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diff --git a/22810.txt b/22810.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5dc7cab --- /dev/null +++ b/22810.txt @@ -0,0 +1,911 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Midnight In Beauchamp Row, by +Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs) + +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: Midnight In Beauchamp Row + 1895 + +Author: Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs) + +Release Date: September 29, 2007 [EBook #22810] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIDNIGHT IN BEAUCHAMP ROW *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +MIDNIGHT IN BEAUCHAMP ROW + +By Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs) + +Copyright, 1895, by American Press Association + + +It was the last house in Beauchamp Row, and it stood several rods away +from its nearest neighbor. It was a pretty house in the daytime, but +owing to its deep, sloping roof and small bediamonded windows it had +a lonesome look at night, notwithstanding the crimson hall-light which +shone through the leaves of its vine-covered doorway. + +Ned Chivers lived in it with his six months' married bride, and as +he was both a busy fellow and a gay one there were many evenings when +pretty Letty Chivers sat alone until near midnight. + +She was of an uncomplaining spirit, however, and said little, though +there were times when both the day and evening seemed very long and +married life not altogether the paradise she had expected. + +On this evening--a memorable evening for her, the twenty-fourth of +December, 1894--she had expected her husband to remain with her, for it +was not only Christmas eve, but the night when, as manager of a large +manufacturing concern, he brought up from New York the money with which +to pay off the men on the next working day, and he never left her when +there was any unusual amount of money in the house. But from the +first glimpse she had of him coming up the road she knew she was to +be disappointed in this hope, and, indignant, alarmed almost, at the +prospect of a lonesome evening under these circumstances, she ran +hastily down to the gate to meet him, crying: + +"Oh, Ned, you look so troubled I know you have only come home for a +hurried supper. But you cannot leave me to-night. Tennie" (their only +maid) "has gone for a holiday, and I never can stay in this house alone +with all that." She pointed to the small bag he carried, which, as she +knew, was filled to bursting with bank notes. + +He certainly looked troubled. It is hard to resist the entreaty in a +young bride's uplifted face. But this time he could not help himself, +and he said: + +"I am dreadful sorry, but I must ride over to Fairbanks to-night. +Mr. Pierson has given me an imperative order to conclude a matter of +business there, and it is very important that it should be done. I +should lose my position if I neglected the matter, and no one but +Hasbrouck and Suffern knows that we keep the money in the house. I have +always given out that I intrusted it to Hale's safe over night." + +"But I cannot stand it," she persisted. "You have never left me on these +nights. That is why I let Tennie go. I will spend the evening at The +Larches, or, better still, call in Mr. and Mrs. Talcott to keep me +company." + +But her husband did not approve of her going out or of her having +company. The Larches was too far away, and as for Mr. and Mrs. Talcott, +they were meddlesome people, whom he had never liked; besides, Mrs. +Talcott was delicate, and the night threatened storm. It seemed hard +to subject her to this ordeal, and he showed that he thought so by his +manner, but, as circumstances were, she would have to stay alone, and he +only hoped she would be brave and go to bed like a good girl, and think +nothing about the money, which he would take care to put away in a very +safe place. + +"Or," said he, kissing her downcast face, "perhaps you would rather hide +it yourself; women always have curious ideas about such things." + +"Yes, let me hide it," she murmured. "The money, I mean, not the bag. +Every one knows the bag. I should never dare to leave it in that." And +begging him to unlock it, she began to empty it with a feverish haste +that rather alarmed him, for he surveyed her anxiously and shook his +head as if he dreaded the effects of this excitement upon her. + +But as he saw no way of averting it he confined himself to using such +soothing words as were at his command, and then, humoring her weakness, +helped her to arrange the bills in the place she had chosen, and +restuffing the bag with old receipts till it acquired its former +dimensions, he put a few bills on top to make the whole look natural, +and, laughing at her white face, relocked the bag and put the key back +in his pocket. + +"There, dear; a notable scheme and one that should relieve your mind +entirely!" he cried. "If any one should attempt burglary in my absence +and should succeed in getting into a house as safely locked as this will +be when I leave it, then trust to their being satisfied when they see +this booty, which I shall hide where I always hide it--in the cupboard +over my desk." + +"And when will you be back?" she murmured, trembling in spite of +herself at these preparations. + +"By one o'clock if possible. Certainly by two." + +"And our neighbors go to bed at ten," she murmured. But the words were +low, and she was glad he did not hear them, for if it was his duty +to obey the orders he had received, then it was her duty to meet the +position in which it left her as bravely as she could. + +At supper she was so natural that his face rapidly brightened, and it +was with quite an air of cheerfulness that he rose at last to lock up +the house and make such preparations as were necessary for his dismal +ride over the mountains to Fairbanks. She had the supper dishes to wash +up in Tennie's absence, and as she was a busy little housewife she +found herself singing a snatch of song as she passed back and forth from +dining-room to kitchen. He heard it, too, and smiled to himself as he +bolted the windows on the ground floor and examined the locks of the +three lower doors, and when he finally came into the kitchen with +his greatcoat on to give her his final kiss, he had but one parting +injunction to urge, and that was that she should lock the front door +after him and then forget the whole matter till she heard his double +knock at midnight. + +She smiled and held up her ingenuous face. + +"Be careful of yourself," she murmured. "I hate this dark ride for you, +and on such a night too." And she ran with him to the door to look out. + +"It is certainly very dark," he responded, "but I'm to have one of +Brown's safest horses. Do not worry about me. I shall do well enough, +and so will you, too, or you are not the plucky little woman I have +always thought you." + +She laughed, but there was a choking sound in her voice that made him +look at her again. But at sight of his anxiety she recovered herself, +and pointing to the clouds said earnestly: + +"It is going to snow. Be careful as you ride by the gorge, Ned; it is +very deceptive there in a snowstorm." + +But he vowed that it would not snow before morning, and giving her one +final embrace he dashed down the path toward Brown's livery stable. "Oh, +what is the matter with me?" she murmured to herself as his steps died +out in the distance. "I never knew I was such a coward." And she paused +for a moment, looking up and down the road, as if in despite of her +husband's command she had the desperate idea of running away to some +neighbor. + +But she was too loyal for that, and smothering a sigh she retreated into +the house. As she did so the first flakes fell of the storm that was not +to have come till morning. + +It took her an hour to get her kitchen in order, and nine o'clock struck +before she was ready to sit down. She had been so busy she had not +noticed how the wind had increased or how rapidly the snow was falling. +But when she went to the front door for another glance up and down the +road she started back, appalled at the fierceness of the gale and at the +great pile of snow that had already accumulated on the doorstep. + +Too delicate to breast such a wind, she saw herself robbed of her last +hope of any companionship, and sighing heavily she locked and bolted the +door for the night and went back into her little sitting-room, where a +great fire was burning. Here she sat down, and determined, now that she +must pass the evening alone, to do it as cheerfully as possible, and so +began to sew. "Oh, what a Christmas eve!" she thought, and a picture of +other homes rose before her eyes, homes in which husbands sat by wives +and brothers by sisters, and a great wave of regret poured over her and +a longing for something, she hardly dared say what, lest her unhappiness +should acquire a sting that would leave traces beyond the passing +moment. The room in which she sat was the only one on the ground floor +except the dining-room and kitchen. It therefore was used both as parlor +and sitting-room, and held not only her piano, but her husband's desk. + +Communicating with it was the tiny dining-room. Between the two, +however, was an entry leading to a side entrance. A lamp was in this +entry, and she had left it burning, as well as the one in the kitchen, +that the house might look cheerful and as if all the family were at +home. + +She was looking toward this entry and wondering whether it was the mist +made by her tears that made it look so dismally dark to her when there +came a faint sound from the door at its further end. + +Knowing that her husband must have taken peculiar pains with the +fastenings of this door, as it was the one toward the woods and +therefore most accessible to wayfarers, she sat where she was, with all +her faculties strained to listen. But no further sound came from that +direction, and after a few minutes of silent terror she was allowing +herself to believe that she had been deceived by her fears when she +suddenly heard the same sound at the kitchen door, followed by a muffled +knock. + +Frightened now in good earnest, but still alive to the fact that the +intruder was as likely to be a friend as a foe, she stepped to the door, +and with her hand on the lock stooped and asked boldly enough who was +there. But she received no answer, and more affected by this unexpected +silence than by the knock she had heard she recoiled farther and farther +till not only the width of the kitchen, but the dining-room also, lay +between her and the scene of her alarm, when to her utter confusion the +noise shifted again to the side of the house, and the door she thought +so securely fastened, swung violently open as if blown in by a fierce +gust, and she saw precipitated into the entry the burly figure of a man +covered with snow and shaking with the violence of the storm that seemed +at once to fill the house. + +Her first thought was that it was her husband come back, but before she +could clear her eyes from the cloud of snow which had entered with him +he had thrown off his outer covering and she found herself face to face +with a man in whose powerful frame and cynical visage she saw little to +comfort her and much to surprise and alarm. + +"Ugh!" was his coarse and rather familiar greeting. "A hard night, +missus! Enough to drive any man indoors. Pardon the liberty, but I +couldn't wait for you to lift the latch; the wind drove me right in." + +"Was--was not the door locked?" she feebly asked, thinking he must have +staved it in with his foot, that looked only too well fitted for such a +task. + +"Not much," he chuckled. "I s'pose you're too hospitable for that." +And his eyes passed from her face to the comfortable firelight shining +through the sitting-room. + +"Is it refuge you want?" she demanded, suppressing as much as possible +all signs of fear. + +"Sure, missus--what else! A man can't live in a gale like that, +specially after a tramp of twenty miles or more. Shall I shut the door +for you?" he asked, with a mixture of bravado and good nature that +frightened her more and more. + +"I will shut it," she replied, with a half notion of escaping this +sinister stranger by a flight through the night. + +But one glance into the swirling snow-storm deterred her, and making the +best of the alarming situation, she closed the door, but did not lock +it, being more afraid now of what was inside the house than of anything +left to threaten her from without. + +The man, whose clothes were dripping with water, watched her with +a cynical smile, and then, without any invitation, entered the +dining-room, crossed it and moved toward the kitchen fire. + +"Ugh! ugh! But it is warm here!" he cried, his nostrils dilating with +an animal-like enjoyment that in itself was repugnant to her womanly +delicacy. "Do you know, missus, I shall have to stay here all night? +Can't go out in that gale again; not such a fool." Then with a sly look +at her trembling form and white face he insinuatingly added, "All alone, +missus?" + +The suddenness with which this was put, together with the leer that +accompanied it, made her start. Alone? Yes, but should she acknowledge +it? Would it not be better to say that her husband was up-stairs. The +man evidently saw the struggle going on in her mind, for he chuckled to +himself and called out quite boldly: + +"Never mind, missus; it's all right. Just give me a bit of cold meat +and a cup of tea or something, and we'll be very comfortable together. +You're a slender slip of a woman to be minding a house like this. I'll +keep you company if you don't mind, leastwise until the storm lets up +a bit, which ain't likely for some hours to come. Rough night, missus, +rough night." + +"I expect my husband home at any time," she hastened to say. And +thinking she saw a change in the man's countenance at this she put on +quite an air of sudden satisfaction and bounded toward the front of the +house. "There! I think I hear him now," she cried. + +Her motive was to gain time, and if possible to obtain the opportunity +of shifting the money from the place where she had first put it into +another and safer one. "I want to be able," she thought, "of swearing +that I have no money with me in this house. If I can only get it into my +apron I will drop it outside the door into the snowbank. It will be +as safe there as in the bank it came from." And dashing into the +sitting-room she made a feint of dragging down a shawl from a screen, +while she secretly filled her skirt with the bills which had been put +between some old pamphlets on the bookshelves. + +She could hear the man grumbling in the kitchen, but he did not follow +her front, and taking advantage of the moment's respite from his none +too encouraging presence she unbarred the door and cheerfully called out +her husband's name. + +The ruse was successful. She was enabled to fling the notes where +the falling flakes would soon cover them from sight, and feeling more +courageous, now that the money was out of the house, she went slowly +back, saying she had made a mistake, and that it was the wind she had +heard. + +The man gave a gruff but knowing guffaw and then resumed his watch over +her, following her steps as she proceeded to set him out a meal, with a +persistency that reminded her of a tiger just on the point of springing. +But the inviting look of the viands with which she was rapidly setting +the table soon distracted his attention, and allowing himself one grunt +of satisfaction, he drew up a chair and set himself down to what to him +was evidently a most savory repast. + +"No beer? No ale? Nothing o' that sort, eh? Don't keep a bar?" he +growled, as his teeth closed on a huge hunk of bread. + +She shook her head, wishing she had a little cold poison bottled up in a +tight-looking jug. + +"Nothing but tea," she smiled, astonished at her own ease of manner in +the presence of this alarming guest. + +"Then let's have that," he grumbled, taking the bowl she handed him, +with an odd look that made her glad to retreat to the other side of the +room. + +"Jest listen to the howling wind," he went on between the huge mouthfuls +of bread and cheese with which he was gorging himself. "But we're very +comfortable, we two! We don't mind the storm, do we?" + +Shocked by his familiarity and still more moved by the look of mingled +inquiry and curiosity with which his eyes now began to wander over the +walls and cupboards, she took an anxious step toward the side of the +house looking toward her neighbors, and lifting one of the shades, +which had all been religiously pulled down, she looked out. A swirl of +snow-flakes alone confronted her. She could neither see her neighbors, +nor could she be seen by them. A shout from her to them would not be +heard. She was as completely isolated as if the house stood in the +center of a desolate western plain. + +"I have no trust but in God," she murmured as she came from the window. +And, nerved to meet her fate, she crossed to the kitchen. + +It was now half-past ten. Two hours and a half must elapse before her +husband could possibly arrive. + +She set her teeth at the thought and walked resolutely into the room. + +"Are you done?" she asked. + +"I am, ma'am," he leered. "Do you want me to wash the dishes? I kin, and +I will." And he actually carried his plate and cup to the sink, where he +turned the water upon them with another loud guffaw. + +"If only his fancy would take him into the pantry," she thought, "I +could shut and lock the door upon him and hold him prisoner till Ned +gets back." + +But his fancy ended its flight at the sink, and before her hopes had +fully subsided he was standing on the threshold of the sitting-room +door. + +"It's pretty here," he exclaimed, allowing his eye to rove again over +every hiding-place within sight. "I wonder now"--He stopped. His glance +had fallen on the cupboard over her husband's desk. + +"Well?" she asked, anxious to break the thread of his thought, which was +only too plainly mirrored in his eager countenance. + +He started, dropped his eyes, and turning looked at her with a momentary +fierceness. But, as she did not let her own glance quail, but continued +to look at him with what she meant for a smile on her pale lips, he +subdued this outward manifestation of passion, and, chuckling to hide +his embarrassment, began backing into the entry, leering in evident +enjoyment of the fears he caused, with what she felt was a most horrible +smile. Once in the hall, he hesitated, however, for a long time; then he +slowly went toward the garment he had dropped on entering and stooping, +drew from underneath its folds a wicked-looking stick. Giving a kick +to the coat, which sent it into a remote corner, he bestowed upon her +another smile, and still carrying the stick went slowly and reluctantly +away into the kitchen. + +"Oh, God Almighty, help me!" was her prayer. + +There was nothing for her to do now but endure, so throwing herself +into a chair, she tried to calm the beating of her heart and summon up +courage for the struggle which she felt was before her. That he had come +to rob and only waited to take her off her guard she now felt certain, +and rapidly running over in her mind all the expedients of self-defense +possible to one in her situation, she suddenly remembered the pistol +which Ned kept in his desk. Oh, why had she not thought of it before! +Why had she let herself grow mad with terror when here, within reach of +her hand, lay such a means of self-defense? With a feeling of joy (she +had always hated pistols before and scolded Ned when he bought this one) +she started to her feet and slid her hand into the drawer. But it came +back empty. Ned had taken the weapon away with him. + +For a moment, a surge of the bitterest feeling she had ever experienced +passed over her; then she called reason to her aid and was obliged to +acknowledge that the act was but natural, and that from his standpoint +he was much more likely to need it than herself. But the disappointment, +coming so soon after hope, unnerved her, and she sank back in her chair, +giving herself up for lost. + +How long she sat there with her eyes on the door, through which she +momentarily expected her assailant to reappear, she never knew. She was +conscious only of a sort of apathy that made movement difficult and even +breathing a task. In vain she tried to change her thoughts. In vain she +tried to follow her husband in fancy over the snow-covered roads and +into the gorge of the mountains. Imagination failed her at this point. +Do what she would, all was misty in her mind's eye, and she could not +see that wandering image. There was blankness between his form and her, +and no life or movement anywhere but here in the scene of her terror. + +Her eyes were on a strip of rug that covered the entry floor, and +so strange was the condition of her mind that she found herself +mechanically counting the tassels that finished its edge, growing wroth +over one that was worn, till she hated that sixth tassel and mentally +determined that if she ever outlived this night she would strip them all +off and be done with them. + +The wind had lessened, but the air had grown cooler and the snow made a +sharp sound where it struck the panes. She felt it falling, though she +had cut off all view of it. It seemed to her that a pall was settling +over the world and that she would soon be smothered under its folds. +Meanwhile no sound came from the kitchen, only that dreadful sense of +a doom creeping upon her--a sense that grew in intensity till she found +herself watching for the shadow of that lifted stick on the wall of the +entry, and almost imagined she saw the tip of it appearing, when without +any premonition, that fatal side door again blew in and admitted another +man of so threatening an aspect that she succumbed instantly before him +and forgot all her former fears in this new terror. + +The second intruder was a negro of powerful frame and lowering aspect, +and as he came for-ward and stood in the doorway there was observable +in his fierce and desperate countenance no attempt at the insinuation +of the other, only a fearful resolution that made her feel like a puppet +before him, and drove her, almost without her volition, to her knees. + +"Money? Is it money you want?" was her desperate greeting. "If so, +here's my purse and here are my rings and watch. Take them and go." + +But the stolid wretch did not even stretch out his hands. His eyes went +beyond her, and the mingled anxiety and resolve which he displayed would +have cowed a stouter heart than that of this poor woman. + +"Keep de trash," he growled. "I want de company's money. You 've got +it--two thousand dollars. Show me where it is, that's all, and I won't +trouble you long after I close on it." + +"But it's not in the house," she cried. "I swear it is not in the house. +Do you think Mr. Chivers would leave me here alone with two thousand +dollars to guard?" + +But the negro, swearing that she lied, leaped into the room, and tearing +open the cupboard above her husband's desk, seized the bag from the +corner where they had put it. + +"He brought it in this," he muttered, and tried to force the bag open, +but finding this impossible he took out a heavy knife and cut a big +hole in its side. Instantly there fell out the pile of old receipts with +which they had stuffed it, and seeing these he stamped with rage, and +flinging them in one great handful at her rushed to the drawers below, +emptied them, and, finding nothing, attacked the bookcase. + +"The money is somewhere here. You can't fool me," he yelled. "I saw +the spot your eyes lit on when I first came into the room. Is it +behind these books?" he growled, pulling them out and throwing them +helter-skelter over the floor. "Women is smart in the hiding business. +Is it behind these books, I say?" + +They had been, or rather had been placed between the books, but she +had taken them away, as we know, and he soon began to realise that his +search was bringing him nothing, for leaving the bookcase he gave the +books one kick, and seizing her by the arm, shook her with a murderous +glare on his strange and distorted features. + +"Where's the money?" he hissed. "Tell me, or you are a goner." + +He raised his heavy fist. She crouched and all seemed over, when, with +a rush and cry, a figure dashed between them and he fell, struck down by +the very stick she had so long been expecting to see fall upon her own +head. The man who had been her terror for hours had at the moment of +need acted as her protector. + +* * * * * + +She must have fainted, but if so, her unconsciousness was but momentary, +for when she again recognized her surroundings she found the tramp still +standing over her adversary. + +"I hope you don't mind, ma'am," he said, with an air of humbleness she +certainly had not seen in him before, "but I think the man's dead." And +he stirred with his foot the heavy figure before him. + +"Oh, no, no, no!" she cried. "That would be too fearful. He's shocked, +stunned; you cannot have killed him." + +But the tramp was persistent. "I'm 'fraid I have," he said. "I done it +before, and it's been the same every time. But I couldn't see a man +of that color frighten a lady like you. My supper was too warm in me, +ma'am. Shall I throw him outside the house?" + +"Yes," she said, and then, "No; let us first be sure there is no life in +him." And, hardly knowing what she did, she stooped down and peered into +the glassy eyes of the prostrate man. + +Suddenly she turned pale--no, not pale, but ghastly, and cowering back, +shook so that the tramp, into whose features a certain refinement had +passed since he had acted as her protector, thought she had discovered +life in those set orbs, and was stooping down to make sure that this was +so, when he saw her suddenly lean forward and, impetuously plunging her +hand into the negro's throat, tear open the shirt and give one look at +his bared breast. + +It was white. + +"O God! O God!" she moaned, and lifting the head in her two hands she +gave the motionless features a long and searching look. "Water!" she +cried. "Bring water." But before the now obedient tramp could respond, +she had torn off the woolly wig disfiguring the dead man's head, and +seeing the blond curls beneath had uttered such a shriek that it rose +above the gale and was heard by her distant neighbors. + +It was the head and hair of her husband. + +* * * * * + +They found out afterwards that he had contemplated this theft for +months, that each and every precaution possible to a successful issue to +this most daring undertaking had been made use of and that but for the +unexpected presence in the house of the tramp, he would doubtless have +not only extorted the money from his wife, but have so covered up the +deed by a plausible _alibi_ as to have retained her confidence and that +of his employers. + +Whether the tramp killed him out of sympathy for the defenseless +woman or in rage at being disappointed in his own plans has never been +determined. Mrs. Chivers herself thinks he was actuated by a rude sort +of gratitude. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Midnight In Beauchamp Row, by +Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIDNIGHT IN BEAUCHAMP ROW *** + +***** This file should be named 22810.txt or 22810.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/8/1/22810/ + +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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