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diff --git a/22706.txt b/22706.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..04bf44a --- /dev/null +++ b/22706.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1017 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Two Days' Solitary Imprisonment, by Edward Bellamy + +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: Two Days' Solitary Imprisonment + 1898 + +Author: Edward Bellamy + +Release Date: September 21, 2007 [EBook #22706] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO DAYS' SOLITARY IMPRISONMENT *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +TWO DAYS' SOLITARY IMPRISONMENT + +By Edward Bellamy + +1898 + + +Mr. Joseph Kilgore was suffering from one of those spring influenzas +which make a man feel as if he were his own grandfather. His nose had +acquired the shape of a turnip and the complexion of a beet. All his +bones ached as if he had been soundly thrashed, and his eyes were weak +and watery. Your deadly disease is oftener than not a gentleman who +takes your life without mauling you, but the minor diseases are +mere bruisers who just go in for making one as uncomfortable and +unpresentable as possible. Mr. Kilgore's influenza had been coming on +for several days, and when he woke up this particular morning and heard +the rain dripping on the piazza-roof just under his bedroom-window, he +concluded, like a sensible man, that he would stay at home and nurse +himself over the fire that day, instead of going to the office. So he +turned over and snoozed for an hour or two, luxuriating in a sense of +aches and pains just pronounced enough to make the warmth and softness +of the bed delightful. + +Toward noon, the edge of this enjoyment becoming dulled, he got up, +dressed, and came downstairs to the parlor, where his brother's wife (he +was a bachelor, living with a married brother) had considerately kindled +up a coal-fire in the grate for his benefit. + +After lying off in the rocking-chair till past dinner-time, he began to +feel better and consequently restless. Concluding that he would like to +read, he went rummaging about the bookcases for a likely-looking novel. +At length he found in the upper shelf of a closet a book called "Roles +of a Detective," containing various thrilling accounts of crimes and the +entanglement of criminals in the meshes of law and evidence. + +One story in particular made a strong impression on his mind. It was a +tale of circumstantial evidence, and about how it very nearly hung an +innocent man for a murder which he had no thought of committing. +It struck Joseph rather forcibly that this victim of circumstantial +evidence was as respectable and inoffensive a person as himself, and +probably had never any more thought of being in danger from the law. +Circumstances had set their trap for him while he was quite unconscious +of peril, and he only awoke to find himself in the toils. And from this +he went on to reflect upon the horrible but unquestionable fact that +every year a certain proportion, and perhaps a very considerable +proportion, of those who suffered the penalties of the law, and even +the death-penalty, are innocent men,--victims of false or mistaken +evidence. No man, however wise or virtuous, can be sure that he will not +be taken in this fearful conscription of victims to the blind deity of +justice. "None can tell," thought Joseph, with a shudder, "that the word +he is saying, the road he is turning, the appointment he is making, or +whatever other innocent act he is now engaged in, may not prove the +last mesh in some self-woven death-net, the closing link in some damning +chain of evidence whose devilish subtlety shall half convince him that +he must be guilty as it wholly convinces others." + +Timidity is generally associated with imaginativeness, if not its +result, and Joseph, although he concealed the fact pretty well under +the mask of reticence, was constitutionally very timid. He had an +unprofitable habit of taking every incident of possible embarrassment +or danger that occurred to his mind as the suggestion for imaginary +situations of inconvenience or peril, which he would then work out, +fancying how he would feel and what he would do, with the utmost +elaboration, and often with really more nervous excitement than he would +be likely to experience if the events supposed should really occur. +So now, and all the more because he was a little out of sorts, the +suggestions of this story began to take the form in his mind of an +imaginary case of circumstantial evidence of which he was the victim. +His fancy worked up the details of a fictitious case against himself, +which he, although perfectly innocent, could meet with nothing more than +his bare denial. + +He imagined the first beginnings of suspicion; he saw it filming the +eyes of his acquaintances, then of his friends, and at last sicklying +over the face even of his brother Silas. In fancy he made frantic +attempts to regain the confidence of his friends, to break through the +impalpable, impenetrable barrier which the first stir of suspicion had +put between their minds and his. He cried, he begged, he pleaded. But in +vain, all in vain. Suspicion had made his appeals and adjurations sound +even to his friends as strange and meaningless as the Babel-builders' +words of a sudden became to each other. The yellow badge of suspicion +once upon him, all men kept afar, as if he were a fever-ship in +quarantine. No solitary imprisonment in a cell of stone could so utterly +exclude him from the fellowship of men as the invisible walls of this +dungeon of suspicion. And at last he saw himself giving up the hopeless +struggle, yielding to his fate in dumb despair, only praying that the +end might come speedily, perhaps even reduced to the abject-ness of +confessing the crime he had not committed, in order that he might at +least have the pity of men, since he could not regain their confidence. +And so strongly had this vision taken hold on him that his breath came +irregularly, and his forehead was damp as he drew his hand across it. + +As has been intimated, it was Mr. Joseph Kil-gore's very bad habit to +waste his nervous tissue in the conscientiously minute elaboration of +such painful imaginary situations as that above described, and in his +present experience there was nothing particularly novel or extraordinary +for him. It was the occurrence of a singular coincidence between this +internal experience and a wholly independent course of actual events, +which made that waking nightmare the beginning of a somewhat remarkable +comedy, or, more properly, a tragedy, of errors. For, as Joseph lay back +in his chair, in a state of nervous exhaustion and moral collapse, the +parlor-door was thrown open, and Mrs. Silas Kilgore, his sister-in-law, +burst into the room. She was quite pale, and her black eyes were fixed +on Joseph's with the eager intensity, as if seeking moral support, +noticeable in those who communicate startling news which they have not +had time to digest. + +The effect of this apparition upon Joseph in his unstrung condition may +be readily imagined. He sprang up, much paler than Mrs. Kilgore, his +lips apart, and his eyes staring with the premonition of something +shocking. These symptoms of extraordinary excitement even before she +had spoken, and this air as if he had expected a shocking revelation, +recurred to her mind later, in connection with other circumstances, but +just now she was too full of her intelligence to dwell on anything else. + +"A man was murdered in our barn last night. They 've found the body!" +she exclaimed. + +As the meaning of her words broke on him, Joseph was filled with +that sort of mental confusion which one experiences when the scene or +circumstances of a dream recur in actual life. Was he still dreaming +that ghostly vision of suspicion and the death-trap of circumstances? +Was this a mere continuation of it? No, he was awake; his sister-in-law +standing there, with pallid face and staring eyes, was not an +apparition. The horrid, fatal reality which he had been imagining was +actually upon him. + +"I did not do it!" dropped from his ashen lips. + +"You do it? Are you crazy? Who said anything about your doing it?" cried +the astounded woman. + +The ring of genuine amazement in her voice was scarcely needed to recall +Joseph to the practical bearing of his surroundings, and break the spell +of superstitious dread. The sound of his own words had done it. With a +powerful effort he regained something like self-control, and said, with +a forced laugh:-- + +"What an absurd thing for me to say! I don't know what I could have been +thinking of. Very odd, was it not? But, dear me! a man murdered in our +barn? You don't tell me! How terrible!" + +His constrained, overdone manner was not calculated to abate Mrs. +Kilgore's astonishment, and she continued to stare at him with an +expression in which a vague terror began to appear. There are few +shorter transitions than that from panic to anger. Seeing that her +astonishment at his reception of the news increased rather than +diminished, he became exasperated at the intolerable position in which +he was placed. His face, before so pale, flushed with anger. + +"Damnation! What are you staring at me that way for?" he cried fiercely. + +Mrs. Kilgore gave a little cry, half of indignation, half of fright, and +went out of the room, shutting the door after her. + +Joseph had ample opportunity to review the situation before he was again +disturbed, which, indeed, was not till some hours later, at dusk, when +Silas came home, and the tea-table was set. Silas had been promptly +summoned from his shop when the discovery of the body was made, and had +been busy all the afternoon with the police, the coroner, and the crowds +of visitors to the scene of the tragedy. + +The conversation at the tea-table ran entirely upon the various +incidents of the discovery, the inquest, and the measures of the police +for the apprehension of the criminal. Mrs. Kilgore was so full of +questions that she scarcely gave Silas time to answer, and Joseph +flattered himself that his comparative silence was not noticeable. +Nevertheless, as they rose from the table, Silas remarked:-- + +"You don't seem much interested in our murder, Joseph; you have n't +asked the first question about it." + +Mrs. Kilgore was just leaving the room, and she turned her head to +see how he would answer. But he, too, turned off the matter by saying +something about Maria's loquaciousness having left him no chance. After +tea the little family circle was gathered in the parlor. Mrs. Kilgore +was sewing; Silas read the newspaper, and Joseph sat up by the fire. +From time to time, as he glanced around, he caught Mrs. Kilgore's eyes +studying him very intently. Her manner indicated that her indignation +at his behavior and language earlier in the afternoon had been quite +neutralized by her curiosity as to its cause. + +"There 's nothing in the paper to-night but the murder, and I know that +already," exclaimed Silas, finally. "Maria, where's there something to +read? Hullo! what's this?" + +He had taken up from the table the story of circumstantial evidence +which Joseph had been reading that morning. + +"Why, Maria, here's that murder-book you wouldn't let me finish last +summer for fear I'd murder you some night. Who on earth hunted up that +book of all books, to-day of all days?" + +"I did," replied Joseph, clearing his throat, in order to speak with a +natural inflection. + +"You did?" exclaimed Silas. + +"You must have looked the house over to find it, for I hid it +carefully," said Mrs. Kilgore, looking sharply at him. "What made you so +anxious to get it?" + +"I was not particularly anxious. I was merely looking for something to +read," said Joseph, making a pretense of yawning, as if the matter was a +very trivial one. + +"I suppose the murder brought it to his mind," said Silas. + +"Why, no!" exclaimed Mrs. Kilgore quickly. "You must have been reading +it before the murder. Now that I remember, I saw it in your hands." + +"Before the murder, were you, Joseph? Why, that's almost enough to make +one feel superstitious," said Silas, turning around in his chair, so as +to look fairly at him. + +Joseph had half a mind to make a clean breast of the matter then and +there, and explain to them how curiously the reading of that book had +affected him. But he reflected that Silas was rather unimaginative, and +would probably be more mystified than enlightened by his explanation. + +"I do believe it was reading that book which made you act so queerly +when I brought you in the news of the murder," pursued Mrs. Kilgore. + +"How is that? How did he act queerly?" asked Silas. + +"I am not aware that I acted queerly at all," said Joseph doggedly. + +He knew well enough he had acted queerly, and did not mean to deny +that; but, as children and confused persons often do, he answered to the +underlying motive rather than the language. He only thought of denying +the inference of suspicion that her words seemed to him to suggest. But +to Mrs. Kilgore he very naturally seemed to be prevaricating. + +"Why, Joseph!" said she, in a raised voice, and with a slight asperity; +"you know how you jumped up, looking like a ghost, the moment I opened +the door, and the first thing you said after I 'd told you that they +'d found a murdered man in the barn, was--Why, Joseph, what's the +matter?" + +But I must go back a little. When the conversation turned on the book +and Joseph's connection with it, a minute or so previous, Silas had +quite naturally glanced over at his brother, and, as the talk went on, +his glance had become a somewhat concentrated gaze, although expressive +of nothing but the curiosity and slight wonder which the circumstances +suggested. It would not do to have Silas think that he avoided his eyes, +and so Joseph had, as soon as he felt this gaze, turned his own face +rather sharply toward it. He had meant merely to meet his brother's look +in a natural and unaffected manner. But, although never more sensible of +just what such a manner would be, he was utterly unable to compass it. +He was perfectly aware that the expression of his eyes was much too +serious and challenging,--and yet he could not, for the soul of him, +modify it. Nor did he dare to withdraw his gaze after it had once met +his brother's, although knowing that it was fast becoming a fierce +stare, and perceiving that Silas had already noticed something peculiar +in it. For to drop his eyes would be utter discomfiture and rout. As +Mrs. Kilgore alluded to his queer demeanor when she told him the news, +his face began to flush with the anticipation of the revelation that was +coming at this most unfavorable moment, even while his eyes were locked +with the already startled ones of Silas. As she went on, the flush +covered the lower part of his face, and rose like a spring-tide up his +cheeks, and lent a fierce, congested glare to his eyes. He felt how +woeful and irretrievable a thing it would be for him just then to lose +his countenance, and at the thought the flush burned deeper and merged +higher. It overspread his high, bald, intellectual forehead, and +incarnadined his sconce up to the very top of it. At this moment it was +that Mrs. Kilgore broke off her narrative with the exclamation, "Why, +Joseph, what's the matter?" + +At her words it seemed as if every drop of blood in his body poured into +his face. He could endure it no longer. He rose abruptly, strode out of +the parlor, and went to his room, although it was but eight o'clock, +and he had no fire there. If he had staid another moment he must have +brained Silas and his wife with the poker, such an ungovernable anger +boiled up in him with the sense of his causeless, shameful discomfiture. + +As Joseph left the parlor the eyes of Silas and his wife met each other, +--his dull with bewilderment and terror at a spectral fear; hers keen +with a definite suspicion. But even her loquacity was subdued by a real +fright. She had nothing to say. Her sensation was like that of one who, +hunting a hare, stumbles upon a wolf. She had been both offended and +made curious by Joseph's demeanor that afternoon, but the horrid idea +that within a moment had been suggested to both their minds had so +little occurred to her as a serious possibility that she was even on the +point of rallying Joseph on it before her husband. Some time after he +had left the parlor Silas asked, with averted face:-- + +"What was it that he said when you told him the news?" and then she +repeated his words. + +And Joseph, sitting wild-eyed upon his bed in the darkness in the room +above, red no longer, but pale as death, heard the murmur of the voices, +and knew that she was telling him. No one of the household slept much +that night, except Mrs. Kil-gore. Whenever she awoke she heard her +husband tossing restlessly, but she dared not ask him what was +the matter. In vain did Silas rehearse to himself all through the +night-hours how petty were the trifles in Joseph's demeanor which +had disturbed him. They were of the sort of trifles which create that +species of certainty known as moral certainty,--the strongest of all +in the mind it occupies, although so incapable of being communicated to +others. It mattered little how much evidence there was, if it sufficed +to lodge the faintest trace of suspicion in his mind. For, like some +poisons, an atom of suspicion is as fatal as the largest quantity, Nay, +perhaps, even more surely so, for against great suspicion the mind often +takes arms and makes valiant head; but a little doubt, by its timid and +hesitant demeanor, disarms opposition, and is readily entertained. And +all that night, lying awake, and knowing that Silas was sleepless just +the other side of the partition, and that the fungus of suspicion was +moment by moment overgrowing his mind, he could hardly wait for morning, +but would fain have rushed, even now in the darkness, to his bedside to +cry: "I did not do it! Believe me, brother, I did not do it!" + +In the morning, however, the sun shone brightly into his room, and last +night's events and misunderstandings seemed like a bad dream. He went +downstairs almost cheery. He did not find Silas, but Mrs. Kilgore +was about. He was rather startled to observe the entire change in her +demeanor. Yesterday she was constantly following him up with her sharp +black eyes and brisk questions and exclamations, but now she seemed +frightened, acted in a constrained manner, and avoided his eyes. + +"Where is Silas?" he asked, as they sat down to table. + +"He said that there was something he must see to at the shop before work +began, so he had an early breakfast," replied Mrs. Kilgore, with her +eyes on her plate. + +Had she been looking up, she would have seen a piteous constriction in +the muscles of Joseph's face. His heart was sick, and all his regained +courage sank away. It was no bad dream. Silas was afraid to meet him. +He left his meal untasted, and went to the office. A dozen acquaintances +stopped him on his way down-street to ask about the murder; and all day +long somebody was dropping in to pester him on the same subject. He told +them with a dull, abstracted air all the fresh details he knew, but +felt all the time as if he cheated each auditor of the vital part of the +matter, in that he failed to shout after him:-- + +"Silas suspects me of it!" + +Silas had, indeed, left the house early for the purpose of avoiding his +brother. He was in a condition of mind and nerve in which he did not +dare to meet him. At tea the brothers met for the first time since the +night previous. There was a constraint between them like that between +strangers, but stronger and more chilling far than ever that is. There +is no chill like that which comes between friends, and the nearer the +friends the more deathly the cold. Silas made a little effort to speak +of business-matters, but could not keep it up, and soon a silence +settled over the party, only broken by the words of table-service. Mrs. +Kilgore sat pale and frightened all through the meal without venturing a +single phrase, and scarcely looking up from her plate. + +The silence was of that kind which all felt to be more expressive than +the loudest, most explicit language could be,--more merciless than any +form of verbal accusation. Such silence is a terribly perfect medium, +in which souls are compelled to touch each other, resent as they may +the contact. Several times Joseph was on the point of rising and rushing +from the table. How many more such meals could he stand or could they +stand? All of them recognized that the situation had become perceptibly +more serious and more pronounced on account of that silent tea-table. + +There was in particular not the slightest allusion made by any one to +the murder, which, seeing that it had happened but yesterday, and +would naturally still have been an engrossing topic, was an omission +so pointed as to be an open charge of guilt. There is such a thing as +emphasizing a topic by suppressing it, as letters are sunk into stone. +The omission impressed Silas as it did Joseph, but, regarding it from +his point of view, it did not occur to him but that Joseph was the one +solely responsible for it. He, Silas, had refrained from reference to it +because his suspicions in regard to Joseph made the topic unendurable. +But he could not imagine that Joseph could have had any other motive +for his silence on the subject but a guilty conscience,--some secret +knowledge of the crime. Thus regarded, it was a terrible confirmation. +That a perception that he was suspected might cause an innocent man to +act very much as if he were conscious of guilt did not occur to Silas, +as, perhaps, it would have failed to occur to most persons in just his +position. + +After leaving the tea-table the brothers went together into the parlor, +according to the family custom. They took their accustomed seats on +opposite sides of the fireplace, but there was no conversation. A veil +was between them. Both were thinking of the same thing,--thinking of +it intensely,--and each knew that the other was thinking of it, and +yet neither for worlds could have commanded the courage to speak of it. +The suspicion had grown definite in Silas's mind, and yet, whenever he +brought himself to the point of putting it in words, it suddenly seemed +impossible, cruel, and absurd. But if Silas found it impossible to +speak, far more so it seemed to Joseph. + +To charge another with suspecting us is half to confess ourselves worthy +of suspicion. It is demoralizing,--it is to abandon the pride of +conscious rectitude. To deny an accusation is to concede to it a +possibility, a color of reason; and Joseph shrank with unutterable +repugnance from that. He felt that he could be torn limb from limb +sooner than betray by a word that he recognized the existence of +suspicion so abominable. Besides, of what avail would be a denial +without evidence to disprove a suspicion which had arisen without +evidence? It was a thing too impalpable to contend with. As well fight a +fog as seek to destroy by mere denial suspicion so vague, unsubstantial, +and subtile, as that which enveloped him. Silas would, of course, +eagerly accept his denial; he well knew how he would spring to his side, +how warm and firm would be his hand-clasp, and how great, perhaps, +his momentary relief. But he was, after all, but human, and no man can +control his doubts. Silas would still be unable, when he thought the +matter over, to help the feeling that there was, after all, something +very strange about his conduct from first to last. It is the subtiler +nature of doubt to penetrate the heart more profoundly than confidence, +and to underlie it. No generous St. George of faith can reach the nether +den where it lurks. Or, rather, is it like the ineradicable witch-grass +which, though it be hewed off at the surface, still lives at the root, +and springs forth luxuriantly again at the first favoring season? + +Moreover, Joseph hoped that some circumstance, the detection of the +murderer, or a healthier moral tone, might dissipate the cloud of +suspicion between them, and then it would be far better not to have +spoken, for, once put in words, the hateful thing would ever remain +a mutual memory, never again to be denied, and which might come up to +their minds whenever they looked each other in the eye thereafter. And +so the brothers sat opposite each other in silence, their faces growing +grayer as the clock ticked. + +"The weather is growing cooler again," said Joseph, at last, rising to +go to his room. + +It was at least two hours before his usual bedtime, but he could sit +there no longer. + +"Yes, I think we shall have a frost," replied Silas, and the brothers +parted. + +After Joseph had gone, Mrs. Kilgore came into the parlor and sat down +with some sewing. She waited for her husband to speak and tell her if +Joseph had said anything. But he sat there staring at the wall, and took +no notice of her. Although she knew so well what had been preying upon +his mind since last evening, yet he had not once referred to the matter, +and she had not dared to do so. It was hard for a talkative little lady +like her to understand this reticence about a matter so deeply felt. She +could not comprehend that there may be griefs so ghastly that we dare +not lift from them the veil of silence. She wanted to "talk it over" a +little. She felt that would do Silas good, because she knew it would be +a relief to her. Nor was she insensible to the gratification it would +afford her vanity to discuss so serious a matter with her husband, +whose general tone with her was one of jest and pleasantry, to the +disparagement of her intellectual powers, as she thought. So, after +glancing up several times timidly at Silas's still set profile, she +said, in a weighty little voice:-- + +"Don't you think Joseph behaves very strangely about the murder?" Her +words seemed to be several seconds in making an impression on Silas's +mind, and then he slowly turned his face full upon her. It was a +terrible look. The squared jaw, the drawn lips, the dull, distant stare, +repulsed her as one might repulse a stranger intermeddling with a bitter +private grief. Who was she, to come between him and his brother? He did +not seem to think it worth while to say anything to explain so eloquent +a glance, but immediately faced about again, as if dismissing the +interruption from his mind. Mrs. Kilgore did not try to make any more +conversation, but went to her bedroom and cried herself to sleep. + +But Silas sat in his chair in the parlor, and took no note of the hours +till the lamp spluttered and went out. All through the evening, in +Joseph's room, which was directly above, he had heard him walking to and +fro, to and fro, sitting down awhile, and then starting again; and if +the pacing had not finally come to an end, Silas could not have gone to +bed, for his heart went out to his brother wrestling there alone with +his dreadful secret, and he could not rest till he thought that he, too, +was at rest. + +Indeed, for the very reason that Joseph was so dear to him, and he felt +nothing could change that, he actually hesitated the less to admit these +horrible suspicions. Love is impatient of uncertainly, and would rather +presume the guilt of a friend from its longing to pour itself out in +pity and tenderness, than restrain itself while judgment scrutinizes +evidence and decides by a straw's weight. + +A practical reflection, moreover, had occurred to Silas. + +If Joseph had really--he did not dare to say to himself what--then +it was of the utmost importance that they should quickly understand each +other, so as to take steps to place him in safety. His desire to share +Joseph's horrible secret was like the feeling with which one would fain +uncover a friend's loathsome disease in order to help him. Before he +went to sleep that night he resolved, therefore, that he would win his +confidence by letting him see in every possible way, short of actual +words, that he suspected the true state of things, and that Joseph might +still confide in him as a faithful brother who would stand by him in the +worst emergency. + +On first meeting him the following morning he began to carry out this +project so worthy of fraternal devotion. He sought occasion to shake +hands with Joseph, and gave a meaning pressure to his clasp. At +breakfast he was the only one who talked, and endeavored by his manner +to let Joseph understand that he perfectly comprehended the situation, +and was talking to cover his embarrassment and prevent Mrs. Kilgore +from suspecting anything. Several times also he managed to catch his +brother's eye, and give him a glance implying sympathy and mutual +understanding. This demeanor added the last touch to Joseph's +exasperation. + +Evading Silas's evident intention of walking down-street, he got away +alone, and took both dinner and tea at a restaurant, to put off meeting +his brother and sister-in-law as long as possible. He lingered long over +his tea in the darkest, loneliest corner of the eating-house, for the +prospect, no longer to be avoided, of returning home to confront his +sister-in-law's frightened face and Silas's pathetic glances appeared +intolerable. Wild ideas of flying from the city and returning never, or +not until the truth about the murder had come to light, occurred to him. +He even began to arrange what sort of a letter he should write to Silas. +But men of forty, especially of Joseph's temperament, who have moved in +the same business and domestic ruts all their lives, do not readily +make up their minds to bold steps of this sort. To endure suffering or +inconvenience is more natural than to change their settled habits. So +it all ended in his going home at about eight o'clock, and being greatly +relieved to find some callers there. + +All three of this strangely stricken family, indeed, shared that +feeling. It was such a rest from the nervous strain whenever either +or both were left alone with Joseph! The earnestness with which Mrs. +Kilgore pressed her guests to stay a little longer was so unusual and +apparently uncalled for that I fancy Mr. and Mrs. Smith had a vague +suspicion that they were being made game of. But they would have been +disabused of that impression could they have appreciated the sinking +of heart with which their hosts heard the frontdoor close, and realized +that they were again left to themselves. Only one thing had occurred to +mar the relief which the call had afforded. The topic of the murder had +been exhausted before Joseph entered, but, just as she was leaving, Mrs. +Smith made a return to it, saying:-- + +"Mrs. Kilgore, I was telling my husband I should think you must be +scared to be in the house, for fear the murderer might still be hanging +around." + +Mrs. Kilgore shuddered, and cast an instantaneous, wholly involuntary +glance at Joseph. Her husband intercepted it, and, catching his eye, she +saw an expression in it as if he could strangle her for what was really +only the fault of her nerves. She stammered something, and the bustle of +the retiring guests covered her confusion well enough. + +Unfortunately, Joseph, too, had caught that sudden, terrified glance of +his sister-in-law's at him, and it affected him more than anything that +had occurred in either of the two days since the murder. As the guests +took their leave, his head dropped on his breast, and his arms fell by +the sides of his chair. Mr. Kilgore wanted to send his wife from the +room, but his voice stuck in his throat, his tongue refused to move. +They waited a moment, and then Joseph said:-- + +"Send for the police! For God's sake, take me out of this! I can't stand +it any longer!" + +It was not yet nine o'clock, and a boy came by in the street crying:-- + +"Extra! The Kilgore barn murderer captured! Full confession!" + +Although the words were perfectly audible through the lowered windows +to all in the room, Mrs. Kilgore was the only one who took any mental +cognizance of them. Nor did either of the men, who sat there like +stones, take note of her as she left the room. A minute later they heard +her scream, and she ran back with the open paper in her hands. + +"He did not do it! He is crazy! They have found the murderer!" + +Silas fixed an incredulous, questioning stare upon his wife, and then +turned quickly toward his brother. As for Joseph, at first and for +several moments, he gave no sign that he had heard at all. Then he +slowly raised his eyes to his brother's face with a deliberate, cruel +gaze of contemptuous sarcasm and cold aversion. The first effect of this +great relief was to flood his mind with bitter wrath at those who had +done him the great wrong from which, no thanks to them, he had been +rescued. + +Mrs. Kilgore hastily read aloud, in a breathless voice, the newspaper +account It seemed that two tramps had taken refuge in the barn from +the storm that had raged the night of the murder, and getting into some +quarrel before morning, one had stabbed the other and fled, only to be +captured two days later and confess everything. When Mrs. Kilgore ceased +reading, Joseph said:-- + +"It must be a great disappointment for you that they are not going to +hang me for it. I sincerely condole with you." + +Mrs. Kilgore cried, "Oh, don't!" and Silas made a gesture of +deprecation, but both felt that Joseph had a right to revile them as he +chose, and they had no right to complain. But he, even while he could +not deny himself the gratification of a little cruel reproach, knew that +they were not to be blamed, that they had been as much the victims of +a fatality as himself, and that this was one of those peculiarly +exasperating wrongs which do not leave the sufferer even the +satisfaction of being angry. Soon he got up and walked across the room, +stretched himself, drew his hand over his forehead, and said:-- + +"I feel as if I had just been dug up after being buried alive." + +At this sign of returning equanimity, Silas took courage and ventured to +say:-- + +"I know we 've been a pair of crazy fools, Joe, but you 're a little +to blame. What's made you act so queerly? You won't deny that you have +acted so?" + +Joseph smiled,--one does n't appreciate the pure luxury of a smile +until he has been deprived of it for a while,--lit a cigar, sat down +with his legs over the arm of his arm-chair,--he had not indulged in an +unconstrained posture for two days,--and told his side of the story. +He explained how, thanks to that tale he was reading, and the ghastly +reverie it suggested, his nerves were all on edge when Mrs. Kilgore +burst in with a piece of news whose extraordinary coincidence with his +train of thought had momentarily thrown him off his balance; and he +tried to make them see that, after that first scene, all the rest was a +logical sequence. + +Mrs. Kilgore, by virtue of her finer feminine nervous organization, +understood him so readily that he saw he had made a mistake in not +unbosoming himself to her at first. But Silas evidently did not so +easily take his idea. + +"But why did n't you just tell us that you had n't done it, and end the +misunderstanding at one blow?" he asked. + +"Why, don't you see," replied Joseph, "that to deny a thing before you +are distinctly suspected of it is to suggest suspicion; while to deny it +afterward, unless you have proof to offer, is useless?" + +"What should we have come to but for the capture of the real murderer?" +cried Mrs. Kilgore, with a shudder. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Two Days' Solitary Imprisonment, by Edward Bellamy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO DAYS' SOLITARY IMPRISONMENT *** + +***** This file should be named 22706.txt or 22706.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/7/0/22706/ + +Produced by David Widger + +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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