +<p>"A trunk-maker in St. Louis. A man she was indebted to."</p> + +<p>"How indebted to—a trunk-maker?"</p> + +<p>"That I cannot, do not desire to state. It is enough that she felt she +owed him the bulk of her fortune. Though this eliminates me from benefits +of a wealth I had some rights to share, I make no complaint. She knew her +business best, and I am disposed to accept her judgment in the matter +without criticism."</p> + +<p>"You are?" The tone was sharp, the sarcasm biting. "I can understand +that. For Auchincloss, in this will, read Hazen; but how about her +husband? How about her friends and the general community? Do you not +think they will ask why a beautiful and socially well-placed young woman +like your sister should leave so large a portion of her wealth to an +obscure man in another town, of whom her friends and even her business +agent have never heard? It would have been better if she had left you her +thousands directly."</p> + +<p>The smile which was Hazen's only retort was very bitter.</p> + +<p>"You drew up her will," said he. "You must have reasoned with her on this +very point as you are now trying to reason with me?"</p> + +<p>The lawyer waved this aside.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know at that time the social status of the legatee; nor did I +know her brother then as well as I do now."</p> + +<p>"You do not know me now."</p> + +<p>"I know that you are very pale; that the determination you have just made +has cost you more than you perhaps are willing to state. That there is +mystery in your past, mystery in your present, and, possibly, mystery +threatening your future, and all in connection with your great desire for +this money."</p> + +<p>Hazen made a forcible gesture, but whether of denial or depreciation, it +was not easy to decide.</p> + +<p>"Would it not then be better for all parties," pursued the lawyer, "for +you to give me some idea of the great obligation under which your sister +lay to this man, that I may have an answer ready when people ask me why +she passed you so conspicuously by, in order to enrich this stranger?"</p> + +<p>"The story is not mine. Had she wished you to know it, she would have +confided it to you herself. I must decline—"</p> + +<p>Mr. Harper interrupted the other impressively. "Do you realize what a +shadow may be thrown upon your sister's memory by this reticence on your +part? Her death was suggestive enough without the complications you +mention. In justice to your relationship you should speak. If, as I +think, the money is really meant for you, say so. The subterfuge may be +difficult of explanation, but it will not hurt her memory as much as this +extraordinary silence on your part."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry," began Hazen. But Harper cut him short.</p> + +<p>"You expect the money—you yourself," said he. "Nothing else would force +you into an attempt so perilous. You would risk death. Risk something +less final; risk your place in my esteem, your standing among men, and +confess the full truth about this matter. If it involves crime—why, I'm +a lawyer and can see you through better than you can win through by your +own misdirected efforts. The truth, my lad, the truth, nothing else will +serve you."</p> + +<p>The look he received he will never forget.</p> + +<p>"You are a man of limited experience, Mr. Harper," were the words which +accompanied it. "You would not understand the truth, Georgian or me. +Ransom might, but I shall not even risk Ransom's discretion. Now this +is all I am going to say about this matter. Georgian's last will and +testament, followed though it was by suicide, was a perfectly regular +one. The only impediment to its being so recognized and acted upon is the +doubt as to her actual decease. If the body of my poor young sister has +become lodged in the Devil's Cauldron, I am going there to seek it. As +the project calls for courage and, above all, a good condition of body +and mind, I shall be obliged to you if you will allow me the benefit of +the sleep I most certainly need. To-morrow I may have something more to +say to you, and I may not. Perhaps I shall want to make <i>my will</i>, who +knows?" And with a smile full of sarcastic meaning, he pushed Mr. +Harper's arm aside and made for the staircase, up which he presently +vanished without another attempt on the lawyer's part to hold him back.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later the lawyer was getting what information he could +about the so-called Devil's Cauldron.</p> + +<p>It seems that this was a very deep hole in which, on account of the rocky +formation surrounding it, the water swept in an eddy which had the force +of a whirlpool. No one had ever sounded its depths and nothing had ever +been seen again which had once been sucked into its deathly hollow. That +Georgian's body had found its everlasting grave there, many had believed +from the first, and if the conviction had not yet been publicly expressed +it was out of consideration for Mr. Ransom, to whose hopes it could but +ring a final knell.</p> + +<p>"Where is the hole? How far from the waterfall?" queried Mr. Harper.</p> + +<p>"A good mile," muttered one man. "Quite around the bend of the stream. +It's a horrid place, sir. We've always been mortal careful about rowing +down that side of the river. Children are never allowed to. Only a man's +strength could get him free again if he once struck the eddy."</p> + +<p>"Would anything floating down from the falls be apt to strike this eddy?"</p> + +<p>"Very apt. It would be a miracle if it didn't. That is why we all turned +out so willingly the first day. We knew that if Mrs. Ransom's body was to +be found at all, it would be found then; another day it would be beyond +our reach."</p> + +<p>"You say that no one has ever sounded the depths of that hole. Has any +one ever tried to?"</p> + +<p>"More than once. Scientific men and others."</p> + +<p>"Did they ever emerge—any of them?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, one, a powerful sort of chap with Indian blood in him. But he +didn't advise any one to try it; said the knowledge wasn't worth the +strain to heart and muscle."</p> + +<p>"What was the knowledge? We can imagine the strain."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he said as how the walls of the vortex—didn't he call it a +vortex—was all stone, and he spoke of a ledge—I didn't hear what +else."</p> + +<p>"To go down there a man would have to take his life in his hand, I see. +Well, I don't think I will try," dryly observed the lawyer as he left the +room.</p> + +<p>He could no longer hide his excitement at the thought that Hazen +meditated this undertaking.</p> + +<p>"How he must want money!" thought he. That a man should face such a +horror for another man's profit did not seem likely enough to engage his +consideration for a moment.</p> + +<p>Lawyer Harper knew the world—or thought he did.</p> + +<p>Next day the whole town was thrown into a hubbub. Word had gone out +through every medium possible to so small a place, that Alfred Hazen, +Georgian's long-lost brother, was going to dare Death Eddy in a final +attempt to recover his sister's body.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PART_IV" id="PART_IV"></a>PART IV</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Man of Mystery</span></h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h3>DEATH EDDY</h3> + + +<p>It was a gray day, chill and ominous. As the three most interested in the +event came together on the road facing the point from which Hazen had +decided to make his desperate plunge, the dreariness of the scene was +reflected in the troubled eye of the lawyer and that of the still more +profoundly affected Ransom. Only Hazen gazed unmoved. Perhaps because +the spot was no new one to him, perhaps because an unsympathetic sky, +a stretch of rock, the swirl of churning waters without any of the +lightness and color which glancing sunlight gives, meant for him but one +thing—the thing upon which he had fixed his mind, his soul.</p> + +<p>The rocky formation into which the stream ran at this point as into a +pocket, revealed itself in the bald outlines of the point which, curving +half-way upon itself, held in its cold embrace the unseen vortex. One +tree, and one only, disturbed the sky line. Stark and twisted into an +unusual shape from the steady blowing of the prevalent east winds, it +imprinted itself at once upon the eye and unconsciously upon the +imagination. To some it was the keeper of that hell-gate; the contorted +sentinel of bygone woes and long-buried horrors, if not the gnomish +genius of others yet to come. To-day it was the sign-post to a strange +deed—the courting of an uncanny death that one of the many secrets +hidden in that hole of miseries might be unlocked.</p> + +<p>Under this tree a small group of strong and determined men was already +collected; not as spectators but helpers in the adventurous attempt about +to be undertaken by their old friend and playmate. The spectators had +been barred from the point and stood lined up in the road overlooking the +eddy. They were numerous and very eager. Hazen's brows drew together in +his first exhibition of feeling, as he saw women and even children in the +crowd, and caught the expression of morbid anticipation with which they +all turned as he stepped with his two associates over the rope which had +been stretched across the base of the out-curving head line.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/river.jpg"><img src="images/river.jpg" alt=""/></a> +</div> + +<h4>"Cormorants!" escaped his lips. "They look for a feast +of death, but they will be disappointed."</h4> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<p>"Cormorants!" escaped his lips. "They look for a feast of death, but +they will be disappointed." He was almost bitter. "I shall survive this +plunge. I have no wish for my death to be the holiday for a hundred +gloating eyes, I am not handsome enough. When I die, it will be quietly, +with some hand near, kind enough to cover my poor face with a napkin."</p> + +<p>Harper and Ransom both remembered this remark a little while later.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hazen?" It was Harper who spoke. They had passed a little thicket +of brush and were drawing near the group under the tree. "Have you duly +considered what you are about to do? I have talked with several men of +judgment and experience about this attempt, and they all say it can have +but one termination."</p> + +<p>"I know. That is because they know little or nothing of the life I have +led since I left this town. There is not a man amongst them so slight and +seemingly frail of figure as myself, but none of them, not one, has been +so often up to the very gates of death and escaped, as I have. My +schooling has been long and severe, perhaps in preparation for this day. +I have been through fire; I have been through water. The swirling of my +own native stream does not appall me. I rather welcome it; it is but +another experience."</p> + +<p>"But for money?" broke in Ransom. "You acknowledge it is for no other +purpose. Will it pay? I own that in my eyes no amount of money could pay +a man for so superhuman a risk as this. Take a few thousands from me—I +had rather give them to you than see you leap into that water opening +beneath us like a hungry maw."</p> + +<p>Hazen stood silent, his eye glistening, his hand almost outstretched. +Harper thought he would yield; the offer must have struck him as generous +and very tempting—a good excuse for a hot-headed man to withdraw from a +very doubtful adventure. But he did not know Hazen. This latter advanced +his hand and squeezed Ransom's warmly, but his answer, when he was ready +to give one, conveyed no intention of a change of mind.</p> + +<p>"Will your thousands amount to a clean million?" he smiled. "That is the +amount, I believe, bequeathed by your wife to Mr. Auchincloss. Nothing +less will suffice. Yet I thank you, Ransom."</p> + +<p>The latter bowed and fell a little behind the others. The struggle in his +mind had been severe; it was severe yet; he did not know but that it was +his duty to stop this Hazen from his intended action by force. He was not +sure but that the onus of this whole desperate undertaking would yet fall +upon him. Certainly it would fall upon his conscience if the end was +fatal. He had had proof of that in the long night of wakeful misery he +had just passed; a night in which he had faced the furies; in which this +inexorable question had forced itself upon him despite every effort on +his part to evade it.</p> + +<p>Why had he, a humane man, consented to this attempt on the part of the +devoted Hazen? That his mind might be free to mourn his beautiful young +bride whose fatal and mysterious secret he was still as far from knowing +as in the hour he turned to welcome her to their first home and found her +fled from his arms and heart? Or had this suspense, this feeling of +standing now, as never before, at the opening door of fate, a deeper +significance, a more active meaning? Was this meditated test a crucial +one, because it opened to him the only possible releasement of soul and +conscience to the undivided care of one who had no other refuge in life +save that offered by his devotion? The horror of this self-probing was +still upon him as he followed Hazen's slight and virile figure across the +rocks, but it fled as he felt the spray of the tossing waters dash its +chilling reminder in his face.</p> + +<p>The event was upon him and he must add to his former actions that of +a complete and determined opposition to the risk proposed or possibly +forfeit his peace of mind forever. Quickening his pace, he reached Hazen +and the lawyer just as the men awaiting them had advanced on their side. +Instantly he knew it was too late. There was neither time nor opportunity +for any weak protests on his part now. Older men were speaking; men who +knew the river, the danger, and the man, but even they said nothing to +him in way of dissuasion. They only pointed out what especial points of +suction were to be avoided, and showed him the chain they had brought for +his waist and how he was to pull upon it the very instant he felt his +senses or his strength leaving him.</p> + +<p>He answered as a courageous man might, and making ready by taking off his +coat and shoes he gave himself into their hands for the proper fastening +on of the chain. Then, while the murmur of expectation rose from the +crowd on the river bank, he stepped back to Mr. Ransom and whispered +hurriedly in his ear:</p> + +<p>"You have a good heart, a better heart than I ever gave you credit for. +Promise that in case I never come out of those waters alive, that you +will put no obstacle in the way of Mr. Auchincloss inheriting his fortune +in good time. He's a man worthy of all the assistance which money can +bring. <i>You</i> do not need her wealth; Anitra—well, she will be cared for, +but Auchincloss—promise—brother."</p> + +<p>Ransom half drew back in his amazement. Then started forward again. This +man whom he had always distrusted, whom he had looked upon as Georgian's +possible enemy, certainly his own, was looking into his eyes with a gaze +of trust, almost of affection. The money was not for himself; he showed +it by the noble, almost grand look with which he waited for his answer; +a look that carried conviction despite Ransom's prejudice and great +dislike.</p> + +<p>"You will give me that much additional nerve for the task lying before +me?" he added. And Ransom could only bow his head. The man's mastery was +limitless; it had reached and moved even him.</p> + +<p>Another moment and a gasp went up from fifty or more throats. Hazen had +taken the chain in his hand, walked to the edge of the rock and slipped +into the quietest water he saw there.</p> + +<p>"Strike left!" called out a voice. And he struck left. The eddy seized +him and they could see his head moving slowly about in the great circle +which gradually grew smaller and smaller till he suddenly disappeared. A +groan muffled with horror went up from the shore. But the man who held +the chain lifted up his hand, and silence—more pregnant of anticipation +than any sound—held that whole crowd rigid. The man played out the +chain; Harper stared at the seething, tumbling water, but Ransom looked +another way. The torture in his soul was taking shape, the shape of a +ghost rising from those tossing waters. Suddenly the pent-in breath of +fifty breasts found its way again to the lips.</p> + +<p>The men who held the chain were pulling it in with violent reaches. It +dragged more slowly, stuck, loosened itself, and finally brought into +sight a face white as the foam it rose amongst.</p> + +<p>"Dead! Drowned!" the whisper went around.</p> + +<p>But when Hazen was dragged ashore and Ransom had thrown himself at his +feet, he saw that he yet lived, and lived triumphantly. Ransom could not +have told more; it was for others to see and point out the smile that +sweetened the wan lips, and the passion with which he held against his +breast some sodden and shapeless object which he had rescued from those +awful depths, and which, when spread out and clean of sand, betrayed +itself as that peculiar article of woman's clothing, a small side bag.</p> + +<p>"I remember that bag," said Harper. "I saw it, or one exactly like it, in +Mrs. Ransom's hand when she got into the coach the day we all rode up +from the ferry. What will he have to say about it? and could he have seen +the body from which it has evidently been torn?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + +<h3>HAZEN</h3> + + +<p>"An unfathomable man," grumbled Mr. Harper, entering Mr. Ransom's room in +marked disorder. "They say that he has not spoken yet; but the coroner is +with him and we shall hear something from him soon. I expect—" here the +lawyer's voice changed and his manner took on meaning—"that his report +will be final."</p> + +<p>"Final? You mean—"</p> + +<p>"What his fainting face showed. For all its pallor and the exhaustion it +expressed, there was triumph in its every feature. The little bag was not +all he saw in that pit of hell. You must prepare yourself for no common +ordeal, Ransom; it will take all your courage to listen to his story."</p> + +<p>"I know." The words came with difficulty but not without a certain manly +courage. "I shall try not to make you too much trouble." Then after a +moment of oppressive silence, "Did you notice, when we all came in, the +figure of a woman disappearing up the stair way? It was Anitra's and it +paused before it reached the top, and I saw her eyes staring down at +Hazen's helpless figure with a wildness in its inquiry that has sapped +all my courage. How are we to answer that girl when she asks us what has +happened? How make her know that Hazen is her brother and that he has +just risked his life to satisfy himself and us that Georgian was really +lost in that dreadful pool."</p> + +<p>The lawyer, darting a keen glance at the speaker, softly shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I am not thinking of Miss Hazen," said he. "I'm wondering how far the +proof he has obtained will go." He paused, listening, then made a gesture +towards the hall. "There's some one there," he whispered.</p> + +<p>Ransom rose, and with a quick turn of the wrist pulled open the door.</p> + +<p>A man was standing on the threshold, a ghastly figure before which Ransom +involuntarily stepped back.</p> + +<p>"Hazen!" he cried; then, as the other tottered, he sprang forward again +and, reaching out his hand to steady him, drew him in with the remark, +"We were expecting a summons from you. We are happy that you find +yourself able to come to us."</p> + +<p>"The coroner has just gone. The doctors I dismissed. I have something to +say to you—to both of you," he added as he caught sight of Mr. Harper.</p> + +<p>Entering slowly, he sat down in the chair proffered him by the lawyer. +There was something strange in his air, a quiet automaton-like quality +which attracted the latter's notice and led him to watch him very +closely. Ransom was busy with the door, which the strong west wind +blowing through the hall made difficult to close.</p> + +<p>"I—" The one word uttered, Hazen seemed to forget himself. Sitting quite +still, he gazed straight before him at the open window. There was little +to be seen there but the swaying boughs of the huge tree, but his gaze +never left those tossing limbs, and his sentence hung suspended till the +movement made by Ransom recrossing the room roused him, and he went on.</p> + +<p>"I have made the plunge, gentlemen, and fortune favored me. I—" here his +voice failed him again, but realizing the fact more quickly than before, +he shook off his apathy, and facing the two men, who awaited his slow +words with inconceivable excitement, continued with sudden concentration +upon his subject, "I saw what I went to see—poor Georgian's body. I have +satisfied the coroner of this fact. The little bag I tore from her side +proves her identity beyond a doubt. You saw it, Mr. Harper. They tell me +that you recognized it at once as the same you saw in her hand in the +stage-coach. But if you had not, the initials on it are unmistakable, G. +Q. H., Georgian Quinlan Hazen. Auchincloss will get his money, and soon, +will he not? Answer me plainly, Harper. Such an experience merits some +reward. You will not make difficulties?"</p> + +<p>"I?" The lawyer's query had a strange ring to it. He glanced from Hazen +to Ransom, and from Ransom back to Hazen, whose features had now become +more composed, though they still retained their remarkable pallor.</p> + +<p>"If the proof is positive," he then went on, "you assuredly can trust +both my client and myself to remember our promise to you."</p> + +<p>"The coroner, you say, is satisfied?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, with the proof and my sworn statement. He is obliged to be. No one +else, least of all himself, feels any desire to go down to that whirling +eddy for confirmation of my story. And they are wise. I do not think +that any man with less experience than myself could sound the depths of +that vortex and come up alive. The noise—the swirl—the sense of being +sucked down—down in ever-increasing fury—but my purpose kept the life +in me. I was determined not to yield, not to faint, till I had seen—and +proved—"</p> + +<p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>The cry was from Mr. Ransom. A sudden gust of wind had torn its way +through the room, flinging the door wide, and strewing the floor with +flying papers from the large stand in the window.</p> + +<p>"Nothing but wind," answered Harper, half rising to close the door, but +immediately sitting down again with a strange look at Ransom. "Let be," +he whispered, as the other rose in his turn to restore order. "Keep Hazen +talking. It's important; imperative. I'll see to the door."</p> + +<p>But it was the window he closed, not the door.</p> + +<p>Ransom, with that obedience natural to a client in presence of his most +trusted adviser, did as he was bid, and turned his full attention back to +Hazen instantly. That gentleman, upon whom the rushing wind and the havoc +it created had made little if any impression, rushed again into words.</p> + +<p>"I've led an adventurous life," he declared, "and, in the last few years +especially, passed through many perils and experienced much awful +suffering. I have felt the pang of hunger and the pang of biting despair; +but nothing I have ever endured can equal the horror which beclouded my +mind and rendered powerless my body as I felt myself sliding from the +sight of earth and heaven into the jaws of that rapacious eddy, whose +bottom no man had ever sounded.</p> + +<p>"I went in young—I have come out old. Look at my hands—they shake like +those of a man of ninety. Yet yesterday they could have pulled to the +ground an ox."</p> + +<p>"You saw Mrs. Ransom's body down in that pool some fathoms below the +surface," observed the lawyer, after waiting in vain for some word from +the shrinking husband. "Won't you particularize, Mr. Hazen? Tell us just +how she was lying and where. Mr. Ransom cannot but wish to know, +difficult as he evidently finds it to ask you."</p> + +<p>"The coroner has the story," Hazen began, with the slow, painful gasp of +the unwilling narrator. "But I will tell it again; it is your right, the +painful duty which we cannot escape. She was lying, not on the bottom, +but in a niche of rock into which she had been thrown and wedged by the +force of the current. One arm was free and was washing about; I tried to +clutch this arm as I went down, but it eluded me. When I arose, the rush +and swirl of the water was against me and I felt my senses going, but +enough instinct was left for me to snatch again at the arm as I passed, +and though it eluded me again, my fingers closed on something, which I +was just conscious enough to hold on to with a frenzied grip. We have +spoken of this thing—a little bag which must have been fastened to her +side, for the end of its connecting strap is torn away by the wrench I +gave it."</p> + +<p>"Vivid enough; but I am sure you will tell me one thing more. Did you see +the face of this body as well as the arm? It would greatly add to the +strength of your testimony if you could describe it."</p> + +<p>Ransom, who had been watching Hazen, cast a sudden look back at the +lawyer as he dropped these insinuating words. Something more than a +cold-blooded desire for truth had prompted this almost brutal +inquisition. He must know what it was, if anything in Harper's +well-controlled countenance would tell him. The result transfixed him, +for following the lawyer's gaze, which was fixed not on the man he was +addressing but on a small mirror hanging on the opposite wall, he saw +reflected in it the face and form of Anitra standing in the open +doorway behind them.</p> + +<p>She was looking at Hazen and, as Ransom noted that look, he understood +Harper's previous caution and all that lay behind his insistent and +cold-blooded questions. For her gaze was no longer one of simple inquiry +but of horrified understanding;—<i>the gaze of one who heard</i>.</p> + +<p>Meantime, Hazen was answering in painful gasps the lawyer's pointed +question, "Did you see the face of this body as well as the arm?"</p> + +<p>"Did I see—God help me, yes. Just a glimpse, but I knew it. Eyes that my +mother had kissed, blind—staring—glassed in awe and unspeakable fright. +The mouth, whose every curve I had studied in the old days of perfect +affection, drawn into a revolting grin and dripping with unwholesome +weeds brought down from the shallows. All strange, yet all familiar—my +sister—Georgian—dead—stark—but recognizable. Don't ask me if I saw +it. I always see it; it is before me now, the forehead—the chin—the +eyes—"</p> + +<p>Ransom sprang to his feet, Harper also.</p> + +<p>The girl in the doorway had gone white as death, and with outstretched +arms and frantic, haggard eyes was striving to ward off the frightful +vision conjured up by her brother's words. The movement made by the +two men recalled her in an instant to herself, and she drew back—the +hesitating, appealing, anxious-eyed girl whom they all knew. But it +was too late. Hazen had seen as well as the others, and leaping in +frenzy from his chair stood confronting her—a dominant and accusing +figure—between the quietly triumphant lawyer and the crushed, almost +unconscious Ransom.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<h3>SHE SPEAKS</h3> + + +<p>Hazen's face was frightful to see; the more so that physical weakness +contended with the outsweep of passion, so great and overwhelming in its +power and destructive force that to the two onlookers it seemed to spring +from deeper sources than ordinary life and death, and have its birth, as +well as its culmination, in the unknown and all that is most terrible +in the human mind and human experience.</p> + +<p>Anitra's eye was spellbound by it. As it dilated upon this vision of +unspeakable wrath and almost superhuman denunciation, her own exquisite +face filled with a reflected horror, almost equaling his in force and +meaning, till the two awed spectators saw in this moment of startled +recognition and the up-gathering of two great natures, the oncoming of +some hideous climax for which the many strange and contradictory +experiences of the last few days had not served to prepare them.</p> + +<p>"You <i>hear</i>!"</p> + +<p>In these words Hazen loosed out his soul.</p> + +<p>The keen cry of the wind running through the house was his only answer.</p> + +<p>"You <i>hear</i>!" he repeated, advancing and laying a determined hand upon +her arm. "You have made a mock of us with your pretended deafness. What +does it mean—Stop! no more play-acting," he fiercely admonished her, as +her eyes assumed a look of startled inquiry and wandered away in vague +curiosity to the papers scattered over the floor—"we have had enough +of that; you cannot deceive us—you cannot deceive <i>me</i> twice. You played +at deafness—why? Because Anitra must have some disability to distinguish +her from Georgian? Because you are not Anitra? Because you are Georgian +after all?"</p> + +<p>Georgian!</p> + +<p>The word fell like a plummet into the hollow of that great expectancy. +Ransom shivered and even Harper's hard cheek changed color. Hazen only +stood unmoved, his look, his grasp, the spirit behind that look and +grasp, implacable and determined. Their influence was terrible; slowly +she succumbed to it against her will and purpose, the will and purpose of +a very strong woman. Her eyes rose in a painful and lingering struggle to +his face. Then, with a cry her drawn and parched lips could not suppress, +she flashed them in agony on Ransom, and this long-suffering man read in +them the maddening truth. They were his wife's eyes; the woman before him +was indeed Georgian.</p> + +<p>"Speak!" rang out the voice of Hazen, as Harper, realizing from Ransom's +face what Ransom had just realized from hers, stepped to the door and +closed it. "The time is short; I have much, very much to do. For my sake, +for the sake of this much-abused man, whom you allowed to marry you, +speak out, tell the truth at once. You are Georgian."</p> + +<p>"Yes," fell in almost an inaudible whisper from her lips. "I am +Georgian." Then as he loosed his grasp from her arm and she was left +standing there alone, some instinct of isolation, some realization of the +mysterious pit she had dug for herself and possibly for others, in this +avowal of her identity, wrought her brain into momentary madness, and +flinging up her arms she fell on her knees before Hazen as under the +stroke of some unseen thunderbolt.</p> + +<p>"You made me say it," she cried. "On your head be the punishment, not on +mine nor on his." Then as Hazen drew slowly back, touched in his turn by +some emotion to which neither his look nor gesture gave any clew, she +rose to her feet, and fixing him with a look of strange defiance, added +in milder but no less determined tones: "A tongue unloosed talks long and +loud. You have made me give up my secret, but I shall not stop at that. I +shall say more; tell all my dreadful history; yours—mine. I will not be +thought wicked because I undertook so great a deception. I will not have +this good man's opinion of me shaken; not for a minute; what I did, I +did for him and he shall know it whatever penalty it may incur. He is +my husband—his love to me is priceless, and I will hold it against +you—against the Cause—against Heaven—yes, and against Hell."</p> + +<p>Here was truth. To Ransom it came like balm and a renewed life. Bounding +across the room, he strove to seize her hand and draw her to himself. +But Hazen would not have it. His anger, indeterminate before, was +concentrated now, and not the white pleading of her face, nor the warning +gesture of Ransom, could hold it back.</p> + +<p>"Traitress!" he cried, "traitress to me and to the Cause. You thought +to escape what is inescapable. Do you know what you have done? You +have—" The rest hung in air. A sudden weakness had seized him and he +sank faltering back into a chair Harper pushed towards him, still +denouncing her, however, with lifted hand and accusing eyes, the +image—though no longer a speaking one—of the implacable and determined +avenger.</p> + +<p>Georgian, shocked into silence, stared at him in a frenzy of complicated +emotions to which neither of them as yet had given the key capable of +relieving the maddening tension.</p> + +<p>"It is the pool; the pool," she finally murmured. "Its waters have beaten +out your life." But he calmly shook his head.</p> + +<p>"It is not in water to do that," he murmured. "Give me a moment. I've a +question to ask. I think a drop of liquor—"</p> + +<p>Harper had flask in hand almost before the word had left the other's +mouth. The draft revived Hazen; he looked up at Georgian. "I believe you, +so do these men believe you. But you were not alone in this plot. Where +is Anitra? Where is the deaf and solitary one you dragged from the +streets of New York to bolster up your plot? Tell us and tell us quickly. +Where is Anitra?"</p> + +<p>"Anitra? Do you ask that?" cried Harper, roused to speak for the first +time by his boundless amazement and indignation. "You have described the +body in the pool—a description which fits either sister, and yet you +would make this woman tell us what you have seen with your own eyes."</p> + +<p>He might as well not have spoken. Neither he nor she seemed to hear him. +Certainly neither heeded.</p> + +<p>"Anitra?" she repeated softly and with a strange intonation. "I am +Anitra. I am both Georgian and Anitra. There have never been two of us +since I came into this house."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> + +<h3>FIFTEEN MINUTES</h3> + + +<p>"There have never been but one of us since I came into this house."</p> + +<p>Monstrous assertion! or so it seemed to Ransom as the whirl of his +thoughts settled and reason resumed its sway. Only one! But he had +himself seen two; so had Mrs. Deo and the maids; he could even relate the +differences between them on that first night. Yet had he ever seen them +together, or even the shadow of one at the same moment he saw the person +of the other? No, and with such an actress as she had shown herself to be +these last two days, such changes of appearance might be possible, though +why she should engage in such a deep, almost incredible plot was a +mystery to make the hair rise,—she, the tender, exquisite, the beloved +woman of his dreams.</p> + +<p>She saw the maddening nature of his confusion and, springing to him, fell +on her knees with the imploring cry:</p> + +<p>"Patience! Do not try to think—I will tell you. It can all be said in a +word. I was bound to this brother of mine, to do his bidding, to follow +his fortunes through life, and up to death, by promises and oaths to +which those uttered by me at the marriage altar were but toys and empty +air. Anitra, or the dream sister my misery took from the dead, was not +so bound, so I strove to secure our joy by the seeming death of Georgian +and a new life as her twin. You do not understand; you cannot. You have +no measure with which to gauge such men as my brother. But it will be +given you. There is no hope now. The weakness of a moment has undone us."</p> + +<p>Ransom must have heard her, after events proved that he did, but he gave +no token of it. The visions that were whirling through his mind still +held it engrossed. He saw her, not as she stood before him now, trembling +and appealing, but as she had looked to him in the hall that first night, +as she had looked to him down by the mill-stream, as she had looked when +she told her story as Anitra, and later when she had faced the landlady +as Georgian, and the confusion of it all left no room in his conscience +for any other impression. But Mr. Harper, though surprised as he had +never been before in all his professional career, lost himself in no such +abyss. With the freedom which long-delayed insight into the truth gives +to a man of his positive nature and training, he left speculation and all +endeavor to reconcile events with her declaration, and plunged at once to +the obvious question of the moment.</p> + +<p>Fixing his keen gaze on Hazen, he observed very quietly, but with an +underlying note of sarcasm:</p> + +<p>"If this lady is your sister, Georgian Ransom, and there is no Anitra +save the fast fading memory of the child commemorated in your family's +monument, then your statement as to the body you saw under the ledge was +false?"</p> + +<p>The answer came deliberately, unaffected both by the manner of the +accusation or by the accusation itself.</p> + +<p>"Perfectly so," said he, "I saw no body. Perhaps my description would +have been less vivid if I had. My intention you know. This woman had +deceived me to the point of making me believe that she was indeed Anitra, +the twin, and not my millionaire sister, and Georgian's fortune being +necessary to her heir, I wished to cut short the law's delay by an +apparent identification. I never doubted from the moment this woman faced +with such well-played ignorance the mark of great meaning we had placed +upon her door, that Georgian was in the river, as you all believed. Why +then not give her a positive resting-place, since this would smooth out +all difficulties and hasten the very end for which she had apparently +sacrificed herself."</p> + +<p>If there was any irony in his heart, his tongue did not show it. Indeed +his manner betrayed little. Immobility had again replaced all tokens of +anger, and immobility which only yielded now and then to a slight +contortion more expressive of physical pain than of mental agitation. +Yet in Georgian's eyes he had lost none of his formidable qualities, for +the dismay with which she followed his words grew as she listened, and +reached its height as he added in final explanation:</p> + +<p>"The bag I did draw out of the pool, but only because I had taken it down +there in my blouse front. Did you think a man could see that or anything +else indeed in that maddening swirl of water?"</p> + +<p>"But it was Mrs. Ransom's bag," came from Harper in ill-disguised +amazement. Even his sang-froid was leaving him before these evidences +of a plot so deep as to awaken awe. "Where did you get it? Not from Mrs. +Ransom herself? Her own surprise is warranty for that."</p> + +<p>"No, I got it from the river, another reason why I credited her drowning. +It was fished up from the sand, a little way from the Fall. My man found +it; I had sent him there in a vain hope that he might find evidence of +the tragedy which others had overlooked. He did, but he told no one but +me. You flung the thing too far," he remarked to Georgian. "You should +have dropped it nearer the bank. Only such a prodder as my man Ives would +ever have discovered it."</p> + +<p>Georgian shook her head, impatient at such banalities, in the face of the +important matters they had to discuss. "To the point," she cried, "tell +these men what will clear me of everything but a wild attempt at +freedom."</p> + +<p>"I have said what I had to say," returned her brother.</p> + +<p>Georgian's head fell. For a moment her courage seemed to fail her.</p> + +<p>Mr. Harper rose and locked the door.</p> + +<p>"We must have no intruders here," said he, pausing with a certain sense +of shock, as he noticed the faint smile, full of some sinister meaning, +which for an instant twisted Hazen's lips at these words.</p> + +<p>But the delay was but momentary. With an odd sense of haste he rushed at +once to the attack.</p> + +<p>Stepping in front of Hazen, he observed with force and unmistakable +resolution:</p> + +<p>"Your devotion to the legatee Auchincloss cannot possibly be explained by +any ordinary feeling of obligation. Your sister has mentioned a Cause. +Can he by any possibility be the treasurer of that Cause?"</p> + +<p>But Hazen was as impervious to direct attack as he had been to a covert +one.</p> + +<p>"Georgian will tell you," said he. "When a woman looks as she looks now, +and is so given over to her own personal longings that she forgets the +most serious oaths, the most binding promises, nothing can hold back her +speech. She will talk, and since this must be, let her talk now and in +my presence. But let it be briefly," he admonished her, "and with +discretion. An unnecessary word will weigh heavily in the end. You know +in what scales. You shall have just fifteen minutes."</p> + +<p>He looked about for a clock, but seeing none drew out his watch from his +vest pocket and laid it on the table. Then he settled himself again in +his chair, with a look and gesture of imperative command towards +Georgian.</p> + +<p>Struck with dismay, she hesitated and he had time to add: "I shall not +interrupt unless you pass the bounds where narrative ends and disclosure +begins." And Harper and Ransom, glancing up at this, wondered at his +rigidity and the almost marble-like quiet into which his restless eye and +frenzied movements had now subsided.</p> + +<p>Georgian seemed to wonder also, for she gave him a long and piercing look +before she spoke. But once she had begun her story, she forgot to look +anywhere but at the man whose forgiveness she sought and for the +restoration of whose sympathy she was unconsciously pleading.</p> + +<p>Her first words settled one point which up to this moment had disturbed +Ransom greatly.</p> + +<p>"You must forget Anitra's story. It was suggested by facts in my own +life, but it was not true of me or mine in any of its particulars. +Nor must you remember what the world knows, or what my relations say +about my life. The open facts tell little of my real history, which +from childhood to the day I believed my brother dead was indissolubly +bound up in his. Though our fathers were not the same and he has +old-world blood in his veins, while I am of full American stock, we loved +each other as dearly and shared each other's life as intimately as if the +bond between us had been one in blood as it was in taste and habit. This +was when we were both young. Later, a change came. Some old papers of his +father fell into his hands. A new vision of life,—sympathies quite +remote from those which had hitherto engrossed him, led him further and +further into strange ways and among strange companions. Ignorant of what +it all meant, but more alive than ever to his influence, I blindly +followed him, receiving his friends as my friends and subscribing to such +of their convictions as they thought wise to express before me. Another +year and he and I were living a life apart, owning no individual +existence but devoting brain, heart, all we had and all we were, to the +advancement and perpetuation of an idea. I have called this idea the +Cause. Let that name suffice. I can give you no other."</p> + +<p>Pausing, she waited for some look of comprehension from the man she +sought to enlighten. But he was yet too dazed to respond to her mute +appeal, and she was forced to continue without it. Indicating Hazen with +a gesture, she said, with her eyes still fixed on those of her husband:</p> + +<p>"You see him now as he came from under the harrow; but in those days—I +must speak of you as you were, Alfred—he was a man to draw all eyes and +win all hearts. Men loved him, women adored him. Little as he cared for +our sex, he had but to speak, for the coldest breast to heave, the most +indifferent eye to beam. I felt his power as strong as the rest, only +differently. No woman was more his slave than I, but it was a sister's +devotion I felt, a devotion capable of being supplanted by another. But I +did not know this. I thought him my whole world and let him engross me in +his plans and share his passions for subjects I did not even seek to +understand.</p> + +<p>"I was only seventeen, he twenty-five. It was for him to think, not me. +And he did think but to my eternal undoing. The Cause needed a woman's +help, a woman's enthusiasm. Without considering my motherless condition, +my helplessness, the immaturity of my mind, he drew me day by day into +the secret meshes of his great scheme, a scheme which, as I failed to +understand till it had absorbed me, meant the unequivocal devotion of my +whole life to the exclusion of every other hope or purpose. Favored, he +called it, favored to stand for liberty, the advancement of men, the +right of every human being to an untrammeled existence. And favored I +thought myself, till one awful day when my brother, coming suddenly into +my room, found me making plans for an innocent pleasure and told me such +things were no longer for me, that a great and immortal duty awaited me, +one that had come sooner than he expected, but which my youth, beauty, +and spirit eminently fitted me to carry on to triumph.</p> + +<p>"I was frightened. For the first time in my memory of him he looked like +his Italian father, the man we had all tried to forget. Once while +rummaging amongst my mother's treasures I had come across a miniature of +Signor Toritti. He was a handsome man but there was something terrible in +his eye; something to make the ordinary heart stand still. Alfred's +burned with the same meaning at this moment, and as I noted his manner, +which was elevated, almost godlike, I realized the difference in our +heredity and how natural to him were the sacrifices for which my mind and +temper were as naturally unprepared. With difficulty I asked him to +explain himself, and it was with terror that I listened when he did. +He may have been made to ask, but I was not made to hear such words. He +saw my inner rebellion and stopped in mid-harangue. He has never forgiven +me the disappointment of that moment. I have never forgiven him for +making me sign away my independence, my holdings, and my life to a Cause +I did not thoroughly understand."</p> + +<p>"Your life?" echoed Ransom, roused to involuntary expression by this +word.</p> + +<p>"Surely not your life," echoed the lawyer, with the slow credulity of the +matter-of-fact man.</p> + +<p>"I have said it," she murmured, her head falling on her breast. At which +token of weakness, Hazen stirred and took the words from her mouth.</p> + +<p>"The organization," said he, "is a secret one and its code is +self-sacrifice. To the band of noble men and women, of whose integrity +and far-reaching purpose you can judge little from the whinings of a +love-sick girl, life and all personal gratifications are as dust in the +balance against the preservation and advancement of universal happiness +and the great Cause. I thought my sister, young as she was, sufficiently +great-minded to comprehend this and sufficiently great-hearted to do the +society's bidding with joy at the sacrifice. But I found her lacking, +and—" He stopped and almost lost himself again, but roused and cried +with sudden fire, "Tell what I did, Georgian."</p> + +<p>"You took my duty on yourself," she conceded, but coldly. "That was +brotherly; that was noble, if you had not exacted a vow from me in +return, destined to lay waste my whole life. Released from this one great +duty, I was to hold myself ready to fulfil all others. At the lift of a +hand—a finger—I was to leave whatever held me and go after the one who +beckoned in the name of the Cause. No circumstances were to be +considered; no other human duty or affection. If it were to enter upon a +fuller and more adventurous life, well and good; if it were to encounter +death and the cessation of all earthly things, that was well too, and a +good to be embraced with ardor. Obedience was all, and obedience at a +mere signal! I took the oath and then—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, <i>then</i>—" emphasized Hazen in wavering but peremptory tones.</p> + +<p>"He told me what had led to all this misery. That as yet this compact was +between us two, and us two only. That he had considered my youth, and in +speaking of me to the Chief had held back my name even while promising +my assistance. That he should continue to consider it, by keeping my name +in reserve till he had returned from his mission, and if that mission +failed, or succeeded too well, and he did not return, I might regard +myself as freed from the Cause, unless my enlarging nature led me to +attach myself to it of my own free will. That said, he went, and for a +year I lived under the dread of his return and all the obligations that +return would entail. Then came tidings of his death, tidings for which he +may not have been responsible, but which he never contradicted, and I +thought myself free—free to enjoy life, and the fortune that had so +unexpectedly come to me; free to love and, alas! free to marry. And that +is why," she pursued, in all the anguish of a dreadful retrospect, "I +recoiled in such horror and hung, a dead weight on your arm, when on +turning from the altar where we had just pledged ourselves to mutual love +and mutual life, I saw among the faces before me the changed but still +recognizable one of my brother, and beheld him make the fatal sign which +meant, 'You are wanted. Come at once.'"</p> + +<p>"Wretch!" issued from the frenzied lips of the half-maddened bridegroom, +as his glance flashed on Hazen. "Had you no mercy? Have you no mercy now, +that you should torture her young, credulous soul with these fanciful +obligations; obligations which no human being has any right to impose +upon another, whatsoever the Cause, holy or unholy, he represents?"</p> + +<p>"Mercy? It is the weakness of the easy soul. There is no ease here," he +cried, touching his breast with no gentle hand.</p> + +<p>"Then you forget my money," suggested Georgian. "Can you expect mercy +from a man who sees a million just within his grasp? I know," she +acknowledged, as Hazen lifted that same ungentle hand in haughty protest, +"that it was not for himself. I do not think Alfred would disturb a fly +for his own comfort, but he would wreck a woman's hopes, a good man's +happiness for the Cause. He admitted as much to me, <i>and more</i>, in the +interview we held that afternoon at the St. Denis. I had to go to him at +once, and I had to employ subterfuge in order to do so," she went on in +rapid explanation, as she saw her husband's eye refill with doubt under a +remembrance of the shame and anguish of that unhappy afternoon. "I had +not the courage to leave you openly at the carriage door. Besides, I +hoped to work on Alfred's pity in our interview together, or, if not +that, to buy my release and return to you a free woman. But the wound +which had changed his face for me had changed and made hard his heart. He +had other purposes for me than quiet living with a man who could have no +real interest in the Cause. The money I inherited, the rare and growing +beauty which he declared me to have, were too valuable to the brethren +for me to hope for any existence in which their interests were not +paramount. I might return to you, subject to the same authoritative beck +and call which had put me in my present position, or I might leave you at +once and forever. No half measures were possible. Was I, a bride, loving +and beloved by my husband, to listen to either of these alternatives? I +rebelled, and then the thunderbolt fell.</p> + +<p>"I was no longer on probation, no longer subject to his will alone. I was +a fully affiliated member. That day my name had been sent to the Chief. +This meant obedience on my part or a vengeance I felt it impossible to +consider. While I lived I need never hope again for freedom without +penalty.</p> + +<p>"'While I lived'; the words rang in my ears. I did not need to weigh +them; I knew that they were words of truth. There is no power on earth +so inescapable as that exercised by a secret society, and this one has +a terrible safeguard. None but he who keeps the list knows the members. +You, Roger, might be one, and I never suspect it, unless you chose to +give me the sign. Knowing this, I realized that my life was not worth the +purchase if I sought to cross the will of my own brother. Nor yours, +either. It was the last thought which held me. While I dutifully +listened, my mind was working out the deception which was to release me, +and when I left him it was to take the first step in the complicated plot +by which I hoped to recover my lost happiness. And I nearly succeeded. +You have seen what I have borne, what difficulties I have faced, what +discoveries eluded, but this last, this greatest ordeal, was too much. I +could not listen unmoved to a description of my own drowned body. I, who +had calculated on all, had not calculated on this. The horror overcame +me—I forgot—perhaps because God was weary of my many deceptions!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> + +<h3>"THERE IS ONE WAY"</h3> + + +<p>"Have you done?"</p> + +<p>Hazen was on his feet and, rigid still, but oscillating from side to +side, as though his strength did not suffice to hold him quite erect, was +surveying them with eyes sunk so deeply in his head that they looked like +dying sparks reanimated for an instant by some passing breath.</p> + +<p>The half-fainting woman he addressed did not answer. She was looking up +at Ransom for the sympathy and pardon he was as yet too dazed to show.</p> + +<p>Hazen made a move. It was that of physical suffering sternly endured.</p> + +<p>"Let me speak," he urged. "I have a question to ask. I must ask it now. +Who was the woman who came up from New York with you? There were two of +you then."</p> + +<p>Without turning her head Georgian replied:</p> + +<p>"That was Bela, my maid; the same one who personated me on the afternoon +of my wedding."</p> + +<p>"That accounts for the coarseness of her neck," Hazen explained with a +certain grim humor to the lawyer, who had given a slight start of +surprise or humiliation. Then quietly to Georgian:</p> + +<p>"Was it she who threw the comb and dropped your bag where my man found +it?"</p> + +<p>"I threw the comb; threw it from my window before I uttered that loud +shriek. It did not go very far; but I had to be satisfied with the fact +that it lay in the direction of the waterfall. But it was to Bela I +entrusted the flinging of the bag. I gave it to her when she left the +coach. I had explained to her long before just what a place she would +find herself in when she was set down at the foot of the lane; how she +was to make her way in the darkness till she came to where there were +no more trees, when she was to strike across to the stream, led by the +noise of the waterfall. I was very particular in my directions, because I +knew the danger she incurred of slipping into the chasm. It was her fear +of this and the more than ordinary darkness, I presume, which made her +throw the bag hap-hazard. I simply wanted it dropped on the bank above +the waterfall."</p> + +<p>"I saw the girl," Mr. Harper broke in. "She wore a black skirt like the +one you now wear, a black blouse and a red-checked handkerchief knotted +about her throat. But the young woman who was seen leaving these parts +the next morning had on some kind of a red dress and wore a hat. Bela had +thrown away her hat; it was picked up where the coach stopped and +afterwards brought here."</p> + +<p>"I know. My plans went deep; I foresaw the possibility of her being +recognized by her clothes. To guard against this, I had her skirt and +blouse made double, the one side black, the other a bright color. She had +simply to turn them. The extra hat she carried with her; it was small and +easily concealed. Her neckerchief she probably tucked away. I had its +mate in my pocket, and when I left my room by the window, as I did the +moment after I had locked the two rooms, it was with my hair pulled down +and this neckerchief about my shoulders. How did I dare the risk! I +wonder now; but it was life, life I was after; life and love; nothing +else would have made me so fearless; nothing else would have given me +such confidence in myself or lent such speed to my feet, running as I did +in the darkness."</p> + +<p>"You ran around the house to the lane, and entered it by the turn-stile."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and so quickly that I had time to splash myself with mud and lose +all my natural characteristics before any one came to find me. It was +Anitra they met, panting and disheveled, at the head of the lane; Anitra +in appearance, Anitra in heart. I did not act a part; I <i>was</i> Anitra; +Anitra as I had conceived her. To me she was and is an active, living +personality. Whenever I faced you in her character, I thought with her +half-educated mind; felt with her half-disciplined heart. I even shut my +ears to sounds; I would not hear; half the time I did not. Nor did I fall +back into my old ways when I was alone. From the minute Georgian closed +her door upon you for the last time, and I darkened my skin in +preparation for a permanent assumption of Anitra's individuality, I +became the imaginary twin, in thought, feeling, and action. It was my +only safeguard. Alas! had I only gone one step further and made myself +really deaf!"</p> + +<p>The cry was bitterness itself, but it passed unheeded. Mr. Ransom could +not speak and Hazen had other cares in mind.</p> + +<p>"Where is this woman Bela now?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Georgian was too absorbed or too unwilling, to answer.</p> + +<p>He repeated the question, this time with an authority she could not +resist. Rising slowly, she faced him for one impressive moment.</p> + +<p>"My God!" came from her lips in startled surprise. "How pale you are! Sit +down or you will fall."</p> + +<p>He shook his head impatiently.</p> + +<p>"It's nothing. Answer my question. Where is this Bela now?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. She is beyond my reach—and <i>yours</i>. I told her to lose +herself. I think she is clever enough to do so. The money I paid her was +worth a few years spent in obscurity."</p> + +<p>The spark lighting his eye brightened into baleful flame, but she met +it calmly. An indomitable spirit confronted one equally indomitable, and +his was the first to succumb. Turning from her, Hazen took out pencil +and paper from his pocket, and, crossing to the window with that same +peculiar and oscillating motion of which he seemed unconscious, or which +he found it impossible to subdue, he wrote a line, folded it, and before +even Harper was aware of his purpose threw up the sash and flung it out, +uttering a quick, sharp whistle as he did so.</p> + +<p>"What's that you're up to?" shouted the lawyer, rushing to the window and +peering over the other's shoulder into the open space below, from which a +man was just disappearing.</p> + +<p>"Am I a prisoner of the police that you should ask me that?" returned +Hazen, haughtily.</p> + +<p>"No, but you should be," retorted Harper. "I don't like your ways, Hazen. +I don't like what you and your sister have said about the Cause and the +conscienceless obedience exacted from its members. I don't like any of +it; least of all this passing over of poor Bela's name to one whose duty +it will possibly be to make trouble for her."</p> + +<p>Hazen smiled and moved from the window. No one there had ever seen such a +smile before, and the oppression which it brought heightened Georgian's +fear to terror.</p> + +<p>"Let be!" she cried, lifting her hands towards Harper in inconceivable +anxiety. "A quarrel with him will not help you and it may greatly injure +<i>me</i>. Alfred, what am I to expect? Something dreadful, I can see. Your +face is not the face of one who forgives, or who sees in a gift of money +an adequate recompense for a cowardly withdrawal."</p> + +<p>"You read rightly," said he. "Your fortune will be accepted by the Chief, +but he will never forget the cowardice. What faith can he put in one who +prefers her own happiness to the general good? You must prepare for +punishment."</p> + +<p>"Punishment!" broke scornfully from Harper's lips.</p> + +<p>She hushed him with a look before which even he stood aghast.</p> + +<p>"You will only waste words," she cried. "If he says punishment, I may +expect punishment." And turning back to Ransom, in a burst of longing and +passion, she raised her eyes to him again, saying, "You do not forgive +because you do not realize my danger. But you will realize it when I am +gone."</p> + +<p>Ransom, under a sudden releasement of the tension of doubt and awe which +had hitherto held him speechless, gave her one wild stare, then caught +her to his breast.</p> + +<p>She uttered a happy sigh.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" she murmured in the soft ecstasy and boundless relief of the +moment, "how I have learned to love you during the fears and agonies +of this awful week."</p> + +<p>"And I you," was the whispered answer. "Too deeply," he impetuously added +in louder tones, "to let any harm come to you now."</p> + +<p>She smiled; but desperation fought with love in that smile. Gently +releasing herself, she cast another glance at Hazen, upon whose gray +and distorted countenance there had settled a great gloom, and +passionately exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Had law or love been able to interfere with the judgment of our Chief, I +should not have been driven into the herculean task of deceiving you and +the whole world as to my real identity." Then with slowly drooping head, +and the manner of one who has heard his doom pronounced, she hoarsely +whispered; "The death-mark was scrawled upon my door last night. This is +never done without the consent of the Chief. No one can save me now, not +even my own brother."</p> + +<p>"False. I scrawled those lines," declared Ransom. "It was a test—"</p> + +<p>"Which <i>I</i> commanded you to make," put in Hazen. Then in fainter and less +strenuous tones, "She's right. Georgian Ransom is doomed; no one can save +her."</p> + +<p>"False again!" This time it was Harper who interposed. "I can and will. +You forget that I know the name of your Chief. Conspiracy such as you +hint at is indictable in this country. I am a lawyer. I shall protect, +not only your sister, but her money."</p> + +<p>The smile he received in return evinced no ordinary scorn.</p> + +<p>"Try it," said he. Then with a laugh so low as to be almost inaudible, +yet so full of meaning that even Harper's cheek lost color, he calmly +declared: "No one knows the name of our Chief. Auchincloss is a member +and a valuable one—the only one whose name Georgian positively knows; +but he's but a unit in a thousand. You cannot reach the Head or even the +Heart of this great organization through him, and if you did and punished +it, the Cause would grow another head and you would be as far from +injuring us as you are now. Georgian is right. Not even I can save her +now." Then, with a steady look into each of their faces, he smiled again +and one and all shuddered. "But the Cause will go on," he cried in tones +ringing with enthusiasm. "Mankind will drop its shackles and we, we shall +have unriveted one of its chains. It is worth dying for, I, Alfred Hazen, +say it."</p> + +<p>Slowly he sank back into his chair. The pallor which had astounded all +from the first had now become the ghastly mask of a soul whose only token +of life glimmered through the orbits of his fast glazing eyes. He +breathed, but in great pants. Georgian became alarmed.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" she cried, forgetting her own fears and threats in the +horror which his appearance excited. "This is something more than +exhaustion from the pounding of that murderous eddy. What have you done? +Tell me, Alfred, tell me."</p> + +<p>For the first time since his entrance into the room a suggestion of +sweetness crept into his tone.</p> + +<p>"Simply forestalled the verdict of the Chief," said he. "I was under oath +to leave the country to-day on no ordinary errand. I failed to keep my +word, believing that the interests of the Cause could be better served by +what I have here undertaken than by the fulfilment of my primal duty. But +we are not allowed the free exercise of our own judgment, else what man +could be depended on? With us, neglect means death, no matter what the +excuse or the Cause's benefit. I knew this when I made my choice last +night. I have been dying ever since, but only actually since I came into +this room. When the doctors decided that I had received no mortal hurt in +the eddy, I—"</p> + +<p>"Alfred!" The sister-heart spoke at last. "Not—not poison!"</p> + +<p>"That is what you may call it here," said he, with a return to his old +imperious manner, "but later and to the world it will be kindness on your +part to name it exhaustion—the effect of my battle with the water. The +doctors will reconsider their diagnosis and blame my poor heart. You will +have no trouble about it. It <i>is</i> my heart—I feel it failing—failing—"</p> + +<p>He was sinking, but suddenly his whole nature flared up. Bounding to his +feet, he stood before them, with eyes aflame and a passionate strength in +his attitude which held them spellbound.</p> + +<p>"What can law, what can selfish greed, what can self-aggrandizement and +the most pitiless ambition effect against men who own to such discipline +as this? Nothing. The world will go on, you will try your little ways, +your petty reforms, your slow-moving legislation and promise of justice +to the weak, but the invincible is the ready; ready to act; ready to +suffer, ready to die so that God is justified of his children and man +lifted into brotherhood and equality. You cannot strive against the +unseen and the fearless. The Cause will triumph though all else fails. +Georgian, I am sorry—" He was tottering now, but he held them back +with a stern gesture, "I don't think I ever knew just what love was. +There is one way—only one—"</p> + +<p>But from those lips the explanation of this one way never came. As they +saw the change in him and rushed to his support, his head fell forward on +his breast and all was over.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2> + +<h3>NOT YET</h3> + + +<p>They had laid him on the bed and Mr. Harper, in his usual practical way, +was hastening to rouse the house, when Georgian stepped before him and +laid her hand upon the door.</p> + +<p>"Not yet," said she with authority. "He said there was a way—let us find +it before we give up our secret and our possible safety. Mr. Harper, have +you guessed that way?"</p> + +<p>"No, except the usual one of protection through the law which he scouts. +I do not believe, Mrs. Ransom, in any other being necessary. Your +brother's threats answered a very good purpose while he was alive, but +now that he is dead they need not trouble you. I'm not even sure that I +believe in the organization. It was mostly in your brother's brain, Mrs. +Ransom; there's no such band, or if there is, its powers are not so +unlimited as he would make you believe."</p> + +<p>She simply pointed to the motionless form and the distorted face which +were slowly assuming an expression of great majesty.</p> + +<p>"There is my answer," said she. "Men of his strong attributes do not kill +themselves from fancy. He knew what he did."</p> + +<p>"And you think—"</p> + +<p>"That I will not live a week if I pass that door under the name of +Georgian Ransom. Mr. Harper, I am sure of it; Roger, I beg you to believe +what I say. It may not come here—but it will come. The mark has been set +against my name. Death only will obliterate this mark. But the name—that +is already a dead one—shall it not stay so?—It is the one way—the way +he meant."</p> + +<p>"Georgian!"</p> + +<p>It was a cry of infinite protest. Such a cry as one might expect from the +long-suffering Ransom. It drew her from the door; it brought her to his +side. As their eyes and hands met, Harper stepped back to the bedside, +and remembering the sensitiveness of the man before him, softly covered +his poor face. When he turned back, Mrs. Ransom was slowly shaking her +head under her husband's prolonged look and saying softly:</p> + +<p>"No, not Georgian, Anitra. Henceforth Anitra, always Anitra. Can you +endure the ordeal for the sake of the safety and peace of mind it will +bring?"</p> + +<p>"I endure it! Can you? Remember the deafness that marks Anitra."</p> + +<p>"That can be cured." Her smile turned almost arch. "We will travel; there +are great physicians abroad."</p> + +<p>"A sister—not a wife?"</p> + +<p>"Your wife in time—Ah, it will mean a new courtship and—Anitra is a +different woman from Georgian—she has suffered—you will love her +better."</p> + +<p>"O God! Harper, are we living, awake, sane? Help me at this crisis. I do +not know where I am or what this is she really asks."</p> + +<p>"She asks the impossible. She asks what you can, perhaps, give, but not +what I can. You forget that this deception calls for connivance on my +part, and whatever you may think of me or my profession, deception is +foreign to my nature and very repugnant to me."</p> + +<p>"And you refuse?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Ransom, I must."</p> + +<p>The hope which had held her up, the life which had returned to body and +spirit since this prospect of a possible future had dawned upon her, +faded from glance and smile.</p> + +<p>"Then good-by, Roger, we shall never have those happy days together of +which we have often dreamt. I may stay with you a week, a month, a year, +but the horror of a great fear will be over us, and never, never can we +know joy."</p> + +<p>She threw herself into her husband's arms; she clung to him.</p> + +<p>"One moment," she cried, "one moment of perfect happiness before the +shadow falls. Oh, how I must love you, Roger, to say such words, to think +such thoughts, with the body of the brother I loved so deeply once, lying +there dead before us, killed by his own hand."</p> + +<p>Ransom softly drew her aside where her eyes could not fall upon the bed.</p> + +<p>Harper stopped still where he was, the picture of gloom and uncertainty.</p> + +<p>"It must be settled now," said Ransom. "As we leave this room, our +relations must remain."</p> + +<p>"I cannot but think your fears all folly," muttered Harper. "Yet the +responsibility you force upon me is terrible. If it were not for that +will! How can I present it to the Surrogate when I know the testator is +still alive?"</p> + +<p>"You need not. I will do that," said Ransom.</p> + +<p>"And the property! Given to a man we none of us know. Property that is +not legally his."</p> + +<p>"I will make it so," cried Georgian with a burst of new and +uncontrollable hope as she saw, as she thought, this conscientious lawyer +yielding. "There is paper here; draw up a deed of gift. I will sign it +and you shall hold it so that whether I live or die, Auchincloss' title +to his money shall be absolute. Thus much I wish to do, that Alfred's +life should not have been sacrificed for nothing."</p> + +<p>"Let me think."</p> + +<p>Harper was wavering.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A half-hour later the door of Ransom's room was flung hurriedly open, and +loud cries for Mrs. Deo and the office clerk rang through the house. And +when they and others came running at the call, it was to find Mr. Ransom +and the lawyer hanging over the recumbent figure of the dead Hazen, and +the deaf girl Anitra pointing at the group, with wild and inarticulate +cries.</p> + + +<p>THE END</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2><a name="Works_by_Anna_Katharine_Green" id="Works_by_Anna_Katharine_Green"></a>Works by Anna Katharine Green</h2> + + + +<p>THE LEAVENWORTH CASE. A Lawyer's Story.</p> + +<p>"She has worked up a <i>cause célèbre</i> with a fertility of device and +ingenuity of treatment hardly second to Wilkie Collins or Edgar +Allan Poe."—<i>Christian Union</i>.</p> + + +<p>A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE</p> + +<p>"A most ingenious and absorbingly interesting story. The +readers are held spellbound until the last page."—<i>Cincinnati +Commercial</i>.</p> + + +<p>THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES. A Story of New York Life.</p> + +<p>"'The Sword of Damocles' is a book of great power, which far +surpasses either of its predecessors from her pen, and places her +high among American writers. The plot is complicated and is +managed adroitly.... In the delineation of characters she has +shown both delicacy and vigor."—<i>Congregationalist</i>.</p> + + +<p>BEHIND CLOSED DOORS</p> + +<p>" ... She has never succeeded better in baffling the reader."—<i>Boston +Christian Register</i>.</p> + + +<p>HARD AND RING</p> + +<p>"It is a tribute to the author's genius that she never tires and +never loses her readers.... It moves on clean and healthy.... +It is worked out powerfully and skilfully."—<i>N. Y. Independent</i>.</p> + + +<p>THE MILL MYSTERY</p> + + +<p>X. Y. Z. and 7 TO 12: DETECTIVE STORIES</p> + +<p>"Well written and extremely exciting and captivating.... She +is a perfect genius in the construction of a plot."—<i>N. Y. Commercial +Advertiser</i>.</p> + + +<p>THE OLD STONE HOUSE, AND OTHER STORIES</p> + +<p>"It is a bundle of quite cleverly constructed pieces of fiction, with +which an idle hour may be pleasantly passed."—<i>N. Y. Independent</i>.</p> + + +<p>CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY</p> + +<p>"'Cynthia Wakeham's Money' is a story notable even among the +many vigorous works of Anna Katharine Green."—<i>New York Sun</i>.</p> + + +<p>MARKED "PERSONAL."</p> + +<p>"The ingenious plot is built up with all the skill of the writer of +'The Leavenworth Case' to the very last chapter, which contains +the surprising solutions of several mysteries."</p> + + +<p>MISS HURD: AN ENIGMA</p> + +<p>"A strong and interesting novel in an entirely new field of romance."</p> + + +<p>THE DOCTOR, HIS WIFE, AND THE CLOCK</p> + +<p>"The story is entertainingly told...."—<i>Cincinnati Tribune</i>.</p> + + +<p>DR. IZARD</p> + +<p>"Those who have read her other books will not need to be urged +to read this; they will be eager to do so, and we assure them a very +interesting story."—<i>Boston Times</i>.</p> + + +<p>THAT AFFAIR NEXT DOOR</p> + +<p>"Startling in its ingenuity and its wonderful plot."—<i>Buffalo +Enquirer</i>.</p> + + +<p>LOST MAN'S LANE</p> + + +<p>AGATHA WEBB</p> + + +<p>ONE OF MY SONS</p> + + +<p>THE DEFENCE OF THE BRIDE, AND OTHER POEMS</p> + + +<p>RISIFI'S DAUGHTER</p> + + +<p>THE FILIGREE BALL</p> + + +<p>THE MILLIONAIRE BABY</p> + + +<p>THE AMETHYST BOX</p> + + +<p>THE HOUSE IN THE MIST</p> + + +<p>THE WOMAN IN THE ALCOVE</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHIEF LEGATEE***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 17999-h.txt or 17999-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/9/9/17999">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/9/9/17999</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Merrill + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Chief Legatee + + +Author: Anna Katharine Green + + + +Release Date: March 18, 2006 [eBook #17999] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHIEF LEGATEE*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 17999-h.htm or 17999-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/9/9/17999/17999-h/17999-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/9/9/17999/17999-h.zip) + + + + + +THE CHIEF LEGATEE + +by + +ANNA KATHARINE GREEN + +Author of +"The Leavenworth Case," "The Woman in the Alcove," Etc., Etc. + +Illustrated in Water-Colors by Frank T. Merrill + + + + + + + +Copyright, 1906, by Anna Katharine Green Rohlfs +Weinstock, Lubin & Co. +Special Edition, +400 to 418 K. Street, Sacramento, Cal. +New York and London +The Authors and Newspapers Association +1906 +Copyright, 1906, by +Anna Katharine Green Rohlfs +Entered at Stationers' Hall. +All rights reserved. +Composition, Electrotyping, +Printing and Binding by +The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.S.A. + + + + +[Illustration: A young girl sitting on a low stool by the window mending +a rent in her skirt.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PART I.--A WOMAN OF MYSTERY + +CHAPTER + + I. A Bride of Five Hours + + II. The Lady in Number Three + + III. "He Knows the Word" + + IV. Mr. Ransom Waits + + V. In Corridor and in Room + + VI. The Lawyer + + VII. Rain + + VIII. Elimination + + IX. Hunter's Inn + + +PART II.--THE CALL OF THE WATERFALL + + X. Two Doors + + XI. Half-Past One in the Morning + + XII. "Georgian" + + XIII. Where the Mill Stream Runs Fiercest + + XIV. A Detective's Work + + XV. Anitra + + XVI. "Love" + + XVII. "I Don't Hear" + + +PART III.--MONEY + + XVIII. God's Forest, Then Man's + + XIX. In Mrs. Deo's Room + + XX. Between the Elderberry Bushes + + XXI. On the Cars + + XXII. A Suspicious Test + + XXIII. A Startling Decision + + XXIV. The Devil's Cauldron + + +PART IV.--THE MAN OF MYSTERY + + XXV. Death Eddy + + XXVI. Hazen + + XXVII. She Speaks + +XXVIII. Fifteen Minutes + + XXIX. "There is One Way" + + XXX. Not Yet + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +A young girl sitting on a low stool by the window mending a rent in her +skirt (_Frontispiece_) + +"I cut them letters there fifteen years ago. Now I'm to cut 'em out" + +"A slight, dark form steals from the shadows and lays a hand on the +stooping man's shoulder" + +"Cormorants!" escaped his lips. "They look for a feast of death, but they +will be disappointed" + + + + +[Illustration: Facsimile Page of Manuscript from THE LEAVENWORTH CASE + +"Yes, sir," + +Might even have entered +his room late at night, +crossed it and stood at his +side, without disturbing him +sufficiently to cause him to +turn his head? + +"Yes," her hands pressing +themselves painfully together. + +"Miss Leavenworth, the key +to the library door is missing." + +She made no answer. + +"It has been testified to, +that previous to the actual +discovery of the murder, +you visited the door of the +library above. Will you tell +us if the key to the door +was there in the lock?" + +"It was not." + +Anna K. Green Rohlfs] + + + + +THE CHIEF LEGATEE + + + + +PART I + +A Woman of Mystery + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A BRIDE OF FIVE HOURS + + +"What's up?" + +This from the manager of the Hotel ---- to his chief clerk. "Something +wrong in Room 81?" + +"Yes, sir. I've just sent for a detective. You were not to be found and +the gentleman is desperate. But very anxious to have it all kept quiet; +very anxious. I think we can oblige him there, or, at least, we'll try. +Am I right, sir?" + +"Of course, if--" + +"Oh! it's nothing criminal. The lady's missing, that's all; the lady +whose name you see here." + +The register lay open between them; the clerk's finger, running along the +column, rested about half-way down. + +The manager bent over the page. + +"'Roger J. Ransom and wife,'" he read out in decided astonishment. "Why, +they are--" + +"You're right. Married to-day in Grace Church. A great wedding; the +papers are full of it. Well, she's the lady. They registered here a few +minutes before five o'clock and in ten minutes the bride was missing. +It's a queer story Mr. Ransom tells. You'd better hear it. Ah, there's +our man! Perhaps you'll go up with him." + +"You may bet your last dollar on that," muttered the manager. And joining +the new-comer, he made a significant gesture which was all that passed +between them till they stepped out on the second floor. + +"Wanted in Room 81?" the manager now asked. + +"Yes, by a man named Ransom." + +"Just so. That's the door. Knock--or, rather, I'll knock, for I must hear +his story as soon as you do. The reputation of the hotel--" + +"Yes, yes, but the gentleman's waiting. Ah! that's better." + +The manager had just knocked. + +An exclamation from within, a hurried step, and the door fell open. The +figure which met their eyes was startling. Distress, anxiety, and an +impatience almost verging on frenzy, distorted features naturally amiable +if not handsome. + +"My wife," fell in a gasp from his writhing lips. + +"We have come to help you find her," Mr. Gerridge calmly assured him. Mr. +Gerridge was the detective. "Relate the circumstances, sir. Tell us where +you were when you first missed her." + +Mr. Ransom's glance wandered past him to the door. It was partly open. +The manager, whose name was Loomis, hastily closed it. Mr. Ransom showed +relief and hurried into his story. It was to this effect: + +"I was married to-day in Grace Church. At the altar my bride--you +probably know her name, Miss Georgian Hazen--wore a natural look, and was +in all respects, so far as any one could see, a happy woman, satisfied +with her choice and pleased with the eclat and elegancies of the +occasion. Half-way down the aisle this all changed. I remember the +instant perfectly. Her hand was on my arm and I felt it suddenly stiffen. +I was not alarmed, but I gave her a quick look and saw that something had +happened. What, I could not at the moment determine. She didn't answer +when I spoke to her and seemed to be mainly concerned in getting out of +the church before her emotions overcame her. This she succeeded in doing +with my help; and, once in the vestibule, recovered herself so +completely, and met all my inquiries with such a gay shrug of the +shoulders, that I should have passed the matter over as a mere attack of +nerves, if I had not afterwards detected in her face, through all the +hurry and excitement of the ensuing reception, a strained expression not +at all natural to her. This was still more evident after the +congratulations of a certain guest, who, I am sure, whispered to her +before he passed on; and when the time came for her to go up-stairs she +was so pale and unlike herself that I became seriously alarmed and asked +if she felt well enough to start upon the journey we had meditated. +Instantly her manner changed. She turned upon me with a look I have been +trying ever since to explain to myself, and begged me not to take her out +of town to-night but to some quiet hotel where we might rest for a few +days before starting on our travels. She looked me squarely in the eye as +she made this request and, seeing in her nothing more than a feverish +anxiety lest I should make difficulties of some kind, I promised to do +what she asked and bade her run away and get herself ready to go and say +nothing to any one of our change of plan. She smiled and turned away +towards her own room, but presently came hurrying back to ask if I would +grant her one more favor. Would I be so good as not to speak to her or +expect her to speak to me till we got to the hotel; she was feeling very +nervous but was sure that a few minutes of complete rest would entirely +restore her; something had occurred (she acknowledged this) which she +wanted to think out; wouldn't I grant her this one opportunity of doing +so? It was a startling request, but she looked so lovely--pardon me, I +must explain my easy acquiescence--that I gave her the assurance she +wished and went about my own preparations, somewhat disconcerted but +still not at all prepared for what happened afterward. I had absolutely +no idea that she meant to leave me." + +Mr. Ransom paused, greatly affected; but upon the detective asking him +how and when Mrs. Ransom had deserted him, he controlled himself +sufficiently to say: + +"Here; immediately after that silent and unnatural ride. She entered the +office with me and was standing close at my side all the time I was +writing our names in the register; but later, when I turned to ask her to +enter the elevator with me, she was gone, and the boy who was standing by +with our two bags said that she had slipped into the reception-room +across the hall. But I didn't find her there or in any of the adjoining +rooms. Nor has anybody since succeeded in finding her. She has left the +building--left me, and--" + +"You want her back again?" + +This from the detective, but very dryly. + +"Yes. For she was not following her own inclinations in thus abandoning +me so soon after the words which made us one were spoken. Some influence +was brought to bear on her which she felt unable to resist. I have +confidence enough in her to believe that. The rest is mystery--a mystery +which I am forced to ask you to untangle. I have neither the necessary +calmness nor experience myself." + +"But you surely have done something," protested Gerridge. "Telephoned to +her late home or--" + +"Oh yes, I have done all that, but with no result. She has not returned +to her old home. Her uncle has just been here and he is as much mystified +by the whole occurrence as I am. He could tell me nothing, absolutely +nothing." + +"Indeed! and the man, the one who whispered to her during the reception, +couldn't you learn anything about him?" + +Mr. Ransom's face took on an expression almost ferocious. + +"No. He's a stranger to Mr. Fulton; yet Mr. Fulton's niece introduced him +to me as a relative." + +"A relative? When was that?" + +"At the reception. He was introduced as Mr. Hazen (my wife's maiden name, +you know), and when I saw how his presence disturbed her, I said to her, +'A cousin of yours?' and she answered with very evident embarrassment, 'A +relative';--which you must acknowledge didn't locate him very definitely. +Mr. Fulton doesn't know of any such relative. And I don't believe he is +a relative. He didn't sit with the rest of the family in the church." + +"Ah! you saw him in the church." + +"Yes. I noticed him for two reasons. First, because he occupied an end +seat and so came directly under my eye in our passage down the aisle. +Secondly, because his face of all those which confronted me when I looked +for the cause of her sudden agitation, was the only one not turned +towards her in curiosity or interest. His eyes were fixed and vacant; his +only. That made him conspicuous and when I saw him again I knew him." + +"Describe the man." + +Mr. Ransom's face lightened up with an expression of strong satisfaction. + +"I am going to astonish you," said he. "The fellow is so plain that +children must cry at him. He has suffered some injury and his mouth and +jaw have such a twist in them that the whole face is thrown out of shape. +So you see," continued the unhappy bridegroom, as his eyes flashed from +the detective's face to that of the manager's, "that the influence he +exerts over my wife is not that of love. No one could love _him_. The +secret's of another kind. What kind, what, what, what? Find out and I'll +pay you any amount you ask. She is too dear and of too sensitive a +temperament to be subject to a wretch of his appearance. I cannot bear +the thought. It stifles, it chokes me; and yet for three hours I've had +to endure it. Three hours! and with no prospect of release unless you--" + +"Oh, I'll do something," was Gerridge's bland reply. "But first I must +have a few more facts. A man such as you describe should be easy to find; +easier than the lady. Is he a tall man?" + +"Unusually so." + +"Dark or light?" + +"Dark." + +"Any beard?" + +"None. That's why the injury to his jaw shows so plainly." + +"I see. Is he what you would call a gentleman?" + +"Yes, I must acknowledge that. He shows the manners of good society, if +he did whisper words into my wife's ear which were not meant for mine." + +"And Mr. Fulton knows nothing of him?" + +"Nothing." + +"Well, we'll drop him for the present. You have a photograph of your +wife?" + +"Her picture was in all the papers to-night." + +"I noticed. But can we go by it? Does it resemble her?" + +"Only fairly. She is far prettier. My wife is something uncommon. No +picture ever does her justice." + +"She looks like a dark beauty. Is her hair black or brown?" + +"Black. So black it has purple shades in it." + +"And her eyes? Black too?" + +"No, gray. A deep gray, which look black owing to her long lashes." + +"Very good. Now about her dress. Describe it as minutely as you can. It +was a bride's traveling costume, I suppose." + +"Yes. That is, I presume so. I know that it was all right and suitable to +the occasion, but I don't remember much about it. I was thinking too much +of the woman in the gown to notice the gown itself." + +"Cannot you tell the color?" + +"It was a dark one. I'm sure it was a dark one, but colors are not much +in my line. I know she looked well--they can tell you about it at the +house. All that I distinctly remember is the veil she had wound so +tightly around her face and hat to keep the rice out of her hair that +I could not get one glimpse of her features. All nonsense that veil, +especially when I had promised not to address her or even to touch her +in the cab. And she wore it into the office. If it had not been for that +I might have foreseen her intention in time to prevent it." + +"Perhaps she knew that." + +"It looks as if she did." + +"Which means that she was meditating flight from the first." + +"From the time she saw that man," Mr. Ransom corrected. + +"Just so; from the time she left her uncle's house. Your wife is a woman +of means, I believe." + +"Yes, unfortunately." + +"Why unfortunately?" + +"It makes her independent and offers a lure to irresponsible wretches +like him." + +"Her fortune is large, then?" + +"Very large; larger than my own." + +Every one knew Mr. Ransom to be a millionaire. + +"Left her by her father?" + +"No, by some great-uncle, I believe, who made his fortune in the +Klondike." + +"And entirely under her own control?" + +"Entirely so." + +"Who is her man of business?" + +"Edward Harper, of--Wall Street." + +"He's your man. He'll know sooner or later where she is." + +"Yes, but later won't do. I must know to-night; or, if that is +impossible, to-morrow. Were it not for the mortification it would cause +her I should beg you to put on all your force and ransack the city for +this bride of five hours. But such publicity is too shocking. I should +like to give her a day to reconsider her treatment of me. She cannot mean +to leave me for good. She has too much self-respect; to say nothing of +her very positive and not to be questioned affection for myself." + +The detective looked thoughtful. The problem had its difficulties. + +"Are those hers?" he asked at last, pointing to the two trunks he saw +standing against the wall. + +"Yes. I had them brought up, in the hope that she had slipped away on +some foolish errand or other and would yet come back." + +"By their heft I judge them to be full; how about her hand-bag?" + +"She had only a small bag and an umbrella. They are both here." + +"How's that?" + +"The colored boy took them at the door. She went away with nothing in her +hands." + +Gerridge glanced at the bag Mr. Ransom had pointed out, fingered it, then +asked the young husband to open it. + +He did so. The usual articles and indispensable adjuncts of a nice +woman's toilet met their eyes. Also a pocketbook containing considerable +money and a case holding more than one valuable jewel. + +The eyes of the officer and manager met in ill disguised alarm. + +"She must have been under the most violent excitement to slip away +without these," suggested the former. "I'd better be at work. Give me two +hours," were his parting words to Mr. Ransom. "By that time I'll either +be back or telephone you. You had better stay here; she may return. +Though I don't think that likely," he muttered as he passed the manager. + +At the door he stopped. "You can't tell me the color of that veil?" + +"No." + +"Look about the room, sir. There's lots of colors in the furniture and +hangings. Don't you see one somewhere that reminds you of her veil or +even of her dress?" + +The miserable bridegroom looked up from the bag into which he was still +staring and, glancing slowly around him, finally pointed at a chair +upholstered in brown and impulsively said: + +"The veil was like that; I remember now. Brown, isn't it? a dark brown?" + +"Yes. And the dress?" + +"I can't tell you a thing about the dress. But her gloves--I remember +something about them. They were so tight they gaped open at the wrist. +Her hands looked quite disfigured. I wondered that so sensible a woman +should buy gloves at least two sizes too small for her. I think she was +ashamed of them herself, for she tried to hide them after she saw me +looking." + +"This was in the cab?" + +"Yes." + +"Where you didn't speak a word?" + +"Not a word." + +"Though she seemed so very much cut up?" + +"No, she didn't seem cut up; only tired." + +"How tired?" + +"She sat with her head pressed against the side of the cab." + +"And a little turned away?" + +"Yes." + +"As if she shrank from you?" + +"A little so." + +"Did she brighten when the carriage stopped?" + +"She started upright." + +"Did you help her out?" + +"No, I had promised not to touch her." + +"She jumped out after you?" + +"Yes." + +"And never spoke?" + +"Not a word." + +Gerridge opened the door, motioned for the manager to follow, and, once +in the hall, remarked to that gentleman: + +"I should like to see the boy who took her bag and was with them when she +slipped away." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE LADY IN NUMBER THREE + + +The boy was soon found and proved to be more observing in matters of +dress than Mr. Ransom. He described with apparent accuracy both the color +and cut of the garments worn by the lady who had flitted away so +mysteriously. The former was brown, all brown; and the latter was of the +tailor-made variety, very natty and becoming. "What you would call +'swell,'" was the comment, "if her walk hadn't spoiled the hang of it. +How she did walk! Her shoes must have hurt her most uncommon. I never did +see any one hobble so." + +"How's that? She hobbled, and her husband didn't notice it?" + +"Oh, he had hurried on ahead. She was behind him, and she walked like +this." + +The pantomime was highly expressive. + +"That's a point," muttered Gerridge. Then with a sharp look at the boy: +"Where were you that you didn't notice her when she slipped off?" + +"Oh, but I did, sir. I was waiting for the clerk to give me the +key, when I saw her step back from the gentleman's side and, looking +quickly round to see if any one was noticing her, slide off into the +reception-room. I thought she wanted a drink of water out of the pitcher +on the center-table, but if she did, she didn't come back after she had +got it. None of us ever saw her again." + +"Did you follow Mr. Ransom when he walked through those rooms?" + +"No, sir; I stayed in the hall." + +"Did the lady hobble when she slid thus mysteriously out of sight?" + +"A little. Not so much as when she came in. But she wasn't at her ease, +sir. Her shoes were certainly too small." + +"I think I will take a peep at those rooms now," Gerridge remarked to the +manager. + +Mr. Loomis bowed, and together they crossed the office to the +reception-room door. The diagram of this portion of the hotel will give +you an idea of these connecting rooms. + +[Illustration] + +There are three of them, as you will see, all reception-rooms. Mr. Ransom +had passed through them all in looking for his wife. In No. 1 he found +several ladies sitting and standing, all strangers. He encountered no one +in No. 2, and in No. 3 just one person, a lady in street costume +evidently waiting for some one. To this lady he had addressed himself, +asking if she had seen any one pass that way the moment before. Her reply +was a decided "No"; that she had been waiting in that same room for +several minutes and had seen no one. This staggered him. It was as if his +wife had dissolved into thin air. True, she might have eluded him by +slipping out into the hall by means of door two at the moment he entered +door one; and alert to this possibility, he hastened back into the hall +to look for her. But she was nowhere visible, nor had she been observed +leaving the building by the man stationed at entrance A. But there was +another exit, that of B. Had she gone out that way? Mr. Ransom had taken +pains to inquire and had been assured by the man in charge that no +lady had left by that door during the last ten minutes. This he had +insisted on, and when Mr. Loomis and the detective came in their turn +to question him on this point he insisted on it again. The mystery seemed +complete,--at least to the manager. But the detective was not quite +satisfied. He asked the man if at any time that day, before or after Mrs. +Ransom's disappearance, he had swung the door open for a lady who walked +lame. The answer was decisive. "Yes; one who walked as if her shoes were +tight." + +"When?" + +"Oh a little while after the gentleman asked his questions." + +"Was she dressed in brown?" + +That he didn't know. He didn't look at ladies' dresses unless they were +something special. + +"But she walked lame and she came from Room 3?" + +Yes. He remembered that much. + +Gerridge, with a nod to the manager, stepped into the open compartment of +the whirling door. "I'm off," said he. "Expect to hear from me in two +hours." + +At twenty minutes to ten Mr. Ransom was called up on the telephone. + +"One question, Mr. Ransom." + +"Hello, who are you?" + +"Gerridge." + +"All right, go ahead." + +"Did you see the face of the woman you spoke to in Room No. 3?" + +"Of course. She was looking directly at me." + +"You remember it? Could identify it if you saw it again?" + +"Yes; that is--" + +"That's all, good-by." + +The circuit was cut off. + +Another intolerable wait. Then there came a knock on the door and +Gerridge entered. He held a photograph in his hand which he had evidently +taken from his pocket on his way up. + +"Look at this," said he. "Do you recognize the face?" + +"The lady--" + +"Just so; the one who said she had seen no one come into No. 3 on the +first floor." + +Mr. Ransom's expression of surprised inquiry was sufficient answer. + +"Well, it's a pity you didn't look at her gloves instead of at her face. +You might have had some dim idea of having seen them before. It was she +who rode to the hotel with you; not your wife. The veil was wound around +her face for a far deeper purpose than to ward off rice." + +Mr. Ransom staggered back against the table before which he had been +standing. The blow was an overwhelming one. + +"Who is this woman?" he demanded. "She came from Mr. Fulton's house. More +than that, from my wife's room. What is her name and what did she mean by +such an outrage?" + +"Her name is Bella Burton, and she is your wife's confidential maid. As +for the meaning of this outrage, it will take more than two hours to +ferret out that. I can only give you the single fact I've mentioned." + +"And Mrs. Ransom?" + +"She left the house at the same moment you did; you and Miss Burton. Only +she went by the basement door." + +"She? _She?_" + +"Dressed in her maid's clothes. Oh, you'll have to hear worse things than +that before we're out of this muddle. If you won't mind a bit of advice +from a man of experience, I would suggest that you take things easy. It's +the only way." + +Shocked into silence by this cold-blooded philosophy, Mr. Ransom +controlled both his anger and his humiliation; but he could not control +his surprise. + +"What does it mean?" he murmured to himself. "_What does it all mean?_" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +"HE KNOWS THE WORD" + + +The next moment the doubt natural to the occasion asserted itself. + +"How do you know all this? You state the impossible. Explain yourself." + +Gerridge was only too willing to do so. + +"I have just come from Mr. Fulton's house," said he. "Inquiries there +elicited the facts which have so startled you. Neither Mr. Fulton nor his +wife meant to deceive you. They knew nothing, suspected nothing of what +took place, and you have no cause to blame them. It was all a plot +between the two women." + +"But how--why--" + +"You see, I had a fact to go upon. You had noticed that your so-called +bride's gloves did not fit her; the boy below, that her shoes were so +tight she hobbled. That set me thinking. A woman of Mrs. Ransom's +experience and judgment would not be apt to make a mistake in two such +important particulars; which, taken with the veil and the promise she +exacted from you not to address or touch her during your short ride to +the hotel, led me to point my inquiries so that I soon found out that +your wife had had the assistance of another woman in getting ready for +her journey and that this woman was her own maid who had been with her +for a long time, and had always given evidence of an especial attachment +for her. Asking about this girl's height and general appearance (for the +possibility of a substitution was already in my mind), I found that she +was of slight figure and good carriage, and that her age was not far +removed from that of her young mistress. This made the substitution I +have mentioned feasible, and when I was told that she was seen taking her +hat and bonnet into the bride's room, and, though not expected to leave +till the next morning, had slid away from the house by the basement door +at the same moment her mistress appeared on the front steps, my +suspicions became so confirmed that I asked how this girl looked, in the +hope that you would be able to recognize her, through the description, +as the woman you had seen sitting in Reception-room No. 3. But to my +surprise, Mrs. Fulton had what was better than any description, the +girl's picture. This has simplified matters very much. By it you have +been able to identify the woman who attempted to mislead you in the +reception-room, and I the person who rode here with you from Mr. Fulton's +house. Wasn't she dressed in brown? Didn't you notice a similarity in her +appearance to that of the very lady you were then seeking?" + +"I did not observe. Her face was all I saw. She was looking directly at +me as I stepped into the room." + +"I see. She had taken off her veil and trusted to your attention being +caught by her strange features,--as it was. But that dress was brown; +I'm sure of it. She was the very woman. Otherwise the mystery is +impenetrable. A deep plot, Mr. Ransom; one that should prove to you that +Mrs. Ransom's motive in leaving you was of a very serious character. Do +you wish that motive probed to the bottom? I cannot do it without +publicity. Are you willing to incur that publicity?" + +"I must." Mr. Ransom had risen in great excitement. "Nothing can hide the +fact that my bride left me on our wedding-day. It only remains now to +show that she did it under an influence which robbed her of her own will; +an influence from which she shrank even while succumbing to it. I can +show her no greater kindness, and I am not afraid of the result. I have +perfect confidence in her integrity"--he hesitated, then added with +strong conviction--"and in her love." + +The detective hid his surprise. He could not understand this confidence. +But then he knew nothing of the memories which lay back of it. Not to him +could this grievously humiliated and disappointed man reveal the secrets +of a courtship which had fixed his heart on this one woman, and aroused +in him such trust that even this uncalled-for outrage to his pride and +affection had not been able to shake it. Such secrets are sacred; but the +reflection of his trust was strong on his face as he repeated: + +"Perfect confidence, Mr. Gerridge. Whatever may have drawn Mrs. Ransom +from my side, it was not lack of affection, or any doubt of my sincerity +or undivided attachment to herself." + +The detective may not have been entirely convinced on the first point, +but he was discretion itself, and responded quite cheerfully with an +emphatic: + +"Very well. You still want me to find her. I will do my best, sir; but +first, cannot you help me with a suggestion or two?" + +"I?" + +"There must be some clew to so sudden a freak on the part of a young and +beautiful woman, who, I have taken pains to learn, has not only a clean +record but a reputation for good sense. The Fultons cannot supply it. +She has lived a seemingly open and happy life in their house, and the +mystery is as great to them as to you. But _you_, as her lover and now +her husband, must have been favored with confidences not given to others. +Cannot you recall one likely to put us on the right track? Some fact +prior to the events of to-day, I mean; some fact connected with her past +life; before she went to live with the Fultons?" + +"No. Yet let me think; let me think." Mr. Ransom dropped his face into +his hands and sat for a moment silent. When he looked up again, the +detective perceived that the affair was hopeless so far as he was +concerned. "No," he repeated, this time with unmistakable emphasis, +"she has always appeared buoyant and untrammeled. But then I have only +known her six months." + +"Tell me her history so far as you know it. What do you know of her life +previous to your meeting her?" + +"It was a very simple one. She had a country bringing up, having been +born in a small village in Connecticut. She was one of three children and +the only one who has survived; her sister, who was her twin, died when +she was a small child, and a brother some five years ago. Her fortune was +willed her, as I have already told you, by a great-uncle. It is entirely +in her own hands. Left an orphan early, she lived first with her brother; +then when he died, with one relative after another, till lastly she +settled down with the Fultons. I know of no secret in her life, no +entanglement, not even of any prior engagements. Yet that man with the +twisted jaw was not unknown to her, and if he is a relative, as she said, +you should have no difficulty in locating him." + +"I have a man on his track," Gerridge replied. "And one on the girl's +too; I mean, of course, Bela Burton's. They will report here up to twelve +o'clock to-night. It is now half-past eleven. We should hear from one or +the other soon." + +"And my wife?" + +"A description of the clothing she wore has gone out. We may hear from +it. But I doubt if we do to-night unless she has rejoined her maid or the +man with a scar. Somehow I think she will join the girl. But it's hard to +tell yet." + +Mr. Ransom could hardly control his impatience. "And I must sit helpless +here!" he exclaimed. "I who have so much at stake!" + +The detective evidently thought the occasion called for whatever comfort +it was in his power to bestow. + +"Yes," said he. "For it is here she will seek you if she takes a notion +to return. But woman is an uncertain quantity," he dryly added. + +At that moment the telephone bell rang. Mr. Ransom leaped to answer; +but the call was only an anxious one from the Fultons, who wanted to +know what news. He answered as best he could, and was recrossing +disconsolately to his chair when voices rose in the hall, and a man was +ushered in, whom Gerridge immediately introduced as Mr. Sims. + +A runner--and with news! Mr. Ransom, summoning up his courage, waited for +the inevitable question and reply. They came quickly enough. + +"What have you got? Have you found the man?" + +"Yes. And the lady's been to see him; that is, if the description of her +togs was correct." + +"He means Mrs. Ransom," explained Gerridge. Then, as he marked his +client's struggle for composure, he quietly asked, "A lady in a dark +green suit with yellowish furs and a blue veil over her hat?" + +"That's the ticket!" + +"The clothes worn by the woman who went out of the basement door, Mr. +Ransom." + +The latter turned sharply aside. The shame of the thing was becoming +intolerable. + +"And this woman wearing those yellow furs and the blue veil visited the +man of the broken jaw?" inquired Gerridge. + +"Yes, sir." + +"When?" + +"About six this afternoon." + +"And where?" + +"At the hotel St. Denis where I have since tracked him." + +"How long did she stay?" + +"About an hour." + +"In the parlor or--" + +"In the parlor. They had a great deal to say. More than one noticed them, +but no one heard anything. They talked very low but they meant business." + +"Where is this man now?" + +"At the same place. He has engaged a room there." + +"The man with the twisted jaw?" + +"Yes." + +"Under what name?" + +"Hugh Porter." + +"Ah, it was Hazen only five hours ago," muttered Ransom. "Porter, did you +say? I'll have a talk with this Porter at once." + +"I think not to-night," put in the detective, with the mingled authority +and deference natural to one of his kind. "To-morrow, perhaps, but +to-night it would only provoke scandal." + +This was certainly true, but Mr. Ransom was not an easy man to dominate. + +"I must see him before I sleep," he insisted. "A single word may solve +this mystery. He has the word. I'd be a fool to let the night go by--Ah! +what's that?" + +The telephone bell had rung again. A message from the office this time. A +note had just been handed in for Mr. Ransom; should they send it up? + +Gerridge was at the 'phone. + +"Instantly," he shouted down, "and be sure you hold the messenger. It may +be from your lady," he remarked to Mr. Ransom. "Stranger things than that +have happened." + +Mr. Ransom reeled to the door, opened it and stood waiting. The two +detectives exchanged glances. What might not that note contain! + +Mr. Ransom opened it in the hall. When he came back into the room, his +hand was shaking and his face looked drawn and pale. But he showed no +further disposition to go out. Instead, he sank into a chair, with a +motion of dismissal to the two detectives. + +"Question the boy who brought this," said he. "It is from Mrs. Ransom; +written, as you see, at the St. Denis. She bids me farewell for a time, +but does not favor me with any explanations. She cannot do differently, +she says, and asks me to trust her and wait. Not very encouraging to +sleep on; but it's something. She has not entirely forsaken me." + +Gerridge with a shrug turned sharply towards the door. "I take it that +you wouldn't object to knowing all the messenger can tell you?" + +"No, no. Question him. Find out whether she gave this to him with her own +hand." + +Gerridge obeyed this injunction, but was told in reply that the note had +been given him to deliver by a clerk in the hotel lobby. He could tell +nothing about the lady. + +This was unsatisfactory enough; but the man who had influenced her to +this step had been placed under surveillance. To-morrow they would +question him; the mystery was not without a promise of solution. So +Gerridge felt; but not Mr. Ransom; for at the end of the lines whose +purport he had just communicated to the detective were these few, +significant words: + +"Make no move to find me. If you love me well enough to wait in silence +for developments, happiness may yet be ours." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MR. RANSOM WAITS + + +Gerridge rose early, primed, as he said to himself, for business. But to +his great disappointment he found Mr. Ransom in a frame of mind which +precluded action. Indeed, that gentleman looked greatly changed. He not +only gave evidence of a sleepless night but showed none of the spirit of +the previous evening, and hesitated quite painfully when Gerridge asked +him if he did not intend to go ahead with the interview they had promised +themselves. + +"That's as it may be," was the hesitating reply. "I hardly think that I +shall visit the man you mean this morning. He interests me and I hope +that none of his movements will escape you. But I'm not ready to talk to +him. I prefer to wait a little; to give my wife a chance. I should feel +better, and have less to forget." + +"Just as you say," returned the detective stiffly. "He's under our thumb +at present, I can't tell when he may wriggle out." + +"Not while your eye's on him. And your eye won't leave him as long as you +have confidence in the reward I've promised you." + +"Perhaps not; but you take the life out of me. Last night you were too +hot; this morning you are too cold. But it's not for me to complain. You +know where to find me when you want me." And without more ado the +detective went out. + +Mr. Ransom remained alone and in no enviable frame of mind. He was +distrustful of himself, distrustful of the man who had made all this +trouble, and distrustful of her, though he would not acknowledge it. +Every baser instinct in him drove him to the meeting he declined. To see +the man--to force from him the truth, seemed the only rational thing to +do. But the final words of his wife's letter stood in his way. She had +advised patience. If patience would clear the situation and bring him the +result he so ardently desired, then he would be patient--that is, for a +day; he did not promise to wait longer. Yes, he would give her a day. +That was time enough for a man suffering on the rack of such an +intolerable suspense--one day. + +But even that day did not pass without breaks in his mood and more than +one walk in the direction of the St. Denis Hotel. If Gerridge's eye was +on him as well as on the special object of his surveillance, he must have +smiled, more than once, at the restless flittings of his client about the +forbidden spot. In the evening it was the same, but the next morning he +remained steadfastly at his hotel. He had laid out his future course in +these words: "I will extend the time to three days; then if I do not hear +from her I will get that wry-necked fellow by the throat and twist an +explanation from him." But the three days passed and he found the +situation unchanged. Then he set as his limit the end of the week, but +before the full time had elapsed he was advised by Gerridge that he +himself was being followed in his turn by a couple of private detectives; +and while still under the agitation of this discovery was further +disconcerted by having the following communication thrust into his hand +in the open street by a young woman who succeeded in losing herself in +the crowd before he had got so much as a good look at her. + +You can judge of his amazement as he read the few lines it contained. + + Read the papers to-night and forget the stranger at the St. Denis. + +That was all. But the writing was hers. The hours passed slowly till the +papers were cried in the street. What Mr. Ransom read in them increased +his astonishment, I might say his anxiety. It was a paragraph about his +wife, an almost incredible one, running thus: + + A strange explanation is given of the disappearance of Mrs. Roger + Ransom on her wedding-day. As our readers will remember, she + accompanied her husband to the hotel, but managed to slip away and + leave the house while he still stood at the desk. This act, for which + nothing in her previous conduct has in any way prepared her friends, is + now said to have been due to the shock of hearing, some time during her + wedding-day, that a sister whom she had supposed dead was really alive + and in circumstances of almost degrading poverty. As this sister had + been her own twin the effect upon her mind was very serious. To find + and rescue this sister she left her newly made husband in the + surreptitious manner already recorded in the papers. That she is not + fully herself is shown by her continued secrecy as to her whereabouts. + All that she has been willing to admit to the two persons she has so + far taken into her confidence--her husband and the agent who conducts + her affairs--is that she has found her sister and cannot leave her. + Why, she does not state. The case is certainly a curious one and Mr. + Ransom has the sympathy of all his friends. + +Confused, and in a state of mind bordering on frenzy, Mr. Ransom returned +to the hotel and sought refuge in his own room. He put no confidence in +what he had just read; he regarded it as a newspaper story and a great +fake; but she had bid him read it, and this fact in itself was very +disturbing. For how could she have known about it if she had not been +its author, and if she was its author, what purpose had she expected it +to serve? + +He was still debating this question when he reached his own room. On the +floor, a little way from the sill, lay a letter. It had been thrust under +the door during his absence. Lifting it in some trepidation, he cast a +glance at its inscription and sank staggering into the nearest chair, +asking himself if he had the courage to open and read it. For the +handwriting, like that of the note handed him in the street, was +Georgian's, and he felt himself in a maze concerning her which made +everything in her connection seem dreamlike and unreal. It was not long, +however, before he had mastered its contents. They were strange enough, +as this transcription of them will show. + + You have seen what has happened to me, but you cannot understand how I + feel. _She looks exactly like me._ It is that which makes the world + eddy about me. I cannot get used to it. It is like seeing my own + reflected image step from the mirror and walk about doing things. Two + of us, Roger, two! If you saw her you would call her Georgian. And she + says that she knows _you_, admires _you_! _and she says it in my + voice_! I try to shut my ears, but I hear her saying it even when her + lips do not move. She is as ignorant as she is afflicted and I cannot + leave her. She cannot hear a sound, though she can talk well enough + about what is going on in her own mind, and she is so wayward and + uncertain of temper, owing to her ignorance and her difficulty in + understanding me, that I don't know what she would do if once let out + of my sight. I love you--I love you--but I must stay right here. + + Your affectionate and most unhappy + + Georgian. + +The sheet with its tear-stained lines fell from his grasp. Then he caught +it up again and looked carefully at the signature. It was his wife's +without doubt. Then he studied the rest of the writing and compared it +with that of the note which had been thrust into his hands earlier in the +day. There was no difference between them except that there were +evidences of faltering in the latter, not noticeable in the earlier +communication. As he noted these tokens of weakness or suffering, he +caught up the telephone receiver in good earnest and called out +Gerridge's number. When the detective answered, he shouted back: + +"Have you read the evening papers? If you haven't, do so at once; then +come directly to me. It's business now and no mistake; and our first +visit shall be on the fellow at the St. Denis." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +IN CORRIDOR AND IN ROOM + + +Three quarters of an hour later Mr. Ransom and Gerridge stood in close +conference before the last mentioned hotel. The former was peremptory in +what he had to say. + +"I haven't a particle of confidence in this newspaper story," he +declared. "I haven't much confidence in her letter. It is this man who is +working us. He has a hold on her and has given her this cock and bull +story to tell. A sister! A twin sister come to light after fifteen years +of supposed burial! I find the circumstance entirely too romantic. Nor +does an explanation of this nature fit the conditions. She was happy +before she saw _him_ in the church. He isn't her twin sister. I tell you +the game is a deep one and she is the sufferer. Her letters betray more +than a disturbed mind; they betray a disturbed brain. That man is the +cause and I mean to wring his secret from him. You are sure of his being +still in the house?" + +"He was early this morning. He has lived a very quiet life these last few +days, the life of one waiting. He has not even had visitors, after that +one interview he held with your wife. I have kept careful watch on him. +Though a suspected character, he has done nothing suspicious while I've +had him under my eye." + +"That's all right and I thank you, Gerridge; but it doesn't shake my +opinion as to his being the moving power in this fraud. For fraud it +is and no mistake. Of that I am fully convinced. Shall we go up? I want +to surprise him in his own room where he cannot slip away or back out." + +"Leave that business to me; I'll manage it. If you want to see him in his +room, you shall." + +But this time the detective counted without his host. Mr. Porter was not +in his room but in one of the halls. They encountered him as they left +the elevator. He was standing reading a newspaper. The disfigured jaw +could not be mistaken. They stopped where they were and looked at him. + +He was intent, absorbed. As they watched, they saw his hands close +convulsively on the sheet he was holding, while his lips muttered +some words that made the detective look hard at his companion. + +"Did you hear?" he cautiously inquired, as Mr. Ransom stood hesitating, +not knowing whether to address the man or not. + +"No; what did he say? Do you suppose he is reading that paragraph?" + +"I haven't a doubt of it; and his words were, 'Here's a damned +lie!'--very much like your own, sir." + +Mr. Ransom drew the detective a few steps down the corridor. + +"He said that?" + +"Yes, I heard him distinctly." + +"Then my theory is all wrong. This man didn't provide her with this +imaginary twin sister." + +"Evidently not." + +"And is as surprised as we are." + +"And about as much put out. Look at him! Nothing yellow there! We shall +have to go easy with him." + +Mr. Ransom looked and felt a recoil of more than ordinary dislike for the +man. The latter had put the paper in his pocket and was coming their way. +His face, once possibly handsome, for his eyes and forehead were +conspicuously fine, showed a distortion quite apart from that given by +his physical disfigurement. He was not simply angry but in a mental and +moral rage, and it made him more than hideous; it made him appalling. Yet +he said nothing and moved along very quietly, making, to all appearance, +for his room. Would he notice them as he went by? It did not seem likely. +Instinctively they had stepped to one side, and Mr. Ransom's face was in +the shadow. To both it had seemed better not to accost him while he was +in this mood. They would see him later. + +But this was not to be. Some instinct made him turn, and Mr. Ransom, +recognizing his opportunity, stepped forward and addressed him by the +name under which he had introduced himself at the reception; that of his +wife's family, Hazen. + +The effect was startling. Instead of increasing his anger, as the +detective had naturally expected, it appeared to have the contrary +effect, for every vestige of passion immediately disappeared from his +face, leaving only its natural disfigurement to plead against him. +He approached them, and Ransom, at least, was conscious of a revulsion +of feeling in his favor, there was such restraint and yet such undoubted +power in his strange and peculiar personality. + +"You know me?" said he, darting a keen and comprehensive look from one to +the other. + +"We should like a few words with you," ventured Gerridge. "This gentleman +thinks you can give him very valuable information about a person he is +greatly interested in." + +"He is mistaken." The words came quick and decisive in a not unmelodious +voice. "I am a stranger in New York; a stranger in this country. I have +few, if any, acquaintances." + +"You have _one_." + +It was now Mr. Ransom's turn. + +"A man with no acquaintances does not attend weddings; certainly not +wedding receptions. I have seen you at one, my own. Do you not recognize +me, Mr. Hazen?" + +A twitch of surprise, not even Ransom could call it alarm, drew his mouth +still further towards his ear; but his manner hardly altered and it was +in the same affable tone that he replied: + +"You must pardon my short-sightedness. I did not recognize you, Mr. +Ransom." + +"Did not want to," muttered Gerridge, satisfied in his own mind that this +man was only deterred by his marked and unmistakable physiognomy from +denying the acquaintanceship just advanced. + +"Your congratulations did not produce the desired effect," continued Mr. +Ransom. "My happiness was short lived. Perhaps you knew its uncertain +tenure when you wished me joy. I remember that your tone lacked +sincerity." + +It was a direct attack. Whether a wise one or not remained to be seen. +Gerridge watched the unfolding drama with interest. + +"I have reason to think," proceeded Mr. Ransom, "that the unhappy +termination of that day's felicities were in a measure due to you. +You seem to know my bride very well; much too well for her happiness +or mine." + +"We will argue that question in my room," was the unmoved reply. "The +open hall is quite unsuited to a conversation of this nature. Now," said +he, turning upon them when they were in the privacy of his small but not +uncomfortable apartment, "you will be kind enough to repeat what you just +said. I wish to thoroughly understand you." + +"You have the right," returned Mr. Ransom, controlling himself under the +detective's eye. "I said that your presence at this wedding seemed to +disturb my wife, which fact, considering the after occurrences of the +day, strikes me as important enough for discussion. Are you willing to +discuss it affably and fairly?" + +"May I ask who your companion is?" inquired the other, with a slight +inclination towards Gerridge. + +"A friend; one who is in my confidence." + +"Then I will answer you without any further hesitation. My presence may +have disturbed your wife, it very likely did, but I was not to blame for +that. No man is to blame for the bad effects of an unfortunate accident." + +"Oh, I don't mean that," Mr. Ransom hastened to protest. "The cause of +her very evident agitation was not personal. It had a deeper root than +that. It led, or so I believe, to her flight from a love she cherished, +at a moment when our mutual life seemed about to begin." + +The impassive, I might almost say set features of this man of violent +passions but remarkable self-restraint failed to relax or give any +token of the feelings with which he listened to this attack. + +"Then the news given of your wife in the papers to-night is false," +was his quiet retort. "It professes to give a distinct, if somewhat +fantastic, reason for her flight. A reason totally different from the +one you suggest." + +"A reason you don't believe in?" + +"Certainly not. It is too bizarre." + +"I share your incredulity. That is why I seek the truth from you rather +than from the columns of a newspaper. And you owe me this truth. You have +broken up my life." + +"I? That's a strange accusation you make, Mr. Ransom." + +"Possibly. But it's one which strikes hard on your conscience, for all +that. This is evident enough even to a stranger like myself. I am +convinced that if you had not come into her life she would have been at +my side to-day. Now, who are you? She told me you were a relative." + +"She told you the truth; I am. Her nearest relative. The story in the +paper has a certain amount of truth in it. Her brother, not her sister, +has come back from the grave. I am that brother. She was once devoted to +me." + +"You are--" + +"Yes. Oh, there'll be no difficulty in my proving this relationship. +I have evidence upon evidence of the fact right in this room with me; +evidence much more convincing and far less disputable than this +surprising twin can bring forward if _her_ identity is questioned. +Georgian had a twin sister, but she was buried years ago. I was never +buried. I simply did not return from a well-known and dangerous voyage. +The struggle I had for life--you cannot want the details now--has left +its indelible impress in the scar which has turned me from a personable +man into what some people might call a monstrosity. And it is this scar +which has kept me so long from home and country. It has taken me four +years to make up my mind to face again my family and friends. And now +that I have, I find that it would have been better for us all if I had +stayed away. Georgian saw me and her mind wavered. In no other way can I +account for her wild behavior since that hour. That is all I have to say, +sir. I think I am almost as much an object of pity as yourself." + +And for a moment he appeared to be so, not only to Gerridge, but to Mr. +Ransom himself. Then something in the man--his unnatural coldness, the +purpose which made itself felt through all his self-restraint--reawakened +Mr. Ransom's distrust and led him to say: + +"Your complaint is natural. If you are Mrs. Ransom's brother, there +should be sympathy between us and not antagonism. But I feel only +antagonism. Why is this?" + +A shrug, followed by an odd smile. + +"You should be able to account for that on very reasonable grounds," said +he. "I do not expect much mercy from strangers. It is hard to make your +good intentions felt through such a distorted medium as my expression has +now become." + +"Mrs. Ransom has been here," Ransom suddenly launched forth. "Within two +hours of your encounter under Mr. Fulton's roof, she was talking with you +in this hotel. I have proof positive of that, sir." + +"I have no wish to deny the fact," was the steady answer. "She did come +here and we had a talk; it was necessary; I wanted money." + +The last phrase was uttered with such grim determination that the +exclamation which had risen to Mr. Ransom's lips died in a conflict +of feeling which forbade any rejoinder that savored of sarcasm. Hazen, +however, must have noted his first look, for he added with an air of +haughty apology: + +"I repeat that we were once very fond of each other." + +Ransom felt his perplexities growing with every moment he talked with +this man. He remembered the money which both he and Gerridge had seen in +her bag,--an amount too large for her to have retained very much on her +person,--and following the instinct of the moment, he remarked: + +"Mrs. Ransom is not the woman to hesitate when a person she loves makes +an appeal for money. She handed you immediately a large sum, I have no +doubt." + +"She wrote me out a check," was the simple but cold answer. + +Mr. Ransom felt the failure of his attempt and stole a glance at +Gerridge. + +The doubtful smile he received was not very encouraging. The same thought +had evidently struck both. The money in the bag was a blind--she had +carried her check-book with her and so could draw on her account for +whatever she wished. But under what name? Her maiden one or his? Ransom +determined to find out. + +"I do not begrudge you the money," said he, "but Mrs. Ransom's signature +had changed a few hours previous to her making out this check. Did she +remember this?" + +"She signed her married name promising to notify the bank at once." + +"And you cashed the check?" + +"No, sir; I am not in such immediate need of money as that. I have it +still, but I shall endeavor to cash it to-morrow. Some question may come +up as to her sanity, and I do not choose to lose the only money she has +ever been in a position to give me." + +"Mr. Hazen, you harp on the irresponsible condition of her mind. Did you +see any tokens of this in the interview you had together?" + +"No; she seemed sane enough then; a little shocked and troubled, but +quite sane." + +"You knew that she had stolen away from me--that she had resorted to a +most unworthy subterfuge in order to hold this conversation with you?" + +"No; I had asked her to come, and on that very afternoon if possible, but +I never knew what means she took for doing so; I didn't ask and she +didn't say." + +"But she talked of her marriage? She must have said something about an +event which is usually considered the greatest in a woman's life." + +"Yes, she spoke of it." + +"And of me?" + +"Yes, she spoke of you." + +"And in what terms? I cannot refrain from asking you, Mr. Hazen, I am +in such ignorance as to her real attitude towards me; her conduct is so +mysterious; the reasons she gives for it so puerile." + +"She said nothing against you or her marriage. She mentioned both, but +not in a manner that would add to your or my knowledge of her intentions. +My sister disappointed me, sir. She was much less open than I wished. All +that I could make out of her manner and conversation was the overpowering +shock she felt at seeing me again and seeing me so changed. She didn't +even tell me when and where we might meet again. When she left, she was +as much lost to me as she was to you, and I am no less interested in +finding her than you are yourself. I had no idea she did not mean to +return to you when she went away from this hotel." + +Mr. Ransom sprang upright in an agitation the other may have shared, but +of which he gave no token. + +"Do you mean to say," he asked, "that you cannot tell me where the woman +you call your sister is now?" + +"No more than you can give me the same necessary information in regard to +your wife. I am waiting like yourself to hear from her--and waiting with +as little hope." + +Had he seen Ransom's hand close convulsively over the pocket in which her +few strange words to him were lying, that a slight tinge of sarcasm gave +edge to the last four words? + +"But this is not like my wife," protested Ransom, hesitating to accuse +the other of falsehood, yet evidently doubting him from the bottom of his +heart. "Why deceive us both? She was never a disingenuous woman." + +"In childhood she had her incomprehensible moments," observed Hazen, with +an ambiguous lift of his shoulders; then, as Ransom made an impatient +move, added with steady composure: "I have candidly answered all your +questions whether agreeable or otherwise, and the fact that I am as much +shocked as yourself by these mad and totally incredible statements of +hers about a newly recovered sister should prove to you that she is not +following any lead of mine in this dissemination of a bare-faced +falsehood." + +There was truth in this which both Mr. Ransom and Gerridge felt obliged +to own. Yet they were not satisfied, even after Mr. Hazen, almost against +Mr. Ransom's will, had established his claims to the relationship he +professed, by various well-attested documents he had at hand. Instinct +could not be juggled with, nor could Ransom help feeling that the mystery +in which he found himself entangled had been deepened rather than +dispelled by the confidences of this new brother-in-law. + +"The maze is at its thickest," he remarked as he left a few minutes later +with the perplexed Gerridge. "How shall I settle this new question? By +what means and through whose aid can I gain an interview with my wife?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LAWYER + + +The answer was an unexpectedly sensible one. + +"Hunt up her man of business and see what he can do for you. She cannot +get along without money; nor could that statement of hers have got into +the papers without somebody's assistance. Since she did not get it from +the fellow we have just left, she must have had it from the only other +person she would dare confide in." + +Ransom answered by immediately hailing a down-town car. + +The interview which followed was certainly a remarkable one. At first Mr. +Harper would say nothing, declaring that his relations with Mrs. Ransom +were of a purely business and confidential nature. But by degrees, moved +by the persuasive influence of Mr. Ransom's candor and his indubitable +right to consideration, he allowed himself to admit that he had seen Mrs. +Ransom during the last three days and that he had every reason to believe +that there was a twin sister in the case and that all Mrs. Ransom's +eccentric conduct was attributable to this fact and the overpowering +sense of responsibility which it seemed to have brought to her--a result +which would not appear strange to those who knew the sensitiveness of her +nature and the delicate balance of her mind. + +Mr. Ransom recalled the tenor of her strange letter on this subject, but +was not convinced. He inquired of Mr. Harper if he had heard her say +anything about the equally astounding fact of a returned brother, and +when he found that this was mere jargon to Mr. Harper, he related what he +knew of Hazen and left the lawyer to draw his own inferences. + +The result was some show of embarrassment on the part of Mr. Harper. It +was evident that in her consultations with him she had entirely left out +all allusion to this brother. Either the man had advanced a false claim +or else she was in an irresponsible condition of mind which made her see +a sister where there was a brother. + +Ransom made some remark indicative of his appreciation of the dilemma in +which they found themselves, but was quickly silenced by the other's +emphatic assertion: + +"I have seen the girl; she was with Mrs. Ransom the day she came here. +She sat in the adjoining room while we talked over her case in this one." + +"You saw her--saw her face?" + +"No, not her face; she was too heavily veiled for that. Mrs. Ransom +explained why. They were too absurdly alike, she said. It awoke comment +and it gave her the creeps. But their figures were identical though their +dresses were different." + +"So! there _is_ some one then; the girl is not absolutely a myth." + +"Far from it. Nor is the will which Mrs. Ransom has asked me to draw up +for her a myth." + +"Her will! she has asked you to draw up her will!" + +"Yes. That was the object of her visit. She had entered the married +state, she said, and wished to make a legal disposition of her property +before she returned to you. She was very nervous when she said this; very +nervous through all the interview. There was nothing else for me to do +but comply." + +"And you have drawn up this will?" + +"According to her instructions, yes." + +"But she has not signed it?" + +"Not yet." + +"But she intends to?" + +"Certainly." + +"Then you will see her again?" + +"Naturally." + +"_Is the time set?_" + +The lawyer rose to his feet. He understood the hint implied and for an +instant appeared to waver. There was something very winsome about Roger +Ransom; some attribute or expression which appealed especially to men. + +"I wish I might help you out of your difficulty," said he. "But a +client's wishes are paramount. Mrs. Ransom desired secrecy. She had every +right to demand it of me." + +Mr. Ransom's face fell. Hope had flashed upon him only to disappear +again. The lawyer eyed him out of the corner of his eye, his mouth +working slightly as he walked to and fro between his desk and the door. + +"Mrs. Ransom will not always feel herself hampered by a sister, or, if +you prefer it, a brother who has so inconveniently come back from the +dead. You will have the pleasure of her society some day. There is no +doubt about her affection for you." + +"But that isn't it," exclaimed the now thoroughly discouraged husband. +"I am afraid for her reason, afraid for her life. There is something +decidedly wrong somewhere. Don't you see that I must have an immediate +interview with her if only to satisfy myself that she aggravates her own +danger? Why should she make a will in this underhanded way? Does she fear +opposition from me? I have a fortune equal to her own. It is something +else she dreads. What? I feel that I ought to know if only to protect her +against herself. I would even promise not to show myself or to speak." + +"I am sorry to have to say good afternoon, Mr. Ransom. Have you any +commands that I can execute for you?" + +"None but to give her my love. Tell her there is not a more unhappy man +in New York; you may add that I trust her affection." + +The lawyer bowed. Mr. Ransom and Gerridge withdrew. At the foot of the +stairs they were stopped by the shout of a small boy behind them. + +"Say, mister, did you drop something?" he called down, coming meanwhile +as rapidly after them as the steepness of the flight allowed. "Mr. Harper +says, he found this where you gentlemen were sitting." + +Mr. Ransom, somewhat startled, took the small paper offered him. It was +none of his property but he held to it just the same. In the middle of a +torn bit of paper he had read these words written in his own wife's hand: + + Hunter's Tavern, + Sitford, Connecticut. + At 9 o'clock April the 15th. + +"By Jove!" he exclaimed, "no one will ever hear me say again that lawyers +are devoid of heart?" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +RAIN + + +Mr. Ransom had never heard of Sitford, but upon inquiry learned that it +was a small manufacturing town some ten miles from the direct route of +travel, to which it was only connected by a stage-coach running once a +day, late in the afternoon. + +What a spot for a meeting of this kind! Why chosen by her? Why submitted +to by this busy New York lawyer? Was this another mystery; or had he +misinterpreted Mr. Harper's purpose in passing over to him the address of +this small town? He preferred to think the former. He could hardly +contemplate now the prospect of failing to see her again which must +follow any mistake as to this being the place agreed upon for the signing +of her will. + +Meantime he had said nothing to Gerridge. This was a hope too personal to +confide in a man of his position. He would go to Sitford and endeavor to +catch a glimpse of his wife there. If successful, the whole temper of his +mind might change towards the situation, if not toward her. He would at +least have the satisfaction of seeing her. The detective had enough to do +in New York. + +April the fifteenth fell on Tuesday. He was not minded to wait so long +but took the boat on Monday afternoon. This landed him some time before +daylight at the time-worn village from which the coach ran to Sitford. A +railway connected this village with New York, necessitating no worse +inconvenience than crossing the river on a squat, old-fashioned ferry +boat; but he calculated that both the lawyer and Mrs. Ransom would make +use of this, and felt the risk would be less for him if he chose the +slower and less convenient route. + +He had given his name on the boat as Roger Johnston, which was true so +far as it went, and he signed this same name at the hotel where he put +up till morning. The place was an entirely unknown one to him and he was +unknown to it. Both fortuitous facts, he thought, in the light of his own +perplexity as to the position in which he really stood towards this +mysterious wife of his. + +The coach, as I have said, ran late in the afternoon. This was to +accommodate the passengers who came by rail. But Mr. Ransom had not +planned to go by coach. That would be to risk a premature encounter with +his wife, or at least with the lawyer. He preferred to hire a team, and +be driven there by some indifferent livery-stable man. Neither prospect +was pleasing. It had been raining all night, and bade fair to rain all +day. The river was clouded with mist; the hills, which are the glory of +the place, were obliterated from the landscape, and the road--he had +never seen such a road, all little pools and mud. + +However, there was no help for it. The journey must be made, and seeing +a livery-stable sign across the road, lost no time in securing the +conveyance he needed. At nine o'clock he started out. + +The rain drove so fiercely from the northwest,--the very direction in +which they were traveling,--that enjoyment of the scenery was impossible. +Nor could any pleasure be got out of conversation with the man who drove +him. Rain, rain, that was all; and the splash of mud over the wheels +which turned all too slowly for his comfort. And there were to be ten +miles of this. Naturally he turned to his thoughts and they were all of +her. + +Why had he not known her better before linking his fate to hers? Why had +he never encouraged her to talk to him more about herself and her early +life? Had he but done so, he might now have some clew to the mystery +devouring him. He might know why so rich and independent a woman had +chosen this remote town on an inaccessible road, for the completion of +an act which was in itself a mystery. Why could not the will have been +signed in New York? But he was not inquisitive in those days. He had +taken her for what she seemed--an untrammeled, gay-hearted girl, ready +to love and be his happy wife and lifelong companion; and he had been +contented to keep all conversation along natural lines and do no probing. +And now,--this brother whom all had thought dead, come to life with +menace in his acts and conversation! Also a sister,--but this sister he +had no belief in. The coincidence was too startlingly out of nature for +him to accept a brother and a sister too. A brother or a sister; but not +both. Not even Mr. Harper's assurances should influence his credulity to +this extent. "Money! money is at the bottom of it all," was his final +decision. "She knows it and is making her will, as a possible protection. +But why come here?" + +Thus every reflection ended. + +Suddenly a vanished, half-forgotten memory came back. It brought a gleam +of light into the darkness which had hitherto enveloped the whole matter. +She had once spoken to him of her early life. She had mentioned a place +where she used to play as a child; had mentioned it lovingly, longingly. +There were hills, she had said; hills all around. And woods full of +chestnut-trees, safe woods where she could wander at will. And the +roads--how she loved to walk the roads. No automobiles then, not even +bicycles. One could go miles without meeting man or horse. Sometimes a +heavily-laden cart would go by drawn by a long string of oxen; but they +were picturesque and added to the charm. Oxen were necessary where there +was no railroad. + +As he repeated these words to himself, he looked up. Through the downpour +his eyes could catch a glimpse of the road before him, winding up a long +hillside. Down this road was approaching a dozen yoke of oxen dragging a +wagon piled with bales of some sort of merchandise. One question in his +mind was answered. This spot was not an unknown one to her. It was +connected with her childhood days. There was reason back of her choice +of it as a place of meeting between her and her lawyer, or if not reason, +association, and that of the tenderest kind. He felt himself relieved of +the extreme weight of his oppression and ventured upon asking a question +or two about Sitford, which he took pains to say he was visiting for the +first time. + +The information he obtained was but meager, but he did learn that there +was a very fair tavern there and that the manufactures of the place were +sufficient to account for a stranger's visit. The articles made were +mostly novelties. + +This knowledge he meant to turn to account, but changed his mind when +they finally splashed into town and stopped before the tavern which had +been so highly recommended by his driver. The house, dripping though it +was from every eave, had such a romantic air that he thought he could +venture to cite other reasons for his stay there than the prosaic one of +business. That is, if the landlady should give any evidence of being at +all in accord with her quaint home and picturesque surroundings. + +She showed herself and he at once gave her credit for being all he could +wish in the way of credulity and good-nature, and meeting her with the +smile which had done good execution in its day, he asked if she had a +room for a writer who was finishing a book, and who only asked for quiet +and regular meals before his own cosy fire. This to rouse her imagination +and make her amenable to his wishes for secrecy. + +She was a simple soul and fell easily into the trap. In half an hour Mr. +Ransom was ensconced in a pleasant room over the porch, a room which he +soon learned possessed many advantages. For it not only overlooked the +main entrance, but was so placed as to command a view of all the rooms on +his hall. In two of those rooms he bade fair to be greatly interested, +Mrs. Deo having remarked that they were being prepared for a lady who was +coming that night. As he had no doubt who this lady was, he encouraged +the good woman to talk, and presently had the satisfaction of hearing her +say that she was very happy over this lady's coming, as she was a Sitford +girl, one of the old family of Hazens, and though married now and very +rich was much loved by every one in town because she had never forgotten +Sitford or Sitford people. + +She was coming! He had made no mistake. And this was the place of her +birth, just as he had decided when he saw that long line of oxen! He +realized how fortunate he was, or rather how indebted he was to Mr. +Harper, since in this place only could he hope to gain satisfaction on +the mooted point raised by that same gentleman. If she had been born +here, so had her twin sister; so had the brother whose claims lay counter +to that sister's. Both must have been known to these people, their +persons, their history and the circumstances of their supposed deaths. +The clews thus afforded must prove invaluable to him. From them he must +soon be able to ascertain in which story to place faith and which +claimant to believe. He might have interrogated his hostess, but feared +to show his interest in the supposed stranger. He preferred to wait a few +hours and gather his facts from other lips. + +Meantime it rained. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ELIMINATION + + +At about three o'clock in the afternoon Mr. Ransom left his room. He had +been careful almost from his first arrival to sit with his door ajar. He +had, therefore, only to give it a slight push and walk out when he heard +the bustle of preparation going on in the two rooms in whose future +occupancy he was so vitally interested. A maid stood in the hall. A man +within was pushing about furniture. The landlady was giving orders. His +course down-stairs did not lead him so far as those rooms, so he called +out pleasantly: + +"I have written till my head aches, Mrs. Deo. I must venture out +notwithstanding the rain. In which direction shall I find the best +walking?" + +She came to him all eagerness and smiles. "It's all bad, such a day," +said she, "but it's muddiest down by the factories. You had better climb +the hill." + +"Where the cemetery is?" he asked. + +"Yes; do you object to cemeteries? Ours is thought to be very +interesting. We have stones there whose inscriptions are a hundred and +fifty years old. But it's a bad day to walk amongst graves. Perhaps you +had better go east. I'm sorry we should have such a storm on your first +day. Must you go out?" + +He forced a suffering look into his eyes, and insisting that nothing but +outdoor air would help him when he had a headache, hastened down-stairs +and so out. A blinding gust seized him as he faced the hill, but he drew +down his umbrella and hurried on. He had a purpose in following her +suggestion as to a walk in this direction. Dark as the grasses were, he +meant to search the cemetery for the graves of the Hazens and see what he +could learn from them. + +He met three persons on his way, all of whom turned to look at him. +This was in the village. On the hillside he met nobody. Wind and rain +and mud were all; desolation in the prospect and all but desolation in +his heart. At the brow he first caught sight of the broken stone wall +which separated the old burying place from the road. There lay his path. +Happily he could tread it unnoticed and unwatched. There was no one +within sight, high or low. + +He spent a half hour among the tombs before +he struck the name he was looking for. +Another ten minutes before he found those +of his wife's family. Then he had his reward. +On a low brown shaft he read the names of +father and mother, and beneath them the following +lines: + + Sacred to the memory of + Anitra + Died June 7, 1885 + Aged 6 years and one day. +_Of such is the Kingdom of heaven._ + +The twin! Georgian was mad. This record showed that her little sister lay +here. Anitra,--yes, that was the name of her other half. He remembered it +well. Georgian had mentioned it to him more than once. And this child, +this Anitra, had been buried here for fifteen years. + +Deeply indignant at his wife's duplicity, he took a look at the opposite +side of the shaft where still another surprise awaited him. Here was the +record of the brother; the brother he had so lately talked to and who had +seemingly proven his claim to the name he now read: + + Alfred Francesco + only son of + Georgian Toritti afterwards Georgian Hazen. + Lost at sea February, 1895. + Aged twenty-five years. + +An odd inscription opening up conjectures of the most curious and +interesting nature. But it was not this fact which struck him at the +time, it was the possibility underlying the simple statement, Lost +at sea. This, as the wry-necked man had said, admitted of a possible +resurrection. Here was no body. A mound showed where Anitra had been laid +away; a little mound surmounted by a headstone carved with her name. But +only these few words gave evidence of the young man's death, and +inscriptions of this nature are sometimes false. + +The conclusion was obvious. It was the brother and not the sister who had +reappeared. Georgian was not only playing him false but deceiving the +general public. In fact, knowingly or unknowingly, she was perpetrating +a great fraud. He was inclined to think unknowingly. He began to regard +with less incredulity Hazen's declaration that the shock of her brother's +return had unsettled her mind. + +Distressed, but no longer the prey of distracting doubt, he again +examined the inscription before him and this time noticed its +peculiarities. _Alfred Francesco, only son of Georgian Toritti afterwards +Georgian Hazen._ Afterwards! What was meant by that _afterwards_? That +the woman had been married twice, and that this Alfred Francesco was the +son of her first husband rather than of the one whose name he bore? It +looked that way. There was a suggestion of Italian parentage in the +Francesco which corresponded well with the decidedly Italian Toritti. + +Perplexed and not altogether satisfied with his discoveries, he turned to +leave the place when he found himself in the presence of a man carrying a +kit of tools and wearing on his face a harsh and discontented expression. +As this man was middle-aged and had no other protection from the rain +than a rubber cape for his shoulders, the cause of his discontent was +easy enough to imagine; though why he should come into this place with +tools was more than Mr. Ransom could understand. + +[Illustration: "I cut them letters there fifteen years ago. Now I'm to +cut 'em out."] + +"Hello, stranger." It was this man who spoke. "Interested in the Hazen +monument, eh? Well, I'll soon give you reason to be more interested yet. +Do you see this inscription--On June 7, 1885; Anitra, aged six, and the +rest of it? Well, I cut them letters there fifteen years ago. Now I'm to +cut 'em out. The orders has just come. The youngster didn't die it seems, +and I'm commanded to chip the fifteen-year-old lie out. What do you think +of that? A sweet job for a day like this. Mor'n likely it'll put me under +a stone myself. But folks won't listen to reason. It's been here fifteen +years and seventeen days and now it must come out, rain or shine, before +night-fall. 'Before the sun sets,' so the telegram ran. I'll be blessed +but I'll ask a handsome penny for this job." + +Mr. Ransom, controlling himself with difficulty, pointed to the little +mound. "But the child seems to have been buried here," he said. + +"Lord bless you, yes, a child was buried here, but we all knew years ago +that it mightn't be Hazen's. The schoolhouse burned and a dozen children +with it. One of the little bodies was given to Mr. Hazen for burial. He +believed it was his Anitra, but a good while after, a bit of the dress +she wore that day was found hanging to a bush where some gipsies had +been. There were lots of folks who remembered that them gipsies had +passed the schoolhouse a half hour before the fire, and they now say +found the little girl hiding behind the wood-pile, and carried her off. +No one ever knew; but her death was always thought doubtful by every one +but Mr. and Mrs. Hazen. They stuck to the old idee and believed her to be +buried under this mound where her name is." + +"But one of the children was buried here," persisted Ransom. "You must +have known the number of those lost and would surely be able to tell if +one were missing, as must have been the case if the gipsies had carried +off Anitra before the fire." + +"I don't know about that," objected the stone-cutter. "There was, in +those days, a little orphan girl, almost an idiot, who wandered about +this town, staying now in one house and now in another as folks took +compassion on her. She was never seen agin after that fire. If she was in +the schoolhouse that day, as she sometimes was, the number would be made +up. No one was left to tell us. It was an awful time, sir. The village +hasn't got over it yet." + +Mr. Ransom made some sympathetic rejoinder and withdrew towards the +gateway, but soon came strolling back. The man had arranged his tools and +was preparing to go to work. + +"It seems as if the family was pretty well represented here," remarked +Ransom. "Is it the girl herself,--Anitra, I believe you called her,--who +has ordered this record of her death removed?" + +"Oh, no, you don't know them Hazens. There's one of 'em who has quite a +story; the twin of this Anitra. She lived to grow up and have a lot of +money left her. If you lived in Sitford, or lived in New York, you'd know +all about her; for her name's been in the papers a lot this week. She's +the great lady who married and left her husband all in one day; and for +what reason do you think? We know, because she don't keep no secrets from +her old friends. _She's found this sister_, and it's her as has ordered +me to chip away this name. She wants it done to-day, because she's coming +here with this gal she's found. Folks say she ran across her in the +street and knew her at once. Can you guess how?" + +"From her name?" + +"Lord, no; from what I hear, she hadn't any name. _From her looks!_ She +saw her own self when she looked at her." + +"How interesting, how very interesting," stammered Mr. Ransom, feeling +his newly won convictions shaken again. "Quite remarkable the whole +story. And so is this inscription," he added, pointing to the words +_Georgian Toritti_, etc. "Did the woman have two husbands, and was the +Alfred Hazen, whose death at sea is commemorated here, the son of Toritti +or of Hazen?" + +"Of Toritti," grumbled the man, evidently displeased at the question. "A +black-browed devil who it won't do to talk about here. Mrs. Hazen was +only a slip of a gal when she married him, and as he didn't live but a +couple o' months folks have sort o' forgiven her and forgotten him. To us +Mrs. Hazen was always Mrs. Hazen; and Alf--well, he was just Alf Hazen +too; a lad with too much good in him to perish in them murderous waters a +thousand miles from home." + +So they still believed Hazen dead! No intimation of his return had as yet +reached Sitford. This was what Ransom wanted to know. But there was still +much to learn. Should he venture an additional question? No, that would +show more than a stranger's interest in a topic so purely local. Better +leave well enough alone and quit the spot before he committed himself. + +Uttering some commonplace observation about the fatality attending +certain families, he nodded a friendly good-by and made for the entrance. + +As he stepped below the brow of the hill he heard the first click of the +workman's hammer on the chisel with which he proposed to eliminate the +word _Anitra_ from the list of the Hazen dead. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +HUNTER'S INN + + +When Mr. Ransom re-entered the hotel, which he did under a swoop of wind +which turned his umbrella inside out and drenched him through in an +instant, it was to find the house in renewed turmoil, happily explained +by the landlady, whom he ran across on the stairs. + +"Oh, Mr. Johnston!" she cried as she edged by him with a pile of +bed-linen on her arm. "Please excuse all this fuss. Another guest is +coming--I have just got a telegram. A famous lawyer from New York. Our +house will be full to-night." + +"Where will you put him?" inquired Mr. Ransom with a good-natured air. +"There seem to be no unoccupied rooms on this hall." + +"More's the pity," she sighed, with a half-inquiring, half deprecatory +look at this fortunate first comer. "I shall have to put him below, poor +man. I'm afraid he won't like it, but--" Mr. Ransom remained silent. +"But," she went on with sudden cheerfulness, "I will make it up in the +supper. That shall be as good a one as our kitchen will provide. Four +city guests all in one day! That's a good many for this quiet hotel." + +"Four!" retorted Mr. Ransom as he turned towards his own door. "The +number has grown by two since I went out." + +"Oh, I didn't tell you. The lady--her name's Mrs. Ransom--brings her +sister with her. The little girl who--yes, I am coming." This latter to +some perplexed domestic down the hall, who had already called her twice. +"I mustn't stand talking here," she apologized as she hurried away. "But +do take care of yourself. You are dreadful wet. How I wish the weather +would clear up!" + +Mr. Ransom wished the same. To say nothing of his own inconvenience, +it was a source of anxiety to him that she should have to ride these +inevitable ten miles in such a chilling downpour. Besides, a storm of +this kind complicated matters; gave him less sense of freedom, shut him +in, as it were, with the mystery he was there to unravel, but which for +some reason, hardly explainable to himself, filled him with such a sense +of foreboding that he had moments in which he thought only of escape. But +his part must be played and he prepared himself to play it well. Having +changed his clothes and warmed himself with a draft of whisky, he sat +down at his table and was busy writing when the maid came in to ask if he +would wait for his supper till the coach came, or have it earlier and +served in his own room. + +With an air of petulance, he looked up, rapped on the table, and replied: + +"Here! here! I'm too busy to meet strangers. An early supper and an early +bed. That's the way I get through _my_ work." + +The girl stared and went softly out. Work!--that? Sitting at a table and +just putting words on paper. If it was beds he had to drag around now, or +a dozen hungry, clamoring men to feed all at once, and all with the best +cuts, or stairs to run up fifty times a day, or--but I need not fill out +her thought. It made her voluble in the kitchen and secured him the +privacy which his incognito demanded. + +His supper over, he waited feverishly for the coach, which ordinarily was +due at seven in the evening. To-night it bade fair to be late, owing to +the bad condition of the roads and the early darkness. The wind had gone +down, but it still rained. Not quite so tempestuously as when he roamed +the cemetery, but steadily enough to keep eaves and branches dripping. +The sound of this ceaseless drip was eerie enough to his strained senses, +waiting as he was for an event which might determine the happiness or the +misery of his life. He tried to forget it and wrote diligently, putting +down words whose meaning he did not stop to consider, so that he had +something to show to prying eyes if such should ever glance through his +papers. But the sound had got on his brain, and presently became so +insistent that he rose again and flung his window up to see if he were +deceived in thinking he heard a deep roar mingling with the incessant +patter, a roar which the wind had hitherto prevented him from separating +from the general turmoil, but which now was apparent enough to call for +some explanation. + +He had made no mistake; a steady sound of rushing water filled the +outside air. A fall was near, a fall by means of which, no doubt, the +factories were run. + +Why had he not thought of this? Why had its sound held a note of menace +for him, awakening feelings he did not understand and from which he +sought to escape? A factory fall swollen by the rain! What was there +in this to make his hand shake and cause the deepening night to seem +positively hateful to him? With a bang he closed the window; then he +softly threw it up again. Surely he had heard the noise of wheels +splashing through the pools of the highway. The coach was coming! and +with it--what? + +His room was in the gable end facing the road. From it he could look +directly down on the porch of entrance, a fact which he had thankfully +noted at his first look. As he heard the bustle which now broke out +below, and caught the gleam of a lantern coming round the corner of the +house, he softly stepped to his lamp and put it out, then took his stand +at the window. The coach was now very near; he could hear the straining +of the harness and the shouts of the driver. In another moment it drew +lumberingly up. A man from the hotel advanced with an umbrella; a young +lady was helped out who, standing one moment in the full glare of the +lights thrown upon her from the open door, showed him the face and form +he knew so well and loved--yes, loved for all her mystery, as he knew by +the wild beating of his heart, and the irresistible impulse he felt to +rush down and receive her in his arms, to her great terror doubtless, but +to his own boundless satisfaction and delight. But strong as the +temptation was, he did not yield to it. Something in her attitude, as she +stood there, talking earnestly to the driver, held him spellbound and +alert. All was not right; there was passion in her movements and in her +voice. What she said drew the heads of landlady and maid from the open +door and caused the man with the lantern to peer past her into the coach +and backward along the road. What had happened? Nothing that concerned +the lawyer. Mr. Ransom could see him disentangling himself from the +coverings in front where he had ridden with the driver, but the sister +was not there. No other lady got out of the coach even after his young +wife had finished her conversation with the driver and disappeared into +the house. + +"How can I stand this?" thought Mr. Ransom as the coach finally rattled +and swished away towards the stable. "I must hear, I must see, I must +_know_ what is going on down there." + +This because he heard voices in the open hall. Crossing to his own +doorway, he listened. His wife and Mr. Harper had stepped into the office +close by the front door. He could hear now and then a word of what they +said, but not all. Venturing a step further, he leaned over the +balustrade which extended almost up to his own door. This was better; he +could now catch most of the words and sometimes a sentence. They all +referred to the sister. "Temper--her own way--deaf--_would_ walk in all +the rain and slush.--A strange character--you can't imagine," and other +similar phrases, uttered in a passionate and half-angry voice. Then +ejaculations from Mrs. Deo, and a word or two of caution or injunction in +the polished tones of the lawyer, followed by a sudden rush towards the +staircase, over which he was leaning. + +"Show me my room," rang up in Georgian's bell-like tones; "then I'll tell +you what to do about _her_. She isn't easily managed." + +"But she'll get her death!" expostulated Mrs. Deo; "to say nothing of her +losing her way in this dreadful darkness. Let me send--" + +"Not yet," broke in his young wife's voice, with just the hint of +asperity in it. "She must trudge out her tantrum first. I think her idea +was to show that she remembered the old place and the lane where she used +to pick blackberries. You needn't worry about her getting cold. She's +lived a gipsy life too many years to mind wind and wet. But it's +different with _me_. I'm all in a shiver. Which is my room, please?" + +She was now at the head of the stairs. Mr. Ransom had closed his door, +but not latched it, and as she turned to go down the hall, followed by +the chattering landlady, he swung it open for an instant and so caught +one full glimpse of her beloved figure. She was dressed in a long +rain-coat and had some sort of modish hat on her head, which, in spite of +its simplicity, gave her a highly fashionable air. A woman to draw all +eyes, but such a mystery to her husband! Such a mystery to all who knew +her story, or rather her actions, for no one seemed to know her story. + +Events did not halt. He heard her give this and that order, open a door +and look in; say a word of commendation, ask if the key was on her side +of the partition, then shut the door again and open another. + +"Ah, this looks comfortable," she exclaimed in great satisfaction. "Is +that my bag? Put it down, please. I'll open it. Now, if you'll leave me a +moment alone, I'll soon be ready. But you mustn't expect me to eat till +Anitra comes. I couldn't do that. Oh, she's a dreadful trial, Mrs. Deo; +you have a motherly face, and I can tell you that the girl is just eating +up my life. If she weren't my very self, deafened by hard usage, and +rendered coarse and wilful by years of a miserable and half-starved life, +I couldn't bear it, especially after what I've sacrificed for her. I've +parted with my husband--but I can't talk, I can't. I would not have said +so much if you hadn't looked so kind." + +All this her husband heard, followed by a sob or two, quickly checked, +however, by a high strained laugh and the gay remark: + +"I'm wet enough, but she'll be dripping. I'm afraid she'll have to have +her supper in her room. She got out at the new schoolhouse and started +to come through the lane. It must be a weltering pool. If I'm dressed in +time I'll come down and meet her at the door. Meanwhile don't wait for +us; give Mr. Harper his supper." + +Her door closed, then suddenly opened again. "If she don't come in ten +minutes, let some one go to the head of the lane. But be sure it's a +careful person who won't startle her. I've got to put on another dress, +so don't bother me. I'll hear her when she enters her own room and will +speak to her then--if I dare; I'm not sure that I shall." And the door +shut to again, this time with a snap of the lock. Quiet reigned once more +in the hall save for Mrs. Deo's muttered exclamations as she made her +laborious way down-stairs. Had this good woman been less disturbed and +not in so much of a hurry, she might have noted that the door of her +literary guest's room was ajar, and stopped to ask why the lamp remained +unlit. + +For five minutes, for ten minutes, he watched and listened, passing +continually to and fro from door to window. But his vigilance remained +unrewarded by any further movement in the hall, or by the sight of an +approaching figure up the road. He began to feel odd, and was asking +himself what sort of fool-work this was, when a clatter of voices rose +below, followed by heavy steps on the veranda. One or two men were going +out, and as it seemed to him the landlady too, for he heard her say just +as the door closed: + +"Let me on ahead; she must see a woman's kind face first, poor child, or +we shall not succeed in getting her in. I know all about these wild +ones." + + + + +PART II + +The Call of the Waterfall + + + + +CHAPTER X + +TWO DOORS + + +The enthusiasm, the expectation in Mrs. Deo's voice were unmistakable. +This good woman believed in this rescued waif of turbulent caprices and +gipsy ways, and from this moment he began to believe in her too, and +consequently to share some of the excitement which had now become +prevalent all through the house. + +His suspense was destined to be short. While he was straining his eyes to +see what might be going on down the road, a small crowd of people came +round the corner of the house. In their midst walked a woman with a shawl +or cape over her head--a fierce and wilful figure which shook off the +hand kind Mrs. Deo laid on her arm, and shrank as the great front door +fell open, sending forth a flood of light which, to one less wedded to +wild ways and outdoor living, promised a hospitable cheer. + +"Georgian's form!" muttered Ransom involuntarily to himself. "And +Georgian's face!" he felt obliged to add, as the light fell broadly +across her. "But not Georgian's ways and not Georgian's nature," he +impetuously finished as she slipped out of sight. + +Then the mystery of _the brother_ came rushing over him and he yielded +himself again to the wonder of the situation till he was reawakened to +realities by the shuffling of feet on the stairway and the raised tones +of Mrs. Deo as she tried to make herself understood by her new and +somewhat difficult guest. A maid followed in their wake, and from some +as yet unexplored region below there rose the sound of clattering dishes. + +It was a trying moment for him. He longed for another glimpse of the +girl, but feared to betray his own curiosity to the two women who +accompanied her. Should he be forced to allow her to enter her room +unseen? Might he not better run some small risk of detection? He had +escaped discovery before; wasn't it possible for him to escape it again? +He finally compromised matters by first flinging his door wide open and +then retreating to the other end of the room where the shadows appeared +heavy enough to hide him. From this point he cast a look down the hall +which was in a direct line from his present standpoint, and was fortunate +enough to catch a glimpse of the girl with her face turned in his +direction. Her companions, on the contrary, were standing with their +backs to him, one beside the door she had just thrown open, the other +at his wife's door on which she had just given a significant rap. + +Such was the picture. + +The girl absorbed all his attention. The shawl--a gay one with colors in +it--had fallen from her head and was trailing, wet and bedraggled, over +an equally bedraggled skirt. Soused with wet, her hair disheveled, and +all her garments awry with the passion of her movements, she yet made his +heart stand still, as, with a sullen look at those about her, she rushed +into the room prepared for her use and slammed the door behind her with a +quick cry of mingled rage and relief. For with all these drawbacks of +manner and appearance she was the living picture of Georgian; so like +her, indeed, that he could well understand now the shock which his +darling received when, in the unconsciousness of possessing a living +sister, she had encountered in street or store, or wherever they had +first met, this living reproduction of herself. + +"No wonder she became confused as to her duty," he muttered. "I even feel +myself becoming confused as to mine." + +"Bring me up something to eat," he now heard this latest comer shout from +her doorway. "I don't want tea and I don't want soup; I want meat, meat. +And I shan't go down afterward, either. I'm going to stay right here. +I've seen enough of people I don't know. And of my sister too. She was +cross to me because I hated the coach and wanted to walk, and she shan't +come into my room till I tell her to. Don't forget; it's meat I want, +just meat and something sweet. Pudding's good." + +All shocking to Mr. Ransom's taste, but more so to his heart. For +notwithstanding the coarseness of the expressions, the voice was +Georgian's and laden with a hundred memories. + +He was still struggling with the agitation of this discovery when he +heard Mrs. Deo give another tap on his wife's door. This time it was +unlocked and pushed softly open, and through the crack thus made some +whispered orders were given. These seemed to satisfy Mrs. Deo, for she +called the maid to her and together they hurried down the hall to a rear +staircase, communicating with the kitchen. This was fortunate for him, +for if they had turned his way he would have had to issue from his room +and take open part in the excitement of the moment. + +A few minutes of quiet now supervened. During these he decided that if +he must keep up this watch--and nothing now could deter him from doing +so--he must take a position consistent with his assumed character. +Detection by Georgian was what he now feared. Whatever happened, she must +not get the smallest glimpse of him or be led by any indiscretion on his +part to suspect his presence under the same roof as herself. Yet he must +see all, hear all that was possible to him. For this a continuance of the +present conditions, an open door and no light, were positively requisite. +But how avert the comment which this unusual state of things must awaken +if noticed? But one expedient suggested itself. He would light a cigar +and sit in the window. If questioned he would say that he was engaged +in deciding how he would end the story he was writing; that such +contemplation called for darkness but above all for good air; that had +the weather been favorable he would have obtained the latter by opening +the window; but it being so bad he could only open the door. Certain +eccentricities are allowable in authors. + +This settled, he proceeded to take a chair and envelope himself in smoke. +With eyes fixed on the dimly-lighted vista of the hall before him, he +waited. What would happen next? Would his wife reappear? No; supper was +coming up. He could hear dishes rattling on the rear stairway, and in +another moment saw the maid coming down the hall with a large tray in her +hands. She stopped at Anitra's door, knocked, and was answered by the +harsh command: + +"Set it down. I'll get it for myself." + +The maid set it down. + +Next instant Mrs. Ransom's door opened. + +"Don't be too generous with me," he heard her call softly out. "I can't +eat. I'm too upset for much food. Tea," she whispered, "and some nice +toast. Tell Mrs. Deo that I want nothing else. She will understand." + +The maid nodded and disappeared down the hall just as a bare arm was +thrust out from Anitra's door and the tray drawn in. A few minutes later +the other tray came up and was carried into Mrs. Ransom's room. The +contrast in the way the two trays had been received struck him as showing +the difference between the two women, especially after he had been given +an opportunity, as he was later, of seeing the ferocious way in which the +food brought to Anitra had been disposed of. + +But I anticipate. The latter tray had not yet been pushed again into the +hall, and Mr. Ransom was still smoking his first cigar when he heard the +lawyer's voice in the office below asking to have pen and ink placed in +the small reception-room. This recalled him to the real purpose of his +wife's presence in the house, and also assured him that the opportunity +would soon be given him for another glimpse of her before the evening was +over. It was also likely to be a full-face one, as she would have to +advance several steps directly towards him before taking the turn leading +to the front staircase. + +He awaited the moment eagerly. The hour for signing the will had been set +at nine o'clock, but it was surely long past that time now. No, the clock +in the office is striking; it is just nine. Would she recognize the +summons? Assuredly; for with the last stroke she lifts the latch of her +door and comes out. + +She has exchanged her dark dress for a light one and has arranged her +hair in the manner he likes best. But he scarcely notes these changes in +the interest he feels in her intentions and the manner in which she +proceeds to carry out her purpose. + +She does not advance at once to the staircase, but creeps first to her +sister's door, where she stands listening for a minute or so in an +attitude of marked anxiety. Then, with a gesture expressive of repugnance +and alarm, she steps quickly forward and disappears down the staircase +without vouchsafing one glance in his direction. + +His vision of her as she looked in that short passage from room to +staircase was momentary only, but it left him shuddering. Never before +had he seen resolve burning to a white heat in the human countenance. +There was something abnormal in it, taken with his knowledge of her face +in its happier and more wholesome aspects. The innocent, affectionate +young girl, whose soul he had looked upon as a weeded garden, had become +in a moment to his eyes a suffering, determined, deeply concentrated +woman of unsuspected power and purpose. A suggestion of wildness in her +air added to the mysterious impression she made; an impression which +rendered this instant memorable to him and set his pulses beating to +a tune quite new to them. What was she going to do? Sign away all her +property? Beggar her heirs for--He could not say what. No; even such +a resolution could not account for her remarkable expression of +concentrated will. There was in her distracted mind something of more +tragic import than this; and he dared not question what; dared not even +approach this woman who, less than a week before, had linked herself to +him for life. The uneasy light in those fixed and gleaming eyes betrayed +a reason too lightly poised. He feared any additional shock for her. +Better that she should go down undisturbed to her adviser, who bore a +reputation which insured a judicious use of his power. What if she were +about to will away her fortune to the man she called brother? He himself +had no use for her wealth. Her health and happiness were all that +concerned him, and these possibly depended on her being allowed to go her +own way without interference. But oh, for eyes to see into the room into +which she had withdrawn with the lawyer! For eyes to see into her heart! +For eyes to see into the future! + +His suspense presently became so great that he could no longer control +himself. Throwing up the window, he thrust his head out into the rain and +felt refreshed by the icy drops falling on his face and neck. But the +roar of the waterfall rang too persistently in his ears and he hastily +closed the window again. There was something in the incessant boom of +that tumbling water which strangely disturbed him. He could better stand +suspense than that. If only the wind would bluster again. That, at least, +was intermittent in its fury and gave momentary relief to thoughts +strained to an unbearable tension. + +Afterwards, only a short time afterwards, he wondered that he had given +himself over to such extreme feeling at this especial moment. Her +appearance when she came quietly back, with Mrs. Deo chatting and smiling +behind her, was natural enough, and though she did not speak herself, the +tenor of the landlady's remarks was such as to show that they had been +conversing about old days when the two little girls used to ransack her +cupboards for their favorite cookies, and when their united pranks were +the talk of the town. + +As they passed down the hall, Mrs. Deo garrulously remarked: + +"You were never separated except on that dreadful day of the schoolhouse +burning. That day you were sick and--" + +"Please!" The word leaped from Georgian in terror, and she almost threw +her hand against the other's mouth. "I--I can't bear it." + +The good lady paused, gurgled an apology, and stooped for the tray which +disfigured the sightliness of the neatly kept hall. Then, nodding towards +a maid whom she had placed on watch at the extreme end of the hall, she +muttered some assurances as to this woman's faithfulness, and turned away +with a cordial good night. Georgian watched her go with a strange and +lingering intentness, or so it seemed to Ransom; then slowly entered her +room and locked the door. + +The incidents of the day, so far as she was concerned, appeared to be at +an end. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +HALF-PAST ONE IN THE MORNING + + +Nothing now held Mr. Ransom to his room. The two women in whose fate he +was so nearly concerned, his sister-in-law and his wife, had both retired +and there was no other eye he feared. Indeed, he courted an interview +with the lawyer, if only it could be naturally obtained; and he had +little reason to think it could not. So he went down-stairs. + +In a moment he seemed to have passed from the realm of dreams to that of +reality. Here was no mystery. Here was life as he knew it. Walking boldly +into the office, he ran his eye over the half-dozen men who sat there +and, picking out the lawyer from the rest, sauntered easily up to him and +sat down. + +"My name is Johnston," said he. "I'm from New York; like yourself, I +believe." + +The lawyer, with a twinkle in his light-blue eye, answered with a cordial +nod; and in two minutes a lively conversation had begun between them on +purely impersonal subjects suited to the intelligence of the crowd they +were in. This did not last, however. An opportunity soon came for them to +stroll off together, and presently Mr. Ransom found himself closeted with +this man who he had reason to believe was the sole holder of the key to +the secret which was devouring him. + +A bottle of wine was on the table between them, and some cigars. As Mr. +Ransom filled the two glasses, he spoke: + +"I have to thank you--" he began, but saw immediately that he had made a +wrong start. + +"For what, _Mr. Johnston_?" asked the other coldly. + +"For giving me this opportunity to speak alone with you," Ransom +explained with a nervous gesture. "An hour of unrestrained gossip is so +necessary to me after a day of hard work. Perhaps you don't know that I +am an author--have been one for seven whole hours. I find it exhausting. +You could give me great relief by talking a little on some foreign +subject, say on the one now engrossing every one in the house, the twin +ladies from New York. You were in the same coach with them. Did they +quarrel and did the most wilful of the two insist on getting out at the +foot of the hill and walking up through the lane?" + +"I doubt if I have anything to say to Mr. Johnston on this subject," was +the wary reply. + +"What if he added another name to the Johnston?" + +"It would make no appreciable difference. The driver is a loquacious +fellow, talk to him." + +Mr. Ransom felt his heart fail him. He surveyed closely the mouth which +had uttered this off-hand sentence and saw that it was set in a line +there was no mistaking. Little enlightenment was to be got from this man. +Yet he made one more effort. + +"Did my wife sign the will?" he asked. "All pretense aside, this is a +very important matter to me, Mr. Harper; not on account of the money +involved, but because the doing of this simple act seemed to require such +an effort on her part." + +"You are mistaken," was the quick reply, harshly accentuated. "She did +just what she wanted to do. She was not in the least coerced, unless it +was by circumstances." + +"Circumstances! But that is what I mean. They seem to have been too much +for her. I want to understand these circumstances." + +The lawyer honored him with his first direct look. + +"I don't understand them myself," said he. + +"You don't?" + +"No." + +Mr. Ransom set down the wineglass he had raised half-way to his lips. + +"You have simply followed her orders?" + +"You have said it. Your wife is a woman of much more character than you +think. She has amazed me." + +"She is amazing me. I am here; she is here; only a few boards separate +us. But iron bars could not be more effectual. I dare not approach her +door; dare not ask her to accept from me the natural protection of a +lover and husband. Instinct holds me back, or her will, which may not +be stronger than mine but is certainly more dominant." + +"Lawyers do not believe much in instinct as a usual thing, but I should +advise confidence in this one. A woman with a tremendous will like that +of Mrs. Ransom should be allowed a slack tether. The day will arrive when +she will come to you herself. This I have said before; I can say nothing +more to you to-night." + +"Then there is nothing in the will you have drawn up to show that she has +lost her affection for me?" + +The lawyer drained his glass. + +"I have not been given permission to declare its terms," said he, when +his glass was again upon the table. + +"In other words, I am to know nothing," exclaimed his exasperated +companion. + +"Not from me." + +And this ended the conversation. Ransom withdrew immediately up-stairs. + +At ten o'clock he retired. The last look he cast down the hall had shown +him the drowsy figure of the maid still sitting at her watch. It seemed +to insure a peaceful night. But he had little expectation of sleep. +Though the wind had quieted down and the rain fell with increasing +gentleness, the roar of the waterfall surged through all his thoughts, +which in themselves were turbulent. He did sleep, however, slept +peacefully till half-past one, when he and all in the house were startled +by a wild and piercing cry rising from one of the rooms. Terror was in +the sound and in an instant every door was open save the two which were +shut upon Georgian and her twin sister. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +"GEORGIAN!" + + +Mr. Ransom was the first one in the hall. He had not undressed himself, +expecting a totally sleepless night. It was his figure, then, that the +maid encountered as she came running from her post at the end of the +corridor. + +"Which room? which?" he gasped out, ignoring every precaution in his +blind terror. + +"This one. I am sure it came from this one," she declared, knocking +loudly on Anitra's door. + +There was a rustle within, a cry which was half a sob, then the sound of +a hand fumbling with the lock. Meanwhile, Mr. Ransom had bent his ear to +his wife's door. + +"All still in here," he cried. "Not a sound. Something dreadful has +happened--" + +Just then Anitra's door fell back and a wild image confronted him and +such others as had by this time collected in the passageway. With only a +shawl covering her nightdress, the gipsy-like creature stood clawing the +air and answering the looks that appealed to her, with wild gurgles, till +suddenly her hot glances fell on Roger Ransom, when she instantly became +rigid and stammered out: + +"She's gone! I saw her black figure go by my window. She called out that +the waterfall drew her. She went by the little balcony and the roof. The +roof was slippery with the rain and she fell. That's why I screamed. But +she got up again. What is she going to do at the waterfall? Stop her! +stop her! She hasn't steady feet like me, and I wasn't really angry. I +liked her; I liked her." + +Sobs choked the rest. Her terror was infectious. Mr. Ransom reeled, then +flung himself at Georgian's door. It resisted but the silence within told +him that she was not there. Neither was she in Anitra's room. They could +all look in and see it bare to the window. + +"You saw her climbing past there?" he cried, forgetting she was deaf. + +"Yes, yes," she chattered, catching his meaning from his pointing finger. +"There's a balcony. She must have jumped on it from her own window. She +didn't come in here. See! the door is locked on her side." + +This was true. + +"I woke and saw her. My eyes are like lynx's. I got out of bed to watch. +She fell--" + +The noise of a breaking lock snapped her words in two. One of the men +present had flung himself against this communicating door. Immediately +they all crowded into the adjoining room. It was empty and bitterly cold +and wet. An open window explained why, and possibly the letter lying on +the bureau inscribed with her husband's name would explain the rest. But +he stopped to read no letters now. + +"Show me the way to those falls," he cried, pocketing the letter as he +rushed by the disheveled Anitra into the open hall. "I'm her husband, +Roger Ransom. Who goes with me? He who does is my friend for life." + +The clerk and one or two others rushed for their coats and lanterns. He +waited for nothing. The roar of the waterfall had told him too many tales +that day. And the will! Her will just signed! + +"Georgian!" + +They could hear his cry. + +"Georgian! Georgian! Wait! wait! hear what I have to say!" thrilled back +through the mist as he stumbled on, followed by the men waving their +lanterns and shouting words of warning he probably never heard. Then his +cry further off and fainter. "Georgian! Georgian!" Then silence and the +slow drizzle of rain on the soggy walk and soaked roofs, with the far-off +boom of the waterfall which Mrs. Deo and the trembling maids gazing at +the wide-eyed Anitra shivering in the center of her deserted room, tried +to shut out by closing window and blind, forgetting that she was deaf and +only heard such echoes as were thundering in her own mind. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WHERE THE MILL STREAM RUNS FIERCEST + + +Two o'clock. + +Three o'clock. + +Two men were talking below their breaths in the otherwise empty office. +"That 'ere mill stream never gives up anything it has once caught," +muttered one into the ear of the other. "It's swift as fate and in +certain places deep as hell. Dutch Jan's body was five months at the +bottom of it, before it came up at Clark's pool." + +The man beside him shivered and his hand roamed nervously towards his +breast. + +"Did Jan, the Dutchman you speak of, fall in by accident, or did +he--throw himself over--from homesickness, or some such cause?" + +"Wa'al we don't say; on account of his old mother, you know, we don't +say. It was called accident." + +The other man rose and walked restlessly to the window. + +"Half the town is up," he muttered. "The lanterns go by like fire-flies. +Poor Ransom! It's a hopeless job, I fear." And again his hand wandered to +that breast pocket where the edge of a document could be seen. "I have +half a mind to go out myself; anything is better than sitting here." + +But he sat down just the same. Mr. Harper was no longer a young man. + +"The storm's bating," observed the one. + +"But not the cold. Throw on a stick; I'm freezing." + +The other man obeyed; then looking up, stared. A girl stood before them +in the doorway. Anitra, with cheeks ablaze and eyes burning, her +traveling dress flapping damp about her heels, and on her head the red +shawl she preferred to any hat. Behind her shoulder peered the anxious +face of Mrs. Deo. + +"I'm going out," cried the former in the loud and unmodulated voice of +the deaf. "He don't come back! he don't come back! I'm going to see why." + +The lawyer rose and bowed; then resolutely shook his head. He did not +know whether she had appealed to him or not. She had not looked at him, +had not looked at any one, but he felt that he must protest. + +"I beg you not to do so," he began. "I really beg you to remain here and +wait with me. You can do no good and the result may be dangerous." But he +knew he was talking to deaf ears even before the landlady murmured: + +"She doesn't hear a word. I've talked and talked to her. I've used every +sign and motion I could think of, but it's done no good. She would dress +and she will go out; you'll see." + +The next minute her prophecy came true; the wild thing, with a quick +whirl of her lithe body, was at the front door, and in another instant +had flashed through it and was gone. + +"It is my duty to follow her," said the lawyer. "Help me on with my coat; +I'll find some one to guide me." + +"Here is a lantern. Excuse me for not going with you," pleaded Mrs. Deo, +"but some one must watch the house." + +The New Yorker nodded, took the lantern offered him, and went stoically +out. + +He met a man on the walk in front. He was faced his way and was panting +heavily. + +"Hello," said he, "what news?" + +"They haven't found her; but there's no doubt she went over the fall. The +fellow who calls himself her husband has just been reading a letter they +say she left on her bureau for him. It was a good-by, I reckon, for you +can't tear him from the spot. He says he'll stay there till daylight. I +couldn't stand the sight of his misery myself. Besides, it's mortal cold; +I've just been running to get warm. Who was the girl who just went +scurrying by out of here? It's no place for wimmen down there. One lost +gal is enough." + +"That's what I think," muttered the lawyer, hurrying on. + +He was not a very imaginative man; some of his best friends thought him a +cold and prosaic one, but he never forgot that walk or the sensations +accompanying it. Dark as it still was, the way would have been impassable +for a stranger, had it not been for the guidance given by the noisy +passing to and fro of the awakened townspeople. Those coming from the +river approached in a direct line from one spot; those going to it +advanced in the same line and to the same spot. A ring of lanterns marked +it. It was near, very near where the heavy waters fell into a deep pool. +No one now spoke of Anitra; she had evidently been warned by her first +encounter to move with less precipitancy. + +As he approached the place of central interest, he moved more warily too. +The ground was very bad; he had never walked in such slush. Once and +again he tripped; once he came down upon his face. The boom of the waters +was now very near; he could see nothing but the flicker of the lanterns, +but he felt the near rush of the stream, and presently was at its very +edge. Startled by the nearness of his escape, for he had almost lost +his footing by his sudden halt, he started back, looked again at the +lanterns, took a turn and came upon the dozen or more men bending over +the edge of the stream where the waters ran most swiftly. But he did not +join them. Another sight attracted his eyes and presently himself. This +was the sight of Ransom crouched on the wet earth, staring down at a slip +of paper he held in his hands. A lantern set in the sand at his feet sent +its feeble rays over his face and possibly over the paper; but he was no +longer reading it, he was simply so lost in its sorrowful contents that +all power of movement had deserted him. + +Harper approached to his side, but he did not address him. Something +stirred in his own breast and kept him silent. But there was another +person near who was not so deterred. As Harper stood watching Ransom's +crouched, almost insensible figure, he perceived a slight dark form steal +from the shadows and lay a hand on the stooping man's shoulder, then as +he failed to move or give any token of feeling this touch, he heard +Anitra's voice say in accents almost musical: + +"You will get ill here; you are not used to the cold and the night air. +Come back to the house; Georgian would wish it." + +The name roused him and he looked up. Their eyes met and a strange +gleam--a shock, perhaps, of sympathetic feeling, flashed upon either +face. The lawyer saw and instinctively retreated from out the circle of +light cast by the lantern; but the men at the stream's edge heard +nothing. The flash of something white had caught their eyes and one man +was reaching for it. + +"Georgian," came in astonished repetition from the bereaved man's lips. + +"She would wish it," persisted the other with still deeper and more +urgent meaning. + +[Illustration: A slight, dark form stole from the shadows and laid a +hand on the stooping man's shoulder.] + +Then in a whisper so penetrating that even Mr. Harper caught its least +inflection through all the thunder of the waterfall, "She loved you." + +Ah! the enchantment, the feminine persuasiveness, the heart-moving +sincerity which breathed through that simple phrase! From lips so +untutored, it seemed marvelous. Ransom was not insensible to its power, +for he quivered under her hand and his eyes took on a look of wonder. But +he made no attempt to answer, even by a sign. He seemed content for that +one instant just to listen and to look. + +The man hanging over the stream drew back his arm. He had been deceived +by a bit of froth; some of it clung yet to his fingers. + +"Come," entreated the girl, her face emerging softly into the light, as +she stooped lower over the lantern. "Come!" she had taken him by the hand +and was drawing him gently upward. + +With a leap he was on his feet and had thrown her off. Some memory had +come to make her entreaty hateful. + +"No," he cried, "no! Here is my place and here will I stay. You are a +stranger to me! You drove her to this act, and you shall not cajole me +into forgetting it." + +He had spoken loudly; not so much because he remembered her affliction, +but because of the roar of the fall and his own overwhelming passion. The +result was that the lawyer caught every word; possibly the workers at the +water-edge did also; for some of them quickly turned their heads. But +she, though she stopped short in the spot where he had pushed her, gave +no evidence of hearing his words or even of resenting his manner. + +"Won't you come?" she falteringly pleaded, pointing towards the house +with its twinkling lights. "You are cold; you are shuddering; they will +do the searching who don't mind night or wet. Follow Anitra, Anitra who +is so sorry." + +"No!" he shouted. His tone, his look, were almost those of a madman. He +even put out his hands towards her in repulsion. He seemed to cast her +away. This gesture, if not his words, reached her understanding. The +lawyer saw her sway, fling back her young head with its disheveled locks +to the night, and fall moaning pitifully to the ground. Here she lay +still, with the wet grass all about her and the last lingering drops of +rain beating on her huddled form. + +Mr. Harper started to raise her, for Ransom stood petrified. But no +sooner had the lawyer made his presence known by this impetuous movement, +than Ransom woke from his trance and, darting down, lifted the girl in +his arms and began moving with her towards the house. As he passed the +lawyer he muttered between set teeth: + +"She's caused me all my misery. But she looks too much like Georgian for +me to see another man touch her. God will care for my poor darling's +body." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A DETECTIVE'S WORK + + +Morning. + +The living household was about its tasks for all the horror of the night +before, and the still unrelieved suspense as to the fate of one of its +members. + +The maid, who had sat on watch in the upper hall for so many hours the +evening before, was again at her post, but this time with her eye fixed +only on one door, the door behind which slept the exhausted Anitra. +Ransom's room was empty; he was in the sitting-room below, closeted with +the lawyer. + +Some one had been there before them. The tray of bottles and glasses had +been removed from the table, and in their place were to be seen a woman's +damaged hat and a small tortoise-shell comb. Mr. Harper's hand was on the +former, which was wound about with a wet veil. + +"I think I recognize this," said he. "At least I have a distinct +impression of having seen it before." + +"It was picked up with the veil still on it near the entrance of the +lane," explained Ransom. + +"Then there can be no doubt that it is the hat Miss Hazen wore during +her journey. She tossed it off the moment her foot touched the ground, +and taking the shawl from her neck pulled it over her head instead. You +remember that she had no hat on when they brought her in." + +"I remember. This is Miss Hazen's hat without any doubt." + +The lawyer eyed the speaker with curious interest. There was something in +his tone that he did not understand. + +"And this?" he ventured, laying a respectful finger on the comb. + +"Found in the open field between the house and the mill-stream." + +"Do you recognize it?" + +"No. Georgian wore such combs, but I cannot absolutely say that this is +hers." + +"I can. You see this little gold work at the top? Well, I have an eye for +such things and I noticed this comb in her hair last night. There were +two of them just alike." + +Instinctively the two men sat with their eyes fixed for a minute on this +comb, then, equally instinctively, they both looked up and gazed at each +other long and hard. It was the lawyer who first spoke. + +"I think that we should have no further secrets between us," said he. +"Here is Mrs. Ransom's will. There is a name mentioned in it which I do +not know. Perhaps you do." Here he laid the document on the table. + +Mr. Ransom eyed it but did not take it up. Instead, he drew a crumpled +paper from his own pocket and, handing it to the lawyer, said: "First, +I should like you to read the letter which she left behind for me. My +feelings as a husband would lead me to hold it as a sacred legacy from +all eyes but my own; but there is a mystery hidden in it, a mystery which +I must penetrate, and you are the only man who can assist me in doing +so." + +The lawyer, lowering his eyes to hide their own suspicious glint, opened +the paper, and carefully read these lines: + + "Forgive. My troubles are too much for me. I'm going to a place of + rest, the only place and the only rest possible to one in my position. + I don't blame anybody. Least of all do I blame Anitra. It was not her + fault that she was brought up rudely, or that she knows no restraint + in love or in hate. Be kind to her for my sake, and if any one else + claims her or offers to take her from you, resist them. I give her + entirely to you. It's a more priceless gift than you think; much more + priceless than the one which I take from you by my death. I could + never have been happy with you; you could never have been happy with + me. Fate stood between us; a darker and more inexorable fate than you, + in your kindly experience of life, could imagine. Else, why do I + plunge to my death with your ring on my finger and your love in my + heart? + + "Georgian." + +"Ravings?" questioned Ransom hoarsely, as Mr. Harper's eyes rose again to +his face. + +"It would seem so," assented the lawyer. "Yet there is intelligence in +all the lines. And the will--read the will. There is no lack of +intelligent purpose there; little as it accords with the feeling she +exhibits here for her sister. She leaves her nothing; and does not even +mention her name. Her personal belongings she bequeaths to you; but her +realty, which comprises the bulk of her property I believe, she divides, +somewhat unequally I own, between you and a man named Auchincloss. It +is he I want to ask you about. Have you ever heard her speak of him?" + +"Josiah Auchincloss of St. Louis, Missouri," read Mr. Ransom. "No, the +name is new to me. Didn't she tell you anything about him when she gave +you her instructions?" + +"Not a word. She said, 'You will hear from him if ever this will is +published. He has a right to the money and I entreat you to show your +respect for me by seeing that he gets it without any unnecessary +trouble.' That was all she said or would say. Your wife was a woman of +powerful character, Mr. Ransom. My little arts counted for nothing in any +difference of opinion between us." + +"Auchincloss!" repeated Ransom. "Another unknown quantity in the problem +of my poor girl's life. What a tangle! Do you wonder that I am overcome +by it? Anitra--the so-called brother--and now this Auchincloss!" + +"Right, Ransom, I share your confusion." + +"Do you?" The words came very slowly, penetratingly. "Haven't you some +idea--some strange, possibly half-formed notion or secret intuition which +might afford some clew to this labyrinth? I have been told that lawyers +have a knack of getting at the bottom of human conduct and affairs. You +have had a wide experience; does it not suggest some answer to this +problem which will harmonize all its discordant elements and make clear +its various complications?" + +Mr. Harper shook his head, but there was a restrained excitement in his +manner which was not altogether the reflection of that which dominated +Ransom, and the latter, observing it, leaned across the table till their +faces almost touched. + +"Do you guess my thought?" he whispered. "Look at me and tell me if you +guess my thought." + +The lawyer hesitated, eying well the trembling lip, the changing color, +the wide-open, deeply flushed eyes so near his own; then with a slow +smile of extraordinary subtlety, if not of comprehension, answered in +a barely audible murmur: + +"I think I do. I may be mad, but I think I do." + +The other sank back with a sigh charged with what the lawyer interpreted +as relief. Mr. Harper reseated himself, and for a moment neither looked +at the other, and neither spoke; it would almost seem as if neither +breathed. Then, as a bird, deceived by the silence, hopped to the window +sill and began its cheep, "cheep," Mr. Ransom broke the spell by saying +in low but studiously business-like tones: + +"Have you thought it worth while to study the ground under her window or +anywhere else for footprints? It might not be amiss; what do you think +about it?" + +"Let us go," readily acquiesced the lawyer, rising to his feet with an +honest show of alacrity; "after which I must telegraph to New York. I was +expected back to-day." + +"I know it; but your duties there will keep; these here cannot. Your hand +on the promise that you will respect my secret till--well, till I can +assure you that my intuitions are devoid of any real basis." + +The lawyer's palm met his; then they started to go out; but before they +had passed the door, Mr. Ransom came back, and lifting the comb from the +table he put it in his pocket. As he did this, his eye flashed sidewise +on the other. There were strange hints and presentiments in it which +brought the color to the usually imperturbable lawyer's cheek. + +In going out they passed the office-door. A dozen men were hanging about, +smoking and talking. Among them was a countryman who had just swallowed, +open-mouthed, the story of the past night's tragedy. He was now speaking +out his own mind concerning it, and this is what these two heard him say +as they went by: + +"Do you know what strikes me as mighty strange? That they should clear +that stone of the name of Anitra just in time to put Georgian's in its +place. I call that peculiar, I do." + +The lawyer and the husband exchanged a glance. + +"Mrs. Ransom had a deep mind," the lawyer remarked, as the door slammed +behind them. "She apparently thought of everything." + +Ransom, directing a look down the street towards the factories and the +roaring mill-stream, uttered a shuddering sigh. + +"They are still searching," said he. "But they will never find her. They +will never find her." + +The lawyer pulled him away. + +"That's because they search the water. We will search the land." + +"That's half water, too; but it cannot hide every clew. You have eyes for +the imperceptible; use them, Mr. Harper, use them." + +"I will; but this is a detective's work. Do not expect too much from me." + +"I expect nothing. I do not dare to. Let us tread very softly, that is +all, and be careful to talk low, if we have anything to say." + +By this time they had rounded the corner of the house and entered a +narrow walk, flagged with brick, which connected the space in front +with the rear offices and garden. This walk ran close to the walls which +were broken on this side by an ell projecting in the direction of the +mill-stream. It was from the roof of this ell that Anitra declared +Georgian to have slipped and fallen. + +Their first care was to glance up at the roof. It was a sloping one and +Anitra's story seemed credible enough when they noted how much easier it +would be to drop upon it from the little balcony overhead than to +traverse the roof itself and reach the ground beneath without slipping. +But as they looked longer, each face betrayed doubt. The descent from the +balcony was easy enough, but how about the passage from Georgian's window +to the balcony? This latter was confined to the one window, and was +surrounded by an ornamental balustrade, high enough to offer a decided +obstacle to the adventurous person endeavoring to leap upon it from the +adjoining window-ledge. However, this leap, made in the dark and under +circumstances inducing the utmost recklessness, might look practical +enough from the window-ledge itself, and Mr. Harper, making a remark to +this effect, proposed that they should examine the ground rather than the +house for evidences of Mrs. Ransom's slip and fall as related by Anitra. + +The only spot where they could hope to find such was in the one short +stretch--the width of the ell--underlying the edge of the sloping roof. +But this spot was all flagged, as I have already said, and when their +eyes strayed beyond it to the untilled fields, stretching between them +and the great rock at the verge of the waterfall from which she was +supposed to have taken her fatal leap, it was to find them as +unproductive of evidence as the brick walk itself. Not one pair of feet +but many had passed that way since early morning. The ground showed a +mass of impressions of all sizes and shapes, amid which it would have +been impossible for them, without the necessary experience, to have +followed up the flight of any one person. They had come to their task +too late. + +"Futile," decided the lawyer. "There is no use in our going that way." +And he turned to look again at the ground in their immediate vicinity. As +he did so, his eye lighted on the triangular spot where the ell met the +side of the house under the kitchen windows. Here there was no flagging, +the walk taking a diagonal course from the corner of the ell to the +kitchen door. + +"What are those?" he asked, pointing to two oblong impressions brimming +with water which disfigured the center of this small plot. + +"They look like footprints," ventured Ransom. + +"They are footprints," decided Mr. Harper as they stooped to examine the +marks, "and the footprints of a person dropping from a height. Nothing +else explains their depth or general appearance." + +"Couldn't they be those of a person approaching the ell to converse with +some one above? I see others similar to these in the open place over +there beyond the kitchen door." + +"It is a trail. Let us follow it. It seems to lead anywhere but towards +the waterfall. This is an important discovery, Mr. Ransom, and may lead +to conclusions such as we might not otherwise have presumed to entertain, +especially if we come upon an impression clear enough to point in which +direction the person making it was going." + +"Here is what you want," Ransom assured him in a low and curiously +smothered voice. He was evidently greatly excited by this result of their +inquiries, for all his apparent quiet and precise movements. "It's a +woman's step, and that woman was going from the ell when she left these +tokens of her passage behind her. Going! and as you say not in the +direction of the waterfall." + +"Hush! I see some one at the kitchen window. Let us move warily and be +sure not to confound these prints with those of any other person. It +looks as if a great many people had passed here." + +"Yes, this is the way to the chicken-coops and out-houses. But in the +ground beyond I think I see a single line of steps again,--small steps +like these. Where can they be leading? They are deep like those of a +person running." + +"And straggling, like those of a person running in the dark. See how they +waver from the direct line down there, turn, and almost come up against +that wood-pile! Whose steps are these? Whose, Mr. Harper? Quick! I must +see where they go. Our time will not be lost. The key to the labyrinth is +in our hands." + +The lawyer was in the rear and the eyes of the other were fixed far +ahead. For this reason, perhaps, the former allowed himself a quiet shake +of the head, which might not have encouraged the other so very much, had +he caught sight of it. They were now on the verge of the garden, or what +would soon be a garden if these rains betokened spring. A path ran along +its edge and in this path the footsteps they were following lost +themselves; but they came upon them again among the hillocks of some old +potato-hills beyond, and finally traced them quite across the garden +waste to a fence, along which they ran, blundering from ploughed earth to +spots of smoother ground, and so back again till they came upon an old +turn-stile! + +Passing through this, the two men stopped and looked about them. They +were in a road ridged with grass and flanked by bushes. One end ran east +into a wooded valley, the other debouched on the highway a few feet to +the right of the tavern. + +"The lane!" exclaimed Mr. Harper. "The lead towards the waterfall was a +feint. It was in this direction she fled, and it is from this point that +search must be made for her." + +Ransom, greatly perturbed, for this possibility of secret flight opened +vistas of as much mystery, if not of as much suffering, as her death in +the river, glanced at the sodden ground under their feet, and thus along +the lane to where it lost itself from view among the trees. + +"No possible following of steps here," he declared. "A hundred people +must have come this way since early morning." + +"It's a short cut from the Ferry. They told me last night that it +lessened the distance by fully a quarter of a mile." + +"The Ferry! Can she be there? Or in the woods, or on her way to some +unknown place far out of our reach? The thought is maddening, Mr. Harper, +and I feel as helpless as a child under it. Shall we get detectives from +the county-seat, or start on the hunt ourselves? We might hear something +further on to help us." + +"We might; but I should rather stay on the immediate scene at present. +Ah, there comes a fellow in a cart who should be able to tell us +something! Stand by and I'll accost him. You needn't show your face." + +Mr. Ransom turned aside. Mr. Harper waited till the slow-moving horse, +dragging a heavily jogging wagon, came alongside, and he had caught the +eye of the low-browed, broad-faced farmer boy who sat on a bag of +potatoes and held the reins. + +"Good morning," said he. "Bad news this way. Any better at the Ferry, or +down east, as you call it?" + +"Eh?" was the lumbering, half-suspicious answer from the startled boy. +"I've heard naught down yonder, but that a gal threw herself over the +waterfall up here last night. Is that a fact, sir? I'm mighty curus to +know. My mother knew them Hazens; used to wash for 'em years ago. She +told me to bring up these taters and larn all I could about it." + +"We don't know much more than that ourselves," was the smooth and +cautious reply. "The lady certainly is missing, and she is supposed to +have drowned herself." Then, as he noted the fellow's eyes resting with +some curiosity on Mr. Ransom's well-clad, gentlemanly figure, added +gravely, and with a slight gesture towards the latter: + +"The lady's husband." + +The lad's jaw fell and he looked very sheepish. + +"Excuse me, misters, I didn't know," he managed to mutter, with a slash +at his horse which was vainly endeavoring to pull the cart from the rut +in which it had stuck. "I guess I'll go along to the hotel. I've a bag of +taters for Mrs. Deo." + +But the cart didn't budge and the lawyer had time to say: + +"Guess you didn't hear anything said about another lady I am interested +in. No talk down your way of a strange young woman seen anywhere on the +highway or about any of the houses between here and the Landing?" + +"Jerusha! I did hear a neighbor of mine say somethin' about a stranger +gal he saw this very mornin'. Met her down by Beardsley's. She was goin' +through the mud on foot as lively as you please. Asked him the way to the +Ferry. He noticed her because she was pretty and spoke in such a nice +way--just like a city gal," he said. "Is it any one from this hotel?" +added the fellow with a wondering look. "If so, she walked a mile before +daylight in mud up to her ankles. A girl of powerful grit that! with a +mighty good reason for catching the train." + +"Oh! there's an early train then?" asked the lawyer, ignoring the other's +question with unmoved good-humor. "One, I mean, before the 10:50 +express?" + +"Yes, sir, or so I've heard. I never took it. Folks don't from here, +except they're in an awful hurry. Will y'er say who the young woman is? +Not--not--" + +"We don't know who she is," quietly objected the lawyer. "And you don't +know who she is either," he severely added, holding the yawping +countryman with his eye. "If you're the man I think you, you'll not talk +about her unless you're asked by the constable or some one you are bound +to answer. And what's more, you'll earn a five-dollar bill by going back +the road you've come and bringing here, without any talk or fuss, the man +you were just telling us about. I want to have a talk with him, but I +don't want any one but you and him to know this. You can tell him it's +worth money, if he don't want to come. Do you understand?" + +"You bet," chuckled the grinning lad. "A five-dollar bill is mighty +clearing to the mind, sir. But must I turn right back before going on to +the hotel and hearing the news?" + +"We'll help you turn the cart," grimly suggested Mr. Harper. "Get up +there, Dobbin, or whatever your name is. Here, Ransom, lend a hand!" + +There was nothing for the fellow to do but to accept the help proffered, +and turn his cart. With one longing look towards the hotel he jerked at +the rein and shouted at the horse, which, after a few feeble efforts, +pulled the cart about and started off again in the desired direction. + +"Sooner done, sooner paid," shouted the lawyer, as lad and cart went +jolting off. "Remember to ask for Lawyer Harper when you come back. I +won't be far from the office." + +The fellow nodded; gave one grinning look back and whipped up his nag. +The lawyer and Ransom eyed one another. "It's only a possibility," +emphasized the former. "Don't lay too much stress upon it." + +"Let us speak plainly," urged Ransom. "Mr. Harper, are you sure that you +know just what my thought is?" + +"The time has not come for discussing that question. Let us defer it. +There is a fact to be settled first." + +"Whether the girl--" + +"No; this! Whether your wife could have jumped from her window to the +balcony, as Anitra said. It did not look feasible from below, but as I +then remarked to you, our opinion may change when we consider it from +above. Will you go up-stairs with me to your wife's room?" + +"I will go anywhere and do anything you please, so that we learn the +exact truth. But spare me the curiosity of these people. The crowd on +this side is increasing." + +"We will go in by the kitchen door. Some one there will show us the way +up-stairs." + +And in this manner they entered; not escaping entirely all curious looks, +for human nature is human nature, whether in the kitchen or parlor. + +In the hall above Mr. Ransom took the precedence. As they neared the +fatal room he motioned the lawyer to wait till he could ascertain if Miss +Hazen would be disturbed by their intrusion. The door, which had been +broken in between the two rooms, could not have been put back very +securely, and he dreaded incommoding her. He was gone but a minute. +Almost as soon as the lawyer started to follow him, he could be seen +beckoning from poor Georgian's door. + +"Miss Hazen is asleep," whispered Ransom, as the other drew near. "We can +look about this room with impunity." + +They both entered and the lawyer crossed at once to the window. + +"Your wife could never have taken the leap ascribed to her by the woman +you call Anitra," he declared, after a minute's careful scrutiny of the +conditions. "The balustrade of the adjoining balcony is not only in the +way, but the distance is at least five feet from the extreme end of this +window-ledge. A woman accustomed to a life of adventure or to the feats +of a gymnasium might do it, but not a lady of Mrs. Ransom's habits. If +your wife made her way from this room to the balcony outside her sister's +window, she did it by means of the communicating door." + +"But the door was found locked on this side. There is the key in the lock +now." + +"You are sure of this?" + +"I was the first one to call attention to it." + +"Then," began the lawyer judicially, but stopped as he noted the peculiar +eagerness of Ransom's expression, and turned his attention instead to the +interior of the room and the various articles belonging to Mrs. Ransom +which were to be seen in it. "The dress your wife wore when she signed +her will," he remarked, pointing to the light green gown hanging on the +inside of the door by which they had entered. + +Ransom stepped up to it, but did not touch it. He could see her as she +looked in this gown in her memorable passage through the hall the evening +before, and, recalling her expression, wondered if they yet understood +the nature of her purpose and the determination which gave it such +extraordinary vigor. + +Mr. Harper called his attention to two other articles of dress hanging in +another part of the room. These were her long gray rain-coat and the hat +and veil she had worn on the train. + +"She went out bare-headed and in the plain serge dress in which she +arrived," remarked Mr. Harper with a side glance at Ransom. "I wonder if +the girl met on the highway was without hat and dressed in black serge." + +Ransom was silent. + +"Anitra's hat is below and here is Mrs. Ransom's. She who escaped from +this house last night went out bare-headed," repeated the lawyer. + +Mr. Ransom, moving aside to avoid the probing of the other's eye, merely +remarked: + +"You noticed my wife's dress very particularly it seems. It was of serge, +you say." + +"Yes. I am learned in stuffs. I remarked it when she got into the coach, +possibly because I was struck by its simplicity and conventional make. +There was no trimming on the bottom, only stitching. Her sister's was +just like it. They had the look of being ready-made." + +"But Anitra had no rain-coat. I remember that her shoulders were wet when +she came in from the lane." + +"No, she had no protection but her blouse, black like her dress. I +presume that her hot blood resented every kind of wrap." + +Again that sidelong glance from his keen eye. "She wore a checked silk +handkerchief about her neck--the one she afterwards put over her head." + +"You were on the same train with my wife and sister-in-law," Ransom now +said. "Did you sit near them? Converse with them, that is, with Mrs. +Ransom?" + +"I have no reason for deceiving you in that regard," replied Mr. Harper. +"I did not come up from New York on the same train they did. They must +have come up in the morning, for when I arrived at the place they call +the Ferry, I saw them standing on the hotel steps ready to step into the +coach. I spoke to Mrs. Ransom then, but only a word. My grip-sack had +been put under the driver's seat, and I saw that I was expected to ride +with him, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather. Mrs. Ransom saw +it too and possibly my natural hesitation, for she turned to me after she +had seen her sister safely ensconced inside, and said something about her +regret at having subjected me to such inconvenience, but did not offer to +make room for me in the body of the coach, though there was room enough +if the other had been the quiet lady she was herself. But she was not, +and possibly this was Mrs. Ransom's excuse for her apparent lack of +consideration for me. Before we reached the point where the lane cuts in, +I became aware of some disturbance behind me, and when we really got +there, I heard first the coach door opening, then your wife's voice, +raised in entreaty to the driver, calling on him to stop before her +sister jumped out and hurt herself. 'She is deaf and very wild' was all +the explanation she gave after Miss Hazen had leaped into the wet road +and darted from sight into what looked to me, in the darkness, like a +tangled mass of bushes. Then she said something about her having had +hard work to keep her still till we got this far; but that she was sure +she would find her way to the hotel, and that we mustn't bother ourselves +about it for she wasn't going to; Anitra and she had run this road too +many times when they were children. That is all I have to tell of my +intercourse with these ladies prior to our appearance at the hotel. I +think it right for me to clear the slate, Ransom. Who knows what we may +wish to write upon it next?" + +A slight shiver on Ransom's part was the sole answer he gave to this +innuendo; then both settled themselves to work, the eyes of either +flashing hither and thither from one small object to another, in this +seemingly deserted room. In the momentary silence which followed, the +even breathing of the woman in the adjoining room could be distinctly +heard. It seemed to affect Mr. Ransom deeply, though he strove hard to +maintain the business-like attitude he had assumed from the beginning +of this unofficial examination. + +"She has confided nothing more to you since your return from the river +bank?" suggested the lawyer. + +"No." + +The word came sharply, considering Mr. Ransom's usual manner. The lawyer +showed surprise but no resentment, and turned his attention to the bag +both had noted lying open on two chairs. + +"Nothing equivocal here," he declared, after a moment's careful scrutiny +of its remaining contents. "The only comment I should make in regard to +what I find here is that all the articles are less carefully chosen than +you would expect from one of your wife's fondness for fine appointments." + +"They were collected in a hurry and possibly by telephone," returned the +unhappy husband, after a shrinking glance into the bag. "The ones she +provided in anticipation of her wedding are at the hotel in New York. In +the trunks and bags there you will find articles as elegant as you could +wish." Here he turned to the dresser, and pointed to the various objects +grouped upon it. + +"These show that she arranged herself with care for her meeting with you +last night. How did she appear at that interview? Natural?" + +"Hardly; she was much too excited. But I had no suspicion of what she +was cherishing in her mind. I thought her intentions whimsical, and +endeavored to edge in a little advice, but she was in no mood to receive +it. Her mind was too full of what she intended to do. + +"Here's where she ate her supper," he added, picking up a morsel of crust +from a table set against the wall. "And so this door was found fastened +on this side?" he proceeded, laying his hand on the broken lock. + +"It had to be burst open, you see." + +"And the window?" + +"Was up. The carpet, as you can tell by look and feeling, is still wet +with the soaking it got." + +Mr. Harper's air changed to one of reluctant conviction. + +"The evidence seems conclusive of your wife having left this room and the +house in the remarkable manner stated by Miss Hazen. Yet--" + +This _yet_ showed that he was not as thoroughly convinced as the first +phrase would show. But he added nothing to it; only stood listening, +apparently to the even breathing of the sleeper on the other side of this +loosely hanging door. + +As he did so, his eye encountered the hot, dry gaze of Mr. Ransom, fixed +upon him in a suspense too cruel to prolong, and with a sudden change of +manner he moved from the door, saying significantly as he led the way +out: + +"Let us have a word or two in your own room. It is a principle of mine +not to trust even the ears of the deaf with what it is desirable to keep +secret." + +Had the glance with which he said this lingered a moment longer on his +companion's face, he would undoubtedly have been startled at the effect +of his own words. But being at heart a compassionate man, or possibly +understanding his new client much better than that client supposed, he +had turned quite away in crossing the threshold, and so missed the +conscious flash which for a moment replaced the somber and feverish +expression that had already aged by ten years the formerly open features +of this deeply grieved man. + +Once in the hall, it was too dark to note further niceties of expression, +and by the time Mr. Ransom's room was reached, purpose and purpose only +remained visible in either face. + +As they were crossing the threshold, the lawyer wheeled about and cast a +quick look behind him. + +"I observe," said he, "that you have a full and unobstructed view from +here of the whole hall and of the two doors where our interest is +centered. I presume you kept a strict watch on both last night. You let +nothing escape you?" + +"Nothing that one could see from this room." + +With a thoughtful air, the lawyer swung to the door behind them. As it +latched, the face of Mr. Ransom sharpened. He even put out a hand and +rested it on a table standing near, as if to support himself in +anticipation of what the lawyer would say now that they were again +closeted together. + +Mr. Harper was not without his reasons for a corresponding agitation, but +he naturally controlled himself better, and it was with almost a judicial +air that he made this long-expected but long-deferred suggestion: + +"You had better tell me now, and as explicitly as possible, just what is +in your mind. It will prevent all misunderstanding between us, as well as +any injudicious move on my part." + +Mr. Ransom hesitated, leaning hard on the table; then, with a sudden +burst, he exclaimed: + +"It sounds like folly, and you may think that my troubles have driven me +mad. But I have a feeling here--a feeling without any reason or proof to +back it--that the woman now sleeping off her exhaustion in Anitra's room +is the woman I courted and married--Georgian Hazen, now Georgian Ransom, +my wife." + +"Good! I have made no mistake. That is my thought, too," responded the +lawyer. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ANITRA + + +A few minutes later they were discussing this amazing possibility. + +"I have no reason for this conclusion,--this hope," admitted Mr. Ransom. +"It is instinct with me, an intuition, and not the result of my judgment. +It came to me when she first addressed me down by the mill-stream. If you +consider me either wrong or misled, I confess that I shall not be able to +combat your decision with any argument plausible enough to hold your +attention for a moment." + +"But I don't consider you either wrong or misled," protested the other. +"That is," he warily added, "I am ready to accept the correctness of the +possibility you mention and afterwards to note where the supposition will +lead us. Of course, your first sensation is that of relief." + +"It will be when I am no longer the prey of doubts." + +"Notwithstanding the mystery?" + +"Notwithstanding the mystery. The one thing I have found it impossible to +contemplate is her death;--the extinction of all hope which death alone +can bring. She has become so blended with my every thought since the hour +she vanished from my eyes and consequently from my protection, that I +should lose the better part of my self in losing her. Anything but that, +Mr. Harper." + +"Even possible shame?" + +"How, shame?" + +"Some reason very strong and very vital must underlie her conduct if what +we suspect is true, and she has not only been willing to subject you and +herself to a seeming separation by death, but to burden herself with the +additional misery of being obliged to assume a personality cumbered by +such a drawback to happiness and even common social intercourse as this +of the supposed Anitra." + +"You mean her deafness?" + +"I mean that, yes. What could Mrs. Ransom's motive be (if the woman +sleeping yonder is Mrs. Ransom) for so tremendous a sacrifice as this you +ascribe to her? The rescue of her sister from some impending calamity? +That would argue a love of long standing and of superhuman force; one far +transcending even her natural affection for the husband to whom she has +just given her hand. Such a love under such circumstances is not +possible. She has known this long lost sister for a few days only. Her +sense of duty towards her, even her compassion for one so unfortunate, +might lead her to risk much, but not so much as that. You must look for +some other explanation; one more reasonable and much more personal." + +"Where? where? I'm all at sea; blinded, dazed, almost at my wits' end. I +can see no reason for anything she has done. I neither understand her nor +understand myself. I ought to shrink from the poor creature there, +sleeping off--I don't know what. But I don't. I feel drawn to her, +instead, irresistibly drawn, as if my place were at her bedside to +comfort and protect." + +At this impulsive assertion springing from a depth of feeling for which +the staid lawyer had no measure, a perplexed frown chased all the +urbanity from his face. Some thought, not altogether welcome, had come to +disturb him. He eyed Mr. Ransom closely from under his clouded brows. He +could do this now with impunity, for Mr. Ransom's glances were turned +whither his thoughts and inclinations had wandered. + +"I would advise you," came in slow comment from the watchful lawyer, "not +to be too certain of your conclusions till doubt becomes an absolute +impossibility. Instinct is a good thing but it must never be regarded as +infallible. It may be proved that it is your wife who has fled, after +all. In which case it would be a great mistake to put any faith in this +gipsy girl, Anitra." + +Mr. Ransom's face hardened; his eyes did not leave the direction in which +they were set. + +"I will remember," said he. + +His companion did not appear satisfied, and continued emphatically: + +"Whether the woman now here is Mrs. Ransom or her wild and irresponsible +sister, she is a person of dangerous will and one not to be lightly +regarded nor carelessly dealt with. Pray consider this, Mr. Ransom, and +do not allow impulse to supersede judgment. If you will take my advice--" + +"Speak." + +"I should treat her as if she were the woman she calls herself, or, at +least, as if you thought her so. Nothing--" this word he repeated as he +noted the incredulity with which the other listened--"would be so likely +to make her betray herself as that." + +"Let us go back and listen again at her door," was Mr. Ransom's emphatic +but inconsequent reply. + +The lawyer desisted from further advice, but sighed as he followed his +new client into the hall. At the turn of the staircase they were stopped +by the sound of wrangling voices in the office below. Mr. Harper heard +his name mentioned and hastened to interfere. Assuring Mr. Ransom of his +speedy return, he stepped down-stairs, and in a few minutes reappeared +with a middle-aged man of characteristic appearance, whom he introduced +to Mr. Ransom as Mr. Goodenough. The sight of the uncouth head of their +youthful acquaintance of the morning peering up after him from the foot +of the stairs was warranty sufficient that this was the man who had met +the strange young lady on the highway early that morning. + +At sight of him Mr. Ransom felt that inner recoil which we all experience +at the prospect of an immediate and definite termination of a long +brooding doubt. In another instant and with one word this uncultured and +hitherto unknown man would settle for him the greatest question of his +life. And he did not feel prepared for it. He had an impulse almost of +flight, as if in this way he could escape a certainty he feared. What +certainty? Perhaps he could not have answered had he been asked. His mind +was in a turmoil. He had feelings--instincts; that was all. + +The lawyer, noting his condition, undertook the leadership of affairs. +Beckoning Mr. Goodenough into Mr. Ransom's room, he softly closed the +door upon the many inquiring ears about, and, assuming the manner most +likely to encourage the unsophisticated but straightforward looking man +with whom he had to deal, quietly observed: + +"We hear that you met this morning a young girl going towards the Ferry. +There is great reason why we should know just how this young girl looks. +A lady disappeared from here last night, and though, from a letter she +left behind her, we have every reason to believe that her body is +somewhere in the river, yet we don't want to overlook the possibility +of her having escaped alive in another direction. Can you describe the +person you saw?" + +"Wa'al, I'm not much good at talk," was the embarrassed, almost halting +reply. "I saw the gal and I remember just how she looked, but I couldn't +put it into words to save my soul. She was pretty and chipper and walked +along as if she was part of the mornin'; but that don't tell you much, +does it? Yet I don't know what else to say. P'raps you could help me +by asking questions." + +"We'll see. Was she light-complexioned? Yellow hair, you know, and blue +eyes?" + +"No; I don't think she was. Not what I call light. My Sal's light; this +gal wasn't like my Sal." + +"Dark, then, very dark, with a gipsy color and snapping black eyes?" + +"No, not that either. What I should call betweens. But more dark than +light." + +Harper flashed a glance at Ransom before putting his next question. + +"What did she have on her head?" + +"Bless me if I can tell! It wasn't a sun-bonnet, nor was it slapped all +over with ribbons and flowers like my darter's." + +"But she had some sort of hat on?" + +"Sartain. Did you think she was just running to the neighbors?" + +"But she wore no coat?" + +"I don't remember any coat." + +"Do you remember her frock?" + +"No, not exactly." + +"Don't you remember its color?" + +"No." + +"Wasn't it black? the skirt of it, at least?" + +"Black? Wa'al, I guess not. A gal of her age in black! No, she was as +bright as the flowers in my wife's garden. Not a black thing on her. I +should sooner think her clothes were red than black." + +Harper showed his surprise. + +"Not a black skirt?" he persisted. + +"No, sir'ee. I haven't much eye for fixin's but I've eye enough to know +when a gal's dressed like a gal and not like some old woman." + +Harper's eye stole again towards Ransom. + +"Checkmate in four moves," he muttered. "The person we are interested in +could have worn no such clothing as Mr. Goodenough describes. Yet +clothing can be changed. How, I cannot see in this instance; but I will +risk no mistake. The trail we followed led too surely in the direction of +the highway for us to drop all inquiries because of a colored skirt and a +hat we cannot quite account for. If the face is one we know (and I +really believe it was), we can leave the other discrepancies to future +explanation." And turning back to the patient countryman, he composedly +remarked: "You are positive in your recollections of the young lady's +features. You would have no difficulty in recognizing her if you saw her +again?" + +"Not a bit. Once I get a picter in my mind of a man or a woman I see it +always. And I can see her as plain as plain the moment I stop to think. +She was pretty, you see, and just a little scared to speak to a stranger. +But that went as she saw my face, and she asked me very perlite if she +was on the right road to the Ferry." + +"And you told her she was?" + +"Sartain; and how much time she had to get there to catch the boat." + +"I see. So you would know her again if you saw her." + +"I jest would." + +The lawyer made a move towards the door which Mr. Ransom hastened to +open. As the long vista of the hall disclosed itself, Mr. Harper turned +upon the countryman with the quiet remark: + +"There were two ladies here, you know. Twins. Their likeness was +remarkable. If we show you the remaining one who now lies asleep, you +surely will be able to tell if she is like the lady you saw." + +"If she looks just like her you can bet beans against potatoes on that." + +"Come, then. You needn't feel any embarrassment, for she's not only sound +asleep but so deaf she couldn't hear you if she were awake. You need only +take one glance and nod your head if she looks like the other. It is very +desirable that none of us should speak. The case is a mysterious one and +there's enough talk about it already without the women hiding and +listening behind every shut door you see, adding their gossip to the +rest." + +A knowing look, a twitch at the corners of a good-natured mouth, and the +man followed them down the hall, past one or two of the doors alluded to, +till they reached the one against the panel of which Mr. Ransom had +already laid his ear. + +"Still asleep," his gesture seemed to signify; and with a word of caution +he led the way in. + +The room was very dark. Mrs. Deo had been careful to draw down the shade +when she put her strange charge to bed, and at this first moment of +entrance it was impossible for them to see more than the outline of a +dark head upon a snowy pillow. But gradually, feature by feature of the +sleeping woman's countenance became visible, and the lawyer, turning his +acute gaze on the man from whose recognition he expected so much, +impatiently awaited the nod which was to settle their doubt. + +But that nod did not come, not even after Mr. Ransom, astonished at the +long pause, turned on the stranger his own haggard and inquiring eyes. +Instead, Mr. Goodenough lifted a blank stare to either face beside him, +and, shaking his head, stumbled awkwardly back in an endeavor to leave +the room. Mr. Ransom, taken wholly by surprise, uttered some peremptory +ejaculation, but a glance from the lawyer quieted him, and not till they +were all shut up again in that convenient room at the head of the stairs +did any of the three speak. + +And not even then without an embarrassed pause. Both the lawyer and his +unhappy client had a deep and, in the case of the latter, a heartrending +disappointment to overcome, and the clock on the stairs ticked out +several seconds before the lawyer ventured to remark: + +"Miss Hazen's face is quite new to you, I perceive. Evidently it was not +her twin sister you met on the high road this morning." + +"Nor anything like her," protested the man. "A different face entirely; +prettier and more saucy. Such a gal as a man like me would be glad to +call darter." + +"Oh, I see!" assented the lawyer. Then with the instinctive caution of +his class, "You have made no mistake?" + +"Not a bit of a one," emphasized the other. "Sorry I can't give the +gentleman any hope, but if the sisters look alike, it was not this +woman's twin I met. I'm ready to take my oath on that." + +"Very well. One catches at straws in a stress like this. Here's a fiver +to pay for your trouble, and another for the lad who brought you here. +Good day. We had no sound reason for expecting any different result from +our experiment." + +The man bowed awkwardly and went out. Mr. Harper brought down his fist +heavily on the table, and after a short interval of silence, during which +he studiously avoided meeting his companion's eye, he remarked: + +"I am as much taken aback as yourself. For all he had to say about her +gay clothing, I expected a different result. The girl on the highway was +neither Mrs. Ransom nor her sister. We have made a confounded mistake and +Mrs. Ransom--" + +"Don't say it. I'm going back to the room where that woman lies sleeping. +I cannot yet believe that my heart is not shut up within its walls. I'm +going to watch for her eyes to open. Their expression will tell me what I +want to know;--the look one gives before full realization comes and the +soul is bare without any thought of subterfuge." + +"Very well. I should probably do the same if I were you. Only your +insight may be affected by prejudice. You will excuse me if I join you +in this watch. The experiment is of too important a character for its +results to depend upon the correct seeing of one pair of eyes." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +"LOVE!" + + +She lay in the abandonment of profound slumber, one hand under her cheek, +the other hidden by the white spread Mrs. Deo had been careful to draw +closely about her. Both Mr. Harper and Mr. Ransom regretted this fact, +for each instinctively felt that in her hands, if not in her sleeping +face, they should be able to read the story of her life. If that life had +been a hard one, such as must have befallen the waif, Anitra, her hands +should show it. + +But her hands were covered. And so, or nearly so, was her face; the +latter by her long and curling locks of whose beauty I have hitherto +spoken. One cheek only was visible, and this cheek looked dark to Ransom, +decidedly darker than Georgian's; but realizing that the room itself was +dark, he forbore to draw the attention of the lawyer to it, or even to +allow it to affect his own judgment to the extent it reasonably called +for. + +His first scrutiny over, Mr. Harper crossed over to his old seat against +the wall. Mr. Ransom remained by the bed. And thus began their watch. + +It was a long and solemn one; a tedious waiting. The gloom and quiet of +the small room was so profound that both men, for all their suspense and +absorption in the event they awaited, welcomed the sound of a passing +whisper or the careful stepping of feet in the corridor without. + +If they turned to look they could just catch the outline of each other's +countenance, but this they did not often attempt. Their attention was +held by the silent figure on the bed, and so motionless was this figure +in the profound slumber in which it lay enchained, and so motionless were +they in their increasing suspense and expectation, that time seemed to +have come to a standstill in this little room. There was one break. The +lips which had hitherto remained mute opened in a quiet murmur, and Mr. +Harper, watching his client, saw him clutch the headboard in sudden +emotion before he finally rose and, with looks still fixed on the bed, +approached him with the startling announcement: + +"The word she whispered was '_Love_'! It must be Georgian." + +Alas! the same thought struck them both. Was this a proof? Mr. Ransom +flushed hotly and crept softly back to his post. + +Again time seemed to stop. Then there came a cautious rap on the door, +followed by the hasty retreat of the person knocking. It caused Mr. +Ransom to stir slightly, but did not affect the lawyer. Suddenly the +former rose with every evidence of renewed agitation. This drew Mr. +Harper from his seat. + +"What is it?" he cried, softly approaching the other and whispering, +though after events proved that he might have spoken aloud with impunity. + +Mr. Ransom pointed to her temple from which her hair had just fallen +away. + +"The veining here. I have often studied it. I recognize its every +convolution. It is Georgian, Georgian who lies there--ah, she's stirring, +waking! Let me go--" + +He dragged himself from Mr. Harper's detaining hand, bent over the bed +and murmured softly but with the thrilling intensity of a suffering, +hoping heart, the name which at that moment meant the whole wide world +to him: + +"Georgian!" + +Would she greet this expression with recognition and a smile? The lawyer +half expected her to and stepped near enough to see, but the eyes which +had opened upon the white wall in front of her stared on, and when they +did turn, as they did after one halting, agonizing minute, it was in +response to some movement made by Mr. Ransom and not in reply to his +voice. + +This sudden and unexpected overthrow of his secretly cherished hopes +was terrible. As he saw her rise on one elbow and meet his gaze with +one which revealed the astonishment and resentment of a wild creature +suddenly entrapped, he felt, or so he afterwards declared, as if the +viper which had hitherto clung cold and deathlike about his heart had +suddenly sprung to life and stung him. It was the most uncanny moment +of his life. + +Aghast at the effect of this upon his own mind, he reeled from the room, +followed by the lawyer. As they passed down the hall they heard her voice +raised to a scream in uncontrollable shame and indignation. This was +followed by the snap of her key in the lock. + +They had made a great mistake, or so the lawyer decided when they again +stood face to face in Mr. Ransom's room. That the latter made no +immediate answer was no proof that he did not coincide in the other's +opinion. Indeed it was only too evident that he did, for his first words, +when he had controlled himself sufficiently to speak, were these: + +"I should have taken your advice. In future I will. To me she is +henceforth Anitra, and I shall treat her as my wife's sister. Watch if +I fail. Anitra! Anitra!" He reiterated the word as if he would fix it in +his mind as well as accustom his lips to it. Then he wheeled about and +faced Harper, whose eyes he doubtless felt on him. "Yet I am not so +thoroughly convinced as to feel absolute peace here," he admitted, +striking his breast with irrepressible passion. "My good sense tells me +I am a fool, but my heart whispers that the sweetness in her sleeping +face was the sweetness which won me to love Georgian Hazen. That gentle +sweetness! Did you note it?" + +"Yes, I noted what you mention. But don't let that influence you too +much. The wildest heart has its tender moments, and her dreams may have +been pleasant ones." + +Mr. Ransom remembered her unconscious whisper and felt stunned, silenced. +The lawyer gave no evidence of observing this, but remarked quite easily +and with evident sincerity: + +"I am more readily affected by proof than you are. I am quite convinced +myself, that our wits have been wool-gathering. There was no mistaking +her look of outraged womanhood. It was not your wife who encountered your +look, but the deaf Anitra. Of course, you won't believe me. Yet I advise +you to do so. It would be too dreadful to find that this woman really is +your wife." + +"_What?_" + +"I know what I am saying. Nothing much worse could happen to you. Don't +you see where the hypothesis to which you persist in clinging would land +you? Should the woman in there prove to be your wife Georgian--" The +lawyer stopped and, in a tone the seriousness of which could not fail to +impress his agitated hearer, added quietly, "you remember what I said to +you a short time ago about _guilt_." + +"Guilt!" + +"No, the word was shame. But guilt better expresses my meaning. I repeat, +should the woman prove to be, not the lovely but ignorant girl she +appears, but Georgian Ransom, your wife, then upon her must fall the +onus of Anitra's disappearance if not of her possible death. No! you must +hear me out; the time has come for plain speaking. Your wife had her +reasons--we do not know what they were, but they were no common ones--for +wishing this intrusive sister out of the way. Anitra, on the contrary, +could have desired nothing so much as the preservation of her protector. +The conclusion is not an agreeable one. Let us hope that the question it +involves will never be presented for any man's consideration." + +Mr. Ransom sank speechless into a chair. This last blow was an +overwhelming one and he sank before it. + +Mr. Harper altered his tone. He had real commiseration for his client and +had provided himself with an antidote to the poison he had just so +ruthlessly administered. + +"Courage!" he cried. "I only wished you to see that there were worse +losses to consider than that of your wife's desertion, even if that +desertion took the form of suicide. There is a reason which you have +forgotten for acquitting Mrs. Ransom of such criminal intentions and +of accepting as your sister-in-law the woman who calls herself Anitra. +Recall Mrs. Ransom's will; the general terms of which I felt myself +justified in confiding to you. In it there are no provisions made for +this Anitra. Had Mrs. Ransom, for any inexplicable reason, planned an +exchange of identities with her sorely afflicted sister, she would have +been careful to have left that sister some portion of her great fortune. +But she did not remember her with a cent. This fact is very significant +and should give you great comfort." + +"It should, it should, in face of the other alternative you have +suggested as possible. But I fear that I am past comfort. In whatever +light we regard this tragedy, it all means woe and disaster to me. I have +made a mess of my life and I have got to face the fact like a man." Then +rising and confronting Mr. Harper with passionate intensity, he called +out till the room rang again: + +"Georgian is dead! You hear me, Georgian is dead!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +"I DON'T HEAR" + + +The afternoon passed without further developments. Mr. Harper, who had +his own imperative engagements, left on the evening train for New York, +promising to return the next day in case his presence seemed +indispensable to his client. + +That client's final word to him had been an injunction to keep an eye on +Georgian's so-called brother and to report how he had been affected by +the news from Sitford; and when, in the lull following the lawyer's +departure, Mr. Ransom sat down in his room to look his own position +resolutely in the face, this brother and his possible connection with the +confusing and unhappy incidents of this last fatal week regained that +prominent place in his thoughts which the doubts engendered by the +unusual character of these incidents had for a while dispelled. + +What had been the hold of this strange and uncongenial man on Georgian? +And was his reappearance at the same time with that of a supposedly long +deceased sister simply a coincidence so startling as to appear unreal? + +He had not seen Anitra again and did not propose to, unless the meeting +came about in a natural way and without any show of desire on his part. +If any suspicion had been awakened in the house by his peculiar conduct +in the morning, he meant it to be speedily dissipated by the careful way +in which he now held to his role of despairing husband whose only +interest in the girl left on his hands was the dutiful one of a reluctant +brother-in-law, who doubts the kindly feelings of his strange and +unwelcome charge. + +The landlady, with a delicacy he highly appreciated, cared for the young +girl without making her conspicuous by any undue attention. No tidings +had come in of any discovery in the mill-stream or in the river into +which it ran, and there being nothing with which to feed gossip, the +townsfolk who had gathered about the hotel porches gradually began to +disperse, till only a few of the most persistent remained to keep up +conversation till midnight. + +Finally these too left and the house sank into quiet, a quiet which +remained unbroken all night; for everybody, even poor Mr. Ransom, slept. + +He was up, however, with the first beam entering his room. How could he +tell but that news of a definite and encouraging nature awaited him? Some +one might have come in early from town or river. All search had not been +abandoned. There were certain persistent ones who had gone as far as +Beardsley's. Some of these might have returned. He would hasten down and +see. But it was only to find the office empty, and though the household +presently awoke and the great front door was thrown open to all comers, +no eager straggler came rushing in with the tidings he equally longed and +dreaded to receive. + +At half-past ten the representative of the county police called on Mr. +Ransom, but with small result. Shortly after his departure, the mail +came in and with it the New York papers. These he read with avidity. But +they added nothing to his knowledge. Georgian's death was accepted as +a fact, and the peculiarities of their history since their unfortunate +wedding-day were laid bare with but little consideration for his feelings +or the good name of his bride. With a sorer heart than ever, he flung the +papers from him and went out to gather strength in the open air. + +There was a corner of the veranda into which he had never ventured. It +was likely to be a solitary one at this hour, and thither he now went. +But a shock awaited him there. A lady was pacing its still damp boards. +A lady who did not turn her head at his step, but whom he instantly +recognized from her dress, and wilful but not ungraceful bearing, as her +whom he was determined to call, nay recognize, as Anitra Hazen. + +His judgment counseled retreat, but the fascination of her presence held +him, and in that moment of hesitation she turned towards him and flight +became impossible. + +It was the first opportunity he had had of observing her features in +broad daylight. The effect was a confused one. She was Georgian and she +was not Georgian. Her skin was decidedly darker, her eyes more lustrous, +her bearing less polished and at the same time more impassioned. She was +not so tall or quite so elegantly proportioned;--or was it her rude +method of dressing her hair and the awkward cut of her clothes which made +the difference. He could not be sure. Resolved as he was to consider her +Anitra, and excellent as his reasons were for doing so, the swelling of +his heart as he met her eye roused again the old doubt and gave an +unnatural tone to his voice as he advanced towards her with an impetuous +utterance of her name: + +"Anitra!" + +She shrunk, not at the word but at his movement, which undoubtedly was +abrupt; but immediately recovered herself and, meeting him half-way, +cried out in the unnaturally loud tones of the very deaf: + +"They don't bring my sister back. She is drowned, drowned. But you still +have Anitra," she exclaimed in child-like triumph. "Anitra will be good +to you. Don't forsake the poor girl. She will go where you go and be very +obedient and not get angry ever again." + +He felt his hair rise. Something in her look, something in her manner of +making evident the indefinable barrier between them even while expressing +her desire to accompany him, made such a disturbance in his brain that +for the moment he no longer knew himself, nor her, nor the condition of +things about him. If she saw the effect she produced, she gave no +evidence of it. She had begun to smile and her smile transformed her. The +wild look which was never long out of her eyes softened into a milder +gleam, and dimples he had been accustomed to see around lips he had +kissed and called the sweetest in the world flashed for a moment in the +face before him with a story of love he dared not read, yet found it +impossible to forget or see unmoved. + +"What trial is this into which my unhappy fate has plunged me!" thought +he. "Can reason stand it? Can I see this woman daily, hourly, and not go +mad between my doubts and my love?" + +His face had turned so stern that even she noticed it, and in a trice the +offending dimples disappeared. + +"You are angry," she pouted. "You don't want Anitra. Nod if it is so, nod +and I will go away." + +He did not nod; he could not. She seemed to gather courage at this, and +though she did not smile again, she gave him a happy look as she said: + +"I have no home now, nor any friend since sister has gone. I don't want +any if I can stay with you and learn things. I want to be like sister. +She was nice and wore pretty clothes. She gave me some, but I don't know +where they are. I don't like this dress. It's black and all bad round the +bottom where I fell into the mud." + +She looked down at her dress. It showed, in spite of Mrs. Deo's effort at +cleaning it, signs of her tramp through the wet lane. He looked at it +too, but it was mechanically. He was debating in his mind a formidable +question. Should he grasp her hand, insist that she was Georgian and +demand her confidence and the truth? or should he follow the lawyer's +advice and continue to accept appearances, meet her on her own ground and +give her the answer called for by her lonely and forsaken position? He +found after a moment's thought that he had no choice; that he could not +do the first and must do the last. + +"You shall come with me," said he quietly. "I will see that you have +every suitable protection and care." + +She surveyed him with the same unmoved inquiry burning in her eyes. + +"I don't hear," said she. + +He looked at her, his lips set, his eyes as inquiring as her own. + +"I don't believe it," he muttered just above his breath. + +The steady stare of her eyes never faltered. + +"You loved sister, love me," she whispered. + +He fell back from her. This was not Georgian. This was the untutored girl +about whom Georgian had written to him. Everything proved it, even her +hands upon which his eyes now fell. Why had he not noticed them before? +He had meant to look at them the first thing. Now that he did, he saw +that he might have spared himself some of the miserable uncertainties of +the last few minutes. They were small and slight like Georgian's, but +very brown and only half cared for. That they were cared for at all +astonished him. But she soon explained that. Seeing where his eyes were +fixed, she cried out: + +"Don't look at my hands. I know they are not real nice like sister's. But +I'm learning. She showed me how to rub them white and cut the nails. A +woman did it for me the first time and I've been doing it ever since, but +they don't look like hers, for all the pretty rings she bought me. Was I +foolish to want the rings? I always had rings when I was with the +gipsies. They were not gold ones, but I liked them. And Mother Duda liked +rings too and made me one once out of beads. It was on my finger when my +sister took me home with her. That is why she brought me these. She +didn't think the bead one was good enough. It wasn't much like hers." + +Ransom recalled the diamonds and the rich sapphires he had been +accustomed to see on his bride's hand. + +But this did not engage him long. Some method of communication must be +found with this girl, which could be both definite and unmistakable. +Feeling in his pocket, he brought out pencil and a small pad. He would +write what he had to say, and was hesitating over the words with which to +open this communication, when he saw her hand thrust itself between his +eyes and the pad, and heard these words uttered in a resolute tone, but +not without a hint of sadness: + +"I cannot read. I have never been taught." + + + + +PART III + +Money + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +GOD'S FOREST, THEN MAN'S + + +The pencil and pad fell from Mr. Ransom's hands. He stared at the girl +who had made this astonishing statement, and his brain whirled. + +As for her, she simply stooped and picked up the pad. + +"You feel badly about that," said she. "You want me to read. I'll learn. +That will make me more like sister. But I know some things now. I know +what you are thinking about. You are curious about my life, what it has +been and what kind of a girl I am. I'll tell you. I can talk if I cannot +hear. I heard up to two years ago. Shall I talk now? Shall I tell you +what I told Georgian when she found me crying in the street and took me +home to her house?" + +He nodded blindly. + +With a smile as beautiful as Georgian's--for a moment he thought more +beautiful--she drew him to a seat. She was all fire and purpose now. The +spark of intelligence which was not always visible in her eye burned +brightly. She would have looked lovely even to a stranger, but he was not +thinking of her looks, only of the hopelessness of the situation, its +difficulties and possibly its perils. + +"I don't remember all that has happened to me," she began, speaking very +fast. "I never tried to remember, when I was little; I just lived, and +ran wild in the roads and woods like the weasels and the chipmunks. The +gipsies were good to me. I had not a cross word in years. The wife of the +king was my friend, and all I knew I learned from her. It was not much, +but it helped me to live in the forest and be happy, as long as I was a +little girl. When I grew up it was different. It was the king who was +kind then, and the woman who was fierce. I didn't like his kindness, but +she didn't know this, for after one day when she caught him staring at me +across the fire, she sent me off after something she wanted in a small +town we were camping near, and when I came back with it, the band was +gone. I tried to follow, but it was dark and I didn't know the way; +besides I was afraid--afraid of him. So I crept back to the town and +slept in the straw of a barn I found open. Next day I sold my earrings +and got bread. It didn't last long and I tried to work, but that meant +sleeping under a roof, and houses smothered me, so I did my work badly +and was turned out. Then I sold my ring. It was my last trinket, and when +the few cents I got for it were gone, I wandered about hungry. This I was +used to and didn't mind at first, but at last I went to work again, and +I did better now for a little while, till one evening I saw, through the +stable window of the inn where I was working, two black eyes staring in +just as they stared across the dying embers of the gipsy camp. I did not +scream, but I hid myself, and when they were gone away stole out and +got on the cars, and gave the man my last dollar--all the money I had +earned--for a ride to New York. I did not know any better. I knew he +never went to New York, and I thought I would be safe from him there. But +of the difference between the woods and a forest of brick and stone I +never thought; of night with no shelter but the wall of some blind alley; +of hunger in the sight of food, and wild beasts in the shape of men. I +didn't know where to go or who to speak to. If any one stared at me long, +I turned and ran away. I ran away once from a policeman. He thought me a +thief, and started to run after me. But people slipped in between us and +I got away. What happened next I don't know. Perhaps I was thrown down, +perhaps I fell. I had come a long way and I was tired. When I did know +anything, I was lying on my back in a narrow street, looking up at a tall +building that seemed to go right up into the sky like the great rocks I +had sometimes slept under when I was with the gipsies. Only there were +windows in the rock, out of which looked faces, and I got looking back +at one of these faces and the face looked at me, and I liked it and got +up on my knees and held up my arms, and the face drew back out of sight, +and I felt very sorry and cried and almost laid down again. I seemed so +alone and hurt and hungry. But the children--there were crowds of +children--wouldn't let me. They got in a ring and pulled at me, and some +one cried: 'Big cheeks is coming! Big cheeks will eat her up,' and I was +angry and got up on my feet. But I couldn't walk; I screamed when I tried +to, which frightened the children, and they all ran away. But I didn't +fall; an arm was round me, a good, kind arm, and though I didn't see the +face of the woman who helped, for she had her head wrapped up in an old +shawl, I felt that it was the same which had looked out of the window +at me, and went willingly enough when she began to draw me toward the +house and up the first flight of stairs, though I could hardly help +screaming every time my foot touched the ground. At the top of the first +flight I stopped; I could go no further. The woman heard me pant, and +pushing the covering from her eyes, she turned my face towards the light +and looked at it. I thought she wanted to see if I was strong enough to +go on, but that wasn't it at all, for in a minute I heard her say, in a +voice so sweet I thought I had never heard the like, 'Yes, you're pretty; +I want a pretty girl to stay with me and go about selling my things. I +love pretty girls; I never was pretty myself. Will you stay with me if I +take you up to my room and take care of you? I'll be good to you, little +duckling, everybody about here will tell you that; everybody but the +children, they don't like me.' I moaned, but it was from happiness. It +seemed too good to hear that cooing voice in my ear. I thought of my +mother--a dream--and my arms went up as they had in the street below. 'I +will stay,' I said. She caught my hands and that is all I remember till I +found myself in bed, with my ankle bound up and a gentle hand smoothing +my hair. It was a month before I walked again. All the time this woman +tended me, but always from behind. I did not see her face--not well--only +by glimpses and then only partly, for the shawl was always over her head, +covering everything but her eyes and mouth. These were small, the +smallest I ever saw, little pig eyes, and little screwed up mouth; but +the look of them was kindly and that was all I cared about then; that and +her talk, which made me cry one minute and laugh the next. I have never +cried so much or laughed so much in my life as I did that one month. She +told such sad things and she told such funny ones. She made me glad to +see her come in and sorry to see her go out. She let no one else come +near me. I did not care; I liked her too well. I was never tired of +listening to her praises and she praised me a great deal. I even did not +mind sleeping under a roof as much as I had before, perhaps because we +were so near it; perhaps because the room was so full of all sorts of +things, I never got tired of looking at them. Pretty things she called +them, but when I saw more things, things outside in shop windows and the +houses I afterwards went into, I knew they were very cheap things and not +always pretty. But she thought they were, and used to talk about them by +the hour and tell me stories she had made up about the pictures she had +cut out of newspapers. And I learned something; I could not help it, and +even began to think a bit--something I had never done before. But when I +got on my feet again, and was given the choice of staying there all the +time, I did not know at first whether I wanted to or not. For Mother Duda +had been very honest with me, and the minute she found that I could walk +again had told me that I would have to have great patience if I lived +with her, and endure a very disagreeable sight. Then she pulled off her +shawl and I saw her as she was and almost screamed, she looked so horrid +to me, but I didn't quite, for her eyes wouldn't let me. They seemed to +ask me not to care, but to love her a little though she was a fright to +look at, and I tried but I couldn't, I could only keep from screaming. + +"She had a goitre; that is what she called it, and the great pocket of +flesh hanging down on either side of her neck frightened me. It +frightened everybody; she was used to that, but she said she loved me and +felt my fear more than she did others. Could I bear to live with her, +knowing what her shawl hid? If I could she would be good to me, but if I +couldn't she would do what she could to get me honest work in some other +place. I didn't answer at first, but I did before she had put her shawl +on again. I told her that I would forget everything but her good smile, +and stay with her a little while. I stayed three years, helping her by +going about and selling the tatting work she made. + +"She could make beautiful patterns and so neat, but she couldn't sell +them, on account of her awful appearance. So I was very useful to her, +and felt I was earning my meat and drink and the kind looks and words +which made them taste good. It taught me a lot, going around. I saw +people and how they lived and what was nice and what wasn't. I was only +sorry that Mother Duda couldn't go too. She loved pretty things so. But +she never went out except at a very early hour in the morning, so early +that it was still dark. It seemed a terrible hour to me, but she always +came in with a smile, and when one day I asked her why, she said, because +she saw so many other poor creatures out at this same hour, who were +worse to look at than she was. This didn't seem possible to me, and once +I went out with her to see. But I never went again. Such faces as we met; +such deformity--men who never showed themselves by day--women who loved +beauty and were hideous. We saw them on street corners--coming up cellar +steps, slinking in and out of blind alleys--never where it was light--and +they shrank from each other, but not from the policeman. They were not +afraid of his eye; they were used to him and he to them. After I had +passed a dozen such miserable creatures, I felt myself one of them and +never wanted to go out at this hour again. + +"Don't you believe this part of my story," she suddenly asked, looking up +into Mr. Ransom's troubled face? "Ask the policeman who tramps about +those streets every night; he'll tell you." + +The question on Ransom's lips died. What use of asking what she could not +hear. + +"I wish I knew what you were thinking," she now murmured softly, so +softly that he hardly caught the words. "But I never shall, I never +shall. I will tell you now how I became deaf," she promised after a +moment of wistful gazing. "Is there any one near? Can anybody hear me?" +she continued, with a suspicious look about her. + +He shook his head. It was the first movement he had made since she began +her story. + +This apparently reassured her, for she proceeded at once to say: + +"Mother Duda had never told me anything about herself. It scared me then +when one morning I found sitting at the breakfast table a man who she +said was her son. He was big and pale looking, and had a slight swelling +on one side of his neck which made me sick; but I tried to be polite, +though I did not like him at all and had a sudden feeling of having no +home any more. That was the first day. The next two were worse. For he +didn't hate me as I did him, and wouldn't leave the house while I was +there, saying he could not bear to be away from his mother. But he +skipped out quick enough after I was gone, so the neighbors said, and +sometimes I think he followed me. Mother Duda wasn't like her old self at +all. She loved him, he was her son, but she didn't like all he did. She +wanted him to work; he wouldn't work. He sat and stared at me as the +gipsy king used to stare, and if I grew red and hot it was from shame and +fear and horror of the great throat I saw growing from day to day, and +which would some time be like his mother's. He knew I didn't like him, +but he wasn't good like Mother Duda, and told me one day that he was +going to make me his wife, whether I wanted him to or not, and talked +about a great secret, and the big man he would be some day. This made me +angry, and I said that all the bigness he would ever have would be in his +neck. At which he struck me, right across the ear, hard, so hard that I +fell on the floor with a scream, and Mother Duda came running. He was +sorry then and threw down the thing he had in his hand; but the harm had +been done and I was sick a month and had doctors and awful pain, and when +I was well again I couldn't hear a sound with that ear. Hans wasn't there +while I was ill; I shouldn't have got well if he had been; but he came +back when I was up again and was very meek though he didn't stop looking +at me. I thought I would run away one day, and went out without my +basket, but after I had tried two whole days to get work and couldn't, I +went back. Mother Duda almost squeezed the heart out of me for joy, and +Hans went down on his knees and promised not to do or say anything more +that I didn't like. He even promised to go to work, but his work was of a +queer kind. It kept him in his little room and meant spending money, and +not getting it. Men came to see him and were locked up with him in his +little room. And if he went out, he locked the door and took the key +away, and said great times were coming and that I would be glad to marry +him some day, whether his neck was big or small. But I knew I shouldn't +and kept very close to Mother Duda and begged her to get me a new home, +and she promised and I was feeling happier, when one day Hans was called +out by a man and went away so fast that he forgot to lock his door, and +Mother Duda and I went into the room, and it was then that the thing +happened which spoiled all my life. I don't understand it. I never did, +for no one could tell me anything after that day. Mother Duda had gone +up to a table and was moving things about, trying to see what they were, +when everything turned black, the room shook, and I was whirling all +about, trying to take hold of things which seemed to be falling about me, +till I too fell. When I knew anything, there was lots of people looking +at me; people of the house, men, women, and children, but what was +strangest of all was the awful stillness. No one made any sound--nothing +made any sound, though I saw an old book-shelf tumble down from the wall +while I was looking, and people moved about and opened their lips and +seemed to be talking. Had Hans struck me again? I began to think so, and +got up from the floor where I was lying and tried to call out, but my +voice made no noise though people looked around as if it had, and I felt +an awful fright, not only for myself but for Mother Duda, who was being +carried out of the door by two men, and who did not move at all and who +never moved again. Poor Mother Duda, she was killed and I was deaf. I +knew it after a little while, but I don't know what did it; something +that Hans had; something that Mother Duda touched--a square something--I +had just caught a glimpse of it in Mother Duda's hand when the room flew +into a wreck and I became what I am now." + +"Dynamite," murmured Ransom; then paused and had a small struggle with +his heart, for she was looking up into his face, demanding sympathy with +Georgian's eyes; and being close together on the short seat, he could not +help but feel her shudders and share the intense excitement which choked +her. + +"Oh," she cried, as he laid his hand a moment on her arm and then took it +away again, "one minute to hear! the next to find the world all still, +always still,--a poor girl--not knowing how to read or write! But you +cannot care about that; you cannot care about me. It's sister you want +to hear about, how she came to find me; how we came here for new and +terrible things to happen; always for new and terrible things to happen +which I don't understand. + +"Hans never came back. All sorts of policemen came into the house, +doctors came, priests came, but no Hans. Mother Duda was buried, I rode +in a coach at the funeral, but still no Hans. The old life was over, and +when the food was all gone from the shelves, I took my little basket and +went out, not meaning to come back again. And I did not. I sold my basket +out; got a handful of pennies and went to the market to get something to +eat. Then I went into a park, where there were benches, and sat down to +rest. I did not know of any place to go to and began to cry, when a lady +stopped before me, and I looked up and saw myself. + +"I thought I was dreaming or had the fever again, as when I was sick with +my ear, and I thought it was myself as I would look in heaven, for she +had such beautiful clothes on and looked so happy. But when she talked, I +could see her lips move and I couldn't hear; and I knew that I was just +in the park with my empty basket and my onion and bread, and that the +lady was a lady and no one I knew, only so like what I had seen of myself +in the glass that I was shaking all over, and she was shaking all over, +and neither of us could look away. And still her lips moved, and seeing +her at last look frightened and angry that I didn't answer, I spoke and +said that I was deaf; that I was very sorry that I couldn't hear because +we looked so much alike, though she was a great lady and I was a very, +very poor girl who hadn't any home or any friends, or anything to wear or +eat but what she saw. At this her eyes grew bigger even than before, and +she tried to talk some more, and when I shook my head she took hold of my +arm and began drawing me away, and I went and we got on the cars, and she +took me to a house and into a room where she took away my basket and put +me in a chair, and took off first her hat, then my own, and showed me the +two heads in a glass, and then looked at me so hard that I cried out, +'Sister,' which made her jump up and put her hand on her heart, then look +at me again harder and harder, till I remembered way back in my life, and +I said: + +"'When I was a little girl I had a sister they called my twin. That was +before I lived in the woods with the gipsies. Are you that sister grown +up? The place where we played together had a tall fence with points at +the top. There were flowers and there were bushes with currants on them +all round the fence.' + +"She made a sudden move, and I felt her arms about my neck. I think she +cried a little. I didn't, I was too glad. I knew she was that sister the +moment our faces touched, and I knew she would care for me, and that I +needn't go back into the streets any more. So I kissed her and talked a +good deal and told her what I've been telling, and she tried to answer, +tried as you did to write, but all I could understand was that she meant +to keep me, but not in the place where we were, and that I was to go out +again. But she fixed me up a little before we went out, and she bought +me some things, so that I looked different. Then we went into another +house, where she talked with a woman for a long time, and then sat down +with me and moved her lips very patiently, motioning me to watch and try +to understand. But I was frightened and couldn't. So she gave up and, +kissing me, made motions with her hands which I understood better; she +wanted me to stay there while she went away, and I promised to if she +would come back soon. At this she took out her watch. I was pleased with +the watch, and she let me look at it, and inside against the cover I saw +a picture. You know whose it was." + +The depths to which her voice sank, the trembling of her tones, startled +Ransom. Had she been less unfortunate, he would have moved to a different +seat, but he could not show her a discourtesy after so pitiful a tale. +But the nod he gave her was a grave one, and her cheek flushed and her +head fell, as she softly added: "It was the first time I ever saw a face +I liked--you won't mind my saying so,--and I wanted to keep the watch, +but sister carried it away. She didn't tell me what it meant, her having +your picture where she could see it all the time, but when she came again +she made me know that you and she were married, by pointing at the +picture and then throwing something white over her head; I didn't ask for +the watch after that, but--" + +A far-away look, a trembling of her whole body, finished this ingenuous +confession. Ransom edged himself away and then was sorry for it, for her +lip quivered and her hands, from being quiet, began that nervous +interlacing of the fingers which bespeaks mental perturbation. + +"I am very ignorant," she faltered; "perhaps I have said something wrong. +I don't mean to, I want to be a good girl and please you, so that you +won't send me away now sister is gone. Ah, I know what you want," she +suddenly broke out, as he seized her by the arm and looked inquiringly at +her. "You want me to tell why I jumped out of the carriage that night and +vexed Georgian and was naughty and wouldn't speak to her. I can't, I +can't. You wouldn't like it if I did. But I'm sorry now, and will never +vex you, but do just what you want me to. Shall I go up-stairs now?" + +He shook his head. How could he let her go with so much unsaid? She had +talked frankly till she had reached the very place where his greatest +interest lay. Then she had suddenly shown shyness of her subject and +leaped the gap, as it were, to the present moment. How recall her to the +hour when she had seen Georgian for the second time? How urge her into a +description of those days succeeding his wife's flight from the hotel, of +which he had no account, save the feverish lines of the letter she had +sent him. He was racking his brain for some method of communicating his +wishes to Anitra, when he heard steps behind him, and, turning, saw the +clerk approaching him with a telegram. + +He glanced at her slyly as he took it. Somehow he couldn't get used to +her deafness, and expected her to give some evidence of surprise or +curiosity. But she was still studying her hands, and as his eyes lingered +on her downcast face he saw a tear well from her lids and wet the cheek +she held partly turned from him. He wanted to kiss that tear, but +refrained and opened his telegram instead. It was from Mr. Harper, and +ran thus: + + Expect a visitor. The man we know has left the St. Denis. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +IN MRS. DEO'S ROOM + + +A prey to fresh agitation, he stepped back to Anitra's side. Surely she +must understand that it was Georgian and not herself about whom he was +most anxious to hear. But she did not seem to. The smile with which she +greeted him suggested nothing of the past. It spoke only of the future. + +"I will learn to be like sister," she impulsively cried out, rising and +beaming brightly upon him. "I will forget the old gipsy ways and Mother +Duda's ways, and try to be nice and pretty like my sister. And you shall +learn me to read and write. I've known deaf people who learned. Then I +shall know what you think; now I only know how you feel." + +He shook his head, a little sadly, perhaps. There were people who could +teach her these arts, but not he. He had neither the ability, the +courage, nor the patience. + +"Then some one shall learn me," she loudly insisted, her cheek flushing +and her eye showing an angry spark. "I will not be ignorant always; I +will not, I will not." And turning, she fled from his side, and he was +left to think over her story and ask himself for the hundredth time what +it all meant, what his own sensations meant, and what would be the +outcome of conditions so complicated. + +The possibly speedy appearance on the scene of Georgian's so-called +brother did not detract from his difficulty. He felt helpless without +the support of Mr. Harper's presence, and spent a very troubled forenoon +listening to the mingled condolences and advice of people who had no +interest in his concerns save such as sprang from curiosity and a morbid +craving for excitement. + +At two o'clock occurred the event of which he had been forewarned. A +carriage drove up to the hotel and from it stepped two travelers; one +of them a stranger, the other the man with the twisted jaw. Mr. Ransom +advanced to meet the latter. He was anxious to listen to his first +inquiries and, if possible, be the person to answer them. + +He was successful in this. Mr. Hazen no sooner saw him than he accosted +him without ceremony. + +"What is this I hear and read about Georgian and her so-called twin?" he +cried. "Nothing that I can believe, I want you to know. Georgian may have +drowned herself. That is credible enough. But that the girl we read about +in the papers and whom she evidently induced to come to this place with +her should be the dead girl we called Anitra--why, that is all bosh--a +tale to deceive the public, and possibly you, but not one to deceive me. +The coincidence is much too improbable." + +"'There are stranger things in heaven and earth'"--quoted Ransom; but +Hazen was already in conversation with the group of hotel idlers who had +crowded up at sound of his loud voice. + +After a careful look which had taken in all of their faces, he had +approached one young fellow, covering the lower part of his face as he +did so. + +"Halloo! Yates," he called out. "Don't you remember the day we tied two +chickens together, leg to leg, and sent them tumbling down the hill back +of old Wylie's barn?" + +"Alf Hazen!" shouted the fellow, thus accosted. "Why, I thought you--" + +"Dead, eh? Of course you did. So did everybody else. But I've come to +life, you see. With sad marks of battle on me," he continued, dropping +his hand. "You all recognize me?" + +"Yes, yes," rose in one acclaim from a dozen or more throats after a +moment of awkward uncertainty. + +"I know the eyes," vigorously asserted one. + +"And the voice," chimed in another. After which rose a confused babel of +ejaculations and exclamatory questions, among which one could detect: + +"How did it happen, Alf?" "What took off your jaw?" and other equally +felicitous expressions. + +"I'll tell you all about that later," he replied, after silence had in a +measure been restored. "What I want to say now is this. Is it believable +that simultaneously with my own return from the grave another member of +my family should reappear before you from an older and much more certain +burying? I tell you no. The riddle is one which calls for quite another +solution and I have come to assist you in finding it." + +Here he cast a sinister glance at Ransom. + +The latter met the implied accusation with singular calmness. + +"Any assistance will be welcome," said he, "which will enable us to solve +this very serious problem." Then, as Hazen's lip curled, he added with +dignified candor, "I scorn to retort by throwing any doubt on your +assertion of relationship to my lost wife, or the possibility of these +good people being misled by your confident bearing and a possible +likeness about the eyes to the boy they knew. But one question I will +hazard, and that before we have gone a step further. Why does it seem so +credible to you that Georgian, a much loved and loving woman, should have +leaped to a watery death within a week of her marriage? You have just +stated that you found no difficulty in that. Does not that statement call +for some explanation? All your old friends here must see that this is my +due as well as hers." + +For an instant the man hesitated, but in that instant his hand slipped +from his mouth over which he had again laid it, and his whole face, with +its changed lines and the threatening, almost cruel expression which +these gave it, appeared in all its combined eagerness and force. A murmur +escaped the watchful group about him, but this affected him little. His +eyes, which he had fixed on Ransom, sharpened a trifle, perhaps, and his +tone grew a thought more sarcastic as he finally retorted: + +"I will explain myself to you but not to this crowd. And not to you till +I am sure of the facts which as yet have reached me only through the +newspapers. Let me hear a full account of what has transpired here since +you all came to town. I have an enormous interest in the matter;--a +family interest, as you are well aware for all your badly hidden +insinuations." + +"Follow me," was the quiet reply. "There is a room on this very floor +where we can talk undisturbed." + +Mr. Hazen cast a quick glance behind him at the man who had driven up +with him and whom nobody had noticed till now. Then without a word he +separated himself from the chattering group encircling him and stepped +after Mr. Ransom into the small room where the latter had held his first +memorable conversation with the lawyer. + +"Now," said he as the door swung to behind them, "plain language and not +too much of it. I have no time to waste, but the truth about Georgian I +must know." + +Ransom settled himself. He felt bound to comply with the other's request, +but he wished to make sure of not saying too much, or too little. Hazen's +attack had startled him. It revealed one of two things. Either this man +of mystery had assumed the offensive to hide his own connection with this +tragedy, or his antagonism was an honest one, springing from an utter +disbelief in the circumstances reported to him by the press and such +gossips as he had encountered on his way to Sitford. + +With the first possibility he felt himself unable to cope without the aid +of Mr. Harper; the second might be met with candor. Should he then be +candid with this doubter, relate to him the facts as they had unrolled +themselves before his own eyes;--secret facts--convincing ones--facts +which must prove to him that whether Georgian did or did not lie at the +bottom of the mill-stream, the woman now in the house was his sister +Anitra, lost to him and the rest of the family for many years, but now +found again and restored to her position as a Hazen and Georgian's twin. +The discovery might not prove welcome. It would have a tendency to throw +Mr. Hazen's own claim into the disrepute he would cast on hers. But this +consideration could have no weight with Mr. Ransom. He decided upon +candor at all costs. It suited his nature best, and it also suited the +strange and doubtful situation. Mr. Harper might have concluded +differently, but Mr. Harper was not there to give advice; and the matter +would not wait. Little as he understood this Hazen, he recognized that he +was not a man to trifle with. Something would have to be said or done. + +Meeting the latter's eye frankly, he remarked: + +"I have no wish to keep anything back from you. I am as much struck +as you are by the mystery of this whole occurrence. I was as hard to +convince. This is my story. It involves all that is known here with the +exception of such facts as have been kept from us by the three parties +directly concerned--of which three I consider you one." + +As the last four words fell from his lips he looked for some change, +slight and hardly perceptible perhaps, in the other's expression. But he +was doomed to disappointment. The steady regard held, nothing moved about +the man, not even the hand into which the poor disfigured chin had +fallen. Ransom suppressed a sigh. His task was likely to prove a blind +one. He had a sense of stumbling in the dark, but the gaze he had hoped +to see falter compelled him to proceed, and he told his story without +subterfuge or suppression. + +One thing, and only one thing, caused a movement in the set figure before +him. When he mentioned the will which Georgian had made a few hours prior +to her disappearance, Hazen's hand slipped aside from the wound it had +sought to cover, and Ransom caught sight of the sudden throb which +deepened its hue. It was the one infallible sign that the man was not +wholly without feeling, and it had sprung to life at an intimation +involving _money_. + +When his tale was quite finished, he rose. So did Hazen. + +"Let us see this girl," suggested the latter. + +It was the first word he had spoken since Ransom began his story. + +"She is up-stairs. I will go see--" + +"No, _we_ will go see. I particularly desire to take her unawares." + +Ransom offered no objection. Perhaps he felt interested in the experiment +himself. Together they left the room, together they went up-stairs. A +turmoil of questions followed them from the throng of men and boys +gathered in the halls, but they returned no answer and curiosity remained +unsatisfied. + +Once in the hall above, Ransom stopped a moment to deliberate. He could +not enter Anitra's room unannounced, and he could not make her hear by +knocking. He must find the landlady. + +He knew Mrs. Deo's room. He had had more than one occasion to visit it +during the last two days. With a word of explanation to Hazen, he passed +down the hall and tapped on the last door at the extreme left. No one +answered, but the door standing ajar, he pushed it quietly open, being +anxious to make sure that Mrs. Deo was not there. + +The next moment he was beckoning to Hazen. + +"Look!" said he, holding the door open with one hand and pointing with +the other to a young girl sitting on a low stool by the window, mending, +or trying to mend, a rent in her skirt. + +"Why, that's Georgian!" exclaimed Hazen, and hastily entering he +approached the anxious figure laboriously pushing her needle in and out +of the torn goods, and pricking herself more than once in the attempt. + +"Georgian!" he cried again and yet more emphatically, as he stepped up in +front of her. + +The young girl failed to notice. Awkwardly drawing her thread out to its +extreme length, she prepared to insert her needle again, when her eye +caught sight of his figure bending over her, and she looked up quietly +and with an air of displeasure, which pleased Ransom,--he could hardly +tell why. This was before her eyes reached his face; when they had, it +was touching to see how she tried to hide the shock caused by its +deformity, as she said with a slight gesture of dismissal: + +"I'm quite deaf. I cannot hear what you say. If it is the landlady you +want, she has gone down-stairs for a minute; perhaps, to the kitchen." + +He did not retreat, if anything he approached nearer, and Ransom was +surprised to observe the force and persuasive power of his expression +as he repeated: + +"No nonsense, Georgian," opening and shutting his hands as he spoke, in +curious gesticulations which her eye mechanically followed but which +seemed to convey no meaning to her, though he evidently expected them to +and looked surprised (Ransom almost thought baffled) when she shook her +head and in a sweet, impassive way reiterated: + +"I cannot hear and I do not understand the deaf and dumb alphabet. I'm +sorry, but you'll have to go to some one else. I'm very unfortunate. I +have to mend this dress and I don't know how." + +Hazen, who could hardly tear his eyes from her face, fell slowly back as +she painfully and conscientiously returned to her task. "Good God!" he +murmured, as his eye sought Ransom's. "What a likeness!" Then he looked +again at the girl, at the wave of her raven black hair breaking into +little curls just above her ear; at the smooth forehead rendered so +distinguished by the fine penciling of her arching brows; at the delicate +nose with nostrils all alive to the beating of an over-anxious heart; at +the mouth, touching in its melancholy so far beyond her years; and lastly +at the strong young figure huddled on the little stool; and bending +forward again, he uttered two or three quick sentences which Ransom could +not catch. + +His persistence, or the near approach of his face to hers, angered her. +Rising quickly to her feet, she vehemently cried out: + +"Go away from here. It is not right to keep on talking to a deaf girl +after she has told you she cannot hear you." Then catching sight of +Ransom, who had advanced a step in his sympathy for her, she gave a +little sigh of relief and added querulously: + +"Make this man go away. This is the landlady's room. I don't like to have +strangers talk to me. Besides--" here her voice fell, but not so low as +to be inaudible to the subject of her remark, "he's not pretty. I've seen +enough of men and women who are--" + +At this point Ransom drew Hazen out into the hall. + +"What do you think now?" he demanded. + +Hazen did not reply. The room they had just left seemed to possess a +strange fascination for him. He continued to look back at it as he +preceded Ransom down the hall. Ransom did not press his questions, but +when they were on the point of separating at the head of the stairs, he +held Hazen back with the words: + +"Let us come to some understanding. Neither of us can desire to waste +strength in wrong conclusions. Can that woman be other than your own +sister?" + +"No." The denial was absolute. "She is my sister." + +"Anitra?" emphasized Ransom. + +The smile which he received in reply was strangely mirthless. + +"I never rush to conclusions," was Hazen's remark after a moment of +possibly mutual heart-beat and unsettling suspense. "Ask me that same +question to-morrow. Perhaps by then I shall be able to answer you." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +BETWEEN THE ELDERBERRY BUSHES + + +"No." + +The word came from Ransom. He had reached the end of his patience and was +determined to have it out with this man on the spot. + +"Come into my room," said he. "If you doubt her, you doubt me; and in the +present stress of my affairs this demands an immediate explanation." + +"I have no time to enter your room, and I cannot linger here any longer +talking on a subject which at the present moment is not clear to either +of us," was the resolute if not quite affable reply. "Later, when my +conclusions are made, I will see you again. Now I am going to eat and +refresh myself. Don't follow me; it will do you no good." + +He turned to descend. Ransom had an impulse to seize him by his twisted +throat and drag from him the secret which his impassive features refused +to give up. But Ransom was no fool and, stepping back out of the way of +temptation, he allowed him to escape without further parley. + +Then he went to his room. But, after an hour or two spent with his own +thoughts, his restlessness became so great that he sought the gossips +below for relief. He found them all clustered about Hazen, who was +reeling off stories by the mile. This was unendurable to him and he was +striding off, when Hazen burst away from his listeners and, joining +Ransom, whispered in his ear: + +"I saw her go by the window just now on her way up-street. What can she +find there to interest her? Where is she going?" + +"I don't know. She doesn't consult me as to her movements. Probably she +has gone for a walk. She looks as if she needs it." + +"So do you," was the unexpected retort given by Hazen, as he stepped back +to rejoin his associates. + +Ransom paused, watching him askance in doubt of the suggestion, in doubt +of the man, in doubt of himself. Then he yielded to an impulse stronger +than any doubt and slipped out into the highway, where he turned, as she +had turned, up-street. + +But not without a struggle. He hated himself for his puppet-like +acceptance of the hint given him by a man he both distrusted and +disliked. He felt his dignity impaired and his self-confidence shaken, +yet he went on, following the high road eagerly and watching with wary +eye for the first glimpse of the slight figure which was beginning to +make every scene alive to him. + +It had rained heavily and persistently the last time he came this way, +but to-day the sun was shining with a full radiance, and the trees +stretching away on either side of the road were green with the tender +tracery of early leafage; a joy-compelling sight which may have accounted +for the elasticity of his step as he ascended one small hill after +another in the wake of a fluttering skirt. + +It was the cemetery road, and odd as the fancy was, he felt that he +should overtake her at the old gate, behind which lay so many of her +name. Here he had seen her name before its erasement from the family +monument, and here he should see--could he say Anitra if he found her +bending over those graves; the woman who could not hear, who could not +read,--whose childish memory, if she had any in connection with this +spot, could not be distinct enough or sufficiently intelligent to guide +her to this one plot? No. Human credulity can go far, but not so far as +that. He knew that all his old doubts would return if, on entering the +cemetery, he found her under the brown shaft carved with the name of +Hazen. + +The test was one he had not sought and did not welcome. Yet he felt +bound, now that he recognized it as such, to see it through and accept +its teaching for what it surely would be worth. Only he began to move +with more precaution and studied more to hide his approach than to give +any warning of it. + +The close ranks of the elderberry bushes lining the fences on the final +hill-top lent themselves to the concealment he now sought. As soon as he +was sure of her having left the road he drew up close to these bushes and +walked under them till he was almost at the gate. Then he allowed himself +to peer through their close branches and received an unexpected shock at +seeing her figure standing very near him, posed in an uncertainty which, +for some reason, he had not expected, but which restored him to himself, +though why he had not the courage, the time, nor the inclination to ask. + +She was babbling in a low tone to herself, an open sesame to her mind, +which Ransom hailed with a sense of awe. If only he might distinguish the +words! But this was difficult; not only was her head turned partly away, +but she spoke in a murmur which was far from distinct. Yet--yes, that one +sentence was plain enough. She had muttered musingly, anxiously, and with +a searching look among the graves: + +"It was on this side. I know it was on this side." + +Watching her closely lest some chance glance of hers should stray his +way, he listened still more intently and was presently rewarded by +catching another sentence. + +"A single grave all by itself. I fell over it and my mother scolded me, +saying it was my father's. There was a bush near it. A bush with white +flowers on it. I tried to pick some." + +Ransom's heart was growing lighter and lighter. She did not even know +that there had been placed over that grave a monument with her name on it +and that of the mother who had scolded her for tripping over her father's +sod. Only Anitra could be so ignorant or expect to find a grave by means +of a bush blooming with flowers fifteen years ago. As she went wandering +on, peering to right and left, he thought of Hazen and his doubts, and +wished that he were here beside him to mark her perplexity. + +When quite satisfied that she would never find what she sought without +help, Ransom stepped from his hiding-place and joined her among the +grassy hillocks. The start of pleasure she gave and her almost childish +look of relief warmed his heart, and it was with a smile he waited for +her to speak. + +"My father's grave!" she explained. "I was looking for my father's grave. +I remember my mother taking me to it when I was little. There was a bush +close by it--oh! I see what you think. The bush would be big now--I +forgot that. And something else! You are thinking of something else. Oh, +I know, I know. He wouldn't be lying alone any more. My mother must have +died, or sister would have taken me to her. There ought to be two +graves." + +He nodded, and taking her by the hand led her to the family monument. She +gazed at it for a moment, amazed, then laid her finger on one of the +inscriptions. + +"My father's name?" she asked. + +He nodded. + +She hung her head thoughtfully for a moment, then slipping to the other +side of the stone laid her hand on another. + +"My mother's?" + +Again he signified yes. + +"And this? Is this sister's name? No, she's not buried yet. I had a +brother. Is it his?" + +Ransom bowed. How tell her that it was a false inscription and that the +man whose death it commemorated was not only alive but had only a little +while before spoken to her. + +"I didn't like my brother. He was cruel and liked to hurt people. I'm +glad he's dead." + +Ransom drew her away. Her frankness was that of a child, but it produced +an uncomfortable feeling. He didn't like this brother either, and in this +thoughtless estimate of hers he seemed to read a warning to which his own +nature intuitively responded. + +"Come!" he motioned, leading the way out. + +She followed with a smile, and together they entered the highway. As they +did so, Ransom caught sight of a man speeding down the hill before them +on a bicycle. He had not come front the upper road, or they would have +seen him as he flew past the gateway. Where had he come from, then? From +the peep-hole where Ransom himself had stood a few minutes before. No +other conclusion was possible, and Ransom felt both angry and anxious +till he could find out who the man was. This he did not succeed in doing +till he reached the hotel. There a bicycle leaning against a tree gave +point to his questions, and he learned that it belonged to a clerk in one +of the small stores near by, but that the man who had just ridden it up +and down the road on a trial of speed was the stranger who had just come +to town with Mr. Hazen. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +ON THE CARS + + +This episode, which to Ransom's mind would bear but one interpretation, +gave him ample food for thought. He decided to be more circumspect in the +future and to keep an eye out for inquisitive strangers. Not that he had +any thing to conceal, but no man enjoys having his proceedings watched, +especially where a woman is concerned. + +That Hazen was antagonistic to him he had always known; but that he was +regarded by him with suspicion he had not realized till now. Hazen +suspicious of _him_! that meant what? He wished that he had Mr. Harper +at his side to enlighten him. + +It was now five o'clock and he was sitting in his room awaiting the usual +report from the river, when a quick tap at his door was followed by the +entrance of the very man he was thinking about. He rose eagerly to +receive him, determined, however, to allow no inconsiderate impulse to +drive him into unnecessary speech. + +"I have already said too much," he reminded himself in self-directed +monition. "It's time he did some of the talking." + +Hazen seemed willing enough to do this. Taking the seat proffered him, he +opened the conversation as follows: + +"Mr. Ransom, I have been doing you an injustice. I do not consider it +necessary to tell you just how I have found this out, but I am now +convinced that you are as much in the dark as myself in regard to this +unfortunate affair, and are as willing as I am to take all justifiable +means to enlighten yourself. I own that at first I thought it more than +probable you were in collusion with the girl here to deceive me. That I +wouldn't stand. I'm glad to find you as truly a victim of this mystery as +myself." + +Ransom straightened himself. + +"If this is an apology," he returned, "I am willing to accept it in the +spirit in which it is proffered. But I should like something more than +apology from you. Candor for candor;--your whole story in return for +mine." + +"I'm afraid it would be a trifle tedious,--my whole story," smiled Hazen. +"If you mean such part of it as concerns Georgian's peculiar actions and +the complications with which we are at this moment struggling, I can only +repeat what I have already told you, both at the St. Denis in New York +and here. I am Georgian's returned brother, saved from the jaws of hell +to see my own country again. I arrived in New York on the tenth. +Naturally, after securing a room at the hotel, I took up the papers. They +were full of the approaching marriage of Miss Hazen. I recognized my +sister's name, though not her splendor, for we were the sole survivors of +a poor country family and I knew nothing of the legacy I am now told she +received. Anxious to see her, I attended the ceremony. She recognized me. +I had not expected this, and feeling old affections revive, I followed +her friends to the house and was presented to them and to you. What +I whispered to her on this occasion were my assumed name and the place +where I was to be found. My changed countenance called for explanations, +for which a bridal reception offered no opportunity. Besides, as I have +already said, I stood in sore need of a definite amount of money. I meant +her to come and see me, but I did not expect her to play a trick on you +in order to do so. This had its birth in the to me unaccountable mystery +embodied in the girl you call Anitra, but whom I'm not ready yet to name. +For when I do, action must follow conviction and that without mercy or +delay." + +"Action?" repeated Ransom, with quick suspicion and a confused rush of +contradictory visions in his mind. "What do you mean by that?" + +Hazen covered his chin with his hand. + +"I will try and explain," he replied. "If I am abrupt in my language, it +is owing to the exigencies of the case. I have no time to waste and no +disposition to whitewash a rough piece of work. To speak to the point, I +have an intense interest in my sister Georgian. I have little or none in +my sister Anitra. Georgian's intelligence, good-will, and command of +money would be of inestimable benefit to me. Anitra, on the contrary, +could be nothing but a burden, unless--" here he cast a very sharp glance +at Ransom--"unless Georgian should have been sufficiently considerate to +leave her a good share of her fortune in the will you say she made just +before her disappearance and supposed death." + +"That I can say nothing about," rejoined Ransom in answer to this feeler. +"The will is in the hands of her lawyer, but if it will help your +argument any we will suppose that she left her sister to the care of her +friends without any especial provision for her in the way of money." + +The steady fingers clutching the scarred neck loosed their grip to wave +this supposition aside. + +"A hardly supposable case," was the cold comment with which he +supplemented this disclaimer; "but one which would make the girl a burden +indeed; a burden which for many reasons I could not assume." Here he +struck himself sharply on the neck, with the first display of passion he +had shown. "My advantages are not such as to make it easy for me to +support myself. It would be simply impossible for me to undertake the +care of any girl, least of all of one with a manifest infirmity." + +"Anitra will prosper without your care," replied Ransom, overlooking the +heartlessness of the man in the mad, unaccountable sense of relief with +which he listened to his withdrawal from concerns for which he showed so +little sympathy. "There are others who will be glad to do all that can be +done for Georgian's forsaken sister." + +"Yes. That is all right, but--" Here Hazen squared himself across the top +of the table before which he had been sitting; "I must be made sure that +the facts have been rightly represented to me and that the girl now in +this house _is_ Georgian's deserted sister. I'm not yet satisfied that +she is, and I must be convinced not only on this point but on many +others, before this day is over. Business of great importance calls me +back to the city and, it may be, out of the country. I may never be able +to spend another day on purely personal affairs, so this one must tell. I +have a scheme (it is a very simple one) which, if carried out as I have +planned, will satisfy me as nothing else will as to the identity of the +girl we will call, from lack of positive knowledge, Anitra. Will you help +me in its furtherance? It lies with you to do so." + +"First, your reasons for doubting the girl," retorted Ransom. "They must +be excellent ones for you to resist the evidence of such conclusive +proofs as you have yourself been witness to since entering this house. I +am Georgian's husband. I have the strongest wish in the world to see her +again at my side; yet with the exception of her wonderful likeness to my +wife, I find nothing in this raw if beautiful girl, of the polished, +highly trained woman I married. I have not even succeeded in startling +her ear--something which I should have been able to do if she were not +the totally deaf woman she appears. Confide to me then your reasons for +demanding additional proofs of her identity. If they carry conviction +with them, I will aid you in any scheme you can propose which will +neither frighten nor afflict her." + +Hazen rose to his feet. Narrow as the room was, he yielded to his +restless desire to move about and began pacing up and down the restricted +quarters bounded by the edge of the table and the door. Not until he had +made the second turning did he speak; then it was with seeming openness. + +"It's like putting the torch to my last ship," said he; "but this is no +time to hesitate. Mr. Ransom, I do not trust my eyes, I do not trust my +ears, nor your eyes, nor your ears, nor those of any one here, because I +have talked with a man who was on the same train with my sisters. He +noticed them because of their similar appearance and close intimacy. +They were not dressed alike, but they were veiled alike and one did not +move without the other. More than that, they not only walked about the +various stations where they waited, arm in arm, but they sat thus closely +joined in the cars all the way from New York. This interested him +especially as he noted great anxiety and incessant movement in the one, +and complete passiveness in the other. She who sat in the outer seat was +watchful, busy, and ready to press the other's arm at the least +provocation, but if either spoke it was always the other. It was not till +the quick rush and shrill whistle of a passing train made one start and +not the other, that he got the idea that one of them was deaf. As this +was the one by the window, he felt that their peculiar actions were now +accounted for, and indeed thus far it all tallied with what we might +expect from Georgian traveling with the hapless Anitra. But there +remained a fact to be told, which rouses doubt. When they reached +G---- and he saw from their quick rising that they were about to leave +the train, he naturally glanced their way again, and this time he caught +a glimpse of the inner one's neck. Her veil had become slightly +disarranged, exposing the whole nape. It was unexpectedly dark, almost +brunette in color, and quite devoid of delicacy; such a skin as one might +look for in the gipsy Anitra after years of outdoor living and a long +lack of nice personal attention, but not such as I saw and admired a few +hours ago on the neck of the woman bending over her work in the +landlady's room. Oh, I recognized the difference; I have an eye for +necks." + +He paused, coming to a standstill in the middle of the room, to see what +effect his words had had on Ransom. + +"I have that man's name," he continued, "and can produce him if I have +time and it seems to be necessary. But I had rather come to my own +decision without any outside interference. This is not an affair for +public gossip or newspaper notoriety. It is a question of justice to +myself. If this girl is Georgian--" His whole face changed. For a moment +Ransom hardly knew him. The quiet, self-contained man seemed to have +given way to one of such unexpected power and threat that Ransom rose +instinctively to his feet in recognition of a superiority he could no +longer deny. + +The action seemed to recall Hazen to himself. He wheeled about and +recommenced his quiet pacing to and fro. + +"I beg pardon," he quietly finished. "If it is Georgian, she must stand +my friend. That is all I was going to say. If it is, against all reason +and probability, her strangely restored twin, I shall leave this house by +midnight, never probably to see any of you again. So you perceive that it +is incumbent upon us to work promptly. Are you ready to hear what I have +to propose?" + +"Yes." + +Hazen paused again, this time in front of the door. Laying his hand +lightly on one of the panels, he glanced back at Ransom. + +"You are nicely placed here for observation. Your door directly faces the +hall she must traverse in returning to her room." + +"That's quite true." + +"She's in her room now. Ah, you know that?" + +"Yes." Ransom seemed to have no other word at his command. + +"Will she come out again before night to eat or to visit?" + +"There's no telling. She's very fitful. No one can prophesy what she +will do. Sometimes she eats in the landlady's room, sometimes in her +own, sometimes not at all. If you have frightened her, or she has been +disturbed in any way by your companion who shows such interest in her +and in me, she probably will not come out at all." + +"But she must. I expect you to see that she does. Use any messenger, any +artifice, but get her away from this hall for ten minutes, even if it is +only into Mrs. Deo's room. When she returns I shall be on my knees before +this keyhole to watch her and observe. To see what, I do not mean to tell +you, but it will be something which will definitely settle for me this +matter of identity. Does this plan look sufficiently harmless to meet +with your approval?" + +"Yes, but looks cannot always be trusted. I must know just what you mean +to do. I will leave nothing to a mind and hand I do not trust any more +fully than I do yours. You are too eager for Georgian's money; too little +interested in herself; _and you are too sly in your ways_. I overlooked +this when you had the excuse of a possible distrust of myself. But now +that your confidence is restored in me, now that you recognize the fact +that I stand outside of this whole puzzling affair and have no other wish +than to know the truth about it and do my duty to all parties concerned, +secrecy on your part means more than I care to state. If you persist in +it I shall lend myself to nothing that you propose, but wait for time to +substantiate her claim or prove its entire falsity." + +"You will!" + +The words rang out involuntarily. It almost seemed as if the man would +spring with them straight at the other's throat. But he controlled +himself, and smiling bitterly, added: + +"I know the marks of human struggle. I have read countenances from my +birth. I've had to, and only one has baffled me--_hers_. But we are going +to read that too and very soon. We are going to learn, you and I, what +lies behind that innocent manner and her rude, uncultivated ways. We are +going to sound that deafness. I say _we_," he impressively concluded, +"because I have reconsidered my first impulse and now propose to allow +you to participate openly, and without the secrecy you object to, in all +that remains to be done to make our contemplated test a success. Will +that please you? May I count on you now?" + +"Yes," replied Ransom, returning to his old monosyllable. + +"Very well, then, see if you can make a scrawl like this." + +Pulling a piece of red chalk from his pocket, he drew a figure of a +somewhat unusual character on the bare top of the table between them; +then he handed the chalk over to Ransom, who received it with a stare of +wonder not unmixed with suspicion. + +"I'm not an adept at drawing," said he, but made his attempt, +notwithstanding, and evidently to Hazen's satisfaction. + +"You'll do," said he. "That's a mystic symbol once used by Georgian +and myself in place of our names in all mutual correspondence, and +on the leaves of our school-books and at the end of our exercises. It +meant nothing, but the boys and girls we associated with thought it did +and envied us the free-masonry it was supposed to cover. A ridiculous +make-believe which I rate at its full folly now, but one which cannot +fail to arouse a hundred memories in Georgian. We will scrawl it on +her door, or rather you shall, and according to the way she conducts +herself on seeing it, we shall know in one instant what you with your +patience and trust in time may not be able to arrive at in weeks." + +Ransom recalled some of the tests he had himself employed, many of which +have been omitted from this history, and shrugged his shoulders mentally, +if not physically. If Hazen noted this evidence of his lack of faith, he +remained entirely unaffected by it, and in a few minutes everything had +been planned between them for the satisfactory exercise of what Hazen +evidently regarded as a crucial experiment. Ransom was about to proceed +to take the first required step, when they heard a disturbance in front, +and the coach came driving up with a great clatter and bang and from it +stepped the lean, well-groomed figure of Mr. Harper. + +"Bah!" exclaimed Hazen with a violent gesture of disappointment. "There +comes your familiar. Now I suppose you will cry off." + +"Not necessarily," returned Ransom. "But this much is certain. I shall +certainly consult him before hazarding this experiment. I am not so sure +of myself or--pardon me--of yourself as to take any steps in the dark +while I have at hand so responsible a guide as the man whom you choose to +call my familiar." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A SUSPICIOUS TEST + + +"Let him make his experiment. It will do no harm, and if it rids us of +him, well and good." + +Such was Mr. Harper's decision after hearing all that Mr. Ransom had to +tell him of the present situation. + +"His disappointment when he learns that he has nothing to hope for from +his sister's generosity calls for some consideration from us," proceeded +the lawyer. "Go and have your little talk with the landlady or take +whatever other means suggest themselves for luring this girl from her +room. I will summon Hazen and hold him very closely under my eye till the +whole affair is over. He shall get no chance for any hocus-pocus +business, not while I have charge of your interests. He shall do just +what he has laid out for himself and nothing more; you may rely on that." + +Ransom expressed his satisfaction, and left the room with a lighter heart +than he had felt since Hazen came upon the scene. He did not know that +all he had been through was as nothing to what lay before him. + +It was an hour before he returned. When he did, it was to find Hazen and +the lawyer awaiting him in ill-concealed impatience. These two were much +too incongruous in tastes and interests to be very happy in a forced and +prolonged tete-a-tete. + +"Have you done it?" exclaimed Hazen, leaping eagerly to his feet as the +door closed softly behind Ransom. "Is she out of her room? I have +listened and listened for her step, but could not be sure of it. There +seem to be a lot of people in the house to-night." + +"Too many," quoth Ransom. "That is why I couldn't get hold of Mrs. Deo +any sooner. Anitra is having her hair brushed or something else of equal +importance done for her in one of the rear rooms. So we can proceed +fearlessly. Have you looked to see if you can get a good glimpse of her +door through the keyhole of this one?" + +"Haven't you already made a trial of that? Then do so now," suggested +Hazen, drawing out the key and laying it on the table. + +But this was too uncongenial a task for Ransom. + +"I shall be satisfied," said he, "if Mr. Harper tells me that it can." + +"It can," asserted that gentleman, falling on his knees and adjusting his +eye to the keyhole. "Or rather, you can see plainly the face of any one +approaching it. I don't suppose any of us expected to see the door +itself." + +"No, it is not the door, but the woman entering the door, we want to see. +Did you ask for an extra lamp?" + +"Yes, and saw it placed. It is on a small table almost opposite her +room." + +"Then everything is ready." + +"All but the mark which I am to put on the panel." + +"Very good. Here is the chalk. Let us see what you mean to do with it +before you risk an attempt on the door itself." + +Ransom thought a minute, then with one quick twist produced the +following: + +[Illustration] + +"Correct," muttered Hazen, with what Harper thought to be a slight but +unmistakable shudder. "One would think you had been making use of this +very cabalistic sign all your life." + +"Then _one_ would be mistaken. I have simply a true eye and a ready +hand." + +"And a very remarkable memory. You have recalled every little line and +quirk." + +"That's possible. What I have made once I can make the second time. It's +a peculiarity of mine." + +There was no mistaking the continued intensity of Hazen's gaze. Ransom +felt his color rise, but succeeded in preserving his quiet tone, as he +added: + +"Besides, this character is not a wholly new one to me. My attention was +called to it months ago. It was when I was courting Georgian. She was +writing a note one day when she suddenly stopped to think and I saw her +pen making some marks which I considered curious. But I should not have +remembered them five minutes, if she had not impulsively laid her hand +over them when she saw me looking. That fixed the memory of them in my +mind, and when I saw this combination of lines again, I remembered it. +That is why I lent myself so readily to this experiment. I lent that what +you said about her acquaintance with this odd arrangement of lines was +true." + +Hazen's hand stole up to his neck, a token of agitation which Ransom +should have recognized by this time. + +"And her account of the use we made of it tallied with mine?" + +"She gave me no account of any use she had ever made of it." + +"That was because you didn't ask her." + +"Just so. Why should I ask her? It was a small matter to trouble her +about." + +"You are right," acquiesced Hazen, wheeling himself away towards the +window. Then after a momentary silence, "It was so then, but it is likely +to prove of some importance now. Let me see if the hall is empty." + +As he bent to open the door, the lawyer, who had not moved nor spoken +till now, turned a quick glance on Ransom and impulsively stretched out +his hand. But he dropped it very quickly and subsided into his old +attitude of simple watchfulness, as Hazen glanced back with the remark: + +"There's nobody stirring; now's your time, Ransom." + +The moment for action had arrived. + +Ransom stepped into the hall. As he passed Hazen, the latter whispered: + +"Don't forget that last downward quirk. That was the line she always +emphasized." + +Ransom gave him an annoyed look. His nerves as well as his feelings were +on a keen stretch, and this persistence of Hazen's was more than he could +bear. + +"I'll not forget the least detail," he answered shortly, and passed +quickly down the hall, while Hazen watched him through the crack of the +door, and the lawyer watched Hazen. + +Suddenly Mr. Harper's brow wrinkled. Hazen had uttered such a sigh of +relief that the lawyer was startled. In another moment Ransom re-entered +the room. + +"She's coming," said he, striving to hide his extreme emotion. "I heard +her voice in the hall beyond." + +Hazen sprang to the door which Ransom had carefully closed, and was about +to fall on his knees before the keyhole when he suddenly stiffened +himself and, turning towards the lawyer, cried with a new strain of +loftiness in his tone: + +"You. You shall do the looking, only promise to be very minute in your +description of her behavior. It's a great trust I repose in you. See that +you honor it." + +The revulsion of feeling caused in the lawyer by this show of confidence +was not perceptible. But it softened his step as well as his manner as he +crossed to do the other's bidding. + +The remaining two stood at his side breathless, waiting for his first +word. + +It came in a whisper: + +"She's approaching her room. She looks tired. Her eyes are stealing this +way;--no, they are resting on her own door. She sees the sign. She stands +staring at it, but not like a person who has ever seen it before. It's +the stare of an uneducated woman who runs upon something she does not +understand. Now she touches it with one finger and glances up and down +the hall with a doubtful shake of the head. Now she is running to another +door, now to another. She is looking to see if this scrawl is to be found +anywhere else; she even casts her eye this way--I feel like leaving my +post. If I do, you may know that she's coming--No, she's back at her own +door and--gentlemen, her bringing up or rather coming up asserts itself. +She has put her palm to her mouth and is vigorously rubbing off the +marks." + +The next instant Mr. Harper rose. "She's gone into her room," said he. +"Listen and you will hear her key click in the lock." + +Ransom sank into a seat; Hazen had walked to the window. Presently he +turned. + +"I am convinced," said he. "I will not trouble you gentlemen further. +Mr. Ransom, I condole with you upon your loss. My sister was a woman of +uncommon gifts." + +Mr. Ransom bowed. He had no words for this man at a moment of such +extreme excitement. He did not even note the latent sting hidden in the +other's seeming tribute to Georgian. But the lawyer did and Hazen +perceived that he did, for pausing in his act of crossing the room, he +leaned for a moment on the table with his eyes down, then quickly +raising them remarked to that gentleman: + +"I am going to leave by the midnight train for New York. To-morrow I +shall be on the ocean. Will it be transgressing all rules of propriety +for me to ask the purport of my sister's will? It is a serious matter to +me, sir. If she has left me anything--" + +"She has _not_," emphasized the lawyer. + +A shadow darkened the disappointed man's brow. His wound swelled and his +eyes gleamed ironically as he turned them upon Ransom. + +Instantly that gentleman spoke. + +"I have received but a moiety," said he. "You need not envy me the +amount." + +"Who has it then?" briskly demanded the startled man. "Who? who? _She?_" + +Mr. Harper never knew why he did it. He was reserved as a man and, +usually, more than reserved as a lawyer, but as Hazen lifted his hands +from the table and turned to leave, he quietly remarked: + +"The chief legatee--the one she chose to leave the bulk of her very large +fortune to--is a man we none of us know. His name is Josiah Auchincloss." + +The change which the utterance of this name caused in Hazen's expression +threw them both into confusion. + +"Why didn't you tell me that in the beginning?" he cried. "I needn't have +wasted all this time and effort." + +His eyes shone, his poor lips smiled, his whole air was jubilant. Both +Mr. Harper and his client surveyed him in amazement. The lines so fast +disappearing from his brow were beginning to reappear on theirs. + +"Mr. Harper," this hard-to-be-understood man now declared, "you may +safely administer the estate of my sister. She is surely dead." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A STARTLING DECISION + + +Before Mr. Ransom and the lawyer had recovered from their astonishment, +Hazen had slipped from the room. As Mr. Harper started to follow, he saw +the other's head disappearing down the staircase leading to the office. +He called to him, but Hazen declined to turn. + +"No time," he shouted back. "I shall have to make use of somebody's +automobile now, to get to the Ferry in time." + +The lawyer did not persist, not at that moment; he went back to his +client and they had a few hurried words; then Mr. Harper went below and +took up his stand on the portico. He was determined that Hazen should not +leave the place without some further explanation. + +It was light where he stood and he very soon felt that this would not +do, so he slipped back into the shade of a pillar, and seeing, from the +bustle, that Hazen was likely to obtain the use of the one automobile +stored in the stable, he waited with reasonable patience for his +reappearance in the road before him. + +Meanwhile he had confidence in Ransom, who he felt sure was watching +them both from the window overhead. If he should fail in getting in +the word he wanted, Ransom was pledged to shout it out without regard +to appearances. But this was not likely to occur. He knew his own +persistency to equal Hazen's. Nothing should stop the momentary interview +he had promised himself. + +Ah! A well-known whirr and clatter is heard. The automobile was leaving +the stable. Hazen was already in it and the man who had come up from New +York was with him. This was bad; they would flash by--No; he would not be +balked thus. Stepping out into the road, he stopped full in the glare of +the office lights and held up his hand. They could not but see him and +they did. The chauffeur reversed the lever and the machine stopped to +the accompaniment of low muttered oaths from Hazen, which were rather +disagreeable than otherwise to Harper's ear. + +"One word," said he, approaching to the side where Hazen sat. "I thought +you ought to know before leaving that we can take no proceedings in the +matter we were speaking of till we have undisputed proof that your sister +is dead. That we may not get for a long time, possibly never. If you are +interested in having this Auchincloss receive his inheritance, you had +better prepare both yourself and him for a long wait. The river seems +slow to give up its dead." + +The quiver of impatience which had shaken Hazen at the first word had +settled into a strange rigidity. + +"One moment," he said in a command to the chauffeur at his side. Then in +a low, strangely sounding whisper to Harper: "They think the body's in +the Devil's Cauldron. Nothing can get it out if it is. Would some proof +of its presence there be sufficient to settle the fact of her death?" + +"That would depend. If the proof was unmistakable, it might pass in the +Surrogate's Court. What is the matter, Hazen?" + +"Nothing." The tone was hollow; the whole man sat like an image of death. +"I--I'm thinking--weighing--" he uttered in scattered murmurs. Then +suddenly, "You're not deceiving me, Harper. Some proof will be necessary, +and that very soon, for this man Auchincloss to realize the money?" + +"Yes," the monosyllable was as dry as it was short. Harper's patience +with this unnatural brother was about at an end. + +"And who will venture to obtain this proof for us? No one. Not even +Ransom would venture down into that watery hole. They say it is almost +certain death," babbled Hazen. + +Harper kept silence. Strange forces were at work. The head of another +gruesome tragedy loomed vaguely through the shadows of this already +sufficiently tragic mystery. + +"Go on!" suddenly shouted Hazen, leaning forward to the chauffeur. But +the next instant his hand was on the man's sleeve. "No, I have changed my +mind. Here, Staples," he called out as a man came running down the steps, +"take my bag and ask the landlady to prepare me a room. I'll not try for +the train to-night." Then as the man at his side leaped to the ground, he +turned to Harper and remarked quietly, but in no common tone: + +"The steamer must sail without me. I'll stay in this place a while and +prove the death of Georgian Ransom myself." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE DEVIL'S CAULDRON + + +The solemnity of Hazen's whole manner impressed Mr. Harper strongly. As +soon as the opportunity offered he cornered the young man in the office +where he had taken refuge, and giving him to understand that further +explanations must pass between them before either slept, he drew him +apart and put the straight question to him: + +"Who is Josiah Auchincloss?" + +The answer was abrupt, almost menacing in its emphasis and tone. + +"A trunk-maker in St. Louis. A man she was indebted to." + +"How indebted to--a trunk-maker?" + +"That I cannot, do not desire to state. It is enough that she felt she +owed him the bulk of her fortune. Though this eliminates me from benefits +of a wealth I had some rights to share, I make no complaint. She knew her +business best, and I am disposed to accept her judgment in the matter +without criticism." + +"You are?" The tone was sharp, the sarcasm biting. "I can understand +that. For Auchincloss, in this will, read Hazen; but how about her +husband? How about her friends and the general community? Do you not +think they will ask why a beautiful and socially well-placed young woman +like your sister should leave so large a portion of her wealth to an +obscure man in another town, of whom her friends and even her business +agent have never heard? It would have been better if she had left you her +thousands directly." + +The smile which was Hazen's only retort was very bitter. + +"You drew up her will," said he. "You must have reasoned with her on this +very point as you are now trying to reason with me?" + +The lawyer waved this aside. + +"I didn't know at that time the social status of the legatee; nor did I +know her brother then as well as I do now." + +"You do not know me now." + +"I know that you are very pale; that the determination you have just made +has cost you more than you perhaps are willing to state. That there is +mystery in your past, mystery in your present, and, possibly, mystery +threatening your future, and all in connection with your great desire for +this money." + +Hazen made a forcible gesture, but whether of denial or depreciation, it +was not easy to decide. + +"Would it not then be better for all parties," pursued the lawyer, "for +you to give me some idea of the great obligation under which your sister +lay to this man, that I may have an answer ready when people ask me why +she passed you so conspicuously by, in order to enrich this stranger?" + +"The story is not mine. Had she wished you to know it, she would have +confided it to you herself. I must decline--" + +Mr. Harper interrupted the other impressively. "Do you realize what a +shadow may be thrown upon your sister's memory by this reticence on your +part? Her death was suggestive enough without the complications you +mention. In justice to your relationship you should speak. If, as I +think, the money is really meant for you, say so. The subterfuge may be +difficult of explanation, but it will not hurt her memory as much as this +extraordinary silence on your part." + +"I am sorry," began Hazen. But Harper cut him short. + +"You expect the money--you yourself," said he. "Nothing else would force +you into an attempt so perilous. You would risk death. Risk something +less final; risk your place in my esteem, your standing among men, and +confess the full truth about this matter. If it involves crime--why, I'm +a lawyer and can see you through better than you can win through by your +own misdirected efforts. The truth, my lad, the truth, nothing else will +serve you." + +The look he received he will never forget. + +"You are a man of limited experience, Mr. Harper," were the words which +accompanied it. "You would not understand the truth, Georgian or me. +Ransom might, but I shall not even risk Ransom's discretion. Now this +is all I am going to say about this matter. Georgian's last will and +testament, followed though it was by suicide, was a perfectly regular +one. The only impediment to its being so recognized and acted upon is the +doubt as to her actual decease. If the body of my poor young sister has +become lodged in the Devil's Cauldron, I am going there to seek it. As +the project calls for courage and, above all, a good condition of body +and mind, I shall be obliged to you if you will allow me the benefit of +the sleep I most certainly need. To-morrow I may have something more to +say to you, and I may not. Perhaps I shall want to make _my will_, who +knows?" And with a smile full of sarcastic meaning, he pushed Mr. +Harper's arm aside and made for the staircase, up which he presently +vanished without another attempt on the lawyer's part to hold him back. + +A few minutes later the lawyer was getting what information he could +about the so-called Devil's Cauldron. + +It seems that this was a very deep hole in which, on account of the rocky +formation surrounding it, the water swept in an eddy which had the force +of a whirlpool. No one had ever sounded its depths and nothing had ever +been seen again which had once been sucked into its deathly hollow. That +Georgian's body had found its everlasting grave there, many had believed +from the first, and if the conviction had not yet been publicly expressed +it was out of consideration for Mr. Ransom, to whose hopes it could but +ring a final knell. + +"Where is the hole? How far from the waterfall?" queried Mr. Harper. + +"A good mile," muttered one man. "Quite around the bend of the stream. +It's a horrid place, sir. We've always been mortal careful about rowing +down that side of the river. Children are never allowed to. Only a man's +strength could get him free again if he once struck the eddy." + +"Would anything floating down from the falls be apt to strike this eddy?" + +"Very apt. It would be a miracle if it didn't. That is why we all turned +out so willingly the first day. We knew that if Mrs. Ransom's body was to +be found at all, it would be found then; another day it would be beyond +our reach." + +"You say that no one has ever sounded the depths of that hole. Has any +one ever tried to?" + +"More than once. Scientific men and others." + +"Did they ever emerge--any of them?" + +"Yes, one, a powerful sort of chap with Indian blood in him. But he +didn't advise any one to try it; said the knowledge wasn't worth the +strain to heart and muscle." + +"What was the knowledge? We can imagine the strain." + +"Oh, he said as how the walls of the vortex--didn't he call it a +vortex--was all stone, and he spoke of a ledge--I didn't hear what +else." + +"To go down there a man would have to take his life in his hand, I see. +Well, I don't think I will try," dryly observed the lawyer as he left the +room. + +He could no longer hide his excitement at the thought that Hazen +meditated this undertaking. + +"How he must want money!" thought he. That a man should face such a +horror for another man's profit did not seem likely enough to engage his +consideration for a moment. + +Lawyer Harper knew the world--or thought he did. + +Next day the whole town was thrown into a hubbub. Word had gone out +through every medium possible to so small a place, that Alfred Hazen, +Georgian's long-lost brother, was going to dare Death Eddy in a final +attempt to recover his sister's body. + + + + +PART IV + +The Man of Mystery + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +DEATH EDDY + + +It was a gray day, chill and ominous. As the three most interested in the +event came together on the road facing the point from which Hazen had +decided to make his desperate plunge, the dreariness of the scene was +reflected in the troubled eye of the lawyer and that of the still more +profoundly affected Ransom. Only Hazen gazed unmoved. Perhaps because +the spot was no new one to him, perhaps because an unsympathetic sky, +a stretch of rock, the swirl of churning waters without any of the +lightness and color which glancing sunlight gives, meant for him but one +thing--the thing upon which he had fixed his mind, his soul. + +The rocky formation into which the stream ran at this point as into a +pocket, revealed itself in the bald outlines of the point which, curving +half-way upon itself, held in its cold embrace the unseen vortex. One +tree, and one only, disturbed the sky line. Stark and twisted into an +unusual shape from the steady blowing of the prevalent east winds, it +imprinted itself at once upon the eye and unconsciously upon the +imagination. To some it was the keeper of that hell-gate; the contorted +sentinel of bygone woes and long-buried horrors, if not the gnomish +genius of others yet to come. To-day it was the sign-post to a strange +deed--the courting of an uncanny death that one of the many secrets +hidden in that hole of miseries might be unlocked. + +Under this tree a small group of strong and determined men was already +collected; not as spectators but helpers in the adventurous attempt about +to be undertaken by their old friend and playmate. The spectators had +been barred from the point and stood lined up in the road overlooking the +eddy. They were numerous and very eager. Hazen's brows drew together in +his first exhibition of feeling, as he saw women and even children in the +crowd, and caught the expression of morbid anticipation with which they +all turned as he stepped with his two associates over the rope which had +been stretched across the base of the out-curving head line. + +[Illustration: "Cormorants!" escaped his lips. "They look for a feast +of death, but they will be disappointed."] + +"Cormorants!" escaped his lips. "They look for a feast of death, but +they will be disappointed." He was almost bitter. "I shall survive this +plunge. I have no wish for my death to be the holiday for a hundred +gloating eyes, I am not handsome enough. When I die, it will be quietly, +with some hand near, kind enough to cover my poor face with a napkin." + +Harper and Ransom both remembered this remark a little while later. + +"Mr. Hazen?" It was Harper who spoke. They had passed a little thicket +of brush and were drawing near the group under the tree. "Have you duly +considered what you are about to do? I have talked with several men of +judgment and experience about this attempt, and they all say it can have +but one termination." + +"I know. That is because they know little or nothing of the life I have +led since I left this town. There is not a man amongst them so slight and +seemingly frail of figure as myself, but none of them, not one, has been +so often up to the very gates of death and escaped, as I have. My +schooling has been long and severe, perhaps in preparation for this day. +I have been through fire; I have been through water. The swirling of my +own native stream does not appall me. I rather welcome it; it is but +another experience." + +"But for money?" broke in Ransom. "You acknowledge it is for no other +purpose. Will it pay? I own that in my eyes no amount of money could pay +a man for so superhuman a risk as this. Take a few thousands from me--I +had rather give them to you than see you leap into that water opening +beneath us like a hungry maw." + +Hazen stood silent, his eye glistening, his hand almost outstretched. +Harper thought he would yield; the offer must have struck him as generous +and very tempting--a good excuse for a hot-headed man to withdraw from a +very doubtful adventure. But he did not know Hazen. This latter advanced +his hand and squeezed Ransom's warmly, but his answer, when he was ready +to give one, conveyed no intention of a change of mind. + +"Will your thousands amount to a clean million?" he smiled. "That is the +amount, I believe, bequeathed by your wife to Mr. Auchincloss. Nothing +less will suffice. Yet I thank you, Ransom." + +The latter bowed and fell a little behind the others. The struggle in his +mind had been severe; it was severe yet; he did not know but that it was +his duty to stop this Hazen from his intended action by force. He was not +sure but that the onus of this whole desperate undertaking would yet fall +upon him. Certainly it would fall upon his conscience if the end was +fatal. He had had proof of that in the long night of wakeful misery he +had just passed; a night in which he had faced the furies; in which this +inexorable question had forced itself upon him despite every effort on +his part to evade it. + +Why had he, a humane man, consented to this attempt on the part of the +devoted Hazen? That his mind might be free to mourn his beautiful young +bride whose fatal and mysterious secret he was still as far from knowing +as in the hour he turned to welcome her to their first home and found her +fled from his arms and heart? Or had this suspense, this feeling of +standing now, as never before, at the opening door of fate, a deeper +significance, a more active meaning? Was this meditated test a crucial +one, because it opened to him the only possible releasement of soul and +conscience to the undivided care of one who had no other refuge in life +save that offered by his devotion? The horror of this self-probing was +still upon him as he followed Hazen's slight and virile figure across the +rocks, but it fled as he felt the spray of the tossing waters dash its +chilling reminder in his face. + +The event was upon him and he must add to his former actions that of +a complete and determined opposition to the risk proposed or possibly +forfeit his peace of mind forever. Quickening his pace, he reached Hazen +and the lawyer just as the men awaiting them had advanced on their side. +Instantly he knew it was too late. There was neither time nor opportunity +for any weak protests on his part now. Older men were speaking; men who +knew the river, the danger, and the man, but even they said nothing to +him in way of dissuasion. They only pointed out what especial points of +suction were to be avoided, and showed him the chain they had brought for +his waist and how he was to pull upon it the very instant he felt his +senses or his strength leaving him. + +He answered as a courageous man might, and making ready by taking off his +coat and shoes he gave himself into their hands for the proper fastening +on of the chain. Then, while the murmur of expectation rose from the +crowd on the river bank, he stepped back to Mr. Ransom and whispered +hurriedly in his ear: + +"You have a good heart, a better heart than I ever gave you credit for. +Promise that in case I never come out of those waters alive, that you +will put no obstacle in the way of Mr. Auchincloss inheriting his fortune +in good time. He's a man worthy of all the assistance which money can +bring. _You_ do not need her wealth; Anitra--well, she will be cared for, +but Auchincloss--promise--brother." + +Ransom half drew back in his amazement. Then started forward again. This +man whom he had always distrusted, whom he had looked upon as Georgian's +possible enemy, certainly his own, was looking into his eyes with a gaze +of trust, almost of affection. The money was not for himself; he showed +it by the noble, almost grand look with which he waited for his answer; +a look that carried conviction despite Ransom's prejudice and great +dislike. + +"You will give me that much additional nerve for the task lying before +me?" he added. And Ransom could only bow his head. The man's mastery was +limitless; it had reached and moved even him. + +Another moment and a gasp went up from fifty or more throats. Hazen had +taken the chain in his hand, walked to the edge of the rock and slipped +into the quietest water he saw there. + +"Strike left!" called out a voice. And he struck left. The eddy seized +him and they could see his head moving slowly about in the great circle +which gradually grew smaller and smaller till he suddenly disappeared. A +groan muffled with horror went up from the shore. But the man who held +the chain lifted up his hand, and silence--more pregnant of anticipation +than any sound--held that whole crowd rigid. The man played out the +chain; Harper stared at the seething, tumbling water, but Ransom looked +another way. The torture in his soul was taking shape, the shape of a +ghost rising from those tossing waters. Suddenly the pent-in breath of +fifty breasts found its way again to the lips. + +The men who held the chain were pulling it in with violent reaches. It +dragged more slowly, stuck, loosened itself, and finally brought into +sight a face white as the foam it rose amongst. + +"Dead! Drowned!" the whisper went around. + +But when Hazen was dragged ashore and Ransom had thrown himself at his +feet, he saw that he yet lived, and lived triumphantly. Ransom could not +have told more; it was for others to see and point out the smile that +sweetened the wan lips, and the passion with which he held against his +breast some sodden and shapeless object which he had rescued from those +awful depths, and which, when spread out and clean of sand, betrayed +itself as that peculiar article of woman's clothing, a small side bag. + +"I remember that bag," said Harper. "I saw it, or one exactly like it, in +Mrs. Ransom's hand when she got into the coach the day we all rode up +from the ferry. What will he have to say about it? and could he have seen +the body from which it has evidently been torn?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +HAZEN + + +"An unfathomable man," grumbled Mr. Harper, entering Mr. Ransom's room in +marked disorder. "They say that he has not spoken yet; but the coroner is +with him and we shall hear something from him soon. I expect--" here the +lawyer's voice changed and his manner took on meaning--"that his report +will be final." + +"Final? You mean--" + +"What his fainting face showed. For all its pallor and the exhaustion it +expressed, there was triumph in its every feature. The little bag was not +all he saw in that pit of hell. You must prepare yourself for no common +ordeal, Ransom; it will take all your courage to listen to his story." + +"I know." The words came with difficulty but not without a certain manly +courage. "I shall try not to make you too much trouble." Then after a +moment of oppressive silence, "Did you notice, when we all came in, the +figure of a woman disappearing up the stair way? It was Anitra's and it +paused before it reached the top, and I saw her eyes staring down at +Hazen's helpless figure with a wildness in its inquiry that has sapped +all my courage. How are we to answer that girl when she asks us what has +happened? How make her know that Hazen is her brother and that he has +just risked his life to satisfy himself and us that Georgian was really +lost in that dreadful pool." + +The lawyer, darting a keen glance at the speaker, softly shook his head. + +"I am not thinking of Miss Hazen," said he. "I'm wondering how far the +proof he has obtained will go." He paused, listening, then made a gesture +towards the hall. "There's some one there," he whispered. + +Ransom rose, and with a quick turn of the wrist pulled open the door. + +A man was standing on the threshold, a ghastly figure before which Ransom +involuntarily stepped back. + +"Hazen!" he cried; then, as the other tottered, he sprang forward again +and, reaching out his hand to steady him, drew him in with the remark, +"We were expecting a summons from you. We are happy that you find +yourself able to come to us." + +"The coroner has just gone. The doctors I dismissed. I have something to +say to you--to both of you," he added as he caught sight of Mr. Harper. + +Entering slowly, he sat down in the chair proffered him by the lawyer. +There was something strange in his air, a quiet automaton-like quality +which attracted the latter's notice and led him to watch him very +closely. Ransom was busy with the door, which the strong west wind +blowing through the hall made difficult to close. + +"I--" The one word uttered, Hazen seemed to forget himself. Sitting quite +still, he gazed straight before him at the open window. There was little +to be seen there but the swaying boughs of the huge tree, but his gaze +never left those tossing limbs, and his sentence hung suspended till the +movement made by Ransom recrossing the room roused him, and he went on. + +"I have made the plunge, gentlemen, and fortune favored me. I--" here his +voice failed him again, but realizing the fact more quickly than before, +he shook off his apathy, and facing the two men, who awaited his slow +words with inconceivable excitement, continued with sudden concentration +upon his subject, "I saw what I went to see--poor Georgian's body. I have +satisfied the coroner of this fact. The little bag I tore from her side +proves her identity beyond a doubt. You saw it, Mr. Harper. They tell me +that you recognized it at once as the same you saw in her hand in the +stage-coach. But if you had not, the initials on it are unmistakable, G. +Q. H., Georgian Quinlan Hazen. Auchincloss will get his money, and soon, +will he not? Answer me plainly, Harper. Such an experience merits some +reward. You will not make difficulties?" + +"I?" The lawyer's query had a strange ring to it. He glanced from Hazen +to Ransom, and from Ransom back to Hazen, whose features had now become +more composed, though they still retained their remarkable pallor. + +"If the proof is positive," he then went on, "you assuredly can trust +both my client and myself to remember our promise to you." + +"The coroner, you say, is satisfied?" + +"Yes, with the proof and my sworn statement. He is obliged to be. No one +else, least of all himself, feels any desire to go down to that whirling +eddy for confirmation of my story. And they are wise. I do not think +that any man with less experience than myself could sound the depths of +that vortex and come up alive. The noise--the swirl--the sense of being +sucked down--down in ever-increasing fury--but my purpose kept the life +in me. I was determined not to yield, not to faint, till I had seen--and +proved--" + +"What's that?" + +The cry was from Mr. Ransom. A sudden gust of wind had torn its way +through the room, flinging the door wide, and strewing the floor with +flying papers from the large stand in the window. + +"Nothing but wind," answered Harper, half rising to close the door, but +immediately sitting down again with a strange look at Ransom. "Let be," +he whispered, as the other rose in his turn to restore order. "Keep Hazen +talking. It's important; imperative. I'll see to the door." + +But it was the window he closed, not the door. + +Ransom, with that obedience natural to a client in presence of his most +trusted adviser, did as he was bid, and turned his full attention back to +Hazen instantly. That gentleman, upon whom the rushing wind and the havoc +it created had made little if any impression, rushed again into words. + +"I've led an adventurous life," he declared, "and, in the last few years +especially, passed through many perils and experienced much awful +suffering. I have felt the pang of hunger and the pang of biting despair; +but nothing I have ever endured can equal the horror which beclouded my +mind and rendered powerless my body as I felt myself sliding from the +sight of earth and heaven into the jaws of that rapacious eddy, whose +bottom no man had ever sounded. + +"I went in young--I have come out old. Look at my hands--they shake like +those of a man of ninety. Yet yesterday they could have pulled to the +ground an ox." + +"You saw Mrs. Ransom's body down in that pool some fathoms below the +surface," observed the lawyer, after waiting in vain for some word from +the shrinking husband. "Won't you particularize, Mr. Hazen? Tell us just +how she was lying and where. Mr. Ransom cannot but wish to know, +difficult as he evidently finds it to ask you." + +"The coroner has the story," Hazen began, with the slow, painful gasp of +the unwilling narrator. "But I will tell it again; it is your right, the +painful duty which we cannot escape. She was lying, not on the bottom, +but in a niche of rock into which she had been thrown and wedged by the +force of the current. One arm was free and was washing about; I tried to +clutch this arm as I went down, but it eluded me. When I arose, the rush +and swirl of the water was against me and I felt my senses going, but +enough instinct was left for me to snatch again at the arm as I passed, +and though it eluded me again, my fingers closed on something, which I +was just conscious enough to hold on to with a frenzied grip. We have +spoken of this thing--a little bag which must have been fastened to her +side, for the end of its connecting strap is torn away by the wrench I +gave it." + +"Vivid enough; but I am sure you will tell me one thing more. Did you see +the face of this body as well as the arm? It would greatly add to the +strength of your testimony if you could describe it." + +Ransom, who had been watching Hazen, cast a sudden look back at the +lawyer as he dropped these insinuating words. Something more than a +cold-blooded desire for truth had prompted this almost brutal +inquisition. He must know what it was, if anything in Harper's +well-controlled countenance would tell him. The result transfixed him, +for following the lawyer's gaze, which was fixed not on the man he was +addressing but on a small mirror hanging on the opposite wall, he saw +reflected in it the face and form of Anitra standing in the open +doorway behind them. + +She was looking at Hazen and, as Ransom noted that look, he understood +Harper's previous caution and all that lay behind his insistent and +cold-blooded questions. For her gaze was no longer one of simple inquiry +but of horrified understanding;--_the gaze of one who heard_. + +Meantime, Hazen was answering in painful gasps the lawyer's pointed +question, "Did you see the face of this body as well as the arm?" + +"Did I see--God help me, yes. Just a glimpse, but I knew it. Eyes that my +mother had kissed, blind--staring--glassed in awe and unspeakable fright. +The mouth, whose every curve I had studied in the old days of perfect +affection, drawn into a revolting grin and dripping with unwholesome +weeds brought down from the shallows. All strange, yet all familiar--my +sister--Georgian--dead--stark--but recognizable. Don't ask me if I saw +it. I always see it; it is before me now, the forehead--the chin--the +eyes--" + +Ransom sprang to his feet, Harper also. + +The girl in the doorway had gone white as death, and with outstretched +arms and frantic, haggard eyes was striving to ward off the frightful +vision conjured up by her brother's words. The movement made by the +two men recalled her in an instant to herself, and she drew back--the +hesitating, appealing, anxious-eyed girl whom they all knew. But it +was too late. Hazen had seen as well as the others, and leaping in +frenzy from his chair stood confronting her--a dominant and accusing +figure--between the quietly triumphant lawyer and the crushed, almost +unconscious Ransom. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +SHE SPEAKS + + +Hazen's face was frightful to see; the more so that physical weakness +contended with the outsweep of passion, so great and overwhelming in its +power and destructive force that to the two onlookers it seemed to spring +from deeper sources than ordinary life and death, and have its birth, as +well as its culmination, in the unknown and all that is most terrible +in the human mind and human experience. + +Anitra's eye was spellbound by it. As it dilated upon this vision of +unspeakable wrath and almost superhuman denunciation, her own exquisite +face filled with a reflected horror, almost equaling his in force and +meaning, till the two awed spectators saw in this moment of startled +recognition and the up-gathering of two great natures, the oncoming of +some hideous climax for which the many strange and contradictory +experiences of the last few days had not served to prepare them. + +"You _hear_!" + +In these words Hazen loosed out his soul. + +The keen cry of the wind running through the house was his only answer. + +"You _hear_!" he repeated, advancing and laying a determined hand upon +her arm. "You have made a mock of us with your pretended deafness. What +does it mean--Stop! no more play-acting," he fiercely admonished her, as +her eyes assumed a look of startled inquiry and wandered away in vague +curiosity to the papers scattered over the floor--"we have had enough +of that; you cannot deceive us--you cannot deceive _me_ twice. You played +at deafness--why? Because Anitra must have some disability to distinguish +her from Georgian? Because you are not Anitra? Because you are Georgian +after all?" + +Georgian! + +The word fell like a plummet into the hollow of that great expectancy. +Ransom shivered and even Harper's hard cheek changed color. Hazen only +stood unmoved, his look, his grasp, the spirit behind that look and +grasp, implacable and determined. Their influence was terrible; slowly +she succumbed to it against her will and purpose, the will and purpose of +a very strong woman. Her eyes rose in a painful and lingering struggle to +his face. Then, with a cry her drawn and parched lips could not suppress, +she flashed them in agony on Ransom, and this long-suffering man read in +them the maddening truth. They were his wife's eyes; the woman before him +was indeed Georgian. + +"Speak!" rang out the voice of Hazen, as Harper, realizing from Ransom's +face what Ransom had just realized from hers, stepped to the door and +closed it. "The time is short; I have much, very much to do. For my sake, +for the sake of this much-abused man, whom you allowed to marry you, +speak out, tell the truth at once. You are Georgian." + +"Yes," fell in almost an inaudible whisper from her lips. "I am +Georgian." Then as he loosed his grasp from her arm and she was left +standing there alone, some instinct of isolation, some realization of the +mysterious pit she had dug for herself and possibly for others, in this +avowal of her identity, wrought her brain into momentary madness, and +flinging up her arms she fell on her knees before Hazen as under the +stroke of some unseen thunderbolt. + +"You made me say it," she cried. "On your head be the punishment, not on +mine nor on his." Then as Hazen drew slowly back, touched in his turn by +some emotion to which neither his look nor gesture gave any clew, she +rose to her feet, and fixing him with a look of strange defiance, added +in milder but no less determined tones: "A tongue unloosed talks long and +loud. You have made me give up my secret, but I shall not stop at that. I +shall say more; tell all my dreadful history; yours--mine. I will not be +thought wicked because I undertook so great a deception. I will not have +this good man's opinion of me shaken; not for a minute; what I did, I +did for him and he shall know it whatever penalty it may incur. He is +my husband--his love to me is priceless, and I will hold it against +you--against the Cause--against Heaven--yes, and against Hell." + +Here was truth. To Ransom it came like balm and a renewed life. Bounding +across the room, he strove to seize her hand and draw her to himself. +But Hazen would not have it. His anger, indeterminate before, was +concentrated now, and not the white pleading of her face, nor the warning +gesture of Ransom, could hold it back. + +"Traitress!" he cried, "traitress to me and to the Cause. You thought +to escape what is inescapable. Do you know what you have done? You +have--" The rest hung in air. A sudden weakness had seized him and he +sank faltering back into a chair Harper pushed towards him, still +denouncing her, however, with lifted hand and accusing eyes, the +image--though no longer a speaking one--of the implacable and determined +avenger. + +Georgian, shocked into silence, stared at him in a frenzy of complicated +emotions to which neither of them as yet had given the key capable of +relieving the maddening tension. + +"It is the pool; the pool," she finally murmured. "Its waters have beaten +out your life." But he calmly shook his head. + +"It is not in water to do that," he murmured. "Give me a moment. I've a +question to ask. I think a drop of liquor--" + +Harper had flask in hand almost before the word had left the other's +mouth. The draft revived Hazen; he looked up at Georgian. "I believe you, +so do these men believe you. But you were not alone in this plot. Where +is Anitra? Where is the deaf and solitary one you dragged from the +streets of New York to bolster up your plot? Tell us and tell us quickly. +Where is Anitra?" + +"Anitra? Do you ask that?" cried Harper, roused to speak for the first +time by his boundless amazement and indignation. "You have described the +body in the pool--a description which fits either sister, and yet you +would make this woman tell us what you have seen with your own eyes." + +He might as well not have spoken. Neither he nor she seemed to hear him. +Certainly neither heeded. + +"Anitra?" she repeated softly and with a strange intonation. "I am +Anitra. I am both Georgian and Anitra. There have never been two of us +since I came into this house." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +FIFTEEN MINUTES + + +"There have never been but one of us since I came into this house." + +Monstrous assertion! or so it seemed to Ransom as the whirl of his +thoughts settled and reason resumed its sway. Only one! But he had +himself seen two; so had Mrs. Deo and the maids; he could even relate the +differences between them on that first night. Yet had he ever seen them +together, or even the shadow of one at the same moment he saw the person +of the other? No, and with such an actress as she had shown herself to be +these last two days, such changes of appearance might be possible, though +why she should engage in such a deep, almost incredible plot was a +mystery to make the hair rise,--she, the tender, exquisite, the beloved +woman of his dreams. + +She saw the maddening nature of his confusion and, springing to him, fell +on her knees with the imploring cry: + +"Patience! Do not try to think--I will tell you. It can all be said in a +word. I was bound to this brother of mine, to do his bidding, to follow +his fortunes through life, and up to death, by promises and oaths to +which those uttered by me at the marriage altar were but toys and empty +air. Anitra, or the dream sister my misery took from the dead, was not +so bound, so I strove to secure our joy by the seeming death of Georgian +and a new life as her twin. You do not understand; you cannot. You have +no measure with which to gauge such men as my brother. But it will be +given you. There is no hope now. The weakness of a moment has undone us." + +Ransom must have heard her, after events proved that he did, but he gave +no token of it. The visions that were whirling through his mind still +held it engrossed. He saw her, not as she stood before him now, trembling +and appealing, but as she had looked to him in the hall that first night, +as she had looked to him down by the mill-stream, as she had looked when +she told her story as Anitra, and later when she had faced the landlady +as Georgian, and the confusion of it all left no room in his conscience +for any other impression. But Mr. Harper, though surprised as he had +never been before in all his professional career, lost himself in no such +abyss. With the freedom which long-delayed insight into the truth gives +to a man of his positive nature and training, he left speculation and all +endeavor to reconcile events with her declaration, and plunged at once to +the obvious question of the moment. + +Fixing his keen gaze on Hazen, he observed very quietly, but with an +underlying note of sarcasm: + +"If this lady is your sister, Georgian Ransom, and there is no Anitra +save the fast fading memory of the child commemorated in your family's +monument, then your statement as to the body you saw under the ledge was +false?" + +The answer came deliberately, unaffected both by the manner of the +accusation or by the accusation itself. + +"Perfectly so," said he, "I saw no body. Perhaps my description would +have been less vivid if I had. My intention you know. This woman had +deceived me to the point of making me believe that she was indeed Anitra, +the twin, and not my millionaire sister, and Georgian's fortune being +necessary to her heir, I wished to cut short the law's delay by an +apparent identification. I never doubted from the moment this woman faced +with such well-played ignorance the mark of great meaning we had placed +upon her door, that Georgian was in the river, as you all believed. Why +then not give her a positive resting-place, since this would smooth out +all difficulties and hasten the very end for which she had apparently +sacrificed herself." + +If there was any irony in his heart, his tongue did not show it. Indeed +his manner betrayed little. Immobility had again replaced all tokens of +anger, and immobility which only yielded now and then to a slight +contortion more expressive of physical pain than of mental agitation. +Yet in Georgian's eyes he had lost none of his formidable qualities, for +the dismay with which she followed his words grew as she listened, and +reached its height as he added in final explanation: + +"The bag I did draw out of the pool, but only because I had taken it down +there in my blouse front. Did you think a man could see that or anything +else indeed in that maddening swirl of water?" + +"But it was Mrs. Ransom's bag," came from Harper in ill-disguised +amazement. Even his sang-froid was leaving him before these evidences +of a plot so deep as to awaken awe. "Where did you get it? Not from Mrs. +Ransom herself? Her own surprise is warranty for that." + +"No, I got it from the river, another reason why I credited her drowning. +It was fished up from the sand, a little way from the Fall. My man found +it; I had sent him there in a vain hope that he might find evidence of +the tragedy which others had overlooked. He did, but he told no one but +me. You flung the thing too far," he remarked to Georgian. "You should +have dropped it nearer the bank. Only such a prodder as my man Ives would +ever have discovered it." + +Georgian shook her head, impatient at such banalities, in the face of the +important matters they had to discuss. "To the point," she cried, "tell +these men what will clear me of everything but a wild attempt at +freedom." + +"I have said what I had to say," returned her brother. + +Georgian's head fell. For a moment her courage seemed to fail her. + +Mr. Harper rose and locked the door. + +"We must have no intruders here," said he, pausing with a certain sense +of shock, as he noticed the faint smile, full of some sinister meaning, +which for an instant twisted Hazen's lips at these words. + +But the delay was but momentary. With an odd sense of haste he rushed at +once to the attack. + +Stepping in front of Hazen, he observed with force and unmistakable +resolution: + +"Your devotion to the legatee Auchincloss cannot possibly be explained by +any ordinary feeling of obligation. Your sister has mentioned a Cause. +Can he by any possibility be the treasurer of that Cause?" + +But Hazen was as impervious to direct attack as he had been to a covert +one. + +"Georgian will tell you," said he. "When a woman looks as she looks now, +and is so given over to her own personal longings that she forgets the +most serious oaths, the most binding promises, nothing can hold back her +speech. She will talk, and since this must be, let her talk now and in +my presence. But let it be briefly," he admonished her, "and with +discretion. An unnecessary word will weigh heavily in the end. You know +in what scales. You shall have just fifteen minutes." + +He looked about for a clock, but seeing none drew out his watch from his +vest pocket and laid it on the table. Then he settled himself again in +his chair, with a look and gesture of imperative command towards +Georgian. + +Struck with dismay, she hesitated and he had time to add: "I shall not +interrupt unless you pass the bounds where narrative ends and disclosure +begins." And Harper and Ransom, glancing up at this, wondered at his +rigidity and the almost marble-like quiet into which his restless eye and +frenzied movements had now subsided. + +Georgian seemed to wonder also, for she gave him a long and piercing look +before she spoke. But once she had begun her story, she forgot to look +anywhere but at the man whose forgiveness she sought and for the +restoration of whose sympathy she was unconsciously pleading. + +Her first words settled one point which up to this moment had disturbed +Ransom greatly. + +"You must forget Anitra's story. It was suggested by facts in my own +life, but it was not true of me or mine in any of its particulars. +Nor must you remember what the world knows, or what my relations say +about my life. The open facts tell little of my real history, which +from childhood to the day I believed my brother dead was indissolubly +bound up in his. Though our fathers were not the same and he has +old-world blood in his veins, while I am of full American stock, we loved +each other as dearly and shared each other's life as intimately as if the +bond between us had been one in blood as it was in taste and habit. This +was when we were both young. Later, a change came. Some old papers of his +father fell into his hands. A new vision of life,--sympathies quite +remote from those which had hitherto engrossed him, led him further and +further into strange ways and among strange companions. Ignorant of what +it all meant, but more alive than ever to his influence, I blindly +followed him, receiving his friends as my friends and subscribing to such +of their convictions as they thought wise to express before me. Another +year and he and I were living a life apart, owning no individual +existence but devoting brain, heart, all we had and all we were, to the +advancement and perpetuation of an idea. I have called this idea the +Cause. Let that name suffice. I can give you no other." + +Pausing, she waited for some look of comprehension from the man she +sought to enlighten. But he was yet too dazed to respond to her mute +appeal, and she was forced to continue without it. Indicating Hazen with +a gesture, she said, with her eyes still fixed on those of her husband: + +"You see him now as he came from under the harrow; but in those days--I +must speak of you as you were, Alfred--he was a man to draw all eyes and +win all hearts. Men loved him, women adored him. Little as he cared for +our sex, he had but to speak, for the coldest breast to heave, the most +indifferent eye to beam. I felt his power as strong as the rest, only +differently. No woman was more his slave than I, but it was a sister's +devotion I felt, a devotion capable of being supplanted by another. But I +did not know this. I thought him my whole world and let him engross me in +his plans and share his passions for subjects I did not even seek to +understand. + +"I was only seventeen, he twenty-five. It was for him to think, not me. +And he did think but to my eternal undoing. The Cause needed a woman's +help, a woman's enthusiasm. Without considering my motherless condition, +my helplessness, the immaturity of my mind, he drew me day by day into +the secret meshes of his great scheme, a scheme which, as I failed to +understand till it had absorbed me, meant the unequivocal devotion of my +whole life to the exclusion of every other hope or purpose. Favored, he +called it, favored to stand for liberty, the advancement of men, the +right of every human being to an untrammeled existence. And favored I +thought myself, till one awful day when my brother, coming suddenly into +my room, found me making plans for an innocent pleasure and told me such +things were no longer for me, that a great and immortal duty awaited me, +one that had come sooner than he expected, but which my youth, beauty, +and spirit eminently fitted me to carry on to triumph. + +"I was frightened. For the first time in my memory of him he looked like +his Italian father, the man we had all tried to forget. Once while +rummaging amongst my mother's treasures I had come across a miniature of +Signor Toritti. He was a handsome man but there was something terrible in +his eye; something to make the ordinary heart stand still. Alfred's +burned with the same meaning at this moment, and as I noted his manner, +which was elevated, almost godlike, I realized the difference in our +heredity and how natural to him were the sacrifices for which my mind and +temper were as naturally unprepared. With difficulty I asked him to +explain himself, and it was with terror that I listened when he did. +He may have been made to ask, but I was not made to hear such words. He +saw my inner rebellion and stopped in mid-harangue. He has never forgiven +me the disappointment of that moment. I have never forgiven him for +making me sign away my independence, my holdings, and my life to a Cause +I did not thoroughly understand." + +"Your life?" echoed Ransom, roused to involuntary expression by this +word. + +"Surely not your life," echoed the lawyer, with the slow credulity of the +matter-of-fact man. + +"I have said it," she murmured, her head falling on her breast. At which +token of weakness, Hazen stirred and took the words from her mouth. + +"The organization," said he, "is a secret one and its code is +self-sacrifice. To the band of noble men and women, of whose integrity +and far-reaching purpose you can judge little from the whinings of a +love-sick girl, life and all personal gratifications are as dust in the +balance against the preservation and advancement of universal happiness +and the great Cause. I thought my sister, young as she was, sufficiently +great-minded to comprehend this and sufficiently great-hearted to do the +society's bidding with joy at the sacrifice. But I found her lacking, +and--" He stopped and almost lost himself again, but roused and cried +with sudden fire, "Tell what I did, Georgian." + +"You took my duty on yourself," she conceded, but coldly. "That was +brotherly; that was noble, if you had not exacted a vow from me in +return, destined to lay waste my whole life. Released from this one great +duty, I was to hold myself ready to fulfil all others. At the lift of a +hand--a finger--I was to leave whatever held me and go after the one who +beckoned in the name of the Cause. No circumstances were to be +considered; no other human duty or affection. If it were to enter upon a +fuller and more adventurous life, well and good; if it were to encounter +death and the cessation of all earthly things, that was well too, and a +good to be embraced with ardor. Obedience was all, and obedience at a +mere signal! I took the oath and then--" + +"Yes, _then_--" emphasized Hazen in wavering but peremptory tones. + +"He told me what had led to all this misery. That as yet this compact was +between us two, and us two only. That he had considered my youth, and in +speaking of me to the Chief had held back my name even while promising +my assistance. That he should continue to consider it, by keeping my name +in reserve till he had returned from his mission, and if that mission +failed, or succeeded too well, and he did not return, I might regard +myself as freed from the Cause, unless my enlarging nature led me to +attach myself to it of my own free will. That said, he went, and for a +year I lived under the dread of his return and all the obligations that +return would entail. Then came tidings of his death, tidings for which he +may not have been responsible, but which he never contradicted, and I +thought myself free--free to enjoy life, and the fortune that had so +unexpectedly come to me; free to love and, alas! free to marry. And that +is why," she pursued, in all the anguish of a dreadful retrospect, "I +recoiled in such horror and hung, a dead weight on your arm, when on +turning from the altar where we had just pledged ourselves to mutual love +and mutual life, I saw among the faces before me the changed but still +recognizable one of my brother, and beheld him make the fatal sign which +meant, 'You are wanted. Come at once.'" + +"Wretch!" issued from the frenzied lips of the half-maddened bridegroom, +as his glance flashed on Hazen. "Had you no mercy? Have you no mercy now, +that you should torture her young, credulous soul with these fanciful +obligations; obligations which no human being has any right to impose +upon another, whatsoever the Cause, holy or unholy, he represents?" + +"Mercy? It is the weakness of the easy soul. There is no ease here," he +cried, touching his breast with no gentle hand. + +"Then you forget my money," suggested Georgian. "Can you expect mercy +from a man who sees a million just within his grasp? I know," she +acknowledged, as Hazen lifted that same ungentle hand in haughty protest, +"that it was not for himself. I do not think Alfred would disturb a fly +for his own comfort, but he would wreck a woman's hopes, a good man's +happiness for the Cause. He admitted as much to me, _and more_, in the +interview we held that afternoon at the St. Denis. I had to go to him at +once, and I had to employ subterfuge in order to do so," she went on in +rapid explanation, as she saw her husband's eye refill with doubt under a +remembrance of the shame and anguish of that unhappy afternoon. "I had +not the courage to leave you openly at the carriage door. Besides, I +hoped to work on Alfred's pity in our interview together, or, if not +that, to buy my release and return to you a free woman. But the wound +which had changed his face for me had changed and made hard his heart. He +had other purposes for me than quiet living with a man who could have no +real interest in the Cause. The money I inherited, the rare and growing +beauty which he declared me to have, were too valuable to the brethren +for me to hope for any existence in which their interests were not +paramount. I might return to you, subject to the same authoritative beck +and call which had put me in my present position, or I might leave you at +once and forever. No half measures were possible. Was I, a bride, loving +and beloved by my husband, to listen to either of these alternatives? I +rebelled, and then the thunderbolt fell. + +"I was no longer on probation, no longer subject to his will alone. I was +a fully affiliated member. That day my name had been sent to the Chief. +This meant obedience on my part or a vengeance I felt it impossible to +consider. While I lived I need never hope again for freedom without +penalty. + +"'While I lived'; the words rang in my ears. I did not need to weigh +them; I knew that they were words of truth. There is no power on earth +so inescapable as that exercised by a secret society, and this one has +a terrible safeguard. None but he who keeps the list knows the members. +You, Roger, might be one, and I never suspect it, unless you chose to +give me the sign. Knowing this, I realized that my life was not worth the +purchase if I sought to cross the will of my own brother. Nor yours, +either. It was the last thought which held me. While I dutifully +listened, my mind was working out the deception which was to release me, +and when I left him it was to take the first step in the complicated plot +by which I hoped to recover my lost happiness. And I nearly succeeded. +You have seen what I have borne, what difficulties I have faced, what +discoveries eluded, but this last, this greatest ordeal, was too much. I +could not listen unmoved to a description of my own drowned body. I, who +had calculated on all, had not calculated on this. The horror overcame +me--I forgot--perhaps because God was weary of my many deceptions!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +"THERE IS ONE WAY" + + +"Have you done?" + +Hazen was on his feet and, rigid still, but oscillating from side to +side, as though his strength did not suffice to hold him quite erect, was +surveying them with eyes sunk so deeply in his head that they looked like +dying sparks reanimated for an instant by some passing breath. + +The half-fainting woman he addressed did not answer. She was looking up +at Ransom for the sympathy and pardon he was as yet too dazed to show. + +Hazen made a move. It was that of physical suffering sternly endured. + +"Let me speak," he urged. "I have a question to ask. I must ask it now. +Who was the woman who came up from New York with you? There were two of +you then." + +Without turning her head Georgian replied: + +"That was Bela, my maid; the same one who personated me on the afternoon +of my wedding." + +"That accounts for the coarseness of her neck," Hazen explained with a +certain grim humor to the lawyer, who had given a slight start of +surprise or humiliation. Then quietly to Georgian: + +"Was it she who threw the comb and dropped your bag where my man found +it?" + +"I threw the comb; threw it from my window before I uttered that loud +shriek. It did not go very far; but I had to be satisfied with the fact +that it lay in the direction of the waterfall. But it was to Bela I +entrusted the flinging of the bag. I gave it to her when she left the +coach. I had explained to her long before just what a place she would +find herself in when she was set down at the foot of the lane; how she +was to make her way in the darkness till she came to where there were +no more trees, when she was to strike across to the stream, led by the +noise of the waterfall. I was very particular in my directions, because I +knew the danger she incurred of slipping into the chasm. It was her fear +of this and the more than ordinary darkness, I presume, which made her +throw the bag hap-hazard. I simply wanted it dropped on the bank above +the waterfall." + +"I saw the girl," Mr. Harper broke in. "She wore a black skirt like the +one you now wear, a black blouse and a red-checked handkerchief knotted +about her throat. But the young woman who was seen leaving these parts +the next morning had on some kind of a red dress and wore a hat. Bela had +thrown away her hat; it was picked up where the coach stopped and +afterwards brought here." + +"I know. My plans went deep; I foresaw the possibility of her being +recognized by her clothes. To guard against this, I had her skirt and +blouse made double, the one side black, the other a bright color. She had +simply to turn them. The extra hat she carried with her; it was small and +easily concealed. Her neckerchief she probably tucked away. I had its +mate in my pocket, and when I left my room by the window, as I did the +moment after I had locked the two rooms, it was with my hair pulled down +and this neckerchief about my shoulders. How did I dare the risk! I +wonder now; but it was life, life I was after; life and love; nothing +else would have made me so fearless; nothing else would have given me +such confidence in myself or lent such speed to my feet, running as I did +in the darkness." + +"You ran around the house to the lane, and entered it by the turn-stile." + +"Yes, and so quickly that I had time to splash myself with mud and lose +all my natural characteristics before any one came to find me. It was +Anitra they met, panting and disheveled, at the head of the lane; Anitra +in appearance, Anitra in heart. I did not act a part; I _was_ Anitra; +Anitra as I had conceived her. To me she was and is an active, living +personality. Whenever I faced you in her character, I thought with her +half-educated mind; felt with her half-disciplined heart. I even shut my +ears to sounds; I would not hear; half the time I did not. Nor did I fall +back into my old ways when I was alone. From the minute Georgian closed +her door upon you for the last time, and I darkened my skin in +preparation for a permanent assumption of Anitra's individuality, I +became the imaginary twin, in thought, feeling, and action. It was my +only safeguard. Alas! had I only gone one step further and made myself +really deaf!" + +The cry was bitterness itself, but it passed unheeded. Mr. Ransom could +not speak and Hazen had other cares in mind. + +"Where is this woman Bela now?" he asked. + +Georgian was too absorbed or too unwilling, to answer. + +He repeated the question, this time with an authority she could not +resist. Rising slowly, she faced him for one impressive moment. + +"My God!" came from her lips in startled surprise. "How pale you are! Sit +down or you will fall." + +He shook his head impatiently. + +"It's nothing. Answer my question. Where is this Bela now?" + +"I don't know. She is beyond my reach--and _yours_. I told her to lose +herself. I think she is clever enough to do so. The money I paid her was +worth a few years spent in obscurity." + +The spark lighting his eye brightened into baleful flame, but she met +it calmly. An indomitable spirit confronted one equally indomitable, and +his was the first to succumb. Turning from her, Hazen took out pencil +and paper from his pocket, and, crossing to the window with that same +peculiar and oscillating motion of which he seemed unconscious, or which +he found it impossible to subdue, he wrote a line, folded it, and before +even Harper was aware of his purpose threw up the sash and flung it out, +uttering a quick, sharp whistle as he did so. + +"What's that you're up to?" shouted the lawyer, rushing to the window and +peering over the other's shoulder into the open space below, from which a +man was just disappearing. + +"Am I a prisoner of the police that you should ask me that?" returned +Hazen, haughtily. + +"No, but you should be," retorted Harper. "I don't like your ways, Hazen. +I don't like what you and your sister have said about the Cause and the +conscienceless obedience exacted from its members. I don't like any of +it; least of all this passing over of poor Bela's name to one whose duty +it will possibly be to make trouble for her." + +Hazen smiled and moved from the window. No one there had ever seen such a +smile before, and the oppression which it brought heightened Georgian's +fear to terror. + +"Let be!" she cried, lifting her hands towards Harper in inconceivable +anxiety. "A quarrel with him will not help you and it may greatly injure +_me_. Alfred, what am I to expect? Something dreadful, I can see. Your +face is not the face of one who forgives, or who sees in a gift of money +an adequate recompense for a cowardly withdrawal." + +"You read rightly," said he. "Your fortune will be accepted by the Chief, +but he will never forget the cowardice. What faith can he put in one who +prefers her own happiness to the general good? You must prepare for +punishment." + +"Punishment!" broke scornfully from Harper's lips. + +She hushed him with a look before which even he stood aghast. + +"You will only waste words," she cried. "If he says punishment, I may +expect punishment." And turning back to Ransom, in a burst of longing and +passion, she raised her eyes to him again, saying, "You do not forgive +because you do not realize my danger. But you will realize it when I am +gone." + +Ransom, under a sudden releasement of the tension of doubt and awe which +had hitherto held him speechless, gave her one wild stare, then caught +her to his breast. + +She uttered a happy sigh. + +"Ah!" she murmured in the soft ecstasy and boundless relief of the +moment, "how I have learned to love you during the fears and agonies +of this awful week." + +"And I you," was the whispered answer. "Too deeply," he impetuously added +in louder tones, "to let any harm come to you now." + +She smiled; but desperation fought with love in that smile. Gently +releasing herself, she cast another glance at Hazen, upon whose gray +and distorted countenance there had settled a great gloom, and +passionately exclaimed: + +"Had law or love been able to interfere with the judgment of our Chief, I +should not have been driven into the herculean task of deceiving you and +the whole world as to my real identity." Then with slowly drooping head, +and the manner of one who has heard his doom pronounced, she hoarsely +whispered; "The death-mark was scrawled upon my door last night. This is +never done without the consent of the Chief. No one can save me now, not +even my own brother." + +"False. I scrawled those lines," declared Ransom. "It was a test--" + +"Which _I_ commanded you to make," put in Hazen. Then in fainter and less +strenuous tones, "She's right. Georgian Ransom is doomed; no one can save +her." + +"False again!" This time it was Harper who interposed. "I can and will. +You forget that I know the name of your Chief. Conspiracy such as you +hint at is indictable in this country. I am a lawyer. I shall protect, +not only your sister, but her money." + +The smile he received in return evinced no ordinary scorn. + +"Try it," said he. Then with a laugh so low as to be almost inaudible, +yet so full of meaning that even Harper's cheek lost color, he calmly +declared: "No one knows the name of our Chief. Auchincloss is a member +and a valuable one--the only one whose name Georgian positively knows; +but he's but a unit in a thousand. You cannot reach the Head or even the +Heart of this great organization through him, and if you did and punished +it, the Cause would grow another head and you would be as far from +injuring us as you are now. Georgian is right. Not even I can save her +now." Then, with a steady look into each of their faces, he smiled again +and one and all shuddered. "But the Cause will go on," he cried in tones +ringing with enthusiasm. "Mankind will drop its shackles and we, we shall +have unriveted one of its chains. It is worth dying for, I, Alfred Hazen, +say it." + +Slowly he sank back into his chair. The pallor which had astounded all +from the first had now become the ghastly mask of a soul whose only token +of life glimmered through the orbits of his fast glazing eyes. He +breathed, but in great pants. Georgian became alarmed. + +"What is it?" she cried, forgetting her own fears and threats in the +horror which his appearance excited. "This is something more than +exhaustion from the pounding of that murderous eddy. What have you done? +Tell me, Alfred, tell me." + +For the first time since his entrance into the room a suggestion of +sweetness crept into his tone. + +"Simply forestalled the verdict of the Chief," said he. "I was under oath +to leave the country to-day on no ordinary errand. I failed to keep my +word, believing that the interests of the Cause could be better served by +what I have here undertaken than by the fulfilment of my primal duty. But +we are not allowed the free exercise of our own judgment, else what man +could be depended on? With us, neglect means death, no matter what the +excuse or the Cause's benefit. I knew this when I made my choice last +night. I have been dying ever since, but only actually since I came into +this room. When the doctors decided that I had received no mortal hurt in +the eddy, I--" + +"Alfred!" The sister-heart spoke at last. "Not--not poison!" + +"That is what you may call it here," said he, with a return to his old +imperious manner, "but later and to the world it will be kindness on your +part to name it exhaustion--the effect of my battle with the water. The +doctors will reconsider their diagnosis and blame my poor heart. You will +have no trouble about it. It _is_ my heart--I feel it failing--failing--" + +He was sinking, but suddenly his whole nature flared up. Bounding to his +feet, he stood before them, with eyes aflame and a passionate strength in +his attitude which held them spellbound. + +"What can law, what can selfish greed, what can self-aggrandizement and +the most pitiless ambition effect against men who own to such discipline +as this? Nothing. The world will go on, you will try your little ways, +your petty reforms, your slow-moving legislation and promise of justice +to the weak, but the invincible is the ready; ready to act; ready to +suffer, ready to die so that God is justified of his children and man +lifted into brotherhood and equality. You cannot strive against the +unseen and the fearless. The Cause will triumph though all else fails. +Georgian, I am sorry--" He was tottering now, but he held them back +with a stern gesture, "I don't think I ever knew just what love was. +There is one way--only one--" + +But from those lips the explanation of this one way never came. As they +saw the change in him and rushed to his support, his head fell forward on +his breast and all was over. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +NOT YET + + +They had laid him on the bed and Mr. Harper, in his usual practical way, +was hastening to rouse the house, when Georgian stepped before him and +laid her hand upon the door. + +"Not yet," said she with authority. "He said there was a way--let us find +it before we give up our secret and our possible safety. Mr. Harper, have +you guessed that way?" + +"No, except the usual one of protection through the law which he scouts. +I do not believe, Mrs. Ransom, in any other being necessary. Your +brother's threats answered a very good purpose while he was alive, but +now that he is dead they need not trouble you. I'm not even sure that I +believe in the organization. It was mostly in your brother's brain, Mrs. +Ransom; there's no such band, or if there is, its powers are not so +unlimited as he would make you believe." + +She simply pointed to the motionless form and the distorted face which +were slowly assuming an expression of great majesty. + +"There is my answer," said she. "Men of his strong attributes do not kill +themselves from fancy. He knew what he did." + +"And you think--" + +"That I will not live a week if I pass that door under the name of +Georgian Ransom. Mr. Harper, I am sure of it; Roger, I beg you to believe +what I say. It may not come here--but it will come. The mark has been set +against my name. Death only will obliterate this mark. But the name--that +is already a dead one--shall it not stay so?--It is the one way--the way +he meant." + +"Georgian!" + +It was a cry of infinite protest. Such a cry as one might expect from the +long-suffering Ransom. It drew her from the door; it brought her to his +side. As their eyes and hands met, Harper stepped back to the bedside, +and remembering the sensitiveness of the man before him, softly covered +his poor face. When he turned back, Mrs. Ransom was slowly shaking her +head under her husband's prolonged look and saying softly: + +"No, not Georgian, Anitra. Henceforth Anitra, always Anitra. Can you +endure the ordeal for the sake of the safety and peace of mind it will +bring?" + +"I endure it! Can you? Remember the deafness that marks Anitra." + +"That can be cured." Her smile turned almost arch. "We will travel; there +are great physicians abroad." + +"A sister--not a wife?" + +"Your wife in time--Ah, it will mean a new courtship and--Anitra is a +different woman from Georgian--she has suffered--you will love her +better." + +"O God! Harper, are we living, awake, sane? Help me at this crisis. I do +not know where I am or what this is she really asks." + +"She asks the impossible. She asks what you can, perhaps, give, but not +what I can. You forget that this deception calls for connivance on my +part, and whatever you may think of me or my profession, deception is +foreign to my nature and very repugnant to me." + +"And you refuse?" + +"Mrs. Ransom, I must." + +The hope which had held her up, the life which had returned to body and +spirit since this prospect of a possible future had dawned upon her, +faded from glance and smile. + +"Then good-by, Roger, we shall never have those happy days together of +which we have often dreamt. I may stay with you a week, a month, a year, +but the horror of a great fear will be over us, and never, never can we +know joy." + +She threw herself into her husband's arms; she clung to him. + +"One moment," she cried, "one moment of perfect happiness before the +shadow falls. Oh, how I must love you, Roger, to say such words, to think +such thoughts, with the body of the brother I loved so deeply once, lying +there dead before us, killed by his own hand." + +Ransom softly drew her aside where her eyes could not fall upon the bed. + +Harper stopped still where he was, the picture of gloom and uncertainty. + +"It must be settled now," said Ransom. "As we leave this room, our +relations must remain." + +"I cannot but think your fears all folly," muttered Harper. "Yet the +responsibility you force upon me is terrible. If it were not for that +will! How can I present it to the Surrogate when I know the testator is +still alive?" + +"You need not. I will do that," said Ransom. + +"And the property! Given to a man we none of us know. Property that is +not legally his." + +"I will make it so," cried Georgian with a burst of new and +uncontrollable hope as she saw, as she thought, this conscientious lawyer +yielding. "There is paper here; draw up a deed of gift. I will sign it +and you shall hold it so that whether I live or die, Auchincloss' title +to his money shall be absolute. Thus much I wish to do, that Alfred's +life should not have been sacrificed for nothing." + +"Let me think." + +Harper was wavering. + + * * * * * + +A half-hour later the door of Ransom's room was flung hurriedly open, and +loud cries for Mrs. Deo and the office clerk rang through the house. And +when they and others came running at the call, it was to find Mr. Ransom +and the lawyer hanging over the recumbent figure of the dead Hazen, and +the deaf girl Anitra pointing at the group, with wild and inarticulate +cries. + + +THE END + + + + * * * * * + + + +_Works by Anna Katharine Green_ + + +THE LEAVENWORTH CASE. A Lawyer's Story. + +"She has worked up a _cause celebre_ with a fertility of device and +ingenuity of treatment hardly second to Wilkie Collins or Edgar +Allan Poe."--_Christian Union_. + + +A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE + +"A most ingenious and absorbingly interesting story. The +readers are held spellbound until the last page."--_Cincinnati +Commercial_. + + +THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES. A Story of New York Life. + +"'The Sword of Damocles' is a book of great power, which far +surpasses either of its predecessors from her pen, and places her +high among American writers. The plot is complicated and is +managed adroitly.... In the delineation of characters she has +shown both delicacy and vigor."--_Congregationalist_. + + +BEHIND CLOSED DOORS + +" ... She has never succeeded better in baffling the reader."--_Boston +Christian Register_. + + +HARD AND RING + +"It is a tribute to the author's genius that she never tires and +never loses her readers.... It moves on clean and healthy.... +It is worked out powerfully and skilfully."--_N. Y. Independent_. + + +THE MILL MYSTERY + + +X. Y. Z. and 7 TO 12: DETECTIVE STORIES + +"Well written and extremely exciting and captivating.... She +is a perfect genius in the construction of a plot."--_N. Y. Commercial +Advertiser_. + + +THE OLD STONE HOUSE, AND OTHER STORIES + +"It is a bundle of quite cleverly constructed pieces of fiction, with +which an idle hour may be pleasantly passed."--_N. Y. Independent_. + + +CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY + +"'Cynthia Wakeham's Money' is a story notable even among the +many vigorous works of Anna Katharine Green."--_New York Sun_. + + +MARKED "PERSONAL." + +"The ingenious plot is built up with all the skill of the writer of +'The Leavenworth Case' to the very last chapter, which contains +the surprising solutions of several mysteries." + + +MISS HURD: AN ENIGMA + +"A strong and interesting novel in an entirely new field of romance." + + +THE DOCTOR, HIS WIFE, AND THE CLOCK + +"The story is entertainingly told...."--_Cincinnati Tribune_. + + +DR. IZARD + +"Those who have read her other books will not need to be urged +to read this; they will be eager to do so, and we assure them a very +interesting story."--_Boston Times_. + + +THAT AFFAIR NEXT DOOR + +"Startling in its ingenuity and its wonderful plot."--_Buffalo +Enquirer_. + + +LOST MAN'S LANE + + +AGATHA WEBB + + +ONE OF MY SONS + + +THE DEFENCE OF THE BRIDE, AND OTHER POEMS + + +RISIFI'S DAUGHTER + + +THE FILIGREE BALL + + +THE MILLIONAIRE BABY + + +THE AMETHYST BOX + + +THE HOUSE IN THE MIST + + +THE WOMAN IN THE ALCOVE + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHIEF LEGATEE*** + + +******* This file should be named 17999.txt or 17999.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/9/9/17999 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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